Jenny's Crayon Collection: Game

Make Saving the Environment Fun!

As a parent I think it is very important to teach kids about the environment and taking care of our planet. I was super excited to find the Adventerra Games company this year. They are a Swiss company that want to help children become aware of environmental themes that can help them respect other people, animals and the planet. Their games are plastic free, made from recycled materials and wrapped in biodegradable film. I was super excited to try out Ecologic Memory, Recycle Rally and the Water Game.

These games were provided in exchange for an honest review. This blog post contains affiliate links.

Find these games at the Adventerra Games store on Amazon.

Fast and Fun Family Game Night with Pop-Tarts Game

Some of my favorite games are games that relate to pop culture and Kellog's pop-tarts Game from Funko does just that. It makes me wish I had a pop-tart when I play it. It is a great game to play with kids because they have to count their points (math) and use strategy to get bonus cards.

This game was gifted for review. This blog post contains affiliate links.

Find this game on Amazon.

This is the set up for the pop-tarts game. It can be played 2-6 people at a time. Every player gets a toaster and freezer plate to place pop-tarts on. On players turns they take one card on the side the arrow is pointing. For example in the layout below the chocolate 2 would be taken and placed in the freezer section of the players plate. The three cards closest move toward the freezer and once card is placed in the middle to replace the card that was taken.

Bonus cards can be added to a players hand. These cards give the players more points when they can complete the bonus card.

Players can play action card to change the direction of the pop-tarts (where the pop-tart card is taken from) and other actions.

This is an example of a bonus card being completed. The first person to reach 30 points wins.

My daughter and I had a lot of fun playing this game. It was easy enough to understand, and it required a little more than luck to play the game. Games that are just luck drive us crazy. I would highly recommend this game to those that have children and are looking for a fun game. Find this game on Amazon.

Best Toys from Holiday of Play 2020 (STEM, Art and Free Play)

If you have read any of my other blog posts this year I have gone to a bunch of toy events, Toy Fair and Sweet Suite. At both of those events I saw so many toys. For both of them I picked out my favorite toys and Holiday of Play is no exception. Check out below to see all the cool toys I found at Holiday of Play. To see some of these toys in action check out my Best of Toy Fair video.

This blog post contains affiliate links.

What makes a good toy? When my Dad was alive he remarried and his new wife valued quality gifts over quantity gifts. That lesson has stuck with me being a parent. I definitely value quality toys over lots of toys.

Good toys have good play value. Play value in my opinion is the time a child will spend with the toy AND what the child will get out of the toy. There are many toys my kids have received that they glance at once, thrown in a pile and never pick up again. Meanwhile they clutter the house and little pieces are scattered everywhere.

My favorite toys are toys that are STEM, art and free play based, basically ones I buy my kids. I also do not like toys that tell the child how to play with them, ie toys that only have one way to be played with and involve lots of button pushing. Talking and noise toys are okay if the child makes a decision when playing with the toy and that decision has a consequence, see the Botlee 2.0, My Home, Squeakee below. Not toys where the child only pushes certain buttons and the toy starts talking. I give those away.

With that in mind here are my favorite STEM, art and free play toys from Holiday of Play. I have included links to all the toys.

These are all the companies that came to Holiday of Play.

Elenco-Smartivity Music Machine and Snap Circut: My Home

The Smartivity Music Machine won the toy of Holiday of Play for me. First the child builds the machine and then they put the pegs in corresponding holes to make music. As a musician I love this. They are learning the basics of how instruments work. The toy is also recyclable, safe, non-toxic, and sustainable.

Snap Circut: My Home is an electrical engineering STEM toy that teaches kids about electrical circuits.

Smart Labs-Storm Watcher

Smart Labs had lots of fun toys, but the Storm Watcher weather lab was my favorite. The kits include all the hard to find materials and lists of easy to find materials.

