Happy New Year!

From my all time favourite Charlie Brown & Company...Snoopy & Peanuts never fail to bring a smile to your face ... Keep Smiling Always :)

Become a Santa...

BUY TOYSHARE GIFT VOUCHERS for your friends and family and gift them a chest of wonderful toys and books for a month!

Most popular brands by Mattel

Mattel - http://www.mattel.com/

Mattel is one of largest Toy Company.It has the most popular product brands like Fisher Price, Barbie, Hotwheels, Match Box, Disney Movie To. These brands are very much in demand and most popular. 

Fisher Price - http://www.fisher-price.com

 Fisher Price toys is what fun learning is all about for kids, in their formative building years.They have wonderful brands like ...

      

and Ocean Wonders, Brilliant Basics and so on...

We started our collection with a lot of Fisher Price toys and have constantly kept adding the new ones. They have always been our favourites. 

Need we say any more about these popular brands like Barbie, Hotwheels, Disney toys from movies, from mattel ... Thats what our lil members keep asking for :)

  

At Toyshare the largest range of toys is from mattel.

Some Eco friendly Wooden Toy Brands

We love the additions very different & innovative wooden toys and puzzles from some international brands.  

Melissa & Doug - http://www.melissaanddoug.com/

Melissa & Doug is American company , mainly known for their wooden puzzles and similar type of educational toys. We particularly like the sound puzzles -"Alphabet Sound Puzzle" and "Shape Sound Puzzle"


Hape - http://www.hapetoys.com/
 Hape International is a leading manufacturer of high quality wooden and environmentally friendly toys. We like their creative designs, especially ones for motor skills like Hape Fun Farm and Hape Rapido
Hape range at Toyshare

Plan Toys - http://plantoys.com/home/


PlanToys is known to manufacture wooden toys from preservative-free rubberwood.Their products are marketed as "green", using natural materials, water-based paints, and strict quality and safety standards . 
We like some of the innovative toys like "Animal Puzzle Set" and "Animal Mix n Match"

Know your brands- vtech

Vtech : http://www.vtechkids.com/
VTech is an award winning electronic learning toys company offering the best learning toys .Its the creator of the Electronic Learning Products (ELP) category and the award-winning age-appropriate learning products. Since 1980, VTech has been developing high-quality, innovative educational products that enrich children's development through fun and smart play.



Vtech toys are very popular in our library for their fun learning products. Many "My First" gadgets are from vtech. Our favourites are the Gym toys "Giraffe Bike" and "Step Kangaroo". All the toys have either alphabet or number songs or activities. We love them for their educational value.

Vtech range at Toyshare

Know your brands- Chicco

Chicco - http://www.chicco.com
Chicco a famous "Italian" baby care brand (Italian pronunciation: [ˈkikːo]). It specializes in making clothing and equipment for babies and toddlers including strollers, high chairs, car seats and toys too. As its tagline goes 'wherever there's a baby' it has some of the cutest toys for babies & toddlers.

We like Chicco toys are for their very high quality and some unique toys like- "Musical Nursery Toy" and "magic blocks". It gives us a lot more variety for  lil ones upto 2 years. The other chicco toys like the farm, guitar, rodeo are always on demand.


Chicco range at Toyshare

Know your Toy Brands- Leapfrog

Leap frog : http://www.leapfrog.com


Leap frog is a popular US brand speacializing in innovative, technology-based educational toys. LeapFrog’s product portfolio focuses on three main families of products; reading solutions, educational gaming and grade school products and learning toys.
They have many award winning products. 


The most popular language special toys based on phonics & alphabets, at our library are from leap frog and their leaptop is also very popular. We love their products for some very different and fun designs like the fridge phonics and magnetic farm set

Leap frog range at Toyshare

Know your Toy brands- ELC

In this blog series, you get to know more about the brands we keep at the library. 

Early Learning Centre(ELC)- http://www.elc.co.uk/

This is a very popular British Toy brand.They focus on educational and developmental toys. Early Learning Centre playtest their toys to check they can withstand the expected knocks and bumps and employ various techniques into their manufacturing process such as ultrasonic welding and use of virgin plastics. As they say it
"We push them down the stairs, throw them, jump on them, knock them over, poke fingers in them and even lick them. So we know our toys are as tough as the children that play with them."

