It's a fact that kids like to watch and listen to other kids. Think of the live video footage on Sesame Street, Yo
Gabba Gabba, The Wiggles, Barney, and other shows. And it's also a fact that parents don't like it nearly as much as their kids. Take
Kidz Bop and other
cd's where little kids sing nursery rhymes. I know my kids like it, so I'm happy to play it for them, but I can totally understand why some parents groan when their kids ask for those kinds of
cd's: the kids' voices are charming, but they're often out of tune, with no variation in tone or volume as the song goes on. When I was invited to review
The Fairytale Collection: Classic Favorites with Unexpected Twists by The 6Pence Players, I could almost compose the review in my mind: the kids loved it, it's a great way to keep them enthralled in the car without resorting to a DVD, but parents might want to turn the sound balance all the way to the back. With apologies to the 6Pence Players, I was dead wrong!
The BasicsThe Fairytale Collection: Classic Favorites with Unexpected Twists contains five classic
fairytales -- The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Cinderella and Friends, The Emperor's New Clothes, The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolves, and The Princess and The Pea -- read aloud by children ages 5 through 17. As the title implies, the stories are given modern tweaks here and there, and the dialogue is peppered with modern language.
The BonggaThis
cd far exceeded my expectations! I expected the kids to like it, but I didn't think that The Pea, at the ripe old age of eight, would enjoy it as much as she did. And I didn't think I'd like as much as I did. Come on, it's the Three Little Pigs, for Pete's sake! But they made it fresh and funny and a delight to listen to. Here are three reasons why:
The
storylines have subtle changes and twists that keep these old classics fresh and funny. For example, the princess in The Princess and the Pea counts
flamingoes and bears and turtles to help her get to sleep on her "lumpy" old bed. And one of the tailors in The Emperor's New Clothes has asthma and needs to know whether they get medical insurance. And the 3 Little Pigs have 3 wolves, not 1, and these wolves don't rely on their lungs to blow the pigs' houses down -- they use mini fans and hairdryers (The Pea was in stitches over that one)!
* The dialogue is witty and real. (The princess in The Princess and the Pea tells everyone it's raining pheasants and dragons, and when one of the pigs tells the wolf, "Not by the hair of my
chinny-chin-chin, the wolf snorts, "What's THAT supposed to mean?". That got a good laugh too). It's also modern, with common phrases like "weird" and "freaks me out", so kids can relate.
* The voice talents are really, really
gooooooood. It's hard to believe they're all between the ages of 5 and 17!
The BlahI can't think of anything I don't like about this
cd, other than it the fact that it's not readily available. Currently parents can only
purchase the cd online at their website, and at select retail stores in North Carolina and Georgia. It will soon be available on
iTunes and
CDBaby to download, which should make it easier for everyone to purchase and enjoy the cd.
The Bottom LineThis is one
cd that won't leave parents groaning inwardly when their kids, want to listen to it. I heartily recommend it!
Win It!One lucky Bonggamom Finds reader will win a copy of The Fairytale Collection cd. To enter, simply leave a comment on this post and tell me your favorite fairytale.
For extra entries, you can do any or all of the following, (you can only do each entra entry
once; please leave a separate comment for each extra entry):
1) Grab my blog button and post it up on your blog (leave a comment here with your blog URL).
2)
Fave Bonggamom Finds on Technorati (leave a comment with your Technorati id).
3) Tweet this giveaway (leave a comment with a link to your tweet). Here is a sample tweet you can copy and paste:
Win a Fairytale Collection cd from @bonggafinds
http://tinyurl.com/y9uv2jxMaximum of 4 entries per person. This giveaway ends at midnight PST on December 14, 2009; I will draw a winner at random and post the winner's name on the comments section as soon as the winner confirms acceptance.
For additional giveaway rules, click here. Good luck!
I received a sample in order to review this product, but no monetary compensation. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.
Win an Imagine: Fashion Designer World Tour game for Nintendo DS by Ubisoft! To enter, keep reading....
In Imagine: Babyz Fashion, the stars of the runway are cartoon-y toddlers. You can design outfits for them and dress them up and choreograph their catwalk performances. I really like the part where you can choose the baby's dance moves and choose the music they walk down the runway to (anyone remember the Ally McBeal dancing baby?), but I have to admit, the concept of babies toddling down runways and entering fashion contests kind of creeps me out. I know it's all a simulation, but it smacks too much of that icky JonBenet Ramsey, Toddlers and Tiaras, infant beauty pageant world. I much prefer the part of the game where you have to feed and play with the baby, which is something that all girls like to do, even the older ones. They just won't admit it -- so caring for virtual babies lets them play mommy-baby and still maintain their cool girl facade.
It's a fact that kids like to watch and listen to other kids. Think of the live video footage on Sesame Street, Yo Gabba Gabba, The Wiggles, Barney, and other shows. And it's also a fact that parents don't like it nearly as much as their kids. Take Kidz Bop and other cd's where little kids sing nursery rhymes. I know my kids like it, so I'm happy to play it for them, but I can totally understand why some parents groan when their kids ask for those kinds of cd's: the kids' voices are charming, but they're often out of tune, with no variation in tone or volume as the song goes on. When I was invited to review The Fairytale Collection: Classic Favorites with Unexpected Twists by The 6Pence Players, I could almost compose the review in my mind: the kids loved it, it's a great way to keep them enthralled in the car without resorting to a DVD, but parents might want to turn the sound balance all the way to the back. With apologies to the 6Pence Players, I was dead wrong!
