Top 10 Toys for Fall 2011

It is now officially fall and the leaves here in central Illinois are starting to turn colors. Harvest has begun, and in a matter of a few weeks all of the cornfields will have no stalks of corn and we will be driving across flat prairie where we can see for miles all around. Fall is one of my favorite times of year. I like the chill air in the nights and mornings followed by warm sunny afternoons with a fall breeze blowing. Pumpkin patches, corn mazes, apple cider and chili-mac for dinner and football are what I usually think about this time of year.

The kids are all in school and already anxiously awaiting Halloween and other holidays coming up. For our school age children, it seems like there is hardly any time for play with all the fall activities. Even though this is a busy time of year, kids still have a lot of free time and rather than having them sucked into technological gadgets, TV or Video games during those free times I would like to offer up a few suggestions to still keep them actively playing.

Fall is a time where some days are nice enough to be outside playing while other days are just too cold and you want to stay inside. Having the right combination of toys that can be used both indoors and outdoors could help save your sanity and keep the kids occupied and boredom at bay. Here are some of my recommendations for some of this year’s best fall toys. Remember that kids are getting a lot of paperwork, math, science and reading in at school so they probably won’t want to come home and do more of the same type of activities that they have been doing all day so it is up to us parent’s to find toys that are different and interesting and if they can help reinforce what they are learning in school all the better.
1. Role Play outfits or costumes as they are primarily know as at this time of year just go with the month of October. Kids love to play dress up and express their imagination by pretending to be someone or something else. Whether it is a costume for Halloween or role play outfits, hats, swords, tiaras, wands, or grim reaper scythes, this type of play is great for kids working out all day pent up schoolroom energy both indoors or outside. We would like parents to remember that this is great all year long so don’t throw out or pack those outfits away after Halloween.
2. Figurines, Animals, dinosaurs, army men, football guys and soccer girls are all great toys that can be played with inside on the floor or outside in the yard. Those sandboxes are still great to set up camp in and the sand doesn’t stick to your skin as much because you’re not sweating like in the summer. We recommend ZipBins inside that provide a playmat for the floor as well as a storage container and tote to take all your figurines with you.

3. Bumper Jumpers and other bouncing toys- these are great for toddlers and preschoolers to bounce up and down on and burn up that excess energy that they have on those days when it is too cold to go run outside.

4. Radio-Control cars – you can set up a circular racetrack both outdoors or in the basement. Following a track helps build coordination. Remember to get cars with controllers that have different frequencies so that more than one car can race at the same time.



5. Marble Racer Max Traxx – cars can go anywhere; through the outdoor grass jungle, sandbox dunes, upstairs banister rail or cement basement floor. Marble racers are made here in the USA. They light up and flash when you race them and can be purchased with MaxTraxx which help add a race track to your play.

6. Shrinky dinks – Always a classic to bring out on a lazy Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Color and decorate them, put them in the oven and watch them shrink. Shrinky dinks are great for making ear rings, necklaces, charms, backpack tags or magnets. Kids always have fun with them. Just remember to leave the stove light on so you can watch them shrink.


7. Alex Little Hands kits – while intended for the toddler and preschool crowd, these art and craft kits are great activities for all ages. You can choose from kits like My Tissue Art, Paper Bag Puppets, Puffy Bunch, Paper Weaving, My Collage Farm, My Sticker Art, and Clay Pictures. Older children will also have fun with Ready, Set, Paste!, and Ready, Set, Cut!, which is a great kit for helping kids learn how to use scissors. What is really nice about these kits is that you get everything you need to do 4-8 projects in each kit. The box is also a great way to store all the pieces between uses. 8. Beleduc Puppets- These small little hand puppets are being recommended here because they are cute, inexpensive puppets of animals, birds, insects, and dinosaurs and they are great for kids to take anywhere, inside or out, for great imaginative play. I can see kids running around the house with the butterfly and duck puppets, pretending to fly. You’ve heard the expression, “when pigs fly” and there is a pig puppet in the line that could fly with the right imagination.

9. Klutz books – Klutz has a book on just about every subject that is interesting to kids. Here too they can be done at home or taken along with them. My favorites right now are “The Klutz Book of Animation,” Klutz Make Your Own Video” and “Klutz Book of Paper Fashions.” These are great books that let kids create on their own about subjects that kids really like to learn about. How fun is it to create clay animation, movie videos and for the girls, becoming a FASHIONISTA! Also very popular this time of year is the “Klutz Book of Face Painting” which will give you all sorts of creative tips for using theatrical make up for Halloween this year.

