Written by Give your kids something to roar about with a new prehistoric pal from Store for Knowledge’s 2011 Carnegie Dinosaur Collection. This brand new Carnegie collection features two top of the line dinosaur replicas of species never before seen in the Carnegie line. Pick up the ferocious Carnotaurus, similar to a T-Rex but with smaller arms, and let your child rule the dinosaur world. The other new dinosaur, the Miragaia, is an unusual plated dinosaur with a very long neck and a spectacular double row of spikes down its back, similar to a Stegosaurus. There are two incredibly cool new dinosaurs your kids don’t want to miss out on. Carnegie’s models are developed via the collaboration of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History to ensure their quality and accuracy. These amazing reproductions are intricately hand-painted to provide a completely life like experience for children as they play with their favorite dinosaurs. Both recreational and educational this new Carnegie collection is great for kids play and classroom learning. Whether it’s their first dinosaur or adding to their growing Carnegie collection, get your kids roaring with a brand new dino buddy from the 2011 Carnegie Dinosaur Collection at Store for Knowledge!
Free Never Sounded So Good!
In rough economic times like these, what is the one word everyone loves to hear…FREE. That’s right free. The Store for Knowledge crew knows how good free sounds and has added in a free gift category that is hard to beat! As a huge thank you to customers Store for Knowledge now offers a selection of free gifts that customers can choose from after making a purchase. Simply add one free item to your cart with your purchase and it’s yours. Currently they offer ten free gift items including: Shark Tooth Necklaces, Plastic Binoculars, Mini Game Bubbles, Large Magic Springs, Mystical Silly Shaped Bands, Sports Silly Shaped Rubber Bands, Hatchin’ Grow Dinos, Quartz Points Mineral Rocks, Red Tiger Eye Mineral Rocks, and Personal Oil Reserve Genuine Fossils! Take your pick and Store for Knowledge will ship it with your order! Check out the Free Gift tab on the Store for Knowledge website to find other great deals they are offering like an extra 10% off current discounts or free shipping offers. Check out Store for Knowledge today because free has never sounded so good!
Because Vegetables Don’t Just Come from the Grocery Store
There’s no better way to keep your kids busy on a long summer day than to let them garden away. Yeah, that’s right, gardening. In the hustle and bustle of modern life it’s easy for kids, especially those growing up in urban areas, to be unaware of exactly where their food is coming from. It seems like so many kids think that food come from the grocery store but beyond that they have no knowledge of the time and effort that goes into growing their food. However, it has never been easier give your kids just what goes into growing the food they eat than it is now with the Store for Knowledge kids gardening collection.
This incredibly educational collection features two sub-categories- tools & toys and gardening apparel –both of which are dedicated to providing outstanding gardening supplies to enhance your child’s outdoor experience. Store for Knowledge provides a wide selection of the coolest and highest quality kids gardening tools and toys on the market. They have everything kids need to get their own little outdoor garden up and growing! Gardening with tools and toys from Store for Knowledge provides a fun and unique learning experience that gives kids hands on knowledge about how farmers grow the foods they love to eat.
The Store for Knowledge kids gardening apparel collection doesn’t disappoint either! Here parents will find a fun collection of gloves, boots, water bottles and more that keeps their kids protected from the elements while giving them the look of a true gardener. The collection features multiple styles and sizes so you’re sure to find something to fit your little gardener.
Don’t let your child be the one who thinks that vegetables come from the grocery store. Use the Store for Knowledge kids gardening collection to teach them firsthand how gardening works and let them have a little fun digging in the dirt.
Geodes!
If your children are amazed by rocks then they will love learning all about the incredible rock formations known as geodes. From the outside, geodes look like another boring round rock but crack one open and kids will be amazed by what they find inside. Geodes are formed in hallow areas of the earth where minerals dissolve and seep over time to form their outer shell. But as the minerals continue to form the inside walls of the shell, a miracle happens.
Over millions of years these minerals grow toward the center of the shell creating the most beautiful crystals inside. Some geodes are completely filled while others remain partially hollow but either way their beautiful crystals are awe inspiring. Found throughout the world in various shapes, colors, and sizes, geodes are commonly found in states like California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, and Iowa, where the geode is the state rock.
