Baby PInkie Pie is up from her nap and ready for some adventure. Snap her into her car seat and start the pink-hearted purple wheels rolling. Mom can’t leave without her coffee mug and brush, while a grocery bag and snack box provide story starters for the day. Girls went shopping, had a snack, planned a picnic and touched up their hair, when playing with this gang. If you want to add some punch to your pretend play, turn over the hollow grocery bag and snack box accessories and pack some Play-doh treats. We made sandwiches, apples and juice. The easy snap-on accessories provide flexibility in story telling as Mom and Pinkie Pie experience their day. What mom wouldn’t like four appendages to carry her equipment for a day out with her baby?
“My Little Pony Convertible” is part of the brand’s introduction of family play, featuring the adorable ponies accompanied by their loving mothers and siblings. Moms often ask me what toys offer families of animals for pretend play, since their child isn’t as interested in the miniature people. Now we have families of fun in ponyville.
Take note that your preschooler might need a stronger helper to snap baby in her carseat and into the car.
Sherry Artemenko, MA-CCC, is a speech-languge pathologist with more than 35 years experience and founder of Playonwords.com. The opinions expressed in this review are solely those of the author. “My LIttle Pony Convertible” was provided for review by Playskool.
Tags: uip
Who let the Cat in the Hat back in the house? This sojourner of silliness has arrived to play a game guaranteed for fun and learning. Flip over a red, blue and yellow card to get your instructions for wacky maneuvers like, “Slide under the Trick-a-ma-stick with a fish under your chin!” Or, “Take four giant steps with the cake between your elbows!” Learn colors, numbers, prepositions, counting in order, problem-solving and following directions to complete your challenge. Announce if you think, “I can do that,” or toss back your cards and get an activity you feel confident to complete. Step, spin, crawl, walk, or tip-toe to success.
Inspired by the book and using game pieces from the story, “The Cat in the Hat-I Can Do That!” challenges kids while getting them moving, laughing at themselves, encouraging others to succeed, and playing independently. Every funny step involves learning–even putting the three instruction cards together is a mini-puzzle that has to be right for the directions to make sense.
Sherry Artemenko, MA-CCC, is a speech-languge pathologist with more than 35 years experience and founder of Playonwords.com. The opinions expressed in this review are solely those of the author. “The Cat In the Hat, I Can Do That” was provided for review by I Can Do That Games. For more information about this product, please visit www.icangothatgames.com.
After family laughs, snuggles and kisses, going to bed alone in the dark is a little scary. Reading God is With Me Through the Night, arms your little one with spiritual principles in the face of fear.
Pairing a simple sentence, “I start to feel afraid,” with animals illustrating the same emotion–a little dog looking forlorn in the dark–each page builds on the reassuring spiritual truth, God is always with me, “Just like when God kept Daniel safe from the lions.”
Encouraging your child to declare God’s comfort and assurance, the animals insist, “I say out loud, ‘I am loved!’ or “I roar like a tiger, ‘I am safe!’” Just enough language for a toddler or preschooler to master, each short statement comforts a child, reinforced by a Bible verse, “Do not fear for I am with you. Isaiah 41:10
What to do:
Toddlers:
- Name the animals and the sounds they make, describe their actions and feelings–snuggling lions, nuzzling seals.
- Relate to God’s creation.
- Repeat the comforting phrases: “I am loved,” “I am safe!” “God is with me through the night!” so your child can remember them.
Preschoolers and early elementary ages:
- Describe the pictures using rich vocabulary.
- Relate the pictured activities to your child–we played in the snow like the polar bears, our family likes to cuddle too.
- Relate the emotions to your child–When do you feel afraid? What noises are scary? What do you do when you are scared? Model sharing by expressing when you as a parent are scrared and how you rely on God to protect and comfort you. Do you sing a song or repeat a verse?
- Have fun shouting out the comforting phrases: “I am not afraid” and “I am safe.”
- Encourage emerging literacy skills–point out the words of the short phrases as you say them, “I am loved.” and “God” that is differentiated in bold color.
- Memorize the Bible verse together.
Having raised my kids on Richard Scarry books, searching for Lowly the Worm, I am excited to see a new generation of children examining his delightful drawings, learning about communities of fun. “Richard Scarry’s Busytown Eye Found it! Game” is a winner in innovative, entertaining, language learning games. Unfold the six foot game board and race through the bustling town, busy airport, industrious construction site, and working farm, to board the ferry for Picnic Island to grab your lunch before Pig Will and Pig Won’t eat it. Spin a Goldberg Mystery Card and start the timer as all players work together to spot the most objects on the game board of the kind pictured on the card—construction cones, garbage cans, shovels, kites, or bicycles. Kids love to place their magnifying glass tokens on the objects when found, rewarded with a bonus move. Can you see why I hear squeals of delight when a bug card is spun?
