Review: Shure wooden puzzles

Nico and I were out finishing up our Christmas shopping yesterday and stopped by Menard's to see what their Christmas displays were like. He always asks to look at the trucks at any store we go to, so we ended up window shopping down the toy aisle. We almost never buy anything (despite his best efforts to the contrary) but it's fun to look. He kept asking for different (big, expensive) toys which I was not willing to consider with Christmas a week away and his birthday three weeks after that. But then I saw a box of four wooden construction vehicle puzzles and I only debated for about thirty seconds before I picked it up and handed it to him. My family has always been really into puzzles and I'd love it if Nico turned out to be a puzzle kid. I gambled on the graphics piquing Nico's interest and it paid off big time.

We took the puzzles home and opened them and much to my delight, Nico decided they looked pretty cool and helped me assemble all four. He asked for them again tonight and did quite a bit of the assembly himself. I was impressed and thrilled with his concentration and his patience with them. I'm rather inordinately pleased with the puzzles, so I figured I'd do a review in case anyone else is looking for a gift for a construction-obsessed child (or just a kid who likes puzzles since the company makes them in other themes).

The brand is Shure, which I had never heard of, but the quality is right up there with Melissa and Doug, our go-to educational / wooden toy source. They're available on Amazon, but listed for $20 whereas I paid $10 for our set.

Things I love about the puzzles:

1. The art is really great - kid-friendly yet accurate and detailed enough so as to not be over-simple or cartoony.
2. At 24 pieces each, these seem to be just the right level of challenge for a mid-range toddler. (Nico will be three in January.) The pieces are sized well for little hands and fit together easily enough that Nico can assemble them himself once he gets the alignment right.
3. The pieces are all made of wood and the puzzle graphics seem well-adhered to the backing. I think if I let Nico try to take them apart he'd bend / crack the pegs, but I do that part for him right now anyway. He can work thick cardboard puzzles, too, but I feel like the wood will hold up great over time.
4. The pieces of each puzzle are marked on the back with a shape so you don't have to guess which puzzle each piece goes to if they get mixed up.

5. They came in a sturdy wooden storage box with a slide-on lid. I wish the box was a tiny bit deeper and that the dividers went all the way up to the lid, because the pieces will mix a little bit if the box gets tipped up on its side while closed, but this is a very small inconvenience.

The box was shrink-wrapped with a thick paper label thing that had pictures of the four puzzles and a helpful note that it might be a good idea to cut out and save the pictures to refer to later. I think I would've come up with this idea on my own, but I'm not sure and so it was appreciated. I cut the picture of the four puzzles out and laminated it, and I'm probably going to use super-sticky double stick tape to attach it to the box lid. This way we won't lose it and it'll help remind Nico what's inside the box. I also used a Sharpie to draw the shape in the corner of each picture that corresponds to the shape used to mark the puzzle pieces. This way I don't have to try to figure out which pieces go to which picture when Nico chooses which puzzle he wants to work.

Impulse buys are always a little risky, but I'm so glad I bought these. I predict we'll get a lot of use out of them!

DISCLOSURE: I purchased the product mentioned and received no compensation for writing this post. The words and opinions in this review are my own.

Review: KidKraft Vintage Kitchen

When I was a kid, I loved my toy kitchen set. It was three pieces -- a stove, dishwasher / sink, and fridge -- made of some kind of lightweight metal. My cousins and I played with that set until we'd mostly outgrown it and it literally fell apart. I've known since Nico was born that I wanted to get him a play kitchen of his own once he was old enough, and I knew that I preferred a wooden set over a plastic one. I wanted something nice and durable, but didn't have hundreds of dollars to spend. I asked for recommendations from friends who have purchased kitchens for their kids, and several suggested the KidKraft Vintage Kitchen.

I had a $100 voucher to use on any of the CSN Stores sites and luckily they carry the KidKraft line. I did some research on my own and found that the KidKraft products get very good reviews online and of all the one-piece kitchens I looked at, the Vintage Kitchen was the most spacious. I actually preferred the two-piece Retro Kitchen, but since it was only available in pink, I went with the red Vintage Kitchen after all. It was intended to be Nico's main gift for his first birthday in January, but we decided to give it to him a little early so that a friend's visiting toddler could play with it just after Christmas.

There weren't many negative reviews of the product online and the ones I did see mostly focused on the difficulty of assembly. The kitchen does have a lot of pieces and a lot of bits that needed to be attached to other bits by little teeny tiny screws.


It took MB about two hours on Christmas Eve to put the whole thing together, but there wasn't anything particularly difficult about it. Once it was together, I was really happy with the quality and size of the kitchen, and I actually liked it more in person than I did in the pictures online.


One of the girls I know who bought the kitchen for her son recommended getting baskets to keep food and dishes in since the cabinets are pretty big and don't have a lot of little shelves. We had a few of those small plastic crates made to hold CDs lying around, and it turns out they're the perfect size to fit in all the compartments.


