If you think that video games are destructive and violent then think again. A new game has been developed that revolves around a mothers daily activities.  So basically, when lovable Mama isn’t cooking, gardening or crafting, she’s tending to the needs of adorable baby tots. Majesco Entertainment Company, an innovative provider of video games for the mass market, has just announced Babysitting Mama exclusively for Wii™.  Developed by Cooking Mama Limited, this innovative simulation game will be delivered with an adorable plush baby doll that the babysitter tucks the Wii Remote™ into in order to interact with the doll and game at the same time.

“The Mama franchise continues to evolve in exciting new ways that offer unique play experiences,” said Jesse Sutton, Chief Executive Officer, Majesco Entertainment. “With the plush baby as the controller, Babysitting Mama redefines traditional play patterns and combines game and doll in one outstanding collectible package.”

Mama makes her babysitting debut in an inventive game that lets players use the Wii Remote™ in a whole new way! By tucking the Wii Remote™ into the back of the plush baby included with the game, girls can play the game as they play with the doll. Players can enjoy more than 40 activities using the doll and Nunchuk™ controller: rock the baby to sleep; bounce the baby; feed, bathe, change and play with the baby, plus much more. Babysitting Mama features six unique babies, each with his or her own personality and needs, along with a range of indoor and outdoor environments that Mama and baby can play in. The game even supports two-player mode, because when it comes to newborns, Mama could use some help!

About Majesco Entertainment Company

Majesco Entertainment Company is a provider of video games for the mass market. Building on more than 20 years of operating history, the company is focused on developing and publishing a wide range of casual and family oriented video games on Wii™, Nintendo DS™ and other leading systems.  Product highlights include Cooking Mama™, TETRIS® Party Deluxe, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel and Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Ultimatum.  The company’s shares are traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol: COOL.  Majesco is headquartered in Edison, NJ and has an international office in Bristol, UK. More information about Majesco can be found online at www.majescoentertainment.com.  @Majesco is on twitter or at www.twitter.com/majesco.

Related articles:

• Game combines “fun” of parenting newborns with Wii (arstechnica.com)
• Babysitter Mama for Wii, comes with plush baby doll (destructoid.com)

Modern times don’t always mean that technological gadgets are always the best solution for everyday use. Take educational toys, for example. At one time, parents were led to believe that for the benefit of their baby’s development they should use electronic products to assist their baby’s development. But with no apparent improvement in their baby’s development from such gadgets, parents have returned to proven baby learning toys, specifically the non-electronic alternatives.

The reason that these can be more beneficial is that they can communicate more directly with your baby’s emotions, assist the development of hand-eye co-ordination and leave more scope for the development of your child’s imagination. In their search for proven ways to help their babies build vocabulary and cognitive skills, parents have discovered Clark the Baby Shark, a series of reading toys built on dialogic reading systems recommended by early literacy experts. Clark the Baby Shark Reading Toys meet the need for educational baby toys and early reading programs.

“So many parents want to subscribe their one-year-old to our preschool magazine, Tessy and Tab, we decided to research and develop the perfect reading start for babies” explains Judy Johnston, CEO of Blue Lake Children’s Publishing children’s magazine . “All the experts in the field told us that the place to begin is with dialogic reading – putting familiar and colorful objects on the page so that the baby can point at them and the parent can build a dialogue about the pictures. And parents told us they wanted something that the baby could also play with independently, and that they could safely chew on.”

The explosion of electronic media – videos, electronic toys and even TV channels for babies – that began in the 1990′s was followed by a serious backlash a decade later. Research-based institutions such as The American Academy of Pediatrics issued serious guidelines: they recommend no screen time for children under the age of two. Parents were forced to find other sources of developmental activities. At the same time, reading experts were showing methods of reading with babies that provided additional early literacy benefits beyond traditional “read aloud” method.

Baby reading experts and product design engineers helped the company create a series of “reading toys” sturdy, laminated “books with no pages and chewable edges”. They also created a new character, Clark the Baby Shark, who has just one tooth and wears a diaper. The first set in the series features Clark in three different baby-recognizable settings: In the Bath, At the Park, In the Kitchen. Educational baby toys.

“Educated parents are searching for non-electronic alternatives. They are finding Clark, seeing that it works, and they are telling their friends” says Johnston.

Related articles:

• Your Newborn: Head to Toe – Everything You Want to Know About Your Baby’s Health Through the First Year (parenting-success.com)
• Kid Konnection: Picture Books Roundup (bookingmama.blogspot.com)

Baby dolls are not for girls anymore. By reinventing the pastel pink and blue outfits, ruffles and bows, baby dolls can be made gender-neutral, enjoyed by every child. Baby GoGo™ is the first baby doll product released by the company Little Sib. Little Sib has been providing children with toys that nurture and inspire them to be healthy, loving men and women through imaginative play.

Baby GoGo™, reinvents the classic baby doll. It’s now made more fun, colorful, safe, environmentally friendly and more important, it is not limited in its versatility for children of all races and genders. “We believe this is the most significant change in baby dolls in at least 30 years,” says Little Sib company founder Margaret Winchester.  ”I strongly believe that children will more readily attach to a doll that reminds them of their own special world. Baby GoGo™ features a medium skin tone and is clothed in exciting contemporary colors so that it appeals to all boys and girls and encourages them to learn to nurture.

Baby GoGo™ is appropriate for children ages three and older and it comes with the 13-inch doll dressed in soft, cozy pajamas and a hat and accompanied by a beautifully detailed “blankie,” and a full-color “Baby GoGo™ Goes Home” storybook, which contains the story of the baby’s homecoming after birth and getting to know siblings and family. This baby doll also has a wide line of accessories, starting with a diaper bag, a child-sized bag made of 100 percent cotton canvas that includes a cotton diaper and has plenty of room for children to add their own essentials. Also available is the Moses Bed and is also made of 100 percent cotton material, and is the perfect place for children to put the baby doll down for a nap with straps that allow children to easily carry the bed around the house and to play dates.

