The kids and I spent lots of time playing together over the weekend. After all, it is almost time to get back to the business of school. So, we kicked off the weekend by playing two new games. Monopoly and Battleship are okay I guess but my two smallest kiddos like to play something unique and usually something that involves animals. I like games that involve strategy and aren’t too commercial in nature. Both of these games were a perfect fit for us.

The first we played was Tier auf Tier. These games and the company that makes them are German, just another reason we like them! The standards for toy and game safety in Europe kicks US booty so I know I am relatively safe with their offerings. Haba has long been known as a great source for safe, more sustainable, natural toys.

The game box is actually what you use to play the game instead of a board. It is divided into 4 sections and you have a menagerie of wooden animals to place around each section on the box. The animals reminded us of our Haba Eene, Meene, Zoo blocks. They have the same adorable look and feel. A bridge crosses from one side of the box to the other and the object is to stack animals on top of the bridge trying to make the animal combinations on your playing cards. Since two to four players can be stacking at the same time it can be tricky to do. The first player who manages to complete all their animal stacking combos and discard the associated playing cards wins the game. It was fun for my younger kiddos and I think it will be a nice game for them to play with the neighbor kids before school starts next week.

The other game we played was an even bigger hit, with my two oldest and with me. It was so fun I wanted to keep playing again and again and it will likely be the game we break out to play with Dad over the holiday weekend. It is called Inspektor Hase, which means Inspector Rabbit in English.

The board game is a garden with a winding path and all throughout the bunny garden there are bandits! You roll the dice and move around the board to uncover the pairs of bandits… hens stealing jewels or moles walking off with gold coins. Each player has two matching bunnies and so when you uncover one of the bandits you can keep one bunny on that space while your other bunny moves around the board to capture the matching bandit. It is mostly a clever spin on memory but it also has a lot of strategy. There are two dice, one  that rolls between 1-3 and one that rolls between 1-6. You can roll one or both at the same time so half the trick is figuring out which die is mostly likely to get you where you need to be, the fastest. You can also boot other players off their space and beat them to the punch.

It is a really simple concept but it was a lot of fun… as are most Haba games we typically find. We enjoyed both of them quite a bit but in the spirit of Simplicity Parenting we will keep Inspektor Hase and donate the other to a needier family. Much thanks to Haba for sending these games our way!

Giveaway now CLOSED. The winner is Little Lamb! Thanks to all who entered!!

In honor of Spring the lovely Etsy artisans at Natural Kids have donated a gift basket of natural toys and goodies for one of my readers. It is so gorgeous that I don't want to pass it on.. I want to KEEP it but alas one of you will be the new owner! But really I want to add a disclaimer that all this can be yours except… this.. and this… and maybe that…

If you recall Natural Kids is a actually a group of artisans that make a wide array of toys and goodies that will feed your child's imagination. I interviewed them a few months back. They have everything from clothes and decor to toys, dolls, and crafts. The winner of this giveaway will get a nice basket with a red cloth liner filled with the following:

A Waldorf doll – Polar Bear Creations

A wooden mermaid doll – The Enchanted Cupboard

A wool baby in a bassinet – Fairy Folk

A wooden horse toy  - Dad's Wooden Toys

A Rooster Pouch - Love a Little

2 Playsilks (one mint green and one multi-color) – The Polka Dot Dragon & Birch Leaf Designs

A cloth strawberry doll - Love a Little

A pair of organic cotton/hemp baby pants hand died green in a matching blue drawstring sack – Hand Full

Earthy stickers/decals (3 earth theme and 1 breastfeeding advocacy) – Elemental Handcrafts

2 photos of Waldorfs dolls and little cloth fairies –  Love a Little

3 tubs of Mama K's Aromatic Play Clay  - Mama K's

2 wool fairies with acorn caps (my fave item!!) – Hues of Nature

It has everything your kiddos need for hours of spring/summer fun!!

My daughter is going to be just like me I suspect when it comes to reading and writing… very passionate about both. Learning to read was her idea and every day she works on building her list of words she can spell, write, and read. In the car she spells random words, in the grocery store she tells the clerk about her spelling homework. She takes advantage of every opportunity she has to learn this whole reading and spelling thing and she finds it very fun to do. I wish it were that way for all my kids, but so far it is just her that finds excitement in writing and spelling.

I have reviewed a couple Natural Toys from Down to Earth Toys over the past year and when they contacted me to see what I might be interested in reviewing now, it was easy to choose the Spellmaster. It is a very unique educational toy that I knew my daughter would enjoy and I was not disappointed. She pulls her Spellmaster out 2-3 times daily to work with it for 30-60 minutes at a time and it has really helped her reach her learning goals.

Basically it is a platform for developing sequential memory skills, increasing memory span, improving letter recognition, and spelling simple to complex words.