Crayola

Paper Maker and Paper Flower Science Kit

The paper flower science kit from Crayola is a super neat STEM kit that teaches the principles of capillary action by the flowers wicking up ink in the base of the flower. I will be doing a specific blog post on this soon and video. Make sure to check that out. The paper maker teaches valuable lessons on manufacturing paper.

Educational Insights and Learning Resources

Botley 2.0 and Circuit Explorer

We participated in an event with Botley at Holiday of Play. Educational Insights sent each of us a package and we could not open it until 4:30 that day. We all got on and some of us had letters in our packages. Mine was B. There was also a Botley in the package. We were super excited. There will be a blog post coming soon with our review of Botley. Spoiler alert, my kids LOVE him.

Circuit Explorer is a super another cute electrical STEM toy based on the moon that fits together and once together will form an electrical circuit.

Play Monster-Snap Ships

Hands down this was my sons favorite toy. All these little pieces snap together to make this ship. Kids can also use their imagination to make whatever they want.

Guju Adventure from Luki Labs

Guju Adventure is a STEM toy made with plastic panels and plastic connectors that can be arranged to make a Deep Sea Submarine or anything the child wants to make.

Step 2-Side by Side SUV, Ride and Hide Roller Coaster

Here is some random info. Step 2 makes mailboxes, we have one. They also make super cute outdoor and indoor free play toys. This Side by Side SUV and Ride and Hide Roller Coaster are super cute. They only thing with the slide is it takes up a bit of space. But it can be used inside or outside.

Blue Marble-National Geographic Handheld Microscope and Earth Science Kit

National Geographic launched a toy line this year and it is amazing. We have tried out the Marble run and all of their STEM toys look amazing! The Earth Science Kit is all about the Earth with 15 plus activities and the Microscope actually works to look up close at items.

Funko Games-Back to the Future Game, Pan Am Game and Pop-Tarts Game

My husband is a big board game fan. We love playing them with our kids. It helps them develop reasoning and mathematical skills, as well as working together as a team. Back to the Future is a cooperative game to prevent Marty McFly from fading away. Pan Am is a game based on the history of airline development where players try to build up their fledging airlines and compete with Pan Am. Pop Tarts is a Game about eating as many Pop Tarts as you can. It is a fun fast game to play and touches on coding because players have to take "actions" to improve their chomping ability before they eat their Pop Tarts.

Moose-Squeakee

Squeakee is a cute balloon dog that can perform a variety of tricks.

Crash Circuit from Far Out Toys

Crash Circuit is a race track with super fast cars that need to be charged with a charger for a few seconds before they take off. So much better than the clunky hot wheels set that required so many batteries and did not work long that I sold, in my opinion.

Spin Master-Air Hog and Megalodon

I am a big fan of remote control cars and both of these are next level. The air hog can be used indoors and drive over everything. When it falls it will not break. The Megalodon can be used outside and can go over water, mud, and rocks!

Wow Wee-Power Treads

Power Treads are a great STEM activity. The tread car has to be built and then it can race. I think this is great because it shows movement can come from more than just wheels.

Lego

There were some great Lego toys at Holiday of Play. Here are my favorites, they range in prices from way expensive(Mos-Eisley) to stocking stuffer (Lego Dots)

Holiday Village Elf Clubhouse 10275, Lego Dots Picture Frames 41914

Stormtrooper Helment 75276, The Mandalorian The Child 75318, Mos-Eisley 75290 (Super Expensive)

Holiday of Play was super fun! There was trivia, games, contests and lots of giveaways. There was also presents scattered around the floor. Can you see the one below? The Toy Insider did a great job setting up a great at Home experience. I hope something like this stays around even after in person events come back because it was great to do it from the comfort of home, no money on travel, food or hotels. I LOVE the in person events, but this would be a great connection tool as a supplement.

Crayola Create and Play App Review

I am so excited to review the Crayola Create and Play app today. Before I start I wanted to let you know Crayola gave me an iTunes gift card to review this app. And they are so nice they are giving one of you the chance to win a gift card to play this app too. Look out on my facebook, Instagram and Twitter December 10 to find out how to enter.

