Blocks And 3d Puzzles

It’s good to read over this wonderful poem, at least once a year.  Here it is for you and your family.  

Reflecting back on the lives that were lost to help keep us free may help us be more tolerant of others who are less fortunate.

 In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

 We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

 Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

 — Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 – 1918)

Before you get busy planning your Memorial Day picnic remember to take time to teach your children the real meaning of this special day and why we celebrate it.

Memorial Day is a holiday set aside to remember soldiers who have lost their lives, although many people also take the opportunity to remember all loved ones who have passed away.  The holiday began after the American Civil War.  During the war, about 500,000 soldiers were killed on both sides of the battle, and women began decorating graves of these lost soldiers. 

Although many cities created local holidays to memorialize the dead between 1864 and 1866, the first widespread celebration of the holiday was on May 30, 1868.  A general ordered that flowers and decorations be placed at the graves of fallen soldiers.  Special services and tributes were also created to honor the dead.  The general asked the press to support the effort.

After World War I, many women began selling red poppies in honor of Memorial Day, to raise money for families affected by the war.  The poppies were inspired by Canadian Colonel John Mcrae’s poem, “In Flanders Fields”.

Today, honoring soldiers on Memorial Day often takes the form of special ceremonies, speeches, and laying a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. 

Get your kids some free coloring pages and you will have some visual aids to help as you talk about this important day.  I found some you may like at the following link:  http://fun4thechildren.blogspot.com/2008/05/memorial-day-coloring-pages.html

Look for Memorial Day Celebrations in your local paper and take your kids.  Rekindle your love for our country and the pride of America.  Thank God for our troops and for being privileged to have been born in the USA.

Camping with your children will be a wonderful bonding experience.  And, when children can play outside there are less rules and restrictions, making it fun for the whole family.

Besides all the running around and exploring and the normal camping chores, there will also need to be a time for quite play.  Planning ahead of time you could prepare some simple crafts for kids to make while sitting at a picnic table.

Here is one I thought would be fun and children will learn about design in nature from this toddler craft.  

LEAF PRINT

You will need:
* Paper
* Different types of leaves
* Paint or crayons

Put the paper flat on the table and then put the leaf under the paper. After you’ve done that, use the crayon to shade the print of the leaf on the paper.

If you are using paint, you put the leaf in the paint and then print in on the paper.

You could bring some zip lock bags to store their leaves in if your child does not have some other idea of his own – such as decorating his tent.

If you liked this craft idea and want more I would suggest going to this website:  http://www.parentingtoddlers.com/toddlercraft.html

See one of our unique children’s wooden toys.  You can easily pack some wooden kids toys when you go camping and this outrageously fun eco-balancing game can be played at a picnic table when the family gathers around together.  See this Tumblin’ Tree Game on our website, All I Can Imagine.

Because of the continuing decline in literacy rates some educators are suggesting parents begin teaching their children to read at an early age.  But, not all children are ready at the same age.

In past years it was thought that children should probably begin learning to read at about six years of age.  But this opinion is being re-thought and educators are thinking that if a child starts to learn to read at an earlier age they may learn to read better.

There is a wide diversity in each child’s individual learning speeds and styles.  A child’s interests and temperament also play a major role in helping parents decide when it is best to begin teaching their child to read.

It is important that children see their parents reading; it is also important to read to your child every day.  By doing so parents will learn if their child is intrigued by the new ideas in the stories that are read to them.  Parents need to pay attention to learn if their child exhibits a genuine interest in the stories they are reading.

If you find your child is showing interest in the stories and the new ideas then he/she is probably ready to begin learning to read.  It is a fact that some four year olds can’t wait to begin reading, yet other children as old as eight are not developmentally ready.

Each child is unique and spending time with him/her will help a parent know how to proceed.  Even before you introduce a book to your child there is a toddler learning toy, Little Reader Blocks, that your child can play with – and during play, begin to recognize the first 100 basic sight words. These toy blocks are available on our website, All I Can Imagine.

