Dr. Toys Best Vacation Products: Summer 2008

Play Smart and Play Safe this Summer©

Dr. Toy warns parents to reduce technology during the summer to allow for more creativity, crafts, and communications. Too much TV, computer, and video game use dulls the brain, diminishes creativity, degrades physical agility, and reduces social interaction.

Dr. Toy's Rx for Summer: Strive for Balance

Check out Dr. Toy's Vacation Playtime Pointers

Summertime provides a perfect opportunity to unwind, stretch mind and muscles, explore new places, and enjoy a change of pace. This is an important season for children to continue learning as they play with all their energy and spend more time outdoors.

Children work hard in school and need balanced playtime for healthy development…activity for physical growth, creativity for expanding imagination, and learning to keep minds alert. School requires concentration and energy, so does playtime.

Through play, the “work” of children, they learn essential skills in every season, but especially in the summertime. Summertime is best spent far away the TV and the technology toys. This is the perfect weather to use the child’s “natural circuits” for creativity, activity and learning. It’s the time to explore nature, engage in hobbies, practice music, and exercise the mind with games that are played interacting with others.

A good portion of time should be spent outdoors in age-appropriate play. Outdoor activities can take the form of walking, skating, jumping rope, bike riding, swimming, hiking, walking nature paths, playing sports like baseball, tennis, golf, basketball, and any of the many other activities that allow for the development of physical skills and the coordination of minds and bodies.

Exercise is more important than ever before. Varied outdoor playtime is important for all children of all ages every day. Being safe and having fun outdoors gives an essential balance that complements everything else they’re doing. Play outdoors brings children into activity that they greatly need for their developing bodies and to keep physically fit.

Indoor play can involve creative arts like painting, on a flat surface or with large sheets of paper on an easel; making simple things, like cut-ups or cut-out stickers like Colorform sets, or paper dolls; and engaging in a favorite hobby. Many creative activities can be easily combined with listening to music for added value.

Building projects are always fun and an extension of creative play. Consider some of the construction products suggested by Dr. Toy such as Kapla or MEGA Blocks. Our web site features many excellent construction products for wider use of this valuable activity that improves eye-hand coordination and problem solving.

Other excellent product choices are listed to assist you as you select playthings for a productive and fun-filled summer vacation. You want to search for the right products when you are planning a vacation so your child has plenty of worthwhile activities while traveling. Being happily engaged reduces the stress and makes the trip more enjoyable.

Playing helps to expand children’s outlook, imagination, and interests. They thrive if given a chance to develop stories with puppets and dolls, figure out new puzzles such as “Scramble Squares,” discover the fun of reading different books, playing games, or constructing something new.

The diverse list of suggested products included in our award winning selections will assist you in finding just the right products.

Children have plenty of questions; they want to have conversations; and, most of all, they want to play, discover, and explore to their fullest potential.

Here are Dr. Toy’s guidelines for wholesome summer vacation playtime to help you to make the time even more balanced and fun for your child:

• Select a good variety of challenging products appropriate for child’s age and interests.
• Arrange toys and playthings so they are easy to access and easy to store away.
• Plan a variety of interesting and enjoyable activities.
• Take time to visit your local public library so your child continues to read and appreciate the value of books
• Be sure to create a good mix of indoor and outdoor play.
• Remind children that they should drink plenty of water during the summer time to avoid dehydration.
• Assure children get needed rest, eat healthy snacks, receive safety awareness instruction, and engage in safe play. For example, children who cannot swim should not use floating devices in the water as these can slip away. Better to learn to float and swim and gain the confidence for water play.
• Children should play with age appropriate products and have proper supervision to avoid accidents.
• Learning to prepare a simple recipe is practical fun for children, including making sandwiches, scrambled eggs, or simple, healthy snacks.
• Encourage children to make something useful like a craft project, or to assemble a puzzle.
• Express your admiration for each accomplishment. Children thrive when their talents are recognized and nurtured.
• Gather an assortment of creative projects and various materials in a storage box along with easy-to-follow directions.
• Keep an assortment of paper, glue, safety scissors, and magazines to easily cut pictures for a collage and scrapbooks in an accessible box.
• Take time to do creative and fun projects with your child.
• Consider projects that involve planting, weeding, and nurturing pets.
• Plenty of great play ideas and products are available for all ages, interests, and skills. Dr. Toy's assortment of Summer Products for 2008 gives you good suggestions available from many excellent companies.

Let's Play!

Search Dr. Toy's Best Products - 2007-2009

Product Type	Age (Years)	Max Price	Program
Any Active Toy Activity Product Arts and Crafts Audio Tape Board Game Book Card Game CD CD-ROM Computer Related Construction Toy Costume Creative Product Doll Dollhouse DVD Educational Skills Electronic Game Electronic Product Entertainment Equipment Fantasy Play Game Green Product Hobby Multimedia Musical Novelty Other Outdoor Play Plush Toy Pool Toy Puppet Puzzle Rubber Stamp Science Socially Responsible Software Stamps Toy Transportation Travel Item Unique Product Video Game Video Tape	Any Birth 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 12+	Any $10 $25 $50 $75 $100	2007-2009 - All 2009 - Classic 2008 - Summer 2007 - 100 Best 2007 - Worthy of Attention 2007 - Summer