The Most Popular Boy's Name

We sell a number of personalised products for children which feature the child’s name. We’ve been looking through the data and thought it would be interesting to see what the most popular names for boys and girls in Ireland are today. The products would typically be bought for children from birth to, perhaps, 6 years old, so the data is representative of children in that age range. This is interesting as it gives an idea of the most common names of children from a wide age group, rather than looking at birth statistics.

And the results are:

Top 5 Boys’ Names:

Thomas
Darragh
Jack
Benjamin
Luke

 Top 5 Girls’ Names

Sarah
Caoimhe
Chloe
Emily
Emma

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Jody Did You Know? children's names, irish names, names, popular names

Irish Creative Stamping Kaleidoscope in Packaging

Irish Creative Stamping has recalled Toy Kaleidoscopes as a precautionary measure. The issue came to light on foot of a notification from the German authorities.

Due to the excessive length of loop of cord, there is a possible risk of asphyxiation for children, particularly those under the age of three.

The product has been on sale in Ireland since 2001.

Irish Creative Stamping Kaleidoscope

What to do

Immediately ensure that children no longer have access to this product. Irish Creative Stamping has advised consumers to return the item to the store where purchased. A full refund will be made.

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Jody Product Recalls, Toys and Parenting recalls, toys

Imaginosity - Great day out for everyone

I had heard positive things about Imaginosity and was determined to find out what all the fuss was about. We eventually got around to going last Sunday and thought we’d share our experience here.

What is it?

Well, they call it “Dublin Children’s Museum” but I think the title is a little misleading. Basically, it’s two floors of indoor fun for children of all ages. There are many different play areas each with their own play themes and accessories. We’ll describe it all in more detail later.

Booking

The Imaginosity website advises booking in advance if you intend visiting on weekends or school holidays. Booking online was painless, just enter the date of your visit at https://www.imaginosity.ie/book/index.php and then click on the 2-hour time slot that suits you (only available time slots are shown). In the end, we needn’t have booked, but it was a nice day and perhaps less busy than normal.

Getting There

Getting there was almost easy. I printed the Google Maps directions which are conveniently accessed from this page on the Imaginosity website. However, once you are on Blackthorn Road in Sandyford, it is extremely easy to miss. I was expecting a prominent enough sign, but there was none. I should also have printed Imaginosity’s directions.  Imaginosity is in the Beacon complex if you look closely enough and squint, you’ll see Imaginosity on the small signs.

First Impressions

Our slot was 10am on Sunday morning. The entrance is bright and cheerful and the staff were extremely friendly. You know you’re somewhere child friendly straight away. We were visiting with our two girls aged 6 and 2.5 and they both got stamps on their wrists upon entering.

First Floor - Miniature Town - Role Play

This is where we spent the first 45 minutes of our visit and is where our girls had the most fun. The area is laid out like a miniature town. There’s a garage, supermarket, bank, doctor’s surgery, diner, library and post office. The first thing to strike you as you enter is a full sized smart car modified for junior drivers. The interior is fitted with a monitor and touch screen control panel. Using the steering wheel and foot pedals, you can “drive” the car like you’re in a video game. This is really only suitable for older children as younger ones won’t reach the pedals. It took a while to work out how to get the car started.

We felt most activities could benefit from either more interaction from staff, explaining what is to be done and how, or, at least, instruction signs or sheets, explaining how to use stuff.

Next was the super market. This is, by far, the most fun activity in Imaginosity - for us anyway. This one had our whole family involved. You get a shopping list and trolley and must go around the supermarket and find all the things on your list. The supermarket is very well stocked and has tons of play food stalls. There’s a butcher, a section for fresh bread and pastries, fresh fruit and vegetables, tinned foods and drinks. Once your child is done filling their trolley, it’s checkout time. The checkout is fully equipped with a manually operated conveyor belt, cash register and beeping bar code scanner. This is where a parent or sibling can come in. We had great fun… daddy operated the conveyor, mummy scanned the items and little sister was the volunteer from the local school packing the bags and putting the toiletries in with your fresh meat.