This team game models collaboration, encouragement, patience and the satisfaction of “winning” together. Scarry’s detailed drawings teach the language of concepts, categories, association, and storytelling as little ones learn what objects, people and actions go together to build narratives. Where would we find shovels? Look in the construction site. Where would we search for letters? Check the town post office or neighborhood mailbox. What about garbage cans? Everywhere! Enjoy this game for a balance of talents and fun for kids and adults alike.
Richard Scarry’s Busytown Eye Found It! Game
Recommended age: 3 years and up
Pull out this puppet show in a box when the kids come over to play and watch it spark their imaginations. Mom or Dad can easily assemble the cloth, hanging theater to suspend in the doorway as kids make puppets, part the curtains and start the story telling. Before the show starts, kids create their own puppet characters with six fuzzy bodies and thirty stick-on ears, faces, tails, noses or outfits. Go traditional in making a prince, princess, lion, puppy, or dragon or combine the features to make an original character. As the story develops, kids can re-figure the puppets, ripping off the reusable features and attaching them to create new characters. Moms were amazed at how well the features stuck on the puppets during active play. My three-year-old puppeteers enjoyed presenting a show and then chased each other with puppets in hand. Language learning begins with selecting a character while devising and assembling the puppets, continues during the creation of the story and dialogue, and extends through open-ended play with flexible props to expand plot possibilities. Take a seat and let your children learn language through play.
International Playthings Playdate Central Puppet Show
Recommended ages 3-6
Assemble your tic-tac-toe grid and off you go with a chance to place three of your gobblers in a row to win. With each turn, players can add a new gobbler to the board or move one that is already in place. Two options–to find an empty space or “gobble up” an existing smaller piece–make this game a multi-leveled game of strategy and memory. Go ahead and move your piece already on the board but don’t forget who was under him, because the littler guy will be left behind in that space and might set up a play for your opponent. Requiring visual-spacial memory and the ability to weigh different strategic options and outcomes, “Gobblet Gobblers” stretches young minds and gets them giggling as they surprise even themselves as opportunities open up to win!
Age: 5 and up
Chicks have come to roost on their favorite perch, performing a balancing act on thick bales of hay and slim wagon wheels. Plump Mom and baby chickys peer out their adorable eyes, beckoning players to take turns, skillfully plucking pieces off the teetering perch without toppling the brood. Players remove birds and their accessories, hoping to keep the remaining pieces in place. Each piece has its own point value from one to three, so after the perch is dumped, collect your pieces, add up your score and declare the winner.
A game of fine motor skill and balance, “ChickyBoom” requires slow, precise movements so as not to disturb the roosting chicks. Strategy comes into play as risk takers remove a piece of higher value that might start the gang wobbling but adds value to their winnings. Get some math practice as you add up the numbers on your pieces to reach the highest score and win the game.
Pop in this new innovative DVD, “The Transporters” and get ready to enter a land of toy trains, cable cars, buses, ferries and other mechanical characters donning human faces, designed to teach children with autism to recognize and name emotions.
Since children with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorders) tend to like mechanical objects with highly predictable movement rather than faces that are constantly changing, this DVD combines both in a delightful, kid-paced series of episodes featuring eight expressive faced characters from dependable William, the Chain Ferry and Jennie the Tram who can be a bit boastful, to youthful, happy Sally, the Cable Car. Providing a comfortable context to learn a challenging concept, “The Transporters” teaches children with ASD to recognize and name emotions in different situations and on different faces.
When the little boy, Jamie, leaves for school, his toys come alive and transport the viewer to an engaging world of adventure, reactions and problem solving. The fifteen episodes graduate in theme from simpler to more complex emotions to recognize–from happy, sad and angry to proud, jealous, joking and ashamed–with quizzes following the stories to check understanding.
As I viewed the episodes, I was impressed with the care that the researchers and developers took to select words and situations that named and reinforced emotions through clear, short sentences, exercising flexibility of language. Sally’s “happy” was linked with enjoy, love, laugh, friends, favorite thing to do, get there on time, good working order, helping friends, thank, and great friends. Varied phrases described the episode that capture the resulting emotion, teaching children language in many contexts. Nigel however was “angry” linked to stop shouting, didn’t say thank you, take more time, stuck behind, and forced to go slowly. Using the vocabulary associated with situations linked to an emotion and matching it with a closeup of the facial expression is an effective teaching tool for children with ASD. Emotions are taught within social situations, with resulting reactions explained and named by the narrator.
