Art 101 Review

As a mother of a budding artist, it seems like I can never keep enough art supplies in our home.  It seems like he is always losing colored pencils or running them down to where they have to be sharpened daily.  He really enjoys art class at school where he has had the chance to try out other mediums of art.  I really love that he is an artist, because I am extremely unartistic. He did not get the art gene from me.  I am great at coloring but that is about it. I took ceramics in high school thinking I would be good at it, I was not.  I really want to foster and embrace his love of art and implement some of the techniques that he has been learning at school.  I think in order to be a great artist you have to have talent, and the proper tools to succeed. There are a lot of art sets out there. I know, I have been looking for a while to get one for Noah. Most of them are just crayons, colored pencils and markers.  We have so many crayons that they fill a medium sized plastic box. I wanted to find more than just the standard stuff he was already used to and possibly starting to grow bored with.  We had the opportunity to work with a company called Art 101.  Art 101 sells really cool quality art kits for children and adults.  They have artist sets, and even a kid’s line called Art 101 Kids.

I finally found the art set I had been looking for. It has some of the basics and some not so basic items in it.  We received The Art 101 179 pc Double Sided Trifold Easel Art Set to try out. The Art 101 179pc Double Sided Trifold Easel Art Set comes with 48 crayons, 48 oil pastels, 24 color pencils, 19 watercolors, 12 markers, 10 sheets of paper, 4 large clips, 3 paper clips, 1 Art 101 Painting and Drawing Guide, 1 sketch pencil, 1 paint brush, 1 ruler, 1 eraser, 1 color wheel, 1 palette, 1 pencil sharpener, and 1 sponge with a double sided easel in a trifold organizer case. This set is every artist’s dream. Noah really likes the easel because he can draw and paint at different angles.  He says you can never have too many colored pencils which have been his tool of choice lately.  I was never really big in to colored pencils. I liked crayons.  He is also a great painter so we will have fun painting on our balcony with the watercolors.  I don’t really know too much about pastels so we will learn together. I forgot to mention that I am taking Art Classes. Noah is teaching me at art class. We have so much fun together. I try really hard but even then he thinks some of my creations are silly looking. Hopefully through the extra art lessons and the new set we received from Art 101, there might be hope for me after all.

This is a great gift if you have an artist or artists in your family. It is a great set because like I said, it is more complex than a hand full of crayons, colored pencils and markers.

For more information please visit Art 101. You can find Art 101 products at Amazon, Toys R US and Target.

Thank you to Art 101 for providing the sample for our review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Time to Buy Noah New Sandals Again

Noah is growing so fast.  I am not sure if his feet are ever going to stop growing.  I have to buy him new shoes quite often.  It’s not always because they are too small, but because he is a boy who wears them out.  He loves to run and play and his shoes are always on his feet. He doesn’t have the love of being barefoot like I do.  I am happy about that, there are too many things for him to step on, and that I prefer that he always wears shoes, anytime he isn’t at home. It’s really hard to find cute affordable kid’s shoes. I am not really big on characters on shoes or clothing and so many things are branded now.  It can take some time to find some we both like.  I have been looking online because taking Noah to a shoe store is not too fun. He is just has so much energy. I really like Ecco Kids Shoes. I think that they are adorable and affordable.  Noah really needs new sandals. I noticed that when his toes were practically falling out of them.  

I still remember his first little sandals. He was so cute in them. I took him out to walk around in them and took about 5,000 pictures.  Since, he was one when he had his first pair of shoes. He was held or in his car seat when we went out.   There are some really cute baby and toddler shoes and booties.  When I have friends who are expecting I like to pick out little cute baby shoes, since Noah forbids anything that he deems babyish.  I have some friends who are expecting or just had a baby recently. I can’t wait to pick out some inch blue shoes.  Even if the baby doesn’t wear them, they are a really cute keepsake.  I know a certain little girl who is gonna get some cupcake shoes from me soon.

Choc-V's Chocolate Vitamins Review

Noah is a very picky eater. I am not sure why that is, I am a somewhat picky eater but I am nowhere near as bad. I have been expanding my palate some, so I am trying.  When you have a picky eater like I do, it can become difficult to make sure he is receiving the right amounts of vitamins and nutrients. Most of what Noah eats is healthy just not a huge variety of things. He also goes to a nut free school, which means he can’t bring peanut butter and jelly in his lunch. He doesn’t like to eat meat so; protein in his diet is tricky.  Of course he will eat peanut butter and jelly at home, but he doesn’t eat it all the time.  I try and supplement him with vitamins.  Oh how have vitamins changed since I was a little girl.  I used to have to take those cartoon rock chewable vitamins.  I did not care for them but I had to take them. I probably almost choked on them more than I care to remember.  Kids are lucky now, they have many different choices.  I just learned about Choc-V’s. Choc-V’s are vitamins for kids that are chocolate.  Yes, chocolate.  If I had those growing up, I would never flush my vitamins down the toilet. Choc-V’s come in three varieties. 

