A new puppeteer

Mesdames et Monsieurs, the show is about to start! Our puppeteer now is P. 

If you are looking for puppets from classic children stories you may find some kits at Lakeshore. We have the "Three Little Pigs" and "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". It's great for the kids to train on how to tell a story that they already know. Although, they usually end up making one of their own, which is extremely amusing. 

F was really into it last year when he was learning "Nursery Rhymes" at school. And now it seems that P is tired of just being a spectator.

Educational Toy: The Responsibility chart

Lately, F has not been excelling in terms of obedience. So following the advice of a friend of mine, I decided to reward him for his wrongdoings with a "Responsibility chart". It consists of setting some simple goals for the child and try to make him responsible about achieving them. I don't really like giving "rewards", but if this is what it's going to take for F to start acting the way that I want him to, to be more responsible, then so be it. As adults, we usually work for money, so let him "earn" something if he cleans up his toys after playing with them.

We chose together some obligations for him (for instance: no whining, say "sorry", clean up toys, etc) and everyday he accomplishes them, he gets a magnet. If he manages to complete the whole board during the week, he'll receive a present (a DVD, for instance, that he's been asking for some time). If he completes a full line or more than one I'll treat him with something nice during the weekend (we still have to figure this one out, but probably an ice-cream or something like that). 

So far, I can already tell you that he won't complete de board this week. However, he's in good shape to have one or more full lines and he's starting to get a grasp of the game. 

A great toy!

A friend of mine recommended me this toy for my kids. She guaranteed that it would be hours of great fun. She was right. The kids get all excited watching the marbles going down and trying to guess where they'll fall. There are several brands and different configuration as well (check some of them here). I bought a relatively small one, because I wasn't sure the boys would like it, but now I wish I had bought one with more pieces. It's still a lot of fun!

Play with your imagination

F loves to listen to stories while he's having dinner, but not any kind of stories. It started more than a year ago and, at the beginning, I would tell him well-known stories, like The Three Little Pigs or Goldilocks and the Three Bears. But he soon started to ask me to invent "out-of-my-head", like he likes to say, fantastic stories. 

Usually, the characters are: himself (as the hero, obviously), his brother, friends from school, his cousins, a big bad wolf, dragons and witches (we have a good one and a very bad one). It's a lot of fun. However, I must confess, that when you need to invent a different story each day, one more extravagant than the other, with very complicated plots, it soon may become a headache to invent such stories. 

One day, I spotted the Tell me a Story card game from Eeboo and I immediately bought it. I thought it would save me from my crazy stories at dinner time. Well, it didn't. On the other hand, it saved me from long and boring winter afternoons at home. The cards come without any text, just images. So you have to create the stories. There are various ways to play with them and you can even create your own rules. 

The instructions that come with the deck give three suggestions: 1) put some cards together and make-up a story; 2) ask your child to create a story using one of the cards and then adding some other cards to the plot; 3) the Silly Story Game (for 2 or more players), in which the youngest player draws a card and starts a story based on the illustration, subsequently the players take turns drawing cards and continuing the initial story, always based on the illustrations. The result can be completely non-sense but is certainly hilarious.

Our favorite one, and actually the only one we've been playing lately, is the third version. It's a great entertainment. It challenges our imagination, creativity and our storytelling abilities. And I'm always so impressed with F's imagination and how he manages to link one card with another in order to make a somewhat coherent story. 

Shadow puppet show

If you've been following me for some time now, you probably know that we like anything related to puppets here at home. So, here's our newest show: shadow theatre. Although, at the beginning, it was hard to coordinate everything and to keep the kids far from the wall so that we could create some shadows, they really had a blast.

Our shadow puppets are from Moulin Roty, a very nice French brand, specialized in high-quality products for children (i.e. wood toys, educational toys). I really like the ones we bought, however I think it's probably very easy to make simple ones at home.

Cultural Thursdays: Grand Central Station and the Bermuda dancers

Panoramic view of the ceiling in the main concourse of Grand Central Station, by Brent Townshend

This morning I took P to the Grand Central Station. He loves trains and I needed to do some grocery shopping. Since there is this wonderful market in the station, I decided to make our "supermarket" experience funnier than usual. So after buying our fresh fish, vegetables and cheeses (Murray's cheese shop is a must), we went for a stroll in the station. 

First of all, we went, of course, to see some trains. Although P was very disappointed when I told him we weren't going to ride on one. Then we discovered this fantastic toy store called "Kidding around". They opened in Grand Central Station last October, but they've been in the West Village for 17 years. They carry a lot of European brands, wood toys, puppets, educational toys, board games. Very different from what we usually see around here. 

The reason I had actually thought about going to the Station with P, aside from his love for trains, was because there is an Annex Gallery of the MTA-Transit Museum, inside the Station. And the last time I had been there (unfortunately without the kids), they had a beautiful miniature train circuit there. I thought it was something permanent, but apparently it was just a temporary exhibit because it wasn't there anymore. Instead, they are now showing an exhibition of The Art of Posters. They were commissioned by the London Transport at the beginning of the 20th century and they were made by the best English artists and designers to promote the use of public transportation. If you are around, it's fun to check-them out.

When we were on our way out, admiring the sky painting on the ceiling of the main concourse (P is always mesmerized by that painting), we heard some music. So we followed the sound of the drums and there we were in the middle of a party promoting tourism in Bermuda. P loved it. This is New York, everyday is a new day, full of surprises waiting around the corner. 

Bermuda Gombey dancers (sorry for the bad quality, I only had my phone with me)

 

It's cold outside

The long weekend is almost over as is our extended vacation. Since it's freezing outside, we spent almost all the time indoor. Thank goodness Santa was very wised and brought lots of things to keep the boys entertained for long hours at home. 

After preparing breakfast and drinking some tea we read the brand new and first Brazilian newspaper for children: Joca. 

I've been in love with the brand Plan Toys since I first discovered it when F was a baby. The toys are just too cute (although a little pricey) not to buy them. My wish list is bigger than my kids' one. 

Wood or plastic?

I'm more of a "wood" person. If I could I would only buy wood toys for the kids. Usually the design is better, the colors look nicer, they are decorative and they are eco friendly. Nonetheless, it's true that they are a little bit more expensive and they don't come with lights and sounds, usually big attributes for our little ones. Besides you wouldn't have Legos or Playmobils, which are big hits here at home. Hence, the need of having both kind.

Look at this cute wood laptop I found today. Too bad it doesn't seem to be sold here in the U.S. (actually this is good news for my wallet). If you find it, please let us know!

I-Wood laptop by Donkey Products