Blocks are one of the most amazing toys.  When we visited preschools to choose a school for Benjamin, they all bragged about their block areas and the wonderful structures the children built.  Young children learn through block play – it builds mental as well as physical skills.  Block play teaches math and science, creativity and problem solving skills, and social and emotional skills as children learn to work together.

Blocks are a wonderful toy to have in your home but the average wood block set takes up a lot of room, is very heavy to move around, is expensive and makes a ton of noise when the structure inevitably topples over – by accident or on purpose. 

At GIFT HERO, we are big proponents of block play and were so excited to discover the Wood-Like Soft Blocks from Edushape.  This 80-piece set looks like real wood but the pieces are made of foam so they are light, portable and quiet!  They come in a storage bag with a carrying handle.  They also float so they are fun in the tub.  The manufacturer recommends these blocks for as young as 2 years old but at GIFT HERO we recommend it for older children as well as this is a gift that will really grow with a child…who is guaranteed to still be building with this set for years to come.

It’s National Board Game Week – so I thought I would share some of my favorites. We try to carry awesome games that are not available everywhere (and which the gift recipient is not likely to have already).  Chances are, if you are giving  Candy Land, Clue Jr. or Scrabble, they’ve already got it.

By far, our household favorite is Gobblet Jr., essentially a more complicated version of tic-tac-toe. The playing pieces come in different sizes and the bigger ones can “gobble up” the smaller ones and take their spaces.  It is a great strategy game for ages 5 and up and both of my kids thoroughly enjoy it (as do I). It’s also won about a bajillion awards if you don’t believe me.

For the younger set, three and four year olds, Diggity Dog is a great pick. Kids move the dogs around the board the number of times as the dog “barks.” When their dog finds the matching dog bones they get to pick them up with the dog’s magnet nose and return them to their doghouse.  This game is so much fun and teaches young children counting, colors, and develops fine motor skills. It’s not available everywhere so chances are the kid won’t have it already.

For 8 and up, one of our favorites is the Scrambled States of America.  I love it especially because it is compact and can go anywhere with you. And, it is so much fun that kids won’t even think of it as educational. My son Josh wants to play it all the time and luckily his grandma loves to play it with him. It has become a bit of a tradition for them to play it together.

Board games make great gifts – just be sure to pick one a little off the radar and appropriate for the age. Don’t buy “up” when it comes to board games because it can be very frustrating for a child to try to play a game that requires a skill that their age has not yet developed (i.e. reading).  I’ll never forget when Maya received Scrabble Jr. at age 4 – she didn’t even know all of her letters yet and someone gave her a game that involved spelling. Needless to say, it sat in the closet for a long time!

My son Josh turns 8 years old this month and we had his party with a few friends at the ESPN zone – which is heaven for my sports-obsessed son.  It actually was a great place for a small birthday party – we had lunch in the restaurant while the kids watched the Giants play. We even brought our own cake (decorated like a football game at Josh’s request) and then headed upstairs to the game room, where they spent an hour playing soccer, basketball, baseball, hockey and more. It was truly a wonderful experience for Josh.

I asked Josh what he wanted for his birthday that we sell on GIFT HERO.  His top picks are Sports Challenge for Kids, Physics Discovery and Zoob 125.  Thanks to some generous friends and family, he will be receiving these. Any of these make a great 8 year old birthday gift.

I’ve written many times about how strongly Lisa and I feel about giving back and creating opportunities to teach children the importance of charity. We want our own children to realize how lucky they are and we want every child to feel as fortunate as ours do.  From the start, one of the principles of GIFT HERO is to enable our customers to give back.

We are thrilled to announce our new partnership with Ronald McDonald House of New York. We will be funding programs to provide toys and games for the children staying at this temporary “home-away-from-home” for pediatric cancer patients and their families. This holiday season, our goal is to provide supplies for their wonderful playroom including educational toys and games, manipulatives, puzzles, and building toys (click here to view their wishlist).

GIFT HERO will be filling part of this wishlist and we are inviting our customers to help us fill the rest by adding $1-$5 to your purchase at checkout. 100% of the monies collected will be used to purchase toys for Ronald McDonald House of New York.  Toys donated to RMDH will be purchased at our wholesale cost. GIFT HERO will not earn a profit on sales of the products that are donated to charity.

So, start your holiday shopping at GIFT HERO now and please consider adding small donation to your order and help bring some joy to the children at Ronald McDonald House this holiday season. 

Like you, I’ve got a ton of gifts to get for the holidays (not to mention a few birthdays thrown in too).  Thought I would share some of my personal picks for this season.

