**Sorry for the poor condition of the post. I tried to fix it but no luck. It looks fine when I edit it but the spacing is weird when I publish it. :(
*** If you want to join in, read the post here and then link up to the MckLinky below. It will be open for a couple of days. If you do not have a post ready to go this week, I will be posting a new one each Thursday. It doesn't have to be a new post, an OLD POST about a toy that your child loves would be fine! Also, post or email me if you have a question about a toy that you do not own but are considering buying so that we can look for someone to give you a review of it.
For example, I have two little boys so it is very hard for me to decide what to buy my five year old niece. I would love some suggestions.
Today's choice for Toys that My Child Actually Plays with is Mr. Potato Head. I originally bought this toy a year ago to use to teach body parts in my Mommy and Me Spanish classes that I hold in my house (which worked very well by the way.) Since then it has been played with MANY times both by my boys and all of my son's friends that come over for playdates.
Pros: 1. The basic set is pretty inexpensive.
2. You can buy addtional sets with different themes such as policeman or vampire.
3. Good for language development. Besides the obvious body part vocabulary, D uses his Mr.Potato Head's to make up stories.
4. There are many uses for the Mr. Potato body parts. We have used them to make Playdoh people and a Mr. Calabaza Head (seen below).
Cons:
1. Depending on how many you own, there can be LOTS of pieces.
M recieved a couple more for his birthday so now we have several.
2. If you are a creative Mommy like The Adventures of Bear you could save yourself some money and make your own.
Toys that we are interested in: I am looking for some board games that would be appropriate for my soon-to-be four year old.
you are so in luck! i was going to post about board games today, but was waiting for your link to come up! plus dd is home sick, so blogging time has been limited! will def. post, though!
ReplyDeleteAnna has one Mr Potato Head, but after playing with it for a week she completely lost interest. Maybe the trick is in having more than one set, but one major con for us is the fact that the body parts are hard to get in and out (at least in our set). Still, I am pleased that she got this classic toy from my parents' neighbors.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea for a post! I will try to have something put together so I can join in next week. :-)
ReplyDeleteDawson is still too young for Mr. Potato Head, but I definitely look forward to getting it for him when he's a little older. :-)
We have a few sets of Mr Potato Heads as well. My little girl will give ours a good workout every now and again and then we store them in her cupboard until she decides to use them again.
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who is a speech pathologist and she uses them regulalry as a discussion starter tool to assist young children with language development.
A couple of cool games: "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" board game, my kids love playing this one, I need to buy a second one for back-up pieces.
ReplyDeleteMost all Cranium games, but especially whatever one is the treasure chest one, another game we've played so much we need new pieces.
Also, a homemade game you could make is concentration. Just use index cards and a couple of sets of stickers. My kids love playing this and all of them do good at it.
My kids used to play with their potato heads all the time but then they just sat there so we passed them on to a friend. We loved them for a long time though.
ReplyDeleteMy sons love their potato heads too. They got one set for Christmas and then we've gotten parts from Craig's list and California Adventure- so we have a ton of pieces! They all get used though so it's all good!
ReplyDeleteMy mom got the Zingo game(mentioned on the board game link) and my 3 year old LOVES it! :)
We don't have Mr. Potato head, but my daughter loves to play with it at my Mom's.
ReplyDeleteM has a Mr. Potato Head that we keep in our camper during the summer. He always likes it because he doesn't see it that often (every other weekend in the spring and summer). I need to bring it home and get some new sets for it. I remember LOVING mine as a child! I love the idea of using the pieces on a pumpkin!
ReplyDeleteI've always wanted to get mr. potato head for my daughter! such a classic
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea to use the Mr Potato Head pieces to make a Mr. Calabaza Head! We have some and Sunnyboy would love to do this. Thanks for the idea. :)
ReplyDeleteI added a link of an old post of ours about Sunnyboy's folding trampoline. I think it's a great idea to share suggestions for good toys and will try and do a post this week to link up next week also. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm looking for more information about the laptops for the very youngest kids (2 and 3). We're looking at the Vtech tote and go laptop, but if you've tried anything like that, it'd be helpful to hear!
ReplyDeleteI think I'm going to try to link up in the coming weeks.
ReplyDeleteMeghan is going to get a potato head for Christmas with lots of parts.
That's so funny! What a fun way to shake it up a bit by using a pumpkin....no that my son knows all the English body parts I will definitely be using his Mr potato head to teach the Spanish names (he only knows ojos so far)
ReplyDeleteWe made Mr Gourd Heads and linked back to this post. :)
ReplyDelete