10. Kites – WHAT!!! Who flies kites in the fall? Well, I do for one. Yes, here in central Illinois, we get some really great winds in October that make kite flying even better than in the spring so don’t be afraid to get those kites out and up in the air this year. Plus the second Sunday in October is designated as World Kite Day so I’ll keep my eyes on the skies looking for them and if you’re over near Allerton Park in October and you see one flying, it just might be me and my kids on the other end of the line.

Most importantly, as always, just get out there and have fun playing and experiencing all that life has around you!

Calling all Educators

Hey teachers out there, it is the last week of July and pretty soon you will be heading back to school. I know that a lot of you use toys and games in your classroom which is AWESOME! Don't hesitate to ask for curriculum guides and lesson plans. I'm always glad to help you with them. Plus a lot of game manufacturers offer curriculum guides and lesson plans for their games and with just a little tweaking for your classroom can help make learning a lot more fun and engaging for students. Here is a great resource and website called Games for Educators to get you started.

http://www.g4ed.com/

Bee Active Toys wants to thank you and wish you all the best as your starting to think about and plan your classrooms for the next school year. If we can help you in any way, let me know.

Beer Bottles, Books and Bouncing Balls

So what is a blog about toys and a toy store doing talking about Beer Bottles you ask? Well give me a few minutes of your time and let me explain the connection. Now let me first also write this disclaimer for anyone out there that might have objections to what I am about to write. First off, this is all my opinion. I have no basis of research or other means to prove what I am about to say. Secondly, I, as a toy store owner do have a vested interest in getting shoppers to come buy at my store so I am biased in what I am about to say. Now let me finish telling you what the correlation is between beer bottles, books, and bouncing balls.

Back in 1991, I left college to become an apprentice at a machine shop which was the beginning of my training as a manufacturing engineer. (How I ended up as a toy store owner is another story to be told later.) The shop owner used to tell all of his machinists to only buy beer in a can, not bottles. Why? This 100 man machine shop made parts for the canning industry. He had a vested interest in the consumption of cans instead of bottles, because he knew that the more cans that were needed meant that his business was sustainable and his customers would return to him for more machine parts to make more cans. For some reason that always stuck with me and even today I tend to buy cans instead of bottles.

So how does that really apply to me as a toy store? How are you going to make the connection you ask? Things have changed a lot over the last 20 years. One of those changes is in the way we shop as consumers. Have you been watching the landscape in your local area? How many buildings are empty? How many brick and mortar retail businesses have closed up? This thing called the internet continues to change our society as we know it and one of the ways it’s changing us is in the way we shop. Never before has product been so widely available and as cheap as it is today just by clicking on your mouse.

Yes folks, as much as I hate to admit it, shopping online does seem to be taking over traditional retail. Brick and mortar stores are closing up left and right. I first saw this with hobby stores back around the turn of the century. Customers would go into a hobby store and get all the information they needed about their trains, slot cars, RC Planes or whatever they were into and then go back home and order it online because they could get it 20-30% cheaper. How many hobby stores do you know about today? Borders, the largest retail book store filed bankruptcy last year and have closed up hundreds of book stores. Things are not looking too bright for book stores these days. Do I need to ask if you have a record store in your community? Those under 30 are probably asking, “What’s a record store?” What about toy stores? Do you have a toy store in your community? I’m not talking about Wal-Mart or Target’s toy department; I’m talking about an actual toy store where someone working there actually knows something about toys. Probably not, some say toy stores are now a thing of the past as well. And after all kids don’t play today like they used to anyway, video games, IPods, and getting online with their friends is all they want to do. It’s true, (and I think it is a shame) that girls once played with dolls between the ages of 2 to 13 and today girls tend to stop playing with dolls around age 8.

Again you ask me, “What do beer bottles have to do with toys?” Well for me, it was the valuable lesson I learned over 20 years ago from that shop owner in the manufacturing world. Support what supports you. Hear me out. There was a time when an entrepreneur went to the local bank to get a bank loan to start a business. The banking officers told bank employees, check out this business if you’re looking to buy what their selling. The local bankers knew that their bank had a vested interest in the business succeeding and repaying the loan. The business owner than went to the local insurance man and bought insurance who in turn told all of his clients about the business because he knew his insurance commission was dependent on the entrepreneur’s business success. The entrepreneur would contact a local electrician or plumper to make repairs in his shop. The entrepreneur would get his lunch at the local deli, the local deli, would get their bread from the local baker, the local baker would need a light bulb and would get it from the local hardware store and all these local businesses would support each other. Don’t get me wrong, things were not that easy for the entrepreneur, after all he still had to know and be able to provide products and services that his community wanted and needed. As the entrepreneurs business grew, employees were needed and hired from the local community. These employees in turn had more to spend in the local businesses. Likewise as the entrepreneurs business grew the local tax base would grow from business and sales tax and the income tax of the employees that the entrepreneur had hired giving the community more money to spend in the local economy and fund community projects. Police officers would get new uniforms, firefighters would get new fire engines, and school teachers would get supplies locally that would then give the local businesses more funds to advertise in school programs and pay for sports equipment, scoreboards and other things those communities need but never realize where the money comes from to buy them.

