'Tis the Season
Creative Crayons
Here’s an idea I can get behind: making something useful out ofthose old broken crayons lying around the house. With Crayola’s Melt-N-Mold Factory,kids can transform their old drawing tools into rings, spinning tops and othershapes. The toy is labeled for age 6 and up, but older kids like mine get anostalgic kick out of crayons, and they’ll also be better at manipulating thewax—and waiting for 10 minutes while it melts. The kit includes two molds butmore can be purchased separately for around $4 each.
To buy: Crayola Melt ‘N Mold Factory, $35.
A Worldly Watch
Not only is this colorful timepiece super-cool, it’s also good for the planet. A solar panel inside the waterproof rim makes batteries unnecessary—reducing toxic landfill. Just one hour of sunlight will keep the watch ticking for three months—something my kids are eager to test. Plus, a portion of the purchase price goes to Table for Two, a non-profit that delivers school meals to children in Africa and Asia.
To buy: Q&Q SmileSolar Watch, $40.
iPod/Smartphone Accessories
We gave in to iPods at the last birthday. The boys love accessorizing their distract-a-nators with add-ons like this Balloon Speaker by Yuen’to Design. It comes in five colors, plugs into any MP3 player and recharges with a USB connection for four hours of playing time. They also like this cardboard Smartphone Projector because it throws your phone’s image up onto the wall, and you get to build it yourself. But their
hands-down favorite is the Battery Buddy, a cute little power source that can fully recharge a smartphone or MP3 player five times before requiring a charge itself.
To buy: (1) Balloon Speaker, $45; (2) Smartphone Projector, $27; (3) Battery Buddy, $50.
Remote Control Machine Kit
What’s better than a remote-control toy? A remote-control vehicle that you built yourself. My budding engineers (a mom can hope) are looking forward to building 10 different machines—from a bulldozer to a robotic arm—with the three motors and 182 building pieces in this detailed kit. An infrared remote control allows three creations to move at a time. Consider this one for the girls too: The world needs more women engineers!
To buy: Thames & Kosmos Remote Control Machines, $65.
Bow Blaster
Blame The Hunger Games, is all I can say. Apparently blasting the business out of your pals in the backyard isn’t enough. The latest must-have toy of the season, according to my boys, uses a bow action to spit out those foam Nerf bullets. (Uh, Nerf? Universal Mom Request: Could you please use the same bullets in at least a few of your weapons? The ones I trip over in the basement never seem to be the right fit for the gun at hand. And believe me, we have an arsenal down there.)
To buy: Nerf Mega ThunderBow Blaster, $36.
A Boxed-Set of Books
An addictive literary series really is the gift that keeps on giving. Milo and Finn are almost through the Harry Potter books, so we’re looking for the next big thing. They weren’t always bookworms, but before Harry, it was the Wimpy Kid series that got them hooked (eternally grateful, Jeff Kinney!). I’m banking on one of these sets to keep up the momentum.
To buy: (1) J.R.R. Tolkien 4-Book Boxed Set, $22; (2) Percy Jackson, 5-Book Boxed Set, $22; (3) Chronicles of Narnia Boxed Set, $31; (4) The 9th Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, $8.
