Usborne’s “Noisy” Books Review

Posted in books & book reviews, usborne by Rosemary Lynn

Do your kids love to be noisy? Because mine certainly do.

And, to be perfectly honest, the word “noisy” carried a rather negative connotation for me…. until I found these books!

I mean, I love when my kids get “noisy” by running around the backyard or playground and making a healthy ruckus…. but noisy TOYS? No. I avoid those things like the plague.

But when I started selling Usborne Books, I was intrigued by these. Usborne has such amazing books, but would I like the ones that made sounds? YES! Would they be annoying like others I’ve found in stores? Not at all!

In fact, even though my kids benefit by my being a consultant in that they get to read all the books that come through my house, the one I bought just for them was the Noisy Orchestra. WE. LOVE. IT. No kidding: this thing rocks. It has beautiful sounds, gorgeous illustrations, and it’s actually pleasant for me to listen to while my kids play with it in the car.

But the best part is – even though the orchestra book is our personal favorite – there are a TON of noisy/musical/sound to choose from and you can find one to fit the interests of the kids in your life! Got a little one who loves monsters? Pirates? Trucks? Castles??? We’ve got you covered! :)

These books are rated for age 3 and up, but they’re also wonderful for beginning readers and early elementary ages. Plus, they’re also sturdy enough when the younger siblings get hold of them: rounded edges and thick pages for safety and a lifetime guarantee for accidents. (Contact me for details!)

Here’s my video review of a few of the books:

And here are direct links to the books pictured above and featured in the video:

Noisy Castle

Noisy Circus

Noisy Diggers

Noisy Jungle

Noisy Monsters

Noisy Noah’s Ark

Noisy Orchestra

Noisy Pirates

Noisy Robots

Noisy Spooky Book

Noisy Train

Noisy Zoo

If you’d like more information about getting these books for free by throwing a Facebook party (anywhere in the U.S.!) or about how to become a consultant and enrich the lives of children by encouraging early literacy with amazing books like these, contact me on my book site or on Facebook!

Happy Reading!!

18Feb2015

Book Review: Flippy Floppy Lift a Flap Jungle Animals

Posted in books & book reviews, usborne by Rosemary Lynn

Flippy Floppy Jungle Animal Board Book

This Flippy Floppy Jungle Book is one of my kid’s newest fascinations. They’ve been having a lot of fun with it.

It’s a great lift-the-flap board book from Usborne/Kane Miller that offers a lot of interaction for kids.

The purpose of the book is to lift four flaps in order to slowly reveal a hidden animal. As you go, the animal you’re looking for appears as bits and pieces of other animals. For example, the tail of the tiger is also the beak of a toucan and the body of a snake.

There are cut-outs to look through and a little bird to find on all of the pages. The last page challenges kids to find all the animals again, and it’s sturdy enough for little hands to get excited about with thick pages and rounded corners.

I go into some more detail in my video review, where you can also see how it works:

And, yes… I’m aware that I have a strange expression on my face in the video thumbnail. TRUST me – it was the best one!

I’m also aware that I keep calling it “Flippity Floppity Jungle Animals” on the video. I don’t know why, but “Flippy Floppy” seems to be difficult for me to say…

Anyway, to see the book, or add it to your online wishlist, click:

Flippy Floppy Lift-the-Flap Jungle Animal Book

And if you like this book, you’ll also love:

Flippy Floppy Lift-the-Flap Farm Animals

Flippy Floppy Lift-the-Flap Ocean Animals

Happy Reading!

Roaming Rosie Signature

10Jan2015

Make Cute Animal Shaped Mini Sandwiches and Cookies and Stuff

Posted in food & flavor & recipes, toys & games & gifts by Rosemary Lynn

These little sandwich shapers are ADORABLE!

The full name for these cute, little sandwich cutters are CuteZCute Animal Palz Mini Bento Sandwich Stamping Cutter & Egg Shaper.

Which is quite a mouthful.

But they do so many fabulous things I can totally get why they had trouble giving it a shorter name!

I’ve used them for a bunch of different things and they really add a great element of fun to my daughters’ lunches.

You can use them to imprint on bread, tortillas, watermelon, cookie dough, and probably a bunch of things I haven’t even thought of yet.

Plus the set also has the tools to make pocket sandwiches. I’ve found that you can actually get a little bit of both peanut butter and jelly inside of them, but my 4yo actually prefers just plain peanut butter.

Oh – and I have used them to imprint on slices of cheese. But I don’t recommend that.

Here are some meals/snacks I’ve made with them:

And there are tools in the kit to also shape hard boiled eggs, but I haven’t tried that yet.

I do really love this Sandwich Stamping Set. I’ve kept the box because everything has it’s place inside of it, the directions are on the back of the box, and it fits nicely in the pantry.

I have to keep an eye on the pieces, tho… they have a habit of walking off. Especially when my 2yo sees me using them. :)

29Sep2014

Alice’s African Alphabet Adventure {eBook}

Posted in books & book reviews, my books by Rosemary Lynn

Introducing Alice’s African Alphabet Adventure!

This tongue twisting romp through Africa’s wildlife is a tale that I wrote for my oldest daughter when I was pregnant with my youngest.

My daughter LOVED animals and was showing an interest in learning the alphabet, but I was getting tired of reading about cats and dogs and x-ray fish. There had to be more out there.

Plus, my daughter responded with curiosity and amusement at larger, more complicated words – even if it took a few tries for me to pronounce them. That just led to even more giggles.

We certainly found what we were looking for with Dr. Seuss and his Zizzer Zazzer Zuzz, but I also wanted to present real animals to her.

So I went on a quest to find animals that represented every letter of the alphabet, and I was delighted to find such a colorful plethora across the beautiful African continent. Thus was born Alice’s African Alphabet Adventure.

