Picture It Picture Books is a super great Canadian company that I’m thrilled to share with you.

Alicia and Leanne, a teacher and a lawyer respectively, have written three books (so far) which, as a mother and a teacher, I think are brilliant. They’re designed to aid in the development of imagination and hone the skill of visualization in all children. These smart ladies have written the stories, but the pages in the books are blank canvases waiting to be filled with your child’s illustrations.

You know when you read a great book and then the movie is disappointing because your imagination was so much better than what anyone else could create? With Picture It Picture Books children draw whatever they imagine as they read the story and are never disappointed to find out that their imagination wasn’t “right.”

If there’s one thing that embodies childhood, it’s imagination. Any product that fosters that for people of any age is tops in my book.

The pages are made from 30% post-consumer recycled paper, and the books make a treasured keepsake. It’s a new way to engage in story time with your child (which I sincerely hope you’re doing daily in whatever way you’re doing it) and your child will be so proud to share these books with their friends, classmates and grandparents once they’re completed.

Win it! We’ve got a package of Picture It Picture Books to give away to one reader. To enter, leave a comment on this post before noon mst on December 29, 2009.

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED

My children both love crafts. It’s all crafts, all the time around here. From simple colouring & playdough smushing to glueing random things on to other random things, they love it all. With going back to work, the craft projects I plan & do with my children aren’t as intricate or as often as they used to be, so I was thrilled to find the awesome kits from Creativity for Kids.

My son and I delved into the new festive felt stocking kit ($21.99) last week, and at just 3 1/2 years old he was able to do everything independently. It looks just like a 3 1/2 year old made it, and it’s pure perfection simply because he loves it. It’s marked ages 5-95 but was absolutely no trouble for him at all. I don’t know that I’d want to spend twenty bucks on a kit for a 3 year old, but for an older child it would make a valuable keepsake. (For us, it made a bunch of random stickers and glitter glue smudges on a stocking. While we got some great pictures of the process and the product, I don’t know that we’ll keep the actual product forever.) That’s actually a large part of the charm of these kits. The activities are open ended so no two children will create the same product and everyone can be proud of their creative process.

The kits come equipped with everything your child needs to personalize a whimsical light blue felt stocking – peel and stick felt stickers in a variety of shapes and colours, jewel stickers and a tube of silver glitter glue. It comes with a teensy mini stocking, too, that just fits a little bone for Fido. The large stocking measures 10 1/2″ x 13″ and both stockings include a ribbon hanging loop.

Win it! One reader will win the kit of their choice from Creativity for Kids. To enter, comment on this post with your selection before noon mst on Monday, December 14, 2009.

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED

The Wii rocks for so many reasons. Though we still don’t have much time to play it, we thoroughly enjoy the moments that we do, and it’s a great way to entertain the entire family when the weather’s crappy. We don’t have many games, but that may change since my recent discovery of Wiiware, a service that allows Wii users to download games and applications specifically designed and developed for the Wii console from the Wiishop channel. Without going to the store. Can I get an Amen?

UK based game developer Zoonami kindly gave us some Wii points to spend on their new Wiiware game, Bonsai Barber. It’s for 1-4 players and is rated E for Everyone-Comic Mischief. For some reason, the name of the game didn’t click for me until we actually played it. And yes, we were actually giving haircuts to foliage. You choose from a selection of tools of the trade – scissors, clippers, paint for fun, water to regrow foliage and more, and cut the “hair” (twigs and leaves) of one of the twelve Bonsai salon customers, which include a shallot, a strawberry, a cactus, a carrot, a banana and more, each with their own interesting personality. If you play daily, you’ll get a new 5 customers each day to test your stylistic skills. Sometimes the customer requests a certain style, or you can choose from over thirty available styles. If you don’t play daily and miss an appointment, you’ll hear about it (on your Wii message board, but if you perform well you may get a gift or a postcard from an exotic destination from a customer who has traveled afar to show off their new do. I’d never let my kids Wii every day and there are no worries about the game being annoying if you don’t.

While my husband and I enjoyed the game for a few minutes, it’s definitely a kids game and our three year old absolutely loved it. It was really fun for us to play as a family, but is not a game you’d sit and play with your adult friends for long. It’s el cheapo – amounts to about ten bucks – and is great fun for all ages so if you have children or grandchildren of the under 10 set, I’d highly recommend it!

Buy your 2000 Wii points card online in Canada or the USA and get shopping!

Win it! You could win one of THREE 2000 Wii points cards or a Wii console courtesy of Zoonami! To enter, leave a comment on this post before noon mst on December 7, 2009. The first number drawn will win the Wii (along with a Wii points card so you can order Bonsai Barber! Those Zoonami folks are so thoughtful…) and the next three will win the points cards. Good luck! (Remember, you can always get extra entries at T.O.P.!)

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED

Remember friendship bracelets?

Turns out they never went away.

I just got old.

Who knew?

The infamous Klutz, a company from whom I have purchased approximately a gazillion gifts that I had to force myself not to keep & play with, has recently released Fancy Friendship Bracelets ($19.95) for ages 8 & up. It’s the sequel to the original ‘Friendship Bracelets’ book. This one comes with a bunch of way cool all-new bracelet designs that any girlfriend would be glad to receive. There are four bright reams (is that what they’re called?) of cord & one black one, as well as more than 200 sparkling beads and some super heard & flower charms.

They range from simple to slightly more complicated designs and there’s something for everyone’s taste. The toughest thing about this kit is actually giving the cute stuff you make to someone else and not keeping it all for yourself. Or is that just me?

Win it! TWO winners will each win TWO copies of this new book. One to keep…and one to share! To enter, just comment here before noon mst on Monday, November 23, 2009.

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNERS EMAILED

We love paint programs. From the time my children could grasp a mouse (or their daddy’s PDA stylus), they’ve been asking to “draw pictures on the computer.” I realize that drawing on a computer screen is significantly different than drawing with pencil and paper. Different motor skills are necessary, and there is a different type of steadiness and patience required. But video games can be a great learning tool when you find the right one.

What happens when an easy-to-maneuver paint program becomes integrated with a problem-solving, creative challenge on top of an early reading practice tool? ItzaBitza happens, that’s what!

We were asked to review ItzaBitza by Sabi and jumped at the chance. Just one glance through at their website had me convinced. What I wasn’t expecting was how jovial and fun the music is, how utterly loveable the girl and boy characters (“Sketchies”) are, and how interactive (and smart) the game is!

The first time my son tested out ItzaBitza was right before bedtime (in lieu of a story one night). He caught on to the game rules immediately — and was amazed at how incredibly FUN it was! He giggled over little things (like how he could click on the mailbox to make letters come flying out). It was nearly impossible to convince him to put it away until the next morning, then settle down and go to sleep. Long after I left his room, I could hear himself talking to himself and laughing about what he’d seen in the game. I smiled. I really, really like ItzaBitza. And believe me, so does he.

With “living ink” technology, the simple shapes your child draws on the “paper” screen fill in and become “alive.” When asked to draw a house, your child draws a square and a triangle, then the Sketchy comes over to ask where are the windows and doors. Brilliant! It teaches simple following of directions while allowing for the flexibility of creativity and whimsy.

(And if your child draws something that doesn’t quite fit into place or isn’t quite was asked for, the line(s) simply cut up into pieces and fall away.)

The words that the Sketchies say to your child show up in speech bubbles. When your child mouses over the words, the Sketchy says them aloud. Early reading skills are thus sharpened in an unoffensive, gentle way.

Each time your child completes a task, a star appears. Click on the star to receive more challenges, which increases problem solving skills and divergent thinking abilities.

ItzaBitza is available for download onto your Windows XP or Vista computer. At only $19.99, it’s an absolute steal. For the price (and even a higher one), in my opinion, there aren’t many finer educational (all the while fun) games out there for preschoolers and early elementary-aged children.

ItzaBitza gets two enthusiastic thumbs up from our family! - By Meg

Win it! We’re giving Itza Bitza to one lucky family. Comment here before Friday 8/21/09 noon to enter!

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED

Not that the people we love aren’t worth several hours of folding, drawing and colouring, but sometimes that’s why they get an impersonal dollar store card instead of a handmade one – it either takes too long or the kid can’t draw much more than a stick figure independently. With the ingenious KidCards, any child can quickly & easily create a card for any occasion that’s perfect for their own skill level.

Volume 1 is perfect for my kids who are 1 and 3. There are 20 cards with envelopes for a variety of occasions (birthday, thank you, get well, congrats & friendship) and they’re ready to colour & decorate. Even if you have a kid who just does a little scribble, the recipient is sure to appreciate the gesture, and the child learns the concept of card giving and kindness from a young age. Volume two also contains 20 cards with envelopes in the same variety, but only features a themed frame on the front, leaving much more room for creativity for the older child. Also available are a special edition Christmas set and three sets just for teachers (Mother’s Day, Father’s Day & thank you) with a card & envelope for each child in the class. I just happen to be an early childhood educator in “real life” and these cards are just perfect for a class of K-2ish kids to quickly create an occasion card that doesn’t tie up an entire double art period. If you have an extra large class, the cards are easily double-side copied (they’re just black line masters, really). They remind me a lot of the cards we teachers create all the time in MS Publisher, but now we no longer have to spend the time doing that. They even come pre-scored for easy & straight folding – a huge bonus if you want the card from your three year old to fit in the envelope.

At just $15/book, they beat even the dollar store prices and mean a heck of a lot more to the person receiving them.

Win it! Your choice of volume 1 or volume 2 is up for grabs. To enter, let us know which one you’d like via comment before noon mst on June 17, 2009. Canada & US only please.

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED

About this time last year, we reviewed the first three games from the awesome Around the Table Games. They’ve since developed two new games, Buddy Talk and Teen Talk, which are designed for school aged children to use with their friends.

Buddy Talk is intended for kids aged 7+ and is perfect right through the tween years. It would be an awesome gift for a group of girls for a sleepover night, and I can just imagine giggle little girls making a tradition of pulling out their cards each sleepover night as the parents head off to bed and the kids are just beginning. Teen Talk is, obviously, for teens, and is a great way for them to really get to know the people they talk to all the time. With “deeper” questions, these cards actually make kids think while they’re hanging out – a much better alternative than the latest version of Grand Theft Auto.

Both of these games were created BY kids FOR kids, and would make awesome, unique and very affordable (only $8!) birthday gifts for your children’s friends.

Win it! We’re giving away one of each of these games to one randomly selected reader. To enter, leave a comment on this post before noon mst on June 15, 2009.

1. Blog about this contest using one of the top three images found here. Leave a comment with the direct link to your post (not to your main page, and in a separate comment from your other entry).

AND/OR
2.

or

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Leave an additional comment to let us know that you did this for your extra entry. Be sure to leave a valid email address so we can confirm your subscription. Current subscriptions count too! Just let us know how you subscribe…Bloglines? Google reader? Email? They all work.

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3. Place our button in your sidebar or add us to your blogroll. Leave an additional comment to let us know that you did this for your extra entry. Be sure to leave a valid url so we can confirm the addition. If we’ve been there all along, that counts too!

Maximum four entries total per person.

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED

Does your child love animals? Maybe they aspire to become a veterinarian when they grow up or maybe you always wanted to be a vet? My daughter adores animals and would gladly bring strays home whenever she can. However, she is just beginning to understand some of the responsibilities of caring for pets.

