The Stacking Emergency Vehicles are perfect for a 3 year old because these vehicles are interchangeable and they are fun to take apart and put back together.

• Visual-spatial skills will be fine tuned as your child builds their own emergency vehicles.
• At first your child will use the learning toy to play out scripts he is familiar with. For example, maybe he’s heard sirens driving down the street.
• Later the stories will get more complex and intriguing as he adds new ideas. Maybe the vehicles are on an animal rescue mission.
• Soon your child can pair little figurines into the story and they will begin to have their own voices in the story as your child adds a new dimension; characters that talk to each other.
• Expand the play schema by using a cardboard box to create a Fire Station. Add some toy people and stuffed animals to be helpers.

from eBeanstalk

A $19.00 Value Prize

Contest ends on: Dec. 7, 2008 and a random winner will be announced the following day.

How To Play and Rules To Follow:

1) Visit eBeanstalk and leave a comment here telling us which Stocking Stuffer you like the best.

2) You can enter a second time by posting about the contest and writing why you would love the Cars. Just leave your link in the comments below.

3) Send a tweet on Twitter about the contest. Then leave your tweet URL in the comments below. Now you have 3 entries to win the Cars.

Don’t forget to check out the Holiday Gift Guide! Coupons, gift ideas, and MORE!

Post from: Blisstree

eBeanstalk Giveaway!

The first product I have is one that incorporates several languages; Russian Wooden Alphabet Blocks, German Alphabet Blocks, Spanish Wooden Alphabet Blocks, French Wooden Alphabet Blocks, English Wooden Alphabet Blocks, Italian Wooden Alphabet Blocks, Greek Wooden Alphabet Blocks.
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Post from: Blisstree

Multicultural Monday: Alphabet Blocks

We have plenty of craft activities that we got for him last Christmas, some blocks, a few Duplo blocks, a monster Brio train set, enough cars to build a highway from here to Florida, and a few memory games that he still has trouble with. He still does not get the concepts of games like Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders, which we also have.

So, this Christmas we decided to create a preschool for him. He is getting a shoe so he can learn to tie, a stacking game, a car game (from an Uncle), a marble set (his big present from us), the marble jump, a present from his uncle, and the Big Santa Present is a car garage and a BRIO Speaking Station that attach to his Brio Trains. From Grandma and Grandpa he is getting a Train Table (YEAH!). His other grandma and Aunt and Uncle have yet to let us know what they are sending him but I did let them know our theme… and that he is really into building.

To me it seems like a ton of presents for one little guy but what we do is put them away and save over half of them for over the course of the year or sometimes the gifts end up not being quite age appropriate and we end up putting them away for later. We still have things from two Christmas’ ago that we have not brought out because we know he can’t handle them yet.

We allow him to open them and then we carefully, after he goes to bed, put them away and allow him to play with one or two things. Because really, how much it too much?

By creating a structured “preschool”environment for him I can allow only a few things a day for him to play with and can help him with his developmental needs. Sure, it may not always work because he and I both get frustrated by the end of the afternoon but at least we can say that we tried and he was not crazy all day. It sure works better than to let him run wild from the start and not learn anything.

So here is my question…how much do your children get at Christmas and how do you manage it?

Post from: Blisstree

How Much is Too Much?