Playing games with my children is more than just spending time together. Studies have shown the importance of spending quality time, actively engaging with your child is to his or her development. On top of that, I find that games serve other important purposes as well. And the best part? The kids don’t realize it; the benefits may vary with each game:

• Strategy
• Decision-making
• Social skills
• Hand-eye coordination
• Math
• Patience

This is just a short list, of course.

MommyB let Hasbro know how much my family loves games, and they asked if I’d be interested in writing a review. Imagine my surprise when my box came and we received TWO games.

Scrabble Alphabet Soup

Initially, I thought my boys would not be interested. However, much to my surprise they actually picked this game first to play.

As long as your child can recognize letters, he or she can play. My boys are 12- and 11-years old. They vary in academic ability, typically avoid playing word games with me, claiming I know all the words because I am a writer. The beauty of this game is that it puts us all on the same playing level.

We had a lot of fun, and our game lasted only about fifteen minutes straight out of the box. After the winner was declared, they both asked immediately to play again.

Pros

• No reading required (during game play)
• Fast- paced
• Encourages hand-eye coordination
• Teaches word spelling recognition
• Kids will love it

Cons

• Can be noisy (ours was!)
• Little player interaction

I am planning on buying this game for my brother’s kids. At just nine-, seven, and four-years-old, it is one that they can all play together and don’t have to have a parent to help. I would recommend it to everyone.

Clue: Harry Potter Edition

When this game arrived, a reverent silence fell over the kids as they took in the box. You’d thought J.K Rowling herself delivered it. Usually, I don’t care for classic games that adapt them to current trends. Being that I am not a Harry Potter fan, I wasn’t sure how much I’d like the game.

Set up took some time, and the instructions weren’t clear on many aspects. We dove in and learned-on-the-go, and in the end, it worked out well. And I’m not saying that a just because I won.

Pros

• Interaction with the other players
• Strategy skills needed
• New elements to help solve the mystery
• Don’t have to know about Harry Potter to understand (it does help)
• Short game play

Cons

• Complete board needs to be accessible to all players ; was awkward, but we just helped each
• other with no issues
• Instructions are unclear and hard-to-read due to dark colored paper.

For your Harry Potter fan, this game would make a great gift.

I would like to thank MommyB and Hasbro for enabling us to have a great afternoon despite our rainy day.

Disclosure: I received the aforementioned games for my review and honest opinion. I will receive no
other compensation.

Heather spends her days (and many late nights) trying to meet the demands of life as a wife, mother, and writer. She blogs about nothing in particular at Cool and Hip, I am Not and is occasionally spotted on Twitter @coolandhip.

But let’s face it — sometimes it’s nice to feel like, even for one brief, shining moment, that it is all about us. And kids love it when they have something personalized just for them. It gives them a feeling of ownership, and it captures their attention.

Knowing this, I was really excited to try out a new line of kids’ books from JibJab. You know JibJab, right? That’s the hilarious company that makes those electronic greeting cards, the ones where you can add your face to the dancing characters and send it to all your friends so they can laugh at you. Don’t act like you’ve never Elfed Yourself — you know you have.

Well now JibJab has created JibJab Jr. This is a fantastic ebook concept for the iPad. Instead of plugging your boss’ face into a turkey, you plug your child’s face into the main character of a book. And suddenly, your kid becomes the star of his very own personalized story!

This app is super easy to use. It comes with one free book — a cute story about a kid who makes a ginormous pizza. Once you select this story, you’re prompted to create either a boy or girl character.

Then comes the fun part — adding your photo. You can choose a photo from your library, or you can connect to your Facebook account and choose a photo from one of your albums.

Once you’ve picked a shot, you simply rotate and resize to make your child’s face fit into the character’s face. You type in your kid’s name, and choose a skin tone for your character. Then just hit “Go!,” and your animated story begins!

Of course, you can switch out characters as often as you like, so multiple children can be the star of each story. I also love how the app saves your characters. This means you don’t have to go in and choose a new picture every time you start a new book. You simply swipe to choose the photo you want.

