another new toy she loves

This one might actually be more of a "girl toy". Generally, around here, there isn't much distinction. We have 2 pairs of dress up princess shoes that get equal wear. We have tons of matchbox cars that get equal mileage put on them. But, so far, Carl has taken no interest in this new toy of Gretchen's. The real reason is most likely that it is a fine motor toy and he is on to us with the "working" toys. Too much like school for him! Or he's too busy with his TAG reader. I cannot say enough great stuff about that toy! But, I already did. OK, just one more observation for TAG - his speech therapist was impressed watching him use the pen to touch each word individually and have the story read to him one word at a time because he did it left to right. Of course, I was not impressed - he does this all the time, but she said it was really good that he already grasps the concept of direction in reading. I am guessing other kids his age aren't?

Anyway, the Twinkles Magnetic Paper Dolls are a big hit with Gretchen, age 4. It's a set of magnetic clothes that come in a little thin tin with girls painted on each side. They also give you a 3rd girl who stays inside the metal tin and the magnet clothes stick to her as well. It came with several outfits and many accessories. This was a gift to Gretchen from Aunt Lila, but we also saw it at one of those really fun cool books stores with all the educational toys in it!

Gretchen's review: That toy has 2 persons and there is also some magnets to stick on and you can change them anyway you want to. And there's lot of magnets you can chose. I'll show you what it looks like. I like it because it is so beautiful and Aunt Lila gave it to me. It's beautiful! It's beautiful!

It is one toy that Gretchen truly puts completely away when she is done. You just have to stick the clothes magnets inside the tin and close it, but still - I was sure I was going to be picking up magnetic 1/4" hair bows constantly.




If only her brother would put away the 18,203,884,763 alphabet magnets that he has to go with his Leap Frog Word Whammer fridge magnet toy I'd be one happy momma!! If you have that toy - which is very cool, by the way - even though you will curse me out for all the letters on your kitchen floor, you really need to order the lower case letter set to go with it. They work with the Leap Frog Fridge Phonics one letter version, too. Carl is rocking the Word Whammer - both spelling his own 3 letter words and also in searching out the letters when they say, "Let's find the letters that spell the word 'ham' " or whatever 3 letter word they ask for. That is one small motor toy he loves because he isn't aware he is even doing fine motor placement. He is just caught up in the reading/spelling side. He also has a Leap Frog refrigerator magnet toy that has 26 different foods and asks you questions about searching out the correct food and placing it on the sensor. That one bugs me. And not just because it says "grapes grows on vines." It's just more annoying than the letter LF toys. According to this page, the Word Whammer and Fridge Phonics things have both changed in appearance and name. The Spanish one is intriguing.