This activity too could have benefited from a little instruction from staff. It was a little while before we realised there were shopping lists and initially our elder girl just went around filling the trolley. The shopping list makes it more fun and sets the child an objective. It makes all the difference. A little engagement from staff could help kids get a lot more from the experience.

Next was the Eddie Rockets style diner. This is where our younger girl (2.5) had a real blast. There are tables and stools for customers and a fully equipped kitchen. There are menus and our girl got a great kick out of taking our orders. There are drinks machines that make gurgling noises when the button is pressed. I had at least 20 coffee refills! My toast was actually a bread loaf from the super market - but we thought it wise not to complain to the manager! Little sister got so into this activity that she started stealing orders indended for other kids and was brining coffee and sandwiches to the other parents!

During our shopping antics, I accidentally scratched big sister on the cheek. There was only one thing for it. She had to be rushed to the doctor’s surgery. I placed her on the examination table and used one of the 50 stethoscopes to listen to her heartbeat. I also listened to her forehead, feet and elbows. That got a bit of a laugh. An X-ray was required. There is a box full of real x-rays and one of those x-ray display thingies that you’ve seen on telly. It would be a lie to say that the kids were the only ones fantasising in here!

Once big sister had made a full recovery, it was time to deliver the post. The post office was full of letters and parcels to be delivered all over town. So off we set… a small letter for Dr Appleaday’s Surgery - in it went into the letter box. A big parcel for the Garage, a letter for the bank.

For the under twos, there is a closed off cushioned area which has the same idea. There is a little house with a door and doorbell. Visitors must ring the bell and normally get invited in for a cup of tea. The little ones then get busy in the fully equipped kitchen rustling up tea and biscuits for the visitors. Only one problem… no tea cups!! This brings up another grievance we had. Maybe Imaginosity is suffering from a little wear and tear, but it seemed that some activities were missing the critical bits and pieces needed to fully exploit idea.

Second Floor - Create and Imagine

There are two main themes to the second floor. The first is a construction/creative theme. There are a number of activities involving building and construction that will especially appeal to boys. One of my favourites was the giant sized wooden blocks. We made a huge building that DD decided was a church. We attracted lots of diapproving looks when the demolition started.

One of the main features of the second floor is a fully equipped theatre. There are controllable spot lights and a fully equipped wardrobe and stage. This activity really needed some co-ordination and structure. It’s a little much to expect kids to conceive and carry out their own theatre productions in the space of a half-hour. It really needs the involvement of staff to put some structure on it. Perhaps this happens on occasion - but while we were there it was completely unattended.

Also, on the second floor there is a big doll house, musical activities and an area for the under ones.

The second floor would be of more interest to older children - it wasn’t very interesting for our 2.5 year old who was a little lost there. It wasn’t long before they were asking to go down.

Half way through the visit, the roof garden was opened up. This is a curious affair. There is a underground play badger house that smells like an underground badger house. As an engineer, the most curious feature of the roof garden was a solar panel that was in the shade at 12pm!

Food

At 12:30, little sister was getting hungry and just a little cranky. We decided to eat in the in-house cafe. Mum and dad had the Pannini and coffee deal for €6. The kids had ham sambos and Caprisun. I don’t remember how much they were but it all seemed reasonable enough and the quality was good. The coffee was excellent!

Conclusions

All in all, a terrific 2.5 hours of fun for both girls. Neither wanted to leave and we’re now under pressure to commit to a date for the next visit! We had two gripes. Firstly, we felt that most activities could benefit from the engagement of staff to put a little structure on things and help the kids get the most out of each activity and tell them what they’re supposed to do. In the absence of participation by staff, we felt there could be a lot more by way of instruction. For some activities it can take a while to establish what the objective is. Secondly, much of the equipment seems to have fallen into a state of disrepair. A lot of the equipment wasn’t working and in some cases, this ruined the whole activity.

