What are the most-wanted toys on kids’ holiday gift lists for 2011? Best to ask the experts — the kids themselves!

And that’s just what The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis does to produce its annual Top 10 list of kid-tested, kid-approved toys.

Each fall, the museum store invites children to test the newest toys, then vote on their favourites for the upcoming holiday season.

Can you begin to imagine how much fun that would be for the staff? I’m so jealous. :)

Here is the list of this year’s winners — I’ve sorted them by recommended age group — all available from The Children’s Museum Store or online:

• Barbie “Jam with Me” Rock Star Guitar (Ages 3+)
  Jam with Barbie with this toy electric guitar. Connect your MP3 player to jam along with your own tunes, take the guitar challenge and play along with Barbie, or just freeplay to create your own awesome songs!
  $39.95

• Water Wizard (Ages 3+)
  The water wizard lets you draw and create over and over again using only water! As the screen dries the images disappear leaving it ready for another amazing creation.
  $19.95

• Barbie Giant Activity Floor Pad (Ages 3+)
  This complete activity set includes crayons, marker, paints, paintbrush, scissors and gluestick along with 40 fun fashion activities!
  $14.95

• Flying Turtle (Ages 3-12)
  The best toy for active play, kids have a blast zipping around on the flying turtle! But since it is entirely kid powered, they get a ton of great exercise at the same time!
  $79.95

• Playmobil Pirates Prison with Ship (Ages 4+)
  This fun Pirate themed set from Playmobil includes large pirate ship, small row boat, island, prison, and all the people and accessories you need to create an amazing imaginary world.
  $59.95

• Darda Fireball Climb (Ages 4+)
  The World’s Fastest Motorized Cars! This race car and track set is completely kid powered! No batteries or electricity required. Just wind the car and watch it zip through the loops and twists!
  $39.95

• OgoBild Pod (Ages 6+)
  A brilliant combination of active and constructive play. Ogo Bild Pods lets your child build giant structures like bouncing balls and forts.
  $39.95

• Perplexus Original (Ages 6+)
  Perplexus Original is a bendy, trendy, can’t put it down challenge! With plenty of twists, turns, and barriers between start and finish, this puzzle ball will leave you perplexed!
  $24.95

• Laser Pegs 3D Lite Board (Ages 7+)
  This is the Ultimate Laser Pegs Kit – the world’s only lighted construction set! The 3D Lite Board gives you 40 power connectors on one board so you can build anything you can imagine.
  $85.95

• FyrFlyz (Ages 8+)
  Create amazing light shows by spinning, swinging and twirling your FyrFlyz.
  $11.95

Adults in need of holiday gift ideas for the children in their lives can make purchases from the Kid-Tested, Kid-Approved list and The Museum Store holiday toy catalogue both in the store or online at www.childrensmuseum.org/kid-tested.

What I like about most of the toys on this list — and most of the toys you’ll find carried by most museum gift shops, come to that — is that they’re both fun and educational, and especially good for stimulating the creativity of young minds. And most of the toys on this list would be fun for siblings to play with together, even where there are a couple of years between the kids in age.

Also very cool for parents’ on-going expenses, a number of these items are totally kid-powered and run on imagination — no batteries required — like that awesome Darda Fireball Climb race track!

Of course I’d love to see a most-wanted toy list where and fewer of the toys that are pointed at a particular gender (I’m looking at you, Barbie!). A losing battle, there, do you think? Okay, okay, the politically-correct Grinch is moving on…

Stay tuned for more great out of the ordinary gift ideas for kids — and for us big kids, too!

Those last precious days of summer always make me feel nostalgic. Remember the feeling, from when you were a kid? The evenings are cooler; dusk comes on earlier; and when you run across the dew-wet lawn in bare feet, it feels almost like you’re flying!

Remember that?

The only other feeling that comes close is flying high on a swing — and those bottom-flattening playground swings just don’t have the right Huck Finn
or Tarzan feel to them. Not compared to a good old-fashioned tree swing!

“Kids don’t need a fancy jungle gym to have fun,” says Roger Cook of This Old House. “Just make them a simple seat, then hang it from a sturdy tree.”

