Play Smart Activity Books

A product was given for review for my honest opinion. No other compensation was given.

Are you looking for something to entertain your children (and help their learning!) on these cold winter days when they can't get outside??? Then let me recommend Play Smart Activity Books! My children have loved doing the activities and having fun learning!

Children as young as 2 years old will love Play Smart activity books. From the #1 educational publisher in Japan, the books were created by a team of developmental psychologists and child development experts to insure that the content, art, and design appeal to children at each stage of their growth.

Each of these innovative titles puts the emphasis on FUN. While children are enjoying a completely engaging mix of activities—tracing, matching, counting, solving mazes, and drawing pictures—they are building important skills. They are playing, but they are also:

• matching and sorting items by shape and color
• strengthening observational skills
• building fine motor coordination
• exercising their creativity and curiosity
• boosting problem-solving skills
• enhancing their focus

Every Play Smart activity book...

• is competitively priced at $6.99
• has parent notes to expand the learning
• includes 80+ colorful reward and activity stickers
• comes with a wipe-clean game board
• has been proven successful by tens of millions of children in Japan!

Plus, Play Smart activity books have been raking in the awards! Early Learning 2+, Early Learning 3+, and School Skills 4+ have been given Family Choice Awards and Early Learning 3+ also won a National Parenting Product Award (NAPPA).

Keep those children entertained and learning this winter with these great activity books from Play Smart!

Buy It:

You can purchase Play Smart activity books from their online store.

* Disclosure - This product was given for review for my honest opinion. No other compensation was given.*

The Gift that Keeps Giving - The Gift of Fun Learning!

A product was given for review for my honest opinion. No other compensation was given.

As a preschool teacher and mother, I know there is absolutely no better gift that keeps giving than the gift of education and educational toys! They are my favorite gifts to give to my nieces and nephews and my favorite gifts that my children receive! I know they will play with them for years and learn so much as they play!

Two of my favorite educational toy companies are Learning Resources and Educational Resources! My children have LOVED every single item we have ever used or played with and I love watching learning become fun thanks to their innovative and fun educational toys!

Check out some of my favorite educational gift ideas below:

Learning Resources:

Mini Motor Math Activity Set

Count your way to the finish line! These colorful cars are ready to rev their engines for early math learning fun. Attach the finish line to the track numbered 1–10 for a high-octane counting race up to 10, or push it into overdrive by racing to 20! Start your engines to learn counting 1–20, early addition, number sequencing, patterning, and more! Set includes 25 mini motor cars in 5 colors, 2 pieces of connectable track, 1 color die, 2 number dice, and Activity Guide featuring multiple activities to boost early math skills. Track pieces measure 12"L; cars measure 1"L.

Available for $19.99

Counterpillar

Count on this friendly caterpillar to invite early learning exploration! Slide the colorful beads––sized perfectly for little fingers––to learn counting, more or less, and early addition. Includes two rows of 10 beads, with numbers 1–10 printed on the base. Measures 11½"L x 8"H.

Grades: PreK+

Available for $19.99

STEM Magnets Activity Set

Attract early learners to the wonders of magnetism! STEM lessons are irresistible when you add the excitement of fun, colorful tools to scientific exploration. Durable, playful magnets in a variety of shapes engage children as they explore magnetism, polarity, and magnetic attraction & repulsion.

Includes 2 bar magnets, 2 magnetic bugs, 4 ring magnets, horseshoe magnet, magnetic post, 2 snap-on cars, tray with maze, string, and 10 double-sided Activity Cards. Comprehensive Activity Guide with reproducible materials is also included. Largest piece (maze tray) measures 11"L x 8½"H x ½"W.

Available for $34.99

Educational Insights:

Nancy B's Science Club® Garbage to Gardens Compost Kit & Decomposition Book

Which decays faster—a banana peel or a Styrofoam cup? Find out with the only transparent composting kit designed just for kids!

This set introduces life cycles and composting, promotes environmentalism and journaling activities encourage creativity!

