{"id":14622,"date":"2013-12-09T00:52:16","date_gmt":"2013-12-09T08:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/?p=14622"},"modified":"2013-12-09T00:53:37","modified_gmt":"2013-12-09T08:53:37","slug":"christmas-toy-buying-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/christmas-toy-buying-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Toy Buying Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone\" alt=\"img\" src=\"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/images\/kidxmtoy.jpg\" width=\"922\" height=\"456\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The 2013 Best Toys for Kids include RingStix (left photo) and Calico Critters Supermarket (right photo.)\u00a0\u00a0California&#8217;s very own Mattel\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/business\/mattel-malibu-barbie.html\">Malibu Barbie<\/a> didn&#8217;t make this list! But we love them, anyway, and so do millions of kids!<\/p>\n<p><b>2013 Best Toys for Kids<\/b>\u00a0(from American Toy Specialty Retail Assoc.)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Active Play<\/b>: RingStix Lite By RingStix &#8211; System Enterprises LLC; Y&#8217;all Ball By Joint Merchant<\/li>\n<li><b>Classic Play<\/b>: Skwish Classic By Manhattan Toy (ages 0-7 yrs);\u00a0 Original Spirograph\u00ae Deluxe Kit By Kahootz Toys (8 yrs+)<\/li>\n<li><b>Constructive Play:<\/b> Q-BA-MAZE 2.0 Mega Stunt Set By MindWare; Squigz By Fat Brain Toy Co.<\/li>\n<li><b>Creative Arts Play:<\/b> Potholder PRO By Harrisville Designs X-treme Sticker Maker Set By Faber-Castell USA Inc<\/li>\n<li><b>Early Play:<\/b> Green Toys Seaplane By Green Toys Inc.; Tatoo Xylo Roller By Juratoys US Corp (JANOD)<\/li>\n<li><b>Game Play:<\/b>\u00a0 Bunny Peek A Boo By Smart Toys and Games, Inc. (ages 3-7 yrs); Zingo! Sight Words By ThinkFun, Inc.\u00a0 (ages 3-7 yrs);\u00a0 Laser Maze By ThinkFun, Inc. (age 8 yrs+); Timeline Diversity By Asmodee Editions<\/li>\n<li><b>Just for Fun Play:<\/b> Curiosity Kits Pulsar Powerballs By The Orb Factory; Super Magnetic Tidal Wave Thinking Putty By Crazy Aaron&#8217;s Puttyworld<\/li>\n<li><b>Pretend Play<\/b>: Calico Critters Supermarket By International Playthings (pretend); Rainbow Fairy Wings with Glitter By Douglas Cuddle Toy (pretend); Cargo and Passenger Aircraft By PLAYMOBIL (role play);\u00a0 Scientific Play Air-Stream Machines By Thames &amp; Kosmos (scientific); Snap Circuits SOUND By Elenco Electronics (scientific)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Christmas Toy Buying Tips<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Check online if toy stores are sold out in stores&#8211;this is especially beneficial for shipping to recipient!<\/li>\n<li>Focus on the features of the play a toy encourages, rather than on the features of the toy. Think about what the child can do, rather than what the toy can do.<\/li>\n<li>Let the child&#8217;s developmental level and interests guide your toy choices, not advertising or the popularity of the toy. Look for toys that let the child tell the story&#8211;toys that leave room for the child to use his imagination in how he plays with the toy.<\/li>\n<li>Choose toys that encourage kids to use and explore all developmental domains: physical; cognitive; sensory; speech and language; social and emotional.<\/li>\n<li>Look for quality, design, visually interesting and easy to use toys and appropriateness for age, gender and abilities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2013 Best Toys for Kids include RingStix (left photo) and Calico Critters Supermarket (right photo.)\u00a0\u00a0California&#8217;s very own Mattel\u00a0Malibu Barbie didn&#8217;t make this list! But we love them, anyway, and so do millions of kids! 2013 Best Toys for Kids\u00a0(from American Toy Specialty Retail Assoc.) Active Play: RingStix Lite By RingStix &#8211; System Enterprises LLC; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[29],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14622"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14622\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}