I'm not quite sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, it's a neat update to the old wave around a rubber ducky and make weird--and hopefully not scary--noises technique for photographing children. On the other hand...I'm not sure this is quite what the manufacturer speced your hotshoe for. Photocritic has a link up to one guy's trick for keeping children interested in his camera: slide a PEZ dispenser into the hotshoe. This has a few advantages over the duck. First, there's almost endless variety; if you keep a selection of dispensers, you can find one the subject responds to. Second, it's affixed to the camera. That means that the child will be looking at the camera, not wherever you're waving your hand. It also means that you can keep both hands on the camera when not using a tripod. That's a big plus. The downside of course is that the child is always looking at the camera. no 3/4 profile here. At least not until the bundle of joy gets bored. Finally, of course, there's the bribe. You can dispense candy as a reward, candy that comes from the camera. I certainly would have been a lot more interested in looking at the camera as a kid if I'd though it dispensed candy.

Have pity on the general populace if you use this trick, though, and explain to the kids that you have a "magic" camera. your local camera store won't be amused when the neighborhood kids start showing up in search of treats.