Archive for December, 2010
Now that all of your Christmas gifts have been opened it is a perfect time to introduce your toddlers to the art of writing thank you notes.
I do not believe it is “old fashioned”, but just simply good manners. We need never forget how much it will mean to a grandparent, aunt or even a friend when they receive a simple hand-written thank you card from a child.
The appreciative feeling can last all year long and stay in their memory bank for years to come. The first thing you will have to remember to do is keep track of who sent what. You could stick a piece of paper onto your refrigerator or some other place out in the open and in a place not likely to get lost. Let your child select the paper or card he will use for his letter. If he wants to he could practice drawing his picture or design on a separate piece of paper.
Provide you child with a variety of writing utensils and maybe some holiday stickers. Maybe he might like to decorate with some glitter. Because toddlers have the tendency to write their name in large letters have them sign the card before they begin their message.
To help your child compose his thank you note you could talk about the gift and what he liked best about it. He could explain in his letter how they will use the gift (I, myself, still do this). Your child will be proud of his efforts as you show him the correct way to address his envelope.
Let your child affix the postage stamp and explain to him that it has a monetary value and that this is the way it will get delivered to the recipient. Walk with him to the mail box and let him pull up the flag. Not only will you be distilling another good manner to your child you will build his self esteem and give him the opportunity to feel good in making someone else feel good.
You will have to have this 42 inch elephant!!! It just arrived back in stock and is one popular stuffed animal kids and all elephant lovers adore.
We sell plush stuffed animals manufactured by Purr-Fection. All their stuffed toys are hand made and are safe children’s toys.
Explore All I Can Imagine, our website, to see all our other plush stuffed animals. We have all sizes – small to large.
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. Toy blocks make the perfect gift.
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.
Did you realize that children that have too many toys will find it difficult to become attached to a toy and to select the one that stimulates their fantasy and imaginations? Children are now receiving toys all year long and not just at Christmas or their birthdays.
A child is more likely to emotionally invest in a toy when he receives a few at Christmas and he then knows he will not receive more toys until his birthday, or next Christmas, which ever comes first. Additionally, a gift purchased as a Christmas gift is often well thought out in the sense that the parents or grandparents choose something that keeps with the individual child’s talents and/or interests.
Battery-operated toys are attention getters for sure and use up the child’s time. However, they offer little or no developmental value. And, the sheer abundance, variety and omnipresence of toys are making it more difficult for children to engage in truly imaginative play.
Two sided - Caps on one side, lower case on back.
Keep it simple. Buy some 3d wooden puzzles. It is a fact that these are educational toys and ones that your kids will play with over and over again. Get some animal puzzles with the alphabet or numbers printed on them and you will be giving the perfect preschool learning toys for children.
We at All I Can Imagine have a beautiful and unique selection of 3d wooden animal puzzles that are painted with lead-free paints and made from splinter-proof wood. Selections include: wolf family, moose family, bear family and more.
Do you remember how much fun it was to build with large blocks? They are so versatile you can build anything you want to. Toy blocks are just as popular today as they were many years ago.
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 building blocks 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 toys for toddlers are as popular today as when your grandparents were young. Many grandparents are purchasing these ImagiBRICKS for their grand kids throughout the year for gifts. Our popular set of 40 pieces is pictured above.
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 learning 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 toy blocks. Our 40 piece set of ImagiBRICKS 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.