Here are a couple of example pages:

There is – obviously – a great deal of alliteration, which is part of what makes this tale a tongue twister. It also rhymes, since that helps lend a soothing rhythm to the text {which is always a plus at bedtime!}.

For the illustrations, I chose actual photographs of each of the animals, altering them slightly to give them a softer feel, and displaying them atop bright pops of color.

I also added the names of the animals to the picture, to make them easier to identify, and to help with letter recognition. My girls like to point out the animals as we read the story.

You can find the eBook on Amazon in the Kindle Store.

If you don’t have a Kindle – don’t worry! You can download the free Kindle app for your smartphones, tablets, and computers.

And if you like the book, please rate it on Amazon. Many thanks in advance!

Happy Reading!

Roaming Rosie Signature

24Mar2014

Vet Toys for Kids {Product Review}

Posted in toys & games & gifts, wanderings in the world & web by Rosemary Lynn

Vet Toys for Kids {a review}

My kids love animals. And playing doctor.

So, not surprisingly, they both got vet toys for Christmas.

And they loved them. Both my 2-year-old and 4-year-old loved their own toys and their sister’s toys. I’d gotten different things due to their age difference, but it didn’t seem to matter that much.

They also incorporated the Doc McStuffins Doctor Bag quite a bit.

For both girls I got on big vet toy and a smaller item to go with it. Specifically:

For my 4-year-old, I got the B. Toys Critter Clinic Toy Vet Play Set:

And the Learning Resources Tilt and View Animal X-Rays:

And then, for my 2-year-old, I got the Plush Animal Hospital House with Animals:

And the book Biscuit Visits the Doctor:

As I mentioned, they were both happy with all the toys, and all of them are still getting plenty of use a couple months after Christmas. I’m happy with all of the purchases, but wanted to elaborate a little for you.

First of all, I adore the B. Toys Critter Clinic Toy Vet Play Set for many reasons. From a mom’s standpoint, my favorite part is that it’s self-contained. That’s always a plus. All the toys fit in the top and you can also store them behind all the little doors. The plush cat and dog are cute and my girls both seem to like all of the vet tools that were included, like the stethoscope and syringe. But I think the best part is the set of keys. Each of the six doors is opened by only one of the six keys and the color of the key matches the color of the correct door. Granted, I can also use my fingernail to turn the lock, but my girls really enjoy locking and unlocking the doors with the keys.

The Tilt and View Animal X-Rays remind me a bit of toys I used to have in the 80s. You tilt them one way and you see one picture, and you tilt them another way to see a different picture. In this case, one picture is of an animal and the other picture is of that animal’s skeleton. And the back of the cards have the names of the animals and interesting facts for each species. There are 18 cards and the animals range from Green Sea Turtle to Barred Owl to Emperor Penguin. They’re supposed to be for slightly older kids, but both of my girls liked trying to “find” the bones. The cards don’t get as much play as the other vet toys, but my daughter definitely likes them, and has showed an interest in comparing the animals.

The Plush Animal Hospital House was what I gave to my youngest daughter because I thought it would be more age-appropriate for a two-year-old, but I find she plays with her sister’s Critter Clinic just as often if not more. Although this has more to do with the vet tools included in the Critter Clinic than the animals. She loves the dog, cat, bear, bird, and moose included in Plush Animal Hospital. She takes care of them, kissing their boo-boos and such. Many of the bandages on the animals can be opened to reveal boo-boos in the form of stitches. The animals are all soft and huggable, and it’s easy to put them in and take them back out of the plush house. Another toy with self-contained benefits. And a soft handle, which makes carrying it easy for little hands.

And then we come to Biscuit Visits the Doctor. My girls love Biscuit. We have many Biscuit books, and Biscuit is often requested at story time. So we’ve read this particular book many, many times. This is partially due to the doctor obsession brought on by Doc McStuffins, and also because Biscuit can be fun to read. My four-year-old laughs at his antics, chiming in with “silly puppy,” as my two-year-old quotes Biscuit right along with me: “woof, woof!” Either way, I highly recommend all Biscuit books for young kids, and especially this one for any kids remotely interested in doctors. I imagine it would also be good for kids that are afraid of the doctor, though I no longer have to worry about that, since my girls were cured of that through Doc McStuffins and Elmo.

Overall, I recommend all of the toys featured here, though especially the B. Toys Critter Clinic Toy Vet Play Set, which would be my vote if I had to choose which seemed to be the favorite out of all of them for my girls.

If you have any questions about the toys, please feel free to ask me!

Roaming Rosie Signature

29Nov2013

Modern Moose Clocks

Posted in wanderings in the world & web by Rosemary Lynn

I looooove this owl clock!

Of course, I love most things owl. But the shape and the colors are so simple but sleek and unique that I just can’t stop looking at it. I’m mesmerized.

The 3D, handcrafted wood clocks are made by Modern Moose, and they have other gems, like this robot and sock monkey:

You can find the Owl Clock and others at The Grommet!

10Nov2013

Kawaii Doughnuts!

Posted in food & flavor & recipes, wanderings in the world & web by Rosemary Lynn

kawaii animal doughnuts

Wha???

Doughnuts shaped like a kitten? A panda!

*Gasp*

Must. Fly. To. Tokyo. Right. NOW!

I can taste their sugary goodness just from looking at this picture. The thrifty side of my brain tells me that I could make these if I just put a little effort and creativity into baking some doughnuts myself… and the I-need-sugar-cuteness-now side of my brain says, “quick – go bake some box brownies and cover them in a sugar icing and sprinkles before your brain’s taste buds explode!”

Well – that’s it. I’m off to raid the kitchen…

(source)