Shop Early for Your Child’s 3d Wooden Puzzles!

posted by gbowen
November 9, 2010

You can’t beat a new wood puzzle – one of the most popular Christmas gifts on the market! Shop early as they often get sold out before December comes!

Children’s wooden puzzles come in all shapes and sizes but if you have a toddler or preschooler a chunky 3d wooden puzzle is an appropriate gift for both boys and girls.  Our wood puzzles for kids are painted with non-toxic paints and manufactured by ImagiPLAY. 

These animal and tree puzzles are made from rubberwood, a hard, splinter-proof wood that is safe for all children.  Our selections include such animal families as an elephant family, moose and calf and wolf family. 

If your child likes cats or dogs they will be delighted to receive a dog family or cat family wood puzzle.  I’m a cat lover and am partial to the cat puzzle but the dog family is equally adorable.  Because I think both are so unique I have included an image of each one on this blog post.

Remember to shop early as these puzzles are very popular Christmas gifts!  These chunky puzzles stand up by themselves and are easy for your young children to grasp each piece. Keep them on a shelf or dresser; they make a beautiful display and your children will often take them down and play quietly with them.


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Bear and Cub 3d Wooden Puzzle Back in Stock!

posted by gbowen
September 16, 2010

See our complete line of wild animal wood puzzles.  All our children’s wooden toys are back in stock and ready for your Christmas shopping!

This 1” chunky brown bear and cub is a great 3d wooden puzzle for kids 3 up.  Did you notice that the cub is a separate piece; so you get two toys in one!

Did you know brown bears come in different sizes and shades?  A bear can be light cream color and all shades up through an almost black color.  It was thought that 86 different kinds of grizzly bears and brown bears existed in North America.  Today, scientists agree that there is only one species of brown bear with a lot of variations!  Bears in northwestern North America are called Kodiak, or Alaskan brown bears.

There are several brown bear subspecies found in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and possibly Northwest Africa, but they are all smaller than their North American relatives.  Read more about the brown bear at San Diego Zoo’s website where I found the above information.  Go here: http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-brown_bear.html.

These toys sell out quickly so remember to shop early for your children’s wooden toys!


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Parents and educators will enjoy giving our large alphabet 3d wooden puzzle to their toddlers. This is a unique toddler toy manufactured by ImagiPLAY.

Kids love dinosaurs and having dinosaur toys in their collection of wood puzzles will open up teaching opportunities about this fascinating creature. This toy measures 13” x 5” and has twenty-six pieces, one for each letter of the alphabet. 

Made from splinter-proof wood and painted with non-toxic paints this is a safe toy for your children.

Did you know that scientists believe this powerful predator could eat up to 500 pounds (230 kilograms) of meat in one bite. Fossils of T. rex prey, including Triceratops and Edmontosaurus, suggest T. rex crushed and broke bones as it ate, and broken bones have been found in its dung.

Tyrannosaurus rex, according to what I have read, lived in forested river valleys in North America during the late Cretaceous period. It became extinct about 65 million years ago in the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction.

More than 90 percent of all organisms that have ever lived on Earth are extinct. As new species evolve to fit ever changing ecological niches, older species fade away. But the rate of extinction is far from constant. At least a handful of times in the last 500 million years, 50 to more than 90 percent of all species on Earth have disappeared in a geological blink of the eye.

Read more on this wonderful website:

http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/prehistoric-world/mass-extinction/

Your child can have more fun by building his own T. rex.  This site gives you all you need including cut outs and supply lists. By collecting things from around the house you will have the supplies you need to make a fun dinosaur craft project.  Go to this website to get your craft project: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/Trexcutout.shtml


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Penguin Playtime Similar to Kids Playtime

posted by gbowen
May 12, 2010

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.


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What Animal Sheds its Skin Four or Five Times?

posted by gbowen
May 10, 2010

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


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Spring Flowers – Craft for 3rd Graders

posted by gbowen
April 10, 2010

Celebrate the season with a decorative collage pot full of vibrant spring flowers! When you have to stay in because of the spring rains that will surely come a bright, new craft idea will help entertain your kids age 5 – 8 years old.

This activity is appropriate for:
kindergarten – 3rd grade / 5 – 8 years

You will need:

I found this craft idea at: http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/general_content/free_resources/teachers_corner/projects/springFlowers.jsp?f=featured.  Go here for the directions to make this pretty pot of flowers.

