- ★★/♥♡ Baby monitor (ages 0–4)
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A baby monitor removes the risk of waking the child by going in to check on them, which is nice.
When you close the door you can't really hear sounds, so you can notice right away when the child wakes up.
Keeping it on all year round is convenient because there's no hassle of turning it on and off.
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- ★★/♡♡ Water server (age 0+)
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A water server is recommended because it eliminates the wait when making formula.
From around the latter half of age two, the child also becomes able to get a cup and drink on their own.
As the things they can do themselves increase, it saves the parents effort, which is a great help.
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- ★★/♥♡ Microwave steam sterilizing case (age 0)
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For sterilizing baby bottles I recommend microwave steam sterilization.
Microwave steam has little wait time, and even if you forgot to sterilize you can do it in 5 minutes, so I recommend it.
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- ★★/♥♥ Long-sleeve long-type feeding bib (ages 0–6)
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With a feeding bib, if the fabric extends below the pocket, you can tuck the fabric under the plate to prevent food from dropping under the table, and even when it does fall it dirties the pants less.
Also, this company's feeding bibs don't shrink even in the dryer so they don't wrinkle, which is why I love them.
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- ★★/♥♥ Magnetic child lock (ages 0–3)
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A magnetic child lock lets you lock drawers and cabinet doors without spoiling the appearance.
It opens just by bringing the magnet close, and locks automatically when you close it, so operating it is low-effort and convenient.
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- ★★/♥♥ BOS odor-proof bags (for diapers) (ages 0–3)
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Using BOS odor-proof bags to dispose of diapers eliminates the smell from the trash can.
They're also outstanding for preventing odor transfer from strong-smelling foods like kimchi, and for keeping odors from transferring during long-term freezer storage.
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- ★★/♥♥ Check-Up gel (toothpaste gel) (ages 1–5)
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A mom friend who is a dentist recommended Check-Up gel from the standpoint of its fluoride content, so I've been using it.
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- ★☆/♥♡ Clinica Kid's toothbrush for ages 0–2 (ages 1–4)
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I let the child use a toothbrush to build the habit of brushing on their own,
but no matter how much you warn them, you can't stop them from moving around with the brush in their mouth,
so this toothbrush, made of a soft material and seemingly safe, gives peace of mind.
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- ☆☆/♥♡ Travelmin Chew-Lop (age 5+)
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Over-the-counter products usable under age five have little anti-nausea effect, but ones usable from age five work relatively noticeably, and this one is a candy type you can take without water, so I find it invaluable.
(Added in 2024)
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- ☆☆/♥♥ Wooden two-step stool (age 2+)
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By placing it in the washroom, I let the child wash their hands on their own.
Some height is needed for a child to wash their hands by themselves at the sink,
and because the stool has two steps the child can climb up and down on their own, which is convenient.
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- ★★/♥♥ BabyBjörn Bouncer (age 0)
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A bouncer was a necessity for soothing and putting the baby to sleep in infancy.
It's a bit ill-mannered, but once you get used to rocking it with your foot you can soothe the baby while eating and without using energy, so I found it invaluable.
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- ★☆/♥♡ First-grade kanji bath poster (age 3+)
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I bought it for the third birthday.
Being able to read kanji got the child interested in things like station names,
and made them conscious of kanji in daily life, which was great.
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- ★☆/♥♡ Tabletop cleaner (age 5+)
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As using an eraser for study increases, eraser shavings pile up on the desk, but with a tabletop cleaner even a child can clean them up without dropping them under the desk.
You no longer need to throw the shavings in the trash each time, and you can tidy the desktop frequently, so it's more useful than I imagined.
(Added in 2024)
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- ★★/♥♡ Baby bath (ages 0–6 months)
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Washing a newborn who can't hold their head up is hard in the bathroom, so we washed the baby in the kitchen, which was comfortable without needing to bend our backs.
The newborn period is short and you use it every day, so I think a sturdy one was easier to wash with and, in the end, the better choice.
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- ★☆/♥♡ Japan map puzzle (age 3+)
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Prefecture names come up often in daily life, such as on TV programs and as the origins of vegetables,
so I feel it was great that the child learned more through everyday life.
