Blocks And 3d Puzzles

Unschooling – This is also a form of alternative education. However, those who unschool don’t follow a curriculum, but instead take cues from their children regarding how, when and what to teach them.

The majority of parents who choose to enlist the help of alternative education want to give their children more opportunities, better education and more individual attention. Therefore, as parents continue to grow unhappy with the public school system, alternative education will continue to rise.

Here are some ideas others have used in beginning to unschool their children:

1. When they were worried about answering people’s concerns that we were taking their son out of school, they memorized, “We’re going to try this and see how it goes.”
2. When they wanted to respond to their children without bossiness but still tell them their concerns, they memorized, “I’m not sure about this, but let’s think about it together.”

Here is an excerpt from Sandra Dodd’s unschooling website:

What would you tell your pre-unschooling self?
Sarah Anderson-Thimmes

Back in the day, these are the things I would have told my brand new unschooling self:

Kids want to learn. They just do. Get the heck out of the way, and leave an interesting trail behind you.

If a child is happily playing a computer game or watching TV for the *entire* time that that child would have been in school, that child is infinitely better off than if she was unhappily at school.

The main goal is raising happy kids. Everything else is a bonus.

Worry and guilt are pretty much wasted emotions. Act from right now.

This is the second part of the first article I posted on March 25th. There will be twelve main articles we will be posting.  You may receive the titles of all twelve articles and purchase them individually or as a set by writing us.

Before you leave our blog why not spend a minute looking through our kids toy blocks? We provide parents and educators crush proof, award winning ImagiBRICKS made right here in the USA.  Our giant cardboard building blocks are manufactured from 50% recycled materials and are both strong and lightweight.

Blocks are one of the best educational toys you will be buying for your toddlers and come in a variety of materials.  Three of the choices I can think of are foam, wood and cardboard and we will briefly discuss each one today.

Actually, I could not find much information regarding foam blocks.  I did learn some claim to be surface washable and come in various sizes including large triangle blocks.  As with any blocks they can assist in your child’s fundamental positive growth.  Foam blocks have easy-to-grip, textured foam pieces and would be appropriate for one year olds. 

I found no information about how durable they are and if they had non toxic paints to color the foam.  Some did claim to have flame-retardant fabric covers for easy cleaning. 

WOODEN BLOCKS

Your toddlers and preschoolers will love to play with alphabet wood toy blocks which have numbers, alphabets or pictures printed on them. Although most blocks are commonly used for stacking activities, children can always mix these children wooden blocks with other kind of blocks and use them together to create a structure.

I have read that there are two sizes of ABC building blocks for kids: the ones sized around 1 inch, and the bigger ones (1.75 inches). The bigger ones may be more stable and versatile.

If you have a toddler, it is important to get an ABC wooden block set painted with non toxic and good quality paint. So that when they chew the cubes, the paint won’t come off. It’s also important to get the ones which have smooth edges.

When your child reaches a preschooler age, she will also be ready to play with unit blocks, or wooden building blocks which have different kind of shapes including prism, pyramid, cubes and long cylinder.

Archiquest is said to be the most educational architectural block set available and is most suitable for older kindergartner or school-age children.  These blocks are known to be beautifully painted and have different shapes and prints.

Lincoln Log and Frontier Log blocks are said to be popular wooden building toys for children and especially interesting since, as the name implies, your child will be able to build different kinds of log cabin using these child building logs.

If you have school-age children who think that wooden building block is no more their cups of tea as it’s getting too easy, then get a set of plank building blocks. These children’s wooden blocks are made of planks and children are expected to build a structure from those planks. They are undoubtedly very educational and are sometimes found in children’s museums or schools.

CARDBOARD BLOCKS

They are simple and loads of fun, and, if you get ImagiBRICKS, exceptionaly durable for rough housing and creative play. The boys like to build things to kick down, build forts, castles, ramps, steps, etc…they are great for the imagination. Girls  love to build “houses” and play with her dolls…just about anything a kid can think of to build, and they are light and easy to carry around.

Giant cardboard building blocks made by Smart Monkey Toys are called ImagiBRICKS and are the award winning kids building blocks your grandparents played with.  They are crush proof and now come with a drool-resistant coating.  Even with this coating they are not slippery and stack as high as your child can reach.

Kids love to stack these blocks and knock them down and they are a favorite of parents because they are a quite toy and won’t wake the baby when your toddlers knock them down.  Giant blocks are also great for helping your kids build muscle strength as they carry them from place to place and spend hours on end building and creating new structures.

Three choices, foam, wood and cardboard blocks; each has their own purpose and advantage and you will most likely be purchasing any or all three choices as your children grow.

Comments from parents and teachers about your favorite blocks will gladly be posted!

Toddler age children can be expected to be able to put on his/her own clothes. With help, they will be able to brush their own teeth, combine words, know over 50 words and use pronouns such as I, me, you and mine.