Pet Pals: A New Leash on Life from Legacy Games is a challenging, educational and fun way to learn all about all sorts of animals as the new vet at the Pet Pals Animal Shelter. The graphics are amazing and the game play was perfect for her to follow along. My daughter adored nursing the sick animals back to health. We started with the tutorial, so we helped Sunshine, a stray kitten.

The game is packed full of information about not only animals but also many career options for those who want to work with animals. We spent a lot time in the tutorial, as my daughter is new to the computer and she really wanted to spend time with the kitten. With 35 unique cases to diagnose and treat, the game has lasting power. The cases were written by real-life veterinarians and introduce children to 15 different animals.

Our favourite part was once our kitten was healthy, and we were able to put the little guy up for adoption at the shelter. We adopted both our family cats, so my daughter was really into the process. All in all, a really fun game to play with your children (or once they have gone to bed!) Pet Pals: A New Leash on Life is available for both PC and Mac, and is rated E for everyone. Get it here for under $20. My five year old needed assistance & some explanation but enjoyed playing the game a lot. - by Chelle

Win it! We’re giving away a copy of this game to one lucky reader. To enter, leave a comment on this post by noon mst on June 11, 2009.

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED

Generations of children have frustrated their parents by playing with the box more than the costly toy that came inside it. Color Me House, founded by April McCray, offers a genius solution that makes kids happy, saves parents money, and encourages unlimited creativity.

The Color Me line of products is made of strong, sturdy, 100% recyclable 2 ply cardboard that’s safe for kids of all ages with no staples or sharp corners. (Provided they won’t eat it – it won’t necessarily hurt them but it’s not vitamin-packed either.)

There are currently two products available – The house sells for $40 and the rocket will set you back a mere $50. A small price to pay for hours and hours of creative entertainment. If you grew up making forts from cardboard boxes, you’ll love sharing Color Me House with your kids. Simply open & assemble (a few minutes, tops) and set the kids free with their choice of creative paraphernalia – crayons, paints, markers, glitter glue, wallpaper, stickers or anything else that makes a mark.

We’ve had a bit of a strange spring here in the great white north, and we’ve been loving the Color Me House & Color Me Rocket for those snowy (wth?) May days. We leave them inside on the sunny days (though they can be taken outside if you have a dry location) so they’re a great novelty for the times when we trade in the swimsuits for the snowboots. The next one I order will be an awesome addition to our mid-January forced-to-stay-inside birthday party.

Order yours from Color Me House or find a location near you.

Win it! We’re giving away a Color Me House or Color Me Rocket – your choice – to one lucky USA-based (sorry ’bout that!) reader. To enter, leave a comment letting us know which one you want and your state on this post before noon mst on June 3, 2009.

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED

In the dead of the cold Canadian winter, nobody in their right mind takes their kids to the park. Sure, we’re tough up here. We can get bundled up in balaclavas and down skidoo suits, with nothing showing but two squinting eyeballs, but once we get outside we can barely walk for the bundling and the kids sure couldn’t get up on any playground we were crazy enough to take them to. (And if they did, how long do you think it would take before someone’s tongue was stuck to the slide?)

Enter Toronto based DreamGYM Inc., the first company in Canada to produce indoor jungle gyms for home use. Company founder Marina Mironov has created an ingenious product which allows children to stay physically active all year round, regardless of the weather. DreamGYM Indoor Jungle Gyms and wide variety of accessories can be installed in almost any space of the home: a kids’ room, basement, or a spare bedroom. Children have a blast climbing ladders, scaling monkey bars, swinging on a trapeze bar, or doing flips on gym rings right inside their homes.

We tried out a few of the DreamGYM accessories with a local preschool group. The gym rings, trapeze/ring combo and disc swing all mounted very easily & safely in a room with exposed rafters and were a huge hit with all of the children. They’re obviously well made and feel very solid – almost industrial. The accessories are very affordable, especially for such high quality equipment. They range from just $15 for the trapeze bar to just under $200 for the four sided rope ladder. The basic model of the jungle gym sells for $950 (pine) or $1270 (maple), and all prices are in Canadian dollars so Americans get even better prices than that! Obesity prevention and health benefits aside, we all know that an exercised child is a happier child, which equals a calmer and quieter child. You’re welcome.

All DreamGYM Inc. products are available from their online store.

Win it! DreamGYM is giving away an accessory pack (gym rings, trapeze/ring combo and disc swing, an $80 value) to one randomly selected winner. To enter, pay a visit to the DreamGYM Inc. site and come back here to comment with what other items not mentioned in this review that you would love to have in your home. Contest closes at noon mst on March 25, 2009.

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED

Please visit our sponsor:

On their website, the creators of Little Stars Bedtime Cards share a quote from Barbara Coloroso’s A Pocket Guide to Kids are Worth It. “Bedtime is a special time, a time of transition. It is an opportunity for closure to one day and a preparation for the next. It is a small turning point in the natural rhythm that gives structure and meaning to life. With care and patience and awareness of our children’s needs, each bedtime can be its own celebration of love and life.”

As parents, we all wish for bedtime to be a positive time, but all too often it’s filled with whining, demands & less than stellar patience levels on the part of both parent and child. Canadian moms Shannon McQuillan & Linda Komori created Little Stars Bedtime Cards to help parents make bedtime the affirming and positive experience that it has the potential to be. They’re not designed to teach new concepts, but to ‘affirm positive qualities that already exist in your child.’

The Little Stars, Sparky, Blaxe & Shiner help parents ask “big questions for little people.” There are some great reasons for using questions as opposed to statements. According to the site, “when we have a specific lesson or message that we need to communicate, teaching or telling our child is very effective. However, when the goal is to connect and deepen our understanding of our child, questions about thoughts and feelings can be incredibly effective for the following kinds of reasons:

~It becomes a two way conversation
~It feels good when someone takes and interest you (even if you don’t have a lot to say)! The very nature of asking questions is an expression of the desire to learn about the other person
~There are no right or wrong answers when you are talking about thoughts and feelings
~Your child will feel loved knowing that you care enough to ask the question and to listen to their response (again even if they don’t have a lot to say)
~You see the world through your child’s lens and may end up talking about things you wouldn’t otherwise (you may be surprised to learn just how opinionated and observant your three year old really is!)
~It keeps your attention focused on your child and children love to have a parents undivided attention even for just a short while
~Children are naturally curious and while they love to answer questions, they may start to ask questions themselves which is lots of fun too.”

Any one of those reasons would have been enough for me to try these cards. I’ve seen them in action with my own little guy and I think they’re every but as awesome as they sound. The cards sell for $15 and ship for just $3. They’d make a great gift for your child who is transitioning to a big kid bed, don’t you think?

Win it! We’ve got a set of Bedtime Cards to give away to a randomly selected reader. To enter, leave a comment on this post before noon mst on February 27, 2009.

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED

This year has been a tricky year for a lot of families. With Canada and the United States in a recession, many families are scaling back this holiday season. Our family just bought our first home, so I knew in advance that I had to balance a great Christmas within a tight budget. I have been known to go a little overboard in years past. We have moved a lot and I was constantly wrapped up in trying to make up for that. With the best intentions in mind, I went overboard on spending.

This year I was determined to make Christmas mean more and ultimately cost less. I purchased the children a few select items that I knew they would adore then began working on simpler, more creative ways to make the celebration wondrous. Did I mention we just moved? This goal of mine was getting complicated. How do I keep it simple, inexpensive and wonderful all at the same time?

I have had wonderful opportunities to sew up awesome aprons and a tutu from YouCanMakeThis.com before and knew that I could count on them for the perfect pattern. I chose the “Easy-Fit” Pants – Girls & Boys! Sizes 1-10 (Doll sizes, too!) pattern and got down to work. I wanted a pattern that I could use over and over for all the kids, knowing that each time I sewed with it I would come up with better results. The pattern is detailed and easy to work with. Since I was under time constraints it was awesome to whip through a pair of pajama bottoms in an evening (even with distractions from the kids!)

I made these matching PJ’s (pictured) for under $30 (including the pattern from YouCanMakeThis.com that I totally plan on reusing)! I know the kids are going to love the penguins in Santa hats and totally dig that they are matching. Extra bonus … totally adorable Christmas morning pictures of the kids in their ‘made with love’ PJ bottoms!

If you are looking for inspiration this Christmas that is not only cute but also thrifty, be sure to check out the YouCanMakeThis.Com blog where they hosted the “Thrifty Under 50” Challenge – encouraging a handmade holiday for under $50. The projects that the 50 participants came up with are absolutely fabulous. Next year, I am totally going to make even more of an effort to make more, spend less and enjoy the celebration with my family. By Chelle

Save 10% at YouCanMakeThis.com with the code MakeGifts until 12/31/08.

Win it! Two randomly selected winners will receive an eBook of their choice with a maximum value of $20 each. To enter, visit YouCanMakeThis.com and then leave a comment on this post letting us know which pattern to send you if your number is drawn. Contest closes at noon mst on December 18, 2008.

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED

Earlier this year, we reviewed an awesome online scrapping site called How Fast They Grow.

We loved the site then and we love it more now.

Let me refresh your memory…

…How Fast They Grow is a mom-owned full service digital scrapbooking site. With their patent-pending Digi-scrapbook program, you can scrapbook if you can upload photos, drag & drop, choose colours and type. There is seriously nothing to it, and the final product is amazing! There are a ton of templates to choose from and more are being added all the time.

Founder Cathy Bennett recently informed me that they’ve dropped their price from $7.50 per page to $5.50 per page – a permanent reduction of over 25%. That? Is awesome.

Until December 28, 2008 you can save an additional 15% with the code TOP15. With the new prices, this means the page price is just $4.67…a super great deal.

Unfortunately they still don’t ship to Canada, but plan to add it in 2009.

Win it! We’re giving away a $50 Gift Certificate to How Fast They Grow. To enter, browse the templates and leave a comment on this post letting us know some of your faves that you might try if you win…or even if you don’t! Contest is open until noon mst on Christmas day.

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED – Congrats Helene!

Doodlestix?. What could THAT possibly be?,” I thought to myself when I got the email about potentially reviewing this product. It turns out, Doodlestix is something I couldn’t wait to try with my 6 year old son because it’s “a subscription based product that helps parents teach their children character traits and to ‘do the right thing.’”

From their website:  “We believe most parents want their children to do what’s right, but may not have a good support structure for teaching them. That’s where Doodlestix comes in! We felt that kids would be more likely to listen to instruction from another kid’s point of view and that this type of influence should come early in their development, before they are exposed to negative influences in the external environment.

Doodlestix is not intended to be the sole source of character education for your child. Rather, it is one tool in your toolbox to support and reinforce your efforts to teach your children. Doodlestix provides positive peer pressure for your child. Doodlestix is your child’s best friend!”
[Ed: If Doodlestix is your child's best friend, you need to get out more.]

How does it work? Children receive personalized letters from Doodlestix detailing one of Doodlestix’s experiences and how that experience demonstrates a character trait.

Who is Doodlestix exactly? He is a fictitious friend, who wants to be your child’s pen pal. Doodlestix is basically a good kid and wants to do what’s right, but often makes bad choices and suffers the consequences. Fortunately, Doodlestix learns a lot in this process and is willing to write your child frequently to teach them how to do what’s right and stay out of trouble.

Doodlestix discusses many common character traits such as honesty, integrity, courage, responsibility, trustworthiness, respect, fairness, and much, much more. Each character trait is presented with practical, everyday examples that will help your child understand not only what the character trait is, but, more importantly, why it is important to be that way.

