Online - June 09, 2005

Where the Wild Things Are

WordThing Toys

Sometimes it seems like you spend your entire day clapping along to rousing renditions of “The Itsy-Bitsy Spider” and “Old Mac Donald Had a Farm.”

So it’s ironic that your child insists on blocking out your voice when it comes to spelling practice.

WordThings ends such behavior by combining animal thrills with alphabet skills. The soft critters’ bodies are made of individual letters that magnetically connect to form each animal’s name.

Check out B-E-A-R, whose best friend is D-O-G, or
L-I-O-N, who swaps jungle gossip with A-P-E. Encourage your child to mix and match to create bigger words (like, say, C-H-O-C-O-L-A-T-E or
A-L-L-O-W-A-N-C-E). Who knows? He may be a spelling B-E-E champ one day. But for now he can use these props to act out his favorite ditties.

Except there’s no WordThing to accompany “Puff the Magic Dragon.”

But you probably shouldn’t go there anyway.

Available online at fao.com.