When she uses her Spellmaster, she chooses a flash card with a word and picture first. She works through the word phonetically to find out what it is as the picture isn’t always a dead giveaway. Then she selects all the wooden letter tiles she needs, saying the letters out loud. Next she spells the word on the chalkboard panel below the tiles and then says the letters aloud again after she has written them, followed by the word. She also usually covers the tiles with the wooden flaps so that she can try to write the word from memory. Afterwards she moves on to the next card and she usually doesn’t stop until she has completed them all. It came with eight recommended steps in the instructions but she developed her own system of steps so we go with that. I knew she would like it but just how much she would like it surprised even me.

My nine year old son likes to use it for his spelling words as well and it is a fun, visual way to work on them rather than just having him write them over and over like the school suggests. Going through all the words on his spelling list 2-3 times is not to repetitive for him and using the Spellmaster makes it just a bit more interesting. The fact that they can hide the tiles and work from memory means they are more likely to learn from mistakes as well.

My three year old has taken a liking to the flashcards so we use those for some speech therapy at home. He was recently “upgraded” by his preschool teachers and therapists from a mere speech delay to a developmental delay. After going through the IEP with them I have to agree with much of their assessment so I am doing more to help him at home. I will have to write up a post about that whole issue later.

Anyway… I love that the Spellmaster is something my kids can pull out and use on their own or work through with me if they want. We make it a bit more challenging at times when I come up with a word there is no card for. You can use many variations to make it harder or easier depending on their spelling prowess. All the letter tiles are capital letters but you can order lowercase letters as well. You could probably come up with some small sentences if you had more tiles… aka See Jane Run. I looked for info on ordering different flash cards but didn’t see that info. I guess any flash cards would work though. There was no eraser for the chalkboard so my kids just grab a sherpa cloth to clean up with, easy peasy.

The actual unit is made of wood so it is MUCH more sustainable than comparable plastic toys and it is made by TAG and is just one of many Toys Made in the USA. It gets two enthusiastic thumbs up here.

Thanks Carrin and Down to Earth Toys for sending the Spellmaster our way!!

This is a blog for parents and as such we likely buy toys for our children. Dozens of times I have written about toys.. Natural and Safe Dolls, green toys, the best toddler toys, toys with PVC and phthalates, lead in toys, etc. I even wrote about Natural Toys and CPSIA a couple times and how that dangerous legislation could limit our access to the safest toys for our kids.

So color me outraged when I read an article from the Washingtom Examiner about how two major toy companies.. Mattel and Hasbro actually lobbied for this legislation. Why? Well, they would no doubt tell us it is to save our children from the dangers of lead and other unsafe things in toys. But my guess is that they want to put small, ethical toy makers out of business and limit our toy buying options. They know full well that most small toy makers, the same toy makers whose products were already safe, will not be able to absorb the costs associated with legislation like this. The real kicker is that Mattel is the company who kicked off the lead toys scare. THEY were the reckless and irresponsible company that reminded us we need to be careful of what our kids play with when THEY put thousands of lead laced toys on the market.

Another slap in the face for consumers is this piece from the Los Angeles Times. Check this out:

Toy makers, clothing manufacturers and other companies selling products for young children are submitting samples to independent laboratories for safety tests. But the nation’s largest toy maker, Mattel, isn’t being required to do the same.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission recently, and quietly, granted Mattel’s request to use its own labs for testing that is required under a law Congress passed last summer after a rash of recalls of toys contaminated by lead. Six of those toys were produced by Mattel Inc. and its Fisher-Price subsidiary.

The whole basis of this legislation was to take the control of toy safety testing out of the hands of the toy makers, since profits could be placed before toy safety. Now we find out that that the company who started all this is getting a free pass? They are immune to this law?!!

According to Mattel they should be treated special because:

It has demonstrated to the product safety agency that its products go through rigorous safety tests. Company spokeswoman Lisa Marie Bongiovanni also said that Mattel has an appropriate “fire wall” in place to ensure test results are protected from corporate influence.

“We have extremely qualified people who work feet away from our production lines,” Bongiovanni said. “It allows us to do more testing than any other toy company out there.”

So says the company that just agreed to pay a $2.3-million civil penalty for violating the lead paint ban. Sounds reasonable… NOT!

I don’t know about you folks but Mattel and Hasbro are now on on my list of toy companies to never, ever support with my toy dollars again. 

There are numerous reasons why we don’t need the over marketed, hyped up, low quality, plastic junk that they sell anyway but this is yet another reason. As consumers we need to send our money to ethical toy companies that REALLY care about the safety of our kids. They need our support now more than ever.

Are you committed to buying quality natural toys from ethical companies? Comment below and tell me what and where you are buying… inquiring minds would like to know.

