Guidecraft Educator Review #7 ~ Flower Match Garden Patch & Animal Train Sort and Match

by Carrie Wells, Ed.D. 
This month, the Guidecraft Educators are reviewing some great manipulatives for preschool-age children: Flower Match Garden Patch and Animal Train Sort and Match.

           

To use these sets, you place a magnetic board vertically in a slot in the wooden box. Then, you choose a card to copy by placing small plastic pieces on the board. The great thing about these sets (as with many of the Guidecraft toys) is that you can follow the directions OR be creative. Lydia is now 2 1/2 years old. I tried to demonstrate how to follow the picture card to make identical flowers, but this was pretty challenging for her to complete independently. Instead, I allowed her to play freely and make her own rules. Lydia loved combining different pieces to make all different types of flowers.

Lydia creating her own flowers.

Here are some other ways these sets can be used:

~Sort the different pieces by color in color-coded bowls.

~Sort the pieces by shape.

~Use the pieces as stencils to trace your own flowers or animals. 

~Lay the pieces directly on top of the cards on a flat surface (instead of creating them vertically on the peg board). 

~Place the pieces under paper and do crayon rubbings. 

Both of these sets would be great for children with fine motor delays or for occupational therapists to work with their clients on visual performance and object manipulation. They would also be great in a manipulative center in a preschool or kindergarten classroom.

BUY IT! You can purchase the Flower Match Garden Patch (RV $40) & Animal Train Sort and Match (RV $45).

WIN IT! What's great about this Guidecraft Educator group is that each month, one of us will be hosting a giveaway of the product that we have all reviewed. Visit Mommy Moment for a chance to win a Flower Match Garden Patch & Animal Train Sort and Match for a special child in your life. This contest is open to the US and Canada. 

* I received the aforementioned product for free to review. The opinions expressed are honest and provided without monetary compensation.

Gallery Direct Review #2 & Special Offer for You!

The wonderful team at Gallery Direct invited me to be a part of their ambassador program ~ I was very flattered and definitely interested! They are currently offering a great special ~ get 75% off beautiful wrap-around canvas prints through 2/1/2012 with coupon code: photo75. I submitted this photo of me and Bryce. I think the contrast between the white and the bold colors will look beautiful printed on canvas.

Monday, January 9th at 10 PM est, @GalleryDirect is hosting a twitter party, using hashtag #GalleryDirect. Six lucky winners will win a free photo canvas print valued up to $200. For more information, visit Thrifty & Chic Mom.

To learn more about Gallery Direct, you can visit their website, "like" them on Facebook, or follow on twitter.

Follow-up: Here is my beautiful canvas print, which now hangs above our sofa in the family room. I absolutely love it! The colors are so bold, yet the print itself has a nice softness to it. I received the "medium" print, which is a great size for a featured piece of artwork. This really makes a beautiful gift -- and with such wonderful customer service and speedy delivery, you can submit a picture and receive your print in the mail within 10 days.

* I received the aforementioned product for free to review. The opinions expressed are honest and provided without monetary compensation.

Guidecraft Educator Review #6 ~ Multi Match Sensory Discs & Balance Base

Happy New Year! What a great way to start the year - with a review of some awesome Guidecraft products. This month's products are Multi Match Sensory Discs & Balance Base.

I gave Lydia (age 2) the box of Multi Match Sensory Discs so we could play with them together This set of discs comes with an activity guide with great ideas, but we decided instead to make up our own games.

First, we counted the shapes on the large discs and lined them all up in order.

Next, we worked on one-to-one correspondence. This is a really great skill to target when working with 2 to 3-year old children. We placed one object on each shape on each disc. The objects were small animal and people toys.

We then cleaned up the small objects and worked on number identification. We placed the correct number of discs on each disc. For example, we placed three small number 3 discs on the big disc with three triangles. The only problem with this activity was that there are only four small discs of each number/color, so we had to leave one empty spot when we got to number five.  

Then, we talked about the colors, shapes, and sizes. Lydia enjoyed telling me which discs were big and which were small. We matched the small discs to the large discs according to shape. 

We played lots of other games with the discs, too!  Lydia and I built a tower, and of course she knocked it down. 

She counted each disc as she walked across them. 

And we even worked on patterns.