For 2 year old Simon, I have selected the Chubbies Bucket (pictured left). This bucket is filled with 15 different kinds of vehicles, and it is good for indoor or outdoor play – even the pool or tub since they float!

My 6 year old nephew Adian is quite artistic, and so I have selected for him a couple of products that will enable him to express himself creatively.  The Make Your Own Cards for Boys is right up his alley. It comes with shapes that boys will love to use to create their own designs with trucks, robots, sports stuff and more. He will love to make his own thank you notes for the holiday gifts he gets.  Another thing Adian will love is the Young Artist Learn to Paint Set, which contains paper, paints, brushes and instructions on how to mix colors, etc… Adian lives in Toronto so I will be shipping his gifts directly to him!

For my 8 year old niece Lauryn, I have selected the Butterfly Diary and Mobile.  She will love to decorate her own diary and pen and write in it. The butterfly mobile is so fun to design and it will look  great in her room! We will be seeing Lauryn over the holidays in Florida but I am going to ship them to her mom anyway so we don’t have to pack them in our luggage. I’ll ask her to hold onto them until we see her

I am so glad that we make it so easy to order and send gifts at GIFT HERO. I can order all of the stuff I mentioned here in one order and have them ship to three different addresses. I can also include gift bags and gift messages for each one. Talk about better gifting!

Just in time for the holidays, and in response to your requests, we have added some higher priced gifts over $40 for your family shopping needs (grandparents, aunts, uncles -this means you!)  Of course, we have also added to our amazing selection of under $40 gifts as well. So no matter what your budget, GIFT HERO has a great gift selection.

Here is a sampling of some of our favorite new additions in the higher price category.

The Fold N Go Dollhouse is an amazing first dollhouse for a 3 or 4 year old girl. My daughter Maya received this when she turned three and it has been one of her favorite treasures. The best part is that it  can be locked shut and is light enough to bring to grandma’s house for the holidays!

For 3 and 4 year old boys, one of our favorites is the Design & Drill Workshop. This is an amazing toy that boys (and girls) will play with for hours – using the “drill” to insert and remove colorful screws to create their own unique designs.

For 6 and 7 year olds, we have some amazing building sets from Superstructs – while they are also appropriate for younger ages, we think that these really big kits are better for this age set. For boys, try the Big Builder 126 piece Set for making big moving vehicles. For girls Superstructs made the awesome Pinklets Fairy Garden 110 piece set.

For older boys and girls, we have added some amazing science kits from boutique manufacturer Thames & Kosmos. Kids ages 8 and older will go crazy for Wind Power or Physics Solar Workshop, which teach kids real science through hands on experiments. We have tested all of the science kits, and Thames & Kosmos are simply the best for the older set.

Just use our Gift Finder to locate the perfect gift – enter age, gender and price category. It’s that easy!

Just in time for the holidays, we have added a 2 year old  gifts category on GIFT HERO.  People have been asking us to add gifts for babies and toddlers from the very beginning, and so we are pleased to offer a great selection of new finds for the younger set. We have included blocks, books, pretend play sets, vehicles, music and more.

One of my favorites is the Mailbox Fill & Spill by Melissa & Doug, pictured here.  It comes with enough stuff to play with, including removable “stamps” to keep kids busy for hours, opening and closing the mailbox. It even comes with a “birthday present” in a mailing box.

Other favorites include the Chubbies Bucket of vehicles for 2 year old boys. It contains 15 four inch vehicles to keep boys busy all day long – inside, outside, even in the tub.  For 2 year old girls, check out the ABC Lacing Sweets by Learning Resources.  It is a fun way for girls to develop fine motor coordination and build awareness of letters while creating their own unique design.

There are even some gifts that are also appropriate for children younger than two years in this category  - just look for the age recommendation provided for every product. For example, if we say ages 12 months and up, that means the manufacturer recommends this product as appropriate for that age and older.

My son Josh is turning 8 later this month, and he has been asking for ages for a magic set. I realized that the only magic set we had on GIFT HERO was the Discovery Magic Set, and it seemed better for the six to seven year old set, and that we needed a magic kit for eight and older. So we did a lot of research on magic sets and selected the Klutz Book of Magic. What a great choice!

Josh has been having a great time exploring the different tricks in this book. It will definitely take him a while to master all 34 tricks – and that is a great thing. This is a magic set that kids will keep and grow with over time. There are tricks that are too complicated for him right now, but he will come back to as he gets older. That is why this makes such a great gift for an 8-10 year old boy.

For now, his favorite trick is “May I Cut Off Your Pinky?” Of course, he is eight years old after all!