Cutting fruit is a classic toy that should be in every kid’s collection. It has multiple uses – building fine motor skills, teaching basic math lessons, exposing young children to healthy eating, pretend play…I could go on and on.

So, when Lisa and I discovered Kid O Cutting Fruit, we knew we had to add it to www.gifthero.com. This award winning toy, from the incredible toy designers at Kid O, takes cutting fruit to a whole new level. Kids will love to slice through these textured magnetic fruits to discover what’s inside. Then, they snap the pieces back together, aligning the convex seeds to fit like a puzzle. Slices hold together magnetically (not velcro like other versions). This educational toy includes a pear, orange and apple, gentle plastic knife and tote bag.  It’s a delicious kid’s gift for 2 and up.

This week Lisa and I are going shopping! It is the New York International Gift Fair at the Javitz Center. Besides Toy Fair (mecca for toy retailers), NYIGF is the best way to learn about amazing new toys to add to GIFT HERO. We spent today walking through the general gift and accent on design sections. Tomorrow we will scour the Baby and Child floor where there’s sure to be too many great gifts to choose from.

We stocked up on educational toys and award winning toys including the coolest jewelry kits, arts and crafts sets, building toys, gifts for girls and gifts for boys. Visit us soon for great new kid’s gifts and old favorites from Alex Toys, Fashion Angels, Perplexus, Ogosport and many more.

This past Saturday was one of those days when my family didn’t leave our apartment. The snow turned to sleet and we cozied up in the family room reading, watching movies and playing games. Lisa had recommended Sketch It! from Blue Orange Games to us. Her kids (and the adults too) love this educational game. We just added this kid’s gift to GIFT HERO because her family was addicted.

Sketch It! is an unique drawing game that inspires creativity, quick thinking, and fine motor skills. With this award winning toy, both the sketcher and the decipherer can earn points. We all had a blast trying to draw at the right speed – too fast and you confuse the others…too slow and you miss your chance to score. Find Sketch It! and lots of other great educational toys for 8, 9 and 10 year olds on our site. It’s a perfect birthday gift.

I’m in love with the Butterfly Alphabet Puzzle from ImagiPLAY. Not only is it gorgeous, but it helps kids learn the alphabet and develop fine motor skills. Plus, it is made from plantation-grown rubberwood (an environmentally friendly hard wood) AND hand-crafted and hand-painted with child-safe paints. It is truly a kids’ gift that keeps giving! It is a perfect gift for 3 year old girls (and gift for 4 year old girls and 5 year old girls).

For boys, we’ve got Puff the Alphabet Dragon (how cute is that name?). It’s got all the same specs as the butterfly and is a wonderful gift for 3 year old boys.

We just started carrying these and other kids’ gifts from ImagiPLAY. Their products are high quality, educational toys that are in the words of their founder “kid friendly and planet safe.” Who could ask for more!

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!

Summer is a great time for kids to express themselves creatively through writing or drawing.  The pressures of school  are left behind, and  there are lots of new experiences – family trips and summer camp. Kids love to record their memories and share them with their family and friends through letters and drawings.

eeboo is known for its high quality children’s stationery, diaries, sketchbooks and colored pencils. We love their new Beautiful line, pictured here. These lovely eeboo products make a perfect summer gift for a girl ages 6 and up.

Our cousin Rebecca is turning four this month and my kids are very excited to celebrate with her at her birthday party in her backyard. (My city kids are a little in awe of backyards.)

I have been thinking about what to give Rebecca for her 4th birthday. She has an older sister who is six, and between them they certainly have a lot of toys, which can make it challenging to find something they don’t already have. That’s why at GIFT HERO, we try to select toys that are a little more unique and less predictable.

For Christmas, we gave Rebecca the Superstructs Pinklets building set for girls. It is a unique building set created specifically for girls and has pieces that lets girls build a flower garden and butterfiles.  Many building sets are created with boys in mind and then  the pieces are painted pink or pastel for girls. 

 I got an email last week from Rebecca’s mom asking me if we had something just like Superstructs Pinklets to give Rebecca for her birthday since she and her sister play with it all of the time.  Luckily, Superstructs has come out with another kit for girls – Superstructs Lilies, which contains simliar pieces that can interchange with the Pinklets set. I can’t wait to see Rebecca’s face light up when we give her a new addition to her favorite toy!

From time to time, Lisa and I love to write about products we think are great. I was recently introduced to something I just had to share.

If you are like me, sometimes jeans (and other pants too) are a little big in the waist. So, they sag and you are constantly tugging at them to keep them up. You don’t want to wear a regular belt because it creates an ugly bulge in front and you don’t want to pay a tailor to take them in.

The invisibelt is my savior for these wardrobe malfunctions. It is a smooth, undetectable plastic belt with a flat clasp. It easily adjusts for different pairs of jeans (it adjusts like a bra strap). I discovered invisibelt through it’s designer and company founder, Kathy Kramer. Kathy is my neighbor in my new building and our kitchens basically look into one another in the center of the building (aka the airshaft!). We didn’t know each other and she was watching me in my kitchen pulling up my sagging jeans. When we met, she gave me an invisibelt and my problem was solved!  Now, if I am wearing an untucked shirt, I pretty much wear my invisibelt every day.

At the request of her young daughter, Kathy recently added invisibelt girl to the collection. Designed for ages 5 to 15, the styles are adorable - I especially love the bones ‘n bows (pictured) pattern. I kind of want this one for myself.

My six year old daughter Maya has a lot of girl friends turning 7 lately.  Maya is quite a precocious child, and has very strong opinions on many things – most notably, fashion. Maya describes herself as having “good taste” and describes her clothes as “very fashionable.” She definitely has a preference for the loud, colorful, hippie type style typefied by Flowers by Zoe, So Nikki and other similar type labels.

So it is really not a surprise to me that this year Maya told me that she wants to select her friends birthday gifts.  Currently her favorite gifts are the charm bracelet gift sets by Charm It! We sell three different kinds on GIFT HERO – Peace & Love (shown here), I Love Sweets and Friends. Maya usually chooses the right set based on her friends’ interests and sense of style.

Each set comes with a bracelet and either 5 charms or 3 charms in a beautiful decorative box  that really provides the “wow” factor.  Also, while these boxed gift sets are hard to find in stores, the individual charms are sold in many children’s clothing stores nationwide. So the birthday girl can buy more charms to add to her bracelet and truly make it her own.  These boxed sets make a delightful birthday gift for a 7 or 8 year old girl.

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, these Charm It! sets also make a fantastic Valentine’s Day gift for that special girl on your list.