Toy Blog Tips:

• Read the website directions (don’t rely on Google!)
• Don’t forget the shopping list in the super market!
• Kids will get a lot more out of it with parent participation
• Go for the 10 to 12 slot at weekends. From 12 on it was getting busy and competition for equipment etc. is likely to increase after this
• Keep an eye on your kids if they go into the climber, we witnessed more than one distressed child inside

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Jody Reviews, Uncategorized days out, Imaginosity, Reviews

Why pay for what you can make at home?

The perfect solution for a rainy day at home. Combine some home baking fun with a great versatile toy as the end result.

If you’re like us, you’ve tried doing this before, but your dough went green and mouldy after a relatively short amount of time. Using a little salt can cure this problem. Also, a little cream of tartar will prevent your dough from crystalising and going hard. Finally, you can add some natural food colouring to brighten up your dough.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoon vegtable oil
• 1/4 cup salt
• 1 tablespoon cream of tartar

All these items are available in Tescos - I checked their online store.

Directions:

Mix all ingredients in a pot. Cook and stir over low/medium heat until dough is formed and no longer sticking (too much) to the side of the pan. Allow to cool and when it’s not too hot for you to touch, knead it until you have a smooth dough. This is the time to add colouring if you’re going to use it. Knead until colour is distributed throughout. Store in an airtight container.

How long will it last?

Your virtually free toy should last approximiately 6 months. In our experience with the store bought version, we will have managed to forget to put a lid back on at some stage way before 6 months - so this shouldn’t be a limiting factor.

Optional:

To make your dough more pleasant smelling and to give it a smoother consistency, you can consider replacing the vegtable oil with baby oil.

Imagine - Create - Play

Now that you have your playdough, it’s time to get creative. When you’ve finished making ever animal you can think of, you could get the digital camera out and try making your very own animated production featuring your play dough creations!

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Jody DIY Toys DIY Toys, play dough, recession busting, toys

The DC3

These times of recession are great for rediscovering your childhood. We’ve just discovered paper aeroplanes in our house. Children are great. The plain and obvious to you is the new and undiscovered to them.

The Classic Dart

I came in the door one evening last week and my 6 year old girl was running around with a fairly primitive under performing model that my wife had rustled up. Apparently, the art of the paper aeroplane is rather under-developed in France. This wouldn’t do at all. When I placed that A4 piece of paper on the table, my hands started folding the paper all by themselves, just like it was 25 years ago! Shortly after its pretty successful maiden flight, which saw it soar through the gap in the conservatory doors, my “Classic Dart” went into mass production. Every eye in the house was at risk with paper aeroplanes flying everywhere. Brilliant stuff. They provided a full evening’s entertainment and I’m still being asked to make them days later. Fun, free and wholesome entertainment! After a little Googling, we can do a whole lot better than the rudimentary Classic Dart.

This page claims to have the best paper aeroplane in the world. After a quick glance at its main features, it’s hard to disagree.

The Best Paper Aeroplane in the World!

This page has instructions for no less than 27 different types of paper aeroplane, all ranked by difficulty level.

But that’s not all the fun you can have. I remember as a child, I had a book about space which came with a cut out and fold space shuttle which could “fly”. It also came with a cut out landing strip. Your objective was to glide your space shuttle onto the landing strip, just like the real thing (of course you know that the real space shuttle has to perform a glide landing too). So, with a little imagination, some A4 pages, a marker and some sellotape, you can create your very own runway and try to land your creations on it.

So there you have it - some simple, creative and inexpensive ways to spend quality time with your children.

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Jody Retro Toys, Toys and Parenting paper aeroplane, recession, toys

April 22nd 2009 is Earth Day. The objective is to highlight the importance of altering our way of life in the interests of the survival of the planet and its ability to support the range of diverse life forms which it does today. From the WWF website:

We’ve reached a critical moment in the history of the Earth and it’s Time for Change. In the 50 days leading up to Earth Day 2009, we will be asking all people to help World Wildlife Fund protect the future of nature by pledging to make change.

