Cute and Poopypants? Oh my!

My daughter just turned 3 and she received these Calico Critters for her birthday. I am most likely a bit biased since I was the one who gave her these because I can't get over how cute they are. Fortunately she seems to agree. I get to be the baby bunny and she is the mommy bunny. These little critters provide hours of creative entertainment. They are on the expensive side but I guess I'm buying into the hype. It is interesting that my kids did not know about these toys and I'm guessing it is because they don't have their own tv show (yet!). The only downside I can see is that a friend told me the clothes come off and are not easy to put back on. Fortunately my daughter has not realized this yet, so for now we're still in the honeymoon stage with Calico Critters.


My son just turned 6 and OMG, his favorite book thanks to Grandma is Captain Underpants. I recently saw Captain Underpants on the list of "challenged" books. I guess I am quite lax in that I too find Captain Underpants hilarious. I only wish the author wouldn't spell things wrong or use improper grammar. I have learned how to make squishies from the first book (take packets of ketchup and tape them to the underside of the toilet seat and then wait for someone to explode them while sitting down.) Hilarious!

Now I am off to shop for a birthday present for a soon to be 1 year old boy. He has an older brother and an older sister so I am not sure what to buy. I am open to any suggestions! Since my son is now six it has been quite some time since I've shopped for a 1-year-old.

Edutainment

I told a few of my colleagues that my son's kindergarten report card had a grading area for "Algebra." My colleagues happen to all be math wizards and pointed me in the direction of the Math Rabbit: Multivariable Calculus for Ages 4-7. Thanks for the tip guys!

The topic then turned to Edutainment. It seems they had all had great edutainment experiences in the early 80s with their Mac IIe computers. Products I heard named were: "Math Blast", "Number Munchers", "Robot Odyssey" and "LEGO logo." And they all agreed that the "Oregon Trail" used to not suck. In the spirit of trying to find the best kid products I searched for all of these products to see how they stand today. I won't be recommending them.

However, I now am on the path for searching for the best Edutainment products. So far I only have one on my list: Leap Frog's Letter Factory. When my son was 5 he watched this and went from knowing only a few letter sounds to every letter and their sound within a few days. I can't recommend this enough.

Anyone who has a great (current) Edutainment product to recommend please let me know!

Life Changing Product

This marks my first post for my High 5 Kids blog. The compatible site is still in stealth mode development but as I hunt for the right products to highlight I thought I would blog about the journey.

This week I found the perfect product. It is not often that I find products that will change my life but this one has already. Oscar Blandi Pronto Dry Shampoo is a miracle product. I poofed some on my hair and voila, I could go yet another day without washing it. Do you know what this means? I was able to sleep in another 45 minutes instead of washing my hair. Deodorant, dry shampoo and little perfume to cover up any error of use and I'm good to go. I almost tempted to see how many days in a row I could actually stretch without washing my hair.... nah, probably not a good idea.

Before I had kids saving a few minutes so I wouldn't have to wash my hair wouldn't have been such a big deal. But now as a mom, every minute I can free for myself for sleep counts. This would be the perfect gift for a new mom.