With fall (too quickly) approaching, it’s time to start searching out some great personalized items for the kids to take back to school. We’re die hard Olive Kids lovers around here, and preschoolers and school aged kiddos alike will love all of the great personalized items from OK.

My son is an early reader and is loving his personalized bookmark ($9.99). It’s high quality and thick enough that even my dogs couldn’t completely destroy it (and believe me - they tried). My teething baby’s slobber didn’t penetrate it at all so the laminate is obviously well sealed! (Are you seeing a theme here? I live in a zoo, apparently.)

The Olive Kids placemats ($9.99) are a hit at our house too. These aren’t any old disposable placemats. They’re the same high quality as the bookmark and if they can make my crazy kid want to sit still and eat at the table they’ve got my vote!

When your kids head to school, off to daycare or just to a playdate with their backpack in tow, a personalized name tag ($7.99) is not only adorable but can help you get those packs home when they’re abandoned in favour of a good game of tag.

No matter how you feel about personalized goods, kids love them. When they’re high quality like these ones are, they’re sure to be a hit for a long, long time.

Win it! OK is giving away a prize pack valued at $28 including a personalized summer placemat of your choice, a personalized, bookmark of your choice and a name tag of your choice. To enter, visit OK and leave a comment letting us know the patterns you’d choose for each of your three items. Contest closes at 11:59 mst on August 15/08.

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

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED

Although there are many great reasons to have children, I have to admit one reason for me was having the opportunity to decorate a creative childrens’ space! My inner artist looked forward to painting beautiful murals that my children would gaze upon in awe and wonder.

I have moved four times since my not quite four year old was born. No beautiful paintings on the walls, no murals - just the basics that could be easily moved as we traveled the world. Add another kid into the mix and my days of painting murals have long passed - at least for now.

We have seen some cute wall decorations but when I saw WallaBabies, I squealed with delight! The designs are so retro adorable and NOT a licensed character from a television show! Just looking at the designs makes me (oh, and my kids) so happy. My daughter adores the bugs and my one year old keeps pointing at the bees … b…b…b. The designs are totally a hit!

Putting the wall graphics up was a snap, and took no time at all. In fact I did it myself. No need for my husband this time! The website has a great How To, that walks you through each step with no room for error. We have the Secret Garden Pack which consists of five 13″ x 14″ decal sheets. The perfect amount to decorate one wall beautifully or spread a little more sparsely throughout a whole room.

Now as my kids fall to sleep they are surrounded by clouds, flowers, insects and mushrooms and I can feel guilt-free for not painting them a mural! -Chelle

Win it! We’re giving away the same Secret Garden set that Chelle used and loved. To enter, leave a comment on this post before noon MST on June 19/08.

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

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED

Wooden letters are all the rage nowadays in children’s rooms. They’re in all of the magazines and you can buy them pretty much everywhere. I’ve looked around a little bit and everything I’ve found I either have to paint myself (no thanks) or is a flat (and therefore generic) paint colour that doesn’t quite match my kids’ rooms. So I’ve kept looking and until recently hadn’t found quite what I wanted.

The decorated letters from So Called Mommy’s Etsy shop fit the bill perfectly. At only $7 per letter maximum and super cheap shipping, they’re not only less than half the price of most I’ve seen but they’re far more beautiful and each one is personalized exactly the way you want it.

So Called Mommy Stephanie Paxman made my newborn daughter the letters of her name to match her new room and her taste is fantastic. They’re crafty but not country and are adorned with scrapbooking accessories like bows & buttons. Unless you like a simpler look. She aims to please! They match our nursery perfectly and have been complimented by everyone who has seen them. As an added bonus, my 22 month old son can now read his sister’s name and recognizes it in other places because he’s read it so many times on her wall!

I love everything about Etsy, and it’s because of people like Stephanie that it’s such a success. At these prices, I’m not only supporting another mom but am saving myself hours of work and getting something even nicer than I could have made and more personalized than I’d ever get from a larger store. What a lovely gift it would be to have these letters made for a baby’s shower to match his or her nursery!

When you place your order, mention The Opinionated Parent to get 10% off.

Be the first reader to place an order from So Called Mommy and mention The Opinionated Parent and you get one free wooden letter in addition to the discount on your order!

By CPA Mom

Wee Gallery uses animals made up of high contrast repeating patterns to stimulate your baby’s visual development. They have recently introduced a new line of products for your baby’s room: Wrapped Canvases. Each 9×12” (some 12×12″ available) canvas print is printed on high-quality canvas with UV-resistant inks, so they’ll last for years! Bonus? No glass means you don’t have to worry about cuts from broken glass should your rambunctious preschooler manage to get them off the wall. They all come in themed sets of three and there’s something to match most every decor. Each set of 3 retails for $60 USD. We fell in love with the simple, yet ingenious art. Designed for babies, my pre-schoolers enjoy them as well.

A stripey zebra, dotty giraffe, and a curly elephant on a green savannah scene make up the Savannah Collection.

A spotty stingray, stripey seahorse and fat turtle on a sea blue undersea scene, pictured below, make up the Undersea Collection.

