Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Favourite toddler media

Hi Marnie. I missed your question on my previous reading of this thread. Anyway, we've really enjoyed the Gus on the Go app. We've done French, but it's available in a lot of languages. It focuses on building vocabulary, not reading, so it's not exactly like starfall.

Random comment to be followed by a more thorough update shortly. We invented a fun game of guess-the-object. Choose half a dozen objects, put the. In a pillowcase, and have your child figure out what's inside by touch only. DS is crazy about this.

Thanks SC - Will definitely check that out!

We discovered some really cool apps over the last few days, one in particular called "Pettson's Inventions". If your kid likes to figure out how things work, has a mechanical/physics sort of brain...this is a great app. I'm not sure the intended age range, but basically it's a series of puzzles whose solutions require building Rube Goldberg devices. It gives sort of a very basic introduction to the way pulleys, levers, springs, etc. work, in a very playful way. The "inventions" have a sort of strange logic to them that appeals to DS, and I like that you don't use every part that's available, so it's not just a matching problem. Anyway, he loves it so far.

My daughter is three and she's been playing Starfall.com for about 6-8 months now. She has her own little laptop and everything. She LOVES it and she has learned a lot from it. There is a lot of free stuff but even a year's subscription is only 30 something dollars. I tried ABC mouse and found it too repetitive. Starfall is much better and much cheaper.

Update: Age 28 months (new media)

Books:
- Elliott Moose (Andrea Beck)
- Jane Hissey's books (Old Bear, Hoot, Ruff, Jolly Tall, Little Bear's Trousers, Little Bear Lost, Splash!, Old Bear's Surprise Painting)
- My Visit to the Aquarium (Aliki)
- Frog and Toad books (Lobel)
- Henry and Mudge books (Rylant)
- Mr. Putter and Tabby books (Rylant)
- Anything Leo Lionni (Alexander and the Wind Up Mouse, Swimmy, Fish is Fish, Little Blue and Little Yellow)
- More complex Dr. Seuss books (Horton Hears a Who!, The Lorax, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, The Sleep Book)
- Vicky Cobb science books (I Face the Wind, I see Myself)
- Rainbow's End books (by John Patience)-- New Friends, Toby Claypot's Wishing Well, That Mouse Must Go, The Winter Warming --charming books from my childhood about a village of little gnomes
- The Cat in the Hat Learning Library (Inside Your Outside, Hark! A Shark!, Oh Say Can You Seed, Miles and Miles of Reptiles, Is a Camel a Mammal?)
- Paleofiction like "Pterosaur Trouble" and "Ankylosaur Attack" by Daneil Loxton. These are fictional stories about a day in the life of a few dinosasurs/pterosaurs. I highly recommend these for children who love dinosaurs.
- The Slinky Malinki series (by Lynley Dodd)-- quasi mysterious stories about the high jinks of a cat and his friends.
- The Toby series by William Steig (Toby, Where are You?, Toby, What are You?)

Toys:
- Lego
- Magnet wands
- Magnifying glass
- Puzzles (especially Crocodile Creek floor puzzles- they're gorgeous! http://www.ebay.com/itm/2008-Crocod...imal-36-Piece-Floor-Puzzle-/191065438255)
- Bruder trucks (e.g. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bruder-02660-Actros-Garbage-Orange/dp/B00007B8O9)
- A cheap plastic tea set for the bath

Other print media:
- The magazine "High Five" by Highlights. DS especially loves the hidden picture puzzles. My parents bought a gift subscription for DS. He loves the magazine so much that I decided to buy back-dated used copies of the magazine going back 3 years. I'm going to hide a copy in the mailbox each week so it feels like we're getting a more frequent subscription.
- Here is a link to some free online hidden pictures puzzles: http://www.highlightskids.com/hidden-pictures/interactive/archive
- Brain quest puzzle decks (FYI: these are easy; age 4-5 or 5-6 seems about right for a 2 year old)


Electronic media:
- App: My First Hidden Pictures (Highlights)
- TV shows: "Dinosaur Train" and "Mighty Machines". He also likes watching model truck reviews on the YouTube channel "Cranes etc". The narrator is a wry British man who makes some biting remarks about manufacturers' products, which DS seems to love.
- He still likes Starfall, though we only play it once every week or two, whereas we do a few hidden picture puzzles every day on request!

29 MONTHS

TOYS:

1. Just bought DS2.25 a Quadrilla marble run. Easily one of the best presents we've bought him-- he played with it for 3 hours straight after it arrived, only to be separated from it for bed.

I bought this model for more than half off retail used: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000FJTP1G?pc_redir=1396078796&robot_redir=1

Highly recommended.

2. Rock Band -- play drums on practice mode. A favourite!

BOOKS:

- Anything by Jon Agee (thank you, Mana, for the recommendation!)
- Your Fantastic Elastic Brain
- Octopuses are Amazing
- Gravity is a Mystery
- Slinky Malinki
- Hairy maclary

Love your lists Aquinas!

If you don't have one already and do have access to an open area like a soccer field or rugby pitch, I recommend getting a Stomp Rocket. We bought one around that age and it is still a huge hit a year later. It is a light Styrofoam rocket that is launched when a child or adult jumps on a plastic container, forcing air through a tube to propel the rocket high in the air. We didn't get Stomp Rocket Jr, just the regular one for about ten dollars on Amazon. It would be a real challenge to cause injury with this, so the junior version is unnecessary. Anyhow my son loves to discuss thrust, trajectory, angles, etc and the rocket has been fantastic for his space loving pretend play

Thought I would pass it along because he has enjoyed it so much.

It is neat to see other kids who love the same classics as ours do.

For DS 3.5, we have loved:
The Dark by Jon Klassen and Lemony Snicket - we love this book! Really great book about a child and overcoming fear of dark
All books by Jon Klassen
Stuck by Oliver Jeffers
The Lump of Coal by Lemony Snicket (i have no idea why he liked this one)
The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins by Barbara Kerley (this came just at the perfect time, when a classmate of DS smashed his tower that he spent so much time building and DH and I learned about this amazing man)
The entire 42 books of the original Thomas railway series (we started reading those when he was 2 and he just loves them still)
The Big Orange Splot by Manus Pinkwater
The Legend of Indian Paintbrush by Tommie DePaola (this popped up again recently because it is spring now)
Alice in Wonderland (not sure why DH picked it up but he enjoyed listening I guess since I hear random references to it)
Mr Popper's Penguins

Toys
Magna Tiles (even our 19 month old loves those)
Currently playing with a new set of snap circuits
Oddly it is our 19 month old who loves legos while he has always been eh about them
Balance bike
Kite

TV
We don't watch much although he does love Dinosaur Train and whenever he wants to know a how to, DH usually pulls something up from youtube

So glad you like it, SAHM! I'm definitely going to look into the rocket. I could imagine my son being thrilled by launching it at the park. He wears sunglasses all the time outside anyway, so chance of injury is even lower!

Thanks for your list, notnafnaf!