Category Archives: Hints and Tips

Find parenting tips, craft ideas, and yummy recipes to cook with your family. Have family fun with the helpful ideas from our hints and tips.

Easy Traffic Light Craft for Ride-Ons!

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traffic light buttontoy truck with traffic light

Enhance your little rider’s outdoor playtime with this DIY traffic light! This craft will encourage imaginative play as toddlers and preschoolers drive their riding toys around the backyard or sidewalk. Kids can learn all about traffic safety and what it means to stop, slow down and go. It’s always a good time to talk to you kids about outdoor safety. What better way to teach them about safety than through play!

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • Empty tissue box
  • Wrapping paper and its cardboard tube
  • Crafting cattails (a ruler or 6” metal rod will also work)
  • Scissors
  • Tape
  • Markers (red, yellow and green)
  • Pencil
  • Cup (or something else circular for tracing)

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  1. Open one side of the empty tissue box and fold the loose flaps inside or cut them off.
  2. Wrap the five sides of the tissue box and keep the opened side unwrapped.
  3. Use a cup or other circular item to trace and color three circles onto one side of the tissue box. It’s optional to write, “Stop, slow and go” on the appropriate circles.
  4. Stick numerous cattails into the ground. If the cattails are not secure, you can also use a ruler or 6” metal rod.
  5. Place the remaining wrapping paper tube over the cattails.
  6. Put the traffic light on top of the wrapping paper roll.

traffic light tutorial

Now your little ones can learn how to abide by the laws of the road. We also have tutorials for a DIY gas can and car wash to maximize make believe fun. Enjoy crafting with your little ones!

ride-on with traffic light

P.S: The toy truck featured in this blog post is the 2-in-1 Ford® F-150 Raptor SVT, coming out this fall!

 

3 Play Ideas for Cousin’s Day

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cousins day

Happy National Cousins Day to all! This family holiday, celebrated each year on July 24, is a day to let all of your cousins knows how much they mean to you! Many of us grow up with our cousins and they end up becoming our lifelong friends. Are some of your little one’s playmates, their cousins? In honor of Cousins Day, we have three play ideas that little family members will love:

  • Have a tea party: Celebrate by inviting your toddler’s cousins over during snack time! Cousins can spend some time in the playroom pretending to throw a party and enjoy a make believe meal with their table and chairs set.

table and chairs set

  • Do a good deed: Encourage your little one to help their cousins to clean their playroom or bedroom. Kids can work together as a team to put their toys away into a storage chest. Afterwards, kids can draw up some masterpieces and give them to their cousins as presents!

toy storage chest

  • Create a secret cousins club: Toddlers can spend some time outside in one of their playhouses and make it a “cousins only” club for the day. Playmates can play house, have a secret meeting or eat a snack in their backyard hangout.

kid's clubhouse

How will you and your family celebrate Cousins Day?

6 Tips for Selecting the Best Playhouse

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selecting a playhouse

Oh the joy of imaginative play! There are many toys on the market that encourage little minds to use their imaginations, but none are quite like a child’s playhouse. Playhouses promote creativity, make believe fun and teach toddlers and preschoolers practical skills that they can use as they grow. With so many playhouses to choose from, deciding on the perfect one can be difficult. We want to make the decision easier, so here are 6 tips to keep in mind when selecting the best playhouse for your kids:

  1. Location and size: Will the playhouse be indoors or outdoors? It all depends on how much space you have in your house or backyard. Whether you decide to put a playhouse inside or outside, make sure you know the dimensions of the area you want to place it and the dimensions of the playhouse you are interested in buying. On each playhouse’s product page, we list the dimensions to help you visualize the size of the toy.
  2. Material: Playhouses are made out of different types of materials depending on the manufacturer. The most common types of playhouses are wooden, fabric or plastic. Step2 carries durable plastic playhouses that won’t splinter or warp. Plastic playhouses are also able to withstand most weather conditions and they’re easy to clean.
  3. Style and design: Some playhouses resemble real houses and others are brightly colored like a rainbow. The style and design of the playhouse may depend on if you want the color scheme of the playhouse to blend with a child’s playroom or your backyard.
  4. Age appropriate: There are recommended ages for all of our products. You can find the recommended age below the description on each product’s page. Not only is it important that your children are old enough to play in a playhouse, but it’s also important that they have an opportunity to grow into it. We understand that some children may grow faster than others, which is one of the reasons we have a graph that highlights the inside dimensions of our playhouses so you can determine if a compact or larger playhouse will be the best fit for your kids.
  5. How many kids can fit in the playhouse: Kids may enjoy sharing their playhouse with their friends or siblings. If you are looking for a playhouse set to entertain more than two children, it might be a good idea to consider a larger playhouse.
  6. Features: Each playhouse has different features such as a built-in kitchen, grill, working doorbell, mail slots, etc. The interior and exterior features vary from playhouse to playhouse. It’s important to select one that has features your child will play with frequently.

Playhouses help little imaginations to grow while creating memories that will last a lifetime, which is why picking the best playhouse for your kids is essential.

Do you have any tips you would recommend to families looking for a playhouse?