Dora is extremely popular at our house these days. The little one loves Dora. We have Dora DVDs, clothing, and dolls. So, when I came across Dora’s Carnival 2: Boardwalk Adventure, I figure it would also be a hit as well.

I downloaded it to my PC and it runs a little shaky like I need more ram. I have 1 gig of memory, so I’m going to check to see what is all running in the background. But the play may be slowed down a little bit but the fun is all there.

There are several mini-games that feature color recognition and other pre-school skills. You earn tickets and then use those tickets to buy prizes. Some prizes might be printable coloring pages or other games.

Dora’s Carnival 2: Boardwalk Adventure is loads of fun for her. Not so much for me but I enjoy watching and helping her play. Great for young kids but would be terribly dull for those already in school.

The little one has trouble with my trackball mouse, so she points out the right one to click.

One of my favorite candies for Valentine’s Day is the little hearts with sayings on them. While they are OK to eat, it’s fun to read the little messages on them. When I was asked if I would like to take part in reviewing educational toys, I was interested especially in light of having a two year old. The Sweet Heart Sayings Smart Snacks really caught my attention, mainly because of my love for the Valentine’s Day candy. Once I received the Sweet Heart Sayings, it was time to put it to the two year old test.

Here is Raegan, my two year old, who was very eager to get her hands on the contents of the box.

The heart-shaped toys come in different colors and either have words or pictures on them. Also it comes with a plastic jar to store all of the pieces as well as a small scooping cup. There are also two strings you can use to put the pieces on. You can either place them vertical or horizontal since there are four holes in each piece. So, you can string words together to make a sentence and then wear them.

Rae loves to place them in the jar and then dump them out. She also enjoys just carrying them around. While Rae doesn’t recognize words yet, she does recognize pictures. It was fun to ‘test’ her with these.

The Sweet Heart Sayings are cute and large enough not to be a choking hazard. There are 26 pieces in all that fit nicely into the supplied plastic jar that comes with a lid. The scoop makes it even more fun to dig and get out the pieces that you want. Right now, though, we are in the stage of just dumping everything out. She does like to put the pieces back into the jar and then promptly dumps them out again.

Raegan has really enjoyed playing with the Sweet Heart Sayings for the past couple of days now. So, for us it’s a good education toy that holds a child’s interest and is fun for both Rae and me.

Caillou Preschool features the lovable four year old in a series of mini-games just for toddlers. Caillou Preschool has the same feel as the cartoon and has a lot of games.

The games are divided into three main categories: Alphabet, Colors and Shapes, and Coloring & Creativity. Caillou’s Alphabet is filled with mini-games inspired by the letters of the alphabet. In Apple Drop, kids click on the apples that have either an uppercase or lowercase A to put them in the bucket.

Caillou Preschool has many activities for preschoolers. It’s a fun game for toddlers since it encourages children to play the games again to get good scores. Good scores are marked with stars. It is available for $14.95 through Legacy Games.

Huggies has a fun hide and seek game called Henry’s Hide and Seek that is an online game of finding animals shaped like letters. It’s colorful and might just keep a little on entertained for at least a few minutes. It’s amazing how much my 18 month old has figured out how to work the computer. I’m always on the lookout for baby online games that will keep her occupied while I get some work done.

In Henry’s Hide and Seek, Players have twenty seconds to fnd each animal. Online games for babies and young toddlers are on the Internet. Usually the best place to find these baby games are through sites that make baby products like Fisher Price and Huggies.

I bought a Magna Doodle second hand a few months back. I can’t pass up toys and now that I have a toddler I have the perfect excuse for picking them up. Rae is just shy of 18 months and has discovered the wonder that is the Magna Doodle.

She loves to draw a few lines then erase them. At first she struggled to move the bar to clear the writing surface but by the end of the day she was a master at it. Oh to be able to learn that quickly!

It got me to wondering if there was a Magna Doodle game or software for the computer. Ofcourse there is, and after more than a few Google searches, I found it through Amazon. She loves the computer and her Magna Doodle so I think the PC Magna Doodle will be a hit. It comes with a CD, and you use your mouse to make the magic happen.

I wish there was a demo, but I haven’t located one yet. I’m anxious to try it out now.

My daughter loves It’s a Big Big World on PBS. I have to admit that I enjoy watching it as well. There is a lot of music in the show, which the little one really likes.

Through PBSkids.org, you can play a variety of It’s a Big Big World games. I personally enjoying Dancing with Snook. The little one loves the computer equally as well as any toy. So, when I find games online that she can enjoy and feature some of her favorite characters, it’s always a good day.

We are a family of gamers. One of my nephews is turning 4 in March. I thought about getting him a handheld game system. I thought the GameBoy Micro might be a good choice since they are really coming down in price around here.

While looking through the toys at Target this week, I noticed the Kid Tough Game Player. I’m thinking this may be a good choice too. It’s only $20 and is built to take the abuse that kids dish out. My only concern is that it only has 8 games and is not expandable. The game quality is very poor. At least with a GB Micro I could get him a Cars game or some other characters he likes. He got the Kid Tough digital camera for Christmas. While it’s not a great digital camera, it is pretty sweet for an almost 4 year old. I guess that’s why I’m disappointed with the game player. I was expecting more after seeing the digital camera out of the box.

Maybe I will run across a great deal and that’ll be it. I don’t want to spend a lot but want quality.

I think of the Little Leap Grow-with-me Learning System as my child’s first video game. It is from Leapfrog and works with special DVDs. This is on top of the Christmas list for our little girl. I’m sure she’ll like it because the controller has two sides: one for babies and one for toddlers. The toddler side is a little more sophisticated. I can’t wait for her to play with it.

She’ll probably still go for the Xbox controllers, though. Hopefully her own “game system” will help to occupy her while I play my video games. A girl can dream anyway.

I love being a Gamer Mom. It’s going to be so much fun playing games with the little one. Thanks to Little Leaps, I don’t have to wait any longer. This system that grows with your child from baby to toddler is a wireless controller that works with most TV and DVD players.

The baby is already enamored with the Xbox controller so I’m sure she’ll love banging and learning with her own. This will be the first Christmas gift I’ll buy her. Leapfrog has some of the cutest products. Our house already looks like a display store for Leapfrog products.