Gift guide: keeping kids quiet

by Melissa Summers (Subscribe to Melissa Summers's posts) Dec 1st 2005 12:06PM

I love this gift guide in the New York Times today (see sometimes the Times actually likes families). Michelle Slatalla has insight into gift shopping for children I can relate to. I can also relate to her ideas about parenting, a parenting magazine with articles like "Wipe Yourself!"? Come here Ms Slatalla, it's make out time. For gift giving, she's less concerned about the trendy and more concerned with items which will keep children quiet for extended periods of time. Yes!

She admits babies are hard to shop for since they like to sleep ("Boring") and cry ("which you don't want to encourage"). But babies also like to eat so she recommends the KidCo Food Mill. For kids 3-6 and up she says you must avoid anything advertised on television that makes noise or that stains. She recommends the Magnetic Play Theater series, it's small, unbreakable and kids can set it up on their own (she repeats: "On their own") in seconds. For kids 4 to 10 she says the Fibracolor 100 marker set is versatile enough to entertain kids in this wide age range.

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Mike Wanrinski 12-18-2005 @ 6:34PM

I am giving some great new action figure gadgets called Shockinis from www.shockertoys.com to my younger family members! You can get them direct or at your local comic shops and specialty stores. They are a system "world" Of mini action figures that are all interchangable and kids can create different characters with! These are very hot and I'm suprised I haven't seen them in the hot toy list, they might be to new!

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