Toys & Play

In my house, we’ve been hearing a lot of complaints from our son lately that his toys are “boring” (and this is after the influx of new Christmas gifts!). Despite the fact that he hasn’t played inside at a friends house in going on ten months, he seems to have a photographic memory of his friends’ supposedly superior toy collections.

If you’ve ever made a blanket fort at home, you probably didn’t have an instruction manual. Forts are usually created ad hoc, with whatever you happen to have on hand. But designers like to get in on the blanket fort tradition, and none other than IKEA itself released patterns for blanket forts, made in the style of its furniture assembly pamphlets, and they look like they’d be fun to try.

While 2021 has quite a bit of hope on the horizon (vaccines! reopenings!) the present reality for my family is still the cautious lockdown and quarantine we observed for most of 2020. That plus the extra-gray Ohio weather is tough for my kids’ exercise and energy. They get outside as much as possible, but I also entered 2021 determined to create more active play opportunities for them indoors.

Sooner or later, we all have to learn how to tidy, at least if we want to be able to find our keys each morning and get along with a roommate or partner. But how do you teach kids to tidy—and maybe even enjoy it? As it turns out, there’s a cute board game that can help.Simply called “Tidy Up: Sort Around the House,” the game features a family of mice who live in a four-room house.

Hey! 2020 is almost over! We are so ready. I don’t usually go big for New Year’s Eve, but this year feels different. Priya Parker, author of The Art of Gathering (and the mother of two young children), has advice that I have been clinging to. She urges us to plan holidays and occasions around a question: “What is it that I need most?” This New Year’s Eve, here’s what I think we need: catharsis.

This year won’t be the one I finally get to see the Natural History Museum’s origami tree, but I was still eager to read about this year’s theme. The museum is calling the 2020 tree ‘Cranes and Colors,” and it features 1,000 paper cranes as a symbol of peace and good wishes as the city continues to face the COVID-19 crisis.When I reached out to the museum to request photos of this year’s tree, I learned a little more about the origami tree tradition.

This year sales of activity books have taken off like never before thanks to all the time that kids are spending at home. It makes sense: They’re a great alternative to screentime or plain old coloring books, and with most priced under $20, they’re an affordable form of entertainment too. Cubby gathered a list of our favorite picks and tapped the expertise of a couple activity book authors, Erin Jang, the author of You, Me, We!

Books are one of our most beloved holiday gifts to give in any year, but in 2020, we’re strategically shopping for books that will crack a smile. Because isn’t giving our masked-up, perpetually hand-washing kids the gift of joyful books the least we can do? Cubby asked booksellers, librarians, teachers, authors, and parents across the country for their top recommendations of books that grab emotions, spark smiles, and leave kids with their hearts feeling full.

From new twists on blocks and puzzles to design-minded collectables, independent toy store owners have a pulse on what their young clients love. And with real humans at the helm, each store has its own specialty and point of view—meaning, find the shop that speaks to your child, and you’ve got a curated selection of items to please them. We reached out to seven independent toy shops across the country to see what they’d recommend for holiday gifts for 2020.

For my family, the Year of the Hike started on New Year’s Day. After having been cooped up for the winter break, my husband, son, and I bundled up and headed out for a walk in the woods on January 1st, despite the frigid temperatures. Up until then, longer walks had been a bit much for our son, but at almost 4 1/2 he was able to tackle two miles.They were not fast miles, but they were just the thing to cure an energetic boy of his wiggles and two weary parents of their cabin fever.

There’s nothing cuter than a kid who likes to help in the kitchen. (Except for maybe dogs who like to help in the kitchen, but they’re usually not all that useful.) Whether it’s a toddler who wants to stand on a learning tower to watch or a tween who’s trying to master the art of at-home nachos, we love it! And we want to keep encouraging them! Hence this gift guide, which has fun food- and cooking-themed gifts for kids of all ages.

Active play is one-hundred percent a need for us. Particularly in California, where we’ve had wildfires keeping us indoors, I know so many parents of young toddlers that are struggling to find the right things to do with their kids in small apartments that don’t leave everyone bored, stir-crazy, and counting the hours until bedtime by the end of day.

Playing games is more than just—wait for it—fun and games. That’s part of why board games and puzzles are experiencing a renaissance. They invite creative and strategic thinking, teamwork and cooperation, and of course, an opportunity to sit down and connect with other people—a welcome break from the usual Netflix/Hulu circuit. The hard part is actually picking out a game among a seemingly endless sea of options.

Handmade Charlotte is one of the OG craft blogs. Founder Rachel Faucett started blogging in 2009 when she launched an Etsy shop selling handmade kids clothing. “I wanted to connect with other creatives and showcase thoughtful design for children,” says Rachel. A decade later, the Etsy shop is long gone, but her blog is the destination for kid fun.

Calling all witches, phantoms, and pumpkin kings and queens: we’re now one month away from Halloween. How we’ll celebrate the spooky season this year will look much different due to COVID-19 quarantine, but that doesn’t mean All Hallow’s Eve is canceled. One cozy and safe activity to partake in? Strolling down memory lane with Disney+’s roster of nostalgic Halloween movies.

My mom was always the mom who made the most out of a tough situation: She did a lot with a little. My sisters and I were the kids who looked forward to Halloween but couldn’t afford new costumes. So for four consecutive years, I wore the same white dress, which my mother kept reinventing as a new costume. I was an angel, Cleopatra, a ghost, and a bride (a very ’90s thing to do). We were the family who drove out to the more affluent neighborhoods to trick-or-treat.

Earlier this summer when it became clear that Halloween would look a lot different this year, crafty parents began to brainstorm a way to save the annual trick-or-treat tradition—and the socially-distant candy chute was born. We first spotted the idea through YouTubers Jaimie and Jay of The Wicked Makers, but quickly the concept exploded with dozens of DIY ideas across the country (Google “candy chute” and you will be amazed at the creativity).

Halloween celebrations will look different this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, with parties being replaced in favor of wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio> DIY gurus Jaimie and Jay of The Wicked Makers specialize in Halloween props and decor, showing off their projects on their YouTube channel.

From the "ring of neglect" to the brainy workbook Chrissy Teigen loves.

Last year, our pumpkins had been sitting on the front porch, unadorned, for weeks. My 6-year-old had been pestering me every day to carve hers into a cat and I had been avoiding it — mostly because I didn’t want to deal with sticking my arm into sticky, slimy pumpkin guts to make way for carving. Then I saw a pumpkin cleaning hack on a Facebook video that inspired me to put it to the test and finally carve pumpkins with my kids. The results were surprisingly delightful.

Got marshmallows?