Archives for category: play
The Etch A Sketch made its debut as The Magic Screen at a European Toy Fair in 1959.
It all began in 1950. While tinkering in his garage, French electrician Andre Cassagnes dreamed up a drawing toy that kids could shake up and start over. The new drawing toy was made up of a joystick, glass and aluminum powder. Before taking it to market In 1960, it was tweaked; a joystick with two white knobs in the left and right corners of the screen. The idea was to make the toy look like the hot new adult toy of the time: a television. Quickly it became the most popular selling toy during the Christmas season that year. Since then, the Ohio Art Company has sold more than 150 million of them.
The Toy Industry Association named Etch A Sketch one of the 100 most memorable and most creative toys of the 20th century.
If you have ever wondered what’s inside an Etch A Sketch, How Stuff Works will enlighten you.
Look what I am making for Master O and baby sister this weekend.
Lego Jello, fun colorful, tasty, jiggly, wiggly, yet best of all, an easy peasy treat.
Watching baby sister squish it through her little fingers should put smiles on all of our faces, right Betsy? (and a mess on the floor no doubt)
Since we have been playing matching games lately, the plan is to match the Jello boxes with his Duplos.
Instructions
Have the Lego/Duplo blocks washed and ready to go. Choose your favorite flavor Jellos, or in our case, favorite colors. Master O will be matching the colors of red, blue, green and yellow; aka: cherry, blueberry, lime and lemon in Jello speak.
Prepare the Jello as directed on the package. This time, before filling the Duplo molds I am going to first spray them with Pam cooking spray. Hopefully the un-molding will be a snap. Place the molds in a cake pan before filing and then place the pan in the refrigerator until set.
There’s always room for Lego Jello, this week’s Recipe For Fun..
This Earth Day 2013 teach your children about sharing and responsible recycling by donating new or gently used toys.
Come to Totally Kids fun furniture & toys now through April 22nd, Earth Day, and donate the toys your children don’t use or need anymore and receive 22% OFF any toy or game purchase plus a FREE toy prize.
WANTED: GENTLY USED TOY DONATIONS
Calling all parents in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area!
Totally Kids in Bloomington, is accepting new or gently
used toys for local families economically challenged by
the affects of Autism. Aside from helping our friends
and neighbors, this is an excellent opportunity to clear
out your closets as well as keeping those unused toys
from ending up in a landfill for the next 100 years.
Please stop by and visit us.
Bring whatever you can, as even the smallest toy
will brighten one child’s day.
Please help our environment and your community and come in to Totally Kids!
A Blast From the Past
Children of the 80′s, remember the song? Monchhichi, Monchhichi, oh so cute and cuddly, With her thumb in her mouth she’s really sweet, it’s fun to play with their little feet, la la la! La la la! Happy, happy Monchhichi! I love you Monchhichi!
I can still hear that tune, one of those that played over and over in your head. If you need a refresher, check out this old Monchhichi commercial on YouTube, totally transported me back quite a few years!
Ring a bell? Take a look at the adorable Japanese classic Monchhichi dolls. They’ll make you feel like you’re a kid again with that plush little monkey body, vinyl face, hands and feet, and ready for monkey business.
It’s almost that time of year again when the Easter Bunny starts making tracks and delivering eggs and treats around the world. So, here are some suggestions of what to do while you and the kiddos are waiting
TRACK THE EASTER BUNNY
NORAD tracks Santa but can not track the Easter Bunny because the Easter Bunny does not fly. He just hops around the world, right? Once again, like last year, there is the iPhone 3D Easter Bunny Tracker app. This year you can track the Easter Bunny with The Bunny Tracker.
Here’s something to do while you’re waiting for the Easter Bunny to arrive: play some Easter Bunny games, read poems, download some coloring pages, catch up on your trivia, or come to Totally Kids fun furniture & toys on Saturday, March 30th for our annual Easter Egg Hunt.
There will be games, face-painting, refreshments and free prizes all day long .
Every child will go home with a free toy prize – and hopefully a basket full of goodies! Hop on in…we hope to see you there while waiting for the Easter Bunny!
Passover 2013 or “Pesakh”begins at sunset tonight. It is an eight day celebration observed each year by the Jewish religion. It commemorates the freeing of the Israelites (biblical name for the Jews) from slavery after centuries of poverty and oppression under the reign of the cruel Egyptian, Pharaoh Ramses II.
