I have been looking at the website for Russian Toys and I am considering a few things.

These blocks look fun, but I wonder if they are a boy thing. I want my child to be balanced, so maybe she needs some boy toys and some girl toys. I actually did try to give my boys a couple of baby dolls when they were little – just to bring out their sensitive sides. They quickly lost the clothes, colored black permanent ink all over them- made pitch black eyes and fang teeth. They also enjoyed pulling off the heads. That worked well.

To help Russian speaking children learn English: Computer Software (CD-ROM). This seems like a good idea. My kids love computer games. However, this may be an inherited trait. They have always enjoyed a lot of the same things. I wonder how much of that is inherited, environmentally influenced, gender influenced or age influenced. It will be interesting to see the differences this new child will demonstrate. I suppose I should have her check out some of our age appropriate computer games before getting this, but it does look promising. This software is for age 3-7, but there is software for older kids too. Click here to see.

These DVDs look like they might be a Must Have. I would think that they would be very comforting to a Russian child that is being thrust into a new American world. I think if I alternate these with American cartoons it will help to ease the transition.

Do you all think this boat would be very fun to play with? I just don’t know. It looks kind of boring to me. All of the passengers look the same. "Hi Tatiana," says Ekaterina. "No, I am Anna", says Anna. "Oh, you look so much like Tatiana," says Ekaterina. "Yes, you do too, " says Anna, "I thought you were me," says Anna. "Oh no. I am not you," says Ekaterina. "Of course not," says Anna. Second thought- you could come up with hours and hours of dialogue fun here. "Hmmmm... I think the captain thinks I am the prettiest," says Catherine. "No ME!" says Nadia (a fist fight ensues- oh sorry- no fists- A head bang insues).

My library actually has a similar video to this one. I could use it to say basic words in Russian and English to her. It wouldn’t hurt for us all to be a little bilingual.

Can you imagine buying these?Just what I would want- a loud whistle being blown in my ear all day long. That would alternate with the loud screams of the child from when the whistle was being taken away. No thanks.

These lullabies look especially comforting. I think I will need to get at least one of these.

I am amazed at what some people spend their time on.I have nothing against puzzles (with few pieces), but what is the real point of 1500 piece puzzles or 6000 piece puzzles? Do they not feel like a giant waste of time? I mean what do you do with them after you have painstakingly spent hours of your time putting together thousands of pieces to create a picture that you can see by simply looking at the photo on the puzzle box? You wreck it. You can’t even eat it or sleep in it or use it for a gift. I guess you could give it as a very tacky gift ("Here is my completed puzzle for your birthday Aunt Joan: WARNING- falls apart"). But most of us just crumble it ourselves and return it to the box. Really- who has time for thousands of pieces when you have just adopted a child? And what if you lose just one piece out of the thousands? Just one. Puzzle is ruined now. Garbage, right? O.K. you puzzle lovers, defend yourselves.

This doll is TOO cute. But for $32.95 I don’t know. I guess I am cheap, but this seems expensive to me. Is this the going price of dolls? I don’t know much about the doll market. I sadly skip over the girl toy section at every department store. Maybe though, we can splurge for a birthday or something.

This bowling game looks fun.However, I am not sure what makes this game particularly Russian. Is it the colors? Perhaps you all could shed some light here. They are cute, but 3 pins is kind of sparse I think. When my kids were little we would play bowling with all kinds of things- milk cartons, pop bottles. We actually did have a little plastic bowling set for a while. It was a big hit.


All in all, there are some good toys here and this site is a great resource. Hopefully they will continue to add to their inventory. Check it out!

Labels: what to buy for your adopted child