Learning Expressions

The Great TV Dilemma

Greetings, Learning Expressions readers!

As part of this blog, we aim to offer you some insights on parenting - unquestionably the most important job in the world! Currently, the closest thing I have to a child is my pet cat named Lloyd Brewster Davies. Despite the fact I often try to rock him to sleep and plan to dress him up as Santa for our Christmas card, I am sure most of you would agree I am not all that well-equipped to proffer much perspicacious parenting advice.

Luckily, I have a good friend who has two young boys at home and is an expert at all things mom related. I am delighted to welcome Katherine Riolo (former journalist and PR manager) as a guest blogger – today she will be chatting with you about tots and TV time. Enjoy! - Kathryn

 The Great TV Dilemma

Sometimes I yearn for the chance to empty the dishwasher in peace. Before I had two boys to contend with (age one and two) this task was simple—straightforward even. Now, it’s become a battle of sorts. The baby sees me open the dishwasher door, and he makes a beeline. All those shiny spoons and sharp knives are just too tempting. My toddler dances over and begs to help, which means he must hold each dish while I carefully lift him up (over and over and over again) to reach the cupboards. Between refereeing the two boys and keeping them safe from various kitchen weapons, the once simple task of emptying the dishwasher is transformed into quite the undertaking.  

These are the times when I am tempted, sometimes beyond hope, to plop the two on the couch in front of the television. It’s a constant battle between the two voices in my head; One says, “Go on! One little episode of ‘Thomas and Friends’ can’t hurt!” And, then, “No, no, no! TV is not the solution! Too much ‘screen time’ (as the pamphlets in our pediatrician’s office declare) is bad! Bad! Bad!”

So far, we’ve managed to keep the screen time in our house relatively at bay. This, in turn, makes the TV an extremely effective babysitter for our two sons on the rare occasion that we do let them watch it. They become completely zonked out – eyes wide and mouths agape – and there’s no refereeing needed as long as those lights and sounds are coming out of that box. I can empty the dishwasher in three minutes flat! Fantastic!

But wait. Behold a recent study by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Researchers found that kids who watch just nine minutes of “Sponge Bob Square Pants” do worse on tasks requiring focus and self-control than kids who watch a more slow-paced cartoon. Our pediatrician’s literature wasn’t joking when it forbid the dreaded screen. That’s it, I decided! I’ll banish all TV from my children’s lives.

And I did, for a while. Flash forward a few weeks to an appendicitis scare in our toddler. We sat for hours in a children’s hospital room which, of course, was no time to enforce the no-TV rule. Our little man appeared delighted with episodes of “Yo Gabba Gabba,” and the TV-zombie-trance seemed the only way to get him to stay in bed and stop messing with his IV.

 An enthusiastic doctor came in later to check on the patient. “Do you see who this is?” he asked, pointing to a cartoon character sticker on his shirt. My toddler stared blankly. “It’s Dora. Do you like Dora?” More blank staring. The look on the doc’s face told me it was probably the first time the Dora card didn’t win him a connection to his pint-sized patient. I mean, really, what planet is my kid on that he’s the only one who doesn’t know Dora?? It would be one thing if we were some family of archeologists stationed at a dig on Rapa Nui. But no, we live in a moderately sized American city with access to all the modern amenities!

After our ordeal (thankfully the appendicitis was a false alarm, and we were sent home late that night) I began to rethink my enforcement of the screen-ban. I talked over the whole TV issue with my dad, a retired teacher. He told me I was being too much of a stickler about it, and he was adamant that kids should be culturally literate. Like it or not, he said, part of kids’ culture comes from TV. In playgroups and in school, they’re all going to be discussing the latest episodes. The kids who suffer under no-TV regimes are going to be totally left out of these conversations; he recalled from his teaching days that kids would lie and pretend to know all about the shows, in desperate attempts just to fit in.

So, despite the scary study from the AAP and warnings from my pediatrician’s handouts, my husband and I have concluded that the key to television in our home (like most pleasures in life!) is moderation. We have vowed not to lean on the TV as a crutch but to use it for short spells of downtime, as a special treat. Moderation might seem an obvious conclusion to anyone reading this, but we new parents sometimes need to take a somewhat winding course to reach our destinations.

Now that I’m at peace with the great TV dilemma (and pleased to report our toddler no longer eagerly asks when our next TV-watching hospital visit will be taking place) I’m free to focus my maternal anxiety on the next big challenge – potty training!

- Katherine Riolo

 

Counting Our Blessings at Learning Express Toys

Dear Learning Expressions Readers,

If you’re anything like us, you have turkey on the brain today! With the Thanksgiving holiday only one more sleep away, I wanted to share with you the top three things Learning Express Toys is thankful for this year.

