First Time Mom and Losing It

When I went to the Toy Insider HoliDAY of play event in October I was most excited to see the toys that taught while being fun. Being a former teacher and a mom of a soon to be preschooler I know the types of toys that would keep her engaged. Since she will be going to Pre-K4 soon I want her to learn at home as much as possible while she plays.

At the HoliDAY of play event they had a whole category just for STEM. STEM covers Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. When I first went to the STEM station I didn't think that there would be many things for a three year old, boy was I wrong! The Thames & Kosmos company has some amazing engineering kits and three of them were aimed at kids 3+.


The one that mostly caught my eye was the Amusement Park Engineer kit. My daughter is at the age now that she can finally get into some rides at the arcade we go to. I love that this kit is a part of a fun story involving two very curious kids. They build simple models to solve problems that their family encounters while at the amusement park. While reading the story you can help your child build 20 different structures and machines. Some of these structures include a Ferris wheel, carousel, pirate ship pendulum, bumper car and so much more.

The Amusement Park Engineer kit is made up of large and colorful plastic building pieces that are perfect for little hands. While the kids are having fun building the structures it helps develop fine motor skills. It is also helping with science and math skills, and reasoning and development skills.

Click on the link to learn more about the Amusement Park Engineer. They also have an Automobile Engineer Kit and an Aircraft Engineer Kit.


Which one of the kits would you have most fun playing and learning with? 

Did you know that today marks the start of National Recycling Week? In NYC we have to recycle so I grew up always having to sort garbage. At two and a half my daughter also knows the importance of recycling. I explained to her that by recycling we are helping to reuse garbage in different ways. She knows where to throw her paper, plastic and regular garbage at. She actually has fun running to kitchen to throw things away.


I wanted to teach her that garbage doesn't have to be thrown away and that it could be given a second life. To get her excited about using garbage for other uses we watched Anneroids together. Annedroids is an adventure series that focuses on science. A cool little eleven year old prodigy, Anne invents and builds some amazing androids with the help of her two sidekicks, Nick and Shania from things in her junk yard. Not only does the show teach science in a way that a kid could understand but it also shows how you can reuse "junk" or garbage and eliminate waste.


After watching the show again with my daughter I explained that we would be giving new life to the toilet paper and paper towel tubes like Anne gave new life to the junk she had. We set out to give new life to the paper tubes by turning them into art.


First I took the paper towel tubes and cut them into 1/2" slices. I pinched two sides to create petal shapes.

Then I took a piece of white paper and drew a design with petal shapes. I squirted some glue in an old cheese tub top and got some paint and brushes out.


I showed my daughter how to dip the petals in the glue and paste them on to the paper. Then we took the paints out and I tried to steer her into coloring the ground with brown, the leaves and stem with green and the petals with pink and purple. Then I told her to color the background with blue.


Though she painted the design how she wanted we still came out with a beautiful piece of art. She loves painting so it was cool to see her painting on a different raised texture of the paper tube. We created a flower design but you can do so many different things with the paper tube slices.


You can celebrate recycling week and get some great ideas by watching Annedroids on Amazon Prime Instant Videos.

Have you ever watched Annedroids before? How do you teach your kids the importance of recycling?

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Annedroids is Amazon Studios' third original kids series that are aimed for children ages 4-7. Annedroids debuted on July 25th on Prime Instant Video. Annedroids is an adventure series that focuses on science. A cool little eleven year old prodigy, Anne invents and builds some amazing androids with the help of her two sidekicks, Nick and Shania.


Before I showed it to my daughter, nephew and niece I sat down and watched the series by myself. I was hooked within the first couple of minutes because I was curious as to what was behind the junkyard door. It was great to see all the different androids and that it was a little girl who was the one who created these amazing "Annedroids". As a former teacher I loved how it used science terms and explained what they meant in a way that a kid would understand.


After viewing the episodes myself I got out the snacks, threw a whole bunch of pillows on the floor and turned off the lights. I used my chromecast to cast the episodes on my TV and let the kids enjoy the screening of the episodes. As soon as my daughter saw the Androids she pointed out and said "Robot". I loved how Anne explained the difference of a robot and an android. After learning this my nephew made sure to correct my daughter and told her they were androids. It was cute to see him explaining to the girls (my niece and daughter) the different things he learned.


My nephew loved the show and was talking to his mom all about Annedroids when she came to pick him and my niece up. She asked me how he knew what an android and hypothesis was. I explained to her about the show and she thought it sounded like an awesome show. My nephew who is 4 1/2 is set to start Pre-school in September so I was glad that he was getting a jump start on learning science. My niece is 2 1/2 and my daughter is 2 and they both also enjoyed the show. They liked seeing all the "annedroids" and were pretty interested in all the action and special effects.

Annedroids is geared toward 4-7 year olds but I highly recommend it for kids two and up. I even think kids older than seven would enjoy the show. I love a show that is educational, entertaining and unique and Annedroids was definitely all of those. The little kid actors were amazing and very relatable too.

You can learn more about Annedroids and watch the first episode for free by clicking on the following link: http://clvr.li/1xYY9eU. Follow Annedroids on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date with the show.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.