There seems to be a bit of a baby boom around me. All of a sudden, so many people I know are having babies. For many of these families it is a 3rd (or 4th! child) so I know they have pretty much everything they could possibly need. So…I try to give a gift that is special for the new baby.

That is why I’ve been giving Apple Park Blankies. Apple Park creates beautiful organic baby toys that make perfect newborn baby gifts. The Blankies are soft, plush and made from 100% organic cotton, silk and naturally hypoallergenic corn filling. Even the gorgeous packaging is made from 100% recycled cardboard and printed with soy ink.

My go-to for baby girls is the Bunny Blankie (because of its pink ears and nose). For boys, I give the Monkie Blankie.  We also carry a range of other baby toys from Apple Park including soft blocks, plush toys and gift crates. These kids gifts are destined to be favorites of mom and baby!

At Citibabes, the primary goal of our classes is to promote the cognitive, social, physical, and emotional growth and well-being of young children. We also like to have fun in the process. We understand that each child is unique and learns in different ways and as such we design our classes around experiential learning. We encourage children to engage in meaningful learning through play, real-world experience, and child-centered activities that are both educational and fun. Here are a few top “edutainment” picks from GIFT HERO – toys that are the perfect combination of education and entertainment (aka “edutainment”) for your little ones, specially chosen by a few teachers at Citibabes.

- Tracey Frost Rensky, CEO and Co-founder, Citibabes

Flower Stacker by Wonderworld: This construction toy is perfect for those little hands that are developing fine motor skills and the stacking motion it encourages will enhance spatial relation and balance concepts. It’s aesthetically pleasing design and all natural construction makes it both an adult and child-friendly option. (Karla Morey, Creative and Training Director) 

Dado Planks: Already being a fan of dado blocks, these planks are the perfect addition to the classroom.  Endless hours of exploration, construction and learning. (Aaron Goldschmidt, Head Teacher, CitiSchool, 2’s and 3’s)

For a complete list of Citibabes’ Teacher Picks, visit GIFT HERO and CitiScoop: Citibabes’ Online Magazine.

To learn more about Citibabes, visit our website or stop by the Club at 52 Mercer Street, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10013

Giving back is an important principle of GIFT HERO (as well as a personal commitment for both Lisa and me).

For the last two holiday seasons, we have partnered with Ronald McDonald House of NY and thanks to the generosity of our customers, we have donated many toys and games for their amazing playroom.

This Valentine’s Day, GIFT HERO is giving back. For every new “like” on our page on Facebook, we will donate $1 to purchase toys for the children staying at RMDH.

Please help us make this a huge success and “like” us yourself and share with all of your friends on Facebook. Click here to see our page and like us. Thanks!!!

I first heard about Perplexus when it won the prestigious Top Toy of the Year award from Parents Magazine in 2010. Intrigued, I decided to test it out on my 9 year old son. After playing with Perplexus for about 20 minutes, Josh burst into my room shouting “This is the best toy ever!”  Given that my son is at the age where he is primarily interested in electronic games, I was beyond ecstatic to hear that he was excited about this maze game. And a few months later, he is still playing with it.

So what exactly is Perplexus? It’s a three dimensional maze game where the player maneuvers a small marble around challenging barriers inside a transparent sphere. Unlike traditional flat-surface mazes that are composed of one path, Perplexus houses various tracks with 100 barriers and provides a three dimensional experience. Players select which track they would like to attempt, and then must work with gravity and carefully shift, flip, and twist the sphere to guide the marble.

Perplexus has won a bunch of other awards, including the National Parenting Center Seal of Approval and the National Parenting Publications Gold Award. It’s a great educational toy that builds reasoning, strategic thinking and motor coordination. Perplexus is appropriate for ages 6 and up.

Post-holiday toy madness, I was thrilled to open yesterday’s New York Times and find an article entitled Effort to Restore Children’s Play Gains Momentum. Given the ubiquity of computers, handheld electronic games, ipods, ipads, etc, many kids have forgotten (and some never learned) how to just play. When he was little (not that 7 years old isn’t still little…), Benjamin would tell me “my play is my work.” Even now, he can spend hours in his room building worlds from lego, blocks and anything else he can find. He gets completely absorbed in imaginary worlds and always tells me he needs more time to play. I often find him asleep at night wearing his Harry Potter cloak. Not that he doesn’t also love his DS and ipod – but he (and we) know there is a time and a place for all kinds of playing.

I personally believe that there is too much structured time in school. In kindergarten, Benjamin would come home complaining that there wasn’t enough “choice time.” This year, I think there is maybe 30 minutes a week when the kids can choose their own activity in the classroom. Given the incredible amount of learning required by school curriculums, this article is correct in saying that it is even more important that we enable kids to play when they are at home.