The tree swing shown in TOH’s how-to video is inspired by the old-fashioned rope swings, but easier and safer for kids to use because it has a seat attached. Assuming you’ve got a tree handy, this is quite a quick family project. Download the templates for the seat here (PDF) and get creative! All the materials you need are available from a local hardware or building supplies store.

No time, in these last days before school goes back in?

You can always go with the classic tire swing — an old tire on a rope — or a purchased Disc Swing, hung from a sturdy tree branch.

(And if that tree branch happens to hang over a swimming hole down at the cottage? All the better!)

But don’t forget — safety first! Melissa over at Le Top has some wise words to say about things to consider in hanging a tree swing, no matter what kind of swing you choose. A strong healthy tree branch is the most important factor, and bigger kids will need a much stronger tree for their swing than a tiny toddler, obviously.

Key? Have an adult do a weight-test on your tree swing before you turn the kids loose for some high-flying summertime fun, and use a good new rope!

Photo by Bug-E

Is the baby awake or asleep?

Should we tiptoe around or is it okay to crank up the tunes?

Ask the nursery doorhanger!

There’s nothing like a simple sign for the nursery door to solve the communication problem, and make sure the baby will get his nap time.

Felt wool pillows embroidered with a sweet bunny face hang from stretchable loops that will fit any size of door knob or hook, while the swivel hardware that lets you flip the sign without taking it off the door. Think of the standard hotel’s “do not disturb” door-hanger… only, you know, all soft and cute for a baby.

DIY idea for crafters who hate to sew:
Use a hot-glue gun to stick together a couple squares of felt or fleece (any type of fabric that won’t ravel at the edges), leaving one edge open to stuff in a little fibrefill soft-toy stuffing or quilt batting to give it a bit of a poof. Use purchased appliques or fabric paint to make the bunny faces.

Do you remember those folded paper fortune-tellers from back in the old school yard? This romantic version of the origami toy is at Colloco Homeware & Gifts (UK). It’s both a toy and an art object — and maybe an imaginative 3-d greeting card for Valentine’s Day?

There was always one kid in the crowd who knew how to fold one. At our school, it was Judy (who grew up to make her living from an interesting balance of crafts and computers). She wouldn’t tell anyone else how to do it, and drove us all nuts — you know how 10-year-old girls can be! — but I picked up a fortune teller that she’d dropped, took it home, and dissected it carefully to figure out how it all worked.

You want to know how to make one? No secrets here!
Here’s a video I found that gives particularly clear instructions for how to fold an origami fortune-teller:

At recess or lunch break, or sometimes in a slow-moving math class, Judy would pull out a neat square of folded-up notebook paper from her back pocket and open its corners to slip in her index fingers and thumbs. The other girls in our group would gather around…

First one, then another of us would “pick a number” — the number of letters in the name of the boy we liked best, most often — and Judy would open and close the paper fortune teller, one direction and then the other, while counting down the numbers.

Well, here’s how Wikipedia explains the rules:

The player first asks a question to the person holding the fortune teller. This question will be answered by the device. The holder then asks for a number and/or color. Once the number and/or color has been chosen, the holder uses his/her fingers to switch between the two groups of colors/numbers that occupy the inside area of the device. The holder switches these positions a specific number of times, which can be given by the amount of letters in the color selected, the number originally chosen, or the sum of both. Once the holder has finished switching the positions of the fortune teller, the player chooses one of the flaps that has been revealed. These flaps often have colors and/or numbers on them, and the chosen flap often is the same as the color/number originally chosen. The holder then lifts the flap and reads the fortune that is underneath. Any one of these steps may be repeated to suit the user.

Remember it now?
I’ve been thinking a lot about fun grown-up crafty versions of old schoolyard games and toys lately, so we can expect to take a few more little trips down memory lane in the next few weeks. What other cool homemade toys and impromptu games do you remember, from when you were a kid?

