In my opinion, Fischer TiP was the winner hands down in the toy stakes this year.  It was my selection for Toy of the Year in my seasonal Toy Talk which provides parents with a short list of highly recommended toys to look for in specific age bands, as well as information about toy trends for the year, the argument for toys and the importance of play in young children’s lives.  In mid-November, Fischer TiP was voted Toy of the Year in Germany.

Fischer TiP is manufactured by Fischertechnik in Germany, a company which has been involved in the toy industry for 40 years.  Both Fischertechnik and Fischer TiP are newcomers in the South African toy market this year.  Fischer TiP in particular caught my eye and imagination as it has broad appeal for all ages from 3 to adult as a creative, imaginative toy that also stimulates eye-hand co-ordination.  It comes in so many different packages to appeal to boys, girls and various age and ability groups.  The pink Princess Box, was so popular that toy outlets throughout the country ran out of stock.

TiP is made out of potato starch and food colouring and is non-toxic.  The South African agent Sasche Lipka, is known to pop a piece in his mouth and swallow it just to prove the point!  It sticks together by dabbing it on the moist cloth provided and then pressing two pieces together.  At the Toy Talk workshops delegates just dabbed TiP on their tongues and it did the trick while they made the most amazing array of jewellery, from tiaras to neclaces, bracelets, watches and more. TiP comes with a variety of tools enabling the creator to cut, grate, glue, paint, make bricks and much more.  While this is a consumable product and parents will need to buy more as their children finish a set, I advise parents not to throw away the used bits as they can be re-used for painting and gluing.  Children are fascinated with what they can do with TiP.  Why don’t you try it out yourself?  Boxes range from R35.00 to R550.00 depending on the size and number of tools included.  For more info visit www.fischertechnik.co.za

 

On 15 November the SA Toy of the Year Awards (sponsored by Energizer) were announced at a gala banquet.  Here is a list of the winners giving you the entry name, and distributor in each category.  I have marked a few with an asterisk as I consider these well worth looking at.  See a separate article on my recommendations for 2007.  For a full list of entries click here http://www.energizer.co.za/

Infant Toy

1st Rainforest Open-Top Cradle Swing, Just Fun Toys

 2nd Laugh & Learn Learning Table, Just Fun Toys

 3rd Rainforest™ Peek-a-Boo Leaves Musical Mobile™, Just Fun Toys

 Toddler Toy

 1st Laugh & Learn Musical Chair, Just Fun Toys

 2nd RCX Remote Control Battery Operated Toy Car, Carina Toys

 3rd YBIKE Bike Ride On, Massdiscounters

Preschool Toy

1st Talking Service Station, Edcon *

2nd Gravel pit 4987, Lego S A *

3rd Farm 4975, Lego S A*

 

Girl Toy

1st My Electronic Piano, Edcon

2nd Fashion Studio, T.T.B.

3rd Baby Born Magic Eyes Boy, Prima Toys

Boy Toy

1st Meccano Tuning RC Sound System Car, Just Fun Toys

2nd Meccano Mechanical Workshop, Just Fun Toys

3rd Fisher Price Disney Pixar Shake ‘n Go Cars, Just Fun Toys *

Outdoor Toy

1st Night Balls and Game Set, Toytech South Africa

2nd Slip ‘n Slide Mega Shark, Prima Toys

2nd Slip ‘n Slide Wave Rider, Prima Toys

2nd Slamball Centre, Prima Toys

3rd Evolution Water and Foam Combo Fun Gun, Toytech South Africa

Electronic Game

1st Twister Dance DVD Board Game, Prima Toys

2nd Interactive Around the World, Edcon

3rd Chrono Blocs, Guri SA ****

  

