I”m sure this has happened to everyone. Your family is invited to friends for lunch and playing…and you ask, “what can I bring?” Inevitably, the gracious host says “yourselves.” Yesterday, we were invited for lunch and swim and my friend’s answer to my question was “swimsuits!”

I have a hard time going empty handed so thankfully, I had a few kids’ gifts stocked away in my closet. Our friends have a 6 year old girl so I pulled out a Buddha Board. 

After swimming and running around in the hot sun, Benjamin and their daughter played with the Buddha Board. It kept them busy for quite awhile – painting their designs and watching them disappear. They even had a little science lesson as they discussed how the water was evaporating and their pictures were changing.  Needless to say…good clean fun was had by all!

Kids all over the country are going back to school – and getting birthday party invitations! No doubt - if you have child in preschool or elementary school, you will be receiving  some party invites very soon.  Take advantage of our special back to school offer of free shipping on any order – use promotional code BTS10.

Here are some great unisex gifts for boys and girls that you can have on hand now so you don’t get caught unprepared.

Little Picasso Art Kit makes a great birthday gift for kids ages 3 to 6.  It’s an adorable tri-fold design, and comes markers, colored pencils, scissors, glitter glue and a pencil sharpener. There’s even room or kids to add a few of their own favorite tools.

For kids two and under, try the Animal Alphabet Blocks.  These 2″ x 2″ blocks are made from durable cardboard and will keep kids busy buiding and knocking down for hours.

For kids 7 and older, you can’t go wrong with a science kit. Try Minerals, Crystals and Fossils by the Young Scientists Club. This kit includes three separate kits in one and will keep kids engaged for many days.

I spent too much time this week buying school supplies for Benjamin who is starting first grade. His teacher posted a (very specific!) list of supplies both for his own use as well as for the whole class – #2 pencils, washable markers, composition notebooks, binder, toner cartridges, printer ink, labels…the list was very long.

We are very fortunate that we can afford not only to purchase supplies for our child but to help out the overall classroom so Benjamin and his classmates are never lacking. There are many, many children, however, for whom this is not the case.  I was thrilled to read a wonderful article on Citiscoop, the fantastic blog from our friends at Citibabes, about the Coalition for the Homeless’ Project Back to School.  This is a great way to help many of New York’s 15,000 homeless boys and girls get the school supplies they need to succeed.

It is so easy to participate, there are lots of drop-off locations around the city – including one at Citibabes Soho Club at 52 Mercer Street, 3rd Floor. The drive runs through September 17th.

It’s been a glorious summer. I can count on one hand the number of rainy days that were total washouts…until this week! Benjamin finished camp last Friday and he and I are home together this week – we planned to go to the beach, swim in the pool and have light sabre fights in the backyard. Yesterday and today were torrential rain, extremely windy and quite cold. Not exactly the August paradise we were expecting.

We’ve been looking for inside activities and today’s project is going to be creating a What I Did on My Summer Vacation pop-up book.  Create Your Own Pop-Up Books from Creativity for Kids is one of my absolute favorite kids’ gifts.  It comes with 2 plain white hardcover books, stickers, markers and pop-up designs. The kit has simple instructions. Kids add their own words and illustrations.  It’s a great kids gift for ages 5 and up.

Before the summer begins, my kids’ teachers always tell us how important it is to keep up their math and reading skills over the summer. I usually find it a lot easier to help them keep up with reading – visits to the libray or our local bookstore provide a new supply of books, and keep my kids interested.

Math, however, is another story. My son Josh is going into 4th grade, and he is not interested in sitting around doing worksheets or flashcards to keep up with his multiplication facts.  Luckily, Sumoku by Blue Orange Games has provided a perfect, fun way to keep up his math skills.

As you may guess from the name, Sumoku is a math game inspired by Sudoku.  Josh and I have been playing it a few times a week and it is both challenging and fun. It is recommended for ages 9 and up because children must understand multiplication in order to play.  There are 5 different ways to play, but in esssence players have to add up the tiles to multiples of a number shown on the die. Once all the tiles are used and connected together, it’s a sumoku and the player with the highest score wins.  I love the portability factor – Sumoku comes in a zippered  tote bag and is incredibly lightweight so you can take it anywhere.

