Educational Toys & Family

Here’s a link to an interview on the Today Show with a baby reading.  It’s absolutely amazing.  A 17-month old child reading almost anything.  They tested her pretty good with cursive and a whole sentence.  Not sure if she understood everything she was reading, though.  Also found some great products that will teach you how to teach your baby to read.
Who knows, maybe your young one will start high school at 10 and be a regular doogie howser!

Also some fabulous baby sign language products available — dvd’s, flashcards, books and all kinds of fun stuff!

A friend of mine sent me a video showing this product.  Apparently they are very popular in Japan.  Who’d-a-thunk-it! I think it’s great!  Save a little water every time you flush! 

The idea is that you put the pipe for the sink into the intake for the tank so it uses clean water and then the used water from washing your hands fills the tank.  So instead of filling the tank directly, the water first goes out the faucet and you can wash your hands.

Seems like it might be a little cold, but certainly would reinforce good habits for the kids.  Also not sure if the toilet is always the cleanest place in the house to be hanging around, but I guess you could work on that.

Available online at sinkpositive.com

I can’t say how excited I was to find this.  We love to go out in the backyard and play ball, but after you’re tired of playing soccer for the 100th time, it’s nice to finally have something else that everyone can play.  Little kids so want to participate in everything (at least my 3 year old does) and here’s finally a game that everyone can play.  Don’t have to worry about kids not being able to catch or kick it.  The Yackle Ball is perfect!

One of the other mom’s at our playgroup also said that her developmentally delayed youngster can play ball.  It has been a struggle for her to find athletic type games for her special needs kids and the yackle ball is the answer.

I bought mine yackle ball online at NewHorizonToys.com and it only took a couple days to get here.  Very pleased.

Just took a cross-country flight to NYC (which is great to visit for a few days, but already I’m missing home!) I remember reading a while ago that Sir Richard Branson had an idea for his Virgin Air planes that would save fuel … the idea is that they wouldn’t start their engines until actually ready to take off.  A substantial amount of fuel is wasted in the taxi-ways and waiting to take off.  Seems like a good idea. 

His alternative energy competition is also a great idea.  Would love it if someone were able to come up with something innovative.  I’ve always thought that there would be some easy ideas that might start us down the path of reducing our reliance on fossil fuels.  Simply having the mail carrier vehicles and taxis switched to electric power would help.  Don’t know number of miles currently used, but those vehicles are used all day long (as opposed to most regular people’s vehicles that sit in driveways or parking lots most of the time) so would be a good opportunity.

Recently watched the movie “Who killed the electric car” and was astonished.  If you haven’t seen it yet, you should.  It totally floored me.  Can’t (well actually, can.) believe that industry & politicians got away with it.  Made me so mad I wanted to do something!  I guess this is where activism starts! 

We don’t have tons of snow on the ground, but that doesn’t stop the kids from getting in the winter time spirit!  Read a story about a boy who made snow in his backhard.  Pretty amazing feat for a 10 year old!  Just imagine what he’ll be making at 20!

If you’re looking to buy snow, there are two products I’ve found.  The first is Insta-Snow which fluffs into realistic snow.  The second one is Super Snow and it also expands, but it’s more slick and gelatin-y.  Both of them, just add a small amount of the powder to water and watch it grow!

If you’re feeling energetic, found a recipe to make some at home in a jar:

Time Required: 12 - 24 hours

1. Cut a pipe cleaner into 3 equal lengths. Arrange the pieces in a crisscross pattern — one vertical, and the other two forming an “X” on top.
   
2. Twist the pieces together in the middle to join them together and spread out the ends evenly. This is the base skeleton of your snowflake shape.
   
3. Tie string around the tip of one of the pipe cleaner spokes, then connect it to the next spoke.
   
4. Continue tying the string around the tip of each pipe cleaner spoke until you’ve gone all the way around, forming a hexagon shape.
   
5. Tie another length of string to the tip of one of the spokes (this will allow the snowflake to dangle in the solution in the jar.)
   
6. Fill a wide-mouth jar with boiling water.
   
7. Add Borax to the boiling water, one tablespoonful at a time. Use three tablespoonfuls per cup of water. Stir gently to dissolve.
   
8. Optional: add one or two drops of blue food coloring to give the snowflakes a bluish tint.
   
9. Slowly lower the pipe cleaner snowflake into the water, suspending it in the mixture. The solution must completely cover the snowflake. Tie the loose end of the string to a pencil across the top of the open end of the jar so that the snowflake can dangle.
   
10. Let the jar rest overnight. In the morning, shiny crystals will have formed on the pipe cleaners and string — an indoor snowflake!
    

What you need:

·        Borax is sold as 20 Mule Team Borax Laundry Booster in the laundry products section of the grocery store.

·         Blue food coloring (optional).  Food coloring can stain clothing and work surfaces; use with caution.

·         Wide mouth jar.  An empty mayonnaise jar works well with this project.

·         String (we used cotton string)

·         White pipe cleaner (18″) cut into 3 equal pieces.

·         Boiling water to completely cover snowflake frame.

The long awaited day finally arrived.  The date of the birthday party!  About six months ago my daughter decided she wanted to have a Sea Monkey birthday party.  As a good parent, I did as my 6 year old commanded and acquired her sea monkeys.   we were fortunate to get a complete birthday party pack so everything was all ready to go.  The guests arrived, we did some crafts, ate some pizza, and then started on the path of hatching some new friends.

After opening the bottled water and adding water purifier, the guests had a hard time waiting.  We sent them home with clear instructions 24 hours then add the eggs.  The anticipation was palpable.  Six-year-olds have a hard time waiting for dinner so imagine waiting 24 hours.  Then they hatched!

My sea monkey Princess had been crowned!