10 Parents Magazine Best Baby Toys
Updated on: September 2023
Parents Magazine Best Baby Toys in 2023
Sherlock Chick's First Case (A Parents Magazine Read Aloud Original)
What Should Danny Do? (The Power to Choose Series)
There's No Place Like Space: All About Our Solar System (Cat in the Hat's Learning Library)
Walk-A-Long Puppy Wooden Pull Toy by Hape | Award Winning Push Pull Toy Puppy For Toddlers Can Sit, Stand and Roll. Rubber Rimmed Wheels for Easy Push and Pull Action, Red
- TEACH YOUR PUPPY NEW TRICKS: This push toy is almost as loving as a real pup, your toddler will be able to make it sit, stand, roll and take it for walks
- DEVELOP FINE MOTOR SKILLS: Wooden pull toy promotes dexterity, hand eye coordination and manipulation
- ENCOURAGING ACTIVE PLAY: Sparks your little one’s imagination and creativity
- CHILD SAFE: Made from child safe materials with quality wood craftmanship and non-toxic finishes
- AWARD-WINNING: This playful wooden puppy is a winner of the 2012 Parents’ Magazine Best Toys Award
Otto (Parents Magazine Read Aloud and Easy Reading Program Original)
Sherlock Chick and the Peek-A-Boo Mystery (Parents Magazine Read Aloud Original)
Little Kids First Big Book Of Animals (National Geographic Little Kids First Big Books)
399 Games, Puzzles Trivia Challenges Specially Designed to
- People who solve word games & brainteasers hold significant cognitive advantage over those who donaTMt
- The illustrated game book specifically created to cross-train the brain
- Fun games to stretch, challenge and engage your clients, which stimulate the formation of neurons
I'm NOT just a Scribble...
Hohner Kids Muscial Toys MS9000 Baby Band, Colors of Product May Vary
- Perfect for ages 3 months and up
- Winner of the 27 Creative Child Magazine Top Toy of the Year Award
- Includes: Mini Rainbow Shaker, Baby Maraca, Baby Rattle, Cage Bell
- BPA Free
Technology-Free Family--Why We Raised Kids Without Television
I chuckle remembering my husband's and my early parenting--so radical it hurt. In the ultra-conventional 80s, nonconformity wasn't in vogue. We were early hipsters. One big concern was TV and kids. We had no television when children were young.
One big concern was the effect of TV on kids. I had steeped myself in organic childhood teaching, following Dr. Maria Montessori and reading books like Marie Winn's "The Plug-in Drug." Even when we were dating, we agreed that nature was nurture. I give us credit looking back. We'd seen nothing yet of internet, video games, Blu-Ray, cellphones and cyber culture. VCRs were pretty young. We worried about cable television and vowed never to have a TV set in our home. We'd grow our kids on books we said.
Relatives just shook their heads--that's weird Mar and Al for you. Several concluded we were child abusers. One sent over an old TV "just in case." We could read between the lines--"so you won't look so freaky." And okay, we did use it, in rationed doses and only PBS. And the set was B W; had rabbit ears and got terrible reception. Watching was an exercise in futility.
Don't get me wrong. It wasn't like we hadn't grown up loving TV. As kids we were both addicted to the "plugin drug." My dad did think TV was mostly of the devil. Ironic, considering his parents had the first TV in the neighborhood, despite teachings of their Dutch Reformed church. They hid the set in the closet when their minister, the Dominie came over. My parents had left that church over theological differences and here was dad coming full circle in line with Netherlands Reformed thinking! Pretty advanced considering the permissive 60s milieu.
After the divorce, mom got TV and I faithfully worshiped daily. When Watergate took over the airwaves, I actually had to go outside and play. It was horrible. My husband's family were TV-holics, too. So neither of came to opposition from deprivation.
And we weren't trying to deprive our children. We believe TV is mostly negative with little redeeming positive. Like McDonald's, it's okay occasionally but not every day. We didn't just take it away. We replaced with books. We love reading as much as we dislike TV. We don't have many possessions but we do have an incredible library. Our youngest had to share an interesting family fact in school--she said "we own over 2,000" books. No one believed her.
We let kids read challenging books, even things some parents would ban. We let our 10 year old read Stephen King, on the thinking it would develop a reading habit. It did. He's the most literate 23-year-old I know. The other kids are equally well-read.
In 26 years of marriage through four kids, we've managed to stay in the technological Dark Ages. We did get a VCR and later a DVD player with used VHS tapes. I don't mind these: you can control movies. Our collection is educational, vintage or literature-based. When we bought this century-old house, the antennae, though impressively large, was defunct. It serves as a roof access way for husband and a pit stop for migratory birds. Our son found our TV on the junk pile. When TV "went digital," we got our box thingy but it doesn't work either. Evidently you need a functional antennae. Again, extended family agonized over our TV lack. It wasn't and still isn't a priority.
How do our kids feel about it? One's discovered the joys of cable and Blu-Ray, thanks to her husband. But she'd still rather read. The internet has yielded TV we occasionally watch but only on a wee-tiny screen so not very often.
For a time, the kids probably felt a little excluded. Children go through periods of any-way-but-mom-and-dad's. But each has separately told us they're glad we did it this way. And what would we have missed? Un-reality shows? Jersey Shores? Nope, not feeling the lack.
