Toy Review: Educational Insights- The Sea Squad™ Puppet-on-a-Stick™ #HolidayGiftGuide2013

Meet The Sea Squad: Flipper the anglerfish, Dipper the octopus, Chomper the shark, and Bob the clam. Their googly eyes, vivid colors, and hilarious expressions will inspire all sorts of creative play in an instant. Children will flip over these silly creatures from the sea as they dive into worlds of dramatic play, while developing communication skills and practicing real and imaginary dialogue!

Pretend play and puppet shows become a splash with these comical marine friends and story time is transformed into an adventure. Our kid-approved, patent-pending design marries an easy-glide child-sized thumb lever and a chunky, secondary knob, giving kids (and adults who need a good giggle) two ways to articulate each puppet’s mouth.

Built to last through many childhoods, each puppet’s soft-touch molded body reinforce our hallmark Educational Insights quality standard. Take a swim with The Sea Squad! Grades Pre-K+ -

• Go fishing for fun; Meet Flipper, Dipper, Chomper and Bob

Aidan and Adisyn had nearly jumped out of their skin with excitement when they seen the box for the The Sea Squad™ Puppet-on-a-Stick. They fidgeted and bugged me until I opened the box and gave them their sea creature stick puppets.

The box comes with 4 stick puppets; 1 clam, 1 shark, 1 octopus, and 1 angler fish. They have an easy-glide thumb lever that fits perfectly to child sized fingers. They are very easy to push down and don’t require much hand strength.

They also have a chunky, secondary knob that gives the kid a second way to operate the puppets mouth. These puppets have already seen tons of play time in this house. The kids have re-named the puppets and create little stories and plays for them to star in.

These puppets are perfect for numerous things; story time, plays, imaginative play, etc. They are made of extremely durable plastic and bigger than I imagined they would be, which I love. They’ve already been through drops, being accidentally run over by Aidan’s scooter, and much more and are still going strong!

They are brightly colored and definitely attract and keep the attention of kids. Even my ten year old stepson Alex couldn’t resist joining in on the fun when he came for the weekend. They played well over an hour just the first night that Alex was here.

I love the fact that they aren’t only growing their imagination but learning as well. These would be perfect for any Pre-K or Kindergarten classroom. They would make an awesome addition to any Under the Sea lessons.

I am definitely thinking about buying a box for Adisyn’s class. They have different “learning” weeks. One week will be Zoo week where they learn about the animals that are in the zoo, one week is firefighter week where they learn about firefighters and their jobs. I would definitely like to see an Under the Sea week, how cool would that be.

This would make an awesome present for any kid or teacher! Get yours!

The Sea Squad™ Puppet-on-a-Stick $39.99

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Jessica Renee

Toy Review: Educational Insights GeoSafari® Jr. Animal Eye Viewers #HolidayGiftGuide2013

Take a walk on the wild side—backwards! Slip on your Shark Eye Viewer and use the rear-view mirrors to get around, but look out for your blind spot—sharks can’t see directly in front of themselves. Choose from three different Animal Eye Viewers and lots of animal adaptations and get a whole different view of the world. Grades Pre-K+

Do you see what they see? See the world through an animal’s eyes with this set of three amazing Animal Eye Viewers. Try the insect viewer—the pixelated views create dozens of mini-images. The shark viewer provides a 360° view complete with rearview mirrors, central blind spot, and ocean-blue tint. Or, try to keep your focus with two independently rotating eyeballs in the chameleon viewer.

Aidan and Adisyn were excited to open their box of GeoSafari® Jr. Animal Eye Viewers. They come with 3 animal “eyes” inside the box. The chameleon, shark, and insect. They play with them all the time, for long periods of time pretending to be the animals. It’s cute.

I love the fact that these not only inspire their imaginations, but they are educational as well. They loved seeing the world through the eyes of the different animals. After we got them we looked up and printed off information about each “animal”.

I think these toys would be an amazing addition to any classroom as well as any kids toy collection. My daughter loved the insect viewer the best because it shows the world like a Kaleidoscope- with tons of whatever you’re looking at coming in to view.

My son loved the shark. We had no idea before getting these that a shark had blind spots. The chameleon eyes are just crazy. They rotate and it’s hard to look at anything straight, lol. Educational Insights did an amazing job of recreating these animals “eyes” for us to see and learn about!

This would make an amazing gift for kids as well as teachers!

Get Yours! GeoSafari® Jr. Animal Eye Viewers $27.99

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Jessica Renee

Toy Review: WonderMind Educational Kits for Toddlers & Kids

Teaching kids to tell time can be a very daunting task, however it is necessary. They need to know their schedules, especially when they start school. Aidan started Kindergarten this year, and has been fascinated with telling time all year. Adisyn is 4- and follows and learns from him.

Aidan knows and can read his  numbers on a digital clock—which is what most of them are in our home. Phones, computer, microwave, and alarm clocks. However, non-digital clocks are a totally different story.

