Comments on: Best bet toys for 2008

By: Mad Hatter

Mad Hatter — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 18:34:51 +0000

Why look! Here you are taking down Leap Frog. Didn’t see this before publishing my comment on your more recent post.

By: Kari

Kari — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 13:34:05 +0000

We have been pleased so far with the Fisher Price digital.
Also, we got the Super Fort at WalMart (in the US, though).

By: DaniGirl

DaniGirl — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 12:39:14 +0000

Jen, we got Tristan a mini-digital camera (covered in Pixar’s Cars colours) for his birthday, and I admit we were disappointed. Because there’s no flash, you basically have to use it solely for outdoor pictures or with brilliant interior lighting. He had much better luck with a disposable film camera with flash than the one we got, but then, what did we expect for a $19.99 digital camera. Maybe others have had experience with the toddler ones?

By: Jen

Jen — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 05:00:16 +0000

Delurking…has anyone here actually bought one of those digital cameras for kids? We would love to get one for our 3-year-old, but I’ve heard bad things about them – that they’re very durable etc. but take lousy pictures. I figure there’s no point in her getting all excited about framing a shot (which she loves to do with our DSLR) and then having the thing come out blurry anyway! We were planning to just “refurbish” (I use the term loosely!) an old digital camera we’re not using, but the kids ones are so cute. Just wondering if anyone has had any luck with any of the available ones.

By: Shan

Shan — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 23:08:07 +0000

We try to make every Friday family night. So we have either movie night or game night. So games are some of our favourite toys. We love Cariboo and Hullaballo. Cranium products are great. Both our girls (1 and 5) love the Little People. We have various Little People sets; the farm, stable, circus, house and pirate ship and the oldest has requested some for both herself and her sister for Christmas. Our five year old really enjoys the V-Smile video game system although she does prefer to play with someone as opposed to by herself.

By: bubandpie

bubandpie — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 17:11:50 +0000

Leap Frog is the devil. Ours keep breaking too.

I am tempted by that digital camera for Christmas. (I don’t think I’ve got time to get one before Bub’s birthday.)

By: Suzanne

Suzanne — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 17:11:30 +0000

Oh my God, Mister Bucket. I didn’t even know that toy was still being made. My niece and nephew bequeathed theirs to my kids, and my sister just laughed and laughed. Yeah, because she got that stupid thing out of her house.

By: andrea from the fishbowl

andrea from the fishbowl — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 16:35:22 +0000

Ha. You’re right, we did write about the same topic today, er, yesterday for me anyway. BTW, Tiggywinkles also carries the Superfort. We have it and the girls love it.

If anyone is in Ottawa, another great toy store that’s worth checking out is PlayValue. It’s on Carling near Kirkwood.

By: Sleepycat

Sleepycat — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:56:39 +0000

We have the Thomas Take-along style and found that they are a great size for my 3-year old’s hands and they don’t take up nearly as much space as the wooden ones. The one thing that is a must is the extra track set. She can make a track circle big enough that she can sit in the middle of and run the trains around her.

We’re looking at the LeapFrog ClickStart system this year. Our old laptop that she could play on has power supply issues and shuts off randomly so it’s way too frustrating for her. I’m wondering if this would be a good option. The Amazon reviews are positive but I’d like to know that they’re going to put out more games.

By: Loukia

Loukia — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:39:21 +0000

I just got the playschool busy popper at my surprise baby shower this weekend!

As for toys… my 2 year old son has literally everything. My shopaholic tendencies have worn off me and onto him… I only shop for him now! I love reading up on what the best educational toys are, etc… he loves to draw and paint (he takes after my artist mom, http://www.katerinamertikas.com – maybe his stuff will be all over Canada and the US one day too?) so we’re getting him an art eisel (SP?) for Christmas… and a workstation/tool station because he loves tools and construction and keeping busy… more books – at last count, his library had over 156 books – but the kid loves to read! I can’t think of anything else…there is nothing he needs, you know? Sigh… but I know I’ll of course go overboard, as usual!
Big mistake? Buying him the entire Thomas table and set last Christmas… he’s not into Thomas… but he does like the train set… I think this year would have been a better time to buy it for him, perhaps…
P.S. Scholar’s Choice is a great store – and my all time favourite – since I was a kid – Mrs. Tiggy Winkle’s.

By: DaniGirl

DaniGirl — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:26:43 +0000

Alison, I bought mine online from Grand River Toys (a rare Canadian e-commerce site!) during one of their no-shipping deals. But, I’ve seen them at Scholar’s Choice here in town. It is truly one of the best toys ever!

By: alison

alison — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:20:34 +0000

Dani, when you bought Superfort, did you do it online or can you buy it locally? I went to the site that you linked, and shipping to Canada would cost more than 50% of the cost of the toy. I know my girls would love this.