This is one of our favourite brands, especially for pretend play. They have good quality toys with some very innovative types.  We have a range of pretend plays from ELC including kitchen, washing machine, castle, school set, farm set, baking set, pizza set, dressing Table, Keyboard & microphone and some wonderful party toys as well.
The construction toys like Castle of Courage and Cobblestone Farm sets are intruiging for us as well and have been all time favorites.

Check the entire range of  ELC at Toyshare

Diwali Tradition- Our Contemporary Fort

In Maharashtra, for diwali one of the most popular tradition is making miniature mud forts. The fun of getting your hands dirty and playing in mud and creating miniature forts adds a certain element of fun quotient during the festival. Plus, the children love it!

The Tradition

It is believed that the tradition of making these mud forts is almost 300 years old. It started as a symbol to pay respects to the great warrior of Maharashtra, Shivaji Maharaj. He was especially known for his intelligent and artistic architecture which is evident in the different forts he built across the State. These mud forts also known as killa in Marathi are either displayed in the front or backyard of the house. In fact, even competitions are held between different groups who are constantly trying to outdo his counterparts.

Some more Diwali traditions...

Our Contemporary"Diwali Fort"

Well, we built our fort this year from "Castle of Courage". We didn't plan ahead for the mud fort, so went for the quicker version.
Building the fort, was very interesting and challenging too!
 My son loved to play with the soldiers in and out and not to forget the "Diwali gun". Overall fun time  for all.


Happy Diwali!

Happy Children's Day

Happy Deepawali

OckTOYberfest last week - Fun Learning!

Smiling and Learning....thats fun for us too :)

OckTOYberfest Week 3 - Imagine & Create

Visit the castle or school or the Farm on a Scooter or by Rail, Dress Up or Play drums.... Which Role does your lil one like to play ?

Enhance their "creative thinking" with these toys...see how their imaginations go wild ! 

OckTOYberfest Week 3 - Jump & Play

Have your own gym at home and  learn  songs , numbers letters, shapes, animals while you  play! What more do you want?                                                                                                         

OckTOYberfest-Week 2-Read & Watch!

Week 2- We have around 18 Award winning DVDs and 6 books !

OckTOYberfest starts !

Role Plays an important role in child development....encourage your child to enact & you will enjoy being part of their world :)
Know more about importance of Role Play...

This week we have a whole new range of toys that encourage different roles and if their friends can also join them then its even MORE FUN !

The spirit of Gandhi Jayanthi!

OckTOYberfest

Festive Offer

* Next renewal date should be in year 2013
* This discount is over and above existing discounts for 6 months & 1 year membership.
* If you are NOT due for renewal, you can still avail this offer by extending your membership by 3 months or more. 

Make your own Hibiscus Garland for Lord Ganesha

I had absolute fun doing this wonderful hibiscus garland decoration this year,  with my son.

All you need is Red glazed paper, Silver/Gold lace, used shiny wrapping paper, scissor, gluestick, pen

TST168 - Marble Madness Game

Many of our members like this toy and have been asking for more. If you feel the same do give a review of the toy so that other members can read it when they are choosing toys too. 

You can build your own marvelous marble run, with twists and drops. Drop in your marbles and watch them whiz down through the tubes.Create lots of designs and you can even race friends or parents.Problem solving: These toys teach your child to work things out for themselves.Fine Motor skills: This toy helps your child to use their hands for precise movements. This toy ideal for children above 3 years upto 10 years of age. 

Happy Grandparent's Day

"Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children." - Alex Haley


Did you know? 
The first Grandparents’ day was set by Governor Arch Moore. In 1973, a resolution was passed in the USA by Senator Jennings Randolph proclaiming the first Sunday after Labour Day as National Grandparents’ Day. September was the chosen month signifying the ‘autumn years’ of life. 
 
Grandparents share a very special relationship with children. Indulging unconditionally and bringing their wealth of experiences, they are an amazing storehouse of real life true stories and many more added from their imagination. This relationship is evident in the endearing names the children call their Grandparents by. 

We lovingly wish all our dear Ajji-Ajoba, Nani-Nana, Dadi-Dada, Ajja-Ajji, Tata-Paati, Appacha-Amachie a very Happy Grandparent's Day!

A moving tribute to a beloved grandfather 

How do you plan to celebrate ?

Some families choose to celebrate this day are, going on picnics, having family dinners, updating the family album or taking a census such as who are the oldest and youngest members of the family or even visit elderly people who have no family.