You can select the frequency at which Doodlestix will write your child a letter, and you can have it personalized so that Doodlestix will mention specific things about your child such as their pet or favorite game or TV show. Doodlestix is written in a gender-neutral manner, so it is appropriate for both boys and girls. Also, while Doodlestix emphasizes basic moral and ethical principles, no one particular religious viewpoint is expressed, so it is appropriate for children of all faiths or without faith.

Along with each letter, parents receive a parent guide outlining the themes presented in the letter. The parent guide also includes several discussion questions the parent can use as a launch pad for a conversation about that particular character trait with their child.

Try it free for one month, and subscriptions start at just $1.95/month for email delivery and $2.95/month for postal mail delivery. To order or find more information (including how you can try the service for free for 30 days), visit http://www.doodlestix.com/ – by CPA Mom

NOTE: Contest entry is different than usual at the request of the sponsoring company. Please read carefully.

Win it! We’re giving away two, 12 month subscriptions of the Doodlestix “two letters per month” service – one to each of two randomly selected winners.

To enter, just leave a comment telling how you spread the word about Doodlestix before noon mst on December 17, 2008.

Update your Facebook status, blog, twitter, e-mail or IM your friends this URL:

http://www.theopinionatedparent.com/2008/12/10/doodlestix/

We’re working on the honour system here…karma will bite you in the butt if you enter without doing your part.

A short message like this should do the trick:

“Click here to read about Doodlestix, a cool parenting tool that’s being featured on one of the leading product review blogs for parents, The Opinionated Parent.”

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNERS EMAILED – Congrats to Julie & Jennifer!

I’ve got to tell you about this cool new preschooler product developed by Canadian 2FishKids and available from Stork Baby Boutique.

I have a young preschooler (Oh my God – did I just say I have a preschooler?) who is obsessed with what we’re doing each day and never forgets an appointment. I have tried to use my calendar with him and I’ve tried one with little round magnets & no writing space that just didn’t work.

This magnetic weekly calendar is PERFECT for us! It’s well organized, colourful and personalized to his incredibly active week. It teaches about the days of the week, seasons, weather and more. He can now simply look at the calendar to anticipate what’s coming up later this week and it’s greatly reduced the occurrence of “What’s tomorrow, Mommy?”

The fully magnetic calendar measures 13 1/8” x 8 1/8” and comes with 58 activity, season and weather magnets, a dry erase marker and a storage bag. Because of the smallish magnets, it’s recommended for ages 3+. This indispensable preschool tool retails for just $19.99.

Save 10% at Stork Baby Boutique with the code OP1008.

You’ll find this code and many more in the TOP Shops!

Win it! We’re giving away one of these great calendars to one reader. To enter, you just need to browse Stork and leave a comment on this post with your favourite product(s) not mentioned in this post before noon mst on November 28, 2008.

CONTEST CLOSED AND WINNER EMAILED

While I’m not a huge fan of much screen time for kids, I much prefer when they’re actively using a computer than sitting in front of the boob tube with a blank stare. If your kids are more sports fan than unicorn lover there’s a new virtual world for them with seven ‘real-life’ (stuffed life?) sports-related characters whose codes on their hangtags unlock fun online games.

Created by two moms, Caryn Burns and Cindy Prince, with a passion for sports, fitness and their children All Star Buddies is a safe, wholesome and even educational virtual world for kids aged 6 & up. The characters available are Chip, (the “Golf Buddy”), Blitz (the “Football Buddy”), Deuce (the “Tennis Buddy”), Striker (the “Soccer Buddy”), Ace (the “Baseball Buddy”), Swish (the “Basketball Buddy”), Deke (the “Hockey Buddy”). Based in a fictional town called “Varsity Heights”, the All-Star Buddies’ virtual world is a place where a healthy, positive lifestyle is reinforced through fun games, quests and social interaction. Using games (both individual and multi-player), children learn about problem-solving, goal setting, good sportsmanship, teamwork, fitness, good nutrition and environmental awareness. Their first stop is in the Locker Room where they log in to the world and select one of the seven characters as their onscreen persona. They can change characters as often as they like, which was a huge hit with the kids that tried this out for us. They loved not being locked in to one sport.

In Varsity Heights, every kid can be an All-Star no matter what their sports ability is in real life – and that’s the way it should be.

Win it! In good old Canadian fashion, we’re giving away “Deke,” the hockey buddy, to one randomly selected reader. (Go Flames Go!) To enter, leave a comment on this post before noon mst on November 12, 2008.

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED

With Halloween quickly approaching, a lot of us are scrambling to put together a cute and practical costume together for our little ones. The folks over at You Can Make This have gathered up some awesome ideas and tutorials for costumes.

I had the opportunity to sew up The Fancy Filled Tutu. I was a little intimidated at first not having sewn with Tulle before, however once I dived into the project it was fun and fast! I had the Tutu completed in a couple hours. I would recommend having someone watch the kids as you work on this project for the first time, if you are easily distracted like I am. I had to look over the instructions a few times to make sure I was on the right track, after numerous distractions from the kids.

The Fancy Filled Tutu turned out so well! I am absolutely thrilled with the result! My daughter picked out the colours for the tulle, then I went to the dollar store to find the filling. I figured since it would be inside the Tutu it would be safe (although the instructions do note to not place small items in the tutu if it is meant for a child under the age of three). Once completed, you start imagining all the other Tutus you could make!

My daughter absolutely adores it! The filling jingles as she twirls and jumps which is totally an added bonus!

You Can Make This has a lot of other projects for your little goblins, here are a few that you can find on their site:

– by Chelle

Win it! We’re giving away the Halloween pattern of your choice from You Can Make This. To enter, visit the site and check out their Halloween items. Come back and leave a comment with the one you’d like to win just in time for Halloween. Contest closes at noon mst on October 28/08.

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED

As comfortable as I am talking about my own bodily functions since having children, I’m hoping that carries over to a constant conversation about my childrens’ bodies with them. However, I know that lots of parents are uncomfortable starting that conversation with their kids – particularly their daughters – if it hasn’t been a normal topic around the table. From breast buds & hair in strange places to mood swings and first periods, the changes that are brought about by puberty are vast.

No matter how comfortable or uncomfortable you are with talking about it, you and your daughter are sure to appreciate My First Period Kit & DVD from Healthy Chats. While no DVD should be your child’s sole education on the subject, this kit is a perfect starting point. She (and you) will hear the deets from an expert instead of the kids on the playground and you’ll have a mutual knowledge base when you talk about what’s happening with her on any particular day. Based on 15 years of Dr. Chrystal de Freitas presenting mother-daughter seminars & designed for mothers and daughters to watch together, the DVD breaks the ice in a close to perfect way for conversations about anatomy, hygiene, periods & the use of the accompanying paraphernalia, emotional changes, conception & birth, values & principles and more.

The package includes the 99 minute DVD, a full colour parent guide and quick reference card, a bracelet and a “pad purse,” plus a 1-year Healthy Chats online/interactive subscription with newsletters & email access to Dr. de Freitas.

Win it! We’re giving away a My First Period Kit & DVD valued at $20 to one randomly selected T.O.P. reader. To enter, simply leave a comment on this post before September 15/08 @ midnight MST.

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED

If you’ve got an early writer or or a frustrated youngster who wants to do exactly what their school aged sibling does, you know that writing is one of those things that only gets easier with practice and the only way you’ll get your kids to practice is if you find ways to make it a little less like work and a little more like fun.

Write Way To Learn, a new mom-run company, makes writing practice fun for preschoolers with their fabulous multi-sensory learning cards. You can shop by level (easy, intermediate or challenging) or by theme. The seventeen available themes vary from family & world, for both of which you can upload your own pics, to shapes & bugs. Each oversized, super high quality, non-toxic card features a word and a corresponding picture and ample space for your child to write the word on the card over and over and over again. The cards can be created using your choice of font, and sign language cards featuring children’s hands signing the word are available. My son’s favourite feature is the “Personalization Pocket” – “a clear pocket that overlays the image area and empowers your child to customize the image by simply inserting a personal photograph, drawing, magazine clipping, etc. It is large enough to hold sizes up to a half sheet of paper (8.5″ x 5.5″). By using this pocket, your child is given yet another method in which to interact with the words he or she is learning on the card, therefore strengthening the learning experience and promoting retention.” I also love that you can choose the printable versions of the kits and make them at home (which is more affordable and therefore accessible to more children) and then tuck them in a sheet protector to make them reusable. They might not be as pretty but they’ll sure work. The learning kits come with the cards, a white board, a set of 4 dry erase markers, an accompanying learning guide and it all comes in a handy travel tote.

If you’re one of the first 100 customers of this great new company you’ll get a free printable learning card set of your choice, so buy yours now! I can think of several preschoolers who’d love to have a few of these kits appear under the Christmas tree. (In 121 days…get shopping!)

Win it! We’ve got a printable “My Animal Friends” kit to give to one randomly selected commenter. To enter, visit the Write Way To Learn site and leave a comment on this post before September 1, 2008 with the themes or products not mentioned in this review that you think your child (or grandchild, neighbour or cat) would like best.

Additional entries available. See contest entry information and rules.

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED

A child’s name is usually the first and most important word they learn to print. When Canadian teacher and parent Lee-Ann O’Neill had a preschooler she, as we all do, was continually dotting out her name for tracing purposes. As an early childhood teacher and a mother, I spend more time dotting than I can keep track of.

Lee-Ann developed a stamp for her daughter and shares it with the rest of us via The Little Stamp Company. Her self-inking “signature stamp” features a large ‘dotted’ font so that children can stamp their own name on paper, colouring pages, artwork etc. and then trace the letters of their name. She offers three custom options for you to indicate your child’s name, select the ink colour, choose whether you would prefer ALL CAPS or Lower Case. (ECS teacher recommendation: Lower Case Please!) The ink Lee-Ann uses is edible and made entirely with FDA approved ingredients. It’s water based, child safe, washable, eco-friendly and lasts for thousands of impressions. My son has probably broken a thousand now (not all on paper so I can attest to the washability!) and his signature stamp is still going strong.

At $24.95, it might be a little more than you’d normally spend on a stamp but in my opinion as both a teacher and a parent, it’s totally worth it. They’ll love the sense of accomplishment & independence and it will save you hours of dotting time.

Save 15% on your signature stamps with the code TOP15.
This code is also among friends in the TOP Shops, where we feature exclusive online shopping discounts just for you!

Win it! Your child could win their own stamp from The Little Stamp Company! One winner will be randomly selected from all comments left on this post before August 29/08.

Additional entries available. See contest entry information and rules.

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED

At our house, getting two kids to bed at our house isn’t always a pleasure, but when my niece is here and we play the new Beddy-Bye Baby game from Briarpatch ($19.99) it makes putting baby to bed seem like, well, child’s play!

Anyone who has spent much time with little girls will tell you that taking care of a baby, real or pretend, is one of their favorite activities. Briarpatch has incorporated this nurturing play into a sweet, simple game that embraces a child’s love and fascination for baby.

Each Beddy-Bye Baby game comes with 48 playing cards including teddy bear, pajamas, baby bottle and Beddy-Bye illustrated cards, a game board, 4 baby carriage tokens and a die that sounds like a baby’s rattle when shaken. A booklet of complete game rules is also included.

