Kids Learning Depot

Kids Learning Depot & Guidecraft USA

2005-10-25T11:40:00.000-05:00

Kids Learning Depot is proud to be a Full Line Distributor of Guidecraft's Quality and Innovative Classic Wooden Toys and kids furnishings.

CHILD Magazine has announced that Guidecraft was again chosen as having a Best Toy Pick for 2005. Guidecraft's Retro Rocker Airplane was featured in their Oct. 2005 magazine. This beautiful wooden rocking/ride-on toy is new to Guidecraft for 2005. It features solid wood construction, landing gear, wide wing span, spinning propeller and a steering wheel for hours of fun for young imaginations.

Guidecraft USA was also featured on NBC's "Today Show" in Oct. 2005, as having won yet another prestegious award. The Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum, Gold and SNAP (Special Needs Adaptable Product) Awards where given to Guidecraft for their Magneatos magnetic construction toy line.

These fantastic magnetic toys offer the same educational experience of magnetic construction as the now famous Geomags, but Guidecraft's Magneatos are larger therefore making them accessible for younger children to play and explore with.

Magneatos are available in 36 piece set, 72 piece set, and 144 piece set. Kids Learning Depot has these wonderful new toys in stock and ready for fast free shipping.

Over the past 41 years, Guidecraft has won over 100 toy awards and citations for their quality, innovative products geared for early childhood education, day care centers, kindergartens, and Head Start centers.

Kids Learning Depot

Kids Learning Depot - Ideas for a Rainy Summer Day

2005-07-19T14:32:00.000-05:00

From Kimberly L. Keith,
Your Guide to Parenting of K-6 Children.

When the weather doesn't cooperate with your plans for outdoor summer fun, use these quick ideas to keep the kids busy having fun indoors.

Stars of the Show
Combine dress-up play with a kid performance that you record with the video camera. If you have several kids at home, let them plan a talent show or play to perform for the adults. Video the show for them to watch afterward.

Virtual Travel
Choose a U.S. Travel Scavenger Hunt at Education World. Print out the quiz sheet; point your browser to the U.S. National Park Service search engine at http://www.nps.gov/parks.html; and let the kids take a virtual trip across the United States.

Craft Projects With Things Around the House
You probably have these materials around the house, so you can let the kids work on a craft without taking a trip to the craft store.

Have an Indoor Picnic
Put a blanket on the floor; get out your picnic gear; and serve traditional picnic foods for a festive indoor picnic.

Visit the Library
Is there anything better than a stack of new books on a rainy afternoon? For some of us, that's the ultimate fun! Take a couple of hours to browse for summer books, then spend a quiet afternoon reading.

(reprinted from about.com)

Kids Learning Depot - Recipes - Cookies

2005-07-18T10:33:00.000-05:00

Mom's Mint in the Middles - (Reprinted from Child.com)
By Beth Royals

Makes 4 dozen Prep Time:30 minutes Cooking Time:7 minutes
Ingredients:

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
4 1 ½-oz. Peppermint Patties
3 Tbs. crushed red and white peppermint candies
¼ cup butter
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
¼ cup half & half
2 cups sifted powdered sugar

Instructions:Preheat oven to 375°F.

Step 1: Line several cookie sheets with parchment paper; set aside.

Step 2: In a small bowl, stir together the flour, unsweetened cocoa, baking soda, and salt; set mixture aside.

Step 3: In a large bowl, cream the sugars and 1 cup butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs, beating well. Gradually add flour mixture and chill dough for at least 3 hours.

Step 4: Cut small pieces from one Peppermint Patty to make it square. Slice the patty into four horizontal rows and three vertical rows, creating 12 rectangles. Repeat with remaining Peppermint Patties.

Step 5: Roll 1 Tbs. of cookie dough to form a ball, and flatten it slightly. Place a rectangle of Peppermint Patty in the center and shape the dough around it, enclosing it completely. Re-roll into a ball and place the cookies 2" apart on prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 7 minutes. Cool cookies completely on a wire rack.

Step 6: Make chocolate glaze: In a medium bowl, combine ¼ cup butter, chocolate, and half & half; microwave on medium power for 1 minute, until melted. Stir mixture, then add powdered sugar.

