@American Innovative

This fabulous kids alarm clock called the Teach Me Time! Clock from Onaroo by American Innovative, is more than just any ordinary alarm clock. Aside from having a face that shows time the digital way, it also shows analog time, which is the traditional moving hands of the clock. This is such a great feature for older school aged children learning to tell time because they can have immediate gratification of seeing both times displayed. Though here’s my most favorite feature, the clock is also a dual-color nighlight. The LCD will glow yellow, but you can set the clock to turn green, when it is okay for your kids to get out of bed. Amazing, right? Great concrete feature for those older toddlers, like mine, that don’t understand the ability to recognize numbers and have no concept of time.

There is also a Teach Me Time! game with 5 different difficulty levels. A small button on the left side of the clock will display a random time in analog fashion. The button on the right, front side of the clock, will speak the time and also display it in digital fashion, so older school aged kids can practice telling time and self-check it.  For kids who have learned all these great skills, the clock is also a regular alarm clock where the left button functions as a 10 minute snooze button, while the right button silences the alarm. The clock comes with 3 different colored bezels to customize the color, which include blue, pink and yellow rings. The clock runs on AC power to the wall, but there is also battery backup available (2 – AAA batteries required, but not included). I know all of these features sound difficult to remember, but thankfully the parental controls are hidden on the back and a shortcut menu is included directly on the back of the clock.  This product is available for purchase through Amazon.com.

Lately, Gavin has been waking up really early in the morning, like 5 a.m. His internal alarm clock definitely doesn’t understand it when I tell him, “It’s too early, you’ve got to go back to bed.” I’m hopeful that the glowing green light will help us teach him how to stay in his room because the leap to the big boy bed is right around the corner.  I know as parents we’d all love to stay in bed until forever, but you may want to consider setting the clock to turn green, 5-10 minutes after the time your child typically wakes up. As they learn the concept and become successful with staying in bed, you can slowly allow for more snooze time!

I received a media sample to facilitate this review. The opinions are my own.

Pufferfish Squishable

Our pufferfish, squishable stuffed animal, has a permanent home on our couch. Pufferfish doesn’t match any of the decor in the living room, but this 15 inch, plush stuffed animal, is a people magnet. Honestly, anyone, including both kids and full fledged grown adults who have entered our living room over the last few weeks has noticed him immediately, sat down on the couch, placed it on their lap and has immediately begun hugging and squishing it. We entertained a lot of friends and family members at my son’s birthday party over the weekend and this cute guy was seriously the topic of conversation at one point.

My 2-year-old sits on it, bounces on it, launches onto it, carries it around the living room and even tries to squish us with it.  This morning I caught him carrying it into the bathroom before I saved the fish from his attempts at flushing it, though he got an A for effort, it would have never happened just to the shear size of this giant stuffed animal.

I have fallen asleep on him watching television and this Squishable makes an amazing pillow. This also  got me thinking, do you remember those old corduroy overstuffed arm chairs  (which we called husbands) that some of us brought to college for studying? How cool would one of these Squishables be in a tween or teenage dorm room? My niece  in high school said she has seen them online and wanted one for her room. My best friend told me she now wants her own for Christmas.

Squishables are about 15 inches in diameter, full of polyester fiber fill and recommended for kids ages 3 and up. I am typically not much of a plush toy person, but these giant stuffed animals come in 40 different variations! Drawbacks include the ability to only be spot cleaned or dry cleaned, because washing machine use is not recommended. Adorable, silly, fuzzy, soft, squishy fun for kids, tweens, teens and adults of all ages.

Squishable.com provided this stuffed animal free to facilitate a review. The opinions are my own.

©Gamewright

Knock Your Blocks Off is one of the latest game releases from one of my favorite companies, Gamewright, which is a great family game to add to your game night! I have used this educational game over the last few weeks with several different boys and girls between the ages of 8 and 13 as part of school based occupational therapy services.  Though it can be a little tricky initially learning the directions, once the children have taken a few rounds to understand the game, they LOVE IT and have been requesting it from week to week, not even realizing how many academic skills they are learning in the process!

