NEW Wooden Toys from BOIKIDO

Introducing BOIKIDO Wooden Toys at Gummy Lump. Boikido is dedicated to creating originally designed hand made wooden toys for children between the ages of 1 to 4 years of age. The Boikido range of products is designed exclusively in France by a top team of designers. The products are all tested with mothers, babies and educational experts to ensure that the design and functionality are the best suited for the target groups. Shop Boikido Wooden Toys Shop ALL Wooden Toys Shop ALL Wooden Toddler Toys

Wooden Toddler Toys: Top 10 Must Haves

Your baby has grown into a toddler and is exploring everything in site! Make sure his toys are still appropriate, engaging, and challenging for him. It's probably time to check the toy box and make sure you have the best learning toys for your toddler. What follows is a Top 10 list of toddler toy must haves: 1. Stacking & Nesting Blocks: Toddlers are learning to use their small motor skills to stack and balance objects as well as how to nest things inside each other. That's why a set of nesting blocks (or stacking blocks) is a perfect toddler toy. 2. Blocks - ABC & Building Blocks: Blocks are fascinating for toddlers because they can be stacked but make great noise when they're knocked over too! Building blocks stimulate a child's imagination into creative action! First, the idea in the mind and then the reproduction outside the child's mind. Blocks stimulate imagination while honing small motor skills. Blocks are the classic open ended play toy. 3. Push Toys: As you know, toddlers are very mobile! They also love to be able to control their environment. A push toy allows them to move their toy around with them. This is very exciting for your toddler and a skill he will explore for years to come! Additionally, toddlers (as the name implies) are learning to excel at walking and larger push toys help them balance while being mobile. 4. Pull Toys: Just like with push toys, pull toys are great fun for toddlers. Even when a toddler is young and only crawling he can already play with pull toys. You'll see his joy on his smiling face as he pulls his little wooden toy behind him! 5. Puzzles: Toddlers are learning so much every day, sometimes it's shocking what they can learn in just a week! There are many kinds of wooden puzzles appropriate for toddlers. Puzzles help develop hand-eye coordination, matching skills, fine motor skills, and problem solving skills! All of these puzzles are wonderful for toddlers: jumbo knob puzzles peg puzzles chunky puzzles sound puzzles 6. Vehicles/Cars: Ok, these are not wooden but they're RUBBABU! Pretend play may just be emerging in your toddler. One thing toddlers like to do is play "cars". They love pushing cars around, over, under, and through anything they can. Encourage pretend play while your toddler develops small and large motors skills with his cars. 7. Ball Tracks: Your toddler is learning cause and effect and is fascinated by it! He will love watching the balls travel in a mesmerizing pattern...and then do it again! 8. Shape Sorter: Shape sorters get those chubby little fingers working on small motor skills while getting their brains working on color and shape recognition, and matching skills! You'll see their sense of accomplishment when they've correctly sorted all the pieces and then want to do it again right away! 9. Pounding Toys: Yes, toddlers love noise - when they're the ones making it! Imagine what a hero you'll be when you actually give them something they're supposed to bang with a hammer! Once they get over the shock they'll have great fun improving their hand-eye coordination and motor skills. 10. Bead Mazes: The beads slip, slide, rotate, and move along the wire frame making interesting sounds. Toddlers love bead mazes because of the bright colors, texture of the beads and fun sounds. Don't tell them how great bead mazes are for their small motor skills and problem solving skills!

What are Unit Blocks?

