Destiny Baby

Did you get a new Wii for your family or for a child in the family this holiday season? You’ll find discounts of 10% off all top videogame accessories and up to 25% off select video game accessories from now through January 16, 2010. After watching my 3 year-old impress the whole family with his coordination, decisionmaking and other video game skills, I think there is some merit to the notion of video games as educational toys.

Wii Nunchuk Controller

With great discounts on educational and child oriented titles from Amazon.com, you can equip your child’s new Wii. Some of the top educational Wii titles include the following:

Wii Carnival Games

Wii Playground

Wii Fit Plus with Balance Board

Your kids can skate, surf, base-jump, double-dutch, bike, and rock climb–all from the comfort of your living room! They can do it with the Active Life: Extreme Challenge Bundle with Mat,an active, fitness type game for the Nintendo Wii console. The ad is targeted to children, but from the good reviews it’s gotten, adults are having a lot of fun with it, too. We’re highlighting it today because it is currently in the Amazon gold box as a deal of the day for about 11 more hours and the price is discounted by nearly 50%! If you’ve been looking for a fun way for the kids to have fun and stay active indoors, especially with the cold weather approaching every day, this might be just what you’ve been looking for. Read more…

If you have purchased Baby Einstein DVDs, you should know that you can get a refund for any videos you’ve purchased. the AP is reporting that, “The Walt Disney Co. [which acquired the Baby Einstein company in 2001] is expanding a refund program for its Baby Einstein videos for toddlers in response to challenges about the legitimacy of its educational claims.” This follows the threat of a class-action lawsuit by an advocacy group, the Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood, which had complained to the FTC back in 2006 about Baby Einstein claims that videos could teach words to babies less than two, which is not supported by scientific research.The Director of the group said, “We see it as an acknowledgment by the leading baby video company that baby videos are not educational, and we hope other baby media companies will follow suit by offering refunds.”

We’ve mentioned on this site about the importance of unstructured play in terms of enhancing development for young children. Instead of more DVDs and gadgets and gizmos to teach lower level brain functions like letter recognition, young children need stimulation and creativity that comes from problem solving, discovering the world around them and how it  works, the building blocks of physics, math and a scientific understanding of the world. In an earlier post, we mentioned educational activities for toddlers and preschoolers around the home to stimulate your little scientist in training.

Both my toddler and I love Dora the Explorer and Go Diego Go! Both are children’s TV shows featured on Nickelodeon, an American cable television channel geared for children. An incident in my local pharmacy the other day got me thinking about the gender divide in our country. I was looking for a new set of flash cards for my two year old (who will be three very soon) and when I looked for the Dora the Explorer products, I wasn’t disappointed. I bought a tin of Dora the Explorer Kidz Cards, featuring four games: Memory, Old Maid, Go Fish and Crazy Eights. A little advanced for a two year old but he loves Dora and can name all the characters, which are featured on the cards in full color.

I grabbed the canister and made my way to the checkout when a woman stopped me and asked if I thought the cards were a good purchase. I immediately started to sing the praises of Dora the Explorer and related products I’ve found and just casually mentioned that my son loves them.

Her face changed suddenly.

“Your son?” she asked, incredulously. “He likes Dora?” I was bewildered by her change in tone. Of course, I said. He loves the music, and all the animal characters, and learns from the show. To my amazement she proceeded to lecture me that I shouldn’t get Dora products for my son and how different men she knows as adults now identify as gay because they loved to play with dolls as children, and how it was encouraged by their mothers. I was speechless, but managed to shrug and say, Well he’s two.

I quickly walked away, but it got me thinking about how early the gender roles are forced on kids. Even baby clothes are divided by color, although I’ve noticed more and more of my friends who are having kids are requesting “gender neutral” colors for their babies (the neutral colors are supposedly yellow, green, purple, orange–anything but pink and blue!)

For my part, as long as my son loves Dora the Explorer I will get the shows toys, videos and games for him. The show, website and associated products are great. Dora features vivid colors, a cast of animal friends and her family, and is interactive, teaching vocabulary and language skills as well as music, and other lessons (math, science, observation and physical coordination). For example, the characters will pause to ask your child a question, figure out something or to name objects. Does it matter that it’s a little girl who’s the lead showing my son these things?

The Nick Jr. online shop offers bestselling and exclusive products from all of your children’s favorite shows and characters like Dora the Explorer, Go Diego Go, Wonder Pets, Blue’s Clues, The Backyardigans, Ni Hao, Kai-Lan, and Yo Gabba Gabba! In fact, we’ve gathered some special deals for you:
Get 20% off Select Dora the Explorer Merchandise at the Nick Shop!

Get 15% off All DVDs at the Nick Shop!

Save 15% Off Already Low Prices at the Shop.NickJr.com Outlet

What do you think? Do we have to worry about gender appropriate toys for toddlers?

Shop for Diego Exclusive Items at Shop.NickJr.com!

Shop the Best Sellers Section at Shop.nickjr.com

Shop for new Yo Gabba Gabba DVDs and Toys at Shop.nickjr.com

Shop for The Backyardigans Exclusive Items at Shop.NickJr.com!

Shop for Blue’s Clues Exclusive Items at Shop.NickJr.com!

Potty Train Your Toddler Today!

While Destiny Baby has not yet completely mastered the potty, he has made valiant efforts (more so to unravel all of the tissue paper roll than to actually use the thing, but still.) Given that he has successfully used the toilet from time to time, albeit inconsistently, we have finally resolved to end the “stink-stink” and solve this issue once and for all. A friend of Mama Destiny has given me a two-day method that should result in a potty-trained child eager to use the potty to please Mom and Dad! She suggested using a DVD to reinforce the process, so we are trying to two of the top rated potty training videos on Amazon.com: Potty Power – For Boys & Girls
and Sesame Street – Elmo’s Potty Time

For those of you who want an actual guide on how exactly to get your two or three-year old to stop pooping his diapers, pull-ups or underpants, try this book: Toilet Training in Less Than A Day, a classic guide to get your toddler toilet trained in only a few hours! We haven’t tried this yet, but 388 customers have reviewed it and given it 4 starts on Amazon.com, so once we get it we’ll let you know our experiences. Sounds like a miracle!

Have fun and post below about your experience getting past the diaper phase and into freedom!

If you are looking for an online educational video resource for teaching your child ABCs and Phonics, here is a video posted by a YouTuber called “Let’s Talk.” featuring a costumed character called “Puppy Dog.” The character is a human dressed in a giant puppy suit interacting with computer animated wide-eyed kids. The best parts though are the actual video footage of kids singing the ABCs. My son loves to see other kids. Of course, he also loves hands on alphabet toys as well!