You know what? I wanna be in one of those meetings where they invent new toy ideas. It must be totally awesome. And the one where they invented Harumika must have been ultra-awesome. Because this is simply the best toy I have ever seen. And my two girls agree with me (yes, even better than the giant robotic pony-thing that they wanted for Christmas).

Harumika Starter Set

But what makes Harumika so awesome is really its simplicity. It’s a basic toy that really relies on the child’s imagination: I know! How novel is that? And the best part? Children will play with this toy for a very long time (mine have spent hours happily at it) and it doesn’t require a lot of adult guidance or assistance (and once they understand the concept, they don’t need any help). It is, essentially, an outfit-making toy. You wrap the fabric around the mannequin and: BINGO! You’ve made a stylish new outfit.

Here's what you get in a starter set.

So, I know what you’re thinking now: how the heck do you work that thing? Honestly, I thought the exact same thing when it arrived. But the concept is incredibly simple. The starter package (which we received) contains a mannequin, some swatches of fabric, a spatula-like tool and some bling stickers. The really genius thing about Harumika is the plastic-coated channel in the back of the mannequin, where you can tuck in the ends of the fabric with the spatula tool:

Channel at the back of the mannequin.

Once your kids have mastered this, it’s hours of independent and imaginative play! My girls are nearly 7 and 9.5 years old, and they love this toy. Truth be told, I love playing with it, too! I’ve seen girls of almost any age love this toy, right from 4 on up to 14 (and 40!), and it’s not just girls who like it – more than one boy has hunkered down and designed outfits on our Harumikas while visiting us on playdates.

Here are some outfits that my daughters created with our Harumika sets:

Two Harumika creations

More fun outfits!

And at about $15 for a starter set, this toy is surprisingly well-priced. It fits perfectly in my birthday party budget, and I feel great about giving it as a gift to my kids’ friends. And now I see that they have a new range of mannequins that are more lifelike, which may appeal to some kids (although mine said they don’t need it – they’re happy with what they have, because they feel like real fashion designers using a dress-form):

A new Harumika

Overall, I give Harumika an A+ grade. I love that it encourages kids to get creative and to engage in real imaginative play, plus it has a very broad range of appeal to many different ages. If you have a kid who likes to create, I strongly recommend Harumika!

Back in November, the nice folks at LeapFrog asked if I would like to participate in a toy review program. I have to admit: I was interested. When my kids were younger, I was an avid purchaser of LeapFrog products. We owned a Leapster, LeapPad (now replaced by the Tag System), LeapPad Junior and one of my all-time favourite toys (which my kids still love) is the LeapFrog Fridge Phonics kit (except for the fact that they don’t have a Canadian version with “zed” instead of “zee” for the letter Z, but that’s just my own personal issue!)

So yes, I was interested. But I was also slightly skeptical…my kids are in grades one and four respectively…aren’t LeapFrog toys geared more at the preschooler age group? Read the rest of this entry »

Ahhhh!

So, so much has been going on in my life lately that I can’t possibly fill you in on it all. Why? Because that damn IRL stuff has been sadly overwhelming my online life. (“Stupid IRL”, she says in her best Homer Simpson voice)

For shorts, you can read this. It’ll give you an idea of the really, really big life and death (for real) issues that I’m talking about.

Then, just for the hell of it, read this, too. Just ’cause I think it was kinda funny and thought-provoking. (If I do say so myself. And I do!)

And now, for some funny in a sad, maybe-I-should-actually-be-mad way stuff:

So. I am living with my sister and her family in Toronto. Why? Read the first link above, doofus. My Mom is in the last stages of her fight against cancer and I’m here to help, okay? And after nearly four weeks here alone, my daughters came out to join me. So all three of us are living with my sister and her family. Which means there are four cousins, all under the age of ten, living together in one (rather smallish, but beautiful nonetheless) house. And because three of them are girls, and they’re young, and stupid unsupervised; they decided yesterday to give themselves (and the neighbour kid, thankyouverymuch) homemade “marker tattoos”.

Yes, marker tatoos. Read the rest of this entry »

Just so you know. Never, never, ever buy your child a “Grow Your Own Triops Kit”. They’re available from Scholastic, only in the catalogue, they call it “prehistoric creatures”. That’s so you can’t go online and google “triops” before you buy the kit.

Because when you get the kit? And you hatch the eggs? 

I know! Can we say 'disgusting', children?

Read the rest of this entry »

Today is Wednesday, so I must be in Estonia.

If you want to know why (and where), go here. For some fun pics and stories from the trip so far, go here.

In other news, how much does the newest version of Firefox rock??? If you’re not already using this ubercool OS (that means free, folks) browser, you should be. It rules.

It’s 12:56 pm local time, and Girl2 just feel asleep. That’s not good. Jet lag has finally caught up to her. Contrary to what I thought last night, the energy stores of a five year-old child are not, after all, unlimited.

Sleep well, sweetheart.