Is this just scare mongering? Is there a real threat to the Earth’s ecosystems and their ability to support the diverse range of living organisms that it does today? In 2008 the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) released its Living Planet Report which attempts to quantify Humankind’s demand on the Earth’s resources and calculated what is sustainable based on the Earth regenerative capacity and Human activities. The results are alarming.  The report states:

Whether we live on the edge of the forest or in the heart of the city, our livelihoods and indeed our lives depend on the services provided by the Earth’s natural systems. The Living Planet Report 2008 tells us that we are consuming the resources that underpin those services much too fast – faster than they can be replenished. Just as reckless spending is causing recession, so reckless consumption is depleting the world’s natural capital to a point where we are endangering our future prosperity. The Living Planet Index shows that over the past 35 years alone the Earth’s wildlife populations have declined by a third.

By using measures such as Humankind’s demand on fresh water resources and land area for food, our “Ecological Footprint” was calculated.  

The Earth’s ability to support life is then established by calculating factors such as fresh water replenishment rates and soil nutrient cycling rates. Humanity’s impact on this in the form of pollution,  habitat loss and climate change etc is also factored in.

The results are alarming. On the one hand, Humanity’s demand on the Earth’s resources is increasing while, due to our actions, the ability of the Earth to support life is decreasing. Both these trends are illustrated below.

The Earth's ability support life relative to 1970 levels`

Humanity's ecological footprint relative to Earth's sustainable capacity

 

The top graph shows the “Living Planet Index” which represents the Earth’s ability to support life relative to 1970 levels. It can be seen clearly that this has been been decreasing steadily for the last two decades. The second, bottom graph shows Humanity’s demand on the Earth’s resources, such as fresh water and soil nutrients. The horizontal green line is the Earth’s regenerative capacity. It can be seen that as of 2005, we have been using the Earth’s resources 30% faster than they can be replenished. The consequences of inaction are obvious - shortages in the basic resources and services to support life.

 

So surely the objectives of WWF Earth Day are worthwhile. There is no escaping the fact that Human behaviour must change if the Earth is to retain its ability to support the enormous diversity of life that it does today.

The Living Planet Report can be downloaded here.

To celebrate WWF Earth Day on April 22nd, Soft and Cuddly is offering a 10% discount off their brand new Eco-Plush range with products from the Aurora Naturally range by Aurora World and the Eco Mouse by Happy Horse. Also, there is now 10% off all WWF plush animals.

For more information on WWF and how to help, please visit http://www.worldwildlife.org/

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Jody Eco Issues climate change, earth day, environment, soft toys, wwf

How many forums have you been on that had a “million post thread”? I’ve seen quite a few. Inevitably, none of these threads live up to their titles. But what if they did? I’ve just launched www.themillionpostforum.com which has the objective of having a thread which really does get a million posts?

One Forum - One Thread - A Million Posts

Am I crazy? Probably.

The way I look at it. If you had a community of just 2740 people and they each posted once per day - that would be a million posts in under a year.

Why not drop by and post and be a part of history. Or not. But post anyway - who knows?

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Jody Personal Ramblings, Uncategorized discussion, Forum, million, million post thread, million posts

The Easter Bunny, That Well Known Christian Symbol... eh...

The Easter Bunny was certainly a big feature of Easter when I was growing up - but where is the connection with the traditional Christian Easter story? At least with Santa Claus there’s a tenuous connection with Christmas in the form of the legend of St. Nicolas. But the Easter Bunny - what on earth has he to do with Easter?

We run SoftandCuddly.ie and for the past couple of weeks, our cuddly bunnies have been literally hopping out the door and this is what got us thinking about the origins of this great Easter symbol.

So we did a little internet research and our bouncy friend seems to have his origins in Germany and first made an appearance in the 17th century. The first record of edible forms of the character appear in the early 1800s. As to the connection with Easter and Christianity, this is a little less certain and most links are sketchy at best.

The best that can be done is to link the Easter bunny with springtime. Like many traditional Christian holidays, the timing of the Easter celebration may have its origins as a pagan spring celebration. Given that the timing is tied in with the lunar calendar this makes sense. Eggs, rabbits and hares have long been prominent symbols of fertility in many cultures which can explain an association between spring time and rabbits. Further more, the mating antics of hares and rabbits around Easter time make these normally placid creatures a lot more conspicuous in the human eye.

