** WINNER!! WINNER!! #88: Maryellen – Congratulations! Contact me at katie@marriageconfessions.com to claim your prize! Thanks to everyone for entering! **
I debated whether to review this product because I’ve already reviewed an Eric Carle product recently, but it’s too darn good not to share. For Gracie’s birthday, my mother-in-law, Jackie, brought Bean a few little goodies, too. One of them were these fabulous Eric Carle lacing cards.
The box set comes with 10 cardboard lacing cards, each with a Eric Carle drawing on it, and 10 different colored strings. (Only 6 are pictured here because the other four were up in Bean’s room and I was too lazy to go get them…)
Like the Eric Carle flashcards, these lacing cards are beautiful. The colors are vivid and rich, and the animals are just unique enough to not be the standard animals in all kids toys.
Not only are these beautiful, but the activity is perfect right now for Bean’s age. He is getting more patient and has a much longer attention span, so I’ve been looking for more activities for him that require some more thought. These lacing cards keep him busy for 20-30 minutes at a time right now.
I also like them because they promote fine motor skills. It requires excellent eye/hand coordination. But I like it most because it helps Bean practice PATIENCE! As a two-and-a-half year old, patience is in short order in Bean’s world. Surprisingly though, Bean is very patient when he is engaged in this activity.
I keep this set in my diaper bag (or Bean’s backpack, whatever we have with us) and pull it out when I need him to sit quietly for a while. I used them last week at the doctors office when we had to sit and wait for 15 minutes while Bean had a breathing treatment. He sat there the whole time working on his cards while he got his treatment. I also pulled them out yesterday when I took both kids to the grocery store with me (I was desperate!). I gave Gracie two strings to wave around, and Bean sat next to her and laced the cards while I shopped.
I can’t recommend this activity enough for toddler/preschool aged kids. It’s educational, creative, and engaging. What more could you want from an activity?
Today I’m giving away a set of the Eric Carle flashcards TO YOU! To be entered to win, leave a comment below telling me what your favorite activity or game was as a child. What did YOU like to do? For me, it was playing pretend with my sister. We’d pretend to be fairies, dogs, monkeys, adults, teachers, ballerinas…pretty much anything you can imagine. I can’t ever remember playing inside or watching TV. I just remember being up in trees or in creeks or in our cul-de-sac, pretending to be something and bossing my sister around. We may not have worked our eye/hand coordination necessarily, but we KILLED the creativity skills!
Good luck!
1) Katie: All kinds of card games. I especially remember loving to play Gin Rummy with my Dad. (04.16.2012 09:03pm)
2) Candice: Awww, I remember having lacing cards growing up and loving them! My sister and I played a lot of pretend, too. We used to be witches making brews and running a restaurant. LOL (Sounds like something you'd find on the WB now.) (04.16.2012 09:04pm)
3) Carrie: We we were little we were always outside!!! I loved playing dance party with my 2 sisters on the picnic table in our yard or playing hide and seek in the corn field behind our house!! (04.16.2012 09:05pm)
4) Catherine: As one of three girls, our house was practically a Barbie store! We had a whole room devoted to Barbies; with a house for each of us and cars and even a pool, it was quite the place to be! It was so fun. (04.16.2012 09:05pm)
5) Jennifer@browneyedandblessed: Playing card games and dominoes with my grandmother (04.16.2012 09:06pm)
6) Alliosn: ha! Ok, I admit it, I used to be the zookeeper and my younger sister and brother were my chimpanzees that I 'trained, fed and put in their cages'! LOL (04.16.2012 09:07pm)
7) Gab M.: I loved playing dress up with my sister and climbing my friend's tree! (04.16.2012 09:12pm)