To play, each player selects a baby and carriage in pink, blue, yellow, or green. When it’s their turn, players roll the die and move their carriages down the path toward bed while collecting jammies, a bottle and a teddy bear. Like real babies, players may encounter a baby that is fussy, sleepy or playful. The first player to enter the nursery with all three of baby’s things and tuck baby in to bed wins the game. No reading is required and up to 4 people can play. If you have older preschoolers and early school age kids, Beddy-Bye Baby would make an awesome addition to your family game nights!

Win it! We’re giving away a Beddy-Bye Baby game to one lucky winner. We’ll randomly select one person who comments on this post before August 28/08.

Additional entries available. See contest entry information and rules.

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED

The Chatterbox is a new game developed by Kim and David Maksymuik, Canadian parents who were stumped by a lack of resources available to parents to assist them when teaching their young twins valuable life skills. Their mission is to empower families to communicate, work together and master key life skills by providing them with tools and information that will help them learn in a quick, easy, fun and interesting way.

Each box comes with 140 cards covering topics in six life skills categories: family harmony, building character, developing people skills, goal planning, achievement skills and understanding money.

The Chatterbox provides age appropriate questions for children aged 3-6 years, 7-11 years and 12 years and up that are designed to stimulate conversation within the family. The Chatterbox also suggests fun games related to the subject matter addressed on each card and reinforcing tasks to be completed over the next week to facilitate retention and family fun and to ensure that families gain experience with real life skills in addition to the hypothetical ones. We’re sure looking forward to using The Chatterbox as a tool to facilitate our family dinner table conversations when our kids are older!

As of August 1/08, The Chatterbox is available online at Please Mum.com and, if you’re not an online shopper, just head to the local mall and pick yours up at any Please Mum store across Canada!

Win it! Enter to win a copy of this fabulous family game by leaving a comment on this post. Contest closes August 27/08.

Additional entries available. See contest entry information and rules.

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED

Everyone I know who’s ever been pregnant has experienced preggo-brain to some extent. Sadly, it only gets worse once the kid is out. My brain hasn’t been the same since conception, quite frankly.

As with any other part of our bodies, our brains need exercise. The sudoku craze has to be doing something great for our species, but what do you do if you aren’t a fan? Or can’t figure the damn things out?

Check out Brainiversity. It’s one of the best brain training games I’ve tried to date. Edison the talking light bulb accompanies you as you play, and he can be muted at any time (which can be a very good thing). There are a huge variety of games to play and more are unlocked as you progress. If you play daily, you’ll take a quiz each day composed of 4 tests which is recorded on your personal graph.

Many games in this genre are ridiculously easy for the intelligent among us (ahem) but this one is neither simple nor repetitive. It’s incredibly enjoyable, actually. It would be too easy for advanced brain trainers, but for kids, the average adult (particularly those with kids) or seniors, Brainiversity is fabulous! We talk a lot about baby shower gifts here, but I think this would make an awesome retirement gift.

Buy it for less than $20 at Amazon.

Win it! We’ve got a copy of Brainiversity to give away. To enter, leave a comment on this post by 11:59 mst tonight – August 7/08.

Additional entries available – up to four per person. See contest entry information and rules.

CONTEST CLOSED AND WINNER EMAILED

Teach My Toddler, founded by mom Christy Cook, is a fabulous all-in-one learning system made especially for toddlers. The light blue plastic tote is divided into four sections – alphabet, numbers, shapes and colours. Each section contains a teaching chart (great for wall posters too!), a board book, a foam puzzle and a set of flash cards. The tools within each section are fully coordinated so the toddler receives a consistent message throughout. If “A is for alligator” on the chart it’s also for alligator in the book and on the flashcards. When children are in the early learning stages, this is incredibly important. You don’t want to skip from alligator to apple to airplane just yet. The pictures within the tote are all simple and clear – definitely age appropriate.

The teaching tools within each section work together to reinforce the message. Your toddler can match the puzzle pieces to the teaching chart, the book or the flash cards. Plus, while turning the pages of the board book or pointing out the pictures on the teaching charts, the toddler can pick out the corresponding flash cards. The combinations are endless.

In addition to the details, the great thing about the Teach My Toddler tote is that it works. My little guy is barely two and loves to dig into his tote. He knows all of his upper and lower case letters as well as the sounds they make and has even come up with ways to include other toys in our play with the tote. If we’re playing with numbers, for example, he’ll grab 5 legos and make a “tower of power” to match the numbers on the chart. Christy recommends about 20 minutes a day of fun, educational play with your tote, and I concur. Let your child lead, make it fun and you’ll be surprised what they can learn!

Take a look inside this awesome product here, and watch the demo video for a thorough look at the product at work. (Make sure you have flash installed…)

Not only is this a fantastic product for your own children and grandchildren at home, but it’s also fantastic for pre-schools and kindergarten classrooms. If you purchase one (they come highly recommended!) then I’d suggest donating it to a local preschool when you’re done with it. As a teacher, I can vouch for how much it will be appreciated.

Teach My Toddler is available from teach-my.com for $39.99 (ships for just $5!) and also in 28 stores across Canada.

Win it! We’ve got a Teach My Toddler tote to give away! To enter, leave a comment on this post before noon MST on August 7/08. One winner will be selected at random.

Additional entries available – up to four per person. See contest entry information and rules.

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED

You’ve likely read in the news, a parenting mag or any number of other places over the last decade that family dinners are on the decrease and, conversely, that regular family dinners contribute to academic success, decrease the risk of our children becoming crack heads and keep families connected in ways that are very necessary. As crazy as they are, I love family dinners.

If you’ve ever sat at a table in silence and wondered how to get the conversation started, you’re not alone. You won’t have to hear “Nothing…Nowhere…Nobody…” from your child anymore with the addition of the new card game, Family Talk, to your dinner table. The concept behind Around the Table Games is simple brilliance. These games should not be necessary, but with the state of family dinners in our society today they really, really are. Available in three versions, Family Talk, Family Talk 2 and Grandparent Talk are inexpensive, portable cards games on carribiners (or available in cool jars) that encourage conversations between parents, children and relatives of all ages.

Around the Table Games aren’t just for dinner at your dining room table. “Our games are like taking the dinner time conversation with you, wherever you go,” explains Around the Table Games founder Beth Daniels, herself a working mom. “Because our games are made to be portable, the proverbial table discussions can now be held at the airport, during carpool, waiting in a long line or wherever people gather in the same place at the same time.” You can clip them to a backpack or purse and use them anywhere you might have a few minutes to chat.

Grandparent Talk would make a fantastic gift for your childrens’ grandparents, and it’s just as much a gift for your own childrens. Allowing them and encouraging them to really know their grandparents is one of the greatest gifts you can give. Connecting young people to their family and to their heritage is just one of the things that’s missing from many families today and I, for one, am going to do my damnedest to make sure that my family talks – really talks – and Around the Table Games will sure help!

Save 20% when you buy direct with the code TOPFMT

Win it! One TOP reader will win your choice of the three Around The Table Games! To enter, leave a comment on this post before noon MST on July 2/08 with your choice of the three versions of the game and either a suggested question for a future game or a tip for the rest of us to keep our families connected.

Get up to three additional entries into this contest! (Today you get the expanded version…just in case you need a refresher.)

1. Blog about this contest using one of the top three images found here. Leave a comment with the direct link to your post (not to your main page, and in a separate comment from your other entry).

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Leave an additional comment to let us know that you did this for your extra entry. Be sure to leave a valid email address so we can confirm your subscription. Current subscriptions count too! Just let us know how you subscribe…Bloglines? Another reader? Email? They all work!

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3. Place our button in your sidebar or add us to your blogroll. Leave an additional comment to let us know that you did this for your extra entry. Be sure to leave a valid url so we can confirm the addition. If we’ve been there all along, that counts too!

Maximum four entries total per person.

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED – Congratulations Jennifer!

My daughter and I bake and cook together all the time. Getting all sticky and gooey with a three year old is so much fun. I was searching for a cute matching apron set when I came across YouCanMakeThis.com.

The website is packed with great looking patterns for all kinds of projects. Spending less time searching for patterns at my local fabric store with two kids in tow was very appealing. Being an eco-mom, knowing that I could download the pattern and simply keep my laptop handy while crafting totally sold me on the concept.

Once I had the pattern I read through it and set out to the fabric store for my supplies. I have to admit here that I am not an expert seamstress. Having taken classes in high school many years ago, I have just recently started to sew again. The pattern could have been formatted slightly better making lists easier to read. I totally missed buying the lining fabric. I like things easy and appreciate when things are quick to understand so I can get started. This was not always the case with this pattern, and I got quite frustrated trying to decipher what the pattern was calling for while my baby hung on my leg and I had to explain why it rains for the fourth time to my preschooler.

The end result, however, is so cute. My daughter adores her apron that matches Mommy’s. The second apron turned out much better than the first, mostly due to my understanding of the project. It was great to be able to work on a quick sewing project. I wouldn’t hesitate to use another pattern from their site, as long as I knew I would have some quiet time to figure it out. -Chelle

Save 15% with the code PARENT15 until June 25. One time use per customer.

Win it! We’re giving away ANY pattern of your choice from YouCanMakeThis.com! To enter, leave a comment on this post before noon MST on June 20/08 indicating which pattern you’d choose should you be the lucky winner.

Additional entries available – up to four per person. See contest entry information and rules.

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED

What child doesn’t like to build forts? None that I know, and as a mother and a teacher I know hundreds.

Parents, though, aren’t always huge fans of finding every sheet and blanket from their linen closet draped over the kitchen and living room furniture. Invest in a Fortamajig and you’ll never come home to an empty linen closet again.

The Fortamajig, created by The Happy Kid Company, is a far better alternative to sheets even if you are the mom that doesn’t mind re-washing and re-folding them repeatedly as-nauseum. It’s a fort, a tent, a drawing room for a tea-party, an art studio, a bug museum, a library or a barn. It’s whatever you want it to be. Limited only by your imagination, the genius easy to use (see?) Fortamajig is an 8×8 foot piece of ripstop nylon with slits, windows and 24 velcro loops sewn at strategic locations allowing children to build and re-build a variety of play structures using chairs, trees, stair rails or anything else you can dream up. Packaged in a tote with no pieces to break or lose – and is really the ultimate in portable, washable, storable and durable open-ended toys. We have used the Fortamajig with kids aged 2-72 and every one of them adored it.

The single layer Fortamajig retails for $70 and the double layer reversibles and the cool new Connectables retail for $90. Both can be ordered from their online shop.

Save 10% off your entire order through August 1, 2008 with the code opinion.

Remember those things that everyone in grade five could fold except you? (Oh wait, was that just me?) You know the ones…I think we called them fortune tellers. I believe I was supposed to marry Shawn Smith and live in a green house with 13 children or something. Whew. I dodged that bullet! As an elementary school child I played fortune teller so often that I can still recall the feeling of muscle strain in my thumbs from opening and closing them for hours on end.

It might be an old fashioned game in that it doesn’t blink or re-charge, but Chicago based Green Rock Entertainment has created Cahootie – fortune tellers with a modern twist.

Each game features 40 re-positionable fortune stickers allowing for kids to create a new game any time and rip-resistant laminated paper. Check out the fabulous interactive website, www.cahootie.com, to see the six great designs and some awesome downloads, or join Club Cahootie! Perhaps best of all, Cahootie retails for just $5.95 so kids can use their own money to buy them. We’ve got some large stockings to fill at Christmas and I’m thinking these are just the thing! They’d also be a great addition to a birthday gift, a cool Giftventure gift or just because!

