What to look for when buying action figures for your tween boy

Gift giving always adds a degree of difficulty when the child arrives at the tween stage. Toys are not so clearly marked such as “Great for ages 5 to 8″ or “Perfect for the Preschooler”. Tweenhood is a jolt for the gift giver, but action figures for the tween boy are a great middle stage gift for the child outgrowing his toys but not fully a teenager yet.

Action figures provide a transition between the toy stage and the sophistication of a teen’s mainly electronic wish list. Action figures allow incredible imagination in a tween boy’s mind. But buyers need to be careful when purchasing an action figure because the figure could very easily be representative of dark violence. Know what the figure stands for in the tween’s mind. Is he a tween that gravitates toward heavy handed play? Do you want to encourage that vein of imaginative thinking?

Try to choose an action figure whose story line is familiar to the tween. Is this a hero from a movie, a series, a sport, or a video game? Do the parents approve? Or this is a plastic borderline psycho representative of someone that you would never dream of inviting into your child’s world?

Action figures need to be durable and of good quality. The moving parts need to be of strong plastic or rubber and easily manipulated by the tween’s hands. The Transformer line of action figures is a good example of this. Another line features the 30th anniversary Star Wars series and has the Death Star that transforms into Darth Vader. Though a villain, his storyline is familiar and not threatening to parents and tweens.

Gift giving is actually easier for tweens with today’s new lines of action figures. These gifts are gifts that can endure and be found on college dorm shelves years down the road, reminding the recipient of a classic action story and, more importantly, a great time in their lives, the tween years!

 

Movie reviews: The Transformers (2007) – Part 74

Transformers was possibly the coolest movie I have ever seen. It had action, romance, humor and thrills. The CGI was out of this world, the transformations were spectacular (props to ILM for that one), and the explosions, the oh so many explosions blew me away. The acting was really good, especially on Shia Labeouf’s part (it’s hard to act like a non-existent robot is attacking you. The direction by Micheal Bay was perfect, he was obviously born to make this movie, he is the action king *bows down* “I’m not worthy!”. Not only did it stand as a great sci-fi movie and action movie, it paid homage to the original cartoon which every child of the eighties enjoyed. Everyone in the theater cheered when Optimus Prime came on the screen as the blue-and-red-flamed semi-truck. I recommend this movie to any one who likes fast-paced action, quirky comedy and giant shape-shifting fighting robots. And, who doesn’t?

 

How playing with dolls can bring mothers and daughters closer together

Playing with Barbie dolls can bring a mother and daughter closer together in many different ways. The first and main way is by using the benefits of role playing. Role playing with dolls is used by professionals everywhere to help kids communicate and be able to explain what is happening or has happened.

When a mother and daughter are playing with dolls, they are no longer themselves they transform into the doll. You can create a perfect balance between life and fantasy and it will allow your child to let down that wall that is preventing communication. So when a mother and daughter plays Barbie dolls together it can create the perfect conversation with the child not even realizing it.

Playing with dolls is also a really great way to foster creativity in your child. With Barbie’s they can be anything from a doctor, to an astronaut, or a veterinarian. Barbie has taken the “traditional roles of men and has shown little girls that we can be anything we want to be and with are mother playing and engaging with us confirming that same things we will want to reach for the stars and beyond.

We will always remember the time that our mom took out of her schedule to spend with us. Whether it was reading to us, playing board games, coloring, and yes playing Barbie dolls. Playing and enter acting with our mom or dad at a young age will help to create a special bond that will only grow with time and age.

 

Handmade In The Modern Age

While there is no doubt that our modern industrial world has added to the richness and diversity of our lives, it could be argued that we have lost an essential understanding of the value of making something with our own hands and we have lost our connection to mother earth.

The industrial age kicked into full gear in the latter half of the 1800’s, within just a few years of the end of the American Civil War. Before the start of the industrial age, nearly all products were assembled by hand and made by craftsmen who enjoyed creating the value that they were making available to others.

But with the rise in industrialization, every product once made by hand took on a level of manufacturing, so much so that today, most products bought and sold today on the world market do not have a single human hand touch the product prior to distribution.

