Step2

Here at Step2, we understand and promote the importance of families spending time together. A great way for families to spend valuable time together is by partaking in hobbies everyone can enjoy. Sharenanny.com gave us some great ideas for kid friendly hobbies that may spark the interest of you and your little ones:

• Rock collecting: As we transition into spring, we may find many interesting objects on the ground that were once covered by snow or leaves. Try collecting interesting looking rocks with your kids when you decide to clean up the yard or go on a nature walk. Try putting similar color rocks into the same jar and see how many different jars of rocks your family ends up collecting!
• Photography: Many parents enjoy taking pictures of the children so they can reflect on the memories of their kids as they grow up. Teach children how to take pictures whether it is with your phone or digital camera (parent supervision is strongly recommended).   Have your children take pictures of things they find intriguing whether it is pictures of their toys or trying to take pictures of you, it can be a fun experience you can both enjoy.  A fun project you and your children can do together is taking a picture of each other each day for a certain amount of time and the make a flip book out the pictures and see how much both of you have changed. Check out this example of this an awesome flip book!
• Scrapbooking: While you are taking pictures, this is a perfect opportunity to take those pictures and decorate them and put the photos into albums. You can spark the artistic and creative side of your children by having them choose the placement of the pictures, coordinate the colors, and use different decorative embellishments.
• Playing Instruments:  ParentalGuide.org expresses the benefits of children that play instruments. It helps improves children’s cognitive and motor skills. Teaching children basic notes on the piano or having them bang their hands on a drum may be a noisy experience but you will have a blast making noise together.
• Cooking/Baking: This is an activity that children can do right along with their parents with their very own play kitchen. Teaching children different ways to prepare food will help aspiring little chefs to learn how to cook and bake from a young age.
• Exercising: Keeping children active is very important. By spending time together doing basic exercise moves, it can promote a healthy lifestyle and a entertaining way for both of your to work up a healthy sweat. Whether you are having a dance party or playing outside, both of you will have tons of fun staying in shape.

What hobbies do you share with your children?

Brush off the snow and bring the playhouses inside!

Playing sports from a young age will can children to increase their physical activity and also develop physical and social skills. Here at Step2, we encourage active play and offer a variety in toddler sports toys.  Many of our products incorporate different sports into one product. We will soon have a toy that is dedicated solely to basketball.  Towards the end of summer, we will be rolling out three new basketball items, including a new basketball hoop.  In the meantime, check out these other great sports items from Step2.

Sports-Tastic Activity Center: For children 12 months and up, this activity center includes a variety of sports activities in one play structure. Your little one can drop the ball in the mini basketball hoop or hit the baseball with the bat. In addition, he or she can use the slide when they are not playing with the different sports accessories.

Kickback Soccer Goal & Pitch Back:  This sports toy encourages children to play together. Kids can play hockey or soccer with the included accessories or use the back of the goal for pitching practice.

Double Play Sports Baseball & Golf Set: Score a hole in one with the Double Play Sports Baseball & Golf set. This sports set allows little ones to play putt-putt or tee ball, which can help with hand-eye coordination and batting skills.

Do you think it is important for children to dabble in sports at an early age?

Step2 is not the only one..

Thank you to all the Test Drive Kids that took the Easy Turn Coupe for a spin:

Baby Dickey
Blessed by Brenna
Carrie With Children
Energizer Bunnies Mommy Reports
Freckleberry Finds
Go Graham Go
Little Inspiration
Mom Dot
Mom Endeavors  
Mommy of Two Little Monkeys
A Moms Take
Mommy Testers
Newly Crunchy Mama of 3
Noah’s Dad
Rave and Review
The Denver Housewife
The Link Fairy
The Rock Father
Thrifty and Chic Mom
Thrifty Nifty Mommy
WAHM Connect Reviews

As a reminder, make sure to visit Step2’s Facebook page and comment on your favorite feature of the Easy Turn Coupe. For every comment received, Step2 will donate $1 to the Saving tiny Hearts Society.

Fall came earlier than normal this year at the Step2 Headquarters in Streetsboro, Ohio. We have been experiencing a lot of rain and chilly weather! Even though the kids are back to school, they still need an outlet for active and creative play after a day of structured learning and scheduled play.  We are here to help with some suggestions of what to do when it is cold and rainy and your little ones cannot escape the confines of the indoors but still need to release some energy.

Step2 has a variety of toys that you and your little one can play with on those dreary days of fall. Better yet, incorporating arts and crafts or cooking into the equation can inspire more creativity. Here are our top picks of fun filled activities to do with your children on rainy days:

• Draw me a picture!  The All Around Easel for Two is a new product that inspires children to draw and post their artwork on the easel. Since there are two sides, more than one child can play with the easel. Suggest to your children to draw pictures of what it would be like if it was sunny outside. Ask them what their favorite season is and to draw it?
• Let’s get cooking! A customer favorite that has a new addition, the Grand Walk-in Kitchen & Grill! This great way to show your little chef what grilling is, is by firing up your own family grill and having your child imitate your movements on their Grand Walk-In Kitchen & Grill.
• Role play about the rain: Although playhouses are usually meant for outside, we have seen many of our customers bring playhouses inside during the colder months so their children can still play with their favorite toys. Suggest a role playing activity to do with your children such as pretending it is raining inside and running for cover in to the playhouse.
• Vroom-vroom in the living room: Ride-on toys are usually for outside but if you have some extra room in your house, you and your children can have fun riding around the house acting like a race car driver that is trying to make it home in a rainstorm.

How do you play with your children during rainy days?

It is great that children are becoming tech savvy, especially in this generation. However, could a child’s active play and creativity be suffering? “Researchers who have tracked children’s creativity for 50 years are seeing a significant decrease in creativity among children for the first time, especially younger children from kindergarten through sixth grade. This decline in creativity is thought to be due at least in part to the decline of play,” according to the Washington Post.

“Play is a remarkably creative process that fosters emotional health, imagination, original thinking, problem solving, critical thinking, and self-regulation. As children actively invent their own scenarios in play, they work their way through the challenges life presents and gain confidence and a sense of mastery” says  Nancy Carlsson-Paige, a professor emerita of education at Lesley University in Cambridge, Ma. Moderation is important when it comes to how a children play. There are so many ways for children to play due to the advancement of technology. Television is no longer the only issue when it comes to making sure children are getting enough creative and active play.

The Washington Post released an article this week titled “Is technology sapping children’s creativity?” With all the new gadgets that children can play with from tablets, cell phones, flip down car monitors, and computers, children have a variety of options of how they spend their play time. Yet, if children become consumed with these gadgets, they may not realize that there are many other ways to play that do not involve a screen and interactive applications.

The question remains, can technology and play tie together when it comes to child development? The products that are on the market that are technology based for children have a value of being educational and Step2 offers a variety of fun toys that help foster imaginative play and creativity including play kitchens, a puppet theatre, and art easels. We believe that a little tech and a little imagination can help to raise a well rounded little one.

What do you think about children becoming more involved toys that require technology?