This set is the only transparent composting kit designed just for kids and includes:

• Clear compost container with 2 compartments includes removable divider
• two 3x magnifiers
• 2 write-on/wipe-off boards
• lid with air holes
• 22-Page activity journal

It's such a Fun introduction to life cycles and environmental science!

Available for $24.99

Hot Dots® Jr. Famous Fables Interactive Storybook Set

Turn story time into an interactive learning experience with four timeless tales and Ollie—The Talking, Teaching Owl™ pen! Each fable teaches an important life lesson and features interactive activities to help children master important skills.

This set:

• Introduces important life lessons
• Supports the understanding of numbers and counting; making comparisons; understanding patterns and rhyme; and other early learning skills crucial for school success
• Helps children master reading comprehension and encourages an early love of reading
• Encourages independent, self-paced learning

It includes:

• Set of four 24-page storybooks—The Tortoise and the Hare, The Lion and the Mouse, The Ant and the Grasshopper, and The City Mouse and the Country Mouse—each with 11 early learning activities
• Includes Ollie—the Talking, Teaching Owl pen, which lights up and has 17 speech and sound-effect responses
• Pen requires 2 AAA batteries (not included)

Available for $24.99

Design & Drill® Power Play Vehicles™ Race Car

Kids can zoom into build ‘n’ play fun with Design & Drill® Power Play Vehicles™! Your junior pit crew can build their vehicle by snapping the pieces together. Then, they can use the motorized mini-drill to add the bolts. Finally, it’s time to add artistic flair and customize their creation with colorful stickers, and zoom into creative STEM play! Once their racer is ready to hit the road, they can use kid-power to send their car speeding!

With this set, your children will explore patterning, matching, and counting, build construction and fine motor skills and encourage creativity and imagination while building confidence.

It includes:

• Build your own race car, complete with moving pieces, using 7 snap-on parts
• 15 Clear bolts
• Motorized, kid-friendly mini-drill with socket bit
• Colorful & decorative stickers
• Multilingual instructional guide
• Drill requires 3 AAA batteries (not included)

Available for $21.99

*Disclosure - This product was given for review for my honest opinion. No other compensation was given.*

Gifts that Keep Teaching All Year Round!

A product was given for review for my honest opinion. No other compensation was given.

ETA hand2mind, an educational company that provides learning resources for grades PreK – 12 teachers and students, has two awesome science kits this holiday season to give the learning lover in your house!

As a preschool teacher, I am instantly excited about cool new kits that make learning fun and easy - for both teacher and student! These STEM at Play kits make perfect gifts this year and bring science concepts to life through hands-on activities.

Check out two of my favorite kits below:

Splash! Water Science Lab Kit

This kit encourages children to become an expert in all-things-aquatic. The fact-filled lab guide is chock-full of pictures and information for hours of experimentation in your own aqua lab.

I love that this one box allows for 23 fun experiments including dancing bubbles, color changing flowers and a tornado! It is perfect for pulling out on a rainy day and having a lot of education fun with the kids.

What's in the Box?

Kit includes:

• 32-page Career and Lab Guide
• Straws
• Balloons
• Pasteur pipettes
• Small measuring cup
• Petri dish
• Syringes
• Transparent tube
• Modelling clay
• Cardboard box
• Bottle with bubble solution
• Soap bubble hoop
• Rubber bands
• Paper clips
• Marble
• Blue food coloring
• Red food coloring
• Liquid glycerine
• Plastic test tubes with lids
• Protective goggles

Boom! Combustion Science Lab Kit

Become and expert in things-that-go-boom! This box also contains 25 experiments including how to make rockets from a chemical reaction or a balloon, make fizzy bombs, make a fun explosive bag, and create a color explosion.

What's in the Box?