Win it! We’re giving away ALL of the six Cahootie games! Six readers will each win one Cahootie. To enter, leave a comment on this post stating which of the six you’d like to be entered for. Contest closes at noon MST on June 6/08.

Additional entries available. See contest entry information and rules.

CONTEST CLOSED

A Giftventure is a personalized treasure hunt service where all of the materials are custom made and delivered to you! You simply choose an adventure, a character, and a hiding place for a gift that you provide. Enter the location where you have the hidden gift, some of the child’s personal interests, (such as a favorite game, or a local landmark), and you’re all set! Using the information you provide, they create and mail a series of letters and puzzles addressed to the child who must solve the puzzles and follow the clues in the letters to discover the location of your hidden gift.

Trust me when I tell you that Giftventure is as cool as it sounds, if not cooler.

There are currently seven adventures to choose from with more coming soon, and there are seven characters that guide your child along their giftventure.

Giftventure has been undergoing some changes in the past months. Now customers can purchase general Giftventures without having to personalize them first. This means you can purchase, as an example, 3 giftventures. After purchase, you get a confirmation email with an individual ID code for each of the 3 giftventures. You can choose to personalize one right then, keep one saved on your member account to use for another occasion later in the year, send the ID code to a friend or family member for them to redeem on the site and personalize their own giftventure (just like a gift card) or any combination of the three.

Three families including my own were the first crazy Canucks to try Giftventure. They’ve just launched their company in to Canada and I know that if we spread the word it’s going to be huge here. (Canadians have good taste, after all.)

I used my Giftventure for my 9 year old niece. She is all about adventure and imagination and still firmly believes in all of the mythical people and creatures that children should. She was so pumped when she received the first letter that she drove me crazy until the next one finally arrived. The entire experience was wonderful and I know she’ll never forget it!

Read on to see what TOP writers Andrea and Raechelle thought of their own Giftventures:

A child’s imagination is something pretty spectacular. Just last night my kiddos were talking about zombies as if they were actual and factual, it was quite cute. Sometimes I find it difficult to feed their creativity to the length that they desire, but when we started The Treasure Map Adventure from Giftventure I could tell that they would be at their imaginative peak for the next few days.

The ordering online was very easy, just pick a character, fill out a bit of information like the children’s names (you can name up to three), a location by your house, and something that your children enjoy doing. This allows Giftventure to totally personalize your treasure hunt! I was able to order in less than five minutes and the checkout process was super easy. It arrived in the mail about a week later.

Upon opening the package I could see that this would be something the children would enjoy. It contained three envelopes that looked like they were sent directly from “Gunther the Dragon” (the character I chose), and inside them were a story and directions on how to find the hidden present! I had purchased a small gift to use at the end of the hunt. The treasure hunt lasted over the time span of about a week, where Gunther would drop off a letter with a few more instructions each time.

My two older children, ages 5 and 7, took part in the hunt. They’re still at the age where they actually believe dragons exist and that there’s a magical place called Cloudstead up in the clouds. For that week of fun my children went to bed speaking of Gunther and the hunt, and they would wake up looking for letters from this magical dragon. It was great seeing them so excited for something that I really didn’t even have to put any effort in to. All I had to do was buy a small gift, than play along, and giftventure took care of the rest. And now we have to figure out what to do with all of the letters that the kiddos have written to Gunther! And I think I may have to order more adventures for their birthdays (and Christmas, and Easter, and maybe Halloween too)! - Andrea

When Dad leaves for business trips it is always tough on my kids. My preschooler pines for her Dad, and the special time they spend together. This time I wanted something special to distract her while he was away so we had a Giftventure delivered.

We began the adventure on the first day her Dad was gone. We went to check the mail to discover a special letter for her. Being an avid fan of mail, she was extremely excited to open it up and start her Giftventure. (You can have them all delivered to the parents in one package or have them individually delivered to the children. If you’d like to have the control, you can just stick them in your own mailbox for the kids on certain days!)

I had hidden a special gift in our hall closet and on the following days she received more clues in the mail to guide her way. She absolutely adored that a fairy was taking her on this Giftventure. The map was AWESOME and we are now drawing treasure maps on a daily basis.

Before we knew it, Daddy was home and she shared her amazing story of her Giftventure with him. I would not hesitate to have more Giftventures in the future – especially now with the great service and very reasonable shipping rates to Canada. -Raechelle

Save 10% on your Giftventure with the code TOP10CAN.
This code is the newest addition to the TOP Shops – the most fabulous collection of online shopping discounts anywhere on the web!

Win it! We’re giving away a Giftventure to one lucky T.O.P. reader. To enter, leave a comment on this post by noon MST on May 29/08. (Yes, any comment – even the lazy ones will get through this time!) ONE ADDITIONAL WINNER will be drawn from those that blog about this contest and get the word out about Giftventure!

Additional entries available. See contest entry information and rules.

CONTEST CLOSED – Congrats Wendy and Angela!

If you have children and you have ever left the house with them, chances are you’ve been stuck waiting somewhere with the challenge of keeping the little rugrats occupied. Whether it’s in a waiting room, a restaurant, the car or boring Aunt Millie’s house, Think-ets are a wonderful and inexpensive addition to your “bag of tricks.” Actually…they are the bag of tricks.

Think-Ets is a mesh bag (with only a piece of recyclable cardboard as excess packaging – woo hoo!) filled with trinkets designed to encourage imaginative play and critical thinking. The company suggests a variety of games for two or more people that can be played with nothing but this little bag of goodies, but there are really an endless variety of things you could do that aren’t suggested there. They’re designed for ages 8-108+, yet younger kids like them too. Keep in mind, though, that they’re a bag full of choking hazards that need to be kept away from kids 3 and under. And perhaps 95 and older if Grandma’s gotten to the stage of thinking everything’s candy.

Aside from the pure genius of the product and the eco-friendly packaging, there are still more things begging to be mentioned. The toys are assembled by individuals with disabilities being paid a fair wage, which I love. If I ever was industrious enough to start a business, I’d totally do that. For now, though, I’ll support other people who do. The pieces are all lead-tested and hand made by fairly paid artisans in Mexico, Germany and elsewhere.

Buy Think-ets from their online store for just $9.99. Or, buy five and get free shipping. They’d make great birthday gifts and stocking stuffers (no, it’s not too early!) and I recommend keeping one stashed in purses and vehicles for those rare frequent times when you just need something to keep the kids busy so they don’t drive you insane.

Win it! We’re giving away a Think-ets to one winner. To enter, leave a comment on this post before May 13/08 at noon MST. Tell us some of your ideas for keeping kids occupied when you’re out and about or in the car.

Additional entries are always available. See contest entry information and rules.

CONTEST CLOSED – Congrats Jill!

Kidnexions has developed a children’s money management program called KidsSave. I love the idea of teaching kids to manage their money while they’re young and guiding them in a way that will encourage financial success when they’re older.

From the website:

KidsSave is a kids’ savings and money management software program designed for ages 6 and up. KidsSave helps you and your child keep track of money, encourages saving through Reward incentives, and helps your child set and track goals. With KidsSave, kids can make deposits and withdrawals, receive automated allowances and Rewards (interest and/or matching funds), count money, and view their statement history over time.

The KidsSave program handles all Account management automatically so once the Account(s) has been set up, the Banker (typically the parent) has little to do. Unique features allow the Banker to have access to all Accounts, define interest, allowance, and/or matching funds, enable savings locks and require confirmations of all transactions.

Check out what some opinionated parents had to say about the program.

I am always looking for great ways to help teach my kiddos about money management. It’s important to teach them how to set financial goals and track their progress. Kidnexions has a wonderful program called KidsSave, a money management software program for the 6 and up crowd.

The account was super easy to set up and my twins have had fun tracking their savings, which to be honest, hasn’t been much. They currently do not receive allowance here at home, but they do each receive $2 whenever they loose a tooth… Something that is happening quite frequently these days! Every little bit have they added to their account, watching their balance slowly increase. It will be a happy day when they reach their financial goals!

This program has some wonderful features. Your child sets up an account by depositing his current stash. He can then make additional deposits and withdrawals, as well as receive his allowance and rewards, count his money, and view his statements. Mom and Dad act as Banker and can set KidsSave to automatically deposit allowance and rewards, including interest, so it’s easy for us, too.

Just the other day, we went through the twins current savings bank. They took turns adding bills and coins in to their KidsSave account using the money counter to help sort and count their money. They had a blast and learned so much at the same time. What a great way to reinforce what they have learned in their math classes. I love it when it works out that way!

Another feature with which we had a lot of fun was in the “What if?” section where we have played around with the endless possibilities… What if they earned this much allowance? What if they made this much in interest? It’s been neat to see what would happen should things change and what their little minds can fathom!

The Kidnexions KidsSave program would be a great addition to any money management system you currently have set up. And if your kiddos don’t currently have a plan, this would be a great place to start!

By Christine

I’ve been trying out another software program for The Opinionated Parent. This one is called KidsSave from Kidnexions. It’s REALLY cool!

Designed for ages 6 and up, it helps you, and your child, keep track of THEIR money. You can also set up numerous accounts so the program is good for more than one child. There is no limit to the amount of accounts the banker (parent) can set up! It has an allowance feature that you can set to automatically show the amount that they receive each week/month.

While kids don’t actually deposit their real money, they do make deposits into the program and statements are given each month to keep track of what they’ve saved. Kids can also make withdrawals and set goals. Goals can be for saving enough to buy something, save a certain amount, or reach a certain account balance.

There is a neat money counter to help kids know exactly how much they are depositing. All they have to do is click on a picture of the bill or coin they have in hand and the money counter adds it for them. But don’t worry, there is an “undo” and “clear” feature in case they mess up!

There are 6 fun colors that kids can choose from to make their account more eye appealing. Positively Pink and Posh Purple being my girls’ favorites!

Also included is a “What If?” feature that allows your child to see what would happen to their account over a year if they were to get a raise in allowance, deposit “x” amount of money each month, withdraw money, or earn “x %” interest. I, personally, LOVE this feature. It really lets a child see what they are able to save.

We have thoroughly enjoyed using KidsSave. It is well worth the $29.95.

By Gina

The KidSave program by Kidnexions is a great tool for teaching youngsters how to manage their funds. My seven-year-old son really enjoyed using the program!! We found it very user friendly and fun to use.

By Andrea

You can download a free 35 day trial of this program from the Kidnexions home page to try before you buy.

Win it! Kidnexions is giving away a fully licensed copy of the KidsSave software to one lucky T.O.P. reader. The program is valued at $30. To enter, leave a comment on this post by April 18 @ noon MST.

Get up to two additional entries into this contest!

1. Blog about this contest using one of the top three images found here.

2. Leave a comment with the direct link to your post (not to your main page, and in a separate comment from your other entry).

AND/OR

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Maximum three entries total per person.

CONTEST CLOSED – Congratulations Reiza!

My son is just a little under two years old and his favourite hobbies for many months have been singing the ABC’s and identifying letters. He’s pretty normal – he plays with cars, kicks balls and wrestles his dogs, but he does love literacy! I suppose it comes from having an early childhood teacher for a mother and another one for a Grandma. Either way, I was so excited when his kit from See Me Read came in the mail. He’s always excited to get mail but was more excited than usual because it was actually something to do instead of a card. He immediately took out the flash cards and started “reading” the words! It was easy for him because all of the pictures on the cards were of his family, his things and things around his own house.

