Learning Expressions

Toy Review: Test Tube Aliens

Hi there, Learning Expressions Readers!

If your kids like creepy-crawly, slimy, or otherwise gross toys, then they are in for a treat. I’m excited to share with you my new office partner, Spron, one of several different Test Tube Aliens. These aliens came to Earth with the intention of draining our water supplies after running out of water on their own home planet. It is your responsibility to raise them and learn about their plans—and ultimately find a way to stop the attack. Trust me, these guys take growing toys to a whole new galaxy.

Each Test Tube Aliens Kit comes with one alien inside a feeding chamber, sloog (food for your alien), instructions on hatching and growing, and an intergalactic passport for registering your alien online. Prior to hatching your alien, he will look like a large, oblong white egg. Just fill up the feeding chamber with a little tap water and a few minutes later, he will hatch. Next, you must mix up a sloog packet so he has plenty to eat while he grows. As your alien is growing, you must try to replicate the environment on his home planet. A bit of sloog in the water will help accomplish this, but that’s not all. Alien caretakers must maintain a healthy ratio of oxygen to water and make sure to give the alien twelve hours of sunlight and twelve hours of darkness each day. With any luck, your alien will grow to adult size within fourteen days.

And as if growing your own alien wasn’t cool enough already, there’s more. Your alien’s heart beat will glow in different colors to tell you if he’s been given the right amount of water and sunlight. A red heartbeat color means he’s healthy, orange means he needs more water, and yellow means that he’s drowning and needs less water. In my experience, these guys are not picky, so kids shouldn’t have any troubles topping off the water every few days and moving the chamber if there are any lighting issues.

While you’re managing his vital signs, you can also go online and register your alien to access alien bios, learn their secrets, and play Test Tube Aliens games. The site will even allow you to conduct a brain scan on your alien by holding him near the screen. Each alien holds different secrets that will help you to stop the invasion.

If you’re up for this intergalactic challenge, the time has come for you to fight back. Spron and his army will only get stronger if we don’t capture and interrogate all of them. It’s up to you to hatch them, learn their secrets, and save the world’s water sources.

 

Thanks for reading. And please don’t tell Spron I shared all of this information with you!

Mother Knows Best: Coping With Mompetition

Hi there, Learning Expressions Readers!

I very clearly remember one of my first outings as a new mom alone with my newborn son. I had finally mustered the courage to get out of the house and do something on my own with my little nugget, with no backup save my abundantly appointed diaper bag. Some mommy-friend tipsters had suggested walking the mall. It’d be nice to take in the sights, the baby would like the noises and lights, and I could get some exercise and a Frappuccino. Plus, advised my friends, you always have the Nordstrom’s mothers’ lounge in which to seek refuge should you experience a diaper blow out, larger-than-normal spit up, or some feeding fiasco.

Ok. After what seemed like hours packing up the supplies and the baby, we were out the door and on our way to doing something! As I walked the mall, I stayed mindful of the distance to that mothers’ lounge. After 10 weeks on bed rest, it felt AMAZING to be moving and sipping Starbucks the way people do. But inevitably, my little one got hungry. I sat on a bench in an open part of the mall and fussed and struggled with my nursing cover. I really gave feeding-in-public-for-the-first-time the old college try, but I felt so vulnerable and clumsy. So, I packed up my frantic baby and quickly whisked him to the oasis that was the mother’s lounge.

I walked into a peaceful oasis. There were a few other moms changing diapers and feeding babies, but there was still room for me to grab a seat in a comfy armchair. It was so nice to be able to feed without crowds of people ambling nearby. I’m normally a pretty Chatty Cathy, but this time I tended to my babe in silence while the other mothers spoke softly around me.

One mama pulled out powdered formula and bottled water and proceeded to mix a meal for her infant. The previously friendly gal next to her suddenly looked on in horror. The onlooker gathered her composer and asked the formula culprit, “Excuse me, but is there a reason that you aren’t breastfeeding?” Before the shocked accused could reply, the breastfeeding vigilante continued, “You know I could get you in touch with a friend at the local La Leche League chapter.” The vigilante then began spouting off all the reasons why breast milk is gold and formula is evil.