Unit blocks are a particular kind of wooden building block. They usually come in sets and are often seen in preschool and kindergarten classrooms. Unit blocks are sometimes also called standard unit blocks or kindergarten blocks. They are are large wooden toy blocks for children, but they're also something more. The unit block principle was developed by educator Caroline Pratt in the early 1900s. She was the founder of the City and Country School in 1914 in New York City. Pratt believed that open ended play materials allowed children recreate the world around them. Today this is conventional thinking. But still, what's so special about "Unit Blocks"? Unit blocks are an important part of childhood play because they allow a child to discover and learn much more than an ordinary set of blocks. The very essence of the unit block is to allow the child to learn about fractions and multiples naturally as part of block play. A unit block is a standard size. The standard unit block is 5.5 inches long, 2.75 inches wide, and 1.375 inches thick. A set of unit blocks consists of several unit blocks along with other pieces that are multiples or fractions of the unit size. For example, a double unit block would be 11 inches long. Smaller sizes are made in various fractions of the standard unit such as half unit blocks which are 2.25 inches long. The dimensions of all other block shapes, including the columns, the pillars, the triangles, the curves, are proportional to the length, width and height dimensions of the “unit block”. The fixed dimensional relationship between the "unit" and the other block shapes creates an environment in which children develop motor skills and absorb math concepts such as length, volume and fractions while wholly engaged in the creative freedom of block play. Through block play activities children naturally discover the relationship between the different standard unit block shapes. They learn while playing that two Unit Triangles make a Unit Block, two Unit Pillars equal one Unit Block, and so on. Unit blocks are available in several different types of wood. The original unit blocks were made of hard maplewood. Today you can find them in birch, beech or rubberwood as well.

GummyLump.com has Unit Blocks by Melissa & Doug, One to Ten Toys, and Guidecraft. Guidecraft also makes mini unit blocks. The mini unit block sets are miniature versions of unit blocks but maintain the same proportional standards.

Today's unit blocks are also available in colorful rainbow stained glass, or shimmering water (shown above) or other options from Guidecraft. Additionally, Guidecraft makes "block mates" which are used with unit blocks to create fun animals out of the unit blocks!

Wooden Building Blocks: Priceless

Building Blocks are a staple of every child's toy chest or play room. I don't think I've ever seen a child's room that didn't have at least one set of blocks. BLOCKS. They seem so simple. Just wooden shapes. But, actually, those simple blocks are just priceless when you consider how valuable block play is to developing so many skills! 1. Physically: Your child will use large motor and small motor skills when playing with wood blocks. Large unit blocks have some weight to them and your child can even build strength by lifting them, carrying them, and stacking with them. Small motor skills are used when placing and balancing blocks atop each other. 2. Math: Unit blocks are a standard size and each piece in a set is made to scale to the other pieces of the set. Therefore, a half unit block is half the size of the unit block. You need two half unit blocks to equal the size of one unit block. Your child is learning about basic math concepts! Don't forget that block play is about shapes too! Which is the rectangle? square? triangle? How many sides do they have? Your child is learning about different shapes. Also, counting is a natural activity with blocks. How many blocks high is this? Can we make a tower with 10 blocks? Let's count them out and see. 3. Science: Why do blocks down? Gravity, of course. Young children especially love to just knock over towers of blocks. They can barely wait to just knock them down. Gravity is fascinating to them and the loud sound of wooden blocks falling is fun too! 4. Vocabulary: Block play is a great opportunity to introduce new words. Are you building a castle? fortress? tower? house? You might also encourage your child to tell you what they're building and what's happening in the block world they're creating. Add some wooden play figures to a block set for additional play value. People and animal figures are especially good for encouraging storytelling. Try saying "Tell me about what you made." Wooden blocks are maybe the best toy to demonstrate prepositions (in, out, on, over, through, under etc), which are often difficult for children to understand. What is "on" the blue block? What is "under" that? What are you putting "through" that tunnel you made? 5. Creativity & Imagination: Your child is learning to think in concepts. This is a huge step forward in his thinking process. The wooden block is not just a shape anymore. Now it's a brick in a castle or part of a spaceship! Your child's creativity is on display every time he plays with blocks. He is only limited by his own imagination. 6. Problem Solving: It's marvelous how much problem solving is involved in block play. Which tower can we stack taller...the one with the smallest block on the bottom? Or the one with the largest block on the bottom? How can this piece be balanced on that one? Why won't that block stay? Why is the tower leaning over? Can that be fixed? It's truly endless and you'll be able to see your child's problem solving skills develop as they play with building blocks over time. 7. Social & Emotional: When multiple children are playing with blocks there are many things to be negotiated. Who is going to get the red blocks? Who gets the big blocks? Who gets the people? When playing with other children your child has to learn how to work with others. Try having the children work toward one goal. They can try to build 1 tower using all the blocks by working together. Your child learns about his social world by acting out life with people figures. He might imitate what he's seen adults do, heard about in a book, or on television. This kind of pretend play is a safe way for your child to explore emotions like anger and fear by acting it out in a make believe world. 8. Sorting & Matching: Your child is learning how to "group" similar things together based on traits. Using building blocks to do this is easy. You can sort by shape, size, or color! Your child will use this skill all his life. Larger unit block sets can lend themselves to matching as well. Which other block is the same as this small triangle? The concept of one thing going with, or belonging with another is one that he'll always use. Did I miss any? Tell me! I stand by a previous blog post: ...Why Building Blocks are the Greatest Toy of All Time!

