I had the opportunity to read a review copy of Angie Kauffman’s new eBook, Finding Educational Activities in the Most Unexpected Places.  If you are looking for simple and fun ways to enhance your young child’s everyday play, this book will be a great resource for your family!  It is filled with more than 200 activities using common items found around the house, such as paper bags, cookie cutters, blankets, laundry, and lots more.

What I like most about Angie’s eBook is that it combines two of my favorite things – learning through play and using things we have around the house.  It doesn’t take fancy toys to give our kids quality play opportunities!

While the book is geared toward toddlers and preschoolers, my daughters (ages 5 and 7) would love many, many of the activities as well.  That’s one of the great things about activities that encourage open-ended play – they’re multilevel!

When your little ones need something engaging to do and you are having a “brain freeze,” you could turn to any page in this book and find something easy to set-up and fun to do.  You can see sample activities and read more about this eBook at Angie’s lovely blog, Many Little Blessings.

Angie has graciously offered Let’s Explore readers a discount on her eBook, Finding Educational Activities in the Most Unexpected Places.  Use the code LE20 for 20% off your eBook purchase (regular price is $7.50).  Discount expires June 15th, 2010.  Thanks, Angie!

Happy Playing!

Disclosure: I was provided with a free review copy of this eBook.  I was not compensated for my review and my opinions are all my own!

We went to our local toy store to look for a new board game and the girls spied this coloring book on the spinny rack:

I mean, garden fairies, stained glass, and glowing background colors? I knew we would be bringing this book home with us!

The book contains 16 beautiful illustrations on a vellum-like paper.  The girls got busy with their markers and worked on carefully coloring their chosen flower fairies for at least an hour.  The book also suggests trying crayons or paints, but we have only tried markers so far.

The finished pictures do look really beautiful hanging in the window!

We also saw the same Dover GemGlow stained glass coloring books in Wildflowers, Butterfly, and Sea Life.  Paired with a fresh pack of markers, these would make great gifts too!

Have you made any successful impulse purchases lately?

Have a great weekend!

It’s no secret that I’m passionate about open-ended, imaginative, creative toys and products for kids!  I thought I would share some photos of the Dado Cubes and Dado Squares in action.  These are both great products – colorful, durable, ready for creating all kinds of cool structures.  They are even made in the United States!

That’s why I like them – but, my girls like them because you never know when little animals will need a zoo, or Polly Pocket and her friends need a new apartment building, or the train cars need garages to park in.  I love seeing what they come up with!

Here’s a little peek at some of the things they have made recently:

The Dado Cubes are a set of 10 cubes, scaled from 1-inch to 5-inches:

The Dado Squares set includes 35 3-inch squares in five colors.  Both are loads of fun!

Happy Building!

The girls and I are having a great time playing with the new Animalogic game from Fat Brain Toys. The game comes with 16 wooden animals, a game board, and a book of challenges (with a range of difficulty). The object of the game is to help all the animals cross the river by leaving the game board one at a time. First, set-up your animals by following the picture in the challenge book:

Begin removing animals from the board by following two simple rules: color follows color and species follows species. So, if your first animal off the board is a yellow hippo, you can choose something yellow or another hippo to follow. The animals have to stay in their rows, and you cannot jump over another animal to get off the board.

Animalogic can be played by one person, but a little teamwork is fun too! My girls really dig logic games like this, plus I have seen the little animals being played with outside the game. A very fun way to build critical thinking skills!

I have been a reader of Marie’s blog, Make and Takes, for quite some time now.  She always has great ideas for simple kids’ crafts, yummy recipes, and other helpful tips for family and home.  Marie has a fun new ebook available for purchase, just in time for Halloween fun: Monster Mania!

Not only is the ebook filled with 15 playful crafts, games and recipes, it is beautifully designed with large photos and clear instructions.  I love having all the hard work done for me!  From Furry Monster Feet to the Monster Shape Memory Game to Monster Stew, there is something silly and fun for all little ones to enjoy!

photo courtesy of Make and Takes

My girls were immediately drawn to the fun recipes.  They have big plans to make the Monster Muffins and Lizard Juice this weekend!  I know we will get a lot of use from these projects in the coming weeks leading up to Halloween.