8) Kaitlyn: We LOVED Pipeworks! My parents sold them and I would love to find them again for my boys. Best 80's toy ever! (04.16.2012 09:13pm)
9) MiriaM: I love these- I'll have to find them if I don't win. My fondest memories were making mudpies! I can't wait to set up an outdoor kitchen for our kids and let them play in the mud! (04.16.2012 09:16pm)
10) JenD: We used to make pictures "for" my parents on the weekend before they woke up, put them up in the hall with a price tag on them and then made my parents buy them once they woke up. It was awesome....I'm pretty sure they didn't feel the same way when they had to find $1.25 in quarters and dimes on a Sunday morning. (04.16.2012 09:19pm)
11) Meredith c: I loved to play with dolls. I had a huge collection of barbies and American girl dolls. And being completely honest I still love to play with dolls. Thankfully do does my daughter (04.16.2012 09:24pm)
12) Staci: Barbies! I was obsessed and my dad built me a two-story "dream" house. (04.16.2012 09:25pm)
13) Barbara Manatee: I love Eric Carle!! My twins' bedroom is done in The Very Hungry Caterpillar. As a kid, I love stickers, coloring and playing board games! (04.16.2012 09:26pm)
14) Kristin: I used to spend hours swimming in the pool, playing on the swing set, or playing with my Barbies. I always wanted a sister lol (04.16.2012 09:28pm)
15) Kathleen: I loved watching a movie with my brother and then forcing, er I mean, encouraging him to re-enact it with me. We also had a totally rad sandbox, in which we'd bury plastic dinosaurs and then excavate them. I'm glad my daughter now shows that same uberimagination. (04.16.2012 09:30pm)
16) Sarah@Crazy Love Gamble-Style: We love Kids Sequence! (04.16.2012 09:39pm)
17) Lindsay (Young Married Mom): I loved to play with baby dolls. I really wanted a little brother or sister. When I got married, I was lucky enough to get four younger siblings, all incredible people, too :) (04.16.2012 09:40pm)
18) Bronwen@Bronwenreads: These are great! If Bean likes lacing, he also might enjoy a "cheese and mouse" lacing toy like this one that I found on Etsy (12 bucks! handmade wood!): http://www.etsy.com/listing/62780669/mouse-and-cheese-wooden-toy. My nephews really enjoyed this kind of toy and they always called it their "knitting" since they were so used to their mum's knitting:-B The same Etsy shop has lots of other really cute lacing toys. Oh, and my twin sister and I really liked skipping and playing "Spud" with our friends:-B (04.16.2012 09:41pm)
19) Carlota: I loved to play to dress - undress - and dress again and again with any dolls. With my cousins we would set themes or occasions and dress up the dolls and have someone to deliberate who won! I also wanted to tell you that I love your blog, I have a son and a daughter that are almost bean and gracie's age and I can totally relate to almost everything you write about. I also write a blog but is in spanish.... (04.16.2012 09:41pm)
20) Holly: I loved playing with Barbies and baby dolls! (04.16.2012 09:45pm)
21) Lauren: My 4 year old and 2 year old would love these! I used to love just playing outside at the park across the street, merry-go-rounds, slides, swings - hours of fun! (04.16.2012 09:49pm)
22) Katrina: playing games, or playing teacher. We used to play outside a lot too. =) (04.16.2012 09:51pm)
23) AvishaN: My sisters and I would pretend we were witches cooking up a brew! Our pot? A mini trampoline. Our brew? Miniature toys ands broken up crayons. Lol, good times. (04.16.2012 09:51pm)
24) Lorrie: I loved playing store with my granddad. That is how I learned to count money. We always had so much fun! (04.16.2012 09:54pm)
25) Abbie: I used to love to dress up as a princess and play with my dolls in their "kingdom" aka my bedroom. (04.16.2012 10:01pm)
26) Megan Smith: Anything outside! During the summer we were either playing capture the flag or kickball. (04.16.2012 10:03pm)
27) Alyssa: I loved puzzles growing up. I could sit for hours figuring out a puzzle. I still like puzzles but now my kids and my cats like to steal the pieces. In a good 20-30 years I'll be able to do puzzles again :) (04.16.2012 10:07pm)