In this game, each player takes a stack of the same colored patterned blocks. The player is also provided with a structure guide card. The player picks a structure on their card (wall, tower, steps, etc.) to recreate using the blocks. However, the key is to build the structure in the right pattern, because the colors on the blocks need to match each other. If you look in the picture to the left with the blue tower of blocks, notice how the blue spot on the bottom block, must be alligned with the blue space on the next block placed? Looks easy, but harder than you might think, especially when you are trying to be the first to build your structure correctly! Be the first to complete the structure in the correct pattern and win a victory point.

Building the structure is only the first part. The second round involves rolling the “demolition dice.” Roll a boulder, flick the dice at your opponents structure. Roll a dragon, drop the dice over the top of the structure. Roll an ogre, perform an underhand throw.  If you are successful in knocking the crown off the structure with the dice, you win a victory point. If you are not successful in the demolition round, the builder can win extra victory points for defending.  The first player to accumulate 7 victory points wins. The game is a little more complicated with the directions than I am describing here, because there are additional ways to win victory points based on the degree of difficulty in the structure you built, but those are the basic steps.

When we play, I often act as the facilitator to monitor that the block patterns match in the structure, and to assist with keeping track whose turn it is to destruct or defend. The boys have really enjoyed destroying the structures, but what I like is that it’s organized destruction with clear rules!  One thing I have found is that the more you play, the more you remember what patterns will let you build each structure the fastest, which can add to your strategy. This game has been excellent for children who tend to have difficulty noticing small details to improve their approach and organization. Some children can still be impulsive with the building portion, potentially not being the first one to capture the demolition dice, but there are so many other opportunities to win points, it has been fun for a variety of children with academic levels and abilities to play together.  We have even seen kids 4 points behind the leader catch up and win, so the outcome can change quickly with each round.

This is a fast moving game, where we have  inished it entirely with 2-3 players in about 15-20 minutes. So it’s a great family game to play as well even when you don’t have a lot of time.  We’ve also incorporated writing assignments such as, “Why or why not would you recommend this game to a friend?” Some children who are working on their organizational skills have chosen to write down the steps of the game to serve as directions to the next group of players.

Gamewright provided this game free to facilitate a review. The opinions are my own.

©Spinmaster

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I am a huge lover of Aquadoodle, especially when working with toddlers, because I think it’s one of the safest ways to teach kids about coloring without the worries or fears of damaging any walls or furniture. Using the water filled pen, kids draw on the large white mat, and their lines magically appear. In older versions of this toy, the lines drawn were always blue. Now, with Aquadoodle Color, colors magically appear when the child uses the pen to draw on the mat! Then, once the water dries on the mat, the drawings disappear. This is a great toy that can be used repeatedly, involves no mess other than water, and it folds up easily, so it’s perfect to take on an outing to grandparents’ houses, to the park or to playdates.

The mat itself has a variety of drawings on the side paired with their corresponding letter of the alphabet. The drawings are comprised of simple curves and shapes, making them easy for older elementary school aged kids, as well as adults to recreate. My toddler loves watching us draw the pictures and likes to guess what the picture is, which is a way to also build his vocabulary. Thankfully, I can actually use the drawings to create something he can identify, because drawing is definitely not my strong suit! We also like to draw a big race track on the mat, he loves zooming his cars on the path.

If you are looking for an even smaller travel alternative, Aquadoodle Doodle Buddy comes as either a bear, bunny or penguin, which children can use the pen to draw accessories onto the face or tummy.  The toy’s hand includes an elastic attachment which stores the small pen.

Spinmaster provided Aquadoodle Color and an Aquadoodle Doodle Buddy free to facilitate this review. The opinions are my own.