Kit includes:

• 36-page Career and Lab Guide
• Protective goggles
• Sodium bicarbonate
• Salt
• Citric acid
• Large measuring cups
• ‘Kaboom’ paper sheet
• Funnel
• Round plastic container
• Small measuring cups with lids
• Colored paper sheets
• Decorative sticker for the rocket
• Rectangular plastic container
• Round filter papers
• Balloons
• Plastic spatula
• Pasteur pipettes
• Wooden spatulas
• Plastic bags with zip-top
• Plastic test tube
• Iron powder
• Red food coloring
• Green food coloring
• Candle
• Protective gloves

These STEM at Play kits provide hours of fun and learning for the whole family! I love that there are so many experiments in each box! These make a really great gift for any child that loves to learn, experiment or learn about science. I love these as a teacher and as a parent!

Buy It:

You can purchase the STEM at Play kits for $24.95 from Amazon.com

*  Disclosure - This product was given for review for my honest opinion. No other compensation was given.*

Inspire a Love of Learning with @BluebeePals! #Giveaway

A product was given for review for my honest opinion. No other compensation was given.

Did you ever wish your child's favorite pet or stuffed animal could talk to them? My daughter loves talking to her stuffed animals and she now has the chance for them to talk back with her new Bluebee Pal - Hudson the Puppy!

Not only is Hudson SO SO Soft and Cuddly (my daughter wouldn't put him down and stop hugging and kissing him!) but he easily connects by Bluetooth to many devices and can read your child a story or sing a song!

Just prop up a laptop, tablet or smart phone onto their laps and tuck into their plush arms. Then watch the magic begin! You can check them out in this YouTube video and see how they work.

Hudson the Puppy is just one of five plushy learning tools that moves its mouth as it talks, sings and reads to a child. The magic is actually a connection to any Bluetooth enabled phone, tablet or laptop from Apple to Android. Each loveable stuffed animal has a mesmerizing feature -- lip synchronization – that allows the pal’s lips to move while singing a downloaded tune or engaging with various learning apps. Even foreign language apps work—in fact, as long as an app has sound, it will work with Bluebee Pals!

These educational toys make language and literacy fun. The pals can even be used as a hands-free telephone with the built in speaker and microphone! A rechargeable battery with USB micro-charged cable is included.


Comes in five animal styles: Riley the Zebra, Sammy the Bear, Hudson the Puppy, Lily the Lamb, and Leo the Lion.  Bluebee Pals have won seven notable industry awards, including the coveted Teachers’ Choice Awards that honor exceptional quality and outstanding performance in the classroom and at home.

Buy It:

You can purchase each Bluebee Pal fpr $64.99 from www.BluebeePals.com, or online at Target, Walmart or Amazon.

Win It:

Bluebee Pals is generously offering (1) Bluebee Pals of winner's choice to a lucky winner!

Enter here for a chance to win:

(1) Bluebee Pal
of winner's choice!
(winner may choose one from the five animal styles)

WORTH $64.99!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

* Thank you to Bluebee Pals for their product for review! Disclosure - This product was given for review for my honest opinion. No other compensation was given.*

Summer Learning with @LakeshoreLM

A product was given for review for my honest opinion. No other compensation was given.

With summer break right around the corner, I need to think of some fun activities to keep my children entertained as well as also continuing their learning and developing throughout the summer!

Lakeshore Learning is definitely one of my go-to companies for both learning and fun for my children because their products are so unique and fun that children don't even know they are learning while they play with their products!

Check out two of my favorite Summer Learning products from Lakeshore:

Build-It-Yourself Woodworking Kit

$34.99

All my children LOVE tools and building things so when I saw this Build-It-Yourself Woodworking Kit, I knew it would be the perfect summer activity for my children to do to not only stay busy but work on fine and gross motor development and creativity!

With this kit, kids create project after project using smooth pine pieces in a wide variety of shapes. They’ve also included a lightweight hammer, nails, glue and more. The kit comes complete with a guide that has instructions for multiple projects, plus a handy 7 3/4" x 12" storage box. Kit includes a total of over 80 pieces.