In a world of compressed wood products and staples, it is hard to achieve the beauty of handmade wood furniture. In our world of assembly line glass products, it is hard to gain an appreciation for hand blown glass products. In our modern age of vinyl products, it is hard to experience handmade purses. With the development of plastics, we lost handmade luggage and outdoor furniture.

All around us, our world is changing, and not always for the better.

In the 1970’s, there was a full-service gas station at nearly every major intersection. Full-service has since been replaced with self-service, so much so that one can hardly find a full-service station anywhere.

Handmade toys have been replaced with plastic and metal toys manufactured on assembly lines. Wood and plastic designs, made as cheaply as the manufacturers can make them.

We have replaced all that was beautiful and handcrafted, with products made by cold and uncaring machines. Modern living has transformed the products we put into our homes, from works of fine art to efficient and inexpensive products that we have been trained to throw away when the products break.

In this new era, it sometimes seems as if the only things we have left to cherish is each other. Of course, we will always cherish each other, but our grandmothers had handmade quilts and beautifully manufactured furniture. Our grandpas had boots or shoes that were made by hand and taken to the leather shop when it was time to replace the soles on their shoes. Our grandparents even had mechanical watches that were valuable enough to carry to the watchmaker, when the watch stopped working.

Yes, those days are gone.

Before WWII, Christmas was chock full of gifts that were made by the hands of the giver. After WWII, technology began to stamp itself fully into our everyday lives and Christmas was transformed into a “buying experience” rather than a “making experience”.

When was the last time that you received a handmade quilt as a gift? When was the last time your kids made you something for Christmas? When was it when someone last made you a display piece to showcase in your home?

While I do know that few people in the industrialized nations make anything by hand anymore – an exception being the Rolls Royce and Ferrari automobiles – there are many people who live in South America, Africa, and Eastern Asia who still appreciate the value of making products by hand.

With the global saturation of the Internet, we find ourselves in a unique position that most people have not been able to experience in nearly one hundred years. As global retail corporations continue to shop for cheap, mass-produced goods to sell their customers, their customers have the ability to go online and find inexpensive, handmade goods that they may prefer over the mass-produced equivalents.

Many Internet retailers have searched far-and-wide to bring handmade products to their customers. Products that are made by hand, by real people in Africa and Eastern Asia can be found on many online retail websites.

In my world, that is a beautiful concept. It is wonderful to be able to go to a website and buy a product that is made by a real human, using his or her own hands to craft the product with love, care and commitment.

I love the fact that I can go online to buy handmade, but the thing that is most interesting is that one can frequently get handmade products from other areas of the world for far less money than an American, a European or Australian can get the same kind of machined products for from his or her local brick-and-mortar retail outlet.

If you are like me, and you like handmade products, then it will be worth your time to search the Internet to see what products you can acquire to bring good craftsmanship and mother earth back into your modern life.

 

Creating a play house from cardboard boxes

For small projects you can build from the recycling box. Kids can create towers, space ships, boats, castles, dinky car garages and lots of fun things. But if you want to give them something a little more time consuming go to any store that sells and delivers big appliances, they are usually very helpful and will give you the loads of great big boxes for free. The only other things you will need are tape and something to decorate it with. Uses what you have at home. If you have crayons, markers, pencil crayons or kids paint (best for outside) use them. Paint brushes are optional as finger painting can be lots of fun too.

Start with an idea such as outer space, wild wild west, under the sea, knights and castles, princess and towers, a beauty salon or a car fix up shop. Pick something your kids are interested in. It helps to read your own books or get some from the library about the topic before hand. The more knowledge your kids have about what they are going to build the better. This helps them to kick start their imagination, to think of things to add and ways to create.

Be careful not to micro mange them as they are creating. If you like you can help with the big people jobs like cutting the doors or windows and ripping the tape. These tend to be difficult and dangerous for children. But have them show you where they want the door or how big of a piece of tape they need. Remember this is not your creative project but theirs. It may not be the way you would do it. Or will it look like a interior designer decorated the walls. But it will be the kids and they will be very proud of their own hard work. Also it is an important skill to learn how to be creative and work through the problem solving steps of how to do it by their self. They will gain confidence every time you tell them how good it looks.

