Encouraging Imaginative Play With The Chalet Dollhouse

Dollhouses have been a staple of Childhood play for generations of kids.  Allowing children to decorate and arrange their own dollhouses helps inspire creative ideas, like an early fascination with architecture, design, art, and even creative writing.  Dollhouses often serve as a stage for kids to set up their own original plays, craft their dream homes, and even act out ideas of what they want to be when they grow up!

Today there's a wide selection of dollhouse designs to choose from, ranging from that traditional Victorian style to more modern houses with minimalist decor.  Falling into a category of it's own is the sustainable Chalet style dollhouse with that cool and earthy color palette, modern skylights and open design.  These dollhouses aren't confined to one look either and are designed to be arranged in a variety of ways.

There's a lot of room for imaginative play and creativity here.  Kids can choose whether their cascading stairs should belong in or outside the house, turn the dollhouse itself into separate condos, decide on the feng shui of the accompanying furniture, or even add compatible parts to create an epic sprawling metropolis.

Like creative writing, painting, and theater, imaginative play with dollhouses can serve as a creative outlet for kids of all different ages.  Wee ones who're still developing their logical thinking skills, creativity and object recognition naturally take to dollhouses because they allow hem to work out and understand the world around them.

While kids who're growing a little older may see dollhouses as a platform for working out more complex and creative ideas, like coming up with dollhouse decoration plans built around color or themes.  Kids naturally start to pick out their own dollhouse furniture, accessories, and miniature dolls to create more involved worlds.

What are some of your favorite dollhouse memories?  Let us know in the comment section below!

The Lowdown on Fine and Gross Motor Skills When Choosing Baby Toys

You've heard this term a lot, "fine motor skills", but how does it relate to babies and why is it important when choosing baby toys?  And to throw another curve-ball in there,  what's the actual difference between fine and gross motor skills? 

For starters, "fine motor skills" in babies refers to the small movements they exhibit early on.  These movements represent the beginnings of muscle coordination, as shown through small movements of the feet, toes, wrists, fingers, tongue, and lips.  The following examples fall under this umbrella:

• The holding or "clutching" of small objects, such as holding a little spoon and clutching a baby beads toy or teether.  That's why baby clutch toys typically feature large wooden rings for grasping or tactile features like bumps and large shapes to improve grasping ability.

• Discovering the coordination between thumbs and fingers to pick up objects (and before long chucking them across the room!)  Through baby toys, parents can help condition these fine motor skills with large wooden knob puzzles, stacking toys, sound rattles with large handle rings, and pint sized soft blocks for example. 

It's important to note that both fine and gross motor skills involve the development of muscle coordination, and they both grow together.  While fine motor skills in babies involve smaller movements like clutching and picking up toys, gross motor skills describe more physical movements like rolling over and sitting, and eventually more advanced large movements like crawling, walking, and running as children get older.

These motor skills continue to develop well past the toddler stage, into kindergarten, and beyond.  Gross motor skills continue to strengthen via sports and other outdoor physical activity, and mastering handwriting skills is just another continuation of fine motor skills for example.  

Developmental baby toys are designed to foster these motor skills and bring the two together early on, which also helps to improve early logical thinking!  

Pounding toys for example require large movements of the arms for pounding objects and smaller movements like picking up mallets.  And wooden Stacking, nesting, and sorting toys utilizes those smaller fine motor motor skills to improve logical reasoning like sequencing. 

To learn more about the relationship between motor skills and toys, check out our detailed online product pages, or visit our Baby & Toddler Pinterest Board for inspiration!

Under The Sea Toys For Babies and Tots

The phrase "Under The Sea" definitely resonates with me on that Disney's Little Mermaid Level (90s kid here), but it was also one of my favorite toy and decor themes growing up.  Still today, I'm enchanted by dazzling aquariums, larger than life whales, and coral reefs.  Soothing ocean waters and charming marine life continues to be a popular decor and toy theme for both boys and girls, proving it as a reliable go-to reference for quick birthday gifts and baby shower presents.

Top toy brands like Hape and P'kolino offer great solutions for ocean themed birthday presents for babies and toddlers too.  Offering a more unique twist on the shape sorter game, P'kolino's Fishing Hole Size Sorter encourages children to drop colorful fish into their corresponding fishing holes; helping to foster such fine motor skills as hand/eye coordination, dexterity, and logical thinking.

Children aged 1+ can continue to improve their building skills by creating whimsical oceanic structures with Hape's signature wooden blocks.  Hape is one of those completely charming brands, like eeBoo, Janod, and Haba, that produce vibrantly colored play blocks with personality.   Their "Under The Sea" blocks particularly stand out because they feature a wide variety of visuals, such as bubbles, starfish, water, sea grass, octopus and sand.

Switching gears a little to the Arctic, polar bear plush is a terrific add-on gift with a more educationally-driven toy.  Gund makes adorable baby plush with so much character, with Snuffles being one of the most beloved and softest of the bunch.  This terrifically chubby snow-white polar bear is appealing to both babies and big kids alike.  Snuffles also reminds me of those Coca-Cola polar bears during Christmas time!

"Under The Sea" style gift wrapping is really fun to create too.  There's so many possibilities if you're running short on time as well, such as creating party favor bags with simple recycled brown paper bags, sea-themed party confetti, and tissue paper (sea colors: light blue, white, dark blue, light green and a dash of pink)

Need more ideas? Visit our website for toy and party idea inspiration.