Whoever came up with the concept of “edutainment” won’t find much of a challenge in the under-five set. Babies and toddlers have a natural knack for mixing business (i.e., learning) with pleasure (playing) so that one is virtually indistinguishable from the other. As parents ourselves, we’ve teamed up with Chronicle Books to give our readers a shot at winning a pair of multifunctional activity toys that will encourage both amusement and achievement. In addition to a set of MoMA String-Along Books, which can be read, piled as blocks, or strung as beads, one lucky winner will also receive a stack of Lacing Shapes, which teach shapes, colors, and textures while honing gross motor skills. Enter to win below!
Here’s how to enter and win a pair of fun activity toys!
1) Sign up for our weekly newsletter (if you haven’t already!) We’ll be notifying the winner in our newsletter – so you need to sign up and receive our newsletter to find out if you have won.
2) Add a comment to this post with your answer to the following question: How do you keep playtime fun, educational, and green?
Contest ends Tuesday, June 29th, 2010 at 12 midnight EST. Winner will be announced in the following week’s newsletter!
+ MoMA String-Along Books $18.99
My little one loves interactive books.
I love these new toys, I was eyeing them for my new baby!
I play with my children with things found in nature like I always longed to do when I was a city kid: catching frogs and fireflies, having star gazing campfires, stacking rocks as building blocks and making garden walls and walkways, using sticks like paintbrushes, climbing trees, making mud pies, maintaining a little tree-canopied spot in the backyard that we call “The Secret Garden” that the children use like a playhouse, picking fruit from trees, treasure hunting for fossils, raking and jumping into leaves, building snow people and forts, going sledding, etc. We take advantage of our local library for movies and books, we have a membership at our local childrens’ museum, and when people ask me what kind of toys my kids would like for their birthdays, I always try to suggest helpfully that all my kids want are art supplies like paper and colored pencils.
I try to keep it outside with a focus on nature. You can’t get much greener than that.
I use green toys, and make learning fun by singing songs, even if it’s me just making up the words as I go. Toddlers seem to love to learn. I use flashcards to teach the alphabet, numbers, and pictures. We even go around the house and try to find things that start with the letter on the flash card. Or the kids love trying to find the same object on the flash card around the house, for example, a picture of a spoon they know to go in the kitchen to find one. I love to make play time educational and fun!
We use flash cards often. My children love to learn the alphabet, numbers and pictures. If they see a “spoon” on the flashcard they will go to the kitchen to find a spoon. They will also try to go around the house and find things that start with the letter on the flash card. My toddlers love to flash cards and dont realize they are really learning.
Other things I do to make play time more fun is to sing songs with them. Even if its a song I make up as I go they really seem to enjoy it.
On my husband’s days off we like to do things outdoors, and the kids learn tons about birds, fish and plants from him. He knows more about that stuff than I do so they really enjoy their time with their father and learn a ton from him.
I try to use green toys with them as much as possible. They also know how to recycle at ages 2 and 3!!
I love buying him toys that are made sustainably and at the same time allow for him to use his imagination as much as possible.
Nephews and nieces like kidnapping my iPod Touch sometimes.
With my baby, we keep playtime fun, educational, and green by purchasing educational toys that encourage the baby to think. The toys stimulate all five senses. We support local businesses and try to purchase ‘Green’ baby products. We support local merchants, shop at the Farmer’s Market, and we are creative by making toys out of materials we have around the house.
looks neat!
We usually choose wood ecofriendly toys. We play with our pets, we go to the park and enjoy simple nature: leaves, stones, wathc insects…
Its a nice way to learn about environment. Fun, green and educational
Playtime: fun,educational and green…..outdoors rain or shine in the dirt or mud with worms and bugs because I’m the GRAMMA and clean isn’t fun at all!
Play involves a homemade activity quilt from grandma (made from sustainable sources), Hand-me-down blocks and a shape-piece ball from cousins, and a cute green frog for playing peek-a-boo. That’s how we keep our 7 1/2 month old, entertained & learning with green ideas.
