All this week we have been encouraging our readers to experience the great outdoors.  And I can hear your question now.. “But Hens – what can we do on stormy days?”  Yes, I know exactly what you mean… those days when it’s fun to stay inside and just enjoy time with each other.  This summer, our family discovered a board game that’s multi-generational, teaches about the great outdoors and best of all, it’s a lot of fun.  Are you ready to CAMP?  Read the rest of this post...

Ahh, science. Here at our house, we are quite comfortable with our geekiness and make an effort to pass it along to the kids. While it’s easy to talk about things like littering while on a walk or the birds that visit the backyard, the subject of energy takes some creativity. The people at OWI have been building solar powered toys since 1980, and their easy to build kit gave us the perfect opportunity to talk about energy sources and renewable vs. non-renewable energy, right in our own kitchen. OWI sent the Five Hens a Robotikit 6 in 1 Educational Solar Kit (retail price $19.95) to try out, and the Little Red family was lucky enough to play with it.  Read the rest of this post...

This past week, we received a LeapFrog Tag Reading System to test and review. As always, we were excited to check out a new product from LeapFrog. I mean, these guys have a great reputation and we’ve always been really satisfied with their products. So first off, what is the Tag Reading System. If nothing else, it is quite simply an amazing piece of technology that fits in the palm of your child’s hand. The “system” consists of a pen-shaped “reader” and specially encoded books. By touching various icons on the pages of the book with the tip of the “reader”, the device will either read the page aloud to your child or play an interactive game based on the current page in the book. In addition to that, everything on the page is touchable by the “reader” which provides great voices, sound effects, and music that go along with the picture that was touched. Your kids can even touch on an individual word on the page and hear it read back to them. You can drag the reader like a pen across the words on the page and it will read them slowly so your kids can hear each word individually if they want to. The 16MB system retails for $39.99, with a just-released 32 MB system retailing for $49.99. The books for the system retail for $13.99 each.  Read the rest of this post...

This week we have a great giveaway from our sponsor Sprig Toys. It’s a Sprig Front Loader from their Eco Trucks collection. Digging, loading and dumping. That’s a tried-and-true formula for dirt pile and sandbox fun! Sprig’s Eco-Trucks are fully equipped with easy-grab handles, making each freewheeling vehicle inviting and a cinch to maneuver. The playful, cartoon-like designs of Sprig’s chunky vehicles make them irresistible to preschoolers and parents love the eco-friendly, battery-free, kid-powered construction.

Entry Requirements

To enter for a chance to win, you are required to do ONE of four things (or all four if you like).  Read the rest of this post...