As a former first grade teacher who spent a great deal of my days teaching kids to read, I am always on the lookout for great tools to help children develop a sense of literacy. I was more than excited to preview Meet the Sight Words with my 4 ½ year old daughter who is [...]

3-2-1 Penguins! I have been hearing this oh so much lately, as my son seriously loves the Save the Planets movie. The creators of Veggie Tales, with the same great faith and fun filled adventures yet a lot more appealing to my toddler, bring you this DVD. I always encourage my son to watch Veggie [...]

My children and I recently sat down and reviewed a new video from Animal Planet. “Growing Up Safari” has four different segments. Zebras, Giraffes, Hyenas and Rhinos are all thoroughly documented during their first year of life. We all were entranced as we watched baby giraffes be born and some of us (no names) [...]

As an animal lover, I am always excited to review DVD’s that feature real animals. When the opportunity to review When Animals Talk with Jane Goodall came up, I was super pumped because she has been someone I’ve greatly admired since I studied her work and heard her speak when I was doing my [...]

A recent long, rainy spell was saved from being a free for all by The Jeff Corwin Experience. We had received Season 2 to review and thankfully all four of my kids (ages 8 - 11) found it mesmerizing. Over a period of 2 days they sat and watched the 9 hours [...]

We’ve purchased or been given a variety of items for our pretend kitchen and restaurant adventures over the past few years. All of it plastic, all of it bendable, breakable and generally cheap junk that soon lost it’s use as a toy. But on a trip to Helen, Georgia we went into a small, locally [...]

Kit Kittredge is a young girl facing hard times during the Great Depression. First her mother’s friend and her sickly son move in with her family, then her father loses his business and has to leave home to search for work. To make ends meet, the family takes in boarders. The movie Kit Kittredge: An [...]

Welcome to Must Have Monday’s. Every Monday our reviewers will let you have a sneak peak into what we use in our homes and our lives. Here we will tell you about the things we can’t live without. If you have a “must have” item to pass along please e-mail us. We welcome contributions from [...]

Props & Pans is giving away two FlapDoodle board games and two sets of the Whizizzle Phonics card set. You can read our review here.
Enter by leaving a comment HERE and telling us which game your family would prefer and why. The contest is open until July 8, 2008.
You can receive a second entry [...]

What’s not fun about a name like Wiggity Bang Games? The name alone is fun to say and after reviewing a few of their new games I can honestly say they are even more fun to play! They recently introduced Whizizzle Phonics (another cute name) which is a line of card games aimed at helping [...]

As adorable as baby pandas are, “A Panda Is Born” didn’t hold the interest of my 11 year old for the 84 minutes it ran. The younger kids loved it though. The DVD follows 2 mating seasons at the Smithsonian National Zoo, which finally results in the birth of a live panda cub, named Tai [...]

Props & Pans is giving one lucky reader a copy of the Mia Reading: The Bugaboo Bugs! software. You can read our review here.
Enter by leaving a comment HERE and telling us why your child (or relative) would benefit from this educational game. The contest is open until Tuesday, June 24, 2008.
You can [...]

Have you ever heard of Kutoka? I hadn’t, or at least I didn’t think I had, until I looked at their website and saw some of their products. My husband and I had seen their software games before at Toys R Us and were never sure if our almost 6 year old would find them [...]

Maybe it is the former teacher in me, but I love books. Like every good parent, I foster a love of literacy by spending lots of time reading to my children. Occasionally, I do get tired of reading the same old books over and over again! When it is time for an infusion of new [...]

Welcome to Must Have Monday’s. Every Monday our reviewers will let you have a sneak peak into what we use in our homes and our lives. Here we will tell you about the things we can’t live without. If you have a “must have” item to pass along please e-mail us. We welcome contributions from [...]