Every day I discover more and more beautiful things. It’s enough to drive one mad. I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it.
- Claude Monet
Dad Suggests was created to share with others the many different things that we have loved sharing with our own children.
Our hope is that - by reading or visiting our children’s bookstore - you will find something special to enjoy with your own family.
- Ryan
First Orchard by HABA is perhaps the very best board game to be your child’s first board game. This cooperative game teaches basic skills like taking turns and rolling the die - and the wooden game pieces are high-quality enough to be toys by themselves.
These are the benefits of teaching chess to kids. Chess is very good for a child’s brain. Playing chess strengthens their executive functions (cognitive control) at a time in their development when they need it the most, and when it can make the biggest impact on the rest of their lives.
These are the very best Christmas movies for families. The best Christmas films and TV specials are responsible for a lot of the magic found in Christmas itself. Better than any other medium, these films allow us to sit together as a family and celebrate the spirit of Christmas through imaginative works of art.
Get kids to actually want to brush their teeth. Believe it or not, sometimes our kids don’t do what we’d like them to do. Occasionally, brushing teeth is one of those things we’d prefer that they did. This is how we change their mind.
Children should be allowed to believe in Santa. The magic of childhood should be sacred. But some people seem to be of the belief that believing in Santa Claus is harmful to children, and that you should tell them he doesn’t exist.
These are the best Christmas picture books. A good Christmas book has great potential for teaching a profound life lesson. I think that’s because the true meaning of Christmas has many parallels with the true meaning of life.
These are the best film versions of A Christmas Carol. Charles Dickens’ classic is the ultimate Christmas story. The selfish Scrooge gets himself a wakeup call about love, and the whole thing basically culminates in a greater understanding of the meaning of life. What more could you ask for?
This is a positive way to calm down an angry child. What do you do when your child is so upset that their anger leads to bad decisions - like saying hurtful things or even hitting? Check out our special trick for calming down our kids in a fun way.
These are the best logic games for kids. Children aren’t born with the ability to masterfully resist their impulses and weigh the potential consequences of their actions. For that reason, learning logic through games is not only a lot of fun, it truly grows an incredibly useful skillset.
A Family is a Family is a Family by Sara O’Leary is a picture book that celebrates love - and how it’s love that makes a family. The message inside is extremely important for kids. If you’re looking to vaccinate your child for bigotry, just read them this story every night.
These are the very best picture books that teach kids empathy. Teach your children how to empathize with others. All of these kids books do a spectacular job of placing you in the shoes of someone else, and they show you that other creatures have lives and feelings too.
Quiet Please, Owen McPhee! is a picture book about listening. Trudy Ludwig has once again proven herself to be the queen of empathy. Ludwig and Patrice Barton have teamed up again to bring us another incredible story that will lead to our kids reflecting on how their actions might affect others.
The Dad Suggests 2018 Holiday Gift Guide. These are all personal recommendations for books, games, and toys to give as gifts to your family. They caught our attention this year and sparked the imagination of our own children (currently ages 6 and 2). And, to be perfectly honest, they all blow me away with their quality too.
Costume Quest is now a Halloween-themed video game, graphic novel, and TV show. It perfectly captures the essence of what makes Halloween so magical. When I first played Costume Quest, it filled my heart to the brim with beautiful Halloween nostalgia.
In the picture book Zen Ghosts, Stillwater the giant panda tells a spooky, ancient tale of a young couple in love. Stillwater is the recurring star of the Zen series by Jon J. Muth, and he always has beautiful and thought-provoking stories to tell to his friends.
These are the very best Halloween movies to watch with your family. Movies are perhaps the very best medium for setting the appropriate Halloween atmosphere. What better way to get into the spirit than vicariously living through a spooky adventure?
Sir Simon: Super Scarer may be the best picture book about a ghost ever made. Cale Atkinson wrote that he has wanted to make a ghost story for a very long time. Passion can make all the difference in a work of art, and Atkinson’s passion here is clear.
Shadows in the Forest is a board game from ThinkFun that you play in the dark. I knew intuitively that my son’s face would light up when he heard there was a board game you had to play in the dark. I knew the wheels in his head would start to turn thinking of the possibilities.