See Me Read provides several options for your little learner. Kit 1 includes personalized labels, reading cards and a level one book for $49.99. Kit 2 includes a more complex level two book and a writing pad. for $39.99. The Complete Kit containing all of the items in both kids sells for $79.99 – a $10 savings from purchasing the kits separately. Each item can also be ordered individually for $19.99. After seeing all of the items in my son’s complete kit, I’d recommend going all out for the whole thing because you’ll want it when your child moves past the initial level. All of the items are top quality, and your child will go nuts for the pictures from their own home in all of the materials.

While my little guy at almost two isn’t really “reading,” he’s certainly well on his way and the See Me Read system has given him a great start and the confidence that it takes to succeed.

Get 20% off your order with the code TOP2008

Win it! You could win a See Me Read Complete Kit valued at $79.99! To enter, email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com with SEE ME READ in the subject line before April 14 at noon MST telling us which one of the six core beliefs of See Me Read listed in their philosophy strikes a chord with you.

Get up to two additional entries into this contest!

1. Blog about this contest using one of the top three images found here.

2. Email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com with SEE ME READ in the subject line and the direct link to your post (not to your main page, and in a separate email from your other entry).

AND/OR

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Maximum three entries total per person.

CONTEST CLOSED

Congratulations Grace!

It’s well known in my circle that I won’t allow Barbie or Bratz in my home. I won’t tell my kids what they can and can’t play with when presented with a selection of toys, but I’m sure not going to encourage them to play with small plastic prostitutes by having them in our home.

With the continued proliferation of the princess persona and the mainstream media’s portrayal of what little girls and little boys “should” become, I was excited to hear from Jacinta Bunnell who, along other independent artists, has designed and published two feminist coloring books like nothing I’ve ever seen. The images in “Girls Not Chicks” are anything but what you’d expect to find in a children’s colouring book. Appropriate for both boys and girls (because, isn’t anything?) “Girls Not Chicks” and “Girls Will Be Boys Will Be” are a great alternative to Barbie and Bratz and the princess saturated Disney. Each page is original enough to get a rise from some and make others laugh. Either way, they’ll get you thinking and challenging, and that’s what it’s all about. “For every girl who tosses out her Easy-Bake oven, there is a boy who wishes to find one.” Hell, yeah.

Girls Not Chicks and Girls Will Be Boys Will Be are both available from Jacinta’s etsy shop for under $10.

Win it! We’ve got a copy of Girls Will Be Boys Will Be to give away. To enter, email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com with REVOLUTION in the subject line before midnight MST on April 5, 2008.

Get up to two additional entries into this contest!

1. Blog about this contest using one of the top three images found here.

2. Email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com with REVOLUTION in the subject line and the direct link to your post (not to your main page, and in a separate email from your other entry).

AND/OR

Subscribe to our RSS feed. Send an additional email to let us know that you did this for your extra entry.

Maximum three entries total per person.

CONTEST CLOSED

When you read that title, does it strike you that children shouldn’t have to be taught to think? It did me too, at first, but when I reflect on my experiences as a teacher I quickly realize that they do. With the overstimulation children experience today from tv too early in life and too often as they grow, along with gaming and other passive forms of play, children’s creativity and thought processes are not developing the way they could be. That makes me sad, both for what our schools need try to compensate for and for the fate of our planet if we fail.

Developed by the scientists behind Thinkworks, ThinkBlocks “help people, organizations, parents and children thrive by learning analytical, critical, creative, prosocial and systems thinking. Based on decades of scientific research. ThinkBlocks are a revolutionary educational toy that teaches thinking skills by getting ideas out of your head and into your hands. You can’t predict where life’s journey will take your children, but if you prepare them to think, they will thrive.”

In reading about ThinkBlocks, I was rather apprehensive. They seemed like a toy that was way above the level of play that occurs in homes and I wondered if they should be geared more toward schools. When I opened the box and looked at them, I continued to wonder. However, as soon as I stepped back and allowed the kids to just play, all of my apprehension was gone. Vivian, pictured at left, is five years old and immediately took to them. With no guidance from us she was learning about magnetism and polar opposites. With guidance from adults, I now realize, these tools (not toys – tools) would be able to teach her to make connections in her brain that would otherwise be very hard to teach. If that sounds a little wishy washy to you, don’t worry – it did to me too! Check out the Ergo Lab for some great videos including tutorials/lesson ideas that make it easy to understand and execute. I’ve gone from apprehension to excitement!

Each ThinkBlock kit retails for $79.99. Contents include:

* 16 Small ThinkBlocks
* 8 Medium ThinkBlocks
* 2 Large ThinkBlocks
* 1 Get Started Guide
* 1 ThinkTiles Starter set (6 tiles)
* 1 Dry erase marker
* Online Access to Tutorials, Research and Resources
* Thinkworks’ Commitment to remarkable customer service

Win it! We’re giving away a ThinkBlock kit valued at $79.99 to one lucky winner. To enter, watch a few of the 19 activity tutorials in Ergo’s lab and leave a comment on this post telling us which one(s) you’d like to try first if you are the winner. Contest closes at noon MST on April 7, 2008.

Get up to two additional entries into this contest!

1. Blog about this contest using one of the top three images found here.

2. Leave a comment with the direct link to your post (not to your main page, and in a separate comment from your other entry).

AND/OR

Subscribe to our RSS feed. Leave an additional comment to let us know that you did this for your extra entry. Be sure to leave a valid email address so we can confirm your new subscription.

Maximum three entries total per person.

CONTEST CLOSED

Congrats to Mama4JC – Comment #17 – who said: Such an interesting concept! For our family, I would love to explore the One Problem…Multiple Perspectives – this would be something that would help all of us in life. Interesting to see so many of these abstract concepts in tangible form – genius!

Scrapbooking is one of my favourite hobbies, but you’d never know it to look at our office. There are drawers and bins full of supplies and stacks of pictures just sitting there silently tormenting me. My son is two next month and I haven’t scrapbooked a single page since his first birthday montage. Pregnancy, moving, returning to work, birth, living with two monkeys and a busload of badly behaved pets…it all adds up to no free time for my hobbies.

I’ve tried a bit of digital scrapping and there’s some great stuff out there but the time it takes to Photoshop everything all together and make it just right is more than I have. And then when I do finally complete a page, how the heck do I print a quality 12×12 inch page to fit my albums? My printer isn’t that large, and none of the local stores offer a 12×12 option.

Enter How Fast They Grow, a mom-owned full service digital scrapbooking site. With their patent-pending Digi-scrapbook program, you can scrapbook if you can upload photos, drag & drop, choose colours and type. There is seriously nothing to it, and the final product is amazing! There are a ton of templates to choose from and more are being added all the time.

I was getting down on myself when my daughter was 2 months old and I hadn’t even scrapbooked her newborn photos. Not one single page. It was shortly after that when I received an email from founding mom Cathy Bennett about How Fast They Grow and I decided to give it a shot.

Within 2 hours I had a dozen pages completed. The one pictured at right took me approximately 4 minutes! I ordered them online and they were on my doorstep within a week. If I had to do those 12 pages sitting at my craft table, it would have taken me a dozen or more hours spread over several months when I could find a few minutes here and there. At $7.50/page, it’s hardly more costly than an embellished scrapbook page I’d make by hand. Yes, it sounds expensive, but when you consider the thousands of dollars sitting unused in my scrapbooking area I’m actually saving money! (At least that’s what I plan to tell my husband.)

Membership in the site is free. I suggest you join and make some pages to see what it’s like. You don’t pay anything unless you place an order. It’s fun and more than a little addictive!

The pages are true 12×12 and will fit in any standard album, but albums are also available from their online shop. And gift cards! Say hello to my dream baby gift. (Or stocking stuffer. Hint hint, husband.)

How Fast They Grow is currently only shipping to the US but there are plans to add Canada and Europe very shortly. We’ll let you know as soon as we hear. In the meantime, MyUS, Ship Happens Sumas or another such site can get your pages to you anywhere. (Disclaimer – I’ve never tried either of those sites but they sound cool to me. Let us know if you have any experience with them or know of another one. We’d love to check them out. I’ll open comments on this post.)

Save 20% with the code TOP until Friday, April 18, 2008. At just $6/page, you can’t beat it!

Many kids have never travelled outside their own city, let alone overseas. Now with the monumental new Compass KidZ line, children will be able to travel to the world and learn about it’s amazing history with the flip of a medallion. Compass KidZ inspires kids ages 8 to 12 to learn about the world and collect Passports and Medallions as they explore. Kids can explore the Compass KidZ website, communicate, earn and share SouvenirZ, trade with PenPalZ, express their opinions and share their experiences with kids just like them from around the world.

A child’s around-the-world adventure begins with their Compass KidZ Medallion Set available in either Italy, Spain or Mexico which retail for $14.99. Each set features an Ambassador, an 11-year-old representative of the featured country that kids can relate with. The Medallion set is their ticket to adventure and includes 2 CKidZ Medallions, a KidZ Passport and 2 FactZ Cards.

Visiting the company’s website lets kids join the CKidZ PenPalZ™ Club, Club Activities and Global ForumZ.

Let’s face it. You’re not going to get a less expensive or more educational trip around the world without having to leave your house.

Get a free Medallion for each Medallion Set purchased at www.learningtreegames.com with the code TOP-CKFREE.

CompassKidZ is listed in the TOP Shops!

Win a medallion set of your choice! To enter the random draw, email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com with COMPASS KIDZ in the subject line before midnight MST on 2/15/08 and tell us the name of the company’s two founders. Include your full name and mailing address and the name of the company’s two founders.

Congratulations to winner Cindi H!

Waiting in line at the mall to see a creepy Santa with his beard half hanging off and garlic breath and then paying $15 for a crappy picture of my kid with him isn’t my idea of a great Christmas memory.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Santa. I love the idea of Santa and the spirit of kindness and giving that surrounds it. I just don’t love the mall in December. If you’re in the same spot, you may never need to go there again. To see Santa, anyway ~ the shopping’s totally your call. We’ve found an awesome new website that gives your children the kind of wonderful personal Santa experience you want for them without any of the hassle…

When we were given the opportunity to review Santa Speaking for The Opinionated Parent, I was happy to do so.

SantaSpeaking.com was founded by Anne Gaskell (aka Elf Annie), a mother with three little ones under 7 who has experienced the scary mall Santa enough times to get inspired to create an alternative. And what a great alternative it is!

Little did I know how much joy one call could bring!

We just completed an international move and my three year old has had to be a very good little girl.

When we saw Santa Claus at the mall, she was at a loss for words and missed her chance to tell Santa what she truly wanted for Christmas.

My daughter was so overwhelmed with joy to receive a call from Santa. It took her a few minutes to warm up (so I was thankful we had the extended call), but once she was used to talking to him she opened up and shared with Santa what she wanted for Christmas! It was truly an amazing experience watching her trying to express herself to him. Talking to Santa was like talking to a celebrity for her.

After listening to the MP3 that SantaSpeaking.com sent us I had tears in my eyes hearing her talk with him so nervously. It was so endearing.

During all of the chaos in our lives, this was a moment to remember for all of us. It really helped us start off the season right and put my daughter’s mind at ease that Santa knew she had moved and knew what she hoped to receive.