During the spring mating season, many male hare approaches to females are rebuffed, pretty similar to the human experience! However, persistence gives way and the female finally succumbs. To the observer, this whole process can appear as a frantic dance as the male chases the female looking for some action! This is where the phrase “as mad as a March hare” comes from.

So it appears that the best we can do is to attribute the rabbit’s association with Easter down to his status as a fertility symbol and their crazy antics during spring time. Somewhere along the line, some Germans incorporated this into the Easter tradition and some entrepreneurial confectioner made edible ones.

So there you have it. Funny though that he hasn’t been commercialised to the same degree as Santa.

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Jody Did You Know? easter, easter bunny, rabbits, soft toys

Darth Vader's Tie-Fighter

You thought he was dead didn’t you? When you saw Darth Vader’s Tie-Fighter spinning out of control  at the end of Star Wars Episode IV (the first Star Wars movie to be released in 1977) you thought he was a goner right? Well I did anyway!

For me, this has to be one of the iconic moments of movie history. I can close my eyes and see the scene perfectly.  I’ve been reliving the legendary trench run scene this morning on the very brilliant Star Wars Wiki.

The Rebel objective is to fire a proton torpedo through a thermal exhaust port on the northern hemisphere of the Death Star. Gold Squadron Y-Wings and a Squadron of X-Wings have failed, having been picked off by Darth Vader in his unique variant of the Tie-Fighter (TIE Advanced X1). Luke (call sign: Red 5) is leading the third and last trench run along with Red 2 and Red 3 at a distance to his rear - the Rebel’s last chance of destroying the Death Star. Approaching his objective, Darth Vader and two Tie-Fighter wing men pursue the attackers. Red 2 and Red 3 are taken out by Vader.

Luke's torpedoes find the mark

Luke is alone now with Vader in pursuit as he nears his firing position. Vader can’t get in a shot. “The Force is strong with this one” you’ll remember him say. Luke brushes aside his targeting computer causing great concern to the nerve wrecked Rebel command observing from their command vessel.  Vader gets a lock and fires, scoring a direct hit on R2-D2 and knocking him out of action. Luke is getting closer and the Death Star starts firing up its “superlaser”.  Vader gets a lock and starts firing. Just as he does, a volley of fire from above knocks out one of Vader’s wing men. It’s Han Solo in the Millennium Falcon! The second Tie wing man is caught by surprise and is knocked off course, clipping Vader’s wing who then glances off the side of the trench and is sent spinnig out of control into space. Using the force, Luke fires and finds the mark with his proton torpedoes.

A movie moment that will never be surpassed!

The Lego Version of Darth Vader's Tie-Fighter

Being a child of the eighties there are two things that featured above anything else. Star Wars and Lego. I grew up in a pile of Lego bricks was happy to spend the day building, breaking and rebuilding. What I’ll never understand is how Lego didn’t pursue licensing opportunities back then and produce Star Wars toys. Surely they would have made a killing! But the good news is that Lego did eventually see the opportunity second time around and as a grown up child, I now have the opportunity to have my very own Lego version of Darth Vader’s Tie-Fighter.

As a boy, I was also a big fan of Airfix and Revell plastic model kits. I remember spending a lot of time trying to get the glue off my hands! Anyway, it’s also taken Revell 30 years to see the licensing opportunities and you can now, also get Darth Vader’s Tie-Fighter as a plastic model kit. No painting and gluing with this range though, the kits come nicely pre-painted and the pieces snap together.

Man, to be 7 again, when your worst problem was finding that red 1×1 Lego piece at the bottom of the bucket.

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Jody Nostalgia, Retro Toys Darth Vader, Lego, Revell, Star Wars, Tie-Fighter, Trench Run, Vader

A Girl's Toy?

I’ve been doing some internet research on the topic of “Gender Stereotyping” and the role our toy buying choices can play in this. I have an interest in this both as a parent and as the owner of an internet toy shop. How “guilty” am I, or rather, what impact have the toys I have provided my children had in shaping their identity as girls?