This project has lots of constructive play time. They will work together to build it and will spend hours playing inside of it when they are finished. As well as being lots of fun it is a great opportunity to strengthen many areas of development that are important to children’s growth. Gross motor skills by building and moving large pieces. Fine motor skills by painting or coloring. Creative skills deciding how to transform a big brown box into anything their imaginations can come up with. Dramatic play skills while they play for hours. And lastly Co-operative skills by working and playing with siblings and friends.

 

Best do

There are many different Halloween costumes for children. However, the best costumes require some ingenuity. Whether you select a popular costume or an unusual costume, you’ll want your child to stand out from the crowd. When creating a do-it-yourself Halloween costume, it’s best to look first in your own closet to see what you’ve already got on hand. Thrift shops and eBay are also good sources for clothing to convert into costumes. Just add some creativity, and you’ve got a winner.

Harry Potter Halloween Costume

This is a good Halloween costume for children ten and up. Get a long child’s coat and basic white shirt. Put one of Dad’s ties on the child. Place a grey sweater vest over the top. Get some black pants for boys. Dress girls in a black skirt. Create a Hogwarts insignia out of colored felt or construction paper. Create a tall wizard’s hat out of felt. Then whittle a twig into a magic wand. Get a larger branch and shape that into a broom. Tie some straw onto the end. The wand and broom will look better if they’re slightly crooked.

Transformers Halloween Costumes

Transformers Halloween costumes are also popular with children over ten. Get some basic cardboard boxes that will fit around your child’s body. Do a few fittings to see how the boxes fit. Create joints with duct tape. Duct tape is also useful for holding the separate costume parts together. Paint the boxes in colors to match your child’s favorite transformer, such as Optimus Prime or Bumblebee.

Hannah Montana Halloween Costume

Hannah Montana is another favorite. This Halloween costume is also very inexpensive to make. You may already have all you need already in your child’s closet. Dress your child in black capris or a black mini-skirt, a white tank top and an off-white scarf. Give her a belt with a large buckle. Add a long blonde wig and rugged brown boots.

If your child is under three years of age, try out some of these cute Halloween costumes for babies and toddlers.

Baby Burrito Halloween Costume

Decorate a dark brown shirt with fabric paint. Use red for hot sauce, yellow for cheese, green for lettuce and white for sour cream. Put the shirt on, then wrap a light tan or white blanket around the body of your child. Pin at the front with safety pins. Finish off the costume by placing a little bit of green yarn or shredded tissue paper on his head to indicate extra lettuce.

Macaroni and Cheese Halloween Costume

Get a bright yellow shirt for your kid. Put a little orange fabric paint on the shirt at random. Then take some styrofoam packing peanuts into a well ventilated area and spray-paint them yellow. Add dabs of orange with craft paint. Attach them to the shirt with hot glue. Hot glue some of these to an old hat or cap. Also consider putting some on a pair of old shoes.

Hot Dog Halloween Costume

Start with a hooded brown sweatshirt or jacket. Then get a large piece of orange felt or foam. Use red and yellow felt or foam strips, or red and yellow craft paint to create mustard and ketchup strips on the orange foam. Apply this with tape or glue. Finish the costume off by dressing your kid in brown pants and shoes.

Pez Dispenser Costume

For this costume, you’ll need a long, slender cardboard box. Cut holes in the box where your kid’s arms should be. Paint the box any color you like, and mark the side with the Pez logo. The head can be just about anything you want. You could create a mask which looks like Spider-man, a dog or a cat, a monkey, Mickey or Minnie mouse, Darth Vader, Snoopy, Kermit the Frog or Daffy Duck. Get creative; the sky’s the limit!

