Should I Take My Kid to LEGOLAND or Disney World?

By Sandy Fritzer

February 21, 2019

Photo: LOCK + LAND, Chip Litherland for LEGOLAND Florida Resort

As the home of Walt Disney World, Universal Studios and Sea World, the city of Orlando, Florida welcomes approximately 68 million visitors each year—yet only 1.5 million visitors take the hour-long drive down to LEGOLAND Floria Resort in Winter Haven. I’ve read several reviews indicating that LEGOLAND Florida simply isn’t worth the time or money to visit. However, I would argue that LEGOLAND is a great break from the bustle of Orlando.

If you drive down to LEGOLAND expecting a mini Disney World or Wizarding World of Harry Potter, you will be disappointed. While I wouldn’t recommend LEGOLAND for teenagers (they’d be bored silly) I would advise parents with children ages 3 to 8 to take a look at what LEGOLAND has to offer. This is especially true if you have children who enjoy the LEGO brand.

If your kiddo has watched The LEGO Movie on repeat, can quote the NINJAGO or LEGO Friends shows by heart and have been known to shout in agony as a LEGO piece impales their foot; you should absolutely make the time to visit LEGOLAND Florida. Here’s what you need to know before you go.

LEGOLAND totally caters to kids.

The LEGOLAND Hotel is a castle and has rooms that absolutely rival Disney World with themed décor. With only about 50 rides and attractions you truly don’t need more than a day to see the park. However, if you have kids that want to ride things more than once (something that rarely happens at the larger parks) and want to explore the hotel then go ahead and stay the night.

Dance to the disco music in the elevator, get your photo taken with Lego characters at breakfast and try not to cringe as kids throw LEGO pieces around in the lobby. This vacation is for your kids.

Kids will love it.

The rides aren’t as dramatic as you will find at Disney or Universal, but kids don’t care. They love riding on the jousting horse ride and the safari ride with LEGO built animals. The NINJAGO ride doesn’t have the smooth intros of some of the larger parks, but it’s a great ride and very fun.

Just walking around is a lot of fun, too.

There are spaces in LEGOLAND to simply roam: take in the sunshine and warm weather while walking through gardens and LEGO displays. Children are amazed by the full size LEGO creations spread throughout the park. There is absolutely something for everyone from Daytona International Speedway, Las Vegas, Pirates, LEGO Friends and more. Especially entertaining are the scenes with Star Wars and famous landmarks that have interactive elements, watch out for the ones that shoot water at you!

You can build and play with LEGO bricks.

LEGOLAND offers everyone a chance to build with Master Builder classes in the hotel and at Imagination Zone in the park where they can explore different building elements and games. There are building blocks in multiple locations within the hotel lobby including a room off the lobby restaurant with a TV and several tables with LEGO bricks. Parents can enjoy a drink and meal while the kids build.

The hotel pool even has floating bricks that kids can use to build rafts. You’ll find the same bricks in the wave pool at the water park within LEGOLAND.

Oh yeah, LEGOLAND has a water park, too!

The main component is the Joker Soaker where kids can climb up and down the three level structure and enjoy multiple water slides. The main concern here for parents—keeping track of the smaller kids in your party. However, I found that life guards were plentiful all around the water park and they do provide vests for your convenience. Definitely have a meeting place in case you get separated and put your phone in a water proof case!

In summary, LEGOLAND offers a place for kids to enjoy being kids. A land where there are plenty of opportunities for children to explore their own imaginations instead of simply being led through someone else’s.

Sandy Fritzer

Tinybeans Voices Contributor

Daughter, sister with all brothers, wife and mom of four: two human and two furry. Disney nerd and Harry Potter fanatic.

LEGO Hidden Side Gives Mini Master Builders a Spooky, Awesome New Way to Play

by Shahrzad WarkentinFebruary 20, 2019

Your favorite plastic bricks just got a spooky makeover with the reveal of the new LEGO Hidden Side building sets. Combined with augmented reality, these new sets take LEGO play to a whole new dimension.

Blending traditional brick building with an augmented reality app, LEGO Hidden Side gives master builders an exciting new way to play. Once the brick sets are complete, kids can use the app to bring a haunted world of ghosts to life.

By holding a smartphone up to the building sets, kids can activate virtual ghosts that they then have to capture in order to stop the haunting. They have to keep one hand in the physical world of the bricks to complete the task, combining both digital and real-world play.

