Great gifts with Education in Mind

While at the NY International Gift Show, I happened upon a familiar booth. Immediately, I recognized my son's beloved placemat: the "I Can Set the Table" Read-a-Mat. It happens to be my beloved placemat, too. In using the placemat, we've been able to silently remind our 2 year old the proper placement of utensils, his cup and plate. Now, when Carson is playing with his fork between bites, I easily just point to the fork on his mat and he knows exactly what to do. As I told Amy from The Straight Edge, Inc. about our success with the mat, she shared with me some of their other products, all created as "Educational products for growing minds."

Among their many placemats is the new "What to Wear" mat, which teaches children the basic skills of matching clothing to the weather. There are mats that teach everything: basic skills for preschoolers, Geography and History, Science, Performing Arts, even Foreign Language. They also have "Write a Mats"--the same idea, but laminated on the back so that children can practice writing and drawing the concepts. I love this idea for quiet play while I'm cooking!

Also at the Straight Edge, Inc. booth, I was shown the Inside Outside puzzles. We were given one to test with the kids, and we all loved it. The puzzle is a basic cardboard puzzle, challenging in that under the pieces, is a cardboard board that pictures the interior of the puzzle. (as shown above) So that the inside of the firetruck shows, and explains, what is going on inside.

But my favorite items were the Story in a Box books. Classic stories and songs like The Three Pigs and Old MacDonald's Farm are created as board books, with a box in the back. In many cases, the box holds cardboard cutouts with notched bottoms or easels so that the pieces stand up and the children can act out the story. Some stories come with puppets, and my favorite, Jack and the Beanstalk, comes with a seed kit that allows the readers to grow their own beanstalk!

This review isn't a surprise to many of you, you know I'm a teacher. So products that are not only educational, but classic and fun always catch my eye. And the pricepoints on these make them wonderful add-ons to gifts. I'll probably stock up on a bunch and keep them in my gifting closet.