THOSE DAYS ARE OVER.

The internet has changed all of that. Oh it isn’t the only thing to change all that. The proliferation and growth of big business and large big box retail chains started the ball rolling in the 1980’s and 1990’s. The internet just picked up the ball and kept it rolling over the last 10 years. Some would say that I’m just waxing nostalgic. Others would say that’s progress, you can’t stop change. Still more say that’s just business, people are going to shop where they get the best price. I say at what cost is that best price impacting your local community? You can get everything online but none (or at least very little) of the money you’re spending is staying in your local communities. Ask a local entrepreneur (if you have any left), why they went into business? Sure they probably wanted to make money (don’t we all), but most likely a part of it was because that entrepreneur saw a need and wanted to make their community better. There is a high amount of risk that those entrepreneurs took on to try and improve their community. A lot of business advisors are telling those entrepreneurs that the best thing for them to do right now is to close down stores, warehouse everything and sell on the internet. Cut Costs, Cut Costs, Cut Costs! That advice doesn’t help out local communities that much but what else can they do if everyone is shopping online instead of shopping in stores. It leaves more people out of work and more empty storefronts and more community eyesores on the landscape. (Does anyone ever notice the warehouses are in your community?)

So what will your town look like in the next ten years? What do you want it to look like? Do you want beer bottles, books and bouncing balls and the places locally where you can go to buy them? Every time you spend your dollars, you make an impact on your local economy. Now I ask you, what kind of impact are you going to make for the future?

For a list of local businesses check out the following list:

http://www.rentertainment.com/local.asp

Thank you to That's Rentertainment in Champaign for publishing this list.

For more about supporting locally owned independents check out:

http://www.the350project.net/home.html

When a Puppet is more than just a Puppet Show

Stop a minute and think about the last time you watched a puppet show? How old were you? Do you remember some of America's most famous Puppets? Which of these do you recognize: Charlie McCarthy, Howdy Dowdy, King Friday and Lady Elaine, Lamb Chop, Bert and Ernie, Kermit and Miss Piggy, Fraggles, Elmo? Depending on which puppet that you recognize it says a lot about when you grew up and how old you are. Puppets have long been an important part of our childhood memories and entertainment. Did you know that puppets are also a great way for young children to create imaginative stories and play on their own? Puppet theaters help young children to role play and characters become alive in a child's hand as they act out a scene. Puppets are also a great way for school aged children to master the art of storytelling.

Here are a couple of suggestions to help make puppets a fun part of your child's play time.

• For baby: Black and White or bright colored puppets can be used for adult/child interaction. Baby will follow puppet with their eyes and laugh and giggle.
• For toddlers and preschoolers: combine a puppet with their favorite story book for added play value at story time.
• For school age children: have children use puppets to act out a favorite story.
• Older Children: Have children write and create their own stories around their favorite puppets. Reading skills are improved as they perform the show.
• For adults: Watch the show! Giving your child the spotlight for 5-10 minutes will boost self-confidence and creativity.

Here I am at Bee Active Toys talking about puppets.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pnv5Wbn0KAU

The Sophistication and Ingenuity Behind a Wind-up Toy.

So I’m sitting here on a Saturday morning waiting for customers to come into the store and as usual I am looking for ways to amuse myself while I wait. I know that a lot of other adults might find a toy store tedious or have difficulty keeping busy when it is slow, but I somehow always manage to find something that keeps my mind stimulated. Perhaps no other adult in central Illinois takes toys and children’s play quite as seriously as I do (a bold statement on my part as I hope other adults recognize the importance of play) and today is no different. As I’m walking through the store I decide to pick up one of our many windup toys. This one is called “Moony” by California Creations and is a wind-up space shuttle. The choice of using Moony for this article is in recognition of the final launch of our space shuttle yesterday (loud chants of USA, USA, USA).

Now the wind-up toys get wound up and played with in the store every day by both adults and kids and I have often wondered if they realize just how much engineering goes into making a windup toy. So today I decided to take Moony apart just so that I can show you what all is involved and since I am a very big advocate of using toys to help people learn, I am hoping that you will gain some knowledge and a greater appreciation for how much work actually goes into providing us with amusing toys.

Now for those of you that know me, you already know that I was once a manufacturing engineer before owning a toy store so I will try to keep it fairly simple and interesting and not go real in depth with all of the mechanics involved. When I was growing up I spent a lot of time taking things apart and trying to figure out how they worked. With the advent of video games and other technological gadgetry that kids have available to them today, mechanics doesn’t quite seem to hold their attention as much and I of course am hoping to change that a little bit at a time.

