Smart Boy’s Toy Club & Smart Girl’s Party Game are the only games for preschoolers (age 3-6) on Nintendo DS.  These are “first-time games for first-time gamers.”  Included on these games are 18 skill based games that help develop the memory, and they encourage creativity through activities like interactive coloring books.  They also teach basic skills and work on hand eye coordination.

SingStar is making an encore performance with SingStar Vol. 2 which has 30 new chart-topping tracks from top artists including The Bravery, Spoon, Paramore, Radiohead and many more.  You are able to access hundreds of downloadable songs via the PS3 online Singstore.  You also are able to share your SingStar experience with friends and the online My SingStar community!  You can even get  SingStar ABBA for either the PlayStation 2 or the PlayStation 3.  SingStar ABBA features over 20 chart-topping singles from ABBA’s hit album, ‘Gold’ including ‘Mamma Mia,’ ‘Gimme Gimme Gimme,’ ‘Waterloo’ and ‘Dancing Queen’.

Tim and Sallys Vegetable Garden is another great children’s book.  This book is about two siblings learning how to plant their garden.  We learn about how and when to plant different seeds, what tools are needed, and how to tend to the garden as the vegetables grow.  The book is written in verse, so the lines rhyme which is a skill we are currenlty working on with Madison.  She noticed the the lines rhymed right away, and we are glad to reinforce something we have been working on.  The illustrations in Tim and Sallys Vegetable Garden definitely compliment the story too.  There is also a word list at the end of the book that we also have been working on with Madison.  There is a picture of each item that was in the garden and then what it is is listed underneath.  Lastly, at the very end of the book, there is a Garden Journal, where your little ones can put down their own thoughts about their garden.

Right now is not gardening season here.  However, I have a feeling we will be reading this book a lot more come spring!  Every time we read this now, Madison wants to know when we are planting our garden!

365 Days of Baby Einstein is one of the books that is such a great deal that you cannot pass it up. This book teaches your children about art, language, poetry, math, and science. The illustrations and pictures in here are awesome and engage your child. There are read aloud rhymes, interactive questions, and poems that encourage your children and you to have a conversation about what is going on on that page. The pages of this book are paper, so you do have to be careful. There are things in this book that both Madison (my 4 year old) and Will (my 1 year old) can do and be entertained by. Each section of the book is color coded, so if you want to work on certain skill like language development, you can easily find it. They even have pages where you can learn how to say words like dog and cat in other languages.  This is a book that can easily be given as either a baby shower gift or a birthday present, and you won’t break the bank either.