In the market for a new 3d wooden puzzle?  See our six piece cat family puzzle or our six piece dog family puzzle.  Both are popular wood puzzles for kids 3 and up.  Painted with non-toxic paints.  Each puzzle piece is its own cat or dog toy.


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Cute Chickens Puzzle for Easter Gift

posted by gbowen
March 15, 2010

Want a unique toy for your child’s Easter basket?  Our three chicks wood puzzle will put a smile on your child’s face and be her/his favorite Easter toy this year!

These delightful chicks are made from splinter-proof hardwood and painted with non-toxic paints.  Each chick is different and consists of two pieces.  This 3d wooden puzzle is geared for children 3 and up.

Our wood puzzles have chunky pieces that children can easily grasp but because of the small pieces there is a choking hazard warning and this 3d wooden puzzle is not for children under three.

In stock and available from our website, All I Can Imagine.


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Have Your Kids Been on a Snail Hunt Lately?

posted by gbowen
January 29, 2010

A snail lives in a shell and moves very slowly. To teach kids about snails it helps to have a live specimen available.

If you have a garden you probably have a snail nearby.  Did you know garden snails feed on both living and decaying plants which can damage your garden’s crops?  Because of this fact, snails are not very welcome in your garden and are considered pests.

Regardless that the snail is a pest they do make an interesting educational lesson for your children.  Snails are neat to learn about and fun to watch.

Let’s get back to the “snail trail hunt”.  So where do you look for snail trails? Most garden snails live in and around moist areas such as near ponds, in the woods, and of course, in the garden. They usually travel in irregular paths, oftentimes in a circle and sometimes even upside down.

Take the kids for a walk on a cloudy day along a nature trail or at night in the backyard to see if they can spot any snail trails. Hunt for snail trail in the garden along walks and walls or beneath stones, leaves, or flowerpots. Follow the snail trail to see where it leads. Be aware, however, that not all snail trails are the same. It could belong to the slug instead. A slug is simply a snail without a shell. So how do you tell the two trails apart? If the snail trail is continuous, then it’s a slug. If there are breaks in the trail, it’s a snail.

If you find a snail have your child capture him and put it in a clear container with a lid and air vents. When disturbed the snail will retreat back into its shell.  This is how they also sleep and hibernate during the winter. Find more snail facts online or at your library. 

For craft ideas you may like a website I just located: http://daniellesplace.com/HTML/snailcrafts.html

If you have a young child 3 and up who is learning his numbers he will love our snail 3d wooden puzzle.  This wood puzzle is made from splinter-proof hardwood and measures 6” x 5”.  Painted in bright primary colors that kids love each chunky piece has an individual number painted on it.


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Teachable Moments with Preschoolers

posted by Eva
November 14, 2009

10236 Bear and Cub 3d Wooden Puzzle PaintedEvery childhood expert agrees that having a strong emotional/social connection with your children is absolutely key to growing strong, healthy people. In order to really know your children, you must have an open line of communication; and the earlier you start the better. 

 Recent studies show that the toddler who feels heard and connected grows up to be a teen that is willing to open up and communicate more.  Choose your timing.  A preschooler who has been with 15 other children for several hours will probably feel over-stimulated and overwhelmed.

Don’t start interrogating him in the car on the way home!  Let him decompress and relax back into the energy of his home.  Maybe dinner time or bath time is a better choice. 

Take out a wood puzzle and work on it together.  When the focus is off the child he will open up and share his feelings and open ended questions won’t put him off.


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10420 Monkey Tree 3d Wooden Puzzle PaintedEducational playtime is of the utmost importance.  Parents and educators alike believe educational childrens toys that promote creative play provide great educational value for your children.

3d wooden puzzles are just one of the many children’s toys that are recommended for homes, schools and as waiting room toys.  It is a well know fact that children most often play with toys that provide fun play as well as creative learning opportunities.

While providing children with a new wood puzzle as often as possible you will observe your children engaging in a unique learning experience without them even knowing it.  3d wood puzzles are a good idea for beginner puzzles and they may be incorporated into other play activities because they are chunky and easy to grasp. 

As with the Monkey Tree Puzzle shown above, and  many other 3d wooden puzzles, an individual puzzle piece may be a complete whole character/animal.  These seperate figures will be a welcome addition to incorporate with your children’s playsets and other games or to play with alone.


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