You can get more information at the Make and Takes blog – I recommend checking it out! 

We’ve got some new kids music on constant play around here – Say Hello to the Sun by Cathy Heller.  I’m not sure how I stumbled onto her website, but I’m SO glad I did!  Cathy’s CD is full of fun, pop-style songs with positive, affirming lyrics for kiddos (and adults!).  My six-year-old says the music sounds “more grown-up” and my ten-year-old niece thinks the music is “cool!”

After listening to some of the other popular “tween” songs on my niece’s iPod, I was very happy to find some appealing, upbeat music that does not refer to boyfriends and relationships and breaking-up and being in love.  Cathy’s feel-good songs are positive without being preachy – and they are just fun to sing and dance to!

At Cathy’s website, you can read more about her and her music – I encourage you to check it out and order yourself a copy!

(You can read another great review of Say Hello to the Sun at Cool Mom Picks.)

Happy singing + dancing!

Have you seen the Spinny Speller?  We are all quite enamored with this simple toy.  Spin the wood blocks and spell basic consonant-vowel-consonant words (you can make 36 real words, and dozens more silly ones, too!).  The first time Delaney, age 4, played with the Spinny Speller she successfully sounded out a few words than declared in triumph, “I’m a reader!!”  Awesome!

The Spinny Speller is made in Vermont by Maple Landmark – all hardwood construction with non-toxic finishes.

They also make Spinny Critters and Spinny People.  Silly fun for toddlers and preschoolers!

Happy playing!

Delaney is my puzzle girl.  When she was a toddler, she would line up the puzzles from one end of her room to the other.  Then, she would start at one end and work her way down the line, doing each puzzle along the way.  So, of course, she was super excited when I offered her a new puzzle to work on!

We had a great time playing with the Mudpuppy Under the Sea Color Me Puzzle.  This puzzle is two in one:  One side is a beautiful full-color illustration and the other is a black-line drawing, ready for coloring with wipe-off crayons (included!).

The puzzle pieces are nice and sturdy and I liked giving Delaney the extra challenge of putting together the black-line side of the puzzle without the color clues to help her out!  Definitely more tricky and lots of fun!

These puzzles would make great birthday gifts!

I am always looking for new and interesting ways to help my girls strengthen their fine motor skills. Building strength and coordination in the fingers and hands helps kids get ready to use scissors and hold pencils and write letters. Wikki Stix are a fun and simple product that kids are drawn to immediately. Made of wax-coated yarn, Wikki Stix can be twisted and curved into any form, shape, letter, etc. They stick together and to your surface with gentle pressure, but come apart easily and can be reused over and over again.

Here’s just a few ideas of things you can do with Wikki Stix:

• Spell your name
• Make a bracelet
• Create a scene on construction paper
• Make Wikki Stix people
• Experiment with twisting, curling, and squishing the Stix into a ball
• Cut some in half
• Wrap them around cookie cutters to make shapes

Wikki Stix are excellent for taking to a restaurant, playing at the table while dinner is cooking, or even in the car – a mini clipboard makes a great workboard for creating.

Happy playing!

A good part of our Sunday was spent creating these:

We all had such fun with these Made By Me wood vehicle kits by Maple Landmark. Each kit comes with a vehicle body, four wheels, and four axles. These kits are made in the USA from smoothly sanded unfinished pine. All you need to assemble them is a small hammer and some wood glue.

Before assembling them, we dolled them up with a variety of techniques – painting (we used acrylic paints), coloring with markers, adding stickers, and attaching scrapbook paper and clip art with Mod Podge. Here’s a closer look:

Natalie’s race car, Daddy’s vegetable delivery truck, and Natalie’s apple orchard tractor

Delaney’s sea animal tugboat, my groovy Bug, and Delaney’s train engine

As soon as they were dry, the girls grabbed them and headed off to play. Natalie was quite excited that some of her Playmobil people and Calico Critters can fit in the tractor seat.

I think these would be awesome birthday party activities or favors. Also great for rainy days, last minute birthday gifts, and Easter baskets.

Happy Playing!