Another product included in this week’s celebration of America’s Birthday is Great States Jr. My son Josh first received this award winning game as a five year old birthday gift. It quickly became a favorite for us to play together, and within a matter of weeks he was easily finding all of the states on the map. Now Josh and Maya play the game together and it is a really fun way for them to learn about our states!

Great States Jr. is ideal for ages 4-7 because there is no reading involved. Players spin the wheel and move around the board, picking a red, white or blue card depending on what color space they land on. The cards ask the player to find a state that matches the image on the card – sometimes by showing the outline of the state, an image of what the state produces or the first letter of the name (players can select any state starting with the letter provided). Players need to find it on the board before the timer runs out.

Pretty soon, they will graduate to the version for older kids and adults, Great States, which involves reading and more complicated questions and answers.

Visit our site to see all of the products included in our celebration of America’s Birthday, and enjoy 20% off until July 6th.

This weekend is America’s 233rd birthday! Kind of old for a gift from GIFT HERO…but, we want to celebrate so we are offering 20% off our great selection of USA-themed gifts through Monday July 6th.

United States Bingo from Eeboo is a patriotic adapation of the classic game for boys and girls ages 5 and up. Children will have fun, while they learn United States regions, states, landmarks and industries. It’s great for family game night and it comes with 12 game cards so it is ideal for a group to play at a 4th of July Picnic. It includes a draw-string bag so it is also good for travel. Like all Eeboo gifts, United States Bingo is beautifully illustrated and made of durable high quality cardboard.

We’ve got lots of other USA-themed gifts, everything from board games to puzzles to playsets so visit our America’s Birthday page at GIFT HERO today to save 20% through July 6.

Benjamin starts day camp on Monday. 7 weeks of camp. He is going on a bus to Long Island. Getting picked up at 8:18am and dropped back off at 5:40…we must be the first pick-up and last drop-off on that bus.

He is so excited. We visited the camp back in May and he couldn’t get enough of the fields, the playgrounds, the pools, the cabin, the dining room – all of it. I loved camp as a kid and am thrilled he is having this experience. He is ready to run free and play!

I’m scrambling a little to make sure he has everything he needs — with his name on all of it. Bathing suits, rash guards, swim goggles, sunscreen, sneakers, extra clothes, a beach towel for rest time (thankfully, the camp has towel service for 2x a day swimming). Did I forget anything??? Please post anything I forgot in the comments…so I am not the forgetful mom who gets the call from camp on Monday afternoon.

Today is the last day of school and we are headed to the beach! Growing up, every year on the last day of school we would pack up the car and head for the Jersey Shore – my summer home. I literally spent the entire summer on the beach – except to go home to sleep. The sand and the ocean are just in my DNA. I have moved around a lot in my life, but the Jersey Shore has been my one constant “home.”

Luckily, my kids love the beach too. Right after I finish this post I am leaving to get the kids and head out. For Maya, who loves to create sand castles and collect shells, I’m bringing the Green Toys Sand Play Set. I will feel better knowing that she is playing with an eco-friendly set and doing our small part to save the environment. Seems appropriate since we are enjoying the natural beauty of our earth – the ocean and sand.

Josh is more into activity on the beach – boogie boarding and sports. For him, I’m packing the OgoSport Mini Disk Set – so he and my nephew can play together on the beach. I am sure they will have fun for hours hitting the ball back to each other and chasing it all over the beach.

At night, we’ll take the kids to the Point Pleasant boardwalk. They’ll enjoy the rides and I’ll enjoy having one of the soft serve cones they serve there – they have like 15 different soft serve flavors. We’ll play some of those racing games and probably win some cheesy stuffed animals that will be forgotten by the time we get home.

I can smell the salt air now…

Lisa and I just had breakfast with Eric Messinger who is the Editor in Chief of New York Family Magazine. New York Family is an indispensible resource for anyone crazy enough to choose to raise children in NYC. It is chock full of award-winning content to help families make the most of their life in NYC – Eric calls it “parenting with sense and sensibility.” (Full disclosure, GIFT HERO was featured in New York Family’s Buzzworthy column in June and we recommended some of our favorite gifts for their upcoming July Birthday Guide). The magazine is distributed in over 1,000 schools, stores and apartment buildings around the city and in Brooklyn.

One of our favorite things about New York Family is its weekly newsletter. Eric and his editors do an amazing job presenting their tips for the week — events, shopping, activities, contests, giveaways, and anything else they deem newsworthy. Plus, Eric writes a short letter each week with his own musings on life and family which is truly a must-read. This week he wrote about spending a Saturday with his daughter running errands for an elderly relative – and the wonderful conversation they had.