Remember when hankies were made of fabric — for every day use, not just “for show” or for special occasions like weddings? When I discovered the handkerchief craft tutorials at Bumblebee Linens, it was an instant trip down Memory Lane…

As a small child, I learned to iron (a skill I seldom practice these days!) on Dad’s big cotton handkerchiefs. More interesting, however, were the hankie dolls and animals that my mother showed me how to make when I was confined to bed with chicken pox (or possibly mumps, one of those childhood illnesses, anyway) for what seemed like weeks…

The handkerchief-craft tutorials at Bumblebee Linens include a mouse, an angel and the cutest little Easter bunny you could ever imagine making from a rolled-up and folded piece of embroidered linen.

I distinctly remember making a handkerchief mouse from one of my father’s big plaid hankies, and feeling slightly outraged that he didn’t have any that were more appropriately mouse-coloured. There was a doll, too — just big enough to fit in the palm of my young hand — but I’ve long since forgotten how to make it, and haven’t yet found the instructions anywhere…

At the moment, though, hankering for spring, I’m all about this handkerchief bunny –

All you need is a hanky (or a hanky-sized piece of lightweight fabric), a length of ribbon, a handful of cotton balls, and a needle and thread — but don’t worry about the needle and thread, if sewing’s not your thing or you want to create an Easter Bunny as a project with your kids, because that’s just to fasten on the little cotton-ball tail. (The instructions say to pin the tail on the rabbit, actually, but you might as well take a couple of quick in-and-out stitches with thread and not worry about having a stray pin falling out on the carpet — not that this is something that would ever have happened to us!)

Full instructions for making a handkerchief bunny — with step-by-step photographs — are at Bumblebeelinens.com Hankie Bunny tutorial.

Enjoy!

I saw a promo for this SpongeBob SquarePants camera on a CNet video round-up of new tech toys, and the guy had it hanging around his neck on a cord.

Hey, I thought, who couldn’t use a camera on a cord (less fumbling for a camera in a pocket, for those spur-of-the-moment candid shots)?

But I’ve looked and looked and looked, and I don’t see a cord mentioned anywhere in the specs or ads.
Disappointment!

More second thoughts — a bright yellow camera in the form of a cartoon character might be a bit noticeable to pull off the truly subtle snapping of blackmail-worthy pics.

And there’s nothing subtle at all about the shutter sound-effects that come with — you get to pick your choice to suit the mood: Marimba, Ukulele, Foghorn blast, or Seagulls squawking their heads off.

On the plus side, there’s the fun of slipping off SpongeBob’s pants when you want to reveal the USB thingie, to plug in and download your photographs to computer.

It takes photos up to 640 x 480, which is plenty good enough for the aforementioned candid snaps you might want to embarrass folks with on Facebook or your blog. (“You’ll do my weekend shift for me, George, won’t you? Oh, lookee-lookee who ol’ SpongeBob saw together at the club last night!”) Not that we would. Ever.

But, c’mon, it’s SpongeBob.

And the camera’s cheap enough for butterfingers like me — which means the price is not out of line for kids, if you yourself are more into the suave DSLR sort of thing. Running $26 at Amazon, with some serious discounts — even some that are under $10 — from third-party vendors…

Sadly, however, Memorex is only shipping its SpongeBob SquarePants to customers in the US at the moment.

And no, Hello Kitty is not a fair substitute!

If someone on your “social obligations” Christmas gift list has a little girl… and that little girl is a fan of Hannah Montana… but, truth be told, you really don’t like her parents all that much… here’s the perfect (slightly evil) gift.

For about ten bucks, you can pick up a singing Hannah Montana collector doll.

She comes with a snazzy outfit that the kid can put on and take off her until it falls apart, a doll display stand that someone’s bound to step on, and a delightfully tacky Hannah Montana “keepsake” in a convincing gift box.

Apparently, batteries actually are included, too!

But don’t let that fool you — this toy has genuine potential to ruin a parent’s holiday.

Because the Hannah Montana doll only knows one tune — she’ll sing Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree until every adult in the house wants to smash the doll with a case of Tylenol bottles.

How perfect is that?

Delight the child.
Annoy the parents.
And most likely get yourself off the hook for giving anything to that particular family next year!

Really, it’s the next best thing to giving the kid a drum kit for Christmas…

So, you want your kid to have a bedroom that’s decorated to match his dreams — but you don’t want to spend much money?

Sensible!