When children reach toddler age they will know their body parts, walk up and down stairs, kick a ball, jump up, and throw a ball over his head. His/her speech should be half understandable.

It is important to be aware of children’s stages of development so that you may better provide them age appropriate toys to help them along in their development.

Because toddlers can stack 4-6 blocks it is now time to provide them toy blocks.  We have pictured for you a set of giant cardboard building blocks that will help your children get started in building muscle tone.

These ImagiBRICKS, as they are called, have a drool proof coating and are crush proof.  Children can stand on them, carry them around and stack them.  And, because children love knocking down their stacked blocks these are the ideal toys as there are no sharp edges to harm them.

Smart Monkey Toys manufacturers these safe toddler toys from 50% recycled cardboard.  Visit All I Can Imagine, our website, to see all the other varieties of blocks for your boys and girls.

Dec 19, (THAINDIAN NEWS) With the extensive use of mobile messaging and emailing, certain new words have become an integral part of our life, although they made no sense during the colloquial period. Therefore, the Oxford English Dictionary, which is considered as the “accepted authority on the evolution of the English language over the last millennium” have happily incorporated several new words in its dictionary, which are now more relevant to our daily life.

Some of the new words that has been incorporated in the latest edition of the OED are “Catastrophizing”, that means viewing or presenting a situation as worse as it actually is. “LBD” is yet another word which probably makes no meaning for an ordinary person, but the girls would be happy to know that they need not spell the “Little Black Dress” anymore.

“Frenemy” is a common word that was not incorporated so far, but now it is. “Cool hunter” refers to a person, who makes observations or predictions about new trends and styles. “Defriend” is a term that is widely used by the netizens. It means deleting a person the one’s friend list.

You can read what “Soft skills”, “Overthink”, and “Chillax” mean at the link listed here and read the complete news article:   http://tinyurl.com/25yqesr

For parents with toddlers who are working on learning their ABC’s  you will want to explore our preschool learning toys for children.   When your toddlers are learning their first 100 sight words our Little Reader Blocks will be one of the most important toddler learning toys you can buy. This is a good time to make your purchase as these toddler toys are on sale!

The gingerbread house became popular in Germany after the Brothers Grimm published their fariy tale collection which included “Hansel and Gretel” in the 19th century. Early German settlers brought this lebkuchenhaeusle – gingerbread house – tradition to the Americas.

Gingerbread houses never caught on in Britain as they did in North America, where some extraordinary examples can be found. But they do exist in other parts of Europe.

In December 2001, bakers in Torun, Poland, attempted to beat the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest-ever gingerbread house. It was made in Szczecin, Poland, with 4,000 loaves of brick-shaped gingerbread measuring 11 1/2 feet high. It took a week to create and used 6,000 eggs, a ton of flour, and 550 pounds of shortening. Alas, they lost to an American team!

The above information is from an article by By Barbara Rolek,  About.com Guide.  To read the entire article please click on the below link:

http://easteuropeanfood.about.com/od/crossculturaldesserts/a/gingerhistory.htm

I wanted to show your some great images but they may be under copyright so you will have to click on the below link to see them and read more.

http://tinyurl.com/2cjwz9b

And, speaking of building, your kids will love building their own houses from a set of our giant cardboard wall building blocks.   Toddlers and young children love building block toys and the more they have the more creative they can design and build.

This family bought a bulk quantity of Rainbow blocks for their family and you can own a set also. Visit our website, All I Can Imagine and see more selections.

I just read an inspiring article about an 81 year old woman who just earned her GED. As it so often happened in our grandparents and great grandparent’s days many children could not receive a full education because they had to work on the family farm.

Although her father did send her to school, the article continued, the teachers were told to send her home at 10 am because she had to work on the farm.  And, even though she could not get her education her father always expressed the importance of doing so.

She married at 18 and had six children.  All her children went to college and five of them earned degrees!  Her father’s words about the importance of an education were not wasted, were they?

As an ex-adult literacy volunteer I am always aware of the importance of getting young children the help and encouragement they need to learn to read  – and to enjoy reading. There is a whole wide world of interesting subjects for children to read about.  I love looking at all the beautiful children’s books when I go to the book stores.

If you have a young child you need a Christmas gift idea for give them the gift of educational toys.  Our Little Reader Blocks will help children learn their first 100 basic sight words including nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives and prepositions.

These preschool learning toys for children are color coded and can also be used to teach four colors. Kids love blocks and these 3” cubes will offer your children hours of learning fun!

When things settle down after the holidays, why don’t you check out helping an adult learn to read through this website: http://www.literacydirectory.org/  Or, maybe you could volunteer at a local grade school and help a young child with his reading.  

Consider making a New Years resolution to take a child you know to a library and spend time reading to and with him.  You will make a big difference in someone’s life!

Keeping toddlers active is an important part of their development; specifically, their muscle development.  When your child has muscles that are on the loose, floppy side you may want to follow the link that we are providing in this post.

