Each character comes with 3 small “Kimochis™” – or feelings inside a special pocket. The small Kimochis have  feeling (happy, sad, silly,brave…) printed on one side, and a corresponding facial expression on the other. Each one also comes with a How-To Use Kimochis™ Feel Guide with easy fun lessons developed by nationally renowned child communication expert Ellen Pritchard Dodge M.ED.CCC-SLP.

The Kimochis™ characters will also have books, animation and an online world with educational content and activities that we will be launching in December.

If you’d like more information about these adorable plush toys with feelings, or to check out their educational content starting in December, check out the Kimochis website.

Image Plushy Feely Corp.

Post from: Play Library

This just in…..

I got an email from Lakeshore Learning today, which is a great company that offers a huge variety of educational toys, books and more for parents, teachers or schools.  Lakeshore Learning is offering free shipping on purchases of $99 or more (excluding gift cards) to celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week between April 29th and May 11th.

This is a great time to stock up on some cool products!

When you place your order be sure to use coupon code APM638 at checkout to get the discount.

Here are the disclaimers from the email:

*Free Shipping: Offer valid on orders placed online at LakeshoreLearning.com only. Valid 04/29/08 to 05/11/08, 11:59 p.m. PST. Not valid in stores. $99 minimum purchase excludes tax, shipping charges, and gift card purchases. Orders must ship to a single address within the contiguous U.S. Standard shipping only. Not to be used in conjunction with any other offers or prior purchases. No cash value.

Have fun shopping!

Image source: LakeshoreLearning.com

Post from: Play Library

TheGrandParentZone.com announces its launch of a new website featuring American Made toys.

“This unique website was the brainchild of baby boomers Fred and Betsy Arnow, who wanted to create a website with the best children’s books, wood toys, and equipment they used most when their now grown-up kids were infants, toddlers, and children.”

Many of the items on their website are considered classic toys. They feature wood toys, games and puzzles that are similar to what the baby boomers had when they were children. Fred and Betsy Arnow said that much of what you will see on their website are toys that they owned when they were new parents. These are toys that they drug all over America so that they could keep them to hand over to their grandchildren.

TheGrandParentZone definitely has one unique feature that sets it apart from a lot of the other websites out there.

“One of the unique features of the website is a free “concierge” service that assists potential customers in trying to find a specific item that may not be available on the website. In addition, the website offers a free Resource Center, where visitors will find a number of practical parent resource tools available from the experts who created the materials. When visitors click on a specific title, they are taken directly to a linked site where they can browse a description of the item they’ve chosen to view.”

If you are looking for high quality, safe and educational toys for your kids or grandkids, TheGrandParentZone.com is a reliable source for your needs.

The toy pictured above is one of the pedal toys that are featured on their site. They have a wide variety of these pedal toys and they are just fun to look at. Every kid should have a classic pedal toy. My littlest son has one and he rides it every single day.

I definitely know I’ll be visiting TheGrandParentZone for some awesome toys. My sister just had a baby so I have a brand new nephew to look forward to buying for!

via prweb 

Post from: Play Library

A lot of toys these days are marketed as “educational” and such, but I think some of the best toys for teaching and learning are the simple ones, many of which have been around longer than any of us have been alive. The following is my list of toys and such that have stood the test of time, and some of the things that can be learned through their use. As always, I’m about as forgetful as they come these days, and I’m bound to forget some very basic toys. Feel free to set me straight in the comments section!

• Blocks: Great for early hand-eye coordination and grasping, stacking, etc. Good for learning about balance and spacial relations.
• Puzzles: Useful for learning pattern recognition and spacial relations (I should have done more puzzles as a kid, my spacial abilities are horrid!). Also fantastic for practicing patience as each piece is attempted to be fit into a space.
• Books, books and more books!: From learning to name the objects around us, to identifying our first letters, numbers and colors, to learning our first small words, to reading our first chapters books, and way, way beyond—books are with us for the long haul.
• Musical instruments: From the time that we can first grasp, we can appreciate the gentle shake of a rattle. We learn to associate our actions with an aural reaction. It’s a good foundation for making music for years to come.