So what if you are a child at school, and life hasn’t yet taught you about all the “normal” and “acceptable” ways to fidget. So at school maybe  you chew on your collar or shirt sleeve, impulsively leave your seat, fall out of your chair, rock back in a chair, doodle, bite your finger nails, have a hard time sitting with your class during morning meeting on the floor. To some people these ways of trying to focus attention are perceived as annoying, and sometimes attention getting behaviors. So as more teachers and educators recognize that these are warning signs that a child is trying to pay attention, fidget toys have become a mainstay in many classrooms.  Many people have found that if kids are provided with a more appropriate way to fidget, with strict rules and regulations on what is an acceptable way to use these great toys in a classroom setting, kids can actually use these small toys to help them focus their attention on learning. Though the tricky part is, what sensory experiences I like, might be very different from what another person likes, so here are some great items that have a lot of different sensory attributes.

Aside from those hard to squeeze stress balls, here are some of my favorite fidget toys. These toys are not recommended for children under the age of 3.

The first 3 choices are from Tangle Creations. The original Tangle Jr. is a fidget with a series of interlocking pieces that can be pulled apart and put back together. It is also fun to twist and turn on it’s own, without pulling the pieces apart.

Tangle Jr. Hairy - 

The Tangle Jr. Hairy, places a soft, hair like covering over the Tangle Jr. for added sensory awareness, but still allowing smooth twisting and turning.

Tangle Jr. – Textured -

This Tangle Jr. has pieces that are grooved, bumpy and textured.

Tangle Jr. – Fuzzies -

Instead of having grooves and bumps, this fidget is covered in a soft, fuzzy texture.

Orbo by Popular Playthings/Plasmart -

Use your fingers to push the balls back inside the Orbo and mix them up. Then use your brain and finger strength to match the colors back up again! Though when the balls click into place, they are kind of loud, so best to not use this toy in real quiet situations.

Wikki Stix

These different colored, wax covered strings of yarn can be cut, squished, twisted, squeezed and molded. One Wikki Stix can be easily placed in your child’s pocket  or wrapped around the end of a pencil so they can fidget with it very indiscreetly. They are non-toxic and do not contain latex or other allergens. Pictured here are Super Wikki Stix, but these can be purchased in a variety of sizes.

Tangle Creations, PlaSmart and Wikki Stix provided free samples to facilitate this review. The opinions are my own.

The game includes a very large, plastic game mat (30″ wide x 100″ long), 1 inflatable shape cube, 1 inflatable color cube, 40 game markers (with 4 categories), and an activity guide. Multiple preschool aged children ages 3 and up can play at the same time. Winner is the first person or team to cross the creek to the grassy area on the other side.

The game board is very long, so you will need a pretty large amount of floor space to unfold the mat. Because it works on multiple educational ideas, this game can be used with both young children and older children at the same time depending on the level they are at.

Game play is simple. For younger kids, use only the color dice. They can place their game marker at start, roll the dice, then put their marker on the closest space that matches. Roll a crocodile and lose a turn. If they end up on a numbered space they can earn an extra roll of the dice if they can name the number. Older kids roll two dice, one for color and the other for shape, placing their game marker on the nearest space that matches. Roll a Crocodile on the color or the shape cubes and it’s a Wild Crocodile for that cube, allowing the child to pick any color they chose. Roll two crocodiles on both cubes and it’s a Wild Wild Crocodile where they can move the marker to any color and shape space.

When unfolding the game to test it out, it is vinyl and does have a bit of an odor. The mat does easily fold again after use and fits back in the same box for storage. My toddler has no awareness of colors, shapes or numbers, but it’s a very bright and inviting game board, so even he loved looking all over the mat for the stars, geese, turtle and fish. The one concept I thought there would be more of was the hopping, because there wasn’t any mention of jumping from log to rock in the directions. When playing, I would add having each child begin at start and hop to their game marker along either a rock or wood path before they move the marker, just to build in a little more physical activity and coordination.

We are giving away a Crocodile Hop game (SRP $17.50) to 1 lucky winner. Contest ends Sunday August 21st, 11: 59 p.m. EST.

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Learning Resources provided this toy free to facilitate the review. The opinions are my own.

