Design*Sponge » Blog Archive

What I’ve discerned from the esteemed and reliable news source called Us Weekly is that kids are the center of the universe these days. So I wasn’t too surprised when one of my friends started handing out wallet-size pictures of her unborn child’s face flanked by mystery fleshy material (from those 4D fetal imaging centers) or when another friend sent me an invitation to her daughter’s one-month birthday party at the Ritz Carlton.

Well, as for myself, I’m hardly June Cleaver. And I have to admit the whole parenting thing gets a little stickier when you’re running your own business. In our house, I am the parent that is more “available” since my boss (aka me) allows me to leave whenever I want, thereby giving off the impression sometimes that I could be a stay-at-home mom or a part-time working mom with free time galore. In actuality, I have less time than most folks since my work requires me to work pretty much around the clock. So when other moms start asking me what my kids are involved in, I start to feel guilty that they aren’t “scheduled” enough, you know, with school, playdates, italian language classes, and early ninja training.

On that note, here are a few kid-related products I’ve been loving lately. Trust me, my under-scheduled children love them.

5-Year Diary by Tamara Shopsin. I recently bought this diary to write little notes about my children every day. They really do and say some of the funniest and amazing things. It’ll be fun to look back on this one day.

Boiled egg molds. Provided your kid doesn’t have an egg allergy, your kids will love these and think you are a dang wizard to boot! These molds shape hard boiled eggs into little cars, fish, bunnies, and bears.

My Friends by Taro Gomi. My daughter loves this book because it’s very easy to read. And I love it for the beautiful illustrations.

Cupcake Deck by Elinor Klivans. I’ve never baked cupcakes from scratch until I used this deck. The recipes are pretty easy to make and tasty too! And it made me feel like June Cleaver.

Toypography Wooden Blocks. Well, we don’t actually own this, but it would be a cool educational toy. The same wooden blocks can be used to spell “fish” in English, Japanese, and in illustrated form. Ah, Japanese folks make the coolest things!

Although they have their fair share of activities, my kids are also “underscheduled”. Some of this (especially when I was commuting) is because we just don’t have time to get the kids to more places, but we also choose to leave them with time where they have to make their own fun.

I’d like to say that it’s been working well for us, and my 2 boys are well on their way to being well-adjusted, interesting people.

I second the recommendation for Taro Gomi’s “My Friends”. My 11mos daughter loves this book, we make animal noises along with it too. And the illustrations are beautiful, the story is solid and friendly. And it helps that it’s a little asian girl, something my daughter can relate to.

So many people over-schedule their children nowadays, turning them into tiny mult-tasking, overworked adults. What happened to just letting our children be, um, children? The items you featured (love those blocks!) will go a long way to letting them be just that. Nice!

Write a Comment:

Design*Sponge reserves the right to restrict comments that do not contribute constructively to the conversation at hand, contain profanity, personal attacks or seek to promote a personal or unrelated business.