The stories we’ve tried have been on a nice reading level for Jack, who is in 2nd grade, but slightly behind in his reading skills. There are enough big words to challenge him (he learned “expertise” from one of the books, and it’s his new favorite word), but the reading level isn’t so difficult that it frustrates him. Jack has to read for at least 20 minutes a day as part of his homework, and at this point in the school year, this has been getting a little tiresome for him. These JibJab Jr. books have been great for reinvigorating his love of reading. He’s now excited to sit down and read to his brother, and he’s even great at choosing and resizing his own pictures. (FYI to my Facebook friends — he chooses his pictures from my albums, so you may or may not have starred in a book. And I may or may not have laughed my butt off at you scuba diving with a shark.)

But what’s surprised me is how Finn is also starting to read along on his own. I think this is because the animation helps his comprehension skills. With a regular book, the pictures do help tell the story to a degree. But seeing the characters and other aspects of the story actually move — literally seeing the action progress — adds a new layer of understanding and excitement for emerging readers.

The only improvement I’d like to see would be multiple characters in a story. I’d love to have a book where my boys could interact with each other in the story, or where families or groups of friends could have their own adventures. Hmm, perhaps they should consider a Freaky Perfect Family series! Jack and Finn both mentioned that they’d like the app to have some sound. They’ve read other ebooks that had either background music or ambient sounds that matched the stories, and I think they missed that a bit.

From a technical standpoint, the app has always worked well for me. It even worked well through the iOS5 update, but it seems there might have been problems for some. However, JibJab Jr. quickly pushed out an update that fixed any quirks. I dig an app company that provides a bug-free product and regular service and updates.

The JibJab Jr. app itself is free, and as I mentioned, it comes with one free book. Subsequent titles are $7.99 each. But they also offer a subscription plan. For $3.99 a month, you get one new book each month, and any more titles you chose to buy are only $3.99 each, instead of full price. I think this is a great deal.

I wholeheartedly recommend the JibJab Jr. ebook app. It’s a great educational tool for kids. But beyond that, it creates lots of laughs and smiles. JibJab not only makes reading fun, it also makes your child the center of the universe for a moment. And that’s a really awesome thing.

While I did not receive compensation for this post, JibJab Jr. did give me an iTunes credit to purchase an additional title. All opinions are my own.

Bring the fun of your local bounce house location to your own party venue with Charlotte Bounce Party. Charlotte Bounce Party features The Magic Castle 15 that is a 15′ Wide x 20.25′ Deep x 11.4′ High Inflatable Bounce house and holds 10 bouncers.

They are insured and keep their equipment clean because they are parents just like us and they care about the safety and well being of other children.

Their services are available from 3 hours to 8 hours and have pretty reasonable pricing packages as well.

If you are within 30 miles of the Davidson area there are no delivery charges, however for an additional fee they will deliver to further locations.

Check out Charlotte Bounce Party at their website: http://www.charlottebounceparty.com/ and be sure to tell them you’re a MommyB Knows Best reader!

Mega Brands, creator of Mega Bloks has made a Mega Blocks Domino Build Game. Mega Bloks Domino Build Game is made for kids ages 3-6, and the purpose of the game is for children to learn about colors, numbers, matching and motor skills. This game comes in a super cute box with lovable animals on it. The giraffe, elephant, polar bear and lion playing Bloks make this game even more fun.

The point of the game is a lot like dominoes, you take turns trying to make domino matches pairing different animals or colors. Once you get a match you record your score with your animal’s Blok pieces. Once you put all of your animal Blok pieces together you win.

In our opinion it was a fun game for Miss A to play, very colorful and great for learning. Miss A already knows her colors and numbers and is great at matching, but it was nice to see her take turns and figure out how dominoes worked. My only qualm with the Mega Blok Domino Build Game was that I wish the animal Blok pieces were painted instead of stickers. Some of our stickers were a little off centered and could easily be peeled off by little fingers.

You can learn more about Mega Bloks and sign up for their really cool Family Club program that gives you coupons, information on new toys, sends you exclusive offers and contests and more! I signed our family up. To sign up head over to: http://familyclub.megabloks.com

Do you own any MEGA Brand/MEGA Bloks toys? What’s your experience with them?