You will get the following 3″cube cardboard building blocks:

3 green noun blocks (18 nouns)
5 blue verb blocks (30 verbs)
5 red pronoun blocks (30 pronouns)
3 yellow adjective blocks (18 adjectives)
2 white preposition blocks (12 prepositions)

If you are a teacher or run a day care center and order three or more sets let us know you read about the Little Reader Blocks on our Blog and you will receive a discounted price.

It’s ok if you do because snails (Gastropods)  are found in almost every habitat, be it damp land, fresh water, or sea water.  Snails are small, soft-bodied mollusk that crawls very slowly. Most snails have spiral shells on their backs into which they can pull back for protection. There are land snails, freshwater snails, and marine snails.

Did you know that a snail has only one foot? Or that it has no bones at all?

Snails move slowly making them easy to watch. Slow-moving snails are great for studying animal motion. If you find a snail in your garden and turn it over, you’ll see that it uses a large, muscular foot to crawl along.

There are two types of snails. Gilled snails have gills and can close their bodies into their shells with a plate, or door. Gilled snails usually lay their eggs in jelly-like cocoons above or under water. The trapdoor snail (actually a livebearer) and apple snail are two of these.

 Pulmonate snails have lungs. They either come to the surface to breathe, or some breathe through their body surface while underwater. They cannot close their bodies into their shells. Pulmonate snails usually lay their eggs in gelatinous masses under water (the Malaysian trumpet snail though is a live-bearer). Examples are pond snails and ramshorn snails.

This information was found on: http://www.abc-kid.com/snails/ and http://www.teacherwebshelf.com/classroompets/insectsandco-snails.htm.  See these websites for more interesting snail facts for kids.

Of Special Interest -  See our 3d wooden puzzle collection. Splinter- proof  wooden puzzles for kids 3 up.  Brightly painted in colors that kids love, our animal puzzles will be a great addition to your child’s collection of wooden kids toys.

Ladybugs have always fascinated me and I have always gone out of my way to protect them and keep them safe.  But, until I read an article I just found, I never knew that ladybugs also came in yellows, orange, grey, black, even blue.

During the Middle Ages, swarms of pests were destroying crops, so farmers prayed to the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, for help.  Soon after, ladybugs came and ate the bad pests and saved the crops.  The farmers called these bugs, “Beetles of Our Lady” and they eventually became known as “ladybugs”.

In many countries, ladybugs are considered to be good luck.  Just like the four-leaf clover and the horseshoe, the ladybug is thought to bring good luck to people.  I am sure that this is because of how the ladybugs are always saving crops from bad pests. So, to the farmers especially, ladybugs, are definitely good luck!

You can read more about this little creature and see a really cute website where I found this information.  You will love the link that tells you how ladybugs can be used to help your kids learn math. Go here: http://www.elysiumgates.com/~mamawolf/facts.html

And for more ladybug fun you must see our ball toys page called Bouncy Buddies. These are stuffed toy animals that have a hard ball sewn into their bellies and can be bounced and thrown around.  His name is Tweedle!  How cute is that?

Visit our website and see our pink pig, Wilber, or Milton – a black and white cow and Taffy, a cat.

The movie “Finding Nemo” has gotten kids interested in the Clownfish.  Many school projects are popping up for this colorful orange fish.

There are 28 species of clown fish. They are orange, yellow, maroon and many other colors. The most common clown fish – and the one that looks most like Nemo  is the percula clown fish which is bright orange with white stripes. Clown fish are between two and five inches long.

Clown fish live on the ocean floor. They are found in the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Your kids may like to have a clownfish page to color and you can get one to print out here: http://printables.kaboose.com/clownfish.html

Clownfish have become the “in” pet that every fish enthusiast, child and adult alike, are eager to own. However, before you go out and buy your own little Nemo, there are a few things you should know about what is involved in caring for a Clownfish.

Most experts would agree that Clownfish require a significant amount of care in comparison to other fish, such as the goldfish that inhabit many pet-owners homes. Unlike goldfish, Clownfish need warm salt water that is similar in chemical makeup to actual seawater to survive.