Our Store Owners
The Learning Express store owners are entirely integral to the success of the Learning Express brand. Unlike corporately owned stores, each of our locations is locally owned and operated. What does that mean? It means that our stores are run by people committed to providing shoppers with high-quality specialty toys and an exceptional customer service experience. Our owners are entrepreneurial, creative, and hardworking—each as unique as the stores they have created and the communities they serve. Without them, we wouldn’t be here—and we’d like to take the time today to thank them for all that they do (especially during the ridiculously busy holiday season) and for being part of the Learning Express family! 

Our Vendors
If you’ve been to a Learning Express store, you’ll know that it’s not a place full of plastic junk that your kids will lose interest in by the time the sun sets on Christmas Day. Rather, the shelves are stocked with a mix of products that foster a love of learning through play. Our toys often become enduring family favorites because they are thoughtfully selected from our talented, innovative vendors. Vendors like Alex, Melissa & Doug, Ugly Doll, and PlaSmart continually create and produce exceptional toys and games, and we are proud to stock our shelves with their ever-imaginative merchandise.

Our Customers
Our shoppers generally come in two sizes: parent-sized and pint-sized. And (as my mom used to say of my siblings and me) we love them just the same, but in different ways. With the prevalence of Toys R’ Us stores and the popularity of Amazon.com, we appreciate all of you grown-ups who make the effort to shop locally at a neighborhood toy store. We love that so many of our customers recognize the value of the in-store shopping experience (thank you, knowledgeable sales staff!) and take advantage of free gift wrapping, free personalization, and our other specialty services.

Finally, we are probably most thankful for all the kids who run around our sales floors like over-excited lunatics and spend entire afternoons testing out/coveting every toy in sight. If it were not for children’s passion-for-play and love-of-learning, we wouldn’t do what we do.

We are grateful every time you save up your allowance for a toy at Learning Express, grateful when you come in and select your best friend’s birthday gift with the utmost care, grateful every time your eyes light up when we demonstrate our latest gadget, and yes—even grateful when your little sister embarrasses you by throwing the world’s most heinous hissy fit upon your departure from Learning Express. It’s hard to leave the places we love, after all.

For many of us, the very best part about Thanksgiving is the chance to gather in the places we love with the people we care about most. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday in your favorite place with your favorite people—and don’t forget to check out what Black Friday sales your local Learning Express Toys has to offer!

Talk to you again soon, and Happy Thanksgiving!!

 

Cultivating an Attitude of Gratitude this Thanksgiving Season

Greetings, Learning Expressions Readers!

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, I thought now was an apt moment to reflect upon the not-so-easy task of raising a thankful child. At age 7½ I mortified my own mother by sitting on Santa’s lap and, in response to his question of what I’d like for Christmas, giving the surly reply, “Every. Thing. You’ve. Got.” Unsurprisingly, my mother immediately whisked me away (much to the chagrin of my well behaved siblings) and spent the entirety of the car journey home weeping over how she could have possibly raised such an ungrateful offspring.

In my defense, I had recently learned the horrible truth about Santa and felt utterly disenchanted by everything to do with the holiday season. The year before, I had set a booby-trap for Old Saint Nick (in the form of sharp/pointy toy trains spread across my bedroom threshold) and had been rudely awoken by my expletive-spouting parents as they fell on top of each other and spilled the spoils of my stocking all over the floor. Mom took a slug of Santa’s sherry, Dad took a half hearted bite out of a snowman shaped sugar cookie—and they were gone, my childhood fantasies along with them.

On that car journey home, when mom asked why I had acted so disrespectfully to Santa (and told me I would certainly be on his naughty list and at great risk of not getting presents) I hissed that, unlike the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny, Santa didn’t even exist thank you very much. She left that particular discussion to another day, but took us home and sat us down to discuss the importance of being thankful for what we already had, as well as grateful for what we would receive that holiday season. Below I have come up with a list of ways to help foster gratitude in even the most beastly of children, as inspired by my long-suffering mother.

Reward and Exhibit Gratitude

“Thank you” is a golden word. If you’re using it frequently and thoughtfully, it’s likely your children will pick up on it – you are, after all, their first and best role model. Though thankfulness is a complex concept they might not entirely understand at a young age, saying their “pleases” and “thank yous” is a good habit to engrain early.

Saying “thank you” might sometimes have a hollow ring to it (especially if resentfully muttered by a truculent 7½ year old), which is why exhibiting meaningful expressions of gratitude in front of your children is also so important. Showing you are thankful for the everyday things (a warm house, a good meal, bedtime stories) will help your children not to take the good life for granted.

Silly though it may sound, thank your children when they say thank you or express their gratitude. Give them a hug, and tell them you appreciate it when they’re appreciative.