Gadgets & Puzzles

Gadgets for all

Textured  & Twist n stack puzzles

Enjoy these crazy games with your friends !

Folk tales special

Know more about our states and some of their very interesting folktales

http://toyshare.in/toys_catalogue.php?sort_by_label=5

Independence Day Celebrations

Joy of Giving

“A book is a gift you can open again and again.”-Garrison Keillor

As part of our Independence Day initiative, we request you to donate your used books & Toys, which your kids have outgrown, to underprivileged children. These will be distributed by ‘Akshar Bharati’. 

About Akshar Bharati:

'Akshar Bharati' is an initiative to nurture the reading habits in children between age group 5-15 years from underprivileged and remote areas by facilitating access to good non-academic literature. We set up libraries for such children in their localities so that the books are available when they need them the most. We strongly believe that quality reading develops the wisdom to make appropriate choices as one grows which ultimately enhances the quality of life by becoming better citizens. This is our way of contributing to the India’s Vision 2020 of being a developed and self-sufficient nation.
Akshar Bharati provides an easy way for everyone to get involved in this Social cause.

Akshar Bharati Journey
Started off in April ‘07 & marching towards opening its 300th library by Dec 11.

·         275+ libraries up & running across India.

·         24 Collaborative chapters across 13 companies and growing.

·         50+ local NGOs supporting AB libraries.

·         "More than 40,000" kids benefited through 2,40,000+ books.

Please visit http://aksharbharati.org for further details.

Our first year

New collection of CDs and DVDs

                        

"Do you ever what to know about everything about everything?" Sid, the science Kid's asks you! Sid and his friends explore, discover and learn a lot through fun, music and humour. This dvd is about the "Five senses". Appropriate age group 4 to 8 years.



Vinko the dancing bear and DJ the dinosaur personally invite your children to join this toe tapping musical adventure. It includes timeless favorites such as the Wheels of the bus, Pop goes the weasel, Do you know the muffin man and several baby genius originals. The excitement never ends! 0-4 yrs

Animation and live action combined with classic nursery rhymes to get toes tapping and hands clapping. All time favourites like Old MacDonald had a farm, Row row row your boat, along with Baby genius originals and many more! The fun never ends! 0-4 years.





 Enter a world of beauty, peace and tranquility, where nature's gentle sounds of falling water, rustling autumn leaves and spring songbirds bring enjoyment and stimulation to your baby's world. Your child with delight in the vibrant and ever-changing landscapes painted by all four glorious seasons. Winner of the "Video of the year" award.

Know your child's inborn Talent

It is each parent's quest to understand their child to a greater degree. If we are aware of our child's inborn strengths, we may get the answers for many of life's confusing questions. Many researches had been done on discovering our innate talents and intelligences.

One major milestone in this direction is the study of fingerprints ridges known as Dermatoglyphics. This test called DMIT gives you an unbiased view of the inner strengths of your child.

THE BENEFITS OF DMIT TO CHILDREN / STUDENTS

Identify his/her best learning styles

Identify his/her inborn talents and weaknesses.

Subject/course selection

Develop children’s confidence.

Improve the relationship between parents/ teachers and children.

This Report Covers:

Distribution of Multiple intelligences: o Logical Intelligence o Linguistic Intelligence o Musical Intelligence o Bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence o Spatial intelligence o Interpersonal Intelligence o Intrapersonal Intelligence	Learning Types: o Cognitive o Imitative
	Learning Styles:o Motive o Reflective
	Learning Modes:o Visual o Auditory o Kinaesthetic
	The four Quotients: IQ, EQ, CQ, AQ
	Career Options and Guidance

Do let us know if you are interested. 

Happy Father's Day

Father’s Day is a beautiful celebration that acknowledges and appreciates the important role played by a father in raising a child and consequently building a stronger society. It started in the early 20th century to complement Mother's Day.

 Father’s Day is celebrated the world over. It is said to have originated in America. The first Father’s Day was celebrated on 19th June 1910 in Spokane, Washington, USA. The idea of celebrating Father’s Day came from Mrs. Sonora Smart Dodd who thought of the idea while listening to a Mother’s Day sermon in 1909. Her father, William Jackson Smart, whom she loved dearly, had brought up six children on his own and she wanted him to know how much he meant to her. As her father was born in the month of June she decided that it was the best time to celebrate father’s day.  

To all the Great Dads at TOYSHARE, we wish you a very Happy Father’s Day!