Favorite Wooden Toddler Toys

If you're looking for wooden toddler toys, look no further than GummyLump.com. Your little one isn't a baby anymore, but he's not old enough for many toys. It seems that when your child is a toddler, many toys are just too sophisticated for him or contain small parts! We're here to let you know that there are many wooden toddler toys that are age appropriate and SAFE for your toddler, like this Bamboo Racer (left). Recently we added a special section to our wooden toys category just for toddler toys so that parents can easily find these. The following is a sampling of our very favorite wooden toddler toys. Have it already or want it? Please leave a comment? We love to hear from you :) Chomp and Clack Alligator Push Toy Sturdy wooden push toy features a cute chorus of three clacking gators that keep chomping with every step! Children who are just walking will enjoy practicing their new skill and showing off by mastering this toy! Pyramid of Play Educo's Pyramid of Play is a multi-functional educational toy. Five wood nesting blocks with fun graphics and colors. Each block helps with recognition of letters, pictures, colors, numbers and sizes. Shapes fit in their corresponding block with a color outline to ease matching. Colored with non-toxic paints and assembled with non-formaldehyde glue. Sure to keep your toddler busy and intrigued! Will help your toddler develop fine motor skills, matching skills, sorting skills, reasoning skills and problem solving skills. Magnetic Kitchen Bottle Collection This smoothly-shaped; solid-wood kitchen bottle set has removable; color-coordinated magnetic caps. Your toddler is just learning his colors and this color matching game is sure to excite him! Additionally, the caps are large enough that his little fingers can get the caps on the color-coordinating bottles. Beginner Pattern Blocks You asked for a set of pattern blocks for younger children and Melissa & Doug delivered! This set features 10 brightly-painted wooden patterns and 30 colorful shape pieces to replicate the fun pictures. Great for early development of colors; shapes and matching skills. A tremendous value and a great learning set! Contains one each: fish; dog; butterfly; flowers; bird; and fire engine. Your toddler will enjoy holding the large pattern block pieces and matching them to large, familiar images. Alphabet Magnetic Puzzle Book This newly redesigned; magnetic book with 52 removable pieces is bound to amuse and amaze! Familiar, bright images make this an engaging and fun toy for toddlers. They will love that each piece is like a 1-piece puzzle that stays put because it's magnetic! Great fun for practicing the alphabet, letter recognition, fine motor skills, and learning new words! Frolicking Frog Wooden Pull Toy You never knew frogs could be walked? This happy; hopping; friendly frog has hinged hind legs that spring this vibrant wooden pull toy to life! This carefully crafted toddler toy is built to last and is sure to please. New walkers will go crazy over this fun frog as they make several successful steps in a row! In fact, this toy can be used for pre-walkers as well!

Learn to Play Piano

With the Toy Upright Piano from Melissa & Doug; kids will be playing more than Chopsticks; that's for sure! This colorful; wooden toy piano from Melissa & Doug is a mini-replica of the real thing; featuring two full octaves of ivory and black keys. So whether kids enjoy practicing their scales or creating their own creative masterpieces; they will love the freedom of playing on the Toy Upright Piano from Melissa & Doug! Piano stands 13 tall and includes an illustrated songbook and color-coded key chart. Playing helps develop small motor skills, basic music skills, and creativity. A fabulous toddler toy! Fit Together Toddler Blocks Haba's version of Lego like construction blocks. Is your baby just starting to stack and getting frustrated with the carefully built tower falling over all the time? Remove the frustration out of playtime with these baby safe; colorful hardwood blocks by Haba. Round pegs allow the blocks to fit into each other. The blocks are perfectly sized for baby and toddler hands. 27 pieces Check out our wooden blocks and wooden puzzles too! There are many age appropriate blocks and puzzles for toddlers too!