Set Giving Boundaries

Back in the day, I would have been a big proponent of giving your kids whatever they want, whenever they wanted it. It was the great sadness of my childhood that my parents’ childrearing methods did not align with such a belief. However, as my husband and I begin to consider having children of our own, I’m coming to see that constantly showering children with gifts may merely result in the creation of tiny tyrants.

Parenting articles I’ve read suggest that the best way to make your child an appreciative (rather than entitled) individual is to make them wait for or earn the things they want. Not to say spontaneous gifts shouldn’t ever be given, but that waiting for birthdays or holidays to give gifts allows children to look forward to (and be grateful for) what they receive. Similarly, encouraging kids to earn money through chores, or to save up their allowances towards a toy they want, teaches them the value of working hard and saving money.

Serve Others

I would also suggest occasionally providing younger children with a little bit of perspective, so they can come to understand that not all children enjoy the same kind of privileges that they do. One article I came across said, “When they’re taking a warm bath you might discuss with them the fact that some families don’t even have clean water in their houses.” In this way, children begin to understand the world outside themselves and can appreciate their own place within it.

With older children, try to find ways that they can actively get involved within the community—whether it’s volunteering at a soup kitchen, donating gifts to low income families, or running a book drive. Giving them the opportunity to make others feel happy and grateful is a truly profound thing.

Create Traditions

Thanksgiving is the time of year that many of us will pause and reflect on all that we are thankful for. I would encourage you to create a ritual around this that your family can do every year. My favorite part of Thanksgiving occurs when my family sits around the table and we all tell each other what we are thankful for that year. Needless to say, at 7½ I announced to my family that I was especially thankful that at the very least the Easter Bunny (and most likely Santa’s elves) still really existed. 

Talk to you again soon!

 

You Say Tomato...I Say Shop Local!

Greetings, Learning Expressions Readers!

Since November is Shop Local month, this week’s blog post is dedicated to the joys of—surprise,
surprise—shopping local!

Strange though it may sound, purchasing toys at your local toy store is much like buying organic tomatoes at your community’s farmer’s market. Though there is certainly something tempting about the incredibly shiny, genetically modified versions you can get at the leviathan supermarket down the road, buying delicious locally grown produce from your friends and neighbors certainly has its merits.

Allow me to take you back for a moment. Once upon a time, in high school Environmental Science, our class was tasked with measuring our household’s carbon footprint. I grew up on the NH/VT border, so there was many a ultra-green, environmentally savvy family in our community. Many people had vile looking things called “composts” and some even ran their houses off of solar panels—which proved awfully problematic when trying to dry one’s hair on a cloudy day.

When it came time to report our findings, I was appalled to find that our home had a carbon footprint twice the size of many of my classmates, and three times the size of some of my more zealously eco-friendly classmates. I had thought that my dad’s snowmobiles, gas guzzling car (11mpg), and preference for greenhouse-like temperatures in our home might put me somewhere at the high end…but this! I was horrified.

I set out to show him the error of his ways, and wrote a detailed report entitled “How to Convince Your Eco-Terrorist Parent that You’re Not Just a Tree Hugger.” Though there was no chance that I could convince him to drive a smaller car or get rid of his “man-chines”, I was certain I could at least convince him of the merits of purchasing locally-grown organic produce for our family.  Usually, should I attempt to add locally grown tomatoes to the cart, he would immediately remove them. “I refuse to purchase these small, strange, horribly expensive tomatoes!” he would cry, before grabbing a handful of their genetically modified brothers from the adjacent shelf.

Sadly, I never did convince dear old dad to reduce his carbon footprint or to shop in the organic fruit and vegetable section of the supermarket. However, by using the same three arguments I drew upon in that long ago, oh-so-idealistic report (enjoy high-quality produce, help the environment, support your community) I hope I can convince you about the merits of shopping at your neighborhood toy store.

1. Enjoy High Quality Produce/Products
   

Had my dad ever actually tried a locally grown/organic piece of fruit, he would have found that it was insanely delicious. Bottom line, the quality and taste of locally grown produce is fantastic.

The same can be said about shopping at your neighborhood toy store. While big-box toy stores or online shops may carry anything and everything you could imagine, the product mix at locally owned toy stores reflects a focus on quality not quantity. Not all toys are created equal, and local toy stores are committed to stocking shelves only with items that have exceptional play value and are sure to spark children’s imaginations.

Shopping local also means taking advantage of in-house expertise. Owners, managers, and employees of these neighborhood toy stores are passionate about what they do and are well-versed about the product they sell; they are committed to helping customers find the perfect toy, for every child, for every occasion.  

    2. Help the Environment

You might be surprised to hear that shopping locally, like organic farming, also helps the environment! Buying from a local business conserves energy and resources in the form of less fuel for transportation, less packaging, and products that you know are safe and well made because your neighbors stand behind them. 

