Who Says You Can't Play Ball Indoors?

Now that the weather is getting cooler and maybe a little rainier, playing outside sometimes isn't possible. So why not grab this Mini Golf Set from Starting Time and set up an indoor Putt-Putt course!?

See what these Moms (and kids!) have to say about this challenging and durable German-made professional-quality set!

Your Chance to Help a Small Toy Company Succeed!

Here at Maukilo.com, we love quirky, unique and fun toys. That's why we're so excited about up-and-coming Toy company WOD Toys. "WOD" is a CrossFit term and stands for "Workout of the Day". These are items modeled after the real things and are toys children can use to mimic their parents and engage in pretend play. (There's that word "pretend" again - we just love it around here don't we?)

The toy business is huge and it's challenging to break into the market. Even more daunting is the cost of researching, developing, producing, testing, packaging, transporting, advertising, distributing, etc. WOD Toys wants to get their unique and fun products out to the masses and they're asking for your help!

Our Objective:

Setting the right example for kids is very important. The values set at an early age will ultimately determine the choices they make later on in life. I hope with these WOD toys (Work Out of the Day) those choices can lean towards a healthy one. 

With the childhood obesity rate tripling in the past 30 years, I think it's time those stats take a downward trend. Our fitness inspired toys is only part of solution. Active parents will equal active kids so whatever your fitness routine maybe, hopefully WOD toys will get both parents and kids moving towards a more active & healthy lifestyle. 

Current Progress

Recently we were featured on CNN Money, Komo 4 news, & numerous blogs and review sites. We now have a few distribution channels across the US as well as in Australia and have sold nearly 2,000 units. Our fan base is growing by the day and now nearing 4,000 Facebook fans.

Product Specifications

The toys are non weight bearing and are intended for role playing only. What weight they do have are comprised of the plastic & rubber materials. For more sizing, material, and weight specifications please click here to see our brochure.

How will the money be used and what you will get in return.

• We will proceed to the mass production stage and be able to leverage volume and pass on potential savings to our customers.
• Transition to retail boxes so that our products can finally be in retail stores.
• By helping you are then able to receive our toys at the mass production rates

Head on over to their IndieGoGo Fundraising page and donate. Depending on which level you choose, you will receive a set of corresponding WOD Toys. How cool is that!?

Even cooler is that in the middle of their promo video, we spotted 3 HABA games! See if you can spot them too! Then click on the link below the screen shot to see if you are correct.

Click to reveal the 3 HABA games we spotted. Did you spot more? Let us know in the comments!

(Hint: They're Sleepy Princess, Animal Upon Animal and Chaos on the Kids Room!)

HeidiKlum.aol.com - Summer Travel Toys for Kids

An award-winning HABA toy - Fliffix Catch Game was mentioned on Heidi Klum's AOL blog as one of the top summer travel toys for kids. Check it out!

Taking a trip with the whole family this summer? Before you get anxiety about keeping the kids occupied in the car ride or while you're at the hotel, sift through this list of summer travel toys.

These toys fit easily into travel bags, don't take up a ton of room, and best of all, they provide hours of entertainment, whether you're traveling or not!

Click here to read the full article Summer Travel Toys for Kids.

Get Those Creative Juices Flowing!

Not only does Maukilo.com strive to feature some of the coolest and most durable toys on the planet, but we've also been stocking up on unique and hard to find arts & crafts sets.  While we believe that playing is about dress-up, pretend store and house, board games and outdoor adventures, it's also about creating and using the imagination! Unlock your child's artistic potential -  Browse our Arts & Crafts section, featuring sticker books, all-natural crayons and paints, model construction sets, paint and design kits, modeling clay, stencils and more!

We've handpicked some favorites of our own below!

HABA Terra Kids - Musical Gears Construction Set - $35.09

Make beautiful music with the Terra Kids - Construction Set Musical Gears! Once assembled, this crank gear musical model will create varying musical sequences with three bells. Perfect for curious kids, the Terra Kids - Construction Set Musical Gears combines physics, music, and fun in one awesome model! This set comes with over 80 pieces to glue together, developing your child's building skills. Once assembled, use the hand crank to create varying musical sequences with the three bells. The set is made of durable plywood that lasts!


Seedling - Design Your Own Shield - $39.98

Creativity and adventure collide with this DIY Wooden Shield kit from Seedling. A blank wooden shield is included, along with acrylic paints and brushes. Now your little Picasso can show off their artistic talents and protect the family coat of arms!







Glob - Natural Art Bundle - $44.99

Grab this set for everything you need to create colorful nature scenes. Instead of purchasing each product separately, you will save $9 when you buy this bundle! Includes 4 garden prints on handmade seed papers made from 100% natural, biodegradable and recycled fibers, seeds and plant material, the Bamboo Brush Set and the Natural Paint Set made from 100% natural non toxic ingredients.