RUBBABU is New at GummyLump.com!

WHAT IS RUBBABU?

Rubbabu is a collection of toys that are uniquely soft and light made from an all-natural, 100% biodegradable rubber and covered with a silky smooth flocking material - making Rubbabu both kid-friendly and eco-friendly! From vehicles, to textured balls to blocks, Rubbabu is uniquely soft, squishy, bouncy and fun! All Rubbabu is delightfully soft and squeezable, yet sturdy enough to handle years of active play! Educational Value: Rubbabu toys are great for the development of dexterity, problem-solving and reasoning skills, hand/eye coordination, color/shape/size identification, sensory exploration, and gross motor skills.

Award Winning RUBBABU Toys Dr Toy Best 100 Children's Toys The National Parenting Center Seal of Approval NAPPA Honors

The Rubbabu Big Red Firetruck (shown below) is a 8"L x 5"W, yet it is squeezable and light enough to be easily carried by a toddler. The movable ladder and rolling wheels enhance creative play and will ensure that your child will fight fires for hours with this durable toy.

6 Reasons for Calling Buildling Blocks the Greatest Toy of All Time

When was the last time you shopped for toys? It's hard to miss that toys have changed a great deal from your own childhood. Yes, some changes are wonderful like incorporating music and sounds with computer chips, and the advent of electronic educational toys like Leap Frog. However, on the whole if you shop in most toy stores, you're sure to see aisle upon aisle of toys that have a predefined purpose. There seem to be fewer and fewer open-ended toys. The beauty of play is that a child uses his toys for expermentation and to try to better understand his world. In order for a child to use his imagination, the toy should have the ability to "become" whatever is in his mind. With this in mind I bring you 6 Reasons for Calling Building Blocks the Great Toy of All Time: 1. It's the ultimate open-ended toy. Whether it's a wooden toy block set, a cardboard brick set, or plastic blocks set, the basic plain shape of a block lends itself to "become" anything a child can imagine. Is it a car, or the wall of a house, or a sled? Yes, it's all those things and unlimited other things too. It's whatever your child can imagine. 2. Blocks are age appropriate for almost any child. That's because there are so many different varieties of building blocks. A child as small as 6 months old can enjoy playing with a soft set of blocks. Some sets of blocks for babies even have Velcro to make it easier for them to build. You can also introduce your child to wooden blocks with a set of wooden ABC blocks. Young children enjoy looking at the familiar pictures and have fun knocking down towers you've built for them. A toddler will love soft blocks like EduBlocks. They are similar to giant Lego's but they are softer. This makes them less dangerous when thrown or knocked down and lighter to build with. The interlocking nature gives a toddler satisfaction because the pieces stay put once they're stacked. No more leaning towers or prematurely crumbling castles. They are also sturdy enough to sit and stand on. An 18 month old can easily build a train, car, or seat with these blocks. Unit Blocks can be introduced to children of 3 years old. At that age they'll love stacking the blocks and building fun structures. After unit blocks your child may like a nice set of tabletop blocks. These are smaller wooden blocks that don't take up as much room and require fine motor skills. A child who is 6 years old will enjoy architectural buidling blocks. These blocks have specific design elements that identify them as part of a culture or artistic movement. For example, Haba's Russian Blocks shown in the image to the right. 3. Blocks can ALSO be used with structured play. Some things you can do with blocks include sorting, stacking, sizing, nesting, and counting. How many toys can do all that AND be open-ended too? 4. Building blocks use both large motor skills and small motor skills. Larger blocks require the use of large motor muscles to collect and stack. Balancing one block atop another requires small motor skills using the hands and fingers. Children keep exercising these motor skills over and over again with enjoyment. The repetition improves these skills. 5. Blocks can be used by one child or many children at once. A large set of Unit Blocks can occupy several children at one time and allows small children to learn how to play together and cooperate. 6. Staying Power - If you pull out a set of blocks 5 years from now your child will reach for them and start building! It's an interest that spans many, many years and doesn't exclude adults. So the next time you're off to Grandma's house pack just one toy, the greatest toy of all time, a set of blocks. Visit GummyLump.com to shop for building blocks

3 Steps to Choosing a Toy Your Baby Will Love

How do I pick a toy? How do I know which ones he'll like? We hear these question quite often so here are some simple guidelines to help you choose a toy your child will be interested in for a good long time.