Dolls are considered as tools for teaching young children about nuture and Baby GoGo™ makes this tool available for both young boys and girls to develop this quality at a young age.

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It would probably need a child psychologist to explain why babies and toddlers love ducks so much! But here is your chance to take part in this event or else help to sponsor it.

V.I.P. TOTS will hold the Ducks-4-Tots Race from 10 AM to 2 PM on May 22 at Anglers Little Lake in Hemet, California. This annual fund raising event will support services for 150 children with disabilities and 113 children enrolled in childcare programs. Twenty seven of the the children enrolled have a diagnosis of autism. With community and parent support V.I.P. TOTS can raise $20,000. V.I.P. TOTS, a nonprofit agency, has been providing early care and education to the Hemet/San Jacinto Valley in Riverside County for over 30 years.

Community members have the opportunity to be champions for children by supporting the V.I.P TOTS Ducks-4-Tots Race on May 22. V.I.P. TOTS (http://www.viptots.org) is seeking sponsors and prizes for this annual fund raising event. Families will enjoy a day at the lake. Activity booths for children will include a photo booth, bean bag toss, face painting and crafts. Lunch and snacks will be available. Board members, staff members and parents will volunteer their time to make this a memorable day. The fund raising goal for this event is $20,000.

Lake Hemet Water District has graciously given permission for V.I.P. TOTS to use Anglers Little Lake at Lake and Thornton Streets in Hemet for this event. The district has recently made improvements at the lake site. The Ducks-4-Tots Race for the last two years was held at Lake Hemet. This year’s event is at a different location.

Parents, staff and board members are selling Duck Adoption tickets for five dollars each. The grand prize will be $1,000 and the second prize will be a 32″ high definition television. Another 50 plus prizes donated by community members will go to the next fifty plus winners. Board members will sit in a small boat and capture winning ducks as they reach the finish line. Everyone is hoping for enough wind to move the rubber duckies briskly across the lake. Board members are hoping that they do not get wet while securing the winning ducks in the little boat.    The event will be from 10 AM to 2 PM    and the race will be held at 1:16 PM. Yes 1:16. V.I.P. TOTS published the time at 1:16 to be sure that people read the information and take notice!

V.I.P. TOTS offers highly successful childcare and early intervention programs to infants, toddlers and preschool children. V.I.P. TOTS is known for offering quality programs for over 30 years. In 1986 childcare services were added and by 1988 classes were combined so that children with disabilities and children without disabilities are enrolled together in toddler and preschool classes. Competent staff members monitor and encourage early learning. Teachers provide guidance to parents in all areas of child development. V.I.P. TOTS offers childcare/child development for all children, early intervention programs for children showing delayed development, specialized programs for children diagnosed with autism, and positive behavior programs for children with challenging behaviors. Home program visits are provided to eligible children with disabilities who are birth to three years old.

Along with many other school programs and businesses in Riverside County, V.I.P. TOTS is experiencing cutbacks in funding and enrollment in various programs. The support of community members for our fundraising events is especially appreciated at this time. Contact Joann Hameister, Executive Director, for more information at 951 929 8585.

Related articles:

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One of the oldest toys that one could get for a baby is a rattle. Rattles are beneficial to babies in many different ways. Chief among them is that they teach motor skills and coordination. In addition to that, the noise coming from the rattle, whether it’s one that is bean filled, or one that plays musical sounds, stimulates baby’s hearing. One of the ways that it teaches is from those very sounds. The baby wants to hear the sounds again, so they move it and they learn in the process.

Rattles to be sure, are a popular baby gift and they come in a huge variety of shapes, colors and sizes. There are rattles given as gifts that have been in the family for many years, being passed from one generation to the next, typically to the first born baby of each generation, or in some other manner. Baby rattles also have the little one working on their dexterity as they reach and grab for these wonderful toys when they want something to play with, or that makes noise.

Baby rattles are by far and away the most affordable and useful toys that you could get for a baby. They are indeed considered to be one of the first learning toys that a baby will ever use.

When your baby is in his or her crib, adding too many stuffed toys can not only be uncomfortable, but it can also actually create a safety hazard for the child. This is especially true when the child is an infant and they aren’t able to move themselves around much yet. In this case, rather than overloading the child’s bed, or even the playpen with a bunch of stuffed toys, then an assortment of baby rattles will fit the bill nicely. The rattles along with teething toys will keep the baby occupied and actually will stimulate a little learning by the child on his or her own.

Many people may wonder as to how a rattle can teach. The answer to that one is simple. There is a great deal to be learned by your baby with the use of baby rattles. Dexterity is one. The baby, when the rattle is out of reach will attempt to grab the rattle. This involves not only the use of the hands and the arms, but when the baby isn’t able to reach what he is grabbing for, then he or she will try to move to get it. Before you know it your baby will be rolling over and crawling to get to what it is they want to have. (This also becomes a dangerous time – make sure the house is baby-proofed!)

Baby rattles do not have to be the traditional ones that we think of that we get from the store. Nearly anything that is safe for your baby to handle can be turned into a baby rattle. The whole point of it is that they can grip it and that it makes noise as they move it. Many times, storage container sets come with very small bowls that are easily handled by a baby. You can put something in this and seal it tightly then give it to your baby to play with. You would be surprised at how much enjoyment can come from such a thing. It will keep the child occupied for quite a while!