Learning Expressions

LIVE BLOG: Toy Fair 2013 American Girl Saige

Greetings, Learning Expressions Readers! 

To kick off Toy Fair 2013, Learning Express owners from around the country have gathered at the Learning Express hospitality suite in the Javitts center in New York City.

We can’t wait to get out on the floor, but right now we’re enjoying a really yummy breakfast sponsored by American Girl. Our favorite part of the annual American Girl breakfast at Toy Fair is learning more about the brand new American Girl.  We were excited to learn that the 2013 American Girl is Saige Copeland.

Here's what American Girl had to say about their newest girl: "Saige loves the arts and her horses. But when both of her passions are threatened, she turns to her creative side. With imaginative solutions, she proves that one girl can make a difference."

American Girl is also holding a Soar with Saige Sweepstakes and will give ten lucky girls a Saige doll as well as her hot air balloon. To enter, children just need to download the hot air balloon template and entry form, then use their creativity—and any combination of colored markers and pencils—to create a unique design.  

We hope you enjoyed learning a little bit more about Saige. We’ll have more updates for you once we’re out on the floor! 

Kathryn

Toy Review: Pulsar Powerballs

Dear Learning Expressions Readers,

This week at Learning Express, we’ve been having a ball! You can always tell when the Learning Express blogging team is testing out a new toy or game in the Home Office. The usually quiet second floor conference room becomes a craft station or game table, depending on whether we’re speed stacking or making plush crafts or playing a really suspenseful game of Suspend. Those who happen to walk by will usually hear cheers of victory (or moans of defeat) and inevitably there’s always some glitter and stick-on-gems stuck on the carpet (and in my hair) by the time we’re finished. This week was no exception as we tried our hands at The Pulsar Powerballs. Today we’re going to evaluate this fabulous kit by breaking it down into our three Fs of toy quality: Form, Function, and Fun.

Form:

This part is pretty simple! Each Pulsar Powerballs Kit comes equipped with a large mold, a small mold, two LED lights and seven packets of colored crystals. It might not look like much to start, but just you wait!

The only other things you’ll need to bring your Powerballs to life are a pair of scissors to open up those packets and a glass of water.

Function:

The purpose of this kit is to create light-up, brilliantly colored, bouncy balls. How, you may wonder? Just follow these easy steps to find out.

1. To get started, snap together your small blue mold. Before you snap together the larger green mold, be sure to put your LED light into the three prongs on the larger side. Once that’s in place, snap together and you’re ready to go!
2. During this next step, you need to pour the crystals into the mold. Here’s where you can get creative with color. We tried mixing some of the crystals together, as well as layering the colors on top of each other. Gently tap the mold as you pour the crystals in, but be careful not to fill it up too full or your ball will over expand during the next step.
3. Once you’ve filled up your mold with crystals, it’s time to submerge it in a cup of water. You’ll need to dunk the smaller mold for 60 seconds and the larger mold for 90 seconds. A couple of ours burst out slightly from the mold, but not to worry! They bounce perfectly and still look great. Once you’ve pried the mold off leave the ball to set for 5-10 minutes or until it’s not too sticky.
4. Bounce, bounce, bounce!!!

Fun:

How can you not have a ball with this kit? Creating your Pulsar Powerball is a fun experience in and of itself, but the light up bouncy ball you’re left with means the fun doesn’t have to end once you’ve finished using your kit. In fact, it’s just begun!

Happy bouncing, everyone! Talk to you again next week. And look out for our live blogs from Toy Fair!

Kathryn