Picture this — a toy car that plays six different car sounds, has light up headlamps and has super bright “night blasting” LED lights AND it doesn’t use any batteries. EVER!
I know. I could hardly believe it either but it’s true. No batteries are required for the SEE Toys Dynacar to perform all of the [...]

If you have a Thomas the Tank Engine fan at your house and you have not yet received a copy of the Smith-Thompson RR Gifts catalog, then run, don’t walk - to their website at RRgifts.com. Their website is very functional but not really enough to inspire the sort of JOY that their catalog brings [...]

It looks as if Hasbro is trying to keep up with the times as they recently released a Monopoly Electronic Banking edition that includes Visa debit cards instead of paper money.
Yes, it sounds interesting but is it really necessary?
We recently purchased Monopoly Junior to play with our five year old. Both my husband and I [...]

Whether or not you buy the clothes in Chasing Fireflies is irrelevant (of course the owners probably do not share this opinion), but this review suggests that you order the catalog (1-800-700-9474) and take a mental vacation browsing their beautiful children’s clothing and accessories.
Since my daughter only wears sports uniforms and hideous clothes that look [...]

The Koja Tent from IKEA!
Lucky you! You had the good sense to read this review, and it is my great pleasure to inform you that you have won:
Hours of extra time
Hundreds of dollars
Respect of other parents
AND, as a bonus your child has won…
POPULARITY!!
No kidding or exaggeration. If you buy the IKEA Koja Tent [...]

“Mom, look at this!” my seven year-old called excitedly. She had found a shelf of stuffed toys shaped like microbes. “Look, this one’s the common cold!”
We spent a long time looking at the plushy pathogens, and my four year-old demanded that I explain what each one did. I resisted buying any, but two days later [...]

Despite the recent recall of one of their parts, I’m here to preach the “Gospel According To GeoTrax.”
GeoTrax, if you aren’t familiar, is possibly the BEST train set ever made in the history of the world. Okay, I may be exaggerating just a tad but it really is cool.
GeoTrax is manufactured by Mattel, and [...]

A few weeks ago we purchased a Spiderman 3 Web Slinger Water Slide for our son at Meijer. We were out of town at the time and do not have that store anywhere close to us, making a regrettable purchase also not returnable.
We had issues with this product from Toy Quest from the beginning. After [...]

My three year old got a set of Bright Starts Star Teether Beads for her one month old brother for Christmas. I had only just given them to him back in March when I learned via an email alert that they had been recalled because the star bead at the top had in some [...]

Pan? Hand it to me so I can bash the crap out of this thing.
After reading on several websites about how wonderful the Playskool Ball Popper is, “Santa” decided to buy it for my son for Christmas. Unfortunately, it’s quite possibly the worst toy we own, for a couple of reasons.
1. It has “8 [...]

These days it’s difficult to find a child’s toy that isn’t made of plastic. The number one problem is that plastic isn’t durable. As rough as kids are on things, it doesn’t take long to break even the best quality toys.
HaPe International, of Switzerland, designed a game called Pandabo for children ages 4+.
Pandabo is made [...]

My three year old got this doll for her recent birthday, and it is far and away my favorite present she received, and possibly hers, too.
Dress Up Adventure Dora is a large doll, about 15” tall. She comes in denim shorts and a cute pink top, with a yellow flower watch and her ever [...]

My daughter recently potty trained, and as is true much of the time she got the concept of peeing in the potty pretty quickly, but it took the promise of a doll house to get her to do number two. About a month and a half ago we got the Fisher Price Loving Family [...]

As a parent of a ardent dinosaur lover who is subjected to hours and hours of questions and conversation regarding dinosaurs, I knew - KNEW - we would be purchasing these Dinosaur Eggs as soon as I saw them. We picked them up at a local flea market but I’ve seen them around other novelty [...]

Straight Edge, Inc. is an educational supply company who’s mission is to encourage kids to read through innovative products. The Opinionated Parents have been reviewing several of their products over the past weeks and have been very impressed. We’ve had team members as well as friends who are parents, preschool teachers, early elementary teachers, [...]