WonderMind is a complete five-piece interactive learning system designed to work together to help preschoolers and kindergartens learn how to tell time.

Included are 5-pieces; Wonder and Discover Theater DVD, Wonder and Discovery Picture Book, Discovery Workbook, Tick-Tocks Talking Toy Clock and a parenting guide.

You start out with the 20 minute DVD, which includes 10 different elements such as grammar, counting, time, and more. The chapters are short, so the kids really enjoyed them and stayed entertained with the  interactive telling time activities.

The picture book has chapters that center on what they had just watched in the DVD. They are very informational stories with big, bright, colorful pictures that show what the story is talking about.

Aidan and Adisyn really enjoyed looking at the “What’s in the Oven” part of the book. It shows about baking bread and how certain foods are made from other foods. Such as Pizza Crust and Spaghetti are both made from flour… It amazed them!

Then there’s the workbook. It shows how to use tick-tock, which is the interactive talking clock that comes with it. Then it goes into “story-time” where they visit tick-tocks house.

Before getting Wondermind, Aidan didn’t know how to tell time. Now he can tell you which is the long hand, the short hand, and most of the time tell me what time it is. He still has problems after 30 (such as 12:31) because he can only count to 30. BUT we have made some serious progress!!

Aidan and Adisyn both loved playing with the clock and learning the different parts of a clock. It has certainly made telling time more fun for them. Very interactive which holds their attention for a longer period of time.

The two colored clock hands made it so much easier for  my children to understand “long and short” hands and the clock even comes with a timer and quiz button.

The workbook helps along with the clock, not only to tell time but other certain things they may need to know. It helps to show them the right way to hold a pencil, whether they are right or left handed and how to write with it.

It helps that the workbook comes with reward stickers (YAY) and the timer on the clock can be set from 3 minutes to 15 minutes. Kids have very short attention spans and when you try to make them sit for a long time period learning something—they aren’t going to retain that information for very long.

This helps them grasp “time management”.. so they know we work on the book for 10 minutes a day, almost every day. That way they can actually tell how long 10 minutes is!

At only $29.99 plus a 30-day money back guarantee it is affordable and comes with a ton of activities to help children learn the importance of telling time!

For more information on the kit we reviewed or the toddler kit visit www.wondermindkids.com

 

Jessica Renee

Review: Kleenslate Dry Erase Paddles Makes Learning FUN!

My son Aidan started Kindergarten this year. When he began in August, he was having problems with his Alphabet and Numbers.He knew some of them, but he didn’t know ALL of them and couldn’t write them in order. I was on the lookout for something that would help not only him but ME (to teach him) as well.

I needed to make learning FUN for him, so that he would pay attention for a longer period of time. We were using a ton of paper, and I was also looking for a way to cut the slack on that.

Kleenslate was perfect for both! It made learning more fun and interactive for him, and it saves on paper. OF course my 4 year old daughter wanted to get in on the writing action too (she loves to write and draw).

I could sit down with both of them and write the letters in a dotted like manner with a lighter color marker and then have them trace it with a darker color of their choice.

I loved how quickly I seen improvement in his ability to write and know letters and numbers. Within a short amount of time he knew all his alphabet and even the letter sounds. He was SO proud when he brought home awards for both (AND toys from the prizebox!).

It really helped that on one side is a dotted line (Just like the Kindergarten paper in school), and on the other side was just blank. SO- I could write an uppercase letter on one line and the lowercase on the next. He loved it because he could just erase it (with the dry eraser on the tip of the marker) if he messed up. Quick and easy for him, and a delight for me because he didn’t get frustrated if he messed up.

I loved how innovative they are. They come in many different colors (and have many color markers to use as well). The markers are very high quality, which is definitely needed when working with small kids. They tend to push hard on the market therefore causing the tip to push in. These have stood up to the test of time with 2 small kids!

• Double-sided. Not all dry erase boards are double-sided. But I like that the Kleen Slate paddles feature two sides. It gives me more options without having more boards.
• Custom surface options. This is my absolute favorite feature! I have never seen it on another dry erase product. Kleen Slate features peel-n-stick dry erase replacement surfaces. This means I can just replace the surface rather than buy a brand new board! I can also change the type of surface! They have blank, handwriting lines, graph paper, music lines, and even Venn diagrams!
• Attachable markers. If you  have kids you know how easily things are lost. This is true in the classroom too! I love that the Kleen Slate paddles have a place to store the marker right on the paddle.
• Kid Friendly Dry Erase Markers. The Kleen Slate markers are non-toxic and have an eraser cap! They are also low odor and the points don’t push in. They are absolutely perfect for the classroom and come in a rainbow of colors!

You can learn more about Kleen Slate products by visiting them on Facebook and following on Twitter @KleenSlate01!

Buy It: You can Buy 2 Kleenslate rectangle paddles for $15.99

 

Jessica Renee