Tinyprints.com has some great new themes featuring all of our favorite Nickelodeon characters like Dora, Diego and SpongeBob Squarepants.  The best part is that there not only are cool designs for invitations and other stationery, but you can choose an eco-friendly option.

Pokemon Platinum Playing Card Decks - Flourish and Rebellion
Ages 10-16
Cautions: Not suitable for children under 3 - choking hazard. Some scary stuff on cards.

Kiwi Magazine Review:
The one thing we really like about Pokemon, besides some of the cute characters, is that their website has a complete parent’s guide where they speak s-l-o-w-l-y about their cards, the online game and the characters. It’s a must-read before entering the world of Pokemon. Our tween consultants tell us that the Platinum cards are the hottest new thing and that the Pokemon game truly involves strategy, sportsmanship and some serious thought (thank you, Lucy and Sophie).

From the Producers:
Flourish Theme Deck
Sweet Victory is yours with the fast-moving Flourish deck! Silcoon becomes the powerful Beautifly in the blink of an eye, while swarms of Fire and Grass Pokémon catapult into action. The amazing Shaymin enables you to dish out damage to your opponent’s Pokémon with Energy Blow, while keeping your team in top condition by removing damage counters with Aromatherapy. When you don’t have time to mess around, go ahead and win with a Flourish!

Rebellion Theme Deck
What do you get when you team up Fighting and Psychic Pokémon? You get a hard-hitting team with some tricks up its sleeve! The mighty Giratina keeps you safe with its Dragonbreath as Mismagius and Dugtrio use their sneaky traps to catch your opponents off guard. Then, unleash Gardevoir and its double-barreled Energy Burst attack. The more Energy in the field, the stronger it gets! With your strength and savvy, you’ll lead your Rebellion to supremacy!

Each theme deck contains 1 complete 60-card deck. Many of the cards exist in multiples to provide a more enjoyable playing experience.

Congratulations to Lucy for winning these cards!

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We made a resolution that we were going to be more restrained this year, but we can’t help ourselves.  We can’t resist giving away cool products to our readers.

 So…

Just be our 500th comment on any of the Bookworms entries and this beautiful Envirosax Mikado Bag 1 is yours.  See our rules before entering (US Addresses only).

Edamommy

Congratulations to Mary G.

WordWorld Toys and Games

Recommended – ages preschool – kindergarten (3-5)

Cautions: All clear

Kiwi Magazine Review

Parents are often skeptical about the educational value of toys and telelvision aimed toward preschoolers, and I am one of those parents. At least, I was. My preschooler (age 4) knew the alphabet but wasn’t showing much interest in spelling or relating sounds to the letters they represent. Although I won’t credit WordWorld completely with getting my daughter interested in spelling, she loved the part of the show on PBS where they start singing about building words. It was like a light went off and she started noticing letters in signs and even spelling rudimentary 3-letter words.

The DVDs and toys correlate with the television show and all support the same building-block approach to learning to spell and recognize words.

The cool thing about WordWorld toys is that each character or object is made up of the letters in its name. Pig is made up of P, I and G. It seems to be a more tangible way of explaining letters and combining them to form words. It shows clearly letters as building blocks.

My daughter and I spent some time on the www.wordworld.com website, too, which has free games including spelling, rhyming and building new words. It held our interest for quite a while. The part I liked the best is that the enthusiasm to spell transferred beyond the television and computer screens to all of our travel and activities.

The toys for WordWorld include everything from molding dough to magnetic letters which form the shape of the character. I found that when we tried out some of the magnetic animals, I felt like I could almost see the wheels turning in my daughter’s head as she connected and reconnected the letters of C-A-T and P-I-G. The real fun started when we made crazy animals like P-A-I-G and C-I-A-T and we just started imagining the possibilities of hybrid animals if we acquired the whole set. But, the order of the universe was restored and we reassembled each animal into its original state.

The block sets are also fun to build and knock down. Each item in the barn set spells the word it represents (I know, I know - that theme keeps reappearing!). So, each toy can be actively used for spelling and teaching sounds, or kids can just play and still be exposed to letters forming words as they build.

Buy this DVD on Amazon.com

WordWorld on PBS

Recommended – ages preschool – kindergarten (3-5)

Cautions: All clear

Kiwi Magazine Review

Parents are often skeptical about the educational value of toys and telelvision aimed toward preschoolers, and I am one of those parents.  At least, I was.  My preschooler (age 4) knew the alphabet but wasn’t showing much interest in spelling or relating sounds to the letters they represent.  Although I won’t credit WordWorld completely with getting my daughter interested in spelling, she loved the part of the show on PBS where they start singing about building words.  It was like a light went off and she started noticing letters in signs and even spelling rudimentary 3-letter words. 

They also have DVDs and toys which correlate with the show. The cool thing about WordWorld toys is that each character or object is made up of the letters in its name.  Pig is made up of P, I and G.  It seems to be a more tangible way of explaining letters and combining them to form words.  It shows clearly letters as building blocks.

My daughter and I spent some time on the www.wordworld.com website, too, which has free games including spelling, rhyming and building new words. It held our interest for quite a while.  The part I liked the best is that the enthusiasm to spell transferred beyond the television and computer screens to all of our travel and activities. 

Go Green, Live Rich by David Bach (Broadway Books, 2008)

Sure, saving the earth is an altruistic adventure, but David Bach demonstrates how going green can also add some green to your wallet. His simple tips accompanied by concrete facts about carbon and cash savings will make everyone rethink their resource consumption. David Bach provides astounding facts such as Americans spend $2.7 billion on holiday gift wrap and more than $52 billion worth of goods were traded last year on ebay; this makes it clear that everyone’s contribution can make a substantial positive change.

Buy this book on Amazon.com