Backed by research, “The Transporters” has been found to be effective in teaching emotions to children with autism who viewed the DVD for just 15 minutes a day over a month period. They were able to identify and generalize what they learned. A parent whose child with autism viewed the episodes said, “My 4 year-old son, on the spectrum loved these videos from the first time he saw them. He has recognized and pointed out my facial expressions for the first time and more readily recognizes expressions in books.” An added value is that his 6 year-old typically developing brother loved them too!
Developed in the UK, “The Transporters” uses some vocabulary such as “funicular railway” for elevated train and “tram” for train which is less familiar to those of us on the other side of the Atlantic, but doesn’t detract from the learning accomplished through these episodes.
25% of the profits go to further research and autism charities. This is a win-win deal. Help your child cue into social situations by accurately reading faces and contribute to further research to help us help kids.
Appropriate for 4-8 year olds
Through simple blotches of color, author-illustrator Kathryn Otoshi creates a gang of personalities cleverly tied to their hues–quiet Blue, outgoing Orange, bright Green, outgoing Purple and hot-head Red. Don’t be thrown off my the apparent simplicity of her drawings and storyline. This book is a winner, rich in language, metaphors, concepts and life lessons.
Blue is content with himself until Red comes along, announcing, “Red is hot, Blue is not.” Blue flattens into a puddle of color, feeling diminished by this bully. His friends rally around to comfort Blue, but can’t seem to step up to Red and tell her to STOP! Undaunted, Red’s blob gets bigger and bigger, picking on the whole gang as they flatten, feeling “a little blue.” The number “1″ comes to their rescue and stands up to Red, refusing to back down, demonstrating the courage to face a bully. His bravery was contagious as each color declared their intent to stand up to Red, and became a tinted number. Each colored number wanted to count against Red, who started to diminish as his bravado was challenged. In a final twist of kindness, the gang called out to Red and invited him to “count” too, coming full circle into a heartwarming tale of inclusion.
This clever book can entertain and teach at many levels and ages. To the young preschooler, the story line reinforces colors and numbers, while to the older child, it launches a discussion of intimidation, resolving problems, and inclusion. Recognizing metaphors, discussing the use of size and shapes to represent concepts (sad, defeated, bossy, etc,) and relating the story to a child’s experience are recognized using this story to start the discussion.
Born with eyes that look opposite ways, Jenny Sue is out of the ordinary, but thank heavens for her mom who loves her child and turns different into “creative!” Exploring the difficulties of a disability–kids laughing, calling names, and pointing, getting into trouble and enduring doctor’s appointments–first time author Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw adds a clever spin to the dilemma of living with misaligned eyes called “strabismus.”
Her travelin’ eye takes her to new places, navigating through adventures of numbers and colors. Think of what elements she would miss, had she not had a travelin’ eye to remind her to “smell the flowers, kiss the butterflies, and read the clouds.” With much apprehension, Jenny Sue visits the opthamologist, Dr.Dave, who declares her eye lazy and in need of waking up! He sent her home with big, thick glasses and a patch to cover her strong eye so the lazy one would strengthen. The author-illustrator takes us on a visual tour of what it is like to see through one weak eye. Floating letters on the blackboard set against blurry backgrounds make navigating Jenny Sue’s world challenging. After this brave little girl confides in her mom about her dilemma, her creative mom gets busy making “fashion patches,” a new one for each day. Debuted to a classroom of peers, the patches are a hit. No sooner has she become a “patch” star, then Jenny Sue gets the news that her lazy eye has woken up. No need for patches, now she just sports one-of-a-kind glasses.
The real Jenny Sue, author and illustrator Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw, has written this endearing autobiographical story from a child’s perspective. Maybe that is why she doesn’t miss a step–what it feels and looks like to have a disability, how people react, what the steps are to get help from the doctor, and how to cleverly face being different to become included. Her punchy illustrations in collage bring a cheerful element to a challenging situation.
I highly recommend this book for parents, teachers and therapists to talk about being different, feelings, reactions, and including others. Use the story to encourage text to self and text to life comparisons. Have you ever been made fun of or been called a name because of being different? How did it feel? How should we treat kids that are different? Were you ever afraid to go to the doctor? How can we celebrate differences? Whenever you talk about the book in addition to reading it, you are building a child’s language skills as well as social skills as you model talking through situations for positive, creative solutions.