Joke!!! Are you kidding me ???? I snatched that giftcard and wrote my name on it in permanent marker and coughed on it and peed around it in a circle to make sure everyone knew that Staples giftcard was mine, all mine. I could think of a million cool things Staples sells that I could spend that $200 on..... a wireless printer.... an iPod nano... half a netbook.... a digital camera.... a digital photo frame.... The possibilities were endless.
Imagine my disappointment when the first thing he reached for was an extension cord. Then a power surge strip. Then a compressed-air canister for blowing dust out of keyboards. I tried to point out the iPod docking stations. The ergonomic office chairs. The iPod Touch. But he only had eyes for the HDMI cable (okay, that one isn't an everyday purchase, but it's certainly a geeky one. I don't want to blog about how I got my husband a video cable for a present!).
Alfie is absolutely hopeless when it comes to directions; he can barely find his way around the block. He bought his car in 1996 and his motorcycle in 2002, when installed GPS systems weren't common yet. When we bought our minivan in 2004, we decided not to spend the extra money to get a GPS system since I happen to be good at directions and I'd be driving the minivan most of the time. So whenever Alfie goes anywhere without me, he prints pages and pages of maps and directions. Which is why a portable GPS is exactly what he needs.
Alfie's perfect present, the Garmin Nuvo 1200, was just $169.99. We also decided to get the Staples Technical Support & Protection Plan since we'd get full protection for damages and defects for 2 years, as well as a guaranteed one-time replacement (basically, Staples would issue us a $169.99 credit towards the purchase of a new GPS) within the next 2 years. We ended up buying all the other stuff that Alfie had picked up, because it was something we needed anyway, but I'm so happy that we were able to find a practical present for just over $200 (with the protection plan), with major coolness points! Alfie was so happy with his present, and so was I! Thanks Staples!
Win a copy of this cd! To find out how, keep reading....
Win this cookbook! To find out how, keep reading.....
They come two colors: Multicolor (which we received) and Hot Pink, and are available to purchase on chicBuds.com at $29.99.
Did you know that Ben Franklin came up with Daylight Saving Time (his analysis showed that the savings due to using natural light versus artificial light would come up to $299 million in today's money). Did you know that Sylvester Graham invented ready-to-eat breakfast cereal and Will Kellogg invented cornflakes? Or that London was the city which had the world's first subway? Whether you want to astound your friends with your vast general knowledge (a.k.a trivia) or just like learning new and cool things, you should read Firsts: Origins of Everyday Things that Changed the World. I received a copy of the book to review, and here's what I thought of it:
Last week I attended a blogger talk given by California Volunteers, the lead oversight agency for the California Citizen Corps Program, which was created post 9/11 to coordinate volunteer activities to make our communities safer, stronger and better prepared to respond to any emergency. They talked to us about ways we could prepare ourselves and our families for a disaster.
Overkill? Trust me, with 3 K'nex-loving kids, I'm happy we have as much as we do. That green tub in the top center of the photo is the latest addition to our K'nex family -- a 400 Piece Value Tub provided to us by Team Mom and K'nex. You'd think my kids would look at the tub and say, Meh. More of the same. But they were almost as excited to play with it as they were when they received their very first K'nex set. Here's more about our latest K'nex set and what we thought of it:
The Bongga
A bracelet handcrafted in Uganda by women actively engaged in caring for children in thier communities who have lost parents to AIDS. This bracelet is a colorful reminder of how your gift is changing lives.
A handcrafted Thai necklace, available in either black or blue, constructed of wooden beads. This unique neck piece was made in a project that helps protect vulnerable girls from exploitation.
A handcrafted Thai bracelet. This lovely piece of jewelry was made in a project that helps protect vulnerable girls from exploitation. The beads are wooden, and the item is available in either blue or black
One of the cool products that were showcased at last Sunday's SV Moms holiday party (I know, I know, I haven't gotten around to blogging about it yet. Until I do, check out Kim's post) was a teeny-tiny iPod-compatible projector called the Cinemin Swivel. Party attendees were lucky enough to receive a free Swivel (or at least a free order; the actual product will be shipped in January) but they're also giving everyone else a chance to win one on Twitter. Today and tomorrow, one free Cinemin Swivel pico projector (valued at $300 each) will be awarded to a lucky Twitter user. To enter to win, tweet an answer to the question posted each day on the official Cinemin Twitter account (@cinemin) including the hashtag #cinemin in it. (Click here for the official rules).
Those of you who read my blog know that I didn't grow up in the US; I'm from the Philippines, so I never celebrated Thanksgiving until I was in my mid-twenties. Now we celebrate it every year, but I'm not a stickler for slaving over a hot stove in order to come up with a home-cooked meal. I love prepared holiday feasts like those you can get from Boston Market because you can focus on family and friends, not food.
I don't think I need to go into detail about how great LEGO is. Everybody plays with it -- we have a big tub of LEGO in the playroom (actually we have two big tubs -- one holds regular sized LEGO, and one holds DUPLO bricks), and I don't know of a family or daycare or school that doesn't. It's one of the best toys for building and themed play around, and any holiday list that doesn't include one LEGO set or another is simply crazy.