Playing outside is fun, educational, and eco-friendly!
So far with a 3 month old it’s pretty easy because we try to focus on lots on mama/daddy time to entertain rather than objects
We give the “old” toys a rest and then come back to them after a while. They always seem more refreshing.
During the summer (now!) we spend lots of time exploring the outdoors and playing with the natural materials my little one finds.
Fun, educational & green: that sounds like the vegetable patch. It’s a lovely family time growing & cooking the food.
I am signed up for the newletter.
Fun, educational & green? Easy! My 0 year old (turned 9-months today), loves to sing, do finger play-rythyms and dance with my old scarves. I’m currently knitting her a set of nesting blocks and we reuse plastic containers for our bath toys. We spend lots of time chatting & watching “tv” = the various trees out the big window of our family bed, or watching the cats or bunnies. We ride bikes (trailer) while the dogs take turns running alongside. We eat whole organic food (try for locally-grown) and buy a huge chunk of her small collection of clothes & toys from resale shops. Our downfall? (from a footprint perspective, not educational one)… World travel! Which is exactly where this weeks’ prize so serendipitously comes into play! I almost bought her the string along books *today* for our upcoming airplane ride to daddy’s conference in south of France (I know! Lucky sahm/thesis-writing-mom-am I!!), but I just couldn’t justify budgeting for a whole set of new travel toys for her (I was already getting her a new Gertie ball). I definitely put these cool books on my daughters wish list though, as she loves textures! And I love the extended life of a toy such as this! We want happy air-travel!
we play with puzzles and games handed down from my older sister’s kids
I’ve been trying to make many of our toys, using organic yarn. Also, there is nothing wrong with a used toy!
These are incredible, combining so many activities and interests into one “package”!
Cyn
Fun, educational & green? Easy! My 0 year old (turned 9-months today), loves to sing, do finger play-rythyms and dance with my old scarves. Of course we read books (bought already chewed), and make our own out of family photos. I’m currently knitting her a set of nesting blocks with eco-friendly wool. We reuse plastic containers for our bath toys. We spend lots of time chatting & watching “tv” = the various trees out the big window of our family bed. We ride bikes (trailer) while the dogs take turns running alongside. We eat whole organic food (try for locally-grown) and buy a huge chunk of her small collection of clothes & toys from resale shops. Our downfall (from a footprint perspective, not educational one)? World travel…which is exactly where this weeks’ prize so serendipitously comes into play! I almost bought her the string along books *today* for our upcoming airplane ride to daddy’s conference in south of France (I know! Lucky sahm/thesis-writing-mom-am I!!), but I just couldn’t justify budgeting for a whole set of new travel toys for her (I was already getting her a new Gertie ball). I definitely put these cool books on my daughters wish list though, as she loves textures! And I love the extended life of a toy such as this! We want happy air-travel!
I’m not due until Sep. 29th with my 1st child, but I plan to try not to buy too many toys, and instead make a lot of things together. That way he can have fun and learn how to build things. I also want to garden with him when he’s older, and do other outdoor things like hiking while learning native plant species and all about the birds and insects.
IMAGINATION! It’s the best way to keep playtime interactive, fun and green – reusing cardboard boxes and juice containers to build towers and cities (before recycling), “mash” paints made from all sorts of standard kitchen supplies, tents made from sheets, and playing outdoors while role playing and pretending are all great ways to have fun and be green.
Let the kids plat in big boxes and when they are nice and used and “soft” cut the cardboard into strips to learn about weaving.
How do you keep playtime fun, educational, and green?
– I try to make toys out of everyday objects, and play outside as much as possible. That way my baby daughter can learn by being creative and interacting with nature. That doesn’t mean a good green toy isn’t appreciated now and then!
We try to play outside as much as possible. Sticks, mud, rocks, dirt!! Indoors we stick with wooden toys or only plastic that is ABS and made in Europe.
We look for used toys made of wood and minimal plastic. I’m always for classic toys such as blocks.
