Fun Craft Project: Toilet-paper Tube People

Even your small toddler has the motor skills to color the pictures of faces, arms and feet in this PDF document. (It doesn't matter if she stays inside the lines or if the construction worker's face is just a purple scribble!) Once this is done, you can cut out the individual parts and help your child tape or glue them to toilet paper tubes to make charming, little people. I advise you to take the "It doesn't have to look realistic and it's okay if the girl on the right has a leg coming out of her head" approach. I wish I could include pictures of the final product when my son made these, but the files are somewhere among the bazillion pics we've taken of him within the last several months.

Review: Tamagotchi Connection V5

A couple of months ago, this product was sent to me for review. Since the PR firm involved in promoting this toy was nice enough to provide me with one, I decided to go ahead and review it despite the fact that my own kid is not nearly old enough to be in its target demographic.

Remember those Tamagotchis from years and years ago? They were little, egg-like electronic devices with a pixellated representation of a cute little baby creature on a black-and-grey LCD screen. You pushed buttons to feed them, play with them, send them to the toilet, etc. I never had one when I was a kid, but I knew enough about them to understand this Achewood comic strip about a fictional toy called "Click Robot". This V5 is pretty much the same deal, only now it's an entire family of little creatures in your care, and they've added some features as well as an online component.

The basic functions of the toy are cute enough. The little things dance around and play as long as you keep them happy. The games that you play with them are fun, but quickly grow tiresome as there isn't much to them. Sometimes they get bored and demand that you "train" them. This involves picking from three provided activities and then watching your creatures do it. I "trained" them to make a paper airplane, and their pixellated expressions conveyed just how much this blew their tiny tamagotchi minds.

I think this would be an okay toy for a kid who wants a pet but whom you think needs a bit more experience with responsibility before they can take care of something for which there are actual consequences for neglect. They toy is kind of fun at first, but after a few days of responding to occasional beeps keeping the things fed and happy it grows tiresome.

The manufacterer also provides a website where your Tamagotchi family can interact with other such creatures in a worldwide, online community. I didn't even attempt to mess around with this. If this were actually my kid's toy, I would be quite annoyed that it was asking him to spend additonal time serving his Tamagotchi overlords via online games, etc. I think the company would be better off putting more effort into making the toy a more robust, self-contained experience rather than luring youngsters into an online "community" as so many toys, TV shows, and breakfast cereals are doing these days.


It's good that kids are comfortable using computers - I think it's a legitimate way to spend time learning, socializing and being entertained - but I don't like when I get the feeling that a marketing ploy is trying to stake a claim to as much of a child's time as possible in order to build brand loyalty. Some kids in my neighborhood have been working on building a fort of some kind in the trees beyond my backyard. At first, I was just annoyed to see kids out running wild and making a mess. On further reflection, though, I thought about how they were outdoors, enjoying the spring, working with their hands, cooperating on something, and using their imaginations. I remember such play from my own childhood, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to run around like that.

Good, bad, or okay: Okay!

Get a Free One: Since I got this thing for free and my kid is many years to young to play with it, I'd like to give it away to a Clever Dad reader. Please comment below and include your first name if you're interested. I'll choose one of the commenters at random and announce the winner on this site. Then you can email me your address and I'll ship you this lovely, pre-played-with toy that has been chewed on by my toddler.

Buying Toys From Consignment

I cannot put enough emphasis on how great it is to buy toys secondhand, be it from consignment stores, thrift shops, online auction, classified ads or what have you. I've mentioned before how babies grow out of things so quickly that used supplies and toys are often in great condition. Recently, realizing that our son wanted some independent practice in the art of walking, we stopped by a local consignment superstore and found a cute toy ice cream cart, which was the perfect height for our baby and had just the right amount of stability to help a beginning walker keep his face off the floor during those afternoon constitutionals around the living room. This was five dollars well spent, and it's in equal or better condition that the toys he plays with during his mornings at daycare.

Fad Toys

There's a so-so article on Slate about the Webkinz phenomenon, and it causes me to think about how my kid will very likely want one of the irritating fad toys with which marketers so proudly assault children's growing minds. Webkinz has the added annoyance factor: the stuffed animal you buy comes with a completely unnecessary online component, which as far as I can tell is kind of like Warcraft for kids, only more demented and pathetic. The importance of instilling sales resistence in my child early has never been more clear.

It is a coincidence that I happened to be thinking about this right around the time a PR firm sent me a Tamagotchi V5 to review. Looking at the packaging, I see that this toy also wants to guide me to their online community. We'll see how I fare with this thingie. I'm hoping that, unlike what I've heard about Webkinz, the online games aren't mandatory for keeping your little pet alive - because that is seriously weird. Stay tuned...

Toy Review: Oatmeal Can

Here's a classic toy you might remember from your own childhood, which is still available in stores everywhere! We've found that so far in our baby's life this is the toy that has had the most staying power. Interest in other toys waxes and wanes, but the oatmeal can is always on hand for playtime fun. Recently, my boy figured out putting things into other things. He also takes things out of things. When you're looking for a larger thing that other things can go inside, look no further than an oatmeal can.

Good, bad, or okay: Good!

Frozen Washcloth Makes Great Teething Toy

My baby has a couple of teeth and is probably working on more as I write this. An invaluable aid in this process has been the simple teething toy pictured above. Simply fold up a little washcloth, dampen one end in water and place in the freezer. Keep a couple on hand for those times when your little teether needs something to occupy his mouth and numb the pain.

Get a Free Toy With That Sandwich

Want an easy way to accumulate some of those fun, little toys that babies and toddlers use as fodder for their burgeoning imaginations? If you're one who takes the occasional meal at a fast food joint, get yourself the kids meal and ask to receive the toddler toy instead of the big kid's toy. Considering the concentration of calories in the usual fast food fare, you should probably be eating a smaller portion anyway. This is how we got the cute, little monkey above. Hey monkey! Put down that dang banana and drive, okay!