Toys

Teaching science to preschoolers can sound at first offputting, almost grandiose. Oh, but it's not! It's so fun that it seems almost like cheating to say you're doing it in the guise of opening their little minds to the world around them. Experts tell us that teaching science is essential to children because it's a way of thinking -- using observation, experimentation, analysis to get through life. It strikes us that it's really just a restatement of what these little darlings have been doing every day we've known them -- watching, taking it all in, giving it a whirl, and seeing what happens. Science for preschoolers is code for being curious, plain and simple. And you've got to answer all those incessant "why?"s and "how much farther?"s anyway, so why not do so with the confidence that you are really just engaging in scientific dialogue with a very small person?! Read More »

Homelessness is er, having a “moment.” There are windows at Barneys embracing the sad, unfortunate reality and W magazine gave Sasha Pivovarova designer bags to pose with as she channeled a homeless woman. It’s one thing to have fashion and editorials take inspiration from homelessness. We’re certainly not saying it’s right, but in the time of a recession, life on the street is certainly many people’s reality. But it’s quite another for a toy brand to create a doll who has a deadbeat father and homeless mother.

Yes, that’s right. Mattel has created an American Girl doll named Gwen Thompson who, according to the book written about her, lives in a car with her family, because they are homeless. Her father walked out on the family, leaving her mother alone to raise Gwen.

Aren’t dolls supposed to allow little girls to enter the world of fantasy and to indulge their imaginations?

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A cardboard box is just that at least until you become a parent and being brainstorming about all the wonderful structures it can become. In its most primitive state, push in the flaps of the top of the box and it can be turned on its side to become a perfect cave that can be filled with blankets for a space of one's own. Or take out a box cutter and create a recycled playhouse by cutting an opening for a door big enough to crawl through and some sideways H shapes for windows that can be opened and closed for hours. Read More »