 

Hidden Gifts What To Know So Your Child Isnt Overlooked

Schools in session and although most of their parents dont realize it, millions of early elementary age kids are being screened, tested, and sorted in an attempt to find those who need gifted education support services to flourish.While many schools do an excellent job of finding these kids using screening methods like teacher recommendations and group IQ testing, parents shouldn’t be entirely dependent on the schools when it comes to identification. Keep in mind that many teacher training programs require little, if any, course work in giftedness, so some teachers and school administrators may not have all the information they need to recognize gifted children. There are also gifted kids who are not particularly high achievers in the classroom or who dont do well on group tests. These kids may have problems with attention, have poor organizational skills, or simply not mesh with the teaching style in the classroom, and therefore may be overlooked when it comes to selection of gifted program candidates.I recall one boy he tested privately at the request of his mother who was concerned because her son was getting poor grades, having conflicts with the teacher, and becoming more and more disinterested in school. He was having social conflicts too, being teased and picked on by other students who liked to see his overreactions when they provoked him. It had gotten to the point where home schooling was being considered since it was getting harder to even get him out the door to go to school, which he considered torture. The school had never tested her son for giftedness. Whatever screening process was in place had missed him. Possibly because he didn’t fit the high-achieving, cooperative, wunderkind image that some teachers look for when making recommendations for gifted screening. Yet it turned out that his IQ measured in the 160’s – in the exceptionally gifted range.Because schools can sometimes look over gifted kids who may need special programming, your insights as a parent are important. The more knowledge you have, the better position youll be in to collaborate with the school to help assure that your child’s potential and learning needs are not overlooked.As you’ve probably guessed, without proper assessment, which involves a professionally administered IQ test, there is no easy answer. There are no universally accepted traits that you can look for and no definitive signs that will tell you for sure whether your child is gifted. However, many gifted children share some common characteristics, and knowing these is a good place to start.While most children are able to form recognizable sentences and understand complex language by about two years of age, gifted children often reach these milestones earlier. As they approach school age, other language skills may appear advanced or sophisticated.All children (all people really, big and small) have an inborn desire to learn about the world around them – to seek out new experiences, figure out the relationship between themselves and their surroundings, to discover, and to learn. What distinguishes gifted children from others is the apparent natural ease and joy with which they go about doing this. Their brains appear to be mental sponges, effortlessly absorbing and incorporating new information and ideas.Gifted children are often more emotionally intense than others. They can also be more sensitive to others’ feelings and circumstances and may display a great deal of empathy in situations where others their age appear indifferent.Gifted children may also be advanced in skills involving balance, coordination, and movement and in some purposeful fine-motor activities such as assembling small objects (e.g., legos, transforming toys, blocks) or putting puzzles together.So what should you do if your child has shown many of the above traits, and you feel that he has been overlooked by the schools gifted screening process? While you don’t want to be perceived as overly protective or pushy, you also want to make sure that those making the decisions have all the information they need to truly understand your child.Together, you should be able to get a more complete, objective view than either of you had on your own. Maybe you’ll come to realize that your child would be better off in a general education program since his learning style would not mesh with the type of curriculum being used in the districts gifted program. On the other hand, in light of the extra information you have given her the teacher may recommend to the district administrator in charge of gifted placement that your child be tested further, maybe with an individually administered IQ test.Now all you need to do is allow those involved to respond and let the districts screening process take over. Districts generally want to work with parents and will follow up on most reasonable requests.SIDE BAR MATERIAL: Remember, IQ tests are best seen as predictors of academic achievement. An IQ score only tells us how a certain child has performed on a certain test at a certain time, and says little about that childs true potential. Children can be gifted in many ways that are not measured on an IQ test.

 

Who’s Afraid Of The Big Bad Lorry Driver? Facebook, Apparently.

I, like pretty much every man, woman, child, cat, dog and mouse in the country, am something of a Facebook addict. Sure, I can deny it – and always claim that time spent on it in the office is invaluable networking time (even when networking involves playing a rip off of Scrabble with old friends) – but there’s something of a compulsive delight in spying on old acquaintances and seeing what they’re up to. Then of course, there’s the communities… so many improbably named Facebook groups with even more improbable numbers of members. Everything from ‘The Drunken Text Message Appreciation Society’ to ‘A Cup of Tea Solves Everything’is represented, and more are springing up every day.

Naturally my career at a freight exchange means I have an above average interest in lorries and lorry drivers, so it stands to reason that one day this would collide with my other life-sapping obsessive interest – Facebook. I began looking through the various pages, and was more than a little surprised by the sheer quantity of groups devoted to expressing dislike and mockery towards trucking society. There are a few groups which particularly attracted my attention, including:

‘Nothing angers me more than lorry drivers hogging the motorway!’