A few months ago we received a new tricycle for my 1 1/2 year old son, so I went on the search for a new toddler bike helmet. Some people might wonder why I would be so diligent about getting a helmet for my toddler; considering he’s in a 5 point harness and I’m pushing the tricycle with one of those large extension handles. Not only do I have a job because children suffer from brain injuries that are often the cause of freak accidents, but just like the dentist tells you brushing a child’s teeth at a young age is more about forming a good habit, I thought the same for my toddler. If he’s always known to wear a helmet when he rides his bike, I’m hoping there shouldn’t be any issues around wearing one when he gets older. Not to mention, though he might not be the one falling off yet, if we are pushing him on the road near cars and other bikes, I’d rather be more safe than sorry.

The Giro helmet is pretty stylish for the little guy, he absolutely has no problem wearing it, and it sits squarely on the top of his head, nice and snug. This particular helmet has a pinch-free buckle, visor, bug netting and two blinking red lights that are battery operated to help warn oncoming traffic.

In our family, helmets will be a must-wear, with no if’s, and’s or but’s allowed. The same goes for you parents, if you don’t wear a helmet, I would expect an argument from your children. Practice what you preach and make sure the entire family gets outfitted for a sturdy helmet. Giro has an extensive line of bike helmets for adults and children for both cycling, skating and snowboarding, and on their website they have a nice video that will instruct you how to measure the head appropriately for proper fit. We need to make sure those little noggins are protected in any way we can.

Need to personalize your helmets, also check out an interview I did with my friend Gregg from Helmtops last summer!

Giro provided this helmet free to facilitate the review. All opinions are my own.

Photo courtesy of Derek Wilmot Photography.

And then there are those individuals who not only illustrate, but who also find the words to give great meaning to their stories. So everyone, meet Kevin Bloomfield. An illustrator AND author of children’s books, who recently released Mr. Biggs in the City, which I had the pleasure of reviewing.

The premise of the story includes one silly Sasquatch or Bigfoot, a.k.a. Mr. Biggs and his squirrel friend, who leave their cave in the forest to test out all the fun and excitement that big city life has to offer. Except Mr. Biggs’s physique lends himself to be a pretty big “bull in a china shop.” So, none of the activities he thinks would be fun like riding a roller coaster, skateboarding, and my personal favorite — ballet, just don’t appear to really be any fun for him, for reasons you will definitely see why in the illustrations! So what will make Mr. Biggs happy? You’ll have to check out the book for yourself to see.

Now for one of the coolest features I have seen in a children’s book. I was provided with a bilingual copy of the book,meaning the story is written in English on one side of the page and Spanish on the other. What a great way to help children learning either language to bridge the gap. On just a few of the pages, it could be a little distracting with so many words on the page, but I really think this is a great concept. (It was kind of fun as an adult who hadn’t practiced Spanish in 15 years to give myself the good old college try at pronunciation!)

The story is simple, and having a toddler at this point, I can really appreciate the use of simple language in books. We’ve all been there one time or another when we abandon the words on the page because some kids are just to young to understand every word. Mr. Biggs in the City is geared for children in preschool (about 3 years old) through 3rd grade. This book is amazing for its entertaining illustrations, that both children and adults will appreciate.

Apparently there are plans for Mr. Biggs to head to the circus in his next adventure, so follow all upcoming news at www.KevinBloomfield.com, on Facebook and on Twitter.

A copy of this book was provided free to facilitate this review. The opinions are my own.

Here are some great features of the new LeapFrog LeapPad Explorer which is available for pre-order, now!

- The device has different applications that will encourage children to read interactive books, play games and learn to write letters

- The device is geared for children ages 4 to 9, and it can be customized for up to three different children

- By the end of the year, there will be over 100 learning experiences available for use on the device through online downloads, or cartridges available for purchase at big box retail stores

- There is a magnetic stylus that nicely stores on the side of the device

- A microphone, camera and video camera will allow children the ability to take pictures and movies

- Similar to the Leapster Explorer, if using the stylus, kids can draw pictures and stamp directly onto photos that they take

- Kids can hold the Leap Pad and move it from side to side for motion based game play

- I got a sneak peek at an exciting new Disney illustration program where children can learn to draw different Disney characters step by step. It can be then be colored in using the stylus and when it’s all finished the drawing comes to life!

