Tag Archives: creativity

Arts and Crafts

We all know that kids need to be spending time outside working up a sweat and building strong muscles. But they also need plenty of down time. And what better way to relax than by creating art? Here are some truly outstanding ways you and your kids can flex your creativity muscles together.

Tropical Terrarium (Craftivity)

tropical terrariumA great craft activity to do with your tween and/or teen. It comes with everything you need for a fabulous mini garden (except water): a trendy, geometric terrarium; potting mix; seeds; pink flamingo and golden pineapple ornaments; decorative plants, sand, and stones; a water dropper; and instructions. For ages 12+. Under $25. www.fabercastell.com


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Imagination and Coordination

This week we take a look at a number of toys that combine imagination and fine motor skills.

playmobil horse farmTake Along Horse Farm (Playmobil)
As readers of this column know, we’re big fans of building systems. But not every child shares that particular passion. This colorful, realistic set is perfect for the child who doesn’t mind putting a few pieces together, but would much rather spend his or her time getting the horses fed, groomed, exercised, and ready for to ride. The 81 pieces include two horses, three humans, a couple of dogs, a wheelbarrow for delivering food (or removing horse manure), scrub brushes, and more. The barn itself turns into an easy-to-carry case so your little equestrian will be able to pack up the whole thing and take the show on the road (or just back to his or her room). Ages 4-10. $35.53 at Amazon.

playmobil sunshine preschoolSunshine Preschool Set (Playmobil)
Like the Horse Farm, this set doesn’t require much building, but that doesn’t make it any less fun. In fact, with 394 pieces, there’s almost no limit to the number of entertaining, home-related scenes a creative boy or girl can concoct. The setting is, as you might guess from the name, the Sunshine Preschool, and the kit includes one adult figure, four children, and a dizzying array of accessories: a music area complete with instruments, a climbing wall, a clock with moveable hands, backpacks, pencils, paintbrushes, a coffee pot, mugs, a chalkboard, two toilets, and a lot more. The only risk is that after spending time at the Sunshine school, your child may refuse to go to his or her own preschool—Sunshine is definitely a hard act to follow. Ages 4-10. 394 pieces. $99.99 at Amazon.

flipsies SandyFlipsies Sandy’s House and Ocean Cruiser (VTech)
Sandy is just one of the Flipsies, collectible dolls that are designed to inspire the little girls who play with them. Sandy wants to be a marine biologist, and each of the other Flipsies has her own unique dreams. Carina’s on her way to medical school, Styla runs a fashion boutique, Eva wants to be a veterinarian, and Clementine has a thing for ice cream. All of the Flipsies (each is sold separately) can switch clothes, accessories, and even hair. But what’s especially fun is the MagicPoint locations that are in each Flipsie’s habitat. Put Sandy in one of the MagicPoints on her Ocean Cruiser and she’ll tell you something nautical. Put her into a MagicPoint in Styla’s salon, and she’ll tell you something that’s appropriate for a budding biologist with a strong sense of style. Ages 4-9. Prices vary, depending on the kit. This one is $56.62 at Amazon.

tugie, marbles the brain storeTugie (Marbles, the Brain Store)
Tugie (pronounced “tuggie”) is a fun, engaging game that’s super easy to learn and definitely has that “let’s play another round” quality. There are 12 colorful disc-like pieces that stack on a spindle, plus a gray one that sits on the very top. Each disc has a string attached. Players take turns rolling a die to see which color they need to remove by tugging on the string. If you get your disc out, gently place it on top, and it’s the next player’s turn. But you’ve got to be careful—if you knock any pieces off the spindle, you keep them. The player with the fewest wins the round. Each round takes no more than a few minutes to play. Tugie requires a fair amount of hand-eye coordination (not quite as much as Jenga) and a bit of luck. Ages 5 and up. $29.99.  http://www.marblesthebrainstore.com/

Beyond the Game of Kings

Chess has been around for hundreds of years, and it’s always been associated with intelligence, strategy, and memory. But over the past decade—partly due to the increase in video and smartphone games—the Game of Kings, has lost some of its allure and its audience. This week we take a look at two great chess-like games that are fun, engaging, and at least as intellectually stimulating and challenging as chess.

Arimaa
arimaa gameFrom a distance, Armiaa looks like chess: There are two sides, each with 16 pieces, and it’s played on an 8×8 board. But the similarity ends there. The most powerful piece is the elephant and the weakest are the rabbits. All the pieces move the same way: one space left, right, or forward. And all but the rabbits can move one space backwards.

arimaa2The company’s tag line is “Intuitively simple… intellectually challenging” and they’re right. Unlike chess, where there’s only one way to set up the board, in Armaa, players set up their pieces any way they’d like (as long as they’re all in two “home rows”). The game’s inventor estimates that there are as many as 64 million ways to start the game, as opposed to only 20 in chess. And unlike chess, where weaker pieces protect the stronger ones, here, the strong protect the weak and the goal is to get one of your rabbits all the way across the board. Each turn, players can move up to four spaces—all by one piece or divided among several. You can use your turn to advance or protect your own pieces or to push or pull your opponent’s to less favorable spaces—or to one of the four trap spaces that remove pieces from the board. Sounds a little complicated, but the rules are easy enough for kids as young as five or six to learn.

