Category: Toy Reviews

2020 Holidays, Education, STEM Learning, Toy Reviews

Smarty JOJO Toy teaches directions, shapes, colors and opposites with Play

Erin Sluka
Smarty JOJO Toy teaches directions, shapes, colors and opposites with Play

Smarty JOJO!™ is not just smart, he is interactive. Smarty JOJO toy teaches directions, shapes, colors and opposites with play. Flycatcher is an early UK company that offers innovative tech toys that are brilliant. Available in the US on Amazon is this genius toy plane with personality (if there is a toy out there that has its own personality, JOJO is it)! He retails for under $25 and I still can hardly believe its price point is that low for what he offers in play.

The question I had after learning about Smarty JOJO is how well he actually performs in person so I was able to give him a try. I do not have any preschoolers at home. I do watch my 12 month old nephew – too young for this but he was highly intrigued by his voice and fun design. He carried it all around with him. But I was the one who played with Smarty JOJO for his features and any child from 3-5 will have instant friend with JOJO.

Let me list his awesome features for you

  • Identifies colors
  • Speaks English and Spanish
  • Encourages physical play with its motion sensors. The more your child moves with JOJO the more fun he offers
  • Fun missions teach directions, shapes, opposites, and emotional intelligence: Right & Left, Up & Down, Fast & Slow to name a few
  • Follow a task correctly and JOJO’s lights flash as he states you are correct

Kids learn as they play. For instance, when JOJO is asking your child to “go left” or “go right” there is a small light on each wing that will light up so they know which direction is right/left. When asked to go “land on a color” he will flash lights and give a congratulatory command to indicate you are correct.

He will surely be a hit over the Holidays. Smarty JOJO is likely to remain my favorite recommendation for ages 3-5 for the 2020 Holidays! Find Smarty JOJO and other Flycatcher products on Amazon. Another Flycatcher hit in our home for the older sibling (ages 5-99) is the smART Sketcher! Learn more at Flycatcher Toys!

Smarty JOJO Pin
Visit our 2020 Holiday Gift Guide for more great gift ideas
2020 Holidays, Brands with a Cause, Earth Friendly, Giveaways, Toy Reviews

October GIVEAWAY HOP: Shore Buddies Plush

Erin Sluka
February GIVEAWAY HOP: Shore Buddies Plush

The amount of plastic that reaches our oceans each year is hazardous. Shore Buddies does a few things to help the plastic footprint left behind. They donate $1 from every purchase to non-profits that share our vision to save marine life and keep plastics out of the oceans.

They also make adorable plush with animal sounds from recycled plastic bottles. It takes 6 plastic bottles to make 1 complete Shore Buddies plush. The plastic is sorted, melted and turned into plastic flakes for the stuffing and yarn for the outside.

Meet Finn! He is my Shore Buddy. Finn is a dolphin who’s arch enemy are plastic straws. He worries about how they don’t biodegrade and many of them ending up in Our Oceans. I also have this Straw Buddy Stainless Steel Straw set. These are reusable straws that are ocean and eco-friendly.

There are 4 other Shore Buddies to choose from – Stephen Seagull, Shelly the Sea Turtle, Sammy the Seal and Emma the Whale. Order your Shore Buddies today for the Holidays. They make excellent gifts for kids who love learning about animals and the ocean. Also available is Shore Buddies And the Plastic Ocean – the new children’s book.

Order your Shore Buddies Plush today!

Win a Shore Buddies Plush!

1 lucky U.S. reader will win a Shore Buddies Plush! Enter below the keep scrolling down and click to link to other Bloggers with great fall giveaways! Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Welcome to the MEOWLOWEEN Giveaway Hop! The Mommy Island and The Kids Did It want you to enjoy entering all of the fun giveaways on each blog.

Hop along to each blog for your chance to win awesome prizes!
Don’t forget to come back daily for bonus entries.

