We upgraded from a very cheap $25 toy keyboard to this one a while back. What a difference! My boys all love to play on this keyboard. The 1 year old simply likes to pound on the keys and make a racket. My 6 year old actually likes to play along with some of the demo songs. And the favorite feature for our 3 year old is the sound effects package. You press a mode button on the keyboard and suddenly every key plays a different digitally recorded sound effect! And the effects are really great: cow moo, lion roar, frog, heart thumb, clapping, rain, gun shot, burp (that one’s a big favori... more

We bought one of those big wooden playsets a couple of years ago for our kids. We have 3 boys, so it seemed like a good investment! And frankly I’ve been amazed at how much the kids use the set. I expected they would get bored of it and stop using it much. But in fact they are still on there almost every day. The playset includes 3 swings, a slide, a little climbing wall, 3 ladders, monkey bars, tire swing and a covered platform. We just bought the basic set. There are much, much more elaborate ones, that can cost up to $10,000! We paid something more like $1,500 and spent another $50... more

This has been the standard tricycle around our house for a number of years now. This bike actually looks a little bit more like a mini-motorcycle, because your boy sits lower down than the typical upright trike. This tricycle includes a big handle which is meant to provide dad a way to push your child on the bike. The big handle can then rotate and sit underneath the whole thing, so that the bike rocks back and forth on top of the curved handle (thus the ‘rock ‘n roll’ name). I’ve learned after owning a few of these to not even include the handle when I assemble it (... more

I’m not a huge fan of buying weapons for the kids, but my boys love Star Wars, and they especially love Lightsabers. We probably own 3 of this type, and these are a “mere” $20, whereas some of the ones available cost up to $200!! This basic model has a spring-loaded switch so the plastic tube shoots out when you press it, and that turns on the lights and sounds of the saber powered by the battery (3 AA). The sounds include the basic lightsaber “sczuuuungg” sound, plus when you hit the shaft on anything it makes a sound like 2 lightsabers hitting one another. My... more

No doubt you’ve seen lots of kids around town riding Razor Scooters. These are the little aluminum scooters with 2 large-ish red wheels. We bought two of these scooters for our house, and now all three of boys are riding them, even the youngest who’s only 18 months! What the kids love about the Razor is that it goes fast. These scooters are made quite well. The metal is tough, and the wheels are high quality, which allows the scooter to really move. It even has a warning label on it “Warning - this scooter will move!”. So its best to make sure the kids wear helmets ... more