LEGO Hidden Side features eight building sets, all of which can be built as they appear by day and then transformed to their haunted counterparts. Each set is a component of the fictional town of Newbury, where the story takes place, following the adventures of Jack and Parker, teenage bloggers who see ghosts through a special app.

See LEGO Hidden Side in action below for yourself:

The sets, which will range in price from $19.99 to $129.99, will be available to purchase late summer 2019. The app will be available to download for free from the Apple Store and Google Play for iOS 6S and up and Android phones on the ARCore supported list.

—Shahrzad Warkentin

All photos and video: Courtesy of LEGO

FYI: The Newest Building Sets from “The LEGO Movie 2” Are Full of Spoilers

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Is Getting Her Very Own LEGO Minifigure & This Is Not a Drill

Women’s Co-Working Space Adds Its Best Perk Yet: On-Site Childcare for Working Moms

by Shahrzad WarkentinFebruary 5, 2019

Juggling work and motherhood just got a little bit easier thanks to a new addition at a popular women’s co-working space.

The Wing, a women-focused, members-only community workspace with locations in New York City, Washington D.C. and San Francisco, has added a much-needed amenity to it’s already awesome space. The workspace for professional women, which also offers empowering events, speakers and community-building activities, has now added childcare.

https://twitter.com/the_wing/status/1090627902830460929

The Little Wing, which debuted at The Wing’s flagship location in New York City offers babysitting services and kids programs right in the same building so that moms can skip the nannies and daycare drop-offs in favor of bringing their tots to work, without the stress of actually bringing them to work.

“By offering a solution for our members who are parents, we want to help contribute to a world where there is no perceived motherhood penalty. One of the greatest barriers to working as a parent is lack of flexible work schedules and access to affordable care, and with the opening of the Little Wing, we hope to serve as a solution to both of those issues,” explained the company’s COO Kassan in an interview with Forbes.

The Little Wing’s babysitters, named Wingsitters, are available for kids from ages one to six for the fee of $25 for two hours. The facility will also offer enrichment classes, like music and yoga for an additional fee, as well as parenting classes and support groups. Of course, use of the The Little Wing also requires membership in The Wing which currently starts at $215 a month or $2,350 a year. The company plans to roll out The Little Wing component at its other locations in the future.

—Shahrzad Warkentin

Featured photo: Christina Morillo via Pexels

This City Now Offers Free Public Daycare for Kids Ages 0 to 3

How Much Do Parents Pay for Daycare in America? It’s Almost as Much as Rent

Can Baby Formula Made From Cow’s Milk Cause Diabetes? New Study Offers Some Answers

by Erica LoopJanuary 4, 2018

photo: Pexels

Once upon a time a small-scale study of 230 infants suggested that cow’s milk-based formula had some sort of role in children later developing Type 1 diabetes. Okay so before we go any farther, let’s get things straight — diet/lifestyle factors don’t cause Type 1 diabetes. That’s Type 2 diabetes you’re thinking of. But given that both Types are on the rise, the research into the why’s and how’s is getting pretty serious.

The original study, published in 2010, found that there were diabetes-connected antibodies found in the babies who had cow’s milk formula. But not so much in the group of babies that drank a formula with milk proteins that were already broken down.

As it turns out, this theory might not be…umm, ironclad? Recent research, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) looked at 2,159 babies in 15 different countries. The study followed the kiddos until the youngest of the group turned 10, looking for connections between cow’s milk proteins and the development of Type 1 diabetes.

The larger-sized study found no real difference between the children who were fed cow’s milk formula and a formula made with predigested milk proteins. That is, in terms of a greater risk for developing Type 1 diabetes.

So what does this mean? It seems like the milk proteins, and whether they are or aren’t predigested when the baby gets them, has nothing to do with the development of Type 1 diabetes. While there are other theories about what causes Type 1 in children, scientists are yet to pinpoint a cause — or a cure for that matter.

Along with a genetic component, there’s also an environmental “trigger” (which can range from a bacterial infection or virus to the hormonal roller coaster of puberty) that sets the diabetes wheels in motion. Based on this recent study, cow’s milk formula isn’t the magical trigger that doctors are looking for.

What do you think about this study? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

This New App Is the Key to Getting Kids to Do Chores

by Shahrzad WarkentinMay 9, 2017

photo: Chore Check/ Facebook

Getting kids to complete chores can sometimes be more painful than simply doing the task yourself. However, with many benefits linked to kids helping out at home, it’s better to follow through. Luckily, there’s a new app that can help get the job done.