Crayola has had many apps over the years. Currently they have; Crayola My Virtual Fashion Show, Crayola Easy Animator, Crayola Design & Drive, Color Alive 2.0, Crayola Virtual Design Pro, Crayola Fashion Superstar, Crayola Photo Strings, Crayola DigiTools Effects, Crayola Digi Tools 3-D, Crayola DigiTools Airbrush, Crayola DigiTools Paint and Crayola Funny Faces. Even before there were apps Crayola's website was chalked full of activities, paid and non paid. The newest app from Crayola is just as good as the rest and functions better in my opinion.

What is the Crayola Create and Play app?
The Crayola Create and Play app is designed for 3 to 5 year olds. The app is very intuitive. It uses common symbols enclosed in a white square, such as; play buttons, maps, abc's game controllers, and paint buckets to enter different areas of the app. The colors in the app are vibrant and life like. The graphics are full of Crayola's signature style with crayon boxes, characters and lots of colors. The app opens to an animated scrolling menu where blue, red, yellow, green, pink, and green Crayola Tip characters are standing by an activity center.

The app is subscription based 3.99 per month before December 15 or 5.99 after or 39.99 yearly (which is a discount). New content will be added monthly. This app is available on Apple App Store and Google Play. Subscription services have been on the rise with apps and I am not surprised. Back in the day companies could charge a lot for programs. With the advent of the iPhone, apps were free or really cheap. I find that good quality apps usually cost money even a subscription, unfortunately.

Here is what is currently behind each crayon.

Blue-Art Station

This station includes, coloring pages, free draw, and a gallery.

Gallery: Parents can see what children have done in the app at a quick glance. There is a picture of each activity with the date.

Blank and Coloring Pages: There are lots of different art mediums to choose from when coloring; crayon, marker, colored pencil, shapes, roller, special effects, stamper, and paint brush. They are accurately represented on the page. There are many coloring pages to choose from. It has come a long way since MS Paint.

Red-Pet Park

Pet Zone has 3 islands where children can play, dress and care for their Crayola pets.

Yellow-Color Lab

The activity stations include; melt and mold (pictured below), gallery station of melt and mold, popping wax and making crayons, putting crayons in the crayon pack, making crayons, and video of how crayons are made.

This is the melt and mold station. Kids choose a color and medium. Then they can make a shape out of what they have chosen. The bottom right corner shows what we have made so far.

This is where kids can pop the balls and make a crayon. I do not know why this one is not in the games section, but my kids like it. I guess it goes in this section because they are making a crayon?

Pink-Colorful Classroom

The activity center includes; ABC Zone, Color and shape matching, rudimentary programming, and spray letters.

Here are all the activity centers.

Green-Arcade

The games include: Color Critters, Pet Dash, Puzzle Painter, and Scoop Stack.

Here are all the games.

Throughout the app children earn points for doing activities. They get to open this chest when they earn enough power. It includes play items for their pet.

What did we think of this app?

Both of my kids, age 5 and 8 loved this app. Even though the app is only designed for 3 to 5 year olds my 8 year old girl probably enjoyed it more than the 5 year old. My daughter even woke me up at 6 am one day wanting to play. I told her no, and let her play it after lunch. No need encouraging her to be in the habit to wake up super early for electronics. This portion of the app would be a hit with the 5-11 age range.

We liked this app because there was so many different areas to explore. It was definitely worth the subscription cost. There were no ads during play or activities my kids could not do. That is the worst when they are playing an app and all of the sudden they click on something that needs money or on an ad. I end up explaining no, we can not have that over and over. That was not a worry with the Crayola app. I would definitely do the yearly plan because it saves money over time.

What would we change?
If I were Crayola I would market this app to a larger age range. My daughter loved the Pet Zone the most. She would play it every day if I let her. I think the Pet Zone has the potential to become the next Tamagotchi. I would also add child profiles so each child could have their own unique app experience. Other than that it is great and I would definitely recommend it.