Read more about the ins and outs of owning your own Clownfish at: http://www.helium.com/items/358085-how-to-care-for-clownfish

Our website has an animal facts page where you can find great facts about many animals, including the clownfish.  Here is our page link:   http://www.blocksand3dpuzzles.com/page/1093095

Playful Penguin Pastimes -

Between staying warm, raising chicks, finding food and avoiding predators, a penguin’s life may not sound like much fun.  But penguins have some playful pastimes — many of which are surprisingly similar to human hobbies!

Tobogganing:  Penguins lie on their belly and toboggan through the ice and snow.  This helps them move quickly.

Surfing:  Penguins are often seen surfing through the waves onto land. It is also fun to dive into the water!

If you are a penguin your dinner will consist of seafood.  A penguin’s main diet is fish, though they’ll also eat squid, small shrimplike animals called “krill” and crustaceans.

If you look closely at a penguin’s bill you’ll notice a hook at the end, perfect for grabbing dinner.  They also have backward facing bristles on their tongues that help slippery seafood from getting away.

Penguins don’t live near freshwater — at least none that isn’t frozen.  Instead they drink salt water.  They have a special gland in their bodies that takes the salt out of the water they drink and pushes it out of grooves in their bill.  A handy in-house filtration system!

Read more at: http://www.kidzone.ws/animals/penguins/facts9.htm

Why not take a minute or two and look through our website’s selections of toddler learning toys which include alphabet and number puzzles.  Our Counting penguins 3d wooden puzzles have just arrived in our latest shipment and are once again available for your children.  These wood puzzles are for ages 3 and up and are painted with lead-free, non toxic paint.

Have you wandered through our selection of wood puzzles lately?  Several of our toddler learning toys have been out of stock but we are happy to announce that most all of our 3d wooden puzzles have just arrived in our lastest shipment.

Included in this shipment of our 3d wooden puzzles were our brightly colored butterfly alphabet puzzles and our counting penguins.  Both of these wood puzzles are excellent tools for parents and preschool teachers to help teach children their abc’s or counting numbers 1-10.

Butterfly Facts for Kids

Butterflies belong to the insect order Lepidoptera, which is Greek for “scaly wing.” Butterfly wings are made of tiny scales that create beautiful colors and striking patterns. The dark colors help the butterfly keep warm by absorbing heat from sunlight.

Because they are cold-blooded, butterflies cannot produce their own body heat. There are about 20,000 species of butterflies and they can be found in every part of the world, except in Antarctica.

During their lifetimes butterflies change form three times – from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly. This is called metamorphosis. When the caterpillar hatches from the egg, all it wants to do is eat. It gains so much weight that it has to shed its skin four or five times. The last shed produces a hard case called a chrysalis or pupa.

Some species wrap themselves in silk before they change to a chrysalis for extra protection. Though it’s not visible, a dramatic change takes place inside the chrysalis. The caterpillar turns into a butterfly. Some species make the change in few days; others may take years!

Read more about butterflies on the website where I located the above information:  www.theworldalmanacforkids.com

Camping usually is a great family fun idea-when you want a sure-fire way to bond with your kids take them camping. You will be creating life-long memories.

Kids can help set up the tent and unload the car and can be trusted to remain nearby without continual supervision. They can help collect wood for your fire and help with the cooking (and clean up).

One important thing to remember when you are packing for your trip; each person must have his/her own flashlight.  How else can you make shadows on the tent?  And a flashlight will direct the way to the outhouse late at night.

A great evening ritual will be looking for different kinds of insects that they can find. They might even catch frogs and minnows near the lakes and streams. You could let them examine these creatures and return them unharmed to the wild. Also, carry bug jars, nets, and buckets.

Make sure you always have a camera on hand; camping can be a comedy of errors with kids.  You can also let your kids carry their own cameras through their travels each day.

You will want to bring a few simple toys with you for quiet time.  A set of Backyard Buddy Blocks is a great idea for kids 18 months and up.  See these children’s wooden toys on our website, All I Can Imagine.

For more camping fun ideas visit: http://www.greatdad.com/tertiary/72/35/camping-with-kids.html