I gave the Balance Base to my nephews (ages 5 and 7), and they came up with some great active play ideas, too! They experimented with standing on both sides of the base. They played with it barefoot, with shoes, in the house on tile, on a rug, and in the garage. They tried kicking a ball while standing on it, playing catch with one ball, and playing catch with two balls. They actually carried it around the house all night New Year's Eve. Clearly, this was a hit! They both play on youth soccer teams - this Balance Base seems like a good way to work on some of the skills necessary to play soccer well.

Both the Multi Match Sensory Discs and Balance Base would be great for pre-k and elementary school physical education programs, for children who are typically-developing and children with special needs.

BUY IT! You can purchase the Multi Match Sensory Discs (RV $70) and Balance Base (RV $60)

WIN IT! What's great about this Guidecraft Educator group is that each month, one of us will be hosting a giveaway of the product that we have all reviewed. Visit Mamanista! for a chance to win a set of Multi Match Sensory Discs & Balance Base for a special child in your life. This contest is open to the US and Canada. 

* I received the aforementioned product for free to review. The opinions expressed are honest and provided without monetary compensation.

Guidecraft Educator GIVEAWAY ~ Three Sets of Blocks

I am so excited to be hosting this awesome giveaway just in time for Christmas! This giveaway is for three different sets of beautifully-colored wooden blocks:

Sand Blocks (RV $32)     Rainbow Blocks (RV $25)     Crystal Bead Blocks (RV $32)

The blocks come in a variety of shapes and colors. They can be used together as they are all about the same size. We often divide toys into "girl toys" and "boy toys," but classic building blocks are perfect for boys and girls! Blocks are great for preschool classroom use and home use. Playing with these Guidecraft blocks allows your children to explore their creativity while working on critical fine motor skills. Children can create different patterns. They could collaborate to build a structure together or play independently. Block play also allows children to incorporate lots of other toys. Blocks can be a farm for small animal figures, a castle for princess dolls, or a fort for soldiers. Young children begin to understand cause and effect relationships as they build different structures and knock them down. All three sets of blocks are durable and can easily be stored in a large lidded container for easy clean up.

Lydia loves to build structures and knock them down!

Lydia built a house.

She added different people & animals.

She loved knocking that one down...

...and starting all over!

But Lydia's favorite thing to do is use the rainbow blocks
as colored glasses!

BUY IT! You can purchase your own set of Guidecraft Blocks for your home or classroom. Guidecraft also sells mirrored blocks and shimmering water blocks.

WIN IT! What's great about this Guidecraft Educator group is that each month, one of us will be hosting the giveaway of a product that we have all reviewed. I am hosting the giveaway this month. Just look at how you can quickly enter below!  (This contest is open to the US and Canada.)

 * I received the aforementioned product for free to review. The opinions expressed are honest and provided without monetary compensation.

Gallery Direct Review

I joined a recent twitter party, and the topic of conversation was Extreme Makeover - Home Edition. The episode was about a family who had children with autism. The makeover team did a great job creating a sensory room, bedrooms, and outdoor play area to accommodate the children's needs. During the party, Gallery Direct gave out several $100 prizes, and I was fortunate enough to be a recipient. The $100 prize was a credit to their website to purchase anything I wanted...but what did I want?

I decided to go with wall art for Bryce's room since he had one completely blank wall. There were lots of works of art to choose from - classic to modern, pop art to impressionism. Something for everyone! I wanted to stick with the outer space theme, so I chose Van Gogh's Starry Night. The bold colors are perfect for a child's room. They have several options to choose from in terms of materials to print on - canvas, wood, paper, mirror, acrylic, and aluminum. For something different and to capture a cool space look, I decided to get an image printed on aluminum. The great thing about this website is that although they may seem a bit high-end at first, they have so many great sales. I just happened to purchase my print on a day that they had 33% off and free shipping. Great deal! Our artwork was quickly printed and shipped within just days.

We hung it on the wall yesterday, and it looks beautiful against the bright blue wall color. What a great addition to Bryce's outer space room!

To learn more about Gallery Direct, you can visit their website or follow on twitter.

Imagine Toys Review #2 ~ a to z Magnatab

by Carrie Wells, Ed.D.
I'm so excited to be doing another review for Imagine Toys, an awesome website that features amazing pretend play, arts & crafts, and educational toys for children of all ages.  This time, I was sent the a to z Magnatab.