The call from SantaSpeaking.com was so simple to set up. They have thought of all the little details and make the calls personal and very true.

There are a lot of features on their site to check out as well. They are tracking Santa’s progress Christmas Eve, as well as hosting Santa’s blog! You can read the latest issue of the North Pole Gossiper, groove to some cool Santa tunes and much more.

I want to thank Santa Speaking, and The Opinionated Parent for this wonderful experience.

When you’re out there looking for last minute gifts, stop and consider this amazing experience for the little ones in your lives.

Share the magic with your own little people!
Use the code OPPARENT for 10% off a $30 minimum purchase.

We’ve got a $58 SantaSpeaking.com gift code for one lucky T.O.P. reader! We’re on a deadline for this one, obviously, so get your entries in quickly! Email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com by 5 pm MST on 12/19/07 with Santa Speaking in the subject line and tell us the minimum price of a live call from Santa. (More than worth every penny in our opinion!)

Barring excruciating labour pains or hospitalization, a winner will be emailed Wednesday evening to give you time to schedule your call before Christmas so check your inbox! Congratulations Cassandara, and enjoy!

Playaway is one of those ideas that made me wonder why it took so long for someone to invent it and, at the same time, incredibly glad that someone did!

So, what are they? Each Playaway is a pre-loaded digital audio player. They’re about half the size of a deck of cards and hold content that ranges from six to 40 hours of play time. They come ready to listen (with batteries, earbuds and a lanyard) and are completely portable. Kind of like a book on CD without the need for a CD player or a library (though they are in lots of libraries!) For us, they’ve become the ultimate in convenience. I’ve always been an audio book lover for car travel but rarely take time to get to the library & borrow them. Now I’ll be ordering my books from Playaway and sharing them after – since the units run off of AAA batteries & can be replaced as needed, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be used and used…and used!

Playaway has a selection of 700 audiobooks and there’s something for absolutely everyone! We listened to 100 Gross & Silly Songs which is awesome for kids and kids at heart, and we’re part way through Anne of Green Gables – still one of my favourite stories. I’m especially struck by the intelligent design of the Playaway. It remembers where I was and starts at the right spot ever time. No more flipping through tracks to try to find the right part of the right chapter. Praise the Playaway!

Receive 20% off your first order with the code OpinionatedParent20.

I highly suggest using this code today and giving yourself a reputation as the best gift giver in town! However…

Playaway is also listed in the TOP Shops, where we feature only the most fabulous online retailers offering discount codes exclusively for Opinionated Parents everywhere.

Guest review by T.O.P. reader John. Don’t forget to pay him and his family a visit after you check out his review.

Last summer my mom wanted advice for what to get our son Ben for his 2nd birthday. Ethan, our four year old, was dominating our driveway on his tricycle so we thought a bike for Ben to call his own would be great. We suggested a good ol’ Big Wheel, just like the ones we had as kids. She ordered it off of Amazon and we went to work assembling it after his birthday party. I’ll start with the bad news…

Assembling the Big Wheel is a real pain. Everything went together pretty smoothly except the pedals. If you read the reviews you will see many people who gave poor ratings because the pedals would not stay on. These people did not assemble it correctly. Locking the pedals in place requires sliding a lock washer onto the axle with the pedal. You can pretty easily do this by hand and get the pedal on partway…but it will NOT stay on like this. I ended up taking the whole thing out to my work bench and braced one end on my work bench, put a wood block on top of the pedal (for protection) and hammered the dang thing into place. Took quite a bit of coaxing, but once that washer and pedal were on all the way it will not go anywhere.

The other problem is that despite his height, Ben was too short to use this bike. Even now at 39″ he is still unable to use the bike. This, of course, was good news to his big brother. Here begins the good news…

Ethan LOVES this bike and terrorizes our driveway the same way I did as a kid. Fast laps, power slides, ‘jumps’ over 2×4s and other speed bumps. This Big Wheel has taken a ton of abuse over the last 12 months and it is just now showing some wear and tear. The plastic on the front wheel is starting to break in places due to Ethan driving over obstacles. No worries, still works great and a piece of a plastic milk jug and some duct tape should make for a fun father/son repair job.

If you’re looking for a fun bike for your kids I highly recommend the Big Wheel. Amazon is selling them for $29.99 and it’s worth it. Use some patience and elbow grease during assembly and then sit back and relive a little of your own youth while your kids tear up and down the driveway.

Ed. Note: The boy’s Big Wheel is currently out of stock at Amazon and nobody knows if or when it’s coming back, but here’s the girl’s version of the Big Wheel, also for $29.99.

John is a geek dad of three living in upstate NY. He’s a programmer by day and a busy dad by night playing with kids and working on DIY projects around the house. John and his wife, Heather, run a parenting website that focuses on the fun of raising three kids by discussing our favorite toys, activities, and outings. Visit them at MyFamilyLovesIt.com.

Guest review by T.O.P. reader CPA Mom.
Head on over there after you read her review, won’t you?.

The inventors of the Peek-A-Boo Bag, Marcella Shumway and Teresa Hammond, have been quoted as saying “We wanted to make a product that would provide the peace and quiet all mothers crave.” I would say that not only do fathers crave the same peace and quiet, but Marcella and Teresa appear to have succeeded with the Peek-A-Boo Bag.

The bag, made of a soft pink corduroy on the back and orange fabric on the front (the Girl style; they also have Boy with blue corduroy back and a red front, and an ABC style in unisex polka-dot.), has a vinyl see-through window where your child can look for “treasures” hiding in the white beads inside.

The bag includes a list of all the “treasures” inside so your kids can look for each one.

My daughter was sick this weekend and so spent much of her time on the couch. She was just well enough to be bored, so I gave her this bag. She loved looking for all the little treasures inside and would point to them when I asked her to find one.

“There’s the castle! NOW can I have my milk?”

I get the feeling it will be hard to get this one back from her…

The one suggestion I would have for the inventors, actually comes from my very smart mother, who suggested that the “treasures” be two sided. Right now, the back side of the “treasures” are white, which makes it difficult for some children to find them (the beads are white so the “treasures” disappear and also, the children may lack the dexterity to turn them over themselves – my daughter was not able to turn them over). Granted, my daughter is not yet 3 and this bag is recommended for 3 and up, but it’s just a suggestion to make a great toy even better.

The Peek-A-Boo Bag is approximately 6.5″ square (perfect for vehicles and air travel!) and retails for approximately $15.00.

Angela is a 36 year old opinionated mother of 2. She lives with them and her EMT/Safety Officer husband in Virginia and expresses her opinion about anything and everything to anyone who will listen. She also expresses herself on Did You See That? and The Soccer Mom Vote. In her “spare time” she also holds a full time job outside the home as a certified public accountant and stalks great product review websites like The Opinionated Parent.

By T.O.P. reader and contributing writer Michelle

We’re big fans of Signing Time … and for those of you who may be contemplating teaching your baby/toddler sign language, I’d like to share our success story with you!

After Kayla was born and her diagnosis of Down syndrome was confirmed I found an online community that I quickly joined. A lot of the moms on there talked about Signing Time and how much it had helped their children; especially since most kids with Down syndrome will have a speech delay. I kept these videos in the back of my mind.

In the meantime I bought a pocket-size book with about 60 ASL signs and thought I would start using that. I honestly don’t remember when we started signing those first few words to Kayla, probably after she was 8 months old. I guess we started with “more”, “milk” and then “eat.” I know in the beginning we weren’t consistent about signing the word every time we used it, like you should do, but we got there eventually. When she was probably closer to a year is when I think we started using the signs more consistently.

I finally decided to purchase volume 1 of the Signing Time series to see what all the hype was about. Kayla wasn’t the only one watching the videos either, Joe and I watched them so we could learn right along with her! I thought the video was great for teaching sign language as Rachel would sign it, the word was printed on the screen, a child’s voice said the word and then gave a description of the sign, plus all of the kids throughout the video who were doing the signs too. It was a great way to reinforce the sign by repetition.

My friend Sue has a son who is 4 months younger than Kayla. A few months after I bought that first volume we were talking about sign language (she had also been planning on teaching Harrison ASL and had bought the same pocket-size book I had) She was telling me she had started using some signs with him but he didn’t really seem to get it or respond back. I told her about the videos and then had Kayla “perform”, “Kayla show Sue ‘fish’, now can you do ‘eat’? how about ‘dog’ and ‘ball’” and she signed them all. Sue was impressed. I told her she could borrow the video and see how Harrison liked it. Within a week Harrison was showing me all the signs he had learned from that first volume. Sue was so impressed with how quickly he picked up the signs that she said she was buying the whole series (at that time there were 6 volumes) and I mentioned we were getting Kayla the rest of the series too. Eventually 2 more of our friends borrowed that first volume to see for themselves if their kids would also pick up the signs – and of course within about a week or two they were also signing.

By the time Kayla was 20 months old she knew 14 signs, while not a huge vocabulary for that age, it was exciting for us. I wish we had started the videos much sooner! While she knew these signs she wasn’t really using them to communicate with us – she would sign them while watching the videos, or if we said the word, but didn’t seem to initiate it much on her own.

Then came the day we were at the commissary. We were in line for the register and she was sitting in the cart. All of a sudden she signed “dog”. I had a quizzical look on my face wondering why she would be signing that as I knew there weren’t any dogs in the store. I thought maybe I misunderstood her and she wasn’t signing at all, but she did it again so I casually looked around me. Then I spotted it. There was a display of dog food with a dog’s face all over the bags. I can’t tell you how I excited I was to realize she recognized and signed dog on her own without any prompting from me. I wanted to scream and cheer and jump up and down in that store! But I contained myself. I leaned in close and told her “yes that is a dog – good job” and how proud I was. I couldn’t wait for Joe to get home so I could tell him what she did.

By the time she was 2 years old she knew over 50 signs and was using them to communicate with us – signing things in books we looked at, as a plane flew over us, asking for a cracker. This was such a big deal to us because she wasn’t very verbal at all and this helped tremendously in being able to “talk” to her.

I remember going out with Kayla and she would usually end up signing “thank you” to someone for something…most people thought she was blowing them a kiss! I explained that she was signing “thank you” and usually they would respond with “wow she knows sign language?” I used any opportunity to spread the word about these videos and that was usually a great conversation starter!

She did start to vocalize words along with her signs (which by the time she was 3 she knew over 100 signs -thanks to all 13 volumes that we now own!) and eventually she stopped using the majority of the signs. We still watch the videos and she’ll still sign sometimes, but it’s mostly verbal words now. I’m so thankful to Signing Time though for helping us learn a new language that enabled us to communicate with each other.

There’s a new set of DVDs coming out soon and you can bet we’ll be buying those too!

Thanks for all the moving well-wishes. I think we definitely have the greatest readers of all time. The contests will be back sometime next week as soon as I have my internet connection working at the new place and my laptop dug out from among the boxes. In the meantime, please enjoy our guest reviewers and be sure to visit them at their home bases if they’ve provided you with a link. Have a fabulous weekend, and if you’re in the mood for shopping check the TOP Shops for discount codes first!

If you’ve got school aged kids home for the summer, chances are you are stuck for something for them to do at least part of the time. Maybe it’s raining or just too stinking hot to spend the whole day outside.

If your kids like crafts, then I’m sure they’d love to keep their hands busy with one of the many fabulous bead & activity kits from The Bead Shop (a division of Fashion Angels Enterprises).