I watched the accused and looked for an opening to intervene on her behalf. But, without batting an eye, the accused said, “Excuse me but I had a double mastectomy at the age of 26. But even if I hadn’t, I really don’t see that it’s any of your business how I choose to nourish my child.”

I cheered inside but remained shaken by the assault I had just witnessed. I’d heard others speak about the terrible “Mompetition” that can emerge among women in this life stage, but this example had to be mompetition at its absolute worst. Surely it was an isolated incident! 

But as I got to thinking, mompetition had actually reared its ugly head in my world pretty much as soon
as I joined the positive-pregnancy-test club. Some women seemed to fall into one camp or another in regard to certain hot-button issues and felt compelled to actively try to recruit newcomers like me to their teams. During pregnancy, it was talk about C-sections vs. vaginal deliveries, “natural” births vs. epidurals, and cloth diapers vs. disposable. During the baby years, the mompetition seemed to center around milestones. You’d hear: So-and-so’s baby still hasn’t rolled over, and my Eric rolled over at four months! Well, my Jessica was an early crawler, just like me. Oh ya? My Jill could hold her head up the day after she was born! So take that! Ugh.

I’ve heard this kind of blatant bragging and tearing down time and time again. Now that my oldest is three, the mompetition I hear has subsided a bit. But, every once in awhile, I’ll still see mompetition relating to three year olds in action: Billy already throws like a quarterback and Amy can count to 100!

I know I’m not alone in my distaste for mompetition. The controversial Time magazine breastfeeding cover tapped into the negative energy of mompetition with its provocative cover asking, “Are you mom enough?” Before that there were mompetition wars waged in the national media over vaccines, BPA, and slings. For some reason motherhood seems to provide fertile ground for astoundingly divisive judgment calls. 

Believe me, I am normally the type of person who does not shy away from a good debate. But, up until now, I’ve tried to dodge the mompetition-inducing topics at all costs. For me, mompetition issues are right up there with religion and politics – only to be discussed with close friends and with a great deal of care. For instance, if a random mom at the park asks me why my boys never took pacifiers, I lie and say they never liked them. Truth be told I was scared to really try pacifiers with my boys because my dentist assured me that pacifiers ruin young palates. If the mom next to me in the pediatric waiting room asks if we ever used the cry-it-out technique to get our babies to sleep, I shake my head in an ambiguous yes-no manner and get up to go to the bathroom. In fact, I’ve even had to unsubscribe to many a “friend’s” update feeds on a social media website because almost half of all posts they wrote revolved around a strongly worded opinion on the “right” way to parent and bragging about the advanced state of their offspring.

But, maybe I’ve swung the pendulum too far to the avoidance side. After all, I wouldn’t be half the mom I am today without the trusted advice of experienced mothers who’ve come before me. And, perhaps my avoidance of all mompetition issues is closing me off to a lot of learning. But, darn it, this mompetition culture is too much for me. It really discourages the collaborative “it takes a village” mentality that us moms have used to raise our kids for thousands of years. And, gosh, we should be able to depend on each other and be able to talk about important mom decisions. So, you see, I’m really at a loss for how to react when a fellow mom gets in my face and informs me, “Are you aware that spacing your kids so close together puts your second one at greater risk for Autism? That’s why I waited to have Jefferson until Madison was two and a half.”  I know I need to be polite, but part of me wants to scream!

Readers, do you have horror stories of dealing with competitive moms?  What are your coping strategies?

Bye for now!

Toy Review: The FLX Cool Towel

Hi there, Learning Expressions Readers!

As I’m sure most of you are aware, summer vacation is currently in full swing. For many of you, this likely means basketball, soccer, baseball, and many other sports have become part of the weekly family repertoire. If you are a parent, a grandparent, or even a close friend, you’ve probably been recruited for the family limousine service by this point. With all of these exciting activities going on, it’s easy to forget to rest and cool off once in a while.

With that in mind, I’d like to turn your attention to the COOL Towel by FLX Gear. If the name alone
hasn’t sent shivers down your spine, you’ll understand what makes this towel so cool soon enough.