This learning toy comes in uppercase and lowercase letters. We were sent the lowercase letter Magnatab. This is a very unique toy. It comes with a stylus that has a magnetic tip and a board that is about the size of a sheet of paper. As you can see, the board contains all the letters of the alphabet written in light blue with arrows along the letters to show children how the letters should be formed. Each letter has small holes with magnetic balls inside. When you use the stylus to trace the letters, the small balls pop into each hole with a light clicking movement/sound.

The best feature of this product is that it provides a great tactile cue to your child, indicating that he/she is forming the letter correctly. If you go outside the "magnetic zone" and mis-form the letters, you do not hear or feel that click of the magnet going into the small hole.

This product is recommended for children age 3+. Whether the Magnatab is used at home or at school, children ages 2 to 5 should be able to use it correctly with adult modeling and guidance. When I initially gave it to my daughter without any instructions, she just wanted to "scribble" with the stylus to hear the clicking sound and to feel the small magnets moving around.

Once I showed her what to do, she tried to hold the stylus correctly and guide it over the letters. She is very interested in letters and numbers recently, so this is a fun way to motivate her to learn more. This shows us writing together hand-over-hand.

BUY IT! Interested in purchasing an a to z Magnatab for your child? It's just $24.99 at Imagine Toys! Imagine Toys offers many other awesome learning toys, like the Super Sorting Pie for $27.95 and Telly the Teaching Time Clock for $25.95.

You can also 'like' Imagine Toys on Facebook and 'follow' Imagine Toys on Twitter, where they host fun Twitter parties with great giveaways.

  * I received the aforementioned product for free to review. The opinions expressed are honest and provided without monetary compensation.

Guidecraft Educator Review #4 ~ Little Lectern

by Carrie Wells, Ed.D.
This month, the Guidecraft Educators are reviewing the Little Lectern. Made of walnut-stained birch plywood, the lectern stands 40" tall, has a shelf inside to hold presentation items, and comes with a carpet-covered riser that can be stored inside the lectern. It is for ages 3+. With each review, I like to provide practical suggestions for home and school, and this product really asked me to 'think outside the box' because it is unlike any other product I have reviewed before!

When I was in elementary school, I participated in a public speaking program called Toastmasters. We had to learn to respond to different topics, to engage in debates and rebuttals, to summarize the information provided by both sides...but most of all, we had to learn to get in front of our peers and talk about something that may not be so familiar to us. This was not easy for me, especially since I was one of the smallest kids in my class and had some self-esteem issues. I remember we had to stand in front of the class at the end of a table. Everyone could see if my hands were shaking or my legs were 'antsy.' If I had this Little Lectern to stand behind, no one could tell that I was so nervous, which may have given me the confidence to be a better speaker!

So first and foremost, the best use of this product is for teaching children to be more confident public speakers. This would be really important to practice at home with children who have speech-language disorders since they often feel self-conscious of their performance in front of peers.

Beyond the most obvious use, I thought of a few others:

• Schoolwide competitions ~ This would be a great way to practice school competitions, such as spelling bees, math competitions, science fair presentations, or any other academic events, either at home or at school. 
• Extracurricular activities ~ This little lectern would be great for activities outside of school, such as Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts. Children can stand at the lectern to present minutes from the previous meetings and important announcements. 
• Pretend play ~ Have the children dress up and pretend to be different types of professions that may speak at a lectern - the president of the United States, teacher, lawyer, college professor, etc. Be creative!
• Be really creative ~ Decorate the lectern to be a lemonade stand, host a magic show at the lectern, or do a pretend cooking demonstration. The ideas are endless!

BUY IT! You can purchase your own Guidecraft Little Lectern for your home or classroom for just $200.

WIN IT! What's great about this Guidecraft Educator group is that each month, one of us will be hosting the giveaway of a product that we have all reviewed. Visit Simply Stacie to enter and win. This contest is open to the US and Canada.

*I received the aforementioned product for free to review. The opinions expressed are honest and provided without monetary compensation. 

Guidecraft Educator Review #3 ~ Universal Book Display & Storage

by Carrie Wells, Ed.D.

This month, the Guidecraft Educators are reviewing the Universal Book Display & Storage. This two-sided bookcase has storage space for standard-sized board books, paperback books, and hardcover books on one side and storage space for big books on he other side. What I love most about this book storage is that it is not just a traditional bookcase where you just see the binding of the books. This book storage allows you to display the entire cover of the book, which is a great way to entice early learners! They love to look at the colorful illustrations on the front of each book.