Multi-V which is a multivitamin that contains 17 essential vitamins & minerals, including 1000IU Vitamin D with a great milk chocolate taste. Multi-V's helps support healthy eyes, strong bones and teeth, and a healthy immune system.

Probotic that contains 1 billion microflora to help restore digestive health, strengthen natural defense systems, and prebiotic fiber to help promote the effectiveness of the probiotic. It comes in white chocolate.

Calcium Choc-V's contains 300mg of Calcium to help build strong bones and teeth. Also contains Vitamin D to help the body absorb and use the calcium. Enjoy the great white chocolate taste.  

Not only is it good for you, it tastes great. Noah enjoys the Choc-V’s we received. I gave him one last night and he asked for one with his breakfast! Of course, I had to say no.  I have friends that won’t let their children take gummy vitamins because of the dental issues it can cause.  So until now they were stuck with the hard chewable vitamins that were disgusting.  Choc-V’s saves the day!

Here is some additional information on Choc-V’s from the company:

Everyone loves chocolate. That's why we added yummy chocolate to our vitamins - and vitamins to our chocolate. Choc-V's combines the wonderful taste of chocolate with all your essential daily vitamins for a new and improved, delicious vitamin. So leave your pills, your capsules, and your gummies behind and get ready for the next big thing in the evolution of vitamins. No artificial colors or preservatives.

Choc-V’s came up with a fun campaign called the Chocofier.  It’s really easy and fun to use.  All you do is go to the Chocofier machine website. Type in the URL of the site you want to chocoify. Pick your flavor of chocolate and the website becomes drenched in chocolate. 
  Here is my site Chocofied:

I wouldn’t do it on an empty stomach because it definitely made me hungry.

For more information and to find out where to buy please visit Choc-V’s website.

5 Little Monkeys App Review

It is no secret that I love to sing. Noah loves to listen to music and sing along too.  When you are a parent there will come a time when your child is crying uncontrollably.  You might not be able to pick them up and comfort them if it happens in the car.  Just ask me, once I had to sing the Car-X theme song. You know Rattle rattle thunder clatter boom boom don’t worry call the Car-X man over and over again while driving through Virginia.  I am not sure why that particular song worked when no other did, I was just thankful it worked.  His toy had stopped working and I guess he was not happy about it so I improvised.  I sang anything I could think of. I didn’t have a Smartphone back then; I had a flip phone so apps were unheard of for me. Now this uncontrollable crying incident or being bored or just wanting to listen to music can happen anywhere.  I can’t carry a TV, a CD player or a DVD player everywhere but I always have my phone. Now you can share apps with your children to teach them, and to entertain them.

 One of Noah’s favorite songs now has its own app, 5 Little Monkeys.  This app is adorable. I love when mama calls the doctor. It is funny and entertaining too.  The graphics are great, the monkeys are too cute.  It is something your child can spend a lot of time doing without driving you crazy. I know that some apps are very annoying, 5 Little Monkeys is a great educational app that will help your child learn important vital skills.  Some of the skills are cognitive skills, memorization and counting.  It can even teach your child pitch if you dream of having a future rock star. 

Here is more information from the developer:

5 Little Monkeys is available as a universal iOS app (iPhone, iPad, iPod). The app aims to help parents teach counting and language skills to kids while sharing the beloved nursery rhyme with beautiful graphics and sounds.



Featuring adorable animals, 5 Little Monkeys turns counting and language development into a fun-filled sing-a-long for young children. The repetitious quality of the nursery rhyme helps kids develop vital cognitive skills including: memorization, reasoning and comprehension. Additionally, nursery rhyme singing helps kids to learn pitch control, volume, and voice inflection.

Features

- Interact with characters and objects in the background

- Professional audio narration

- Original music designed specifically for this app

- High-resolution artwork for each scene

5 Little Monkeys is  available in the App Store for $2.99 for iPod, iPad and iPhone.

For more information, please visit the Kid's Academy Website

 Be sure to like Kid's Academy on Facebook

 Follow Kid's Academy on Twitter