Did you know that the product found in a big box retailer is shipped first to their central warehouse, and then to the stores? Products shipped to a local retailer go straight from the vendor to the store - saving precious natural resources!

    3. Support  Your Community

This one is by far my very favorite reason to shop locally. Whether it’s an organic tomato or the latest Uglydoll that you’re buying, if you purchase them locally you will benefit the community in which you live. Here’s how:

-         You keep dollars in your economy. 
For every $100 you spend at one of your local businesses, $68 will stay in the community. What happens when you spend that same $100 at a national chain? Only $43 stays in the community. And if you buy online from out of state, you'd be lucky if even one dollar returns to your local community.

-         You create local jobs. 
Local businesses are better at creating higher-paying jobs for your neighbors.

-         You nurture your community. 
Studies have shown that local businesses donate to community causes at more than twice the rate of chains.

The very best part of shopping locally (particularly at Learning Express Toys – and okay yes, I’m a little biased!) is the connection that is formed between the customers and the local store owners/employees. There’s really no better way to sum this up than through the story Ariel shared last year:

“On Christmas Eve night, Connie and Rex, who own the Learning Express in Nashville, got an email from a customer. It was 11pm and the mom had just opened up the package of a big wooden castle she had purchased at the store, only to discover that she had ended up with the boy version, not the pink one she had intended for her two little girls. The castle was supposed to be the crowning glory of Christmas morning—the big gift from Santa. And it was all wrong.

Connie called the mom immediately. The woman was in tears. Connie told her that she had a pink castle in stock at the store and that it was all going to be okay. At 6am on Christmas morning, her husband Rex drove out and met the dad in a parking lot halfway between their houses. They exchanged the castles just as dawn was beginning to break in the Tennessee sky. A few hours later the two little girls came downstairs to find a magical Christmas surprise beside the tree.”

Pretty amazing stuff, right? Though your kids may not thank you for serving them up organic vegetables at dinner every night, they’ll certainly thank you for shopping local and finding them the very best toys around!

Don’t forget to stop by your local Learning Express Toys this Saturday, November 12 to celebrate Neighborhood Toy Store Day!

Talk to you again soon.

Kathryn

 

 

Learning Express Singular Sensations: The Sparkling Hair Accessory Kit

Greetings, Learning Expressions Readers!

If you had a chance to look at our Top Toys of 2011 list, you will have noticed that each year Learning
Express Toys carry a number of exclusive products. These “singular sensations” are the result of a thoughtful collaboration between our buyers and some of our most popular vendors. This year, one of our all time favorite items is the Sparkling Hair Accessory Kit by Creativity for Kids.

For this week’s blog, I was tasked with testing out this kit. Most people would be overjoyed at the thought of getting crafty—I, however, was consumed by horror. I failed “Creating With Fabrics” class in the eighth grade, and am ashamed to admit that, in high school, my very lowest grade (with chemistry a close second) was in art class.

On the plus side, had I done this project myself the hair accessories very well could have closely resembled the ones your four year old would make. But for the purposes of showing off these awesome hair accessories at their best, I couldn’t go it alone. Luckily, our office has two ridiculously artistic individuals in residence, and they agreed to put me out of my misery. Incredibly, Sandie (one of our buyers) and Carly (our web copywriter) actually enjoy getting creative and were thrilled at the prospect. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed Learning Express craft time today. Sandie and Carly did their magic, and I looked on in awe and didn’t lift a finger – which, given my history, was probably for the best.

I think the ideal way for you to learn about this kit is to see for yourself what kind of amazing accessories can be created with it - take a look at what Sandie and Carly fashioned!

The Sparkling Hair Accessory Set contains the following:

 

- 6 Sparkling Headbands
- 4 Clips
-  2 Satin Bows
- 1 Red Rhinestone Bow
- 1 Red Rhinestone Bow
- 3 Marabou Feathers
- Glittery Felt Heart
- Assorted Rhinestones
- Assorted Ribbon
- Craft Glue
- Gel Cord, Felt Backers, Double-sided Adhesive
- A Backer Card

You will need to have a pair of scissors and a role of tape handy. Use your scissors to cut the ribbon and the tape to hold items in place while they dry.

 

 

 

Use the backer card provided to hold the bands steady while you decorate! 

 

 

 

 

 

Then just look at what you can create!

 

 Doesn't Percival the Penguin make a great headband model?

 

    

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The magic behind this kit is that it provides your kids with beautiful, hand-crafted accessories—but it also provides hours of entertainment. The possibilities with this kit are endless, and girls are sure love the variety of fashionable, sparkling accessories that can be created with this kit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Talk to you again soon!