Traditional Game

1st Monopoly Refresh, Prima Toys

2nd Twister, Prima Toys

3rd Risk, Prima Toys

Cutting Edge Toy

1st Fly Tech Dragonfly, Prima Toys*

1st Motorized Bulldozer 8275, Lego S A

2nd The V-Bot, Just Fun Toys

3rd Palm Z Remote Control Airplane, Prima Toys *

Creative Toy

1st AirBlox, Inventec *

2nd Clay Studio, T.T.B. *

3rd Fashion Studio, T.T.B. *

3rd Triopolis Underwater City, Toytech South Africa

Construction Toy

1st Meccano Tuning RC Sound System Car, Just Fun Toys

2nd Robotic Science, Edcon

3rd Ferris Wheel, Lego

S A Brand of the Year

1st Lego, Lego S A

2nd Bratz, Prima Toys

3rd Transformers, Prima Toys

Overall Toy of the Year

1st Meccano Tuning RC Sound System Car, Just Fun Toys

2nd Fly Tech Dragonfly, Prima Toys

2nd Motorized Bulldozer 8275, Lego S A

3rd Monopoly Refresh, Prima Toys

3rd The V-Bot, Just Fun Toys

Energizer Power Hungry Toy

1st Spy Bug Helicopters, Massdiscounters

2nd Motorized Bulldozer 8275, Lego S A

3rd XPV 2.0 Shadow Hawk, Prima Toys

The Bright Ideas Outfit is thrilled to announce the launch of Throw & Blow, a fun first boardgame for the 3 – 5 year old market that is versatile (can be played by 1-4 people) and is unique in that it is a speech game – you blow your way through the game! It is being manufactured and sold by Smile Education for R120.00 and was developed by speech therapist Bronwen Campbell and myself to encourage children aged 3 – 5 to identify and use all the parts of the speech tract required for good speech – the tongue, lips, cheeks, jaw and right down to the diaphragm.

Try this exercise: put your hand just below your ribs, now say ‘p’ and ‘b’. Can you feel how these particular sounds require a pressure build up in the speech system right from your trunk? While sucking is a natural reflexive action that all children “know how to do” from birth, blowing is something that must be learnt, and is far more difficult for a child to do. Hence our game, Throw & Blow which requires players to blow their tokens around the board, picking up matching action cards and following the instructions.

Throw & Blow is great fun for everyone, not just children in speech therapy. Place orders with me or contact your nearest Smile consultant.

 

 

 

 

 

THROW & BLOW

Nikki Bush and speech therapist, Bronwen Campbell will launch their next unique mouth co-ordination game, Throw & Blow, through Smile Education in August 2007. Children aged 3 – 6 will be enthralled with this interactive game that will have them moving around the board and exercising the different parts of the mouth for good speech. The design of the packaging and the game contents is both enchanting and slightly funky at the same time. Kids will love it. Mums will buy it. Watch this space for details of the launch.

Dear Parents and Colleagues

I presented Connecting with Children through the Noise and Clutter at a local school last week, and I asked the audience to raise their hands if they had experienced the following feeling recently – “Stop the world I want to get off!” Surprise, surprise, the majority of the audience raised their hands. We are living with a sense that time has speeded up and yet we still have the same 24 hours each day. What has changed, however, is the rate of change and amount of change that we are having to assimilate – on a daily basis. Just one current issue of the New York Times contains more information about changes than an average farmer from the early nineteenth century would experience in a lifetime. There are days when we have to learn new things not just by the day but by the hour in order to keep up, and it exhausts us. It is becoming increasingly clear that this rapid change is not just a phase that we are going through, but rather, it seems to be the new reality. We need to learn how to survive and thrive in a constantly shifting environment, where rules are made, changed and broken on an ongoing basis in this new Game of Possibility with which we are engaged. For more on this click here http://www.brightideasoutfit.com/2007/02/06/newsletter-january-2007/.

Now think about a preschool child who so able to cope with change and continual learning, in fact every day is an adventure of epic proportions. Admittedly they do take an afternoon nap which helps keep them balanced. Wouldn’t we all do well to have a little siesta each day – bring on those power naps! These little explorers are actually carrying round within them a natural blueprint for success in the 21st century. Let’s look at just some of the characteristics with which preschoolers are so naturally imbued:
- Inquisitiveness and curiosity about their world and how it works
- They are natural explorers
- Physical learners (they create understanding and meaning by trying things out for
themselves, by doing)
- Original thinkers and highly creative (anything is possible)
- Love learning (can’t get enough of it)
- Are not afraid of failure (no matter how high the couch is or how far they may tumble)
- Adaptable and resilient (there are many more characteristics!)

As parents, we need to ensure that these characteristics are nurtured and kept alive throughout our children’s education and not just in the preschool years. If you can preserve them then it also means that you are probably practicing and role modelling most of them yourself – you have become future literate – you are a player in the Game of Possibility and your child will become a professional player too.