We highly recommend you pick-up the magazine each month. June is still available and July will be out just after the holiday weekend. Also, join the New York Family Club to recieve the weekly newsletter, access the digital edition of the magazine, and learn about events, giveaways and special offers and discounts.

We promise, reading these is time very well spent.

My daughter Maya received this Dalmation Vet kit as a birthday present when she turned three years old. It was her favorite present she received that year. Not only did she play “Doggie Doctor,” but the dalmation quickly became her best buddy. She slept with the dog, brought her to the table for meals, and even brought her to school on a daily basis (although she had to stay in the backpack).

I think this makes a great children’s birthday gift for a three or four year old. Kids can play with it alone or with a friend, and it comes with 16 different tools and accessories so kids won’t get bored with it. Everything fits in the carrying case so it also makes a great portable toy for trips or playdates.

When Benjamin was turning 4 years old, he was obsessed with Zingo from Thinkfun. We had given it to many of his friends that year and he kept telling me it was the birthday gift he “wanted the most in the whole world.” Thankfully, one of his buddies did give it to him. You should have seen the gleeful look on his face when he opened that gift!

Zingo is a terrific game for boys and girls ages 4 and up. Now that I have played it 100+ times, I understand why he so desperately wanted it. Thinkfun describes it as “bingo with zing” which really is an apt description. There are cards for up to 8 players and a nifty Zingo Zinger tile dispenser. As in bingo, the first player to fill his card wins. What’s also great is there are two levels of play and lots of way to adjust for younger players so everyone has a great time. It teaches image and vocabulary recognition, matching, memory, concentration, and social interaction.

Zingo is still a game that Benjamin and his friends will chose to play together on a playdate and now they can manage themselves without an adult in the mix. He also still sometimes wants to play it with us – we did a couple of cards worth this past rainy weekend and, I have to admit, it was fun…

There was a great article in the New York Times on Sunday written by a dad, Michael Winerip, who threw awesome summer birthday parties for his children. I have to admit that I was a little jealous – my kids are both November and there is little prospect of an outdoor celebration at that time of year. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed reading about the joy both he and his children received from these “home grown” parties. So many people today spend an enormous amount of money trying to create what they think will be an amazing celebration for their chid, but reading Michael’s column makes me think that maybe our children are actually happier with simpler celebrations we create using our own ingenuity and resources. His party ideas are the most creative I have heard yet – and they sounded incredibly fun!

Below is an excerpt from Michael’s column. To read the full piece, click here.

“What parties. We’d invite two dozen of their closest friends and do pirate scavenger hunts full of hidden clues where they got to use actual shovels to dig up buried treasure at the beach at the end of our street. I’d run relay races until they collapsed. For the Big Cookie Relay, I’d have the local bakery make two chocolate chip cookies as big as Frisbees. The kids had to take a bite, show me they’d swallowed, then run carrying the five-pound cookie and hand it off to a teammate. We’d finish up with the How Fast Can I Run in Dad’s Clothes Relay. (Not very.)

Back at the house, I’d get Sam to dress in goggles, a swimsuit and flippers, and stand in the middle of a chalked bull’s-eye on the patio. Then Annie and her friends would take turns leaning out a second story window and throwing water balloons at Aqua Man.”

Excerpted from “Hire a Clown? Not This Dad” by Michael Winerip, New York Times, June 19, 2009.

It was another rainy weekend. We tried to find fun things to do to keep ourselves entertained when we really wanted to be playing outside and going to the beach. The boys did swim in the drizzle but the novelty only lasted for so long before it got cold and it was time for a warm bath.

On weekends like that, I revisit Benjamin’s toys to find things we can make “new again.” On Saturday, I found one of his favorite puzzles, the Solar System 48-Piece Puzzle from Melissa & Doug. We are big outer space people in our family. We love learning about planets and visits to the moon and looking at constellations on a clear night. We have endlessly discussed the status of Pluto and we agree there are still 9 real planets in the solar system.

Benjamin received the Solar System Puzzle as a birthday gift when he was 3 years old. At the time, it was just a cool picture to him. He’s come back to it again and again as he has become more aware of the solar system and eager to learn more about it..and 2 1/2 years later, it’s still a favorite. This puzzle is the perfect gift for girls or boys ages 3 and up. I’ve posted about puzzles before, I think they are ideal educational gifts. This puzzle’s got large, durable and wipeable pieces making it a toy kids can enjoy for many years.

If you are looking for a great gift for a 3 or 4 year old, the Art Book to Go is a great pick! Many kids will be doing a lot of traveling and visiting this summer, and they can take this wherever they go. It comes with 6 dry erase markers, an eraser and an 8 page wipe-off coloring and activity book. I love this better than paper because the kids can use it over and over and there is no waste. The case zips shut so there is no chance of stuff falling out, either.