If you are looking for an addition/subtraction game, Yamslam is a great choice - it ’s recommended for kids ages 8 and up.  Josh loves this one too, especially since he can play it by himself or with a partner. It’s been described as a cross between Yahtzee and Poker.

Septoys seven sided design blocks are one of the most popular selling items at GIFT HERO this summer.  This isn’t a surprise to us because Septoys has won a slew of awards since it hit the market late last year, including the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Award, Creative Child Magazine Top Toy of the Year and Dr. Toy Best Picks Award. It’s very hard to find a product that wins that coveted triumvirate.

What makes Septoys unique? The blocks have seven sides – which allows for many, many more building possibilities than regular, four sided blocks. The set comes with  photos of 24 designs to get you started.  We also love the portability factor of Septoys – the 32 blocks are lightweight and store easily in the sturdy box – making it perfect to take on a family trip, to a restaurant or to a playdate.

Septoys is a great educational toy for ages 4 and up.  It really is a toy that kids won’t outgrow quickly because the design possibilites are endless and fun.

This afternoon, Benjamin told me he was bored with all of his toys. He asked if we could play with the Snap Circuits Jr. set I had given to him as a gift for his last birthday. Snap Circuits is an electronics kit with over 100 different projects. This toy has always been a favorite of Lisa’s son Josh and we had been saving it as an activity to do with Daddy. But…Daddy is in the city during the week this summer so I (reluctantly) agreed.

We had so much fun. Benjamin needed my help to understand how to follow the instructions (he is 6.5 and the toy is recommended as a kids’ gift for 8 and up…but I wholeheartedly recommend it as an activity for a grown-up to do with a 6 or 7 year old child). Once we both figured out how it all works – you follow very clear diagrams to snap different parts together onto a plastic board - we quickly got through the first few projects including turning on a light, powering a fan and playing a some music. He was so proud of his work that his face “lit up,” just like the bulb in the first project! I suspect we’ll do more tomorrow including #18, a Laser Gun

The projects get harder as you go through the book and by the end, kids will have made a doorbell, a burglar alarm, a radio and much more. Kids can even make up their own projects. When Benjamin read this, he told me he wants to create a robot – now that is definitely a project for Daddy!

My 8 year old son Josh is a true soccer fan. Thanks to my English husband, Josh has grown up watching soccer from his birth. On our annual trips to London, going to watch his favorite team, Tottenham Hotspurs, is always the highlight.

In honor of the World Cup, we have added Tabletop Soccer to GIFT HERO’s offerings. Josh has tested it out with his friends and gives it his seal of approval. Given the fine motor coordination involved, we recommend it for ages 6 and up. It also makes a great adult present – at 19″ by 16″, it’s perfectly sized for an office.

I recently discovered (and instantly fell in love with) Clean Well products. While visiting the Citibabes club in Soho, I noticed a hand sanitizer dispenser at the club entrance, with a sign kindly requesting that all visitors clean their hands before entering the kids club.  I was expecting the  institutional type hand sanitizer that we all have come to know so well. Rather, to my delight, I smelled something gorgeous, which I correctly recognized as thyme. There was no chemical odor, and my hands smelled and felt reallly delicious!

So I tracked down Clean Well in the health department at Fairway, and bought a few sanitizers for my family. After reading about Clean Well, which is made entirely from thyme and other essential plant oils, and is 99.9% effective at killing germs, I disposed of the other sanitizers we had at home. I realized that there was no need to expose my family to the chemicals  found in most sanitizers, including Triclosan, which is currently being investigated by the FDA for safety.

 Last year, I made the decision to switch from using regular cleaning supplies to using natural alternatives like Method and Seventh Generation. Clean Well has just teamed up with Seventh Generation to create home cleaning products. I will definitely be looking for those next time I shop!

I discovered the Zyclone at Toy Fair this year. I tried it out myself with help from the friendly, playful folks at Zing Toys, an Australian company that specializes in unique outdoor toys. Rather than explain in words how it works, check out this video of David Letterman playing with it (warning – his first try is a flop!). Just a couple of weeks ago, the Zyclone was also featured on Live with Regis & Kelly.  It is definitely one of the best outdoor toys for kids ages 6 and up.