Category Archives: Toys

Double Giveaway! Creative Gifting: Laurence King Publishing Ltd. Gift Guide

by Julie Posted on December 11, 2012

If you’ve read any of my posts then you’re familiar with my obsession with giving children gifts that promote creativity and learning.  Books are an obvious choice, I know.  But these aren’t just any old books.  Laurence King Ltd., a British publisher distributed in the U.S. by the  beloved Chronicle Books brings us some modern, interactive titles and more to fuel your child’s imagination, rocket-style!

Here are my picks for the kids in your life:

1. Magic and Fairy-tale Dice -  These give new meaning to the term “conversation starter”.  Simply roll the beautifully crafted wooden dice and include your resulting image in a story.  At $14.95 these are great for the classroom or home and fun for all ages – I quite enjoy them myself!  The whimsical images include an array of creatively classic storytelling components, including a frog, witch, phoenix, shamrock, and you-know-who’s little red cape.   The most magical thing about these magic dice is the way they get the gears in motion, my girls are so excited to add on to the story and love the challenge of including the random element determined by their rolls!

2. & 3. Let’s Make Some Great Placemat Art and Let’s Make Some Great Fingerprint Art by award winning illustrator Marion Deuchars are interactive workbooks designed in such a way that the child is practically collaborating with the author on some pages and being guided by her on others.  In the tradition of her Let’s Make Some Great Art (a personal favorite), these activity books provoke your child’s imagination.  Great springboards in the placemat book include inventing one’s own pasta shape and imagining what some illustrated people and birds might be dreaming about, at only $12.95 and 72 pages, this book is both affordable and will provide hours of inspiration.  Also, inspirational, the fingerprint book is exactly what you’d imagine, and then some!  Be sure to wrap a stamp pad or two with this one, as your recipient will use her own fingertips and hands to create a plethora of creatures and critters.  At $14.95 for a whopping 128 pages this is a winner for elementary kids and up!

4. My Wonderful World of Shoes by Nina Chakrabarti rides on the heels (pun fully intended) of My Wonderful World of Fashion and My Even More Wonderful World of Fashion, which I gave to my daughter last year and she still enjoys.  Inspire your future designer with styles from vintage to couture to color, embellish, and make their own!  $15.95 is a small price to pay for 144 pages of high fashion and more!  For an adorable sample of Chakrabarti’s adorably detailed footwear, check out this cute little video!

 WIN!

Enter to win one of two awesome prizes generously provided by Laurence King Publishing Ltd.!  They are giving one Takes a Village reader a set of Magic and Fairy-tale Dice and another reader will receive a My Wonderful World of Shoes activity book!

Plenty of ways to enter are below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Huge thanks to Laurence King Publishing Ltd. for providing terrific review materials!
Posted in Book Review, Creativity, Development, Education, Gift Giving, Gift Idea, Giveaway, Holidays, School, Toys, Villagers | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

DIY Spotlight and Giveaway! Capes by Daisha – Help Your Kid’s Imagination Soar!

by Daisha Posted on June 25, 2012

My name is Daisha and I am Designs By Daish.  For years I have been crafting little treasures for my two crazy boys and for my friends and their kids.  Last year, my Mother-In-Law (who has been mastering the craft of crochet, sewing and many other forms of artistry for over 40 years now) and I decided to do some craft fairs and boutiques.  We had so much fun that we decided to take things to the next level by opening our Etsy shop to get the word out about our handmade products.

My Mother-In-Law has raised 4 children and has 9 grandchildren.  I am a stay-at-home mom to my two boys, 6 and 3.  My husband and I just celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary and life is just moving right along!  We are unique in that we adopted our first son and enjoy an extremely open adoption with his birth parents (yes…both of them!!) and then after 8 years of infertility, we were surprised and very excited to find ourselves pregnant with boy #2 shortly after boy #1 turned two (we couldn’t have planned that better!!).

I enjoy my role as a wife and mother but crafting gives me something that nothing can…the ability to create and be artistic and expressive.  I hope the winner of this custom cape has a child who will enjoy it as much as my two little super heroes enjoy theirs.

Win One!

As for the giveaway…the winner will get to pick EVERY little detail!!  These capes are REVERSIBLE which is wonderful because one side can be adorned with your child’s name and the other side can be their favorite superhero, phrase (BAM!  Ka-Pow!!  Zap!!), etc.  Or for those princesses out there, their cape can be adorned with a crown, flowers or anything you can think of!  You can have each side be a different fabric color…for example, a princess cape could have a pink base on one side and a purple base on the other.  Heroes could have their favorite color on the side with their name and the color that best suits their favorite superhero on the other.  Sky is the limit…so don’t be afraid to get creative!!  These capes are attached at the neck with velcro, which allows for even a toddler to easily put them on and take them off themselves.  Capes are one size fits all from approximately 2 years old all the way up to 8 or 9 years old…which is when most kids don’t want to be superhero’s or princesses anymore. The decals on the capes are handmade, iron on and then stitched into place securely with a sewing machine.  They will stand the test of time…no decals falling on the floor here!

We offer many, many products in our Etsy shop.  Come check us out!  It is a perfect place for baby shower gifts, birthday gifts and much, much more!

Enter to win the giveaway below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Special thanks to Daisha for her guest article and giveaway!

 
Posted in Creativity, Family, Gift Idea, Giveaway, Guest Author, Kid's Clothes, Toys, Villagers | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Keeping Up with The Fisher Prices

by Rajina Posted on January 11, 2012

“I really need to buy that toy for my baby.”

“She needs it.”

NOT!

It’s so funny how when it comes to new toys how we all need to go out and make that purchase, i.e.  the educational blocks that sing to your child or the monkey that reads her a book.

Do we need these things for our little ones?  Not really.  Not to mention the weight of the hefty prices.  I personally think it’s us as parents that want to keep up with the fad.

My princess is very content with good old wrapping paper and tupperware.  But marketers and plain old envy remind us that our neighbor has that mega building, mind blowing, going to make my son/daughter a genius toy.  And that, my friends, is why we get suckered into buying that expensive, and fun (for a bit) product.

Happy spending!!!

Posted in competitive parents, Parenting, Spending, Toys, Villagers | Tagged , , , , , , , | 11 Comments