If you are wondering what other toys were highlighted, stay tuned, for an upcoming post!

I attended an event by LeapFrog and was provided with a demonstration of the device. Any opinions are my own

©Derek Wilmot Photography

How many of you remember your parents requiring that you sit at the dinner table until you eat your vegetables. “Eat your peas, then you can have dessert.” And yes, dessert in my house as a child was Twinkies, Hostess cupcakes or Swiss Miss Pudding cups.  I’m pretty sure the three pieces of corn I choked down to win my prize didn’t do a whole lot for my health in the short term. However, since we now live in the land of the organic variety, most people are trying to be smarter about the food choices we make for our family. Apparently our parents must have known something, there is one value that continues to transcend time, we have always realized how important it was to provide fruits and vegetables.

Now fast forward several years, I work with children who have feeding challenges, usually because they either don’t have the ability to control the food in their mouth for chewing, or that they have certain diagnoses like Autism where children might be very rigid and picky regarding the foods they will eat. And there are also the toddlers demonstrating their new found independence who can push food away, clench their mouths, or throw the food at you or off the side of the tray, like it’s their job. I meet parents everyday that wish their children were not so picky with foods because their children are losing weight and improving their child’s eating is seriously a matter of life and death.

June 17th is National Eat Your Vegetable Day. Here are some of the strategies I use everyday with parents that might just be able to help the children in your family have more fun eating more healthy. If you have concerns about your child’s feeding, please consult their doctor. Some of these strategies are for older school aged children, so always provide foods that are at your child’s skill level.

-Be mindful of the portion sizes you provide your child. At a recent conference I went to with Susan Roberts, MDiv, OTR/L, she reminded us that a child’s portion size is what they can hold in their hand. Showing your child a huge pile of peas might look to them like they need to climb a mountain and they might feel defeated before they even start.

-If you encourage them eat a food first, then they can have dessert or be done with dinner, keep your promises. Start with a goal they can accomplish and encourage them to eat one pea before they can get up from the table. If they earn your trust, you can raise the bar slowly over time. If you break the rules by saying, “just one more bite every time,” why would they try to please you?

-Sit with your children during meals. If they don’t see you eating it, why should they? We should positively model good behavior to our children.

©Growums

-Involve your children in the meal preparations. I’ve recently been introduced to a company called Growums. They have developed 6 different seed growing kits, complete to help children make pizza, stir fry, ratatouille, tacos, herbs and salads. Each container has all the seeds and herbs needed for your child’s favorite dish. Using the included coco pellets, you place a few seeds in the pellets, water them and watch the seeds grow. Transfer them to the backyard garden or a planting container. Harvest the food and work together as a family to make your meal from scratch. It only took 2 days for my seeds to begin to grow. Allowing your child to watch the process from start to finish and feeling a sense of accomplishment could help.

-Don’t get into the habit of hiding vegetables in mashed potatoes or other textures so that they are in plain sight. If you can puree them and add them to a tomato sauce so they can go undetectable, I think that’s a better route.  Hiding can lead to mistrust again, and let’s face it, they pretty much find it every time.

- Use dips. Ranch dressing, guacamole, yogurt, salad dressing, salsa, hummus, spinach/artichoke dip. Even if they don’t like to eat vegetables cut carrots, celery, peppers, and cucumbers into strips. They can use their vegetable almost like a utensil for dipping, at some point you might just find them taking a bite.

Growums provided a Taco Garden Kit free to facilitate a review. The opinions are my own. Please consult your child’s doctor if you have concerns about their feeding abilities.

Recently we have been using some of the 3D sparkling paints from the Creativity for Kids 3D Paint Activity Kit, which is recommended for children ages 6 and up. There are so many different ideas included in this kit, we’ve had a great time at school redecorating the windows to our room!