A sunny lion, patterned parrot and silly monkey on a leaf green jungle scene make up the Jungle Collection.

A stripey dragonfly, swirly squirrel and fat bird on a rose-colored garden scene make up the Garden Collection.

A curly sheep, flowery pig and speckled cow on a corn-yellow farm scene make up the Farmyard Collection.

Like what you see? Wee Gallery also carries flash cards, a mobile, wall graphics and more! Wee Gallery products are highly regarded the world over. All products are available for purchase online and in stores around the world.

We love these classic black and white designs because they’re visible to baby from birth but on these great coloured canvas backgrounds they’re perfect for the big kids who have graduated to colour. We’ve got a 3 pack of UnderSea Wall Canvases for one lucky reader. To enter, email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com with Canvas in the subject line by midnight tonight and name one Wee Gallery product not mentioned in this review. Congratulations Cori!

I’m pretty sure most parents are a lot like me in my enjoyment of any toy that cleans itself up or encourages kids to do it. Zip Bins are a fantastic products for both kids and adults. They were recommended to us by a dedicated T.O.P. reader and once we checked out the website we knew they’d be a great fit!

They’re essentially just bins, available in four sizes, that unzip into a playmat and back into a bin when you’re done, but after we actually tried them we realized they’re so much more than that and I’m finding that the coolness factor is actually rather hard to describe! They also fold into small flat packets for storage when not in use.

The dinosaur mini ZipBin, my son’s favourite, is like all the others in that the four corners of the box fold & zip up & down from a storage bin for all those loose dino toys to a decorative playscape. Most homes with little boys (and often girls, too!) will have these plastic prehistoric creatures underfoot. That is until the ZipBin enters your house. They’ll still be there, but they’ll no longer be underfoot once the kids learn to zip them back into their bin when they’re done playing! And, being mini, it’s perfect for travel in cars & planes or for taking to daycare or to Grandma’s house.

Some of them, like the Small Town ZipBin, come with some accompanying toys. The Small Town also features a cool “parking garage” under the lid! (Yet it still folds flat - even with the cars inside. Like magic.

They don’t all zip into a flat sided box. For the pony lovers, the Country Stable set folds up into a barn for the ponies to sleep peacefully until their next play time.

For the family? A brilliant picnic basket turned placemat. For the hunter or fisherman? Camo. For the home? How about satin or one of the holiday options?

You can find retailers of the ZipBin here.

After you buy yours and see how much you love it, you can enter their Zip-Lify Your Life! ™ contest ~ check out some of the winners’ fabulous ideas (that I know I’ll be borrowing. These people are creative!)

We’re giving away the Unicorn Playscape! To be entered in the random draw, email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com before midnight on 7/17 with ZipBin in the subject line and include the answer to the question: What’s the name of the company behind the ZipBin products? Congratulations Thea!

When Lullabeds sent us a story blanket to review, we all thought it looked pretty cool but we had no idea just how cool it really was until we turned it on. It’s amazing!

Story Blankets are childrens comforters/duvet covers which each have 133 mini LED’s and entertain your children (and you!) with a show of lights & sounds at bedtime. In story mode, the blanket gives you two minutes of rhythmically moving lights accompanied by a musical soundtrack. The blanket then goes into sleep mode consisting of one minute of gently fading lights that slowly dissolve to end the story.

The Space Story Blanket from Lullabeds (click to listen to the soundtrack) is just about the coolest thing I’ve ever seen on a kid’s bed. From 6 months of age into upper elementary school, children are endlessly fascinated by it. Just don’t expect them to go to sleep after just one “story.” They’ll restart it a few times before they’re tired enough to go to sleep - and you’ll sit there with them because you won’t be able to help it!

The Story Blanket is also available in Kitty, Heroes & Princess. They come in twin and full sizes and are available from the Lullabeds online store. Matching bed skirts & pillows are available for all patterns, but this blanket won’t just stay in bed. It’s in the car, on the couch, at pre-school and more!

Also check out Bed Effects from Lullabeds. I want one for my room!

Several months ago, I ordered a couple of mobiles from Wee Gallery to display our son’s pictures. We have gotten more compliments on our photo mobile than on any of our more costly art and recommend them to anyone who asks.

We’ve been reviewing the Wee Gallery art cards for the last month and, though they don’t get as much love from the adults as the cute pictures of our kid, our son and his friends from newborn to three years old have all loved them. The newborns are captured by the stark black and white images and the older toddlers are enthralled with the detail of the images. For adults, the fact that they’re not cartoons means they’re more than tolerable to have hanging or sitting around your house on a semi-permanent basis.

Each set consists of six 5×7 cards which are laminated and rounded for safe & sturdy baby-play. Whether you have the mobile or not (but it’s only $11, so go for it!) the cards will be a popular (and non-plastic, non-battery operated!) addition to your home for less than $13.

Turn the crib into a “wee gallery” for your baby!

We’re giving away a garden set of art cards! To be entered in the random draw, email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com with WEE GALLERY in the subject line and name another art card set that’s available from the Wee Gallery site. Contest closes Friday at midnight MST. Congratulations Ava!