Our first daughter is a girly girl and there are no two ways about it. Her closet is at least 60% pink and it’s a rare day you see her in trousers and not a dress or skirt. And this is certainly genetic because my better half rarely wears dresses, skirts or pink for that matter and I certainly don’t! 

As parents, we have always thought of ourselves as open minded and would never refuse a request for any toy, weather or not it is traditionally perceived as being male or female oriented. In fact, our experience with our “all things pink and beautiful” girl has been the opposite. I grew up in a pile of Lego bricks and think it is one of the best toys ever. Our DD just never showed any interest in it no matter how much we bought. In fact, this Christmas she said: “ah dad, you’ll have to stop buying me Lego”!  So, with her, it’s all doll houses, kitchen play things, ponies and dolls. So from our point of view, the only time gender stereo typing has come into our toy buying purchases has been to counter balance our daughter’s tendency to only want stereotypically girly things.

An extreme example of this is when we bought her a Leapfrog Leapster - We’re a bilingual family so we bough her the console and a some games in French in an effort to stimulate her French language development. We bought the console with 2 games. One featured Disney’s Ariel (the little mermaid) and the other featured a little boy character (can’t remember the name). She flatly refused to play the game with the little boy because it was a “boy’s game”. The game still remains un-played to this day.

So we’re perfect, right? Well, apparently not. Here’s something that really caught my eye:

One of the most salient areas in which the effects of gender labeling is evident in children is the prevalence of gender-appropriate toys for children (Basow, 1992). Parental toy choices and child-parent interactions with toys send a clear message to children regarding gender-typed behaviors (Caldera, Huston, O’Brien, 1989). Langolis and Downs (1980) have shown that parents play with their child’s gender-same toys longer, react more positively to gender-same toys, and are more critical of cross-sexed toys. These researchers have also shown that fathers use toys, perhaps unintentionally, to socialize their children differently based on sex and there is evidence that this gender-based socialization process begins as early as the first year of the child’s life (Snow, Jacklin, & Maccobby, 1983). Interestingly, it appears that there may be more stereotyping regarding toys offered to boys. Parents tended to choose masculine and neutral toys more often than feminine toys for their sons but chose neutral toys more than feminine or masculine toys for their daughters (Eisenberg, Wolchik, Hernandez, & Pasternack, 1985).

So while I don’t intentionally try to gender stereotype my children by buying only girl oriented toys, I may, nonetheless, be unintentionally doing the same thing by how I play and interact with them. This is something I never considered and while I don’t see it in myself, I know that if I had boys, I would definitely spend more time playing with them with typically boyish toys - after all, that’s what I know best!

The article also says this:

Miller (1987) has noted that toys viewed as more appropriate for girls were also rated as attractive, creative, nurturing, and manipulable while masculine toys were identified as more competitive, aggressive, constructive, conducive to handling, encouraging sociability, and reality based.

Interestingly, these differences in functionality of gender stereotyped toys correspond to differences noted in the stereotyped feminine and masculine behavioral and personality patterns with stereotypical feminine characteristics described as emotional, gentle, understanding, and creative while masculine traits include aggressive, active, dominant, and competitive (Spence & Helmreich, 1978).

This seems to be suggesting that the toys we typically choose for boys and girls are somehow related to the personality traits which we most often associate with males and females. However, I see it the other way around. We generally choose certain toys for girls and others for boys because they’re different, they play differently and they want different things! We can over-complicate an issue which is really very simple, in my opinion.

For me, observing my daughter and my nephew playing with a wooden toy train set illustrates the difference between boys and girls perfectly. Observing my nephew playing with his wooden train set, he makes the train go around the circuit, puts things in the carriages and generally makes the train do train-like things. However, when my daughter plays with her train set, the locomotive is the school teacher and the carriages are the children. For me, this illustrates a fundamental difference in how both children perceive and interact with the world.

In the end, I believe boys will be boys and girls will be girls!

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Jody Toys and Parenting