There’s no easier way to let your kids experience the magic of geodes that the Store for Knowledge geodes collection. Here you will find beautiful cut and polished geodes in various colors and sizes that kids will love displaying in their room or giving as gifts to teachers. But if you want to give them the full fledge experience pick up one of Store for Knowledge’s various break your own geodes kits and let kids have at it. Kids love the excitement of getting to break open their own geodes and examine the crystals within. These break your own geodes kits provide kids with a one of a kind hand-on learning experience they will never forget. Stop by the Store for Knowledge website today and let them help you introduce your kids to the amazing world of geodes.
Get Rolling with Rock Collecting
Rock Collection Kits
Growing up every kid loves to find something cool to start collecting. For my brother and I that something was rocks! Most people probably think, “Rocks? Really? Why?” Surprisingly rock collecting is an incredibly fun and educational experience for kids and parents both. Kids can discover the difference between the three basic types of rocks – igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic, and learn firsthand how each of them is formed. Kids learn the fascinating process of how elements form minerals and minerals form into rocks. Through rock collecting kids can learn the techniques to identify the different types of rocks and the minerals they are made of. Kids go on an adventure back through time as they learn how old some of their rocks are and how long it takes them to form!
Rock Collecting for Kids
When I was a kid our rock collecting consisted of what we found while exploring outside. I remember the excitement in stumbling upon an interesting rock while playing outside or having my dad bring home one he found at work. My brother and I had so much fun looking through our collection of rocks and books trying to decide where the new ones fit. Rock collecting was something we bonded over and though we only collect new rocks on occasion now, it’s memory from our childhood we both cherish.
Today, however, kid’s collections can consist of so much more that what ours did. While it is fun to go out and collect you own, it is also great to have cut and polished rocks in your collection. In the Store for Knowledge mineral and rock collection there are over fifty rock and mineral collecting sets to get your child started or grow their rock collection. Whether its geodes, crystals, fossils, rocks or gemstones you want, Store for Knowledge is sure to have what you need. From basic introductory kits to advanced collections you’ll find some of the most interesting rocks on the planet. They even have collector’s boxes for those incredible rocks kids find on their own.
Rock Collecting Kits and Geodes for Kids
Get your child started collecting something that they will be able to cherish for years to come. For some like my brother and I adulthood brought an end to our collecting but for many rock collecting is something they can continue to enjoy the rest of their lives and pass on to their own children and grandchildren. With the amazing mineral and rock collection at Store for Knowledge there’s never been an easier way to get started. Take your kids on an adventure through time with a hobby that could last a lifetime and get them started rock collecting today.
Dinosaur Train makes a stop at Store for Knowledge
Dinosaur Train Toys for Kids
One of the reasons I love shopping Store for Knowledge is that they are always adding new items to their selection. The other day while browsing their dinosaur toys category I stumbled upon their new Dinosaur Train toys collection and thought its contents were incredibly cool. The Dinosaur Train toys category features a line of assorted dinosaurs and the train track from the hit show Dinosaur Train which the kids I babysit can’t get enough of. The collection features the main character Buddy and other members of his Pteranodon family that the kids love. All these hi-tech dinosaurs feature an infrared transmitter and receiver that give them the ability to recognize and interact with the other dinos in the line. With simply the press of a button kids can hear over 40 sounds and phrases as these dinos interact and communicate. From chomping and sneezing sounds to stomping sounds when they walk, these Dinosaur Train interaction figures act just like real dinosaurs. The category also features the Dinosaur Train dino track adventure set that includes
Dinosaur Train Toy Set
the dinosaur train in the TV show. Kids can go on an adventure with the three included dinosaurs beginning at Pteranodon Terrace, stopping at Rexville Station, then making their way to the Pteranodon Family’s nest. Altogether this is just a great category for preschoolers who love both trains and dinosaurs. The Dinosaur Train collection encourages basic scientific thinking skills and allows them to go on a prehistoric journey with their favorite dinosaurs from one of the coolest kids shows on TV. So stop by the Store for Knowledge dinosaur train toys collection. I’m sure you’ll be as impressed as I was!