Step 7: Spoon 1 tsp. glaze on top of each cookie, then spread with the back of the teaspoon to make a circle approximately 1" in diameter. Sprinkle immediately with crushed peppermint candies. Store glazed cookies in an airtight container.

Nutritional Facts:Each cookie: 121 calories, 2 g protein, 16 g carbohydrate, 6 g fat (4 g saturated), 1 g fiber, 22 mg cholesterol, 10 mg calcium, 1 mg iron, 82 mg sodium.

Be sure to visit Kids Learning Depot..."Creative Play for your Child's World of Wonder"

Kids Learning Depot - Child Proofing your Home

2005-07-18T10:22:00.000-05:00

To make sure that your home is a safe haven for your children - and you - learn to spot and eliminate hazards throughout the house. This checklist will show you how.

Safety measures for every room:

Install child-resistant covers on all electrical outlets.

Keep dangerous chemicals out of children's reach.

For strings and ribbons, follow the six-inch rule.

Always use a safety belt on your baby when she is sitting in a bouncy seat or a swing.

Shorten curtain and blind cords.

Place furniture well away from windows.

Use corner bumpers on furniture and fireplace-hearth edges.

Place houseplants out of children's reach.

Know the names of all plants in case a child eats one of them.

Keep cigarettes, matches, and lighters out of children's reach.

Safeguard heating and gas systems against accidents.

Be sure that furnaces, fireplaces, wood-burning stoves, space heaters, and gas appliances are vented properly.

Place screened barriers around fireplaces, radiators, and portable space heaters.

Install carbon-monoxide (CO) alarms outside bedrooms to help prevent CO poisoning.

Install smoke alarms outside each bedroom and on every level of your home.

Remove the plastic end caps on doorstops or replace the stops with a one-piece design to prevent choking.

Consider placing plastic guards along the hinge side of frequently used interior doors to prevent the doors from pinching fingers.

Safety-proof windows and fire exits.

Make a fire evacuation plan and practice fire escape routes at least twice a year.

Keep firearms and ammunition safely locked away.

Secure unsteady furnishings.

Avoid household water hazards.

Test homes built before 1978 for lead paint.

Learn first aid and CPR.

Kids Learning Depot - Toy Buying Guide

2005-07-14T13:04:00.000-05:00

Children's Mental and Social Development Playing is a natural and healthy activity for all children. Playing helps children develop mentally and socially, and so selecting the appropriate toy for the age of the child is essential. First and foremost when choosing a toy for a child, it is important to consider that the toy is a safe quality item that is well constructed and durable. The toy or game should also be appealing and interesting to the child, and appropriate to the child's physical capabilities. Finally, the toy needs to be suited to the child's age, mental and social development.

Toy and game types can be divided in 5 categories that stimulate the mental social abilities and interests of a child.

1. Active Play Includes: Push and pull, ride-on, outdoor toys and games, and sports toys and activities.

2. Manipulative Play Includes: Construction, building, pattern making, stringing, and sand and water play.

3. Make Believe Play Includes: Dolls, stuffed animals, puppets, role play games, play scenes, and transportation.

4. Creative Play Includes: Musical instruments, arts and crafts materials, and audio-visual activities.

5. Learning Play Includes: Learning toys and games, puzzles, developmental activities, and books.

Choosing the Right Toy Quality: A good quality toy will give a child plenty of enjoyment and will last longer than something of lesser quality. Quality toys can be handed down to other siblings. Anything of poor quality is not a good investment as they can easily break easily and be a hazard.Imaginative: Choose Toys that allow for individual expression and imagination.

Imaginative toys allow children to be creative. Choose toys that do not give preprogrammed responses, but ones that allow children to be inventive and use their imagination.Playability: A toy with a long life is one that a child can play with again and again. It can be approached in new ways as a child grows and develops, mastering new skills. Children sometimes become easily bored with toys that are not designed well, or do not have re-playability value.

Essential pointers when buying Toys and Games for Children1. Will this encourage the child to build and create rather than to destroy?2. Will this stimulate creativity and imaginative play?3. will this promote cooperation and problem solving?4. Will this allow the child to create their own scenarios?5. Will this promote learning skills and help the child developmentally?

