Whether or not you buy the clothes in Chasing Fireflies is irrelevant (of course the owners probably do not share this opinion), but this review suggests that you order the catalog (1-800-700-9474) and take a mental vacation browsing their beautiful children’s clothing and accessories.
Since my daughter only wears sports uniforms and hideous clothes that look [...]

Jane Yolen and Mark Teague are back with the latest in the “How Do Dinosaurs….” series that includes How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? and How Do Dinosaurs Clean Their Rooms?.
My dino-crazy 6 year old boy loves this series, and the school book fair gave me a great opportunity to buy him the newest book [...]

The Koja Tent from IKEA!
Lucky you! You had the good sense to read this review, and it is my great pleasure to inform you that you have won:
Hours of extra time
Hundreds of dollars
Respect of other parents
AND, as a bonus your child has won…
POPULARITY!!
No kidding or exaggeration. If you buy the IKEA Koja Tent [...]

In this day of natural, organic food I am constantly trying to find snacks that aren’t full of sugar for my son. It’s hard to balance taste for nutrition with a 5 year old, but I’ve found some help.
Maybe you’ve seen Kashi’s new commercial asking you to trade in your unhealthy snack for a free [...]

“Mom, look at this!” my seven year-old called excitedly. She had found a shelf of stuffed toys shaped like microbes. “Look, this one’s the common cold!”
We spent a long time looking at the plushy pathogens, and my four year-old demanded that I explain what each one did. I resisted buying any, but two days later [...]

Any parent will tell you what a pain in the neck (and lower) it can be to read the same children’s books over and over and over again.
I fully recognize that kids learn through repetition, but after reading Goodnight Moon and Guess How Much I Love You and The Very Hungry Caterpillar eleventy million times, [...]

Despite the recent recall of one of their parts, I’m here to preach the “Gospel According To GeoTrax.”
GeoTrax, if you aren’t familiar, is possibly the BEST train set ever made in the history of the world. Okay, I may be exaggerating just a tad but it really is cool.
GeoTrax is manufactured by Mattel, and [...]

I didn’t let my daughter watch Disney Channel’s made for TV movie High School for a long, long time. The name made me think that it was more appropriate for older kids than my 7 year old, and I was concerned about influences of inappropriate behavior.
After a lot of lobbying by my daughter, I agreed [...]

Since our son was born just over 5 years ago we have visited JCPenney’s portrait studio almost yearly. It has served our needs well by providing nice portraits for a very reasonable price.
Now, when I make an appointment for something I understand “sh*t happens” and people don’t always run on time. I expect this at [...]

I had ordered a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows from Amazon.com, but then decided I couldn’t possibly wait four days after release to read it, so I went out to my local Borders and grabbed a copy. I dug in right away, and then life interfered, and it took forever for me [...]

As promised last week in our review last week, Props and Pans is giving away a brand new copy of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: Friendship Edition on DVD.
What do you have to do to win? Just leave a comment telling us who you hope to win the DVD for — yourself, your [...]

Of all the character-driven shows and movies I’ve enjoyed (or in some cases endured) with my seven year old daughter over the years, my favorite has always been Winnie the Pooh. There’s just something about Pooh Bear and his friends that always makes me feel happy and if you pay attention, you might note that [...]

The folks at Wateroos recently sent me some samples of their products to review. When I first read their pitch, I didn’t even respond to the email because I thought “I have stainless steel sippy cups that I can fill with my own water. No chemicals. No waste. No problem.”
When they sent [...]

I’ve been previewing the upcoming series Word World and I must tell you that I’ve finally found a show on TV (well, soon to be on TV anyway) that I’d actually let my kids watch.
It’s an incredibly innovative addition to the preschoolers TV lineup that’s coming to PBS Kids in the fall of this year. [...]

My husband says that I’m “vocabularious” so I suppose it’s only natural I would gravitate towards SATees, which are these terribly clever shirts (and onesies) for babies and children with very sophisticated adjectives printed on them.
The idea is that you pick an adjective that describes YOUR child so of course, I had no choice but [...]