Included in this kit are 10 different colors of 3D paint (including 1 silver and 1 black outlining paint), 30 or more patterns to trace, 2 plastic paint sleeves, gemstones, googly eyes, glue, ribbon, cord, a trinket box, craft sticks, green chenille stems, glitter gel and craft glue.  I know many people think arts and crafts kits are more for little girls, but to be honest with you I used this at school with mostly boys.  Granted I didn’t have them making flowers and decorating the trinket box with gemstones, but the tracing patterns were pretty universal, so they had a great time using the paint to make window art.

For the Window Art, place  a plastic sleeve over one of the pages of tracing patterns. Outline the pattern in either silver or black, then let it dry for at least 30 minutes.  Once dry, squeeze the paint into the outline to finish off the design. Let it dry, then remove it from the plastic and it will adhere to a window.

©Creativity for Kids

We worked in a small group of 2, and each child could have their own outlining paint and plastic sheet covering. Only issue was that they had to wait their turn if they wanted to use a pattern that was on the same template. However, if I had planned ahead, the kids could have drawn their own designs, or I could have made extra copies of the templates and this would have not been an issue!

Included in the box are directions to also use this paint to make jewelry, design a trinket box, make suncatchers and create 3D sculptured designs like a horse, ice cream cone, and flower.  The instructions included in these kits are pretty easy to read as an adult, but I would definitely use this kit initially with your child if they are insistent on doing some of the more challenging 3D designs. Initially it was hard for most of the children to coordinate squeezing the paint while tracing along the line at the same time using even pressure. When they are finished you might want to make sure their outlines are even so that after they fill in the colors and let it dry, it can easily be removed from the plastic.

©Creativity for Kids

Parents always ask me for suggestions of kids’ crafts they can complete over the summer so they won’t regress in the areas of hand strength and writing. Before you go into mommy mode, worrying about the mess that it might make, set up a plastic tablecloth outside on a picnic table in the shade, and rest assured knowing that your children will be using many of the skills they have learned in school that require following directions, step by step planning, creativity, and control to have a little fun along the way.

Check out my other Creativity for Kids posts:

Create Your Own Enchanted Storybook

Diva Puppies

2 Winners Will Receive Their Own Creativity for Kids 3D Paint Kits!

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Giveaway ends Tuesday June 28th at 11:59 p.m. EST

Creativity for Kids, a Fabell Castell company, provided this kit free to facilitate a review. The opinions are my own.

I love the versatility of this game, because even young two year olds who don’t know how to play the game will enjoy squishing the bag and labeling the pictures that become uncovered from the beads.

Here are some other ideas of games older children might enjoy:

- Call out a picture from the key on the back of the game and be the one to find it first

- Find a picture by color or category like animals or vehicles

- We all want to keep our kids writing over the summers without causing a battle. Have the children practice their writing and keep track of all the pictures they find in a 5 minute time frame. The first one to write down the most pictures in that time frame wins! (A little helpful hint: there is a key on the back of the bag that includes a picture, paired with the written word of all the contents in the bag– so this is great for children entering first grade who can copy simple words and they won’t have to ask you for the spelling!)

- Encourage the kids to use crayons, colored pencils or markers, to draw a picture that they find hiding inside the bag and use it to inspire a quick game of “Pictionary”

- For older children who can write sentences, let them write silly sentences with the pictures they have found, as a family vote on who wrote the craziest

International Playthings provided this game free to facilitate this review. The opinions are my own.

Shrinky Dinks, geared for chlildren ages 7 and up, now come in a variety of new, 3D designs, with themes such as dinosaurs, space, sea life, fairy princess, military aircraft, zoo safari, pirates, and trains.

So at school this week we’ve been having fun creating sea animals. These are a lot of fun, but do require the use of a toaster oven or conventional oven for the shrinking powers, so parents and teachers, you will definitely need to supervise the kids on this one. Simply kids trace a creature from a template using colored pencils. Color in the shape, cut it out, place it on a foil lined cookie sheet in a preheated oven, within 1-3 minutes it will magically shrink before their eyes! After a few minutes to cool, they are ready for play.