The Perfect Soft Play Stegosaurus Dinosaur Toy
Soft Play Dinosaurs
My neighbor’s little boy is turning five in a couple weeks and since he’s been a dinosaur lover from day one his mom wanted me to get him a soft play dinosaur for his birthday. After spending a little time with him one afternoon I noticed he seems to fascinated with stegosauruses and decided to go that route for his birthday present. So off to the Store for Knowledge website I went in search of a soft play stegosaurus dinosaur. After browsing their soft play dinosaur’s collection, I found two I really like. The first is the large soft foam stegosaurus dinosaur toy by Toysmith and the second is the Bullyland soft play stegosaurus dinosaur toy. There was definitely a price difference with the Toysmith version set at $10.95 and the Bullyland version at $21.95 but instead of letting that
Soft Play Dinosaurs
be the deciding factor I did a little more research. Though both dinosaurs are safe for ages 3 and up, Toysmith’s stegosaurus is smaller than Bullyland’s by a couple of inches in length and height. Toysmith’s dino is made of high quality durable foam that sounds as if it would hold up well against a pretty rowdy crowd but it lacks that real life appearance I’d like it to have. The Bullyland stegosaurus is actually hand made using a soft and squishy foam with bendable legs that I’m not sure would endure the rowdy every day play of a five year old boy. However, the Bullyland version does truly look like a real life stegosaurus! Both soft play dinosaurs are great options and for what you get, I think they are both very reasonably priced. For a child who was loving and caring toward their toys, the Bullyland soft play stegosaurus dinosaur toy is definitely the way to go, but for the rough and rowdy five year old, I think I’m going to have to go with the large soft foam stegosaurus dinosaur by Toysmith.
Outdoor Summer Fun
Backyard Safari Outfitters Lighted Field Scope
Summer time is finally here! I picked up my two younger cousins from their last day of school today and like most kids, when we go home the first thing they asked was, “Can we please play outside?” I’ve been babysitting these two for years now and know that outdoor activities and adventures are their favorite so to be prepared for this summer I made a trip to the Store for Knowledge website to browse for some toys they could enjoy all summer long. The first two things I decided to pick up for them this summer really hit on their favorite activities of camping and exploring nature: The Campfire Glow Lantern and the Lighted 6X
Campfire Glow Lantern
Magnifying Field Scope! Both of these outdoor toys are products of Backyard Safari Outfitters and like the name suggests they helped take my cousins on a backyard safari adventure. With the lighted magnifying field scope the kids can get an up close look at all kinds of cool specimens they find in the back yard bugs, flowers, and seed heads. With a wide-view eyepiece, sturdy handle grip, and even a build in viewing light, my cousins can “Zoom in on Nature” just like the package says! While both my cousins enjoy real camping trips, the campfire glow lantern lets the make the best of the times when a backyard tent is the best I can do. The bright LED lamp lights up their backyard tent completely while the fact that its water-resistant lets me know it will hold up against some of their wildest adventures. With its study handle they can haul it along anywhere and I can hang it up in their tent where it lights like a chandelier. My favorite feature and the one they can’t get enough of either is the lanterns color glow campfire mode. When a real campfire is out of the question, this allows their tent to have the glowing campfire lighting kids love. These two outdoor toys have really helped me get their first few days of summer off to an adventurous start. I can’t wait to see what other fun summer toys Store for Knowledge has to offer!
Melissa & Doug Magnetic Responsibility Chart – An All-Around Win
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Melissa and Doug Magnetic Responsibility Chart
At various times over the last year (like, say, when she has insisted on being the one to move the clean utensils from the dishwasher to their drawer, only to drop all of them on the floor en route) I have referred to my daughter as The Unhelper. She is not quite three, and not quite as big a contributor to the orderliness and cleanliness of our household as her enthusiastic choruses of “I DID IT!!!” (and my equally excited responses of “WAY TO GO!!”) throughout the day would suggest. But she is all about the trying, and I am all about the letting her. After all, what does having to rewash some utensils really matter if it means that in a few more seasons she’ll be the flesh-and-blood form of the designated-dishwasher-unloader for which I’ve always longed?
Now is the prime time to channel her spirit of service, her passion for pitching in, her avidity for assisting me! Enter: the Melissa & Doug Magnetic Responsibility Chart. For everything from potty training to counting down the days until Christmas, we are all about charts.