Families celebrate Passover by having a Seder with special foods, songs, and customs. The Seder is the focal point of the Passover celebration. Seder means order, and the passover story is read in order from a book called a Haggadah.
This wooden child size Passover teaching set includes a Seder plate, goblet, two pieces of matza, bottle of wine, prayer book Afikomen and matza covers.
Although there are a number of food-related traditions that are observed during Passover, perhaps the most important part of the celebration is the ritual retelling of the Exodus story. In the Torah’s Book of Exodus, Jews are exhorted to tell their progeny about the enslavement and escape of the ancient Israelites. The act of recounting this story in a ceremony known as Magid forms a key component of the Seder feast, and it is told from a special text known as the Haggadah. The ceremony is meant to be interactive and inclusive, and includes questions and answers, special blessings, discussions, and songs. The story is usually told in both Hebrew and the native language of the majority of the guests attending the feast, according to tradition.
Apples 4 the Teacher explains Passover:
Fearing that Jews were becoming too strong, a Pharaoh decreed that all male Jewish babies were to be killed. Jocheved and Amran, a Jewish couple, wanted to save their infant son – so they put him in a basket that floated him down the river. The infant was rescued by the Pharaoh’s daughter and she raised him as her own son. She named the baby Moses, which means ” take from the water.”
When Moses grew up, he empathized with the Jewish slaves and tried to get the Pharaoh to free them. The Pharaoh refused – so there were 10 plagues sent down to Egypt: Blood, Frogs, Lice, Beasts, Cattle Disease, Boils, Hail, Locusts, Darkness, and Slaying of the Firstborn. The name Passover comes from the Plague of Slaying the Firstborn. The Angel of Death passed over the homes of the Jews who had put lambs blood on their doors.
After the 10th plague, Pharaoh agreed to let the Jewish slaves go. They gathered up their belongings quickly, and didn’t have time for their bread to rise, so they had to bake it and take it the way it was. This is why the Jewish people eat matzah during Passover.
As the Jews were fleeing, Pharaoh changed his mind, and sent his army after the people to bring them back. Moses parted the Red Sea for the Jews to cross, and as soon as they were safely to the other side, the waters closed on the soldiers, drowning them all. The Jewish people were free.
We wish all of our friends near and far a Joyous Passover!
Today we celebrate First Walk in Space Day.
Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov, of the former Soviet Union, was born May 30, 1934 in Listvyanka, Kemerovo Oblast. He is a retired Russian cosmonaut and Air Force General who, on March 18, 1965, became the first human to step out of a spacecraft and walk in space.
While talking about space today, we thought what a perfect day to make and play with some moon sand.
Try this recipe for moon sand, it is amazing moldable, holdable, squishable, squashable, sand that never dries out!
For anybody needing a Jr. Astronaut Helmet, you will find the latest and greatest ones right here.
This year, while waiting for Peter Cottontail, look at this fantastic idea of what to do with all those colorful plastic eggs that seem to multiply as fast as Peter Rabbit’s cousins.
Brandie, at Home Cooking Memories, shows us how we can make our Easter dinner tables more memorable with her Easter Egg Starters.
Hop on over to her site for the printable Easter Dinner Conversation Starters to tuck inside the eggs. There are questions like “If you had a $100.00 bill in your Easter basket, what would you do with it?” or “Share 5 things that you do well.”
We think this is a winning idea and definitely a Recipe for Fun.
Don’t forget your feathered friends on St. Patrick’s Day.
This activity is a perfect do together with young children. All you need is green pipe cleaners and some Fruit Loops.
String the Fruit Loops on to the pipe cleaners.
Erin and Erica complete the project by shaping the pipe cleaners in to Shamrocks.
The Shamrocks are now ready to hang on trees outside and making a fruitful St. Patrick’s Day for the birds!
The Crafty Crow adds fresh fruit to the trees. We think this would be an ideal pairing with the Shamrocks.
Playing By The Book kicks it up a notch for their neighborhood birds with gourmet fruit garlands.
Building a bird house feeder for our young birdwatchers looks like a weekend project for this cold St. Patrick’s Day weekend. Pop over to Bless This Mess and you will find the construction instructions.