:)

Due to the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) natural toys have been getting a lot of attention lately. It has quite frankly woken many people up the value of homemade and all the reasons we need to fight to protect these items.  To lose them would be to lose a part of our natural history… a part of our heritage. For us and for children all over the country it would mean a loss of the magic that is unique to hand crafted toys.

By voicing our concerns over the poorly written CPSIA legislation we can save the toys and help to ensure that our local artisans can continue to operate… artisans like Beccijo Neff of The Fairy Ring and The Enchanted Cupboard. Toys and handcrafted items like what you find here are magical, charming, and bewitching.

I interviewed Beccijo this week and asked her about CPSIA, her business, and why preserving the traditions of handmade are so important. Of course first I asked her how she got started in this business.

Beccijo: As a child in rural Pennsylvania I spent much of my time inventing new things to play with.  New games and toys were always being made by me in my free time, and I never remember being bored.  My parents encouraged creativity.  I loved kids, and there was never a short supply in my big, extended family. There was always someone around to try out my new game with.  I felt blessed by my life back then. After high school, college beckoned.  I pursued the course that my artistic talents led me on, but in my heart I always wanted to be a nanny.  My mother had a nanny growing up, and I loved the stories she told me about afternoons at the beach in Australia with her sisters and the nanny.  I decided to follow my dream, and in 1991, I enrolled in The English Nanny and Governess School.  Afterward, many years passed as I lived that dream being the enchanted Nanny I always dreamed I would be.

Years later I found a prince among men and married him in 1997.  We started our family in 2000 and now have 4 beautiful, wonderful children for me to create for and dream with.  I am now a happy housewife, SAHM and homeschooler trying to find ways to bring that same childhood enchantment that I experienced to my own children. Besides caring for my family, the other thing that brings me great joy is making things that encourage creativity. First I was just a shopper on Etsy, and then I started making items for other kids and thought that this might be a good idea for a few shops. This year I got the biggest joy knowing that under other people’s Christmas trees, my toys were waiting all wrapped up.

Tiffany: What is CPSIA?

Beccijo: The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act is a new law that is intended to insure the safety of basically any consumer product that is intended for 12 year olds and younger.  It requires materials testing of all clothes, toys, books, educational materials, baby items, etc. to prove that they do not contain any toxic materials.  It was passed last year in response to the influx of materials from overseas that had lead paint and other toxic materials on them.

Tiffany: Who will be impacted by this legislation? And why should parents care?

Beccijo: Everyone who buys or sells items for kids 12 yrs. old or under will be affected by this law.  Parents should care because the law as it is stated now is too broad and will eliminate many nice and useful products from the marketplace because smaller manufacturers will not be able to afford the testing that is required by the law.  Handmade toys and other organic and safe products are required to be tested even though by their very nature they are made from safe materials.  This means that many handmade wooden toys and other products like them will disappear from the marketplace. 

It is good that the government is stepping up and taking action on lead, but this law is very vague in it’s terminology to the point where it encompasses anything and everything. The lawmakers wanted to make sure that there were no loopholes in the law, but they went too far.  And now the law is affecting those who make, sell and benefit from quality items that are safe including small shops, crafters, charities, yard sales, EVERYONE!  One of the worst parts of the law is the mandatory (re)testing by third party certified laboratories. The cost for the testing is overwhelming and has actually increased by as much as 20% in the last few months. My main complaint regarding the law is that my supplies are bought at the same craft stores you buy you paints, etc. and they have already been tested and labeled as non-toxic. When I put them together, they are still non toxic and should not have to be retested.

Tiffany: What is being done right now to try and save the hand made toy?

Beccijo: Things are changing fast. Right now, the government is beginning to hear the complaints, and they are making exemptions and rewriting parts (see the story at this link. So right now we need to keep writing letters and emails and making calls.

Those that know and care are doing what they can, but we need to get the word out and we need support from every parent. Everyone just needs to write, type, email and call. Get yourself heard! Contact Congress! Your representative can be reached at:
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

Contact your Senator here….
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
(choose your state on top to get started)

Contact the CPSC directly here….
http://www.cpsc.gov/cgibin/commissionernord.aspx

Tiffany: Anything else to share about CPSIA?

Beccijo: As a parent I try hard to live in such a way as to be an example to my children. When I have to wait in line, I point out that I, as an adult, have to take turns. When they don’t like to share, I point out that I let them share my things even when I don’t always want to. So this is another great example for me to show them.  Just like for them, for adults there are rules.  Sometimes those rules are not fair in my eyes, for them it is bedtimes and eating veggies.  For me, right now, it is the CPSIA.  I have heard lots of comments about the toy police not coming after the crafters. And to me, openly disobeying the law is not the point and not the example I want to send to my children.  I would rather take the opportunity to teach them how people can influence the government to achieve what is fair and right.  Let’s find a way to get a good solid law in place that protects the quality of our children’s lives without removing the things that are already there and safe for them.