Magnetic Responsibility Chart
The Melissa & Doug Responsibilty Chart comes with 25 preprinted responsibility magnets and 2 blank magnets on which custom responsibilities could be written with a dry erase marker.
Magnetic Responsibility Chart
It also comes with 63 smiley face reward magnets.
The upper magnetic board of the chart is sectioned off into a column with spaces for the chore magnets and separate columns for the days of the week, under which the idea is to collect a smiley face for each responsibility met each day. The lower magnetic board of the chart is a dry erase board that doubles as a place to store the extra smileys and responsibilities (unless you live with a toddler like mine who would take all the smileys to play in her room, never to be seen again—if you live with someone like that, I recommend storing the extras in a plastic baggie just out of reach). As with everything Melissa & Doug that we’ve ever played with, the quality of the materials used is excellent and the colors and graphics are very attractive to a toddler.
With a minimal amount of debate over which responsibility magnets to use for our first week (I just can’t turn her loose on the glassware in the dishwasher yet, no matter how ready she insists she is), we easily found seven achievable, age-appropriate goals. Her favorite, because it has an ice cream cone on it: “say please and thank you.” My favorite, because . . . well, for obvious reasons: “stop whining.”
Magnetic Responsibility Chart
You’ll note that our favorite magnets are not necessarily the things at which we excel. Yet. But we are SO rocking some of the others! Either that or she’s done a little rearranging of the happy faces when she thought I wasn’t looking.
Melissa and Doug Magnetic Responsibility Chart
. . . I see the seeds of life lessons taking root, lessons just as big as learning to get dressed and say “please” and to bathe and to put away the army of small toys that make barefoot navigation to her bedside at night rather hazardous. Lessons in things like recognizing a goal, doing the work to reach it, and being proud of having done it for herself.
And equally important: lessons in falling short of a goal, being disappointed when the reward isn’t given anyway, realizing that moving a reward from another task only leaves a hole somewhere else, and resolving to keep trying to reach the goal.
We’ve had a lot of those “keep trying” talks, but seldom am I sure just how much is absorbed. Then, while we were out today, she asked me for the sippy cup I had forgotten at home. I told her that I had forgotten to bring it and that I was sorry. And then braced for the meltdown.
Only instead, from the backseat, just a sigh followed by: That’s okay, Mama. You just have to keep trying.
Melissa and Doug Magnetic Responsibility Chart
I might not deserve a smiley face for “bring everything with you that your kid’s going to need” today, but she’s definitely getting the smiley for not whining. And I’m going to dry erase “cut your mother some slack” on one of the blank ones just so I can reward her for that today, too. She’s totally earned it.
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Giveaway Note! We are so thankful to Paul at StoreforKnowledge.com for the opportunity to have tried out and reviewed this product. It is such a cool learning tool that we want to share one with a friend! So head over to OtherSuch.net follow the instructions to enter the giveaway, and OtherSuch will order one of the responsibility charts from Store for Knowledge and have it shipped to the winner. (The Giveaway opens at 8:00 a.m. on March 15, 2011 and closes at 11:59 p.m. on March 16, 2011.) Good Luck!
When Good Toys Find a Good Home: Henry’s Story
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Henry Staring Contest
Hey Store for Knowledge, it’s me, your old pal Henry a/k/a Melissa and Doug Plush German Shepherd. Well it’s official, just like a Cabbage Patch kid, I’ve been adopted. Can you believe it? Not too long ago I was hanging out in the warehouse with all my friends – you call them “employees”; but here I am with a new loving family.
My new sister, Bella and I were very nervous when we first met, so we decided to have a staring contest to break the ice. Obviously, we tied. Since then she has been showing me the ropes of this place. I have excelled in the area of guarding our family. We are always on the lookout for something that doesn’t belong.
Henry playing
Don’t worry, it’s not always business around here, we spend a lot of time playing. Thank goodness I was built so well, I can hang with the toughest of them. Durable yet loveable ~ that’s me.
Henry Checking Out The Snow
I’m a little timid of this stuff. It is cold and wet on my paws and when I come back in those humans chase after me to wipe my paws. They yell something about getting the couch wet.
All in all I really enjoy this place, especially my new family. Bella and I can sit and chat all day long about everything and anything.