28) Sara M: These are flippin cute! My favorite game was bossing around my younger brothers and sister and I was AWESOME at it! Still am :)) (04.16.2012 10:08pm)
29) Karli: I loved building forts with my brother and sister! (04.16.2012 10:10pm)
30) Ellen: I loved playing school - as long as I was the teacher! (04.16.2012 10:11pm)
31) Katy @ MonsterProof: I was OBSESSED with little people from what I hear. (04.16.2012 10:17pm)
32) Summer: I loved playing outside with my brothers and dressing my little brother up and making him play barbies :) (04.16.2012 10:27pm)
33) Heather: I loved playing school (being the teacher!)! (04.16.2012 10:27pm)
34) Jen @ Ginger Guide: Love these! My favorite to do was roller skate. My sister would practice our tricks to show off during the Saturday morning skate at the rink. (04.16.2012 10:28pm)
35) Jenifer: My cousin and I would usually pretend and act out the Disney Princess stories. I remember she always got to be the princess and I had to be the prince. I remember getting so angry, but I played anyway. (04.16.2012 10:40pm)
36) Amy: I liked playing school. I was always the teacher. Ha. (04.16.2012 10:43pm)
37) Abby @ I Used To Have A Brain: Playing house with my sister and friends! (04.16.2012 10:53pm)
38) Megan: I loved to play outside! My friends and I could play outside all day long. So many fun things to do outside :) (04.16.2012 11:01pm)
39) name*Alex: My sisters and I loved to play house in/on/under/around our giant backyard swingset. By the way, my 2-year-old has the other Eric Carle letter and number flashcards that Bean has, and he loves them! (04.16.2012 11:02pm)
40) Arielle: Anything that involved running around the neighborhood with all the other kids. We were never inside the house as kids. (04.16.2012 11:18pm)
41) sarabaker: We had an outdoor playhouse that my grandpa built for us. It was fun in all kinds of weather! (04.16.2012 11:26pm)
42) Rebekah G.: I always played teacher and my younger brother was the student! No wonder I teach now--I had YEARS of practice :) (04.16.2012 11:45pm)
43) Beanie & Gracie's Nana: The worse threat my mom could make was to keep us in the house if we didn't "straighten up". Once my brother asked for a spanking instead of staying inside for punishment. We played outside all summer long and absolutely hated to have to come in for dinner. (04.16.2012 11:45pm)
44) name*Alicia cp: I can't remember! I watched people, I think, I still do! (my Ligtle man would love these cards!) (04.17.2012 12:02am)
45) BeccaK: It's a little embarrassing to admit, but I LOVED playing with my Skipper dolls. I thought they were the Best. Things. Ever. (04.17.2012 12:10am)
46) Megan: I ran wild around our neighborhood, bare foot and crazy haired most the time. I loved pretending I was a faery, or a mythical creature. My poor mother was always untangling my hair. I'm sure I gave her a heart attack when I learned how to climb up and explore the roofs of our condo complexes garages. Looking back, I was crazy. But at the time it seemed like heaven. (04.17.2012 12:16am)
47) Kaitlin: Playing schoolnwith my sister and brother! We even had worksheets and assigned homework. That, and kickball. (04.17.2012 02:42am)
48) katie: i loved reading and playing play-doh. at this point we're not doing much playing at my house (baby girl is just three months) but i'm sure soon we'll be having tons of fun! (04.17.2012 03:59am)
49) Mary Beth: I loved playing "restaurant" as a kid. I would create menus and have my parents order from them. Then I would serve the food and wait on them like a real restaurant. (04.17.2012 06:07am)
50) natalie: I loved to play dress up and have tea parties with my sister wherein we drank water with sugar and girl scout cookies! (04.17.2012 06:48am)
51) Ana: I loved to paint! I would do it for hours. (04.17.2012 07:21am)
52) Deepa: My best friend (age 7), my sister (age 4), and I (age 8) would go outside and act out the entire The Little Mermaid. We would split up the characters and my poor baby sister would get Triton and Scuttle and all the human parts (which were sub par, of course). And yes, it's on video tape. (04.17.2012 07:26am)