This giveaway/sweepstakes is in no way endorsed, affiliated, or associated with Facebook, Twitter or any other Social Media Networking Site. This Giveaway is valid to continental United States residents only, Entrants must be 18+ years of age to enter. This giveaway event will end at 11:59 PM (PST) 10/20/20. The winner will have 48 hours to email their information back to erinnsluka at gmail dot com or a new winner will be drawn, you may want to put this email address as safe as it could go to spam. The giveaway is not valid where prohibited! By entering you are authorizing us to collect the information on the form below, this information is used only to contact the winner! No purchase necessary, Void where prohibited by law, and the number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Winners are chosen randomly by the Rafflecopter program. The sponsors are each responsible for shipping of the above prizes. No blog associated with this contest are responsible for prize fulfillment. If you would like to be a sponsor in a giveaway like this please email Erin Sluka at erinnsluka (at)gmail (dot) com. If you take an entry you must stay following for the entire contest or you will be disqualified.

Toy Reviews

Johnny the Skull: Pirate’s Cove from Goliath Games Review

Erin Sluka

Comment: I was sent the game for review. Opinions are my own

Toy Review - Johnny the Skull: Pirates’ Cove from Goliath Games

What a week! This time last week we had no idea that our power flickering would lead to a long week of worsening fires on our hills and power, cell and internet outages for days. Some around us went on Level 3 evacuations while the rest sat in the dark with no services to stay updated. Smoke and embers all around and anxious kids with schools cancelled. Then I remembered about a new game I was just sent that is meant to play in the dark!

Johnny the Skull: Pirate’s Cove from Goliath Games is an electronic game that projects ghost images all around that you must blast away to get to the treasure.

As I had my son make his way to my office to retrieve the game I had him stop to capture this moment. As we could turn around to our window and view fire up in the hills from out valley, sitting in the dark was getting tense until we brought Johnny the Skull out.

To hear the fun spooky noises as images randomly appear all around the dark room on the walls and ceiling was so much fun. You have to be quick and accurate with your blaster that also makes noises so you know if you captured a ghost or not.

Johnny the Skull: Pirate’s Cove is now available at Target. It retails for $24.99 and well worth every penny. This WILL get played with and even since our lights are back on it has been played with again. That next boys (or girls) birthday party invite that comes in I know what gift I will pick up at Target because it is a blast (pardon the pun)!

Goliath Games has been dedicated to creating toys and games that inspire young minds and adults alike to reach beyond their imagination. Johnny the Skull: Pirate’s Cove is an example of the creativity and engagement that their toys bring for the entire family.

Buy Johnny the Skull: Pirate’s Cove at Target

Education, Reviews, Toy Reviews

EXIT The Game brings the escape room experience to your home (ages 10+)

Erin Sluka

Comment: I was sent these games. Thank you to Thames & Kosmos for collaborating with Parenting Healthy

EXIT: The Game brings the escape room experience to your home

Have you ever experienced an escape room event? If you have teens and need a party gathering idea, I challenge you to try an actual escape room. Its puzzles and riddles that get you out of the rooms and the faster you solve them the faster you move to the Exit. EXIT The Game are games for ages 10+ (depending on the version as some are 12+ and 16+). These bring the escape room to your home!

EXIT The Game

Anthony is 12 and we first learned about EXIT The Game from Thames and Kosmos when we visited Sweet Suite Toy Fair in NYC a few years back. Anthony was a tad young, had never experienced an escape room but I thought these looked so fun. Now he is a few years older and I finally got my hands on a few to try.

Once we realized how to solve page 1 riddle we began to make more sense and moved through the rest – yes, we had to use all 3 hint cards but this was our first attempt. We played House of Riddles rated for his age and it was challenging, a good thing! See how hard he is contemplating below…

escape room game

I have not dug into The Catacombs of Horror as that is an expert level ages 16+ but we will graduate to that soon enough. The riddles are fun and perhaps there is a bit of a theme to the set of riddles as you turn each page.

The instruction booklet worked well for us, but the best way to learn to play EXIT The Game is to download the Kosmos Helper App. In the app, you can find animated explanations of the instructions and other helpful features for a selection of Kosmos games. Available on iOS and Android devices,

EXIT game rules

This is such a great sleepover game for tweens and teens. If you like challenging games and to witness your older child’s level of problem solving the family game nights will surely be fun and challenged with any of the EXIT The Game sets. Available from Thames & Kosmos as well as retailers such as Amazon.