As you may have noticed The Little Gym is a big part of our lives and many of our friends attend classes as well so I’d love to tell those of you who I don’t chat with on the phone all the time a little more about one of our favorite places in North Carolina.

The Little Gym of Huntersville/Lake Norman is owned and operated by two of the sweetest people you’ll ever meet, (yes I am a little biased because they’re so great with Miss A,) Pete and Kim Kusiak. Pete and Kim have a long history with The Little Gym as a company. Over 10 years ago, before marriage, and before their adorable 11 month old son Jonah, Kim and Pete were working for The Little Gym. Little Gym is what brought them together and is still a huge part of their lives today. Needless to say, The Little Gym holds a very sacred spot in their hearts which is why they recently opened The Little Gym of Huntersville/Lake Norman.

I always love when business owners are involved in their investment and Pete and Kim are no exception. They both spend countless hours at The Little Gym of Huntersville/Lake Norman doing what they love best; working with children.

With well trained employees, amazing classes for children ages 4 months to 12 years, and a brand new facility, The Little Gym of Huntersville/Lake Norman is a great place to take your child for unique, fundamental, development.

I asked Pete, or as the children call him, “Mr. Pete,” What’s so unique about The Little Gym? Here’s what he had to say: “The Little Gym of Huntersville/Lake Norman is invdividualized learning at the child’s pace. It’s not competitive and the children are learning how to work together so they can feel success in what they do instead of not winning.”

A lot of parents that I have come across think the word play means that something is not a “real” sport, but The Little Gym of Huntersville/Lake Norman is teaching my daughter and each child real moves, real ballet and tap steps, real gymnastics exercises, real martial arts positions. So please don’t assume because it’s called, “The Little Gym,” that anything the children do is something less than the real thing. I love that Miss A knows what Tondues and Plies are and that she can also learn gymnastics in the same class, something that is very rare to find.

Little Gym of Huntersville/Lake Norman has several Fall classes and are currently open for enrollment. They also offer Parent Survival Nights, Day Camps, Birthday Parties, Membership Loyalty Programs, and tout a very liberal make-up policy with class flexibility. They have a great program for children 4 months through 12 years, so try a class out and be sure to let them know MommyB sent you! Go to their website to schedule a class now for your child(ren):  http://www.thelittlegym.com/huntersvillelakenormannc/pages/default.aspx and let me know what you think about The Little Gym of Huntersville/Lake Norman!

This time I was sent their Master Reader program for children ages 7 and up that is so packed full of learning goodness that I could barely lift the box when it arrived on my doorstep. I was hoping they didn’t just fill it with bricks and much to my delight there were several great Hooked on Phonics Master Reader materials.

Master Reader sets come with 4 Interactive CD-Roms, 4 easel books, 4 hardcover books, 64 story cards and a progress poster with fun stickers. Hooked on Phonics has wisely color coated all of the materials with bold colors of blue, green, orange and red. Each color correlates with a level in the Master Reader program.

I first installed the blue CD-Rom on my computer, the install was very fast and super easy, just a few clicks of the next button and we were in business. (Remember you must have a Windows operating system that is compatible with Windows 98, 2000, ME or XP in order to use the program.) After installation 4 easy steps are all you need to get the Master Reader program working for your child.

The easel books have great step-by-step instructions that would be easy for any 7 year-old to follow as well as some nightly parent tips on how to further your child’s progress in the program. I love how the story cards are contained inside the easel books so they’re never out of place and don’t need anything extra to hold onto them. A great way to keep track of what your child has done aside from the progress chart would be to flip the card upside down.

Lessons on the story cards not only teach reading, but also have lessons about personal qualities, like manners, and morals. Who would have thought a reading program would also instill great values? I love that the cards also feature amazing people like Lance Armstrong, historical figures, adventurous people and great places in time and on land.

The amount of story cards in each lesson increase as they complete exercises, so your child may be reading one story card or may have to complete three depending on the level they are on. Once they’re done with all of the exercises in the easel book your child gets to read one of four hardcover mystery series books.