53) Katie L: Dress up with my sister, and making up dances to different songs. hahaha (04.17.2012 07:27am)
54) Leticia: I loved playing with my barbies when I was little! My sister and I would sit and play for hours! (04.17.2012 07:28am)
55) Cal @ the history of us: We used to love making tree forts in the bushes and trees in our yard! Lots of imagination! (04.17.2012 07:32am)
56) brenda: I LOVED playing school with my mom or climbing trees with my bestest friend! (04.17.2012 08:14am)
57) Emily: I loved playing house and school with my cousins. Sometimes we'd even play "convent" and use the arm rest covers from our couch as habits. It might be weird, but we all really wanted to be Maria from "The Sound of Music!" (04.17.2012 08:40am)
58) Joanne: I just remember playing outside a lot. (04.17.2012 08:40am)
59) Tiffany: My favorite thing was playing mommy. I had my baby and a car seat and diaper bag. We would go "visit" everyone. Guess i was destined to be a mother from the beginning...LOL The cards look amazing!!! (04.17.2012 08:47am)
60) Amy VH: These would be perfect for my 3 year old son. I loved playing school and I also pretended to be a personal buyer, I would have tons of catalogs in my room and pretend to shop for people and write down the item number and the prices. (04.17.2012 08:47am)
61) colleen: I loved playing candy shop! I would fit my hand into the square of the wire fence pretending each square was a different candy, offering it to the imaginary customer at the gate of our pool. (04.17.2012 08:55am)
62) Liesel: I LOVED Eric Carle as a kid and now love him even more for my kid. (04.17.2012 09:11am)
63) Meghan: I was a big fan of playing outside! I grew up on a cul-de-sac and there were about 15 kids around the same age (plus or minus a few years). We played a lot of stickball, basketball, football, hockey, dodgeball...and my favorite - capture the flag! (04.17.2012 09:17am)
64) Leah: I remember playing with lace cards when I was little and listening to my mom's old records on my fisher price record player. But I'm with you, probably my favorite thing was pretending and making up plays and stories with my sister. (04.17.2012 09:28am)
65) JenniferLO: My brother and I spent every possible minute outside building forts and playing house, running through the canyons and riding bikes. Some of my best memories are from things we did outside! (04.17.2012 09:51am)
66) naomi: I love Eric Carle. We just had an Very Hungry Caterpiller birthday for our 1 year old son! (April 7th) My favorite activity was building Lego!! (04.17.2012 10:03am)
67) Meggie: My sister and I LOVED playing "store". We were grocery store cahiers, shoe store salesmen (or women... haha), boutique saleswomen, etc. We always had the best time! And I know my 3 year old would love the lacing cards!! (04.17.2012 10:04am)
68) Anna D: I always played teacher!! There was always a younger neighborhood friend at my house and she was always the student and I was always the teacher. If I was desperate my little brother ended up the student but he was a behavior problem so he didn't get to play much! I also loved baby dolls!! I could play with them all day long!! (04.17.2012 10:31am)
69) Melissa: My sister and I loved playing "Little House on the Prairie." (04.17.2012 10:50am)
70) Jenn: I love love loved playing dress up when I was a kid! (04.17.2012 11:17am)
71) Kate - Classy Living: I would love to have a set of these for my classroom! My favorite thing to do as a kid was play some variation of house or school with my sisters. (04.17.2012 11:20am)
72) Kimmiejo: I loved playing a game that we called "Flying to Disneyland". We would swing on the swingset as high as we could get and then we would jump off. When we landed we had been magically transported to Disneyland and we were now a Disney character. I always chose to be Wendy from Peter Pan. (04.17.2012 11:20am)
73) Jill W: I loved to play with my Barbies. I had the most amazing Barbie dream house and red hot convertible car! (04.17.2012 11:30am)