Our friend's son went right to the kitchen when he arrived and started placing plastic pots and pans on the stove and stirring with little spoons. Nico is still a bit young to pretend to cook, but he loves opening and closing all the doors and taking the food and dishes out of the baskets. I know he's going to get years of play out of the kitchen, and I'm so glad we chose it.



DISCLOSURE: I received a $100 voucher in exchange for a teaser post on my main blog containing a linked keyword selected by CSN Stores. The choice of product as well as the words and opinions in this review are my own.

Review: Melissa & Doug mini bead maze

I had $70 to spend on any of CSN Stores' sites as long as I used it all on one order, so after picking a few kitchen things that we needed (pizza pan, rolling pin, steak knife set), I had a bit of money left. I decided to spend it on a Melissa & Doug mini bead maze for Nico. He's just recently developed the dexterity for toys with smaller parts, and I thought he'd like it. The bead maze arrived just in time for his half-birthday, which was a nice coincidence. The packaging said it was for ages 1 and up, but with supervision I don't see any reason why a younger baby can't safely enjoy it. The maze is up to the standards of quality and durability that can be expected from Melissa & Doug toys, with bright colors and fun shapes to attract a baby's interest. The beads slide easily on the coated wires and are just the right size for little fingers.



One of the reviewers on the product page mentioned that he took the maze out to restaurants for his kid, since the suction cups on the bottom allow it to stick to the table. I thought that was a pretty brilliant idea, so we took the maze along yesterday when we went out for a late lunch. We sat Nico in the restaurant high chair and stuck the maze on the table in front of him. He played with it happily, and the suction cups were strong enough that even when he yanked on it, they held tight. The maze is compact enough that I can toss it in his diaper bag, but big enough to keep him entertained. I think Nico gives it five stars!





DISCLOSURE: I received this product for free in exchange for a teaser post on my main blog containing a linked keyword selected by CSN Stores. The words and opinions in this review are my own.

My first review, with a great giveaway!

Back in December when I was super pregnant with Nico, I received a cool PR pitch. I was offered the chance to pick and review a baby product from CSN Stores' Baby & Kids site. By that point we had already amassed a metric ton of baby gear, so I decided to choose a toy he could grow into. It was a hard choice, because the site had lots of nice toys -- educational toys, toys to ride on, blocks, just about everything you'd want for a little kid. I finally chose this neat wooden truck. One of my favorite toys as a kid was my classic Tonka dump truck, so I really loved the idea of getting Nico his first dump truck. It was just an added bonus that the colors matched his nursery.

First point in the truck's favor:  it looks great. When the truck arrived, I set it in the open-front box on the end table in our living room, waiting until I had a chance to get it out for inspection. While it was there, my cousin stopped by with her two boys, and the three-year-old was instantly drawn to the truck, like the proverbial moth to a flame. We got it out of the box for him, and he spent some time hauling the dog's ball around the living room floor. Since he played with it, the truck has returned to the end table, where it has attracted the attention of just about everyone who has seen it. And who can blame people...it's a handsome truck!


Second point:  It's really well-made, something I was hoping for when I selected it. Lots of toys claim to be "heavy duty," but one never knows when choosing something online. Wood construction, metal axles, and real rubber wheels make for a sturdy toy that I expect will withstand the abuses of a little boy's play quite well. My brother-in-law even examined it and proclaimed that he thought it would've survived him as a child -- high praise for any toy, believe me.

Finally, the third point:  the truck is manufactured by Wonderworld from environmentally friendly materials. According to the box, the toy is constructed from old plantation-grown rubber trees that no longer produce latex. The production waste is then used to make particle board, fuel, incense sticks, and to cultivate mushrooms. The truck is finished with water-based paint and boxed in recycled packaging. So my kid gets a great toy while the world gets treated gently. What's not to love?



And there's more! As a part of this review, I get to give away a $40 shopping spree to any of the CSN Stores (and they sell just about everything). I've heard lots of awful (and sometimes hilarious) stories of terrible PR outreach from companies to bloggers lately, but my contact at CSN has been fabulous throughout the process. He even agreed to extend this prize offer to Canadians when I told him that about half of my blog friends live north of the border.

To be entered to win the $40 CSN shopping spree (shipping included), leave a comment on this post and tell me which online CSN store you'd like to visit with the prize money. Residents of the US and Canada only, please. The winner will have to provide his or her contact info directly to CSN. The contest is open until May 31 at midnight CST, at which point I will use random.org to select a winner.




DISCLOSURE:  I received this product for free in exchange for a teaser post on my main blog containing a linked keyword selected by CSN Stores. The words and opinions in this review are my own.


WINNER!



Congrats, bibliophile81! I'll send you an email with info on how to claim your prize :)