Especially if the kiddy’s wished-for bedroom decor is based on the latest from Disney or Pixar or whatever video game is hot in the school yard this week…

What to do?
Well, here’s one incredibly frugal solution to that decorating dilemma…

Block Posters lets you send any image from your computer (up to 1 MB size file), slice it up, print it out, and turn it into a giant wall poster — free!

Check the gallery of other people’s posters (like the lovely Nemo wall art that Phil made for his young daughter’s bedroom) for inspiring ideas like these:

• Leave the white edges of the paper on for a cool tile mosaic effect;
• Decoupage the pieces onto a room divider screen;
• Frame each paper tile separately in black and hang them really close together to look like a piece of stained glass;
• Go black-and-white or monchrome for an high-toned artsy look;
• Blow up a smaller image for a cool blocky pixelated effect (turn a nature shot into modern camouflage, anyone?);
• Posterize yourself!

Okay, maybe your children don’t really want your face looming down at them from the wall above their beds while they’re sleeping at night… but you could do a nice family portrait, or a favourite pop star, or a role-model athlete, or even a screenshot from a favourite game…

Your imagination is the only limit!

Or, to be factual, about 8 feet x 10 feet is the limit, finished poster size-wise.
But you don’t really need a larger poster than that, do you? Unless you’re making a mural to decorate a great room… hmm….

Yes, that’s what I said: it’s a knitted baby hat that’s made to look like your Thanksgiving turkey. After the stuffing and roasting has happened, fortunately.

Here’s the story:

Sara knitted a turkey hat for her little guy, 2 years ago, when he was just a wee newborn. Okay, we can figure that the stress of the holiday season and childbirth and a baby in the NICU and all…

“I may have been slightly unhinged at that point,” she says.
Granted.

So last year, did she knit little Isaac a sleek toque or a jaunty newboy cap?

Mais, non! It was the Thanksgiving turkey all over again, one size larger and in a different brand of yarn for a whiter, brighter tip of the drumstick… And now you can knit one of your very own! Sara’s offering her original Jive Turkey Baby Hat pattern — free — over at Going Crafty.

Guess the tag line of her blog:

Hahahahaha!
I love it.

Going Crafty seems to be taking a nap right now, but the weird turkey craft thing is working its magic on me…

Oh, I’m not going to size up the pattern and knit myself a chapeau avec drumsticks for the holiday season, but doesn’t it make you wonder what other wild and whimsical turkey-inspired crafts are begging to be discovered?

p.s. Are we amazed that baby Isaac, now one of the world’s most interesting toddlers, is “very anti-hat”? Even when dressed up as a porcupine? Go figure.

Photo: eyeliam

True, it can cost a lot to give candy to all the neighbourhood kids on Halloween night. But if money’s tight, and you simply haven’t got the budget to buy off the pranksters (some of whom really will splatter your home with rotten eggs — or worse — if you don’t “shell out” ), there are a couple of things you can do to save money.

First, here’s what not to do:

1. You could be really careful with the candy hand-out — giving each child one single lollipop, say. Stretch the budget by being kind of, well, stingy.

But don’t you recall what it’s like to be a little kid on Halloween? — the excitement (even before the sugar high kicks in) of staying up and going out after dark, running around the neighbourhood with your friends, actually taking candy from strangers!! Don’t go raining on that parade. It’s not easy being a little kid, you know. Give ‘em the candy.

2. You could turn off all the lights and pretend you’re not home.

This is totally NOT recommended, however, especially in some of the tougher neighbourhoods — and believe me, this is the voice of experience you hear! In fact, if you live in a really really really tough part of town (as I did for quite some time), you want to make sure you’ve got really really really good treats. And lots of them. You’ll also be wise to turn a blind eye if some of the kids turn their jackets inside out and come back a second time, pretending to be someone else, so they can get a second helping. These kids don’t get much sweetness in their lives… Shelling out on candy is much cheaper for you, in the long run, than shelling out to buy new glass for your windows.

3. You could stock up on off-brand mystery candy.

In fact, as I was ranting in the first part of this series, there’s a lot of wacky advice out there that tells you to “Save money on treats to hand out at the door by picking up cheap gum and chips at the dollar store.” Again, this is not such a good plan.