We do our best to use green toys, but our biggest contribution to green play is the outdoors. Our 7 moth old, Lily, spends no less than 5 hours a day outside looking at trees, flowers, the ocean, the birds, everything. We talk to her every minute of her adventure so she knows when we say birdie, there is a feathered friend close.
It is a wonderful way to get some exercise and remind yourself to stop and smell the roses, or hibiscus as the case may be.
My son and I use his toys in all kinds of ways, not just the way they are intended. For example, blocks become trains, planes and automobiles. That way, we can use our imaginations and not buy new, plastic toys!
Most of the toys I buy for my son are organic, bpa free, or made from recycled material. I do not buy a lot of new toys and use ordinary household items to entertain and teach my little one.
Most of our toys are second hand, lots are hand made from natural materials We play with things we collect on our walks on the beach and in the woods. We play with our imaginations too…
We buy most of our toys from the 2nd hand store. We play outside, visit farms, and go to our community pool as much as possible. We don’t do batteries or plastic.
We do lots of repurposing, especially for crafts. I also make a huge effort to keep our toys natural and if possible hand-made.
I was about to
Without sounding like a broken record – it’s mainly imagination! can’t go wrong with blankets and sheets as tents and hideouts, or boxes and old socks for puppets. Natures is a great place to create and recreate things and when you don’t have a pen & paper handy and you’re at the window or door looking outside, we breath on the glass and draw then repeat. Love that one!
Thanks for the chance on the Moma books
with my little girl of almost 1,5 years, I love to do creative projects. Tearing up old pieces of paper (when she was in her “tearing phase”) and gluing them to a piece of paper to make an image, having her fingerpaint a little wooden cupboard. For fathers day we made a big line with little flags, which she decorated with paint and paper (and I stitched together).
Even with very small children you can do so many creative projects, trust you don’t have to wait untill they are three years old, you just need a little preparation and a small tub with warm water ready (don’t fear the mess, just enjoy it)
We keep our playtime fun, educational, and green many different ways. How we keep it fun is to switch up the activities from time to time. Secondly, we ready like crazy and work on specific things each day. The best way to keep it green for us has been to encourage our children to explore the earth and world around us outside!
We recycle milk and juice cartons into block boxes… It’s easy and fun!
inalak at msn dot com
We play outside! Checking out the ants, watching birds, playing in the sandbox and taking a walk through the woods are some of our favorite things to do.
It’s all about the outdoors for us!
during the summer months the kids love to be outside-we take walks most days and they love to collect rocks and other goodies they find
tiramisu392 (at) yahoo.com
Limit the amount of junk toys that enter the house and go for quality sustainable ones. Also raid the kitchen cupboards for “toys” for the young ones — containers, wooden spoons, measuring cups and spoons…
Interaction and imagination leads to positive play. Multi functional toys, ones that adapt with age are the best and the greenest.
We are expecting our first child in September, so I am in learning mode right now. There are some great suggestions here already!
what an awesome learning toy!
I try to do craative craft projects where we are assembling and building creatures and other items.
Toilet paper rolls make great rattles when filled with small objects or rocks and covered; Facial Tissue paper boxes become doll houses; Empty milk gallon jugs become a piggy bank – the possibilites in our house are endless!
We really don’t have a lot of big plastic toys which really requires our children to be creative and use their imaginations. It is amazing to see what can be repurposed and used as a toy – the spice rack has provided both of my children with endless hours of fascination (putting them in, taking them out…repeat…)
We try and do as much outside play as posible. Every gifting holiday I remind family that we have a no batteries request and offer green suggestions for play. We also participate in toy swaps twice a year. Some of the best play, other than the kind with mud outside, is from recycling items into playthings for his animals.
When your broke, playtime is always green. We shop at a used book store, finding treasure in another’s discards. Cardboard is still my son’s favorite toy, and we’ve constructed many an adventure from old boxes. When that gets boring, we run around in the yard barefoot, enjoying the sun. Having an expensive son forces the use of my creativity, and it’s one of the things about motherhood I’m definitely more grateful for. And to be able to give him something new and wonderful? Well, it’d be a nice change of pace.