January 4th, 2010

Product Review: “A Magical Beauty Collection” from Disney and Carol’s Daughter

It is so hard for me to find bath prod­ucts that won’t irri­tate or dry my daughter’s sen­si­tive skin. At 3 years old she has tried more prod­ucts than most adults. Luck­ily for me,  Carol’s Daugh­ter,  known for it’s authen­tic hair, fra­grance and body prod­ucts, has  launched a col­lec­tion of hair and body prod­ucts for chil­dren to honor Disney’s first ani­mated Black Princess, Tianna (an added bonus).

Let me start by say­ing that I absolutely love the pos­i­tive mes­sages cho­sen to name each prod­uct in the line. The sham­poo, “The Beauty Within” and the con­di­tioner, “Inner Shine”, pro­mote self-love and encour­ages chil­dren to find beauty beneath the sur­face. The bub­ble bath dote the phrase “Shar­ing is Car­ing” and the de-tangler (which I did not try) “Dream Big” sup­ports good behav­ior and hope. They are mes­sages that chil­dren need– espe­cially those of color who will be specif­i­cally drawn to the images of a Princess who finally looks like them. Cou­pled with the fact that Carol’s Daugh­ter was started by a woman of color, this line embod­ies the pos­i­tive mes­sage of the film– work hard and you will succeed.

But the look, the mes­sage, and the names of the prod­ucts don’t mean any­thing if the prod­ucts are not of good qual­ity. And they are. The sham­poo and con­di­tioner lather and spread well, a must for my daughter’s nat­u­rally curly hair which seems to absorb water and soap at an astro­nom­i­cal rate. In addi­tion, they left her hair soft, mois­tur­ized, and smelling good– like almonds, sun­flow­ers, olive and almond oils. The bub­ble bath con­tains Aloe Leaf Juice which is sub­tle enough to leave a trace and gen­tle enough not to irri­tate my daughter’s eczema.

The cost is a lit­tle steep (8oz bot­tles for $8-$10) for my lik­ing and we go through a lot of sham­poo and con­di­tioner here AND I am a bit fru­gal. How­ever, every child needs to feel spe­cial so I have decided that my daugh­ter will get to have one spe­cial bath a week in which she can use these prod­ucts in her dimly-lit bath­room. It’s never to early to pam­per yourself.

*I was given free sam­ples to aid in my review.

July 26th, 2009

My Secret Circle Giveaway Winner

Thank you to all who entered the con­test. The win­ner is Michele Dortch of Inte­grated Mother. Please email me your address as soon as pos­si­ble. Thanks again!

July 25th, 2009

JumpStart Your Child’s Interest in Learning

As a home­school­ing mom, I am often look­ing for edu­ca­tional aids that my daugh­ter will find inter­est­ing and will give her me the oppor­tu­nity to track her progress. I was recently given the oppor­tu­nity to review Jump­Start Vir­tual World, an online and CD-based  3-D gam­ing world chil­dren ages 3–10, cre­ated by  Knowl­edge Adven­turewho is known for the award win­ning Jump­Start and Mas­ter Blaster series of edu­ca­tional games.

There are cur­rently two worlds which pro­vide dif­fer­ent games and activ­i­ties in read­ing, writ­ing, crit­i­cal skills, math, and art. Sto­ry­Land, for preschool­ers offers chil­dren the oppor­tu­nity to designs their own homes, read-along with sto­ries and play games like Con­cen­tra­tion (which encour­ages mem­ory),  sort­ing items based on let­ters, shapes, and col­ors, arrang­ing items based on size, and com­plet­ing var­i­ous puzzles.

While Jump­Start has been in beta since Decem­ber 2008, there are many addi­tions to it’s world. Adven­ture Land, for chil­dren ages 5–8, includes a num­ber of new games in which “kids are invited to explore a mys­te­ri­ous lost island off the coast of Jump­Start.” On the island, chil­dren will have to sur­vives mis­sions and explore a num­ber of mys­te­ri­ous dis­cov­er­ies using a com­bi­na­tions of speed, logic, and problem-solving to out­smart the vil­lains deter­mined to thwart their attempts at suc­cess. And there is so much more to the world. There are arcade games, music and videos, fun slides, space games and more.

So what do I think of the game? It’s amaz­ing. The online worlds and the the cd-based games offer numer­ous oppor­tu­ni­ties for par­ents to engage their chil­dren in learn­ing. It is proof the learn­ing does not have to be tedious and stress­ful. My only com­plaint is that my daugh­ter, 3, has a dif­fi­cult time using the mouse to play the games on her own and gets frus­trated. How­ever, because their on-screen char­ac­ters can wan­der around the land, I try to use this “rest time” to allow her to learn the use the mouse and the arrow keys.

My daugh­ter absolutely loves this game. We limit her use of TV and video games to about 30–40 min­utes a week and while I know that not every game and TV show can be edu­ca­tional, I love that she enjoys this edu­ca­tional game more than any other that we have tried. She loves slid­ing down the huge water slide and into the water and we spend a lot of time doing this repeat­edly. She also enjoys the mem­ory and letter-recognition games.

Take a look at the videos below to see my daugh­ter play­ing at Jump​Start​.com.

Cre­at­ing character

Explor­ing Jump​Start​.com

Explor­ing Storyland