Alvin Toffler, futurist and author of the classic Future Shock (written in 1970) was deadly accurate when he said:

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

In her book Seven Times Smarter veteran US educator Laurel Schmidt says:

“Curiosity is the best toy in the store”.

If we can rekindle our sense of curiosity and learn to not only to ask “Why?”, but “Why not?”, then we might not want to stop the world and get off. In an era where anything is possible, we can become the creators of our own reality, and there is nothing more challenging and exciting than that!

For more on this topic watch out for the book Dr Graeme Codrington and I are co-authoring on 21st century parenting. I will keep you posted on the publication date – at this stage not before end 2007, but you can watch this newsletter and my website for snippets.

WORKSHOPS – WINTER SERIES IN MAY 2007

These workshops are filling up fast. A reminder of the dates:

Nuts & Bolts Workshop
Parents of under 5s
Wednesday, 9 May 2007 9.00 – 11.30am R150.00 per person

Connect the Tots Workshop
Parents of children from birth to 6 years
Wednesday,16 May 10:00 – 11.30am R75.00 per person
Thursday, 17 May 7.30 – 9.00pm R75.00 per person

Parenting on the Run Workshop
Parents of children from 4 – 7 years
Saturday, 26 May 2007 9.00 – 11.30 R150.00 per person

Our Toy Season series at the end of 2006 was oversubscribed. Please remember that payment secures your seat, so book soon to avoid disappointment. Refunds will be entertained up until two weeks prior to each talk. Thereafter, payment is non-refundable.

Watch out for the continuation of the Winter Series in June.

REMSPECED

Paula Barnard, occupational therapist, OT lecturer at Wits University and a long-time colleague of mine, sends out a very interesting online newsletter covering remedial and special education issues in South Africa. To take a look log on to: www.remspeced.co.za. There is also a print edition coming out every second month (starting February 2007) available free of charge in waiting rooms of your local OT, NDT physiotherapist, speech therapist, psychologist etc. l will be writing a regular column touching on issues I am passionate about – helping parents connect with their kids. This 20-24 page magazine will be full of interesting articles, tips and insights to help parents cope with their child who requires additional support in learning, developing and behaviour.

GAME/TOY REVIEWS

1. Zingo (ages 4 and up)

This is a junior bingo game with a very nifty dispenser for the sturdy plastic bingo tiles. This is essentially picture bingo with the words printed beneath the pictures for sight reading. The first person to cover his or her board yells out Zingo! Thoroughly enjoyed by children from 4 – 7. It’s a game that stimulates visual discrimination and matching skills and requires concentration and speed to win. Priced at R120.00+, it’s available at both large toy stores and independents. To view the game or to find out where to get it, log on to www.ttdistributors.co.za. Think Tank Distributors also supplies the following well-known games: Rush Hour, Rush Hour Jr, Safari Rush Hour, River Crossing, River Crossing Jr, Subtrax, Tipover, Toot and Otto and Smart Mouth).

2. Blokus (ages 7 to adult)This strategy game carries a golden seal stating that it is the most awarded game of the 21st century. As we are only at the beginning of this century, I guess it doesn’t have much competition yet. I decided to take a look to see what these claims were all about. Well, this is a must have game that will make it onto my ‘Classics’ list of games every child should have! For a preview of Blokus, go to www.blokus.com where you can play against the computer, obtain advice on the game, place orders for lost pieces, meet other players and see your international ranking! Wow!

Seriously, this is a game for the whole family involving chess-type thinking but in a faster game format. The goal is to strategically place as many of your 21 differently shaped Perspex pieces on the board as possible. The only rule is that you may only place a new piece on the board if it touches another piece of the same colour but only at the corners. Pieces of the same colour cannot be in contact along a straight edge. There are no set moves and every game is different. No reading is required to play this game. It is about thinking skills, problem solving and strategy.

This is a game for two to four players. The age guideline on the box is accurate – from age 7 to adult. Both my children aged 7 and 11 thoroughly enjoyed it and we all wanted to play again and again. The Blokus game board and playing pieces are of a very high quality. Blokus is distributed by Pegasus Toys www.pegasustoys.co.za and retails at R275.00+.

Keep on connecting with your kids!

NIKKI BUSH