Think about this:

How come that Bargain Candy is so cheap?

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) issued consumer advisory, earlier this month, warning the public “not to consume, distribute, or sell the Sherwood Brands Pirate’s Gold Milk Chocolate Coins described below. This product is being recalled due to positive test results for melamine conducted by the CFIA.”

The affected product, Sherwood Brands Pirate’s Gold Milk Chocolate Coins, is sold in 840g containers containing 240 pieces per container bearing UPC 0 36077 11240 7 and lot code 1928S1… sold nationally through Costco stores and may also have been sold in bulk packages or as individual pieces at various dollar and bulk stores across Canada.

Just one example. (And those gold-foil-covered chocolate coins were my favourite thing, too!) Fact is, if the candy is cheap, the manufacturers have been cutting costs somewhere along the line, and that generally means moving production to countries with less strict health and labour codes, or buying their ingredients there at least.

So, is it worth saving a bit of money, to give children the kind of candy that you wouldn’t feel good about giving to your own child? Of course not.

Stay away from the discount candy and look for brand-name products made in a country whose environmental and health standards are a known quantity, I’d suggest. You may end up paying a bit more — but there are reasonable ways to cut your costs.

• Chewing gum, Chiclets, lollipops and suckers, or those tiny bags of potato chips are often the least-expensive treats on offer — but take along a calculator to the store (if you’re as bad at basic math as I am) and do the figuring-out, to be sure: Divide the price of a bag of treats by the number of kids you can serve with it, to get the cost per kid — see what treat choices will give the best bang for your buck.
• Check the flyers for specials, and buy larger-sized packages if it gets you a better deal — you can always tuck any leftovers into lunch bags, in the weeks after Halloween.
• Buy candy in bulk, if that’s the best bargain — but do buy from a reputable store and do choose only those candies that come already individually wrapped, preferably in sealed wrappers. No, it’s not great for the environment, all that extra waste packaging, but no sensible parent wants their child to be given a fistful of unwrapped candy from an unknown source.

And don’t put it off a moment longer, if you haven’t bought your Halloween treats yet! Last minute shopping, when the shelves are getting empty in the stores, is the surest way to end up spending more than you want to spend or you have in your budget.

Oh, and don’t eat all the candies yourself before the kids show up at the door. But that part goes without saying, right?

Women’s magazines, radio phone-in shows, all over the Web… I’ve been catching a whole lot of variations on the same thrifty theme. And if your family has decided to try to save money on the whole Halloween trip, you may have been noticing this too.

Photo: Mozo Man

We won’t embarrass any major media outlets by naming names, and I haven’t quoted the words exactly, but the substance of these “top 3″ frugal Halloween tips is spooned out by more than one source this season — and I’ve got serious doubts.

Here’s the kind of thing they want you to do:

1. Costume the kids as homeless people — it doesn’t get cheaper than that, when you can send them out around the neighbourhood in last year’s jacket and their oldest patched jeans;
2. Decorate your home and yard with everyday items and almost-trash, like leftover candle stubs and toilet-paper ghosts;
3. Save money on treats to hand out at the door by picking up cheap gum and chips at the dollar store.

Huh! Well, those tips just don’t work for me — and I’ll tell you why:

Poverty ain’t no Halloween costume.

“Costume the kids as homeless people”?

Well, leaving aside the fact that Junior might be scarred for life by wearing his own clothes as a Halloween costume… doesn’t it just seem wrong somehow to dress up as a homeless person in order to get free candy? Anyway, a big part of the whole point of dressing up and going door-to-door for treats is to amuse the neighbours. And they’ve seen your kids in grubbies already: so where’s the old folks’ treat in that?

Do it cheap, sure, but do it right.

One of the best things about Halloween is that it’s a night to let fantasy run free… So instead of money, why not spend a bit of creativity? Sometimes those quick homemade Halloween costumes can be the best costumes, if the ideas are good ones.

If you’re not the sewing-crafter type (or simply don’t have time), make a trip to the local Goodwill or Salvation Army thrift store, or whatever the equivalent is where you live. We’ve got a fabulous chain of super-cheap secondhand shops called Frenchy’s that are always good for a great cheap costume for kids or for adults. Jodi tells me she’s even seen secondhand wedding dresses in there for a ridiculously low price — so there you go, a Bride of Frankenstein costume! Just add a bouquet of dead flowers and the right make-up.