Intended for ages 8+ (there are very small pieces in each kit so please heed that age suggestion) these kits will keep your kids busy for an extended period of time and they’ll end up with some very cool jewelry. They could make gifts for friends or perhaps make some money at a roadside jewelery store!

The coolness includes this fresh mesh bracelet kit – something different than your usual ‘bead a string and tie it’ type of kit.

The kits are heavy on the plastic, but it’s all quite functional. There’s a beading organizer tray and reusable zippered bead bags, and the outer pouch resembles a snap shut plastic purse that’s great for storing craft supplies or sorting inventory for that roadside jewelery store!

We’re giving away three kits from The Bead Shop to three different readers. We’ve got the Fresh Mesh kit shown above, the Jellloopy Jelly Key Ring Kit and the New World Beaded Jewelery Kit and will select three entrants randomly. The 1st will win the Fresh Mesh kit, the 2nd will win the Jellloopy Jelly Key Ring Kit and the 3rd will win the New World Beaded Jewelery Kit. To enter, email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com with “The Bead Shop” in the subject line and tell us the name of another kit not mentioned in this review. Contest closes Thursday night at midnight. Congratulations to Brad, Cindi and Lisa!

New TOP find Fashion Angels has some really cool products for the tween girl set. There’s no trying to please both genders at this company. Everything’s purely girlie!

Check out this Jet Settin’ Make-Up Artist Sketch Book (pictured) for the fashion conscious young woman in your life. There’s also a larger version and a refill kit available, but I love the portability of the jet settin’ version. I don’t know of many tween girls who wouldn’t love this. And hey – the longer we can keep it on the paper and off their faces the better, right?

We’ve got the pictured kit as today’s featured giveaway. To be entered in the random drawing, email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com with MakeUp in the subject line and list another cool Fashion Angels product available on the site. Contest closes Thursday 7/26 at midnight MST. Congratulations Saundra!

When bath time becomes more work than fun, it’s time to pull out the big guns to get the kid(s) clean. The Squeaky Clean Bathtub Dice from Moms On Edge just might do the trick. They’ll help teach the parts of the body while helping to ensure all of those cute little parts are no longer covered in sticky kid goop. The dice 4 inches square and are made of nylon covered foam. Each side shows an image of one body part to clean along with the accompanying word.

All of the Moms On Edge products come with great vinyl zipper carrying cases – if you don’t reuse them for the items they come with they’re fabulous for lots of things – waterproof with sturdy handles and see through – I like to use my cases for pool toys, spare clothes in the vehicle and more. The stuff inside is better, but I got pretty excited about the great cases!

Want to enter to win some Squeaky Clean Bathtub Dice? Email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com with DICE in the subject line and tell us the recommended age range for this product. Contest closes Monday night at midnight MST. Congratulations Shonda C!

Apparently, Hebrew is hot and those who speak it are even hotter. I am so uncool.

Sarah and David is a way cool company that provides an interactive and easy (believe it or not) way to learn Hebrew.

Start with learning the letters with The Aleph Bet story (and check out the video!)

From the site: The Aleph Bet Story CD models correct intonation and pronunciation of the letters. There are 25 tracks telling the full Aleph Bet Story as told by co-author Lily Yacobi. Complete with sound effects, the recording concludes with Aleph Bet Rock, an exuberant song that teaches the order of the aleph bet and recaps the CD’s fun learning.

Once you’ve got the letters down, the next step is learning to read and write with the series of 5 workbooks consisting of activities to teach reading, writing, speaking and more.

Give it a shot! We’ve got an Aleph Bet Story package to give away, including a book and CD (pictured). To enter, email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com with SARAH-DAVID in the subject line before midnight tonight and tell us one other product available from the Sarah & David store. One winner will be chosen at random.Congratulations Jaime!

A couple of opinionated parents have been reviewing a great site called True Learning. Here’s what they thought:

By CPA Mom

True Learning, founded by JinheeAhn Kim in 2003 is an at-home preschool curriculum. It consists of “24 True Learning Modules that span 6 core subjects over 4 levels of advancement: True Math, True Literacy, True Thinking, True Motor Skills, True Art, and True World.

Each True Learning subject consists of 4 levels of advancement. Each level systematically builds upon the skills presented in the previous levels. The content is created to ensure success and mastery. Every concept is introduced in an intuitive manner, then reinforced and built upon in successive levels. Regardless of your child’s age and ability, True Learning will challenge and stimulate your child at each level.”

People, that is over 3,000 workbook pages! My first tip? Don’t download and save them all at once. That takes hours, believe me! And when you buy this product, for only $88, you get access to all the pages, 24 hours a day, for one full year. You’ll have plenty of time to print and save them as your child progresses.

How does it work? Three steps. Download, Print and work on the sheets for 15 minutes a day. A bonus is that not only does True Learning have the core curriculum, they have discussion forums, a message center and technical support. AND, they have a separate website for online games and free activities that are truly fun and engaging and are very similar to what is on the workbook pages.

I’ll admit I was apprehensive at how this was going to be helpful with my developmentally disabled child. We printed out Level One, sheet one, for all of the modules and went to work. While I noted one error on a “Let’s find One That is the Same” worksheet, the rest were bright and colorful and very easy to follow. Instructions are on the top of the page and the activity below. My son easily followed along what he was supposed to do and while he developmentally is not yet able to do it all, I could see how much he wanted to and how much a curriculum like this will be helpful in getting him there. After we finished the actual pages, he spent 15 minutes just looking through them, identifying animals and such. Believe me, I’ve not seen him have such a long attention span on anything in quite a while (that is not a Little Einstein’s video!). I look forward to printing the rest out and working with my son as we get him ready for pre-school this fall.

Two drawbacks I noted: Once you print the pages (and they do use a LOT of color ink), you can’t re-use them. So instead of spending a fortune on printer ink, I think I’ll invest in some page protectors and see if I can find some colors or pens that can be wiped off – any ideas out there, I’d sure appreciate it.

Second drawback is the True World sections. They have pages for learning words and numbers in Japanese, Spanish, Hawaiian, and French but no pronunciation guides. For me, since my only exposure to another language is high school German, and Dora the Explorer Spanish, I have no idea how to teach my child these words correctly. True Learning would do well to include such a guide.

All and all, a great value for the money. And you can feel good about your purchase since True Learning donates 25% of profits, after taxes, to educational and charitable efforts directed toward children.

THUMBS UP TRUE LEARNING!

By Michelle

True Learning is an excellent online, educational website. They have downloadable activities and exercises for kids age 3-6. I’m impressed that these activities are more than just “reading and math!” Categories are math, literacy, thinking, motor skills, art, and world. Each category has 4 levels of progression so you go at your own child’s pace. My 3.5 yr old daughter loves letters so the literacy one is a fun one for her. I know we’ll be using this a lot over the summer!

There is also a discussion board on the website which I think would be a great tool to utilize; however it doesn’t appear to be very active. The last post in the Parent-to-Parent board was Nov 2006. If there were more participation in the forum I think this would make the website even better.

And I tried it too, but from a teacher’s perspective since my one year old isn’t quite there yet. I loved it! I completely agree with all of the above praise and don’t need to try to come up with a different way to say it than they did. I’ll just say that if you have a preschool aged child, this is an amazing site and it’s well worth the $88 for the year (and as a techie family, we don’t take paying for anything online lightly when it’s not going to arrive in a box on my doorstep so that’s a compliment!). All of the units are made up of pdf files that are not just printable but savable so you can do them over and over again.

It would also be great for a kindergarten child who’s academically weak and needs a little extra focussed work. I’d highly recommend it as an early home schooling resource as well. Awesome!

Check it out! And don’t forget to go to the free blog too!

Not that it wasn’t cool already, but with the Young Scientist Club, even the least scientifically inclined kids will be enthralled.

The Adventure Science Kits are designed as a continuous learning experience and they not only build upon each other but are also interlinked. For example, the child makes a compass with kit 3 (magnets) which then will be used to study wind direction with a self-made weather vane from kit 4 (weather station). As a teacher, I know for a fact that this continuum based learning is much more easily retained than isolated lessons. There are currently 8 kits available and they’re designed for ages 5 and up. Many of them can be used individually and parents have the option of starting at kits other than number 1 with older children. They work on a subscription basis – either once or twice a month, and the site has some great links to accompany the kits. The kits are also available individually from several stores, including Amazon.

The Volcano Madness kit (kit 6, pictured @ right) comes with everything your child needs to discover volcanoes and their structures by creating and designing a volcano. They get to touch, feel, and experiment with real volcanic rock (pumice). Ultimate explosion solutions are created by measuring and mixing different substances in test tubes. This kit finishes with the roaring experience of volcanic eruptions that Young Scientists will want to repeat over and over again.

Zany Crystals (kit 8, pictured @ left) allows children to explore crystal shapes, create crystal art, grow ice crystals, design a salt crystal garden, and grow crystal stars. The best part? Kids create and grow real rock candy! Mmmmmm…

Other than some very basic household ingredients, every kit contains all the supplies you’ll need – right down to the safety goggles.

The newest Young Scientist Club addition is a series of Magic School Bus kits. If you’ve never watched Magic School Bus with your kids, you don’t know what you’re missing. I use the programs in my grade one classroom regularly – there’s one for almost every unit. These kits also contain pretty much everything you need. Kids are guided by the infamous Miss Frizzle on a trip through the Mysteries of Rainbows (pictured), the World of Germs or Into the Human Body. With the Mysteries of Rainbows kit, kids will wear rainbow glasses, create a rainbow spinner, blow rainbow bubbles, make rainbow milk and find out why rainbows appear on the back of CD’s. What an awesome way to encourage learning about the wonders of nature!

I’d highly recommend these kits for anyone who is homeschooling children, has a gifted child requiring enrichment or just has a kid who likes cool stuff. They’d make great activities for summer holidays or Christmas vacation. You know – all those times when kids forget all they’ve learned the rest of the year. Keep ‘em busy, entertained and learning with The Young Scientists Club.

We’ve got one of each of the featured kits to give away. To enter, email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com with either Science-Volcano, Science-Crystals or Science-Rainbows in the subject line and list one other kit available in the Adventure Science series. Contest closes at midnight MST on 5/15/07. Congratulations Ash & Becca!

It always ticks me off when we buy a child a gift and never hear from them. There’s nothing better than a good old fashioned thank-you note to make me buy them an even better present the next time. I fear it’s becoming a lost art – not only for children, but for adults as well.

I am loving the Make-Your-Own Thank You Notes kit from Made by Hands, a great company owned by Chicago moms Dena Hirschberg & Ava Berry. They’ve created a large selection of timeless art activity kits that are fun, packed with supplies and allow for endless creative possibilities.

The Make-Your-Own Thank You Notes kit (so new it’s not even available on their website yet) contains 15 cards & envelopes, over 600 pop out shapes, a glue stick and a cute book with great examples of when & how to make thank-you cards and ideas for “thoughtful thoughts.”

If we all do our part to teach them graciousness while they’re young, perhaps women who don’t send thank you cards after their baby shower will not exist 15 years from now. We can only hope.

Check out the whole Make-Your-Own series. They’re all just as fabulous, and will keep your child entertained for hours without pigeonholing their art into the “make an exact replica of this” project.

We’ve got a Make-Your-Own Thank You Notes kit to give away! To be entered in the random draw, email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com with Thank You in the subject line and name one of the other kits in the Make-Your-Own series. Contest closes at midnight MST on 5/11/07. Congratulations Nancy!