Moony is put together using over 20 parts. I couldn’t get an exact count because the wind up housing is sealed and I couldn’t gain access unless I wanted to break the housing. The parts list consists of the top space shuttle body, lower space shuttle body, 2 space shuttle doors, interior space bay floor, rear thrust engine body, springs, space bay door lever that is attached to a cam follower, rack and pinion gear, directional lever, astronaut attached to a gear and camshaft, another cam that is attached to the windup box housing, wheels, and winding shaft. Have I lost all of you non-mechanical people yet? I can’t tell what all is inside the windup box housing but most likely it includes a couple of gears, springs and mounting shafts as well as the housing pieces. Oh yeah, I almost forgot 2 small screws to hold it all together. Are you starting to have a greater appreciation for these $5 toys yet?

Now how do all those parts go together to make this toy work? That’s what I imagine you are asking me right now as your sitting there hanging on every one of my words waiting to find out what wealth of knowledge that I am about to bestow upon you. Well everything working on this toy revolves around two key parts, the winding shaft and cam. Attached to the winding shaft are a drive gear, spring and cam. When the shaft is wound it increases tension in the spring (conversion of potential energy into kinetic energy for those of you that like physics). That tension is what then causes the shaft to rotate, driving both the drive gear and the cam. The drive gear pushes the gear attached to the wheels causing the wheels to move. The cam actually is doing the most work in this windup. The rotational movement of the cam is responsible for the movement of 4 other working features on this toy. First its rotation alternately pushes down on the directional lever to allow the windup toy to spin around. Next the rotational motion is transferred into linear motion (straight line that is) that moves back and forth and causes the astronaut to spin and move up and down as it follows the cam shaft along the rack and pinion gear. Lastly the cam also triggers the space bay door lever which is responsible for the opening and closing of the shuttle bay doors. WOW, that is an awful lot of “work” being done by a simple 1” long x 1/16” diameter winding shaft and cam.

Watch this video to see how all the parts go together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR73rDLROLg

So now tell me, did you ever realize that wind-up toys were that involved? I bet you never thought about how much went into making all those wind-up toys. I’ll bet that you never realized that you could learn a little bit about physics or mechanics by playing with a wind-up toy either? Well I hope that the next time you are in a toy store, you might just have a little more respect and admiration for those simple toys known as windups.

To see more working wind-up toys watch the following video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXOzPJxmvhQ&feature=related

6 Ways to Prevent Learning Loss Over the Summer.

Researchers have found that kids lose as much as 25% of what they learn during the school year over the summer months. Most teachers spend the first 2 weeks of school reviewing materials that the children have already learned. With that in mind I have come up with a list of 6 good ways you can keep your children from experiencing learning loss over the summer months.

6. Create with Crafts
5. Play with your food
4. Experiment with Science
3. Work Puzzles
2. Play Games
1. Tell Stories

6.Craft kits and the skills of sizing, cutting, pasting, folding and other activities done while crafting are great ways for kids to express their own creativity and can reinforce math when they measure, fold in half and cut paper, string or fabric to the sizes needed. The complexity of the craft projects should increase with the child’s age. The skills learned with arts and crafts could develop the next fashion designer, architect or automotive designer.

5.Playing with food is another great way to keep math skills active and develop life skills at the same time. Measuring, mixing, dividing and fractions are all being used.

4.Science kits can keep children interested in their natural world. This can be as simple as a magnifying glass and bug box or as complex as making your own volcano. Follow your child’s interests.

3.Puzzles are still the number one way to develop cognitive ability, spatial relationships and other higher functioning thought processes. Remember to start kids with 24, 48, or 60 piece puzzles and then work their way up to 500 piece puzzles. For kids over 12 puzzle challenges like Rubik’s cubes and Guordian’s knots can still be very captivating and provide a sense of accomplishment when solved.

2.Games can be used for math, spelling, writing, and drawing. Trivia games can help keep facts about current events, geography and other subjects readily available for kids to recall. Keep games fun and exciting and kids will not realize they are actually learning while they play.

1.Kids love a good story. Summer time is a great time for ghost stories by the camp fire. Storytelling improves language skills. Have them write their own story or play and then perform the show. Add puppets or other props for more play value.

Most importantly have fun and activate your child's imagination.

Have a question? We have answers.

I am glad to help out the Illini Radio Group and their radio stations by being one of their experts online. You can here about some of the questions that I have received over the years about toys, the toy industry and why I feel strongly about the importance of play in a child's daily life.

http://mix945.com/pages/8464695.php?ranId=0.7805736292312633

Listen for me on WIXY, The Chief, and The Mix.

And thank you.