Once the game is underway, there are an average of 17,000 possible moves at any given time (vs. about 30 in chess), Armiaa stimulates logical and strategic thinking, improves focus and problem-solving skills, stimulates creativity, and may even help with math. But more than that, it’s a delightful way for a parent and child to spend time together. $30.00 http://arimaa.com

Commander-in-Chief (X-Plus Products)
commander-in-chief 1While the goal of this game is similar to chess—capture your opponent’s leader—Commander-in-Chief turns the traditional 8×8 chess board on its head. Well, actually, on its side: the game is played with the board in a diamond shape. The 15 spaces in the corner facing each player are brown and represent land, and there’s a wide blue ocean between the two warring forces. The board is set up in a specific way and the 15 solid, nicely crafted pieces—which include tanks, submarines, helicopters, destroyers, fighter jets, bombers, and amphibian assault vehicles—can move through the air, on land, by sea, or in some cases, a combination.

commander-in-chief2Each piece has unique directional movements and restrictions, and keeping track of them can be tough. But every time you play (and you’re going to want to play this game over and over), you’ll get closer to mastering them—just like in chess. Until then, the game comes with two one-page reference guides—one for each side.

Commander-in-Chief isn’t quite as involved as chess, but it definitely requires logic, strategic thinking, planning, and logic. A great game for beginners and experts alike, it takes only about 30 minutes to play. And one especially nice feature that separates it from other similar games is that it can be played by 2 or 4 players. $34.00. http://www.commander-in-chief.com/the-game.html

The Art of Parenting

Sometimes looking at a blank piece of paper and being told that you can create anything you want to, just makes you freeze up. The options are limitless, but somehow you can’t think of anything to do. This week we take a look at several art kits that can help parents and kids overcome even the most stubborn case of artist’s block.”

Gelarti Scene Creator (Moose Toys)
gelarti parents@playGelarti Comes with three paint pens, a large scene sticker, and a number of smaller stickers. Customize the stickers with the paint, let your creation dry overnight, and the next morning you’re ready to start decorating any smooth surface you can find. The stickers themselves are a little bit limiting: each shape, whether it’s a bird, puppy, bone, heart, or house is already pre-cut, so it’s not easy to make your own designs. It would be wonderful to have a similar Gelarti kit that came with blank sicker sheets so young artists and their parents could fully unleash their creative juices. That said, Gelarti is still plenty fun for parents and kids. Plus, Gelarti stickers are easily peeled off and can be moved and re-stuck over and over. Anyone who’s had to scrape stickers off of hardwood floors, windows, and refrigerator doors will appreciate that. Ages 5 and up. http://gelartistickers.com/ (don’t leave out the “I” before “stickers”)

Artzooka! (Wooky Entertainment)
artzooka kits parents@playArtzooka! has solved the artist’s block problem by making more than two dozen kits that are focused enough to give you a starting point, yet open-ended enough to encourage nearly unlimited creativity. We had a chance to try out four, and we loved them all.

  • Pop Stick Photo Frames comes with 40 popsicle sticks in a variety of colors and sizes, stickers, and glue. That’s pretty much it. Theoretically, you’re “supposed” to use all those ingredients to make picture frames—and you’ve got enough to make several really spectacular ones. But no one’s going to call the art police if you decide to create something else.
  • artzooka clips n' caps

  • Clip N’ Cap includes 16 bottle caps and can tabs, more than 35 stickers, string, and more. The pictures on the box show necklaces, but that’s just a suggestion.
  • Cupcake Creations was the simplest and, in some ways, the most fun. You basically get 20 colored cupcake liners, glue and stickers and some basic directions for creating delightful animals. But it’s easy as cupcake to go far beyond.
  • With nearly 300 pieces, Button Mosaics is one of Artzooka!’s biggest kits. Besides the sticky buttons, each kit includes several pre-drawn mosaic blanks. Younger kids may want to use them, but older kids and parents will want to make their own.

artzooka caps and tabsA few years ago Pepperidge Farms had a cookie that they advertised as looking just like homemade. Apparently they meant that the cookies—even though they were made by machines–weren’t all exactly the same (which explains why people refer to things that look identical as “cookie cutter”). Artzooka! does something similar with their bottlecaps, buttons, cupcake liners, and soda can tabs. Instead of using real ones from actual bottles and cans—a kind of artistic recycling that parents and art teachers have been doing forever—Artzooka! has made their own, in a variety of colors, often with pre-drilled holes for stringing up. Scavenging for bottle tops and buttons and decorating them yourself adds a layer of creativity. However, using the ones Artzooka! provides doesn’t detract in the slightest from how enormously fun Artzooka !kits are—and how great they are for parents and kids to do together. Ages 5 and up. http://artzooka.com/