The best way to determine what will be the best toy is to consider your child's current interests and abilities.

Just the other day I was reading a post from a Mom who said she thinks her 9 month old daughter is bored with playing with the toys she has. She wanted some advice as to what toys would be good for her daughter.

In her post she mentioned several activities that her daughter likes: pulling herself up on chairs and furniture, crawling, grabbing for things, and finding things she can hold. Voila! What other information do you need? None!

Here's what I suggested:

1. When shopping for baby toys make sure you're choosing toys that are truly intended for babies. How do you know? Check the label and make sure the manufacturer's recommended age is in line with the child you're making the purchase for.

2. A child of 9 months has lots of capabilities and wants to explore like crazy. My first choice would be a pull toy. Pull toys have a string attached to them so that the baby can reach out and grab the string and pull it toward them. This may sound simple, but to a baby of this age it is monumental. They are learning to control and manipulate their world. The most popular pull toys include blocks in a wagon and animal pull alongs.

3. A 9 month old child also enjoys grabbing objects. A great toy choice would be a soft plush ball. These often have a rattle, bell, or chime inside for further interest. Baby will have fun grabbing it, rolling it (maybe even accidentally)

To recap, when choosing a toy for your child keep 3 things in mind:

1. Check the age recommendation by the manufacturer 2. Consider what your child already likes to do and look for a toy that mimics that behavior 3. Choose a toy that not only does the thing your child likes but offers even more! For example, a soft ball WITH a bell or rattle in it, a pull toy that's ALSO a set of blocks or a peek a boo toy that ALSO makes sounds (like a jack in the box!).

Using Building Blocks for Structured Play

A great book to read if you are interested in building blocks is The Complete Block Book by Eugene Provenzo. There is a wealth of information in this book about the historical emergence of building blocks as an educational tool, as well as detail on studies showing how building blocks develop children’s social, cognitive, and motor skills. The following is an edited list of structured block play ideas from the book to enjoy with your children. 1. Practice shape words - put a handful of blocks into a bag and have the child pick each out one by one. Have the child describe it to you without looking! Have the child only use the sense of touch and his vocabulary to describe the block. 2. Make your own shape sorter - Have the child choose about 6 blocks and then have him trace them onto a piece of paper. Color in the shapes according to the colors of the blocks that were traced. Let the child then match up the actual blocks with the tracings. This is a great activity for practicing small motor skills and involving 3 fun activities- tracing, coloring, and block play. Make sure to rehearse shape and color names! 3. Learning “attributes” - Take 20 blocks of different shapes, sizes and colors and have the child sort them into groups by a like trait. Don’t tell the child how to sort them! Then, have the child explain why he sorted them the way he did. Younger children are only able to sort by one attribute-color! Older children will be able to sort by shape and size. You can see how your child’s cognitive skills develop over time with this exercise. 4. Domino effect - Have your child collect 10 or so same size rectangular blocks and set them up so that toppling the first will create a domino effect. Children love watching the dominos fall and it teaches them cause and effect. This exercise also helps develop small motor skills. 5. Seriation - Have your child take a set of blocks and place them in size order. For younger children start with only 2 blocks as this is a very difficult task for them. Gradually add blocks to the set. Placing things in order (seriation) is the skill developed through this exercise. Also, visual discrimination is practiced. 6. The pattern game - This is especially fun with older children. Take a group of blocks of varying sizes and colors. Create a pattern with 2 blocks and have the child copy it. Once the child copies it correctly add another block. Have the child copy that as well. Develop a pattern, do not build a structure. Once you have something like 2 red blocks, 2 green blocks, 2 red blocks, have the child guess what will come next. Older children will see the series developing and anticipate the next block or two. This game develops seriation and visual discrimination. 7. Math made easy! For many children math can be made simpler by having them use concrete objects to represent numbers. With a set of blocks a child can set up 2+2=4 by counting out two blocks and counting out another 2 blocks and then joining the piles together to count 4 blocks. Early math skills are made easier by concrete representation. And remember, if your child can add, he CAN subtract! Just show him. Note: These building block activities are by no means intended as substitutes for free and open ended play by the children. Instead consider these ideas as part of structured lessons and alternate ways that building blocks can be used in an educational setting, or even at home:-) To Find Building Blocks at GummyLump.com: Blocks & Building Toys or Wooden Blocks

