Smile Education: What are 'core' products?

    Whenever I mention SMILE Educational products, most people's first reaction is: "But I heard they didn't exist anymore?!" Although the company has changed owners a few times in recent years, Smile is still very much with us and I am delighted to be your source for their incomparable educational products. 

For ordering information, please see the bottom of this post.

      Smile Education has set the benchmark for educational toys in South Africa for many years and not surprisingly so. This proudly South African range has very few competitors even in the international market when it comes to quality and pure educational value.  No other range so extensively caters for just about every early childhood skill that children need to master and therapists, teachers and parents alike are spoiled for choice when looking for developmental aids for little ones. 

   The Smile range is an extensive one, but over the years the developers had identified a few of the products as essential for the basic skills all children need to master in their toddler and pre-school years. CORE PRODUCTS, then, are in short, those items that every household with young children should have.H

   Below is a list of Smile's twelve Core Products: 

1,2,3 Go! - Price: R245

Smile's deluxe numeracy-in-a-box set includes:

60 Touch 'n Count cubes

Number spinner

Laminated picture cards

Laminated dot cards

Laminated number cards

Laminated write-and-wipe dotted numbers cards

Desktop number line

Laces (for threading colour patterns using Touch n Count cubes)

Touch n Count book - an essential guide to teaching early numeracy to the basic operations of addition, subtraction, division and multiplication.

As a side note: this set is comprehensive enough that we have been using it as our early maths program in our home school.

Mega Peg & Play - PRICE: R210

A large, chunky first peg board, ideal for little hands. 

Develops fine motor skills and coordination, colour and shape recognition. 

At first young children simply try to put the pegs into the holes, and may even stack them (my children love to build a tower with ALL the pegs - because the shaft of each piece is so long, the tower won't tumble!)

Later on you can slip one of the four colour mats onto the board and the child has to then match the correct shapes and colours to the picture. 

An excellent produbt to practice repeating patterns - either building them on the board or threading the pegs in pattern using the laces provided.

Bridge to Learning - Price: R210

 The creme de la creme  of the core products! If you only buy one, let it be this one. 

For a two-part review of this product by an occupational therapist, please read my posts here and here. 

Bobbles and Beads - R225

Busy Buttons - R225

Geostacks - R260

Elastica - R250

3 D Designs - R300

Geostructa - R250

Growing up with a Smile - R150

Really...no mommy with little ones should be without this book, brimming with ideas on how to playfully help babies and toddlers develop essential skills at home. The best part? Just about all the activities suggested in this gem of a book can be done using things you already have at home! (how about tying the laundry basket to the washing line and having your child try tossing a ball or bean bag into it?!)

LogiShapes Galore - R210

Pegboars Combo - R210

HOW TO ORDER:

• Please e-mail your order, including postal address to joyfulmama@telkomsa.net
• I gladly post to any address in South Africa, postage being for your account
• Once I have received your order, I will send you an invoice for the total, including postage. I will mail your order as soon as payment reflects in my bank account.
• Please allow two to three weeks for delivery, depending on stock levels.

Play with your food! Melissa & Doug's Cutting Food set

As Christmas draws nearer many of the prominent parenting blogs out there are featuring lists of favourite and age-appropriate toys as gift-ideas. And so far ALL of the ones I've seen have this toy in common:

Melissa & Doug's Cutting Food Set

R310

   Here are the specs:

• The set contains eight pieces of wooden food, a wooden cutting board and a wooden knife, all beautifully packed in a sturdy wooden box. The parts of each piece of play food sticks together with heavy-duty velcro and can then be 'cut' into pieces using the wooden knife.
• Can't you just hear that satisfying, crunchy sound it makes when the knife slices through the velcro?? I think this may be one of the main reasons young children so enjoy this set!!
• Size of the box: 7 x 30 x 27,5cm 

Some super ideas for extension activities from the official Melissa & Doug website:

• Ask the child to identify each food and categorize it as a fruit, vegetable, or grain.
• Place the food items in a row. Ask the child to count the number of food items. Repeat the activity until the child is able to count them independently.
• Ask the child to place the apple on the cutting board and cut it apart with the wooden knife. Explain that the apple has been cut into two equally sized pieces, or halves. Ask the child to find another piece of food that could be cut in half (the pepper).
• Ask the child to put together the sandwich-bread slices on the cutting board and to use the wooden knife to cut them into individual slices. Explain that the bread was cut into three equal slices, or thirds. (Do not use the loaf for this activity--it works best with the sandwich slices.)
• Ask the child to place the watermelon slice on the cutting board and to cut it apart with the wooden knife. Explain that the watermelon slice has been cut into four pieces, or fourths.

All great ideas to enrich the playing experience, but from what I've seen, you will unlikely to have to assist much!!

  To see (and hear - crunch, crunch, crunch!!) this play food set in action, click on the video above to watch Melissa herself give a delightful demonstration. (If you subscribe via e-mail, please click here to view the video).

How to order:

* E-mail me your order, including postal address to joyfulmama@telkomsa.net.

*  I will bill you and await proof of payment to start processing our order.

* Please allow two weeks for delivery.

* All orders are sent via the SA Post Office and I will send you a tracking number as soon as your parcel is in the post.

Construction Toys from Joyful Mama's Toys

The amazing Anna at The Imagination Tree has just published a list of Top Toys for 2 - 6 year olds, which you can view by clicking here. I was delighted to see how many of the toys (or similar ones) that Anna recommends, are part of the ranges I represent. But I also have some super other toys that would fit into her categories, and I thought I'd dedicate my first post on this blog to sharing with you some of the excellent construction toys you can order from me:

Construction Toys

Melissa & Doug Standard Unit Blocks
 R780

Buiderific 118 pc
R150

Smart Building planks 52 pc
R150

Makedo - the ultimate open-ended construction set!
65pc - R145

165pc - R285

Metal Construction sets (various - between 155 - 165 pc, including 2 tools)
R100 each

WallTrax build-your-own Marble Run
R135

Melissa & Doug's 100 Wooden Blocks
R270

How to Order:

1. E-mail me your order, including your postal address, to joyfulmama@telkomsa.net
2. I will bill you, and as soon as I have received proof of payment, I will place your order with my suppliers. Please allow two weeks for delivery.
3. All orders are sent via the SA Post Office and I will provide you with a tracking number as soon as your parcel is in the post.