Memorizing prefecture names also had the effect of increasing the kanji they can read.
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- ★☆/♥♡ Picture-book repair tape (age 1+)
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Children inevitably destroy pop-up picture books, so reinforcing them with repair tape when they start to break a little makes them quite sturdy.
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- ★★/♥♡ Merci Pot (electric nasal aspirator) (ages 0–4)
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Blowing one's own nose is quite hard even at age four, so an electric nasal aspirator is invaluable.
It can suck out mucus from deep inside,
so compared with wiping from the outside it extends the time until the next suction is needed, reducing the parents' burden.
(Lately handheld nasal aspirators have also come out, and those seem to be gaining popularity too (added in 2024).)
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- ★☆/♥♡ Nature Made B-6 (during pregnancy)
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Because my wife had morning sickness while pregnant with our second child, I researched various things and bought this.
The kind bundled with regular folic acid has too little for morning-sickness countermeasures, so I think it's good to buy vitamin B-6 separately.
A past paper reported that taking 25 mg three times a day reduced the incidence of morning sickness from 50% to 25% compared with a placebo group.
However, morning sickness is not a fatal illness, and any risk raises ethical concerns, so it seems research to actively prevent it is currently not being conducted.
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- ★★/♥♡ Ear pick with LED light (age 0+)
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An ear pick with an LED light that makes it easy to see inside the ear.
Taking the advice that you shouldn't clean your ears at face value, I left it alone,
and it grew huge, so I had to go to the ENT clinic for a while, which was rough; now I remove noticeable earwax mainly with tweezers every few months.
I can't imagine cleaning ears without a light.
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- ★☆/♥♥ LaQ (age 3+)
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The child became able to do LaQ from around age three, and I feel their fingertips have gotten more dexterous.
Lego and Plarail tend to increase the number of toy boxes,
but LaQ takes up almost no space when taken apart, so I find it invaluable.
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- ★☆/♥♥ LaQ sorter LAQWAKE (age 3+)
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Storing LaQ all mixed together makes it hard to use, so I use this LaQ sorter.
If you own LaQ, it's a necessity.
It's simple enough that even a child can do it, and it sorts pieces in a short time.
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- ☆☆/♥♥ Ikeda Kogyosha Korokoro marble coaster (age 5+)
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A block toy where you can roll marbles.
Compared with Lego and the like, you can gather a sufficient number of parts for a low price, so it's nice that you can build complex courses.
The official page shows how to build complex courses, and using that as a reference you can build courses with the most complex motion possible for the number of parts.
(Added in 2024)
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- ★☆/♡♡ Whiteboard (age 2+)
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I've mounted a magnetic whiteboard on the wall
[tweet].
It's quite versatile for educational purposes and I recommend it.
To leave as few marks as possible, I stapled a clear file to the wall,
adjusted the height with plastic corrugated board and mounted it with strong adhesive tape,
and reinforced it against falling with Kabe-Bijin and wire.
It's sturdier than the sheet type and magnets stick firmly, so it's convenient.
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- ★★/♥♡ Food coloring (for water play) (age 3+)
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I occasionally hand over these three colors of food coloring and about ten clear plastic cups as bath toys.
Since it's the bathroom there's no worry about mess even if they spill, and the child seems to enjoy mixing colors freely as they please.
One or two drops per plastic cup produces enough color, so it lasts a long time.
If you play at about the same concentration as a bath additive, it doesn't color the bathroom floor or walls, so it's safe.
(Added in 2024)
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- ★☆/♥♡ Finger Alert (door finger-pinch prevention)
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With siblings around I thought fingers might get pinched when opening and closing doors, so I brought this in
[tweet].
On rough doors the adhesion is weaker and it's peeling a little, but it's fulfilling its role well enough.
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- ★★/♥♡ Portable fan (ages 0–6)
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It's a big help for cooling baby food, and even as they grow, for cooling hot food.
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- ★★/♥♥ Oshaberi Kotoba no Zukan (talking word picture book) (age 1+)
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Teaching words one by one with a parent attending is quite exhausting, but with this book the child had fun and started to remember words, so I found it invaluable.
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- ★★/♥♥ Ghost Blitz (Geistesblitz) (age 3+)
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A board game enjoyable from a young age.