Here were some of my helpful hints:

- We were able to modify the fun for kids of varying ability levels. For one child, I traced the outside with the colored pencil, and he colored the inside. For another child who was a bit impulsive and quick with the scissors, I cut it out to make sure his hard work wasn’t ruined and to minimize any frustration.
- I got to thinking, since I literally can not draw a straight line, I wish I had used Shrinky Dinks when I was younger for my school projects. For children who can’t draw, you can not imagine how real looking and perfect these animals look when they are shrunk to a portion of their original size!
- When using them with 2 kids together, we had one student write a few sentences about his shark, while the other traced, because there is only one template included in the package.
- After you cut them out, you will get some scraps, but keep them, you never know when you might need to just make a small detail.
- The paper could be hard to cut through for some kids, but on the flip side I actually like to work on developing kid’s hands strength, so it was perfect for my goals.
- The toaster oven was amazing if you are short on time. Using the toaster oven took literally 4 minutes from heat up to shrink down. However— the kids couldn’t see the process in action as easily as they could have in a conventional oven.

I think what was even more amazing, was watching the teacher’s looks on their faces when we brought them back to class, EVERYONE, remembered making these as children and you could tell it brought back so many personal memories.

If you would like to win your own package of Shrinky Dinks, we are giving one away!

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Giveaway ends June 20, 2011, 11:59 p.m EST.

I work with many children that are working on their visual memory skills – simply – the ability to look at information, and remember its significance, even after several minutes or hours have passed. This is a great skill needed for more intricate note taking when children are in their older grades, as they look up at the board and copy their notes into their homework assignment books. So, I adapted Bingo Link to work on visual memory.

We played a few rounds of Bingo Link as the directions suggested, then I kept the markers in my gameboard and hid it from the student’s view. I asked the student to look at her gameboard for a few minutes at all the pictures that were currently under the green markers. Then, I removed the gameboard and asked the student to to write down all the pictures she could remember on lined paper.  Afterwards, I encouraged her to look at an empty gameboard to see if there were any that were forgotten, then write them down on the list. Finally, we used my finished board to cross reference the list with the gameboard. I have no idea how  many pictures or pieces of information children should be able to retrieve at different ages. However, what I do know, is that is is great to practice these types of skills with something that will keep their interest, so when they need to take notes in class or write down their homework from the board, they will have had some great practice!

Gamewright provided Can You See What I See? Bingo Link free to facilitate a review. The opinions are my own.

Each playset comes with:

- 2 or 3 different containers with different color Play-Doh

- Unique Play-Doh molds that allow children to create accessories to their story. For example, Hansel and Gretel has a plastic candy house included that once opened has molds inside where extra candy pieces can be made.

- A laminated play mat, that opens like a book, with one side that has a picture of the fairy tale in action, the other side includes the actual written story of the fairy tale. Pictures of the play pieces are included in the written story as symbols, so young children learning to read can act out the story, using the characters and the accessories in the right order.

Here is my opinion:

- I think this is a fantastic concept for children learning to read. I love how a very simple version of the fairy tale is included in the package. I really like how digital images have been inserted as symbols into the fairy tale.

- However, I wish there was a key to what you would call specific items in the playset. For example, in Hansel and Gretel, I hadn’t read that fairy tale in probably 20 years, I couldn’t remember for the life of me who the scary lady was that lived in the candy house. Was she a wicked witch or crazy stepmother? Honestly, it got me so annoyed I had to google the fairy tale and read it for myself to get the sequence right! I know imagination is key, but I am kind of a rule follower.

- At a retail price of about $6.99, similar to the price of a book, it’s a very unique and different way to engage children in reading. Especially for those children who might not like to just read a story, this provides a totally different multi-sensory experience.

- I would suggest using this Play-Doh activity one-on-one with your child, they may need a little help to sound out the words and figure out the story sequence initially.

Hasbro provided these samples free to facilitate a review, the opinions are my own.