This space-age sports towel comes packed in a small plastic tube for easy transportation. Upon opening the tube, you’ll find the towel rolled up much like a burrito. Once you unroll this bad boy, you’ll notice a smooth side with the FLX logo emblazoned upon it and a dimpled side that looks a lot like a golf ball. Initially, it feels a lot like a rubberized grip on a tennis racket or baseball bat if you left it in the

refrigerator for a bit, a sensation that you have to feel to truly understand.

The Cool Towel is approximately 14” x 32” and about as thin as crepe when rolled flat. After giving it a quick rinse in warm water, the towel is ready for use. All you need to do now is dip the towel in some cooler water, wring it out a little, and you’re ready to rock. 

The manufacturer claims that the Cool Towel will stay cool for 1-4 hour on average. For a little fun, I decided to give this a test. I took the towel home overnight and poured a few tablespoons of water over the top at around 10:30 P.M. I didn’t totally soak the towel, because my house is pretty cold at night compared with the hot temperatures that it is meant for. Much to my surprise, I was still able to wring almost all of the water out of the towel at 7:30 A.M., a full nine hours later. As I’m writing this, an additional three hours later (twelve hours from the time I started) and after a thorough wringing, the towel is still cool and damp.

Cool Towels are reusable and can be washed by hand or machine in warm water. They should be hung to dry, as the dryer will damage them. When you’re ready to go again, dip the towel in some water and it will keep you cool through many more games and activities.

Whether this is your first sports season or just one of many, I wish you and your young athletes the best of luck. I hope that you and your teams make this the best season yet. I encourage you and your children to make appropriate decisions regarding safety gear and other equipment, but most importantly I would like to remind you to keep cool. Remember to keep everyone hydrated and take a break after being in the heat for too long.

Thanks for Reading!

Learning Express Convention: Giving Day

Greetings, Learning Expressions Readers!

Today I’d like to tell you a bit about what we’ve been up to the last couple of weeks here at Learning Express.

Twice a year, members of the Learning Express family gather together to find the latest and greatest toys, books, and games. In February, store owners and home office staff brave the cold weather and head to Toy Fair in New York, and every June we gather for the annual Learning Express Convention. Unlike Toy Fair (which hosts toy store owners from around the world) the LE convention is exclusively for Learning Express store owners. Much to many a store owner’s delight, this year it was held in wild and wonderful Las Vegas, Nevada.

The convention typically features workshops, play nights, and keynote speakers—but the real highlight is always the two-day vendor expo. This year, over 120 vendors set up booths where they could demonstrate and showcase their products to our owners.  

So what happens to all the fabulously fun toys when it’s time to pack up those booths? Well, many generous vendors actually choose to leave the toys they’ve brought, so they can be donated to a local nonprofit. Pretty amazing, right? We certainly think so.

This year, Learning Express selected Family Promise to benefit from this generosity—a nonprofit committed to helping homeless and low-income families achieve lasting independence.  With a shocking 1 in 50 American children experiencing homelessness in their lifetime, we couldn’t think of a better cause to support.   

After the home office staff packed up all the donations (that’s a whole lot of boxes!) they were brought
to the local chapter of Family Promise in Las Vegas. On Saturday, June 30^th representatives from Family Promise and Learning Express gathered for a Giving Day in which local homeless children were given toys and the nonprofit announced how the donation will benefit local children for many months to come. Over the next year, the toys will be put into a “Birthday Shop” where homeless parents can come and select toys for their children, and a “Christmas Store” where they can do the same. They will also be used in the Family Promise Day Centers.

Check us out on the news!

 

We’d like to give a huge thank you to all of the vendors who generously donated to these children, including but not limited to: Educational Insights, Klutz, PlaymobilUSA, Learning Resources, Schylling, Blue Orange, PlaSmart, TMI Toy Marketing, MGA Entertainment, Sports Images,  ALEX, Be Amazing, BriarPatch,The Original Toy Company, Diggin, Pretty Ugly, and Infinitoy. 

Talk to you again soon!