Toys and Games Books

I bought this for a Plants unit for my homeschooled children (K and 2nd). It really worked well for us, bringing interesting experiments, high-interest information, and easy-to-follow directions (a must for the busy homeschooling mom!) The children get to see first-hand what the inside of a seed looks like, the parts of plants, and many other things.
I was pleasantly surprised with the ease of turning this book into a science unit for our homeschool as well as the interesting activities within. Too many "made-for-school" lesson plans seem to be watered down, boring, or difficult to pull of in your kitchen or living room with multi-aged children. This one, however, meets with my approval, and I am looking forward to using other books in this series.

Jean Rossi's book is a very fun book to read. All of the Schiffer Publishing books are wonderful. It's loaded with large color photographs of very good examples of each collectible. I have many reference books. This is one of my favorites. Rossi puts the item's maker, year, size (in inches), and price range directly next to the photo. There's no flipping pages and searching for the price! Every single example has a large photo with it. Her chapters include information on polystyrene, caring for hard plastic novelties, Rosbro, Irwin Cohn, the Knickerbocker Plastic Co., Union Products, and manuf. of electrical novelties. This book is definitely one I'd recommend to collectors of holiday related plastic novelties (Christmas, Halloween, Easter, and some Valentine).

This is a must-have poetry book for teachers. There are poems for holidays and special occasions, and even thematic poetry. Maria Fleming has done a great job of adding activities for each poem. The layout is great-- ready to read or make a transperancy for a class read along.

This is a very fun book to read with the kids. We read it over and over.

My sister gave the kit to my 6 year old daughter and when my son reached the age of 5, they started fighting over the kit! My daughter didn't want him to "waste" her loops! The additional loops created peace and they both get to make as many potholders as they want. That's what all the grandparents, aunts and cousins are getting for Christmas this year. One suggestion - wash the potholder before using it so it will tighten up and you won't get burned.

I love this book for my preschoolers. I use the pages to go along with our themes.

My son age 4 loves to play these cards. He has fun and he is learning the presidents and things about them all at the same time. He can now name the first 12 presidents and some of their vice presidents from playing this game.

Great book for teaching problem solving skills as well as review of math concepts. Good appendix with a handy two page summary table of problem solving strategies that are presented throughout the book. Could easily be used in GATE program. Teaches children how to apply the math skills they have learned.

I gave this Fairy Catching Kit to an 8 year old little girl for Christmas -- she really loves fairies. Her Mom said she has not stopped playing with it since she received it! What's especially so cute -- is the tiny cage!! Even her (almost) 50 year old Aunt said she would like one for her birthday...so it seems like it's the perfect gift for fairy lovers of ALL ages!

Finally someone has a fabulous idea for enhancing the telling of children's tales. This book is such a simple design and so well thought out. There is a glove in the book and there are over 30 different characters with velcro backing that you attach to the glove. In the book, there are three main sections: 'Finger Plays' or nursery rhymes and songs, 'Plays' which are the fairy tales (like "3 Little Pigs" and "3 Billy Goats Gruff"), and then there's a 'Create Your Own' section where there are some suggestions to get your imagination flowing. I bought this for my 2-year-old and she loves me telling the tales with the finger puppets. I think I might buy another one to keep in the car for those lengthy car trips -- beats out a VCR in the car in my opinion...