One thing I like about each of these items listed is that versions of them are along with us for the expanse of our lives. As soon as we can begin to grasp items, we’re surrounded by blocks of all shapes, colors and textures. We graduate from those to Duplos and Lego, and on up until we’re building towers in the sky. Some of our first toys are three piece puzzles big enough for our clumsy, unpracticed hands to grasp. We move onto 24 piece puzzles featuring our favorite Pooh characters and eventually are putting together puzzles well into the thousands of pieces (well, some of you are ). Books and musical instruments both can be introduced as the youngest age, and used and appreciated to the last breath. Amazing, yeah?

Another thing that I appreciate about all of these is that none require batteries! Can’t go wrong there. And all of them are much more fun when introduced by a parent or caregiver. Because, no matter the toy or book, there is true value that can be received from just being told that I love you enough to sit and play together.

I’m sure I’ve left out tons, but the clock is telling me that I need to wrap this up. What toys and items would you include on a favorites list? Let me know in the comments section!

Post from: Play Library

My 3 year old received it from a friend for his birthday. We’re the fourth family in our circle of friends to acquire one. Mostly that’s because, when we all get together, all the kids fight over them. So, the rule is, everyone bring your laptop when you come over!

But, seriously, it’s a very generous gift (thank you!) that my son was so excited to receive. Here are the few things I’ve discovered that I like about it.

• Volume control. It’s doesn’t get really quiet, but I always appreciate some control over that.
• Lots of educational games. Spelling, rhyming, learning letters, all in a fun activities.
• Levels of difficulty. Whether you’re learning your letters for the first time or you’re well onto spelling, there’s a fun game for all.
• Clear vocal cues. Sometimes computer generated voices are hard to understand and are a hinderance to the learning process. This one’s nice and clear.

The only drawback that I’ve noticied so far is that the screen is not as clear as it appears in the photo. For kids with vision problems, it might be hard to make out the smaller letters on the screen.

Anyone else out there have experience and thoughts on this toy?

Post from: Play Library

I think this was her first experience with a video game, or at least the type that requires a joystick. Up to this point, I think her only experience has been on-line games at PBS and CBeebies. Certainly, it was a much more high-tech experience than my Atari 2600 of the 80’s!

She loved the Dora and Scooby-Doo games. I’m thinking her brother would get a kick out of The Wiggles and Bob the Builder games. We may have to add this one to the Christmas Wish List.

Do any of you have this in your home? What are your thoughts on it?

Post from: Play Library

Enter Learning Resources. I decided the only way that I would be able to keep him out of her materials would be to get him a few supplies of his own. I found a Learning Resources Phonics set that allows him to learn his letters while his sister is practicing her words and spelling. I even got him a magnetic white board so that he can use them on the board just like big sis. We’ll see how long this tactic works.

Post from: Play Library

Their favorites are the animal placemats and the math placemats, and they love the write on/wipe off surfaces. I think they’re great tools to have when you need the kids to sit for a minute, but too distracting when I need them to focus on finishing their dinner! Ah well, nothing is perfect.

Visit educationalplacemats.com to see their vast selection of placemats that will help educate your kids while keeping your table clean! Discover placemats that teach you about everything from construction equipment to great composers to place settings to the Hebrew Alphabet. That’s variety.

Post from: Play Library

The bugs are very detailed, and there are six bugs of six different colors each. I love it when my son asks, “Mom, where’s the paterkitter (catterpillar)?” The cards are helpful tools for teaching colors, counting, matching, and patterns.

When we purchased our Discovery Toys, I think they were only sold by consultants at in-home parties, similar to TupperWare. It looks like you can now find a consultant on-line and order.

The toys came with an unconditional sastisfaction guarantee. Of the many that we received, only one or two toys didn’t meet our expectations, but I’m one of those consumers that every company loves and didn’t bother to return them for new ones. So, I’ve no firsthand knowledge on the ease of toy replacement from them.

Let me know of your favorite Discovery Toys!

BTW-We only need a few more votes in our poll in the right sidebar. Help a girl out, will ya?

Post from: Play Library