Chore Check makes it easy to not only dole out jobs, but also encourage kids to get them done by offering rewards when the to-do list is checked off. You can create your own list of chores and set the amount you want to pay per job. If you have more than one child you can also encourage getting things done through some friendly competition. Stealable chores can be available to all of your kids and the first one to complete it will be the one who earns the reward.

photo: Chore Check/ Facebook

For those activities that don’t warrant payment, you can still use the app to set reminders and check things off as they are completed, but the app itself is intended to not only teach responsibility, but also financial skills. “Some parent users include no-pay chores on Chore Check,” Ada Vaughan, founder of Chore Check tells Babble. “For example, my daughter has ‘load backpack with next day’s school stuff’ as a zero value chore. She doesn’t get paid anything, but just checks it off when she’s doing her other chores. It acts as a reminder. Since we are focused on teaching money management skills as one of our core values, having parents pay their kids is an important component.”

The app is easy to use and free to download, though if you want to be able to transfer actual money to a prepaid MasterCard (which can be useful for older kids) you will need to purchase the paid version for $9. Kids should be at least beginning to learn to read in order to be able to use it.

Would you use this app with your kids? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Whee! 7 Playgrounds with Zip Lines

by Maria ChambersApril 6, 2017

If you have a little monkey that never met a tree they didn’t want to climb, a wall they didn’t want to scale, or a giant red Target ball they didn’t want to ninja-kick off of, it may be time to introduce them to the thrills of a zip line. Don’t worry, we’re not suggesting you strap them in and send them soaring with their feet skimming the treetops — click through our album for seven local kid-approved zips that’ll keep them mere feet from the ground.

Harvester Park

This stunning park recently received a facelift but a favorite component, the zip line, remained intact. One of the newest additions is a custom-made fiberglass tree nicknamed Tree of Life with a hollowed out center for climbing, peep holes for spying on siblings and a mesh top designed to allow growth of ivy to mimic a real tree. Not only will the body get a workout with play structures and a splash pad, but the mind will as well when the kids encounter a stream with locks and dams for directing water to three different areas and an unconventional sandbox with a conveyor belt and Archimedes Screw.

Nearby Stevens Park (8555 Walredon) in Burr Ridge also features a 100-foot zip line, a large climbing rock and tree fort.

15W400 Harvester Dr.
Burr Ridge
630-920-1969
Online: brparks.org

What is your favorite local playground? Let us know in the Comments!

— Maria Chambers

How to Ruin Your Teen’s Dating Life in 3 Easy Steps

By Tyler Jacobson

Tinybeans Voices Contributor

April 1, 2016

When you’ve got a teenager in the dating field it sometimes feels like that field is full of landmines. Is she dating a guy with a motorcycle? His girlfriend barely wears clothes! Not to mention you can barely get two words out of your teenager at a time. Raising a teenage child is not for the faint of heart! And adding in the dating component only makes it feel more complex and dangerous. How can you navigate these treacherous waters?

Here’s how I did it: I drove my daughter right to the guy who was my worst nightmare. That’s right. Everything I did to handle my teen daughter’s dating life backfired 100% and ruined her opportunities for healthy dating relationships. I cared a lot. Maybe too much. I tried to make everything right. I tried to protect her and instead I messed everything up. Sounds like your worst nightmare, right? Well read on, and do exactly what I did if you want your teen to date the wrong person.

Step 1: Deny, Deny, Deny

The first thing you have to do is refuse to acknowledge that she is old enough to date at all. This is my little baby girl! She’s not dating. She can’t be. I taught her how to ride a bike, and kissed her boo-boos when she fell. Your son is definitely too young and impressionable to be dating young ladies, so just reject the thought from your mind. The first time they excitedly tell you about a “date,” just go ahead and ignore it until they ask for permission and then deny it quickly and coldly. At this point they’ll be hurt and confused, and it won’t take long for them to start dating someone behind your back. You have successfully completed step one.

Step 2: Express Displeasure Loudly and Often

Once your teen has started dating someone you dislike, make sure you frequently, even constantly, tell your teen everything that’s wrong with them. Don’t stop at the reasonable things like their attitude or the way they treat your child, but continue into stupid things like the kind of car they drive or their aspirations for college. Don’t let it rest! You MUST express your displeasure about your child’s dates at every possible moment if you are seriously committed to ruining your relationship with them and drive them to this terrible, romantic, forbidden-love-kind-of-match.