Building Blocks are an ideal Educational Toy

Here are a few of the benefits of playing with building blocks for children. You will never again wonder why building blocks are considered educational toys. 1. Math and science skills are involved including size relationships, shapes, counting, height, width, area, fractions, and classification. 2. Spatial relationships are used and defined in concrete terms....ie.the train is inside the tunnel or over the bridge. Your child will use concrete examples of open, closed, over, under, atop, inside, outside and so on. 3. Language and pre-reading skills are developed and strengthened through block play. In order to read your child must associate a word (symbol) for an object. This will be regularly done by your child in block play. For example, your child might use his blocks to build a symbolic house, castle, or farm. A young child is only fascinated by building up and knocking down block structures. As your child gets older and develops these pre-reading skills, he will begin using blocks creatively to represent structures. 4. Another important pre-reading skill is visual discrimination. With block building, as with reading, your child must be able to distinguish between similar but different shapes. Your child will use and develop this skill when selecting particular size and shape blocks to build a structure that will stand. Also, your child can demonstrate comprehension of his favorite story through block play and dramatization. 5. Block play also develops social skills. Through block play with other children your child will learn about sharing, playing with others, compromise, cooperation, teamwork and leadership. Block play is also one of the few activities where children of differing skill levels can work together. 6. Block play helps develop small motor skills as well as hand-eye coordination. These skills are practiced each time a block must be placed in an exact position. Don't think we don't know that block play is a favorite among parents as well! Go ahead Mom and Dad, but remember to share! Happy Building! FAQ What styles of blocks do you carry... and what's the difference? Unit blocks - These blocks are intended for floor use. They are large and require open floor space to play with them effectively. This set can be added to with arches, tunnels, flat boards, and cylinders to create an enormous variety of large structures. Since these blocks are large and heavy it helps to develop gross motor skills in children. Children also get a kick out of building "life size" structures! Each unit block set is based on a standard "unit" size. All other blocks in the set are either fractions or multiple of this block size: . Because of this, children are able to build large, rather stable structures (unless a little brother or sister comes along).

• A NOTE ABOUT THE STANDARD UNIT BLOCK: The actual block named the"Standard Unit" is a block that measures 5 1/2"long x 2 3/4"wide x 1 3/8" high. All Standard Unit dimensions are multiples of 1 3/8" and the dimensions of all other block shapes are multiples or fractions of the the dimensions of the "Standard Unit". Children are learning basic math concepts while playing with unit blocks. For example, they are learning that 2 of piece x is the same size as one of piece y. They learn this while building. Through blocks play children "discover" the relationship between the different block shapes and learn that two half units make a "unit", two units make a "double unit" an so on.

Mini Unit Blocks The concept is the same as for Unit Blocks, except that mini unit blocks are smaller and can be played with on a tabletop, desktop, or other smaller surface. Still, the blocks are all made to scale which gives you the same benefits as noted above. Architectural/International Building Blocks - This series takes block play to a new level. They are part of a system that incorporates block shapes with the styles and design characteristics from several distinct cultural and historical periods: European, Middle Eastern, Classical and Far Eastern. The International Building Blocks can be used by themselves or with other International Building Block Sets to create structures that are historically correct, or that pioneer new architectural styles. They are much smaller than Unit Blocks and are sized to be played with on a table top. These blocks are not safe for children under 3 years of age. Pattern/Parquetry blocks - These flat blocks come in different shapes such as triangles, diamonds, or squares. They are usually brightly colored and are most often used to create beautiful geometric patterns and designs. They can be used with or without the pattern cards that often come with these sets. Matching games and exercises with these blocks help develop and practice visual discrimination. Kapla Blocks - This is a brand of specialty blocks that are flat called planks. Some are natural wood sets and can be combined with colored sets. The make extraordinary structures. Look for their books that give you great ideas on the amazing things you can build!