One of our readers asked the question “how fast can I see muscle definition”, in reply to our blog post  “Build, Jump, Crash – Fun with Blocks Toys”.  We thought many of our other readers may be interested in the answer so we are directing you all to a great website that may answer this question.

On this web page you will learn just what “low muscle tone” means and what you can do about it.  Toddlers need to build their muscular strength as well as their agility and this is why open ended toys that keep children moving around are so important.

Carrying around giant cardboard building blocks is one fun, safe game for young children. After  you read more at: http://www.babycenter.com/404_what-is-low-muscle-tone-and-what-does-it-mean_12189.bc why not visit our website and see all our ImagiBRICKS toy blocks.

Do you remember how much fun it was to build with large blocks?  They are so versatile you can build anything you want to.

Giant cardboard building blocks are still being made today for the enjoyment of a new generation of kids. As toys for toddlers you just can’t purchase a more enjoyable toy for your boys and girls.  No matter what the skill level of your child he/she will be able to build things, jump over the blocks, crash into them and even step on them.

Cardboard block toys stack into tall towers and when knocked down (which they will be) they not only won’t cause harm to anyone, they do not make noise and scare anyone or wake a napping baby (or mom).

Kids building blocks made of cardboard can safely be given to very young children.  At first they may only carry them around and put them in a wagon or a truck, but as they grow they will begin creating the own structures and towers. 

Children will develop muscle strength as they carry around their block toys.  Parents can use these blocks to teach basic math skills to children when they are able to begin learning math.  If you have sets of several colors they can also be used to teach colors.

Making up games to play with your blocks children will gain self-confidence as they complete the “task“given them.  For instance, you could ask the child to separate the red blocks from the blue blocks.  You could have the child stack into separate piles each different size or color.

For beginning counting and addition have your child take three blocks from a larger pile and put them in a separate location.  Then have the child add one more block and count and/or add it up.

Children may learn better balance when you set up the blocks (or let the child do it) in a maze.  Have your child walk quickly, or run through and around the blocks without touching them or knocking them down.  They will love this game!

These toddler toys are as popular today as when your grandparents were young.  Many grandparents are purchasing these ImagiBRICKS for their grandkids throughout the year for gifts. Our popular set of 40 pieces is pictured above.

Special daycare toys of different colors, shapes, sizes and purposes were first introduced to the child care sector. However, the daycare toys available to children today are a far cry from the sandbox, monkey bars, wooden building blocks and rocking horses of a few years ago.

Today, not only do some companies specialize in the production of daycare toys but also mass produce them. The daycare toys themselves include such diverse items as play sets, pianos, easels, clocks, miniature ATM banks, talking microphones that improve speech and a truly amazing array of electronic and computer games/ toys.

Amidst all this sophistication, it is of course comforting to realize that simple wooden railway sets, alphabet/ number blocks, finger paint packs and coloring books are also still much in demand.

It has been proven that daycare toys increase self-confidence, coordination, language skills and creativity while also contributing to the emotional well being of children. As they grow older, children can also be introduced to electronic, computer, magnetic and a myriad of other educational daycare toys.

Wood blocks are as popular as ever and children 18 months and up love the feel of these children’s wooden toys.  But, remember to make sure the blocks you purchase are splinter-proof and painted with non-toxic paints and varnishes.

ImagiPLAY is one such manufacturer and you may see their wooden toys on our website, All I Can Imagine.  There is a line of Buddy Blocks that just came into the market place last year that children wil love playing with by themselves or with the help of a parent.

Your kids will enjoy owning all three varieties; Backyard Buddy Blocks, Jungle Buddy Blocks, and Farm Buddy Blocks (pictured).  Each set includes four, 3.5” square blocks with portions of 6 different animals on each cube.

A child’s brain is likened to a sponge and absorbs enormous amounts of a variety of information. Because the brain continues to expand as it grows it is important to expose your children to a variety of open-ended educational toys.

Not only are children exposed to a variety of toddler learning toys at home, there are wooden toys and toy blocks in their daycare, Sunday school and many waiting rooms. Where ever your children are becomes an opportunity for teaching opportunities.

You can help your children learn colors, for example, while sitting in the doctor’s office.  If you put down your magazine and observe the toddler toys available you could point out to your child a chair and say to him “this is a chair.  The color of the chair is blue”.

Quality education is most important to the mental health and growth of all young children and it is because of this that you will find it beneficial to surround your children with play sets, wood puzzles and other toys that have a variety of shapes and colors to keep your children interested in play and learning.

Visit our website and see a variety of large cardboard block toys.  Our 40pc set of ImgiBRICKS is a good starting point and will provide your children with 8 large red 12 x 6 x 3 inch blocks, 8 medium yellow 6 x 6 x 3 and 24 small blue 6 x 3 x 3 inch toy blocks.