The Universal Book Display & Storage is constructed of sturdy birch ply wood and weighs 40 pounds. It took approximately a half-hour to assemble. This book storage goes very nicely with the Guidecraft Nordic Rocker I reviewed in August. Here are some pictures of our library.

I like to change the books in my children's library each month based on the season/holiday or a given theme. This month's theme is Fall/Halloween. I was able to display 22 books. Next to the book storage, I placed two bins of themed items to explore before, during and after reading. One bin has synthetic fall leaves and wiggly creatures (plastic bugs and spiders). The other bin has some Halloween plush characters, like a wizard, witch, and frog. Because of the neutral design and color, I am able to 'dress up' the book display & storage to go with the theme as well. We are going to add some spider webs later.

BUY IT! You can purchase this well-designed, two-sided Guidecraft Universal Book Display & Storage for your  home or classroom library for just $200.

WIN IT! What's great about this Guidecraft Educator group is that each month, one of us will be hosting a giveaway of the product that we have all reviewed. Visit Mommy PR for a chance to win a Universal Book Display & Storage for your child. This contest is open to the US and Canada. 

* I received the aforementioned product for free to review. The opinions expressed are honest and provided without monetary compensation.

Guidecraft Review ~ Moon & Stars See, Store, & Take-Along

by Carrie Wells, Ed.D.


As you may have seen in previous posts, instead of creating a baby nursery for our new one on the way, I decided to make it more like a toddler classroom. We never used a crib with Lydia, so why get one for baby #2? I like bold, primary colors, so we decided to go with an outer space themed room. We painted the room a beautiful bright blue and looked for coordinating pieces that captured the space theme. Fortunately, Guidecraft makes some beautiful bold-colored, outer space themed furniture.

Guidecraft sent me the Moon & Stars See, Store, & Take-Along to review for free!

We purchased the Moon & Stars Stack Shelves on Amazon for just $72 + Free Shipping. 

This is how the room looks with the two shelving units and other themed items.

The Moon & Stars See, Store, and Take-Along is very simple to assemble. It took less than 30 minutes. It is on wheels, so it can easily be moved to different locations throughout the house. It comes with 6 large, lidded bins that are clear so you can see the contents easily, but are highlighted by the three bold, primary colors to coordinate with the shelves. Each bin can hold toys containing multiple pieces, like a set of blocks, a tea set, small vehicles, etc. The bins have handles so they can be moved to different areas of the house or taken on road trips. The top shelf does not contain bins, so you can stack larger items. I placed our puzzle rack on that shelf along with a large drum filled with instruments and two other toys.

In order to organize our toys even further, I photographed the contents of each bin, cropped the photos, named each photo, and printed a label to place on the front of each bin. The bottom row of bins contains our Mega Bloks, Guidecraft Sand Blocks, Crystal Bead Blocks, & Rainbow Blocks (all three fit in one bin), and a Birthday Cake Play Set. 

BUY IT! Along with the Moon & Stars See, Store, & Take-Along, Guidecraft makes several other colorful, coordinating Moon & Star items, such as a Table & Chair Set, Toybox, and Media Carousel. Each piece is well-crafted and great for a child's bedroom, playroom, or classroom.

* I received the aforementioned product for free to review. The opinions expressed are honest and provided without monetary compensation.

Guidecraft Educator Review #2 ~ Eco-friendly Manipulatives

Imagine my surprise and amazement when all of these beautiful eco-friendly Guidecraft manipulatives arrived at my front door! These toys represent all that my blog is about - "green" products for young children. Some of the most notable features are: minimal packaging used to contain the toys, they are made from eco-friendly rubberwood, colored with low VOC aniline dyes, and contain distinct shapes and colors. Each toy comes with an activity guide with multiple activities. At just $25 - $30 each, these toys are a great investment for parents who want their children to learn through fun, colorful, and engaging activities. All seven toys state Ages 2+ because the pieces are large (not choking hazards), but the skill sets required to appropriately manipulate the toys and understand the cognitive concepts vary greatly. This also makes them great "green" toys - they can be used for years, not just one particular stage of development.

Lydia is just 2, so I decided to open up the 3 toys that I thought would be most appropriate for her developmentally: Gradient Sorter, One to Four Sorter, and Shape and Color Sorter. She was so excited to see each toy, she completed each one multiple times, asking for "more" each time we finished.

