Category Archives: Age 5-7

Bright and Beyond Idea Cards

Age 0-1 year, Age 1-3, Age 3-5, Age 5-7, Announcements & Stationary, Fun stuff for parents

BrightandbeyondThese are the best idea since Goldfish.. the snack kids love! 

Like a lot of parents, I sometimes feel like I’m not interacting enough with Madelyn (18 months).   I just don’t know what to do.  I can only sit on the floor and make ‘oink oink’ sounds so long before I get bored.  Bright and Beyond Idea Cards have helped me come up with things to do with Madelyn and I referred to them at least two or three times a day for the last week.
One of my favorite idea cards is the masking tape card. This card explains how we can use masking tape on our floor to make fences and race tracks and even inspired me to make a masking tape computer on our kitchen floor! That was fun. 

These idea cards make learning fun and interactive for kids of all ages. Bright and Beyond Idea Cards are sold in decks for age ranges 0 to 9 with age appropriate activities and challenges in each deck.

WEBSITE: Bright and Beyond

JumpStart World

Age 5-7, ,

JumpstartFive years ago I bought my then 3 year old his first JumpStart computer game. I remember thinking the game was so great because Sebastian didn’t have to know how to use the keyboard buttons or the mouse in order to play the game. He could press any button on the keyboard to play that particular game. From then on, JumpStart was the brand I went to first when shopping for computer games because I knew that JumpStart really cared and thought about what toddlers and older kids want and need in a computer game. 

Now, five years later, Sebastian has gone through several JumpStart games and has enjoyed all of them.  You know how kids have short attention spans right?  Sebastian will sit down and play his JumpStart computer games for about 30 minutes when he usually pays attention to a game for about 10 minutes max.

Sebastian’s (8 years old) comments on JumpStart World 1st Grade:

  • Sebastian ‘really likes that he can use the keyboard arrow keys to move around the town and elsewhere’.
  • ‘Mom, I get to be a real newspaper reporter!’.. That’s what Sebastian said to me the first time he played JumpStart World 1st Grade.  He was so excited about the newspaper ‘game’ and that the interface looked like a real newspaper. He felt so cool!
  • Sebastian earns ‘gems’ for each game or unit that he completes successfully. He likes to check his gem count!

JumpStart World games come with two Adventure Packs and parents can subscribe to updates so as soon as your child completes an Adventure, or at least once each
month, a new Adventure Pack will automatically download to your
computer and your credit card will automatically be charged.

JumpStart World games are available for grades K through 2nd. Parents can buy the CD version or the downloadable version from the website.

WEBSITE: JumpStart

SquidSoap

Age 3-5, Age 5-7, Age 7-10, Ages 10-13, Cleaning & Cleaners, Fun stuff for parents, , , ,

"Awww… you made me ink!"  That is one of my favorite lines from Finding Nemo.  Did you know that your kids can have fun with ink?  No, not the kind in a pen but the SquidSoap kind which is actually vegetable dye.

          SquidSoap by Airborne® is designed to teach and
train proper hand-washing technique to children. It’s the only
liquid-soap dispenser with a specially designed pump that stamps a
child’s hand with vegetable dye. It takes about 20 seconds of thorough
hand washing to remove the ink mark, leaving the child with clean
hands. So it literally takes the guesswork out of whether or not your
kids have washed their hands thoroughly. It’s easy, fun and effective.

I have to admit that Sebastian, 8 years old, was a little bummed that he had to put ‘ink’ on his hands at first.  However, after using SquidSoap a couple of times he thought it was cool. Eight year old boys just don’t have the time to stand around washing their hands.. silly me.   Now I simply require that the kids wash their hands in the kitchen where I can see them use vegetable dye on the top of the SquidSoap dispenser and then check to see that the dye is gone when they have finished washing their hands.

This is a great product. One that every parent should have in their home.

WEBSITE: SquidSoap

Table Topics – a conversation starter and more

Age 5-7, Age 7-10, Ages 10-13, Educational Toys, Fun stuff for parents

TabletopicsWe all know how important it is that the whole family eat dinner together every night, but do we always
have something to talk about?  When I ask Sebastian what he did at school today, he says "not much". "Did you learn anything?", I ask.  "not really", he says. When he wants to talk, he’ll talk until we ask him to please stop. He can talk your ear off.  When he doesn’t want to talk though, it’s a different story. Dinner time is one of those times when it’s hard to get him to talk to us.

Now that we’ve got Table Topics Sebastian enjoys dinner time. He knows that he can tell us stories, and ideas, and give us answers to all sorts of questions like "what would you do if you were invisible for a day?" and we won’t tell him to stop talking. We do however, put a time limit on his answers as he tends to go on and on and on if we don’t.

Table Topics take up minimal space on your table and come in a clear, attractive container that will match any room decor. 

There are currently seven Table Topics themes including family, girls night out, teens, couples, and more.  I have found that the dinner table isn’t the only time to whip out the Table Topics cards. When Sebastian can’t seem to find anything to do except watch TV, I choose a Kids Topics To Go card with a question that would spark his interest and ask him to turn his answer into a story. He really enjoys writing stories and the Kids Topics To Go is a great starting point.

Times to use Table Topics and Topics To Go:

  • Dinner time
  • When kids are bored they can’t write a story based on a Kids To Go question
  • While traveling
  • At a restaurant
  • Slumber parties
  • Playgroup (for the moms)
  • There are many more times and places to use Table Topics and Topics To Go

Get your kids talking again with Table Topics!

WEBSITE: Table Topics

Cupcake pettiskirt

Age 0-1 year, Age 1-3, Age 3-5, Age 5-7, Age 7-10, Baby & Kids Clothing, , ,

Hoenshelcouture_skirt1 Madelyn LOVES her pettiskirt from Hoenshel Couture. Watching her walk around the house in her pettiskirt is the cutest thing.  I thought she might be bothered by all the fluff, but she loves it. She smiles so big when she runs her hands through her pettiskirt and spins around to see the ruffles go up and down.

The Cupcake pettiskirt is made of 50 yards of super soft fluff.  Think cloud..you know when your on an airplane and you fly through a cloud?  The pettiskirt fabric doesn’t irritate Madelyn’s sensitive baby skin,or snag on everything she walks by like some fabrics we’ve had experience with.

I can totally see Madelyn wearing her pettiskirt at Sebastian’s baseball game practice! How cute would that be?  This gorgeous petticoat ruffle skirt would work great for costume, photo portrait prop, birthdays, special event, pageant wear, sports wear or casual wear, or dress-up.

Your princess deserves her own pettiskirt from Hoenshel Couture.  Sizes range from newborn all the way up to size 10.  If only I could get away with wearing one of these!

If you aren’t thrilled about the colors of this pettiskirt, Jamie will work with you to design a custom 50 yard pettiskirt that has the colors that you or your child prefer.  I am really enjoying the Cupcake style because there are so many colors in it.. Madelyn can wear her pettiskirt with just about any color baby tee and she has lots of baby leggings that top of the look!

After Madelyn wore her pettiskirt in the yard last week, naturally it got a few specs of dirt on it and I freaked. Much to my surprise, it’s maching washable.  That’s the icing on top of the cupcake!!  Ha ha!

Icons_coupon_2 Mommy Insider readers get 10% off! Use code ‘Insider’.

Icons_website            Hoenshel Couture

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