Personally, I can think of quite a few things that anger me more than lorry drivers hogging the motorway: famine, genocide, pizza menus through my door – and that’s just off the top of my head! Regardless, 54 people have independently thought “Yes, lorries on the motorway is Number One in my list of annoyances,” and fair play to them.

‘”Lorry Baiting” appreciation society’

This one’s just plain mean, and easily tops the ‘lesser evil’ of haulage vehicles hogging the motorway. For those not in the know, this involves cars travelling in front of lorries on the motorway a mile per hour slower than the lorry behind them, only to speed up a little when the lorry tries to overtake, forcing the lorry back behind. Cruel, unnecessary and ultimately dangerous – it currently has a membership of 54 but ultimately the danger involved in the ‘sport’ could see this number dropping.

54. Let’s face it, this is a very dangerous “sport” and, personally I would prefer them to abandon their game rather than needing another kind of driver to take them to hospital.

‘Lorry Drivers Suck’

Finally, there’s the plain ol’ “Lorry Drivers Suck’ group. A title both simple and to the point, exactly like the group’s membership of 29.

Amongst all the hateful anti-trucker groups (trust me, there are a few – some of which won’t pass the editorial standards of article distribution websites (thanks to the liberal use of ‘f’, ‘c’ and ‘b’ words) there are occasionally touching groups – a personal favourite of mine (and with a massive 1381 members) expresses the disappointment that lorries consistently fail to live up to the expectation that they will transform into Optimus Prime from Transformers. Elsewhere is “Lorry Drivers have Rights Too” – a heart-warming call for equality diminished only by the sorry looking single member currently keeping the group warm.

I don’t know what traumatic event happened in these Facebook group creators’ childhoods to make them so vehemently anti-trucker – perhaps they had a nasty accident with a hub cap, or they were beaten up by an HGV – but I instantly felt a need to redress the balance somewhat. I created a Facebook group in praise of truckers, defending against a tirade of stereotypes. Join it if you want – “Just because I’m a Lorry Driver Doesn’t Mean…” – I can’t speak for everyone else, but I for one won’t bite.

 

Memorable TV cartoon characters of the past and present – Part 2

Yes, Bugs Bunny and all his WB pals were great. The children loved the slapstick of it and even the adults loved the more mature overtones.

I think the most memorable TV cartoon characters were any and almost every toon released in the 80’s.

Lets list a few of the cult classics.

Voltron, Thundercats, He-Man, Dungeons & Dragons, Robotech, G.I.Joe, Transformers!

Toons from the 80’s have birthed cash crop toy lines and major movie productions. Come this July, Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg will release a live action Transformers movie!

Granted Bugs and friends along with the old Disney black and white shorts, I think the 80’s toons will forever be cult classics.

My vote goes to Optimus Prime! When transformes made its first animated movie, and Optimus was killed by Megatron, there was never such a moment or such an uproar of fans. That in its own is a major step in something as simple as a cartoon. In GIJoe the animated movie, Duke was speared in the heart by a snake thrown by evil Serpentor. I was in shock! It was another milestone that many will remember.

So, when Transformers is released and has had its box office run b4 its DVD release, we can look at this comparrison:

Looney Toons: Space Jam w/Mike Jordan…it grossed $90,418,342

Transformers 7/4/07…….?

My prediction of most memorable with a ‘Mice of Men’ twist…

Robot tend the Bunny!…crush!

 

Animal Theme Kid Furniture

It’s so fun being a child nowadays. There are so many different kinds of toys. The computer and the Internet put the world at the fingertips. And they even have their own specially designed furniture—miniature beds, chairs, tables, toy chests, bookshelves, and clothes cabinets.

The Benefits of Specially Designed Children’s Furniture

But what’s so important about investing in children’s furniture? For one thing, it’ll actually be good for your child’s health. When they use a table or a chair that’s too large for them, they tend to hunch over, legs dangling uncomfortably, arms stretched just to be able to maintain their position without toppling over. This hurts their posture, leads to back pains and neck pains, and (if they fall) lead to injuries.

Young children can also hurt themselves trying climb up a chair or reach for a book on a high shelf. They can slip, break an arm, or have a pile of toys or books fall on top of them. Adult furniture may also have sharp corners or metal edges that can cut their small fingers.