Here's Lydia completing the One to Four Sorter independently:



Here's Lydia completing the Gradient Sorter independently:



These toys are appropriate for older children as well. Here's my 10-year old niece Kayla using the Fraction Cups to solve math problems that require her to add fractions:

Here are a few suggestions I have for teaching children to use these toys:

~Place all of the manipulatives in a small basket or surface to the left of the board/base. Because we read from left-to-right, this is a good way to prepare children to work in that direction.

~Refer to the activity guide for suggestions beyond just completing each activity independently.

~Feel free to modify activities based on your child's interests and developmental abilities.

~Toys such as these are great for incorporating language. Instead of having your child complete each activity, have your child take each activity apart. Here are some examples. For younger children, you may ask "Can you take out the green triangle and put it in the basket?" or "Can you hand me the red heart?" For older children, you may ask "Can I have a shape that has 4 sides, but is not a diamond?"

~Frustration often leads to learning. We frequently intervene as soon as our children look frustrated with a situation, but then they may not learn to manipulate each piece properly. Allow your child to explore 'wrong' answers to figure out where each piece really goes independently.
~To make things more challenging, place multiple puzzles in one bin together. Your child will have to sort the pieces and then complete each individual puzzle.

BUY IT! You can purchase any of the Eco-Friendly Guidecraft Manipulatives for just $25 - 30 each.

WIN IT! What's great about this Guidecraft Educator group is that each month, one of us will be hosting a giveaway of the product that we have all reviewed. Visit Teach Preschool for a chance to win a set of Eco-Friendly Guidecraft Manipulatives for a special child in your life! This contest is open to the US and Canada. 


* I received the aforementioned product for free to review. The opinions expressed are honest and provided without monetary compensation.

Imagine Toys Review ~ Pretend & Play Birthday Set

I just learned of a great website, Imagine Toys. They carry toys for children birth through 11+ years. Toys are organized into categories, age groups, price range, and brand so parents can really explore all of the different types of toys they carry.

I was so excited to receive the Pretend & Play Birthday Set in the mail to review, just in time for Lydia's birthday! Birthdays only come once a year, but with this pretend play set, your child can pretend it's his birthday every day of the year. The set comes with everything pictured below:

 48 Pieces include:

• A birthday crown
• 5 numbered candles
• 3 nesting presents
• 5 slices of cake
• 5 plates
• Pretend camera
• Wipe off crayons and more!

I think people often disregard the value of imaginative play in learning early, fundamental skills that are building blocks to learning more advanced skills. This pretend play set targets so many of those skills! Here are just a few of the variety of skills children can learn while playing with this great set from Learning Resources:

~Social skills - With 5 slices of cake, 5 plates, and just one birthday crown, children are required to take turns to play with this set imaginatively. One child can be the 'birthday kid' while the others are guests at the party. Children can also play different roles, like the invitation maker, cake baker, cake slicer, and gift giver. Role playing is such an important part of a child's development.

~Early math skills - Some of the early math skills targeted in this set include number identification, counting, and one-to-one correspondence (understanding that each guest receives one slice of cake, one plate, and one invitation). The nesting gifts also work on teaching size concepts.

~Fine Motor development - Fine motor skills are those that require use of your hands. Children can work on placing the candles in the cakes, similar to placing pegs in a peg board. They can work on placing each lid on the corresponding gift before arranging by size. Adjusting the crown to the proper size and taking pictures with the camera also require the child to use both hands together.

~Language skills - Most importantly, pretend play allows children to practice their language skills. Parents can provide their children with directions to play with each piece in new ways. Here are some examples:

• "Put the candle in the cake and put the cake on the plate."
• "Take a picture of daddy wearing the birthday crown."
• "Show me what you do with the birthday candles."

Children can also work on their own spontaneous language as they explore each piece in this set and use it to make up pretend games with parents and friends. Here's a video clip of Lydia (age 2) and Daddy playing together. The recommended age for this toy is 3+, but with supervision, I think this set is appropriate for children who are 2 years of age. As you can see in this clip, children naturally work on imaginative and imitative play, expressive/receptive language skills, motor skills, and social skills when playing with the Pretend & Play Birthday Set.

Even though this toy has a lot of pieces, they all fit together into a small container for easy clean up!

BUY IT! Interested in owning a Pretend & Play Birthday Set for your child? It's on sale now at Imagine Toys for just $19.99.

Imagine Toys offers many other wonderful pretend play sets, like a Standing Puppet Theater by Alex, Lil' Shopper Play Set by Earlyears, and the Ice Cream Social play set, which is on sale now for just $9.97.