There are several rules; with the simple ones you can enjoy it from around age three, and with all the rules in even adults have to use their heads.
Adults aren't especially advantaged, so it's a good game the whole family can enjoy.
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- ★☆/♥♥ Rainbow Snake (ages 3–5)
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A card game for getting used to games.
It's a simple game where you match the cards on the table to make a snake with a head and tail whose colors connect.
There's strong randomness and you can win with a certain probability even without strategy, so even a three-year-old can experience the joy of winning. (Added in 2024)
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- ★★/♥♥ Nine Tiles (age 3+)
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A game where you arrange the cards in front of you to match the example.
Around elementary-school age they can play on equal terms with adults.
Even a three-year-old can solve it given time, so if you change the rules to something like how many you can complete within a time limit, you can enjoy it together. (Added in 2024)
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- ★★/♥♥ [Monthly magazine] Kinderbook Shizen (age 2+)
- ★☆/♥♡ [Monthly magazine] Fukuinkan monthly magazines (age 0+)
- ★☆/♥♡ [Monthly magazine] Kodomo Challenge (ages 0–3)
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Picture books and toys delivered monthly save you the trouble of choosing, and it's nice that the next one arrives before you know it without having to do anything.
Kinderbook's Shizen offers something both for small children and after they've grown a bit, so it can be read for a long time; I recommend it.
Fukuinkan is nice because it lets you choose picture books without parental bias, and because most are new titles there's little worry of overlap.
With Kodomo Challenge, you feel the company's effort in how much you get delivered for the price.
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- ★★/♥♥ [Childcare app] Piyolog (age 0+)
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A necessity when a couple takes turns with childcare.
You can record sleep, formula, and diapers, so handovers go smoothly.
Even after the child grows, you can keep using it as an app to record height and weight.
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- ★★/♥♥ [Childcare app] Mitene (age 0+)
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A photo-sharing app.
Sharing with relatives easily creates enjoyment for grandparents,
and it has a footprint feature showing who viewed when, which also becomes motivation for me to take photos, so I recommend it.
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- ★★/♥♥ [Picture-book app] PIBO (age 1+)
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A picture-book app with over 300 titles.
You can read up to three a day for free, so it's easy to use casually.
Unlike e-books, being a dedicated app makes it easier to choose.
It also has a proper voice read-aloud feature, so you can have it read to you.
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- ★☆/♥♥ [Educational app] Todo Math (age 2+)
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My eldest learned numbers with this app.
Its appeal is that the child can go all the way from learning numbers, acquiring the concept of quantity, to the basics of addition, subtraction, and multiplication without much parental intervention.
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- ★☆/♥♥ [Educational app] Suku Suku Plus (age 1+)
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It's like turning worksheets for young children directly into an app.
It's easier than the math app, so children can play from quite an early stage.
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- ★☆/♥♥ [Educational app] Think! Think! (age 3+)
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An educational app you can play like a game.
It's not something that raises a specific ability,
but it's nice because it gets them used to hard-to-teach types of problems that require mental trial-and-error or flashes of insight,
by having them solve them repeatedly.
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- ☆☆/♥♥ [Educational app] BabyBus World (age 1+)
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There are a lot of ads, but the variety of playable games is unusually large and it's very well made.
Even the pretend-play games have detailed steps—
like deveining shrimp to make fried shrimp—
so there's no end to what you can learn.
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- ★★/♥♥ [Educational app] Pokémon Smile (age 2+)
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An app that supports tooth brushing using the camera.
For a two-year-old, being able to sit still and brush is groundbreaking.
Even once they've grown a bit, it's nice because it tells them where to brush, giving practice at brushing every corner.
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- ☆☆/♥♥ [Typing practice] Playgram Typing (age 6+)
- ☆☆/♥♥ [Typing practice] Sushida (age 6+)
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Playgram Typing lets you learn the home position in stages, and at each stage you can practice typing Japanese words using only the keys learned up to that point.
Since you can type meaningful words even mid-learning, you get a sense of your usable vocabulary growing, which I think makes it easy to keep going.
Sushida, done once you've gotten somewhat used to it, gives a clear monetary target, which easily translates into motivation.
(Added in 2024)
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