High Maintenance Mom

As another holiday season approaches, I've been thinking about what toys my kids continue to use and what toys break during the holiday season. If you were to ask one of my children what they want for the holidays you might hear about some super fantastic toy my oldest found on the internet while watching the shows I've banned from tv but he's found on YouTube. Obviously, that's another long story. Many of the things my kids appear to desire break or turn out not to be as much fun as they thought they would be. The toys that seem to last are the ones they can reuse for creative play. They love Legos and anything else they can using for building. Sometimes the creations are a simple ship whereas other times they are elaborate habitats for their plastic animals. Below is a selection of toys that not only encourage creative play but are also kid approved and can be used over and over...

My family is already a big fan of They Might Be Giants and we were not disappointed by Here Comes Science. It's one we can listen to / watch hundreds of times. First of all, it comes as a DVD/CD set so the kids can watch at home and listen in the car without my husband writing code to grab the sound from the DVD. And most importantly, They Might Be Giants, once again has found a fun way to interest kids in a variety of more technical concepts (chemical elements, paleontology, the circulatory system, evolution, astronomy, and more). B loves the bloodmobile and spent a full night drawing it over and over with the white blood cells dressed in their army hats.

S's favorite song is Electric Car. N also likes the bloodmobile song. We also like Here Come the ABCs [CD/DVD Combo] and Here Come The 123s [CD/DVD Combo] - also now available as DVD / CD combos.

Magazines are a fun gift for kids because they come in the mail throughout the year. Our kids see our magazines come and they watch us read them. In turn, we enjoy watching our kids get excited about their magazines. I have not read every kids magazine but I do have some favorites. If you are interested in knowing more about a magazine, I recommend checking out the magazine web site and looking for them at a local library or bookstore. Here are some of our favorites...

Here are the HMM picks for October 2007.

Since our giveaway this month is for younger children's books. I thought I would include a few books we love for older kids.