At GIFT HERO, we have always been big believers in play. We sell many kids gifts that inspire children including art kits, games, blocks, building sets and dress-up.  We love toys like the Pretend & Play Emergency Rescue Set from Learning Resources. This educational toy helps build language and social skills through imaginative play.

We’ve searched high and low for great stocking stuffers that are guaranteed to delight! You can check out all of our selections in our stocking stuffer category. Here are my top five picks by age:

For baby-2 years: Green Toys Tugboat - perfect for tubtime! Made from 100% recycled milk jugs right here in the U.S.A.

For 3-4 year olds: Princess Match Up Game & Puzzle or Construction Match Up Game & Puzzle - these two-sided sturdy cardboard cards are a match up game and puzzle in one portable case.

For 5-7 year olds: Makedo Free Play Construction Set - a set of connectors that lets kids make amazing creations using recycled materials like cardboard, newspaper and plastic that they can find in their own homes. 

For 8-10 year olds: 20 Questions Pocket Game -  A portable sized version of the classic clue guessing game.

Hanukkah is so early this year – the first night is December 1st . That’s right after Thanksgiving weekend!

If you haven’t done your shopping yet, don’t panic! You can check out our Hanukkah gift category for our favorite eight picks by age. We ship the next business day so you will recieve your purchases very quickly – usually 2-5 days after you place your order, depending on where you are shipping to.

One of my personal favorite gifts for 4 and 5 year olds is Pengoloo, a qwirky strategy game that involves remembering/guessing which color eggs are hiding underneath which penguins. Even older siblings will enjoy playing with their younger brother or sister.

A mom recently asked me to recommend my favorite building toys for her two and a half year old son. She had recently purchased Design& Drill Takealong Toolkit from GIFT HERO, and was looking for more recommendations since her son was enthralled with it. This toy comes with a working “drill” that let’s kids put in and take out different brightly colored “screws” on the base, which folds up to double as a carrying case.

Fine motor skills develop at different rates for two and three year olds. It is important to select a building set that is age appropriate for their small hands. Sets made for older children have smaller pieces, which are difficult for little hands to master, and can prove frustrating.  Here are my top picks for building sets for two to three year olds.

TOMY Constructables, pictured above, lets kids build moving vehicles with working motors. All of the parts are interchangeable, so kids can use their own creativity and don’t have to follow diagrams or instructions (which most 2 and 3 year olds can’t really do anyway).

Kiddy Connects is a great manipulative toy and first building set. The brightly colored pieces snap together easily for little hands. They come in a zippered storage bag and are lightweight.

Snap N Learn Number Bugs are a hoot – not only do they help develop fine motor skills, but they also help teach numbers and color recognition. and the portable tub they come in is an added plus.

Stacking Construction Vehicles  (pictured below) and Stacking Emergency Vehicles are wooden trucks that kids can take apart and put together again. I love multi-use toys like this that can keep kids entertained for a long time in a variety of ways.

When Benjamin turned 3, one of the best gifts he received was Kids on Stage Game from University Games. A mom in his nursery school class, who knew him well, told me she was so excited that she had the perfect gift for my son. She had two older kids and was a go-to for me for ideas for toys and games for kids…so I knew it would be a hit.

Kids on Stage is an awesome, classic game. It is basically, charades for kids. It doesn’t require reading so it is very empowering for preschoolers. It is the perfect kids’ gift for boys or girls ages 3 and up. It is fun for the whole family and gets everyone up and active and laughing.  This game got a lot of love and use in our house and I gave this gift to many children over the years.

New this year, is a special 20th anniversary edition that includes double the content of the original game plus it comes in a sturdy storage tin (I especially favor toys and games that come in their own storage).

Two events recently happened in Benjamin’s first grade class that made me think he’s ready to learn more about the United States. First, he learned the Pledge of Allegiance. His class did a few art and writing projects to help understand and practice it.  They now say it every Friday.  Second, part of his homework was to count the number of states he has visited (12, not including connections for flights or just driving through…which I think is a good number for a 7 year old).

With both his birthday and Hanukkah coming up in December, I’m putting the Great States Game from International Playthings on our list. This wonderful kids’ gift is designed for 7 and up. It’s an educational toy that makes learning about our states fun. There are 400 questions that teach and test your knowledge of state landmarks, state locations, and state capitals. We’ll be playing together because, frankly, I could use a refresher myself!

We also sell Great States Jr for 4 to 6 year olds.