You can also 'like' Imagine Toys on Facebook and 'follow' Imagine Toys on Twitter, where they host fun Twitter parties with great giveaways.

* I received the aforementioned product for free to review. The opinions expressed are honest and provided without monetary compensation.

Guidecraft Educator Review #1 ~ Nordic Rocker

This is my 100th post - A time for celebration by doing something extra special ~ Introducing my readers to an amazing group of bloggers I am so excited to be a part of, the Guidecraft Educators, each of whom I know will bring a different perspective to reviews of products we have been generously given. As co-director of a nonprofit organization for children with disabilities and mother of a toddler, my reviews will focus on how each product can be used with children with special needs and/or toddler and preschool-age children. 

The first product we are reviewing is the Guidecraft Nordic Rocker.

This is a wonderful seating option for children with special needs. Some children have difficulty with sensory integration. Simply put, they are unable to organize all of the information their bodies are receiving. The interesting thing about our sensory system is that we actually have seven components, even though we only really learn about five senses.
 
Five commonly-taught senses:
1. Tactile (touch)
2. Sight
3. Sound
4. Taste
5. Olfactory (smell)

Our two other senses:
6. Proprioceptive (being aware of where our bodies are spatially)
7. Vestibular (movement)

There are a number of sensory-related activities you can try with a child - some may be calming, some may be alerting. Some may help a child to concentrate better, while some may be distracting. The great thing about the Guidecraft Nordic Rocker is that it allows children who crave vestibular input (movement) to move while still being seated safely. However, unlike most rockers, the Nordic rockers have flat bases (not curved bases). This allows for some rocking movement, but stops the child from tipping the chair over or rocking excessively.

Fabian (left) and Ryan (right) are enjoying circle time at school. They are able to move to the music while safely seated in their Guidecraft Nordic Rockers. 

These are great for large group activities when some children are sitting on the floor or small group activities when children are sitting at a table. The birch ply wood construction can accommodate children of different heights and weights, as well as different physical abilities and limitations. 

In addition to being used as a seating option for children with special needs, these are great in a reading area at home or in the classroom setting. The chairs are comfortable, colorful, and great for relaxing with a good book. Overall, this is a wonderful product for special education classrooms, general education classrooms, and children's bedrooms or play rooms. 

BUY IT! You can purchase a Guidecraft Nordic Rocker for just $70.

WIN IT! What's great about this Guidecraft Educator group is that each month, one of us will be hosting a giveaway of the product that we have all reviewed. Visit Katie's {Little Ones} Learning Lounge for a chance to win a Guidecraft Nordic Rocker for a special child in your life! This contest is open to the US and Canada. 

* I received the aforementioned product for free to review. The opinions expressed are honest and provided without monetary compensation.

Review of the Big Toy Book

I contacted the generous people at The Big Toy Book to see if they could donate a toy to Abi's Place (the nonprofit where I work) that I could review for my blog. They responded by sending me the Baby Genius All in One Musical Band, which contains two shakers, a flute, 2 drum sticks, and a tambourine - all within a drum!

This super-cute instrument set is great for all young children, but is especially effective with children who have disabilities. When teaching our children, all of whom have moderate to severe developmental delays, it's often difficult to find toys that are motivating and interesting to them. Most of the toys that do interest them stimulate or calm specific sensory needs. That's what is so great about instruments - most of our children love music, and instruments allow them to make their own music. How does that help the teachers and children? Well, we can teach so many great skills using instruments as the teaching tools. Here are a few:
1. Following one-step directions: bang the drum, blow the flute, shake the tambourine
2. Imitation: the teacher taps the drumstick on the drum and the child imitates that action
3. Communication: for our children, communication usually begins when children are motivated to use their words to ask for things that they want - so they can learn to request music through words, sign language, or pictures

These instruments are so cute, with a child-friendly animal theme. Here's Ryan playing with one of the instruments during our interactive circle time:

Thanks to The Big Toy Book for allowing us to review one of your awesome products! The kids love their new instruments. The Big Toy Book also carries many other toys for children of all ages, including eco-friendly toys, bath toys, board games, baby dolls, action figures, and more!   They also have a great blog with guest bloggers addressing a variety of topics. Additionally, they host regularly-scheduled Twitter parties with really awesome giveaways. This week's Twitter party features Toy Story 3!