Independent Play Promotes self-esteem and confidence in children by empowering them with choices and by organizing stimulating play activities. Creating time and an environment for independent play is beneficial for children of any age. Helping your child develop a strong, independent personality supports their awareness of feelings, dreams and ideas. Independent play fosters reflective and analytical thought and gives children their own private space and time. For children, the ability to pretend and imagine is an essential form of play. As children's imaginations grow, they invent new uses for familiar objects, playing with them in novel ways. Encouraging children's imaginative play will open the door to enhanced learning experiences in all areas of their development.

Mathematical Play Involves children in problem solving activities, reasoning, and sequencing. Encouraging conceptual thought and the development of logic and problem solving skills helps children build a strong foundation for future learning. Playing with construction toys such as building blocks enables children to acquire an understanding of basic math skills and develop fine motor skills. While playing with construction toys, children learn categorization, sequencing, patterning, and quantifying, which help build a strong foundation for understanding math in the future.

Musical Play Engages children in rhythmic musical activity. Music exerts a powerful influence on children's developing minds and enhances reading, math, and creative skills. Nurturing your child's interest in music, whether it's singing, humming, whistling, dancing, or banging on a drum, sets the tune for further learning.

Linguistic Play Encourages a child's verbal skills. The foundations of language learning are laid when children are infants, and these skills continue to develop through the toddler years. Children's development can be nourished by exposure to an environment filled with sound, rhythm, and language patterns. Toys that encourage listening, creating sounds, mimicking words, and making word associations build and strengthen children's language skills.

Motor Skills Promote and develop children's physical athletic ability, manual dexterity, and/or eye-hand coordination. Many people associate fine motor skills with the way a child holds a pencil, crayons, or scissors, but it is much more. Human development progresses from the head down and from the torso outward, so the use of hands and fingers is actually the last part of the development process. You can enhance a child's fine motor development early in life by giving them opportunities to refine large motor skills. Begin with big pieces of puzzles, clay, or big crayons and combine these tools with activities such as coloring in a coloring book. Playing with manipulative toys such as shape sorters, activity centers, lacing toys, and puzzles helps children develop fine eye-hand coordination skills.

Fine motor skills involve muscles of the hands, eyes, face, and mouth, and mastering these skills completes critical pathways to development.Cooperative Play Fosters cooperation and interaction with the objective of achieving common goals. The idea behind cooperative play is interaction with the objective of achieving common goals. The best way to teach children any skill is to model the right behavior, and this is best learned by giving the child many opportunities to put it into practice. Help your child fully develop their understanding of cooperation through activities, games, and toys that engage multiple participants for the highest level of interactive fun. Encourage team effort at home by sharing certain responsibilities with your children.

Visual Play Engages the child in visual evaluation and activities that nurture creativity. Stimulate your child's visual development by having them translate what they have learned into pictures. You'll enhance their experience and retention by encouraging them to create images. Art and building projects are a great way for children to build their self-esteem and express their emotions and creativity. When children create masterpieces of their own, they learn that anything is possible. By nurturing children's creativity and imagination, you are setting the stage for a colorful learning experience that enhances all areas of their development.

Kids Learning Depot Creative Play for you Child's World of Wonder.

2005-07-13T13:20:00.000-05:00

Kids Learning Depot is proud to announce their Grand Opening effective July 15, 2005.

Kids Learning Depot is home of the 100% Satisfaction Guarantee! Big Smiles on Happy Customers is our number one goal.

We've searched high and low for tough and rugged toys and furniture items that can withstand the rigors of play day-in and day-out. We've traveled from New York to California with many stops in between, looking for just the right items. We are a Guidecraft USA "Full-Line" Distributor. We also carry other quality names such as: KidKraft, Angeles, Alex, Jonti-Craft, Edushape, Aviva Sports, Pippen Hill, Geomag, Levels of Discovery, Charm, and many more.

Our everyday freight special is: FREE UPS GROUND SHIPPING ON ALL ORDERS OVER $100.00!! AND FLAT RATE OF $5.95 UPS GROUND SHIPPING ON ALL ORDERS UP TO $99.99*

Check back often as our blog will be updated frequently with more information regarding children's play itmes and household furnishings.

Best Wishes and thank you for your business!
Dale