Children’s furniture is made for children, and is perfectly built to their proportions. But there’s one thing, too, that children’s furniture can do—they can create magic.

The Magic of Animal Theme Kid Furniture
Children have amazing imagination and energy. They are constantly daydreaming, thinking of adventures, acting out the favorite characters in their book, or creating imaginary worlds (and imaginary friends to explore those worlds with!). They want to conquer the jungles of Africa, or explore every nook and cranny of the farm. They want to ride with the animals on Noah’s Ark, or even run away and join the circus!

Why not encourage their imagination and creativity by buying animal theme kid furniture? These beautifully decorated pieces instantly transform a boring bedroom into a jungle safari or a sprawling farm. Everywhere he looks, he sees cute and friendly animal friends: a bear, a lion, a black and white jersey cow. It’s like all the pictures in the books—or even the images that he’s created in his active mind—have suddenly come to life, thanks to animal theme kid furniture.

Our Favorite Animal Theme Kid Furniture
There’s a wide variety of animal theme kid furniture. All of them are adorable, functional, and meet all safety standards. Choosing which one to use in a bedroom is entirely your child’s personal decision (it’s best to get him involved). However, here are some of the top picks:

• Noah’s Ark Toy Chest – This beautiful wooden toy chest has an illustration of the ark, done in vintage style. The white paint has been distressed to give it an antique look—perfect for a Victorian nursery or playroom. A giraffe and elephant wave hello and invite your little one to come and play. Truly one of the most charming pieces of animal theme kid furniture. Other options are the Safari Theme Toy Chest, also with a vintage feel.
• Kid’s Slumber Barnyard Fun Sleeping Bag. – He and his friends will be as snug as a bug in a rug in this sleeping bag! Be sure to own at least two of these, in case your child wants to hold a sleepover. The bright colors and charming illustrations of cows grazing in a field are the perfect compliment to he rest of your animal theme kid furniture. If your child doesn’t like farm animals try one decorated with funky looking reptiles and the words “Leaping Lizards!”
• Noah’s Ark table and chairs – Your child needs a table for drawing, crafting and other activities. These green and blue animal theme kid furniture sets provide a comfortable work surface… and are, in themselves, works of art. We like the color theme, which gives options to parents who’d rather not use pastels or primary shades.
• Safari Table and Chair set – The bright red and yellow colors of this set looks very modern and so are the simple illustrations of elephants, giraffes and zebras. These animal theme kid furniture are a good investment for parents who want the room to be fun yet not frilly.
• Toad Stool Step Stool. No, not the mushroom, silly. This animal theme kid furniture looks like a green frog poised to jump. It is sturdy enough to hold your child as he steps up to get a book or toy, and fits conveniently under the bed or table. For those who need a higher step stool, consider the giraffe step stool. The animal’s long necks provide a handle for the child to hold and steady himself. These items can be bought separately or as a part of an animal theme kid furniture set.
• Giraffe Clothes Stand – Always picking up your child’s clothes? Tired of the daily search for missing mittens and scarves? The giraffe clothes stands are a great way of decorating the hallway while teaching your child to put away her things. It can also be used to hold school bags.
• Butterfly Cottage Playhouse – If your child prefers bugs, try these butterfly playhouse. The bright colors match well with most furniture (including the ones used by adults!) and the soft walls and window shutters won’t hurt him if he jumps or rolls inside. One of the cutest animal theme kid furniture. You can also get a Froggy playhouse and a Barnyard playhouse. We warned you it would be hard to pick which one you’d like best.

Completing the Look
After you’ve bought and set up your animal theme kid furniture, you may be so excited by how pretty it looks that you want to add additional accessories or design features. If space is a consideration and you may not be able to get really big animal theme kid furniture pieces, here are some decorating suggestions

• Place toy animals and scatter in key areas of the room. For example, you can have a tiny group of stuffed monkeys peek from the corner of a study table or you can get an animal mobile (usually found in the baby’s section) and hang over the child’s bed.
• Use animal stencils, sold in craft stores. Keep the color of the walls simple to let your animal theme kid furniture and accents take center stage.

 

Next Page »