74) Amy Deschamp: Playing house, we had an awesome tree house and played in it for hours. (04.17.2012 11:40am)
75) GinaG: I actually loved lacing cards as a child. But mine were Care Bears! (04.17.2012 11:48am)
76) Nikki: I loved playing pretend as a teacher to all of my neighbor friends. My 1st grade teacher would send me home with extras, even laminated sheets, so I could teach my friends. I loved it! I also loved playing "go fish." My most favorite memories of spending time with my Grandparents was playing with them. So fun! (04.17.2012 12:09pm)
77) Kelli: I loved to play Barbies and would make my brother play with me, although he used his GI Joes in the Barbie house :) (04.17.2012 12:09pm)
78) Jenna@CallHerHappy: I loved painting rocks while my mom gardened. She would bring a cup of water and a paintbrush outside, and I would "paint" the rocks that contain the garden with water. I did that for hours! (04.17.2012 01:25pm)
79) Andrea: I had a playhouse that was my Little House on the Prairie. For my birthdays I wanted things like old buckets, washboards, and rug beaters. My poor little brother was bossed around a lot too:) Thanks for sharing the giveaway! (04.17.2012 01:33pm)
80) Jenny: Building forts. Whether it was under the dining room table, on my bunk bed, in a refrigerator box, in the bushes, inside or outside... everywhere was a potential fort location and entertained us for hours. (04.17.2012 01:36pm)
81) Liz McCracken: My younger sister and I used to play Wedding. I would always be the bride and my sister would be everything else! Ha! I *think* she may have forgiven me last year or so. I hope I win! I have a 2.5 yo and those cards would be awesome for her! (04.17.2012 01:40pm)
82) Lindsay: I loved playing and making forts in the woods. We would also pretend we were olympic gymnastic stars on the trampoline, pretending to be one of the Dominiques, Shannon Miller or Kerri Strug (complete with landing on one foot. :) ) So fun! :) (04.17.2012 01:41pm)
83) Smugmama: We used to have wooden "little people" and I loved them! Now you can only get them in plastic and they are horrible! I hate that my children won't have the wooden fun I used to (04.17.2012 01:55pm)
84) Leslie: I loved paper dolls as a kid. I could sit and change the outfits for what seemed like hours. (04.17.2012 02:24pm)
85) Lauren: I would always play with Barbies if we weren't running around the woods behind the house building tree forts. (04.17.2012 02:31pm)
86) Christine: We lived in the woods, so I always built forts. (04.17.2012 02:32pm)
87) Diana: My sister and I loved playing "house". We would drag our babies and all their paraphernalia out to our carport and set up our house. What sweet memories! (04.17.2012 02:43pm)
88) Maryellen: My favorite game growing up was either Cops & robbers or flashlight tag! My house had 3 kids and the next door neighbors had 3 kids and we were all the same ages - so we spent hours upon hours playing! I'd love to go back to the late 80's/ early 90's to live it all over again! (04.17.2012 02:43pm)
89) katrina: I loved playing with my brother's ninja turtles (04.17.2012 02:57pm)
90) Kimberly: I was a Barbie girl. (04.17.2012 03:25pm)
91) Lindsey: We played tag, school, library, store, and soooo many board games (04.17.2012 03:54pm)
92) Kelly P: I loved playing house or school or "going to work". Of course, now that I actually do/have done those things I realize they are not nearly as fun as the play versions ;-) (04.17.2012 03:55pm)
93) Anna in Ohio: Oh, geez. I was either playing with Barbies or lining up all of my stuffed animals to "teach" them and give them tests so that I could "grade" them. Is it any wonder I'm in school for Elementary Education?! (04.17.2012 04:52pm)
94) Kelly Mullins: I loved to play pretend and Candyland. (04.17.2012 07:16pm)
95) cathy v: Jacks, we played jacks and jumped ropes. (04.17.2012 07:34pm)
96) Far: Not sure if it was my favourite, or just the only one I recall, but I loved playing ping pong with my dad :) (04.17.2012 07:59pm)