Real Bugs Discovery Kit

$24.99

One of the areas I struggle in teaching my daughter for preschool is Science, especially during Winter when we can't get outside much and explore! And during summer, we usually only see the same bugs over and over! With this Real Bugs Discovery Kit, my children can learn and actually look at different bugs up close without me having to be afraid of it! :)

Kids get an up-close look at 12 amazing bugs—from a leaf beetle to a lantern fly! Each real specimen is permanently encased in indestructible acrylic, so kids can safely explore them from every angle. Plus, you get a fascinating fact book and handy magnifier—all in a cute 10 1/2" storage tray with labeled compartments for each bug.

This Discovery Kit is perfect for rainy days this summer or even for comparing and contrasting to other bugs they find throughout the summer outside. My children LOVE this Discovery Kit and especially love that they can use their own magnifying glass to examine them on their own time.

Buy It:

You can purchase all these products from the Lakeshore Learning website.

* Thank you to Lakeshore Learning for their product for review! Disclosure - This product was given for review for my honest opinion. No other compensation was given.*

Have FUN Learning this Spring with Lakeshore Learning!

A product was given for review for my honest opinion. No other compensation was given.

As a homeschooling mom of my preschoolers and also a future preschool teacher, I have a few favorite learning and educational companies where I could literally browse their website for hours and hours dreaming of how much fun children could have learning with their products!

Lakeshore Learning is one of those amazing learning products websites!

Why?

Well, because Lakeshore Learning products are developed by teachers and they apply real-world classroom experience to every product they develop. That is probably why I love each and every product so much! Also, they have close ties with real classrooms which also helps them stay innovative and develop ground-breaking products.

Plus, they also care about quality! Lakeshore Learning’s in-house Quality Assurance Team test and inspects every item with more rigorous standards than those required by law. Every item they sell meets or exceeds government safety requirements.

Best of all, their products are all FUN! With award-winning products for birth through 6th grade, Lakeshore Learning helps children reach milestones and achieve educational goals while having fun.

Thanks to Lakeshore Learning my children are going to have fun learning this spring with two of their awesome products from their Spring Learning Collection!

No-Fail Froggy Catch 

Children build confidence and coordination as they play no-fail games of catch! Soft, hook & loop “bug balls” stick like magic to the entire surface of our cute froggy mitts—so it’s easy for kids to make a catch every time!

My kids LOVE being active outside and inside and are just starting to work on catching and throwing. My 4 year old daughter hasn't quite mastered the concept of catching and gets frustrated.

These froggy mitts are perfect for helping her learn and practice the hand-eye coordination and motor skills it takes to catch and helps her not get frustrated! Plus, the gloves and "bugs" are so cute! It really makes for a fun game!

They are super easy to slip on and use because they are double-sided! They even have a spot for the thumb so it gets children ready to wear a baseball glove. Plus, I really LOVE that they are machine-washable mitts so I can let the children use them outside and have fun!

The set includes 3 balls and 2 mitts and retails for $24.99 (3-5 yrs.)

The Butterfly Nursery

This fascinating nursery lets kids watch caterpillars grow, spin silk and form chrysalises, then emerge as butterflies!

As I mentioned, I homeschool my daughter for preschool right now and with spring here, there is nothing more fun than watching caterpillars become butterflies! I have always wanted to have a butterfly nursery and this one from Lakeshore Learning doesn't take up much space but is a great way to watch the life cycle of a butterfly!

This 19" nursery was super easy to set up and it lets children observe the butterfly life cycle from every angle—they can even decorate it with leaves and flowers!

We have to send a coupon in for the caterpillars and we did that right away. We should have them in a couple weeks. Meanwhile we set up our butterfly nursery and talked about caterpillars. My daughter loved helping me set up up the nursery and it literally took minutes to set up!

We can't wait to watch the life cycle of a butterfly and use this nursery for years to come to learn and have fun!

The nursery comes with all you need—including a stand for tabletop setup, feeding supplies, a coupon for 3-5 caterpillars! $39.99 (4-9 yrs.)

Buy It:

You can purchase these Spring educational toys and MANY MORE! from the Lakeshore Learning website or Lakeshore Learning retail store near you!

* Thank you to Lakeshore Learning for their product for review! Disclosure - This product was given for review for my honest opinion. No other compensation was given.*