When I took the Moon Dough out of the package, it immediately reminded me of paper clay, with a non-drying, light, and airy texture. I took a piece, stuffed it into the top of the barn, turned the handle and waited. Nothing. Turned it again. Nothing. Turned it one more time and out popped a perfectly molded and detailed sheep! The kids were amazed. I have to admit that even though I knew what was going on, I was kind of amazed myself. Tip: Not to ruin the magic, but there are molds inside the barn. Stuff the dough into the molds and push down to make sure you get complete animals.

Now, I have to be honest. This stuff is a mess. You’re supposed to work it with your hands before using it, and we did, but it is still crumbly. Since it’s light like paper, it attaches to your clothes, floats through the air and gets dragged all through your house. Tip: Use it in a controlled area in a mat, or outside, and clean up immediately after you’re done.

Pros:

• Doesn’t dry out
• Makes very detailed molds
• Isn’t very expensive to buy refill packs
• Hypo-allergenic, non-toxic, wheat-free

Cons:

• It’s messy
• The dough starts to stick to the barn molds and can be difficult to get out

Bottom Line: The kids love this toy. I’d love it more if we had used it on a large mat or in the back yard. We’ve tucked it away and will be prepared next time we pull it out. It comes with plenty of Moon Dough, but only two colors. Even with the Dough that spread over our house after a week of play and the Dough that we vacuumed up, we still have one whole color untouched and plenty of the first color. It’s a nice value, but you have to follow the instructions for the best results.

Disclosure: We received the Moon Dough Barnyard from Child’s Play PR as part of their Team Mom program. There was no promise of a positive review and the opinions contained in this post are my own.

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Lucky for me, I’ve been following the fantastic Karen Clark of FunFelt.com (an independent sales rep with Story Time Felts) for a long time.  I love her blog, Fun Activities for Kids, Families, and Teachers. She blogs about just the kinds of creative activities I enjoy doing with my own kids. And most of them don’t require cutting out little felt shapes (what was I thinking?). Karen recently sent me the Down on the Farm Felt Activity Book from Story Time Felts to try out with my kids and review.

Down on the Farm Activity Book, Photo Courtesy of FunFelt.com

The Down on the Farm Activity Book has 5 pages, each with a different farm scene. Some of the pages have cut-outs that open (similar to a lift-a-flap book) to reveal pictures behind them. My favorite page is the inside of the barn. There are different gates and a cage that open to reveal various baby animals, including some oh-so-cute bunnies. You can place some of the felt shapes behind the gates as well for some hide-and-seek fun. The book comes with more than 50 felt pieces, including people, animals, and farm equipment/supplies. It’s almost overwhelming how many pieces there are. As an added benefit, the pieces can be stored in pockets in each page of the book.

My kids were delighted by the book and immediately started pawing through the felt shapes and peeking behind flaps. LadyBug (at 2) was most interested in looking at the animals and playing with the flaps. I was able to engage Bug (3.5) in some simple storytelling using the the various characters. With the book open, there was room for both kids to play, but I might consider unbinding it so they could have a little more room to spread out (and avoid arguments over who gets which character).

The felt activity books are nice for rest times, car travel and hotel play. The built-in storage is wonderful, although I’d personally prefer an attached pouch for storage because the book gets very puffy if there are too many pieces stored in any one spot. These would make fantastic gifts rather than the same-old plastic commercial offerings. My one recommendation is to shell out the extra $ to have the book pre-assembled. Cutting out and gluing the book together is not my idea of a good time and I doubt it will be yours!

You can see the full range of Story Time Felt offerings on Karen’s personal website: FunFelt.com.

Disclosure: We received free product in order for me to write a useful review. We received no compensation and there were no promises made as to the content of this review. All opinions stated are mine.

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When my son was born, I asked friends and family to avoid giving us lots of electronic toys and gadgets. I strongly believe that too much immediate feedback and electronic stimulation is bad for our kids’ brain wiring. I think it teaches them to need constant feedback and hinders their ability to provide their own internal motivation. I want them to solve a problem and be proud to have solved it within themselves, not rely on a machine (or even another person) to give them validation.

Since my husband and I are pretty serious techies, it shouldn’t be a surprise that more than a few people ignored us. Some people chose educational gadgets and some just chose the loudest, blinking-est toys they could find. Still, my son managed to get through most of his first year on minimal electronic stimuli.  And then I got pregnant with LadyBug and the TV became a bit more appealing. I didn’t feel too bad, though, because he was just about one at that point. I still focused on creative, open-ended toys like blocks, cars, craft supplies, puzzles, etc.

And then he discovered the computer. The fact is that Bug has always loved buttons. He was born to be a techie, honestly. There was not much I could do about it. With a dad who’s a software engineer and a mom who writes about technology for kids (and has her master’s degree in Technology in Education), it was sort of a lost cause. I mean, we met online for heaven’s sake. Anyway, Bug would spend forever on the computer or watching TV if we let him and somehow I feel bad for that. It’s often just the easiest choice, especially when I’m just waking up or trying to get my work done.

LadyBug isn’t really interested in the TV or the computer at all. She’ll watch for a few minutes or tap a few buttons and then she’s bouncing off to something new. She loves to read and take her of her baby (sigh) and climb on everything in sight. She’s got a shorter attention span (so ironic) than her electronically enamored brother, and just doesn’t have the patience for things that she can’t manipulate somehow.

Which brings me to the good news. LadyBug is turning 2 next week(!) and her grandparents asked what they should get for her. Since the kids are still young, I generally think in terms of what would be a good addition to the household toy inventory, with special emphasis on the toys that child would particularly enjoy. As I thought about how the kids spend their time, I was thrilled to realize that they choose the open ended, creative play more often than not. They like cars and trains, dress up, crafts, books, instruments, stuffed animals and dolls and their play kitchen. They are much less likely to choose toys that do one specific thing and can’t be used in multiple ways. They make up their own games and activities with each other and spend hours involved in them. Bug does a lot of storytelling play now as well, using stuffed animals and his beloved cars to create elaborate scenes.

So, for all of my less-than-perfect moments as a parent, my kids are still happily engaged by creative activities. I hope they are able to take that with them into the future!

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