97) Britni: You sound like me as a child...running around outside, playing in old chicken coops pretending it was my kitchen, climbing trees. I miss the country! (04.17.2012 08:10pm)
98) Kim: I loved playing outside with all of the neighborhood kids. We played from sunup to sundown! (04.17.2012 08:20pm)
99) Laci: I LOVED playing with my Lite Bright! I could make all kinds of neat designs and then take it to bed with me....Fantastic as a little kid! (04.17.2012 09:26pm)
100) Laurenbtrain: I loved playing office and writing on carbon paper! I would pull them apart and file separately! ...I also loved making paper clip retainers! :) (04.18.2012 12:19am)
101) Lisa @ Floating Along...: I loved puzzles or playing anything outside - we were rarely allowed to watch TV, and I used to hate my parents for that, but now I can appreciate it! (04.18.2012 09:43am)
102) Mary: Swinging was my absolute favorite thing to do as a kid. Feeling the air rush by you, the wind on your face, that moment when you think you might just go all the way around! Honestly, I could go for a swing right now! (04.18.2012 10:37am)
103) All My Monkeys: I was a tomboy, so I liked doing things like make mud pies, hunt snakes and lizards, explore in the woods (when I was a bit older) and hammer nails into this bit board we had in our back yard. (04.18.2012 02:54pm)
104) Laura: playing outside with my sister-swinging, crossing the monkey bars, finding frogs under the porch, and making mud soup in our plastic wagon...so much fun. those were the days. (04.18.2012 09:45pm)
105) jenny: we loved to play pretend too...we'd build houses out of couch cushions and use our baby dolls as kids....it got pretty creative sometimes like pretending we were running from a tornado....;=) (04.19.2012 06:21pm)
106) Jessica: I was a tomboy growing up. You could always find me outside climbing trees or playing ball with the neighborhood boys. My favorite thing to do though was to grab an old 5 gallon paint bucket and put some dirt and grass/ leaves in the bottom. Then I would go around the neighborhood and collect frogs or rolly pollies and carry them back home in my bucket. (04.19.2012 08:30pm)
107) Tracy: I loved to play in our little play room with my sister. I remember the gazillion My Little Ponies and pretending and fun! Oh to be young again - sigh! But now I can remember it all through my 2 1/2 year old daughter's eyes! (04.19.2012 08:53pm)
108) Gabby: Whatever my older brother was doing. We are 13 months apart in age and I was his tag along. (04.20.2012 10:28pm)
109) Michelle: We've had a sick house this week so I an a few days behind on your blog and catching up. Thanks for posting about these cards, they are beautiful! I love the Eric Carle toys and books so i'll have to look for these! When I was little I loved playing outside. My nephew (who was the same age) and I would build obsticle courses in the yard and run around them for hours! (04.21.2012 07:50pm)
110) VICKY: i loved playing tag with the neighborhoods kids. Back when you could be outside without supervision! (04.22.2012 03:16pm)
111) Andrea: Favorite childhood activity was reading. Total book worm, still am! (04.23.2012 05:28pm)
112) Nate's Mom @ Nate is Great: When I was wee (Bean's age), I remember Tinkertoys. Real ones - wooden and worn from lots of use. When I was older (think 8), it was Barbie all the way. A friend gave me the Barbie department store set complete with countertops to display items in. I got up at 3AM one morning to set up shop and I close my door to not disturb my folks. My parents (naturally) woke up and inquired what I was doing. To prevent them from coming in and putting a stop to it, I locked my door. They hollered to open the door. I freaked and hid and did not open the door. And that was the day I learned that keys could unlock inside doors as well as outside doors and that parents did not approve of Barbie Festivals at 3 in the morning. (04.24.2012 08:01pm)
113) Review: Bud to Bloom | Marriage Confessions Review: Bud to Bloom | Laugh. Fight. Stay Married.: [...] sure to check out the Eric Carle lacing cards post for the winner announcement! Previous [...] (04.24.2012 08:32pm)