If you are looking for a very affordable gift for kids ages 3 – 7, then you must get the Poingo.  With the Poingo, you are able to touch pictures and/or the text, the their favorite characters are brought to life with either music, sounds, and words.  The best part is that the Poingo starter kit is $34.99 and is available at Target, Toys R Us, Walmart, Costco, Sam’s Club, and BJ’s Wholesale Clubs.  It comes with the pen shaped Poingo and two large hardcover interactive storybooks.  This is definitely affordable, and the starter kit is awesome.  You don’t have to automatically buy another $100 worth of books right off the bat.  You have a working system right from the start.  The book choices are excellent.  The books that came with ours are Cars and Finding Nemo, so it was definitely right up my kids alley.  These movies are favorites in our house, so my kids had a definite interest in the books.   They also have Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Winnie The Pooh.  The pen itself is simple to use.  All you have to do is click it on the part of the book with the words, and it will read that whole section.  You can also click on the images and for sound effects.  There are words that are highlighted also, and you get a definition of the word.  You can also click on images and find out what they are or get a cool sound effect.  Madison is actually able to take this and read the book by herself.  She loves having that kind of independence.  My kids love to read, so this is really a naturally progression for them.

This is one of the best affordable educational toys on the market for kids.  I recommend checking it out — you can even try a demo here.

Another affordable toy out there on the markets this year can be purchased at Macy’s. At $14.99, Skoodlez makes a great toy for your kids or a grab bag, and can be given to kids 4 – 12. The stuffed animal has weighed down hands and feet, so you can easy pose them and hang them.  The cool part is that there is a coin handing around the stuffed animals neck.  You take the code off the coin and use that to access the online world.  On the site, children are challenged to create their own stories.  There are three different settings, so you can taylor it to your child’s age.  Beginner is from 4 – 6, medium is from 7 – 9, and advanced is 10 – 12.  When they finish their story, they can share them Skoodlez community.  They can also print them out.

This makes the perfect gift for the kid who has everything.  The Everday Skoodlez line includes fifteen animals:  hippo, cat, dog, mouse, duck, lion, tiger, leopard, panda, bear, zebra, giraffe, monkeys, and elephant.  There is also twenty four holiday ones.  They is definitely something here for everyone.

Did you know that Baby Einstien has been around for 10 years?  I can’t believe it either.  Granted, my oldest child is only going to be five, so I’ve only been able to enjoy them for half the time they have been around.  That being said I love baby Einstein and all of their products.  We own a ton of Baby Einstein DVDs and books.  I can totally see how they are the #1 selling infant DVD line.  The best part of their DVDs is that they are timeless.  Madison will still watch the DVDs with her little brother Will (who is now 18 months old).  Their DVDs are some of the best ones out there in my opinion.  Not only do they entertain your children, they also learn from them. You can easily interact with your children and talk about what’s on the screen.  It is almost amazing how memorized little kids get while watching these DVDs.  I also love that their music collection.  We have used their Lullaby Classics CD with both of my children.  Baby Enstein’s book collection is also great.  Their books are very interactive.  They include your children as part of the story and require your children to interact with the book.  For example, in Touch and Feel Farm animals, they are able to feel a sheep’s wool, a cow’s nose, and a horses mane.  Will is very much into textures right now, so this is one of his favorite books. Madison still reads their See and Spy shapes book!  Each page asks you to look for a count certain items, and no matter how many times we do it, she still loves it!

Having been a huge fan of Baby Einstein for 5 years, I can only tell you that I highly recommend all of their products.  We have yet to have a product of theirs that we didn’t like.  Their products make great presents for you kids, a baby shower, or just for the fun of it.

If you are looking for a way to get some great deals this Christmas season, then you definitely need to check out Red Save.  They have one of the largest gifts and gadgets UK websites out there for your Christmas goodies.  They have one of the best navigation systems on any shopping site that I’ve seen in both the US and the UK.  I love that you can pick exactly what you are looking for right off the left sidebar.  That makes finding the perfect gift that much easier!  For example, if you click the digital phone frames link, I was able to find this awesome deal on a Kodak Digital Photo Frame.  My favorite part of this photo frame is that it is touch sensitive, so it makes browsing your pictures that much easier.  I don’t think I’ve seen that on any other frame that is out on the market.  If digital photo frames aren’t on your list, you can check out the toys & games section or even the grown up fun section.  There is truly something for everyone here.  If you want the newest and greatest gifts out there, make sure you check out the New Arrivals.  There are a lot of really cool things in there too!  They take Visa, Mastercard, and even Paypal, so you are set no matter what.  Online shopping is the way to shop and Red Save makes it easy for you.

I personally believe books always make great gifts. We have installed into our children how important reading is, and you can tell. Both my one year old and my four year old can often be seen flipping through books without Bill or me even around.  This is why I l love companies like GiftLit who make it easier to give books as gifts to both children and adults alike.

GiftLit has an advisory board of librarians, educators, authors, and industry experts that select the books that are sent out, so you know these are great books. They have books for every age too!  They have books for toddlers on up.  They way this works is you pick with selection of books you want.  If you are looking at the kids books, you can choose which age group you want.  For adults, you can pick anything from fiction to mysteries to history.  You can also choose how long you want your gift subscription to last.  You can buy them in 3, 6, or 12 month increment.  The best part of this is that this is the gift that keeps on giving.  Instead of the one present you get Christmas morning, you can potentially have a gift every month of the year.

We have this come to our house, and we love it.  The books are great quality books that I would have never thought to check out.  Also, what kid doesn’t like to get mail for them?  Actually, what adult doesn’t like getting a present in the mail each month?  This is truly the gift that keeps on giving, and I am deciding which book lover in my family is getting this.  If you’d like to get this for yourself or as a present, just make sure you use the code LISA1130, so you can get 10% off your order!