Step 3: Tighten Your Grasp

Finally, in an effort to keep your child safe, the best possible course of action in the opposite direction is to try to keep them at home constantly. Forbid them from seeing this boyfriend with the guitar. Tell your son he is absolutely NOT allowed to take that girl with the tattoo to the Homecoming Dance. Shoot down their requests to go out on weekends, take their keys away, monitor them every second. Don’t worry – it won’t take long before your teen resents you and resorts to Cold War-level espionage tactics to continue seeing this forbidden love of theirs.

Congratulations! You have now become the enemy, turned your child into a sneak, and made that other teenage person completely irresistible – all in three easy steps! At this point, my wife and I celebrated by apologizing to our daughter and inviting her young gentleman friend to dinner. We expressed interest in his life and hobbies, and extended an invitation for dinner the following night.

After three nights of being kind and respectful parents spending lots of time with our daughter and her boyfriend, she broke up with him. She is now happily “playing the field” and focusing on her school work, and she keeps us updated about both. As it turns out, helping our daughter create a healthy teen dating environment was a lot easier than ruining it. Who knew?

Tyler Jacobson

Tinybeans Voices Contributor

Tyler Jacobson is a happy husband, father of three, writer and outreach specialist with experience with organizations that help troubled teens and parents. His areas of focus include: parenting, social media, addiction, mental illness, and issues facing teenagers today.

How to Make Your Own Periscope

by Erin LemAugust 1, 2015

Every good spy needs the right tools. To make your spy wannabe Inspector Gadget-worthy, we came up with a simple project to make your own periscope. Read on for the 411 on how to transform a regular cardboard box into a spy’s best friend.

What You’ll Need:
Duck Tape
Scissors
A small compact mirror
Cardboard box (we broke down a box and it measures around 18″x18″)

Instructions:
You’ll want to unwrap all of your materials and have them handy.

1. The first step is to create a tall box. Make your measurements and then fold and tape together the box that will serve as the main component of your periscope.

2. Make sure that the opening is about the same size as your mirror.

3. Once you’ve assembled the box, take your scissors and cut flaps on opposite sides of your box. Make sure the flap is around the height of your mirror.

4. Next tape each mirror to each flap, and cut away the opposite flap from the mirror. Once your mirrors are in place at each side of the periscope, bend the mirrored flaps (about 30 degrees) and try to find the right angle so what you’re seeing is actually a reflection from the top mirror. Once you’ve found the right angle, use your duck tape to tape the flaps together.

5. Voila! You’re now a certified spy!

Did your kiddos love this activity? Share you photos on Instagram!

A special thanks to Sara, who heads up our Community and Marketing, and her daughter for making this awesome periscope!

Rent the ToyChest: Seattle’s Newest (and Easiest) Way to Play & Learn

by Jennifer B DavisJune 9, 2015

Toys: Wonderful, magical, thought-provoking, entertaining, expensive, toys. They always seem to be underfoot, yet there’s never enough if you ask the munchkins. What’s a parent to do? Rent some, that’s what! Read on for the inside scoop on this innovative new Seattle company that is making learning and playing fun without the fuss of buying and storing.

photo: Austin Lloyd

The Philosophy Behind the Company
Founded by Karen Whittier, a former pre-school teacher, Rent the ToyChest was conceived as a way to help young children play more. According to Whittier, “play is the way young children learn and parents, of course, want the best for their children however toys can be quite expensive and children grow quickly.” To help bridge the gap between kids “growing out” of their toys and piling up and the thought behind toys being an essential component to learning, Rent the Toy Chest was born as the perfect solution for kids and adults alike.

Benefits of Renting
Rent the ToyChest gives grandparents, aunts, uncles, godparents and parents the opportunity to support play in their special child’s life with a variety of high quality toys—-minus the high cost of purchasing to own or the necessity of having a lot of storage space. It’s also an easy way to reuse, reduce and recycle. (What family doesn’t want to hear that?). And it gives parents the luxury of providing high quality, name-brand toys for their kids that not only spark imagination and foster creativity, but encourage social development. A win-win in our book!

photo: Rent the ToyChest website

How it Works
Rent the ToyChest has made sign-up a snap. Simply log on to the website and peruse their variety of items such as dress-up clothes, puzzles, games, blocks, puppets, pretend play pieces and even aromatherapy dough. Decide on your favorites, and how long you’d like to rent them—2, 3 or even 4 weeks—and add them to you cart. Prices are listed for each item, and range from less than $2 to no more than $30 for some of the larger toys.