Hooked on Phonics is an amazing program when it comes to reading and I would highly recommend them and the Master Reader program. Don’t forget to use Myhookedonphonics.com to enhance learning with fun, interactive games.

Try Master Reader out for your child for just $14.95 (trial price) here: http://www.hookedonphonics.com/master-reader-deluxe-edition and receive FREE U.S. shipping.

What programs do you use to help your child read? Have you ever tried Hooked on Phonics programs? What are your thoughts?

Hooked on Phonics is giving one lucky MommyB Knows Best reader a chance to win their very own Master Reader program.

Here’s how to win: Using the entry form directly below this post (NOT the comment form), submit your name, an email address that you check regularly, and the entry/entries you are submitting all at the same time. There is no need to fill out separate entry forms for each item you complete. *Please note the Mandatory Entry MUST be typed into the form before you can qualify for additional entries.

cforms contact form by delicious:days

Giveaway ends September 2nd @12:00 am. The winner will be chosen at random, verified, emailed, and announced in a Winner’s post. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to the email from MommyB to claim the prize, if the prize is not claimed within 48 hours a new winner will be chosen at random. You must be a US resident and 18 years or older to enter.

International Playthings encourages educational indoor play and the “Who’s Missing?” Calico Card Game does just that. Miss A loved the cute critters and immediately was matching the cards by the number of Calico Critters, stacking them in piles. There are so many other ways to play with this fun set.

“Who’s Missing?” Calico Card Game is for ages 3 and up and encourages enhancing children’s sense of memory and strategy. One of the great games you can play with this set is a fun game of “Who’s Missing?” Basically, you lay down 5 cards in a row and the other players close their eyes while the dealer takes one card away, then the other player(s) guess “who’s missing.” Miss A is a pro at this game as she has a keen sense of memorization.

We had a great time learning each family in the Calico Critters bunch and were able to meet them through the cards and find out more about them online and if you can’t get enough of these cuties then you can purchase the figurines and houses with accessories.

Want to buy your own Calico Critters game or check out some crafts by Calico Critters? Their website is pretty fun and very interactive with print pages, door hangers, recipes, videos on YouTube.com, and more! Check it out here: http://www.calicocritters.com

What’s your favorite indoor game to play with your children or grandchildren?

With another child on the way I thought it would be a good idea to get a few things together for Little Miss A to play with while I am nursing or just have my hands full in general. Typically Miss A is easy to entertain, but I do notice that she focuses longer if she’s playing with something new. As I looked for new toys for her I stumbled across My Busy Kit.

My Busy Kit isn’t just 1 new toy or activity for Miss A, it’s a cute lunch box sized bag full of great goodies. As soon as we got the clear plastic bag Miss A could see all of the great things that were in store for her and couldn’t wait to get into it right away.With My Busy Kit there are a lot of options if your child tires of playing with one thing. In our kit we found Crayola markers, a dinosaur tape measure, a pair of children’s safety scissors, linking plastic men, and lots of fun craft items. The kit we received was for ages 3 and up, and Miss A will be 3 in May, but this is the first time she’s seen scissors, like I said before they’re safety scissors but something a parent would still want to supervise.

Miss A loved playing with the linking plastic men and one of her all time favorites, even when the doctors would measure her, is the dinosaur measuring tape. Again, if you ask me something you would want to supervise play with because often they can snap back and hit your child.

I really like My Busy Kit because I feel like it can be useful in a number of situations. My Busy Kit suggests using their kit at the airport, in restaurants, on road trips, and even as birthday and gift ideas. I think it comes in handy with baby number two, like I said during nursing time, when I cannot focus on playing with Miss A as much.

My Busy Kit standard bags are for ages 3 years to 7 years, but they also offer versions from 18 months to 10 years old if you request them. Each of their bags are satisfaction guaranteed. Again, I would recommend if you have a younger child to supervise their play with most of the items in the bag, plus it’s more fun to play with the bag with mom and dad.

My Busy Kit is offering MommyB Knows Best readers 20% off using the promo code: mommyb at the www.mybusykit.com checkout, make sure you also take a look at their iPhone application while you’re there.

What do you use to keep you children busy??