GLOB arts and crafts products are sourced from natural, recyclable and biodegradable materials. The vibrant pigments in GLOB have been used by different cultures throughout the ages in food, artists' paints and body products. From the garden to the studio, GLOB handcrafted paints naturally inspire. Go ahead, GLOB it on.

Chalk City - Road Maker - $14.99

The Chalk City Road Maker holds 2 pieces of sidewalk chalk and allows kids to easily create cities, raceways, and obstacle courses right in their own driveway. A fun way to make designs for classic games like hop scotch and tic tac toe. You get the maker and two pieces of sidewalk chalk. Easily cleans up with just water. Spin it and swirl it and make geometric patterns and shapes.






Aladine - Farm Modeling Dough Set- $14.95

Get rollin' on the farm with this wonderful modeling clay set from Aladine. The soft, non toxic modeling dough will not stain or stick. Dough will air dry without cracks, so the animals created can be played with over and over! Comes with color directions to follow, or use your imagination to create the wildest creatures imaginable! Five colors (red, blue, yellow, white, and black) are included as well as a play mat with colorful outdoor scene for extra fun down on the farm! Encourages sensory awareness, creativity, fine motor skills, and imaginative play.


 HABA - Stickerworld Safari- $11.24

Lion or little monkey? Who is supposed to zip across the page? Oops, the giraffe stickers want to join in. No problem! Here creative children can let their imagination run wild and, as the stickers can be peeled off, design their own picture book over and over again. Includes 6 sheets with stickers of 3 different motifs.

HABA USA Launches New Website!

Maukilo LOVES HABA toys, which is why we couldn't help but share HABA's brand new website with our customers!

Just launched and chock full of lots of information! From company history and toy safety practices, to their product development process and environmental philosophies, this new site is a treasure trove for the toy-lover.  Check out the complete catalog of products and library of informational videos, so you can learn all there is to know about HABA!

Shop Maukilo's HABA selection, offering some of the best prices on the web!

The Importance of Pretend Play

We ran across a very interesting journal article titled: The Role of Pretend Play in Children's Cognitive Development. Obviously, children love doing it because it is fun, but it is interesting to read about why they enjoy it so much, and how beneficial it really is.  Some excerpts of the article that really caught our attention are included below.

"The relationship of pretend play (especially socially interactive pretense) to cognitive development has long been a topic of research interest among educators and psychologists, and a number of studies conducted in the late 1970s and early 1980s supported hypotheses about this relationship. For example, early studies linked play to young children's mathematics readiness (Yawkey, 1981), linguistic/literacy abilities (Pellegrini, 1980), cognitive functioning and impulse control (Saltz, Dixon, & Johnson, 1977), representational competence (Pederson, Rook-Green, & Elder, 1981), and problem-solving skills (Smith & Dutton, 1979). Recent research has explored some cognitive components hypothesized to be strongly related to pretense, such as mental representation ability (i.e., theory of mind), problem solving and other cognitive strategies, social and linguistic competence, and academic skill development."

"Lillard suggests that younger children probably see pretend as an action not a mental representation. However, she recently has suggested that pretend play may function for children as a way to create a "Twin Earth" that allows them to participate in and reason about nonactual situations (Lillard, 2001). Most TOM studies have been conducted in laboratory settings, and some researchers have noted that younger children often show understanding of others' thinking and beliefs in their naturally occurring pretend play. Other researchers have used adapted experimental methods to clarify what aspects of TOM younger children may have."

It is also believed that naturally, children participate in pretend play in order to "practice" for real life.  We find this especially interesting! Now we know why we loved to play store, house, post office, pirates, circus, doctor, teacher, etc.  I don't know about you, but I would have went bananas over some of the play food and costumes from HABA, play cash register and vacuum from Wonderworld Toys, and the play kitchen and accessories from Janod.

Encourage and cultivate your child's cognitive, linguistic, problem solving, and academic skills from an early age - check out our complete collection of pretend play products!

As if the HABA play food isn't cute, interesting and just plain fun-looking enough, watch this adorable video of a child and her father. We betcha a million bucks it'll make you smile!

Summer Time & the Livin's FUN with HABA!

Starter Set with Water Seesaw - $44.99

Little ones are sure to have tons of fun in the sun, as they construct their very own mini Water Park in the back yard. Maukilo absolutely loves these sets from HABA, and you and your family will too!  Check them out over in our store and even better, enter to WIN the Water Park Starter Set at Tales From the Nursery!


Simply ingenious - The seesaw controls the flow of water. Introduces movement to water games. Ideal for experiments: first the water gathers in the water seesaw. Then, when it fills up, the seesaw topples downwards and the water drains out. Contents: 4 tracks, 2 big struts, 4 medium sized struts, 1 sand water trowel, 1 water seesaw.

Check out the video below, demonstrating how much fun this these sets can be!!