Check out using your credit card, and then review the calendar to choose a delivery date. Deliveries are scheduled in the morning and afternoon and personally delivered to your door by Whittier along with a smile and any needed instructions, parts or pieces. A day or so prior to delivery, you will receive product cards via email, outlining the details of each toy with photos and further “how-tos” (especially good for games).

Toys are well-packaged and clean (and since this service is just launching—most are still brand spankin’ new) as well as labeled and already opened—saving you the hassle of trying to figure out how to put something together or deal with a bunch of wasteful packaging materials.

photo: Karen Whittier

Power of Play
A self-proclaimed zealot when it comes to the importance of kids and play, Whittier (aka Teacher Karen) maintains that in addition to facilitating learning, play helps with pre-literacy skills and decreases the word gap. So what better way than by leveraging a cost-effective, convenient solution for more play opportunities like Rent the ToyChest.

Delivery Areas
Rent the ToyChest is currently servicing King County, but growth plans include branding into other Washington micro-markets. In the future, Whittier sees working with stay-at-homers or part-time workers to help service additional markets and is hoping to add a charitable component, providing new users with a free book of their own to keep.

photo: Jennifer Davis

Good to Know
1. Rent the Toy Chest classifies its toys by type not gender and is focused on providing toys for preschool-aged children.

2. Rent the ToyChest supports play (translate learning) with high quality toys that will encourage exploration and investigation, observation and experimentation, predicting and estimating, engagement and immersion and imagination and creating.

3. To guarantee toys are delivered in excellent condition, toys are cleaned, sterilized and disinfected with all-natural products. They are also inspected to insure all pieces are intact and in good working order and stored in sealed, reusable containers to stay clean until delivered to your home.

3. All toys are delivered and picked up, right to your front door. An adult must be available to sign for/verify the completeness of the order at delivery.

4. If you’ve chosen a morning or afternoon delivery window, that same window will be used for pick up.

Psst! Use promo code RT@RtT at checkout to receive free delivery on June 15, 2015. Offer good on a two-week rental.

Rent the ToyChest
425-894-3210
Online: rentthetoychest.com and on Facebook

What do you think of Rent the ToyChest? Will you be giving it a try? Let us know in the Comments below.

— Jennifer B. Davis

New & Cool: A Personal Milk Monitor

by Ayren Jackson-CannadyFebruary 19, 2015

Ask any experienced breast feeding mommy what’s the most frustrating part of getting started with her newborn, and most likely she will tell you it’s figuring out how much milk baby is actually drinking and how much she’s left for later. Not knowing can bring a world of agony and worry to a new mother, especially if baby doesn’t seem to be gaining enough weight or asking (ok, crying) to feed often enough.

If only there were a way to measure how much milk you’re starting with at each feeding and how much milk is left at the end…. Well, now there is, thanks to the MilkSense Breastfeeding Monitor, designed to serve as your very own personal milk monitor. Innovative, simple, and surprisingly accurate, it takes the guesswork out of nourishing your baby.

Simply place it on each breast for 10 seconds before and 10 seconds after each feeding, and voila, it determines exactly how much milk in milliliters baby drank. How does it work? The device uses electromagnetic signals to measure the volume of the breast alveoli—a component of the mammary gland—and based on this information, can determine the exact amount of milk in each breast. The best part: The information is stored so that mommy can monitor baby’s intake over time. Genius!

Available at amazon.com, $140

Would you use this device to keep track of your breast milk? Let us know in the Comments section below.

—Jamy Bond

ML Interest Tag: component

Should I Take My Kid to LEGOLAND or Disney World?

By Sandy Fritzer

LEGOLAND totally caters to kids.

Kids will love it.

Just walking around is a lot of fun, too.

You can build and play with LEGO bricks.

Oh yeah, LEGOLAND has a water park, too!

Sandy Fritzer

Related reads

LEGO Hidden Side Gives Mini Master Builders a Spooky, Awesome New Way to Play

Related reads

Women’s Co-Working Space Adds Its Best Perk Yet: On-Site Childcare for Working Moms

Related reads

Can Baby Formula Made From Cow’s Milk Cause Diabetes? New Study Offers Some Answers

Related reads

This New App Is the Key to Getting Kids to Do Chores

Related reads

Whee! 7 Playgrounds with Zip Lines

Harvester Park

Related reads

How to Ruin Your Teen’s Dating Life in 3 Easy Steps

By Tyler Jacobson

Tyler Jacobson

Related reads

How to Make Your Own Periscope

Related reads

New & Cool: A Personal Milk Monitor

Related reads