Looking for a last-minute Hanukkah present or last-minute Christmas present? Visit your local toy store! There are so many benefits to shopping locally. One of the big benefits: education. Local stores provide personalized service. I have a great relationship with my local store owner, and I have appreciated some of their tips and product recommendations. My neighborhood toy store carries unique educational toys. But I bet you didn’t know that you are actually supporting your local schools when you shop locally.

You can make summer a fun, educational time for your kids. Prevent summer learning loss with “stealth” educational activities.

If your kids enjoy playing video games and being online, introduce them to the All Star Buddies. Moms Caryn Burns and Cindy Prince started www.allstarbuddies.com in order to close the gap between websites that were created for entertainment and those developed for education.

Summer is a great time for enrichment activities. Free from the daily grind of classes and homework, your child can explore his or her creative side.

Shop for art supplies on sale at local craft stores, or find wholesale arts and crafts supplies online at DollarDays. Many moms have a craft box (or craft closet) full of supplies to keep their kids occupied during school vacations and on rainy weekends.

While some parents splurge on summer art classes and camps, activity books can inspire at a much lower price tag. LittleMissMatched’s The Artist in Me! costs under $12 at Amazon.

I wasn’t bored much growing up. On rainy days and lazy Saturday afternoons, I’d be engaged in some craft project or interesting game. My mother, a teacher, has a gift for finding and organizing fun activities on a moment’s notice. Now that I’m a mom, I appreciate how easy she made it all look.

Some organized moms dedicate entire closets to craft supplies and keep file folders full of craft-ideas clipped from magazines and newspapers on-hand. But if that’s not your style, you can still entertain and educate your children with the fabulous art kits from Eye Can Art.

Calendars and schedules are such an integral part of adult life, but understanding concepts like days of the week, months of the year and the seasons can be difficult for young children. Without a strong understanding of how the calendar works, it can be tough for a preschooler to understand concepts like exactly how long daddy will be away on a business trip or when his class is visiting the zoo.

Your kids will learn calendar skills at preschool or kindergarten, but you can give them a headstart with the “My Week” calendar from 2fishkids.

Why fix it if it ain’t broke? My daughter enjoys reading books (or, rather, have them read to her, since she’s two), so why add unnecessary gimmicks and gadgets to a tried and true kid activity?
As a parent and an educator, though, I am giving the LeapFrog Tag Reading System an A+ for pre-readers, beginning readers, and readers who need a confidence boost.
The Tag Reading System is easy for parents to set-up.  First, you install the program on your computer. Then plug in the special TAG Reader pen and visit …

One of our hot holiday toy picks for 2008, TOOBEEZ are a toy the whole family will enjoy.
TOOBEEZ can best be described as giant Tinker Toys. The TOOBEEZ building system consists of different sized tubes and connecting spheres.
Construction is easy. Just insert either end of the tube into one of the sphere’s 10 keyholes and twist the tube’s rotating end to “lock” it in place.
TOOBEEZ encourage creative open-ended play. While TOOBEEZ come with instructions for building dozens of fun structures, the only limit is your imagination. Your kids (ages 4+) will learn spatial relations as …