The school that @wadlington‘s kids go to just held a Halloween used-costume sale. “After the sale,” she says, “the leftovers were donated to Goodwill. How great is that? It’s too late now to organize a costume sale for this Halloween, but I’ll bet you’d find a lot of parents keen on the plan for next year, if you brought it up at the next PTA meeting, while the pain and stress of finding (and paying for) Halloween costumes are still fresh in everyone’s minds!

Photo: juhansonin

You can always swap Halloween costumes with friends who have kids the same age, too. This year, your kid goes as an adorable mouse; next year, he moves up to the boy-next-door’s pirate costume?

We used to pass costumes along from older sister to younger, when we were growing up. The trick is to pack them away safely until next year. But you know what? If it’s one of those trendy character costumes straight from the Disney marketing machine, I wouldn’t bother trying to save it for next year — just throw it into the toy box and let the kids wear it to play make-believe to their hearts’ delight, because you might as well put it to use. What are the odds your daughter will have any interest in dressing up as Hannah Montana, by the time next year’s Halloween rolls around? Of course, my parents probably said that exact thing about that Princess Leia costume, way back when… So, who knows? You’ll have to make your own call on that one.

My point is, why dress up your kids as homeless people and make light of something so serious as other people’s misfortune? Especially when there are so many creative ways that you can save money on Halloween costumes.

‘Nuff said.

Now, what about that bad advice on decorating your home for Halloween? We’ll be tackling that tasteful and thrifty issue in the next part of this series, so stay tuned to learn more about toilet-paper ghosts.

Why send the kids out to collect Halloween treats in a tacky plastic pumpkin, when there are more attractive treat containers to be found — like these cheerful reusable buckets in felt or painted metal?

Reusable and durable items means that you won’t be shelling out for new treat containers, year after year. And when the kids get too old for trick-or-treating? Get thrifty and recycle!

Re-purpose the buckets as tabletop Halloween decorations, piled high with tiny gourds and autumn leaves, use them to hold the treats that you hand out to neighbourhood ghosties who come to your door, or even put it into play as an ice bucket at a grown-up Halloween party: just slip a plastic container inside to keep everything clean and dry.

These two styles of Halloween buckets are both from The Contemporary Home. Sadly, TCH only serves customers in the UK — but the rest of us can find crafty inspiration in the online shop, even if we can’t shop there!

Make Your Own Halloween Treat Buckets

What about decorating your own bucket with black and orange craft paints and a simple Halloween stencil of a bat or pumpkin or haunted house? Pick up a lightweight metal bucket for just a dollar or two in a discount department store — I see them most often near the vases and artificial flowers — or, for a bit more, your local hardware store or garden centre. Craft paints dry quickly, so you can paint the background first, then take a quick break for a cup of tea — and the bucket will be ready for its decorations.

Want to make your own felt treat buckets, inspired by those Halloween goodies at The Contemporary Home? A bit of trial-and-error with a piece of old newspaper will help you make a simple pattern and get the size of bucket you need. You’ll want to cut one long rectangle of felt to form the sides, a circle for the bottom, and a long skinny strip for the handle. (You might want to use a double layer, if the felt you’re working with is on the thin and flimsy side.) Put the pieces together with fabric glue, then do a quick decorative line of stitching around the seams for strength. Slip in the lid from a plastic container or a couple layers of sturdy cardboard to give shape to the bottom of the bucket.

Another option would be to recycle one of those ice-cream pails that have a handle, and simply cover it with colourful felt or a Halloween-themed fabric. If you use a fabric that will fray at the cut edges, either tuck in the edge and glue it down or leave an extra half-inch and pull out the cross-threads to fray it into a decorative fringe.

Finish off your Halloween treat bucket with seasonal decorations. Cut-out felt shapes of spiders, bats, or a jack-o-lantern bats (as shown), or use stencils and fabric paint. You might even embellish your artwork with bits of string and googley eyes… or customize the treat pails to match the kids’ Halloween costumes… the only limit is your imagination!