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Parenting

By TIMES WIRES
Published November 20, 2006

A computer pen? We wouldn't mind that one

Looking for some engaging toys for your youngsters? Here are some shopping ideas. (For more toys that were put to the test by the X-Team, our younger reporters, see Thursday's Floridian.)

- Toddlers: Laugh and Learn Baby Grand Piano (pictured above; $44.95; Fisher-Price). Through musical play, children learn fundamental colors, numbers, pitch and tempo with three modes of play and four activity options.

- Ages 8 and up: Fly Pentop Computer ($99.99; LeapFrog). This pen has a built-in computer processor, a camera, speaker and its own voice. Among its features: Jot a math problem and it will solve it; draw a musical instrument and then play it and record the music; jot down reminder messages and it will use its voice technology to alert you. Wow.

- Tweens and teens: Xipster FullStop ($39.95; XOW). Empowers media-savvy kids to produce movies and games using writing and animation talents.

Selections were made by the National Parenting Publications Awards. For more, go to NAPPA.parenthood.com.

Little kids and kitchens don't mix

Before you become a whirling dervish in the kitchen Thursday morning, consider the inherent hazards for your younger kids. Close supervision is crucial. In addition, some safety tips from the Pinellas County Health Department:

- The oven/stove area is off limits. Burns from spills, steam, hot surfaces and flame are devastating. Hot liquids and steam are the most common burns among children 4 and younger.

- Never hold a child while cooking or carrying hot items.

- Use back burners when possible, and turn pot handles inward.

- Have locks on any cabinets a small child can reach to keep hazardous substances out of reach. No, not your gravy - the cleaning arsenal for after dinner.

- Haul out the baby gate. Also keeps meddling MILs away.

Learn to sew? You bet your bobbin

Remember when mom used to sew her own clothes, yours and even made the drapes and hung them too? Skip a generation with you, did it? We can relate. But it's not too late for your older tweens and teens with these books:

- Sew What! Skirts, by Francesca DenHartog and Carole Ann Camp (Storey, $16.95). Learn to make a beach wrap, a drawstring A-line skirt, wraparound, ruffled and tiered "hippie."

- Sew U: The Built by Wendy Guide to Making Your Own Wardrobe, by Wendy Mullin with Eviana Hartman (Bulfinch, $25.99). The basics of sewing, as well as a crash course on how to shop for (and use) sewing machines. Includes skirt, shirt and pants patterns created by Mullin, a New York fashion designer and former Teen Vogue writer.

- I Wanna Make My Own Clothes, by Clea Hantman (Aladdin, $9.99). Refashion old clothes into newer, hipper items. Dad's old neckties become a new skirt. Flared pants out of date? Turn them into skinny pants. No sewing machine required.

[Last modified November 19, 2006, 22:55:18]