In my house the day after Thanksgiving is filled with pilfering the leftovers of last nights dinner and cat naps as we try to sleep off the effects of too much turkey but in a lot of families the day after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday Madness. As my family stays indoors and safely away from retail chains and supermarkets, there are a lot of families who take these stores by storm in the hopes to get their hands on the latest goods at awesome prices; Black Friday just one of many events during the holidays that goes a long way in helping you complete those mile long Christmas gift lists you've managed to wrack up over the course of the year. Thankfully for me, I've been fortunate enough to be able to work with a string of great companies that have offered me the opportunity to review their stellar products so instead of braving the Black Friday mobs, I'm able to stay in front of my computer and let my readers know about the latest and greatest gifts they can buy from the … [Read more...]

If you're like me and have small children in your home then you know how important it is as a parent to supply your little ones with toys that are fun as well as educational. In a world where game consoles, tablets, phones and other technological gadgets run the show, it can be hard to find educational toys for kids that actually do more good than harm to our little ones educational development. As a mom who is constantly looking for new ways to challenge my little ones, I was thrilled to stumble across Puzzlets by Digital Dream Labs. Puzzlets put fun and learning hand-in-hand with gameplay that leads kids to think in new ways. We all learn from the games we play so taking this knowledge and pairing it with the STEAM technology, the folks behind Puzzlets have created a new way of learning for kids that is educational as well as fun. Short for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics, the STEAM program aims to teach its students to think critically (science and math) … [Read more...]

In our home we take everything as a potential learning experience. For example, both my daughter and I are avid animal lovers and as such I've made it my mission to both learn and teach my daughter as much as I can about each animal she decides is her new favorite. One day it could be the Bengal Tiger and the next it could be the Bottlenose  Dolphin; regardless of the species, there's always an effort to educate both myself and my daughter about the facts that make each animal unique. From feeding habits to hunting techniques to unique bone structures and survival instincts, there's always something new to uncover, which is why I've always been such a fan of National Geographic. Whether your area of interest is in nature itself, animals (like my daughter and I) or even Geography, National Geographic has made it their mission to be an open portal for a limitless amount of knowledge. My family loves the National Geographic channel on TV and can watch it, day or night, … [Read more...]

It seems like with every passing year it gets harder and harder to compete with all the latest and greatest gifts that are introduced in our retail flyers and the ever famous big book of toys. Each year when they arrive on my doorstep with our Sunday paper I find myself cringing because they're the first thing everybody grabs when the paper is brought inside (and I know that the Christmas lists that are already a foot long) is the ads that scream to be thoroughly looked through. Much to my chagrin, as I look through the ads myself after everyone else has finished, the toys and gadgets seem to have skyrocketed in price since last years ads; I can already hear my bank account groaning just looking at everything...am I alone? As a blogger I'm often given the opportunities to work with big brands like Spin Master and thankfully review a lot of products that not only help bring them more exposure but that also can be put towards gifts for birthdays and holidays and we donate a lot of … [Read more...]

As a child and even well into my adult years, I've been an avid history lover. Learning about those who have come before, what they've accomplished and how they changed history has simply fascinated me. Some of my favorite time periods include the Golden Age, the Renaissance and the Progressive Era. These days, I'm trying to pass along my love of history to my own daughter; I can't get enough of revisiting some of my favorite periods and history and helping her to discover some of her own.  It's been my personal experience, both in my own learning journey as well as my daughters, that any subject you learn and how easily you learn it, depend 70% on the teacher and their materials. When I was offered the opportunity to work with the minds behind the Invicta Challenge, I knew it was the perfect opportunity to use their materials to engage my daughter in history in a innovative and fun way. The mission of the Invicta Challenge is to encourage reading, teach history and foster … [Read more...]

When I was growing up there was a stigma floating around about how boys could only play with action figures and girls could only play with dollies. As a little girl I was the one out of my friends to wonder why it was my lot in life to only be able to play with certain toys and why I couldn't do the things the boys were doing; I simply couldn't understand or accept that that was just the way things were at the time. I did everything in my power to break the mold I had been placed in by those who came before me. I played in the mud, played with action figures and partook in games of cops and robbers. To this day I still believe that children are wrongly limited when it comes to what they can and can't do or what they can or can't play with but do my best as a parent to raise children that don't limit themselves to that train of thought and who believe they can do anything they set their mind to. When Miss Sarah was 2, we hit Target. I was shocked to see a "boy aisle" and "girl … [Read more...]