meta-dad

Artful nightlights for the kid’s room

Atlanta-based boutique, b braithwaite, has an adorable selection of storybook quality nightlights for the baby’s room. The adorable artwork is an added bonus, when your child outgrows the need for a nightlight, remove the bulb and display the art.

Heaven forbid, dad trips on the toys, again.

$29 bucks [+shipping] at b braithwaite

BabyBjörn Babysitter Balance

BabyBjörn has done their version of the simple wire bouncer. We have found that every kid has their favorite; our oldest liked to swing, our middle one liked to rock and our youngest likes to bounce.

Rocking is not only fun and soothing. When your child rocks himself, he is also practicing his motor skills and balance. The safety strap restrains the baby without having to keep them from sliding out of the bouncer as the seat has a nice deep pocket. The reversible fabric is clever.

Have an accident? Just reverse the cover until you an get the cover washed. When Baby Bjorn claims it reclines, it really does, and easily. The fold is as compact as any bouncer in recent memory. With the 29 pound maximum weight and its conversion to a toddler seat, you are assured that you will not have to put it away after a year or less.

About $140 bucks [+shipping] at Amazon

How does the new California budget affect families

With the Governor wasting no time, he has quickly added his signature to the newly resolved state budget which has closed the $41 billion dollar gap for California. Now that the dust is settling in Sacramento, how will it affect me and my family?

When will the state income tax refunds be mailed out? Who will benefit and who will be laid off? And of course, how will the school systems fair in all of this? So many questions. How will the national Stimulus Plan offset some of these state cuts? I hope to share with you as these details come online.

The financial package includes tax hikes, spending cuts and borrowing billions of dollars more. How will the tax increases affect the average Californian family? Here is the at-a-glance breakdown;

• The are four types of tax increases in the current package; personal income tax, vehicle license fee increase, dependent tax credit and a sales tax increase. Recent legislative analysis of these four tax increases, an average family of four with an annual income of $75,000 would pay $963 more a year in taxes. That’s quite a punch in the gut, to say the least.
• May 19th, 2009 is an important date, mark your calendars. There will be a vote to move $226 million from mental health programs and $608 million from programs aimed at children younger than 5 years old.
• The state ultimately will resume paying all its bills, including tax refunds. But doing so could take weeks, so the exact date when California income tax refunds will start being mailed has not been announced. Mr. Chiang (State Controller), we are waiting with baited breath for your word.

Sited & Related Links:
Los Angeles Times | California Budget Plan; Key Elements
Los Angeles Times | The California Budget: A timeline for the events to come
meta-DAD | California state delays income tax refunds

Clever modern green toys

To me, the problem with most eco-friendly toys is that they lack the same level of visual fancy that their phthalate stuffed, lead choked plastic counterparts have. Is it the limited palette of materials? Perhaps. Is it a general lack of robust design, in this growing corner of the toy industry? Maybe.

Occasionally, I stumble upon some beautifully designed pieces and here is a small round-up of recent finds. I tend to look for stuff that has a strong visual design, that doesn’t cost a lot. Here are three of my favorites right now.

This all-natural wood Rolling Turtle push toy (*pictured above) from Nova Toys is fantastic for More »

Great free educational coloring pages

We have a activity table set up for the kids and it is forever piled with coloring pages, doodle pads, sticker books, boxes of crayons, rubber stamps, glitter and paint markers. Coloring is something they do when they get bored with everything else. It is what they do when they’re waiting for dinner to be served. It is what they do when they are inspired to make a card for their aunt or grandmother. You get the idea.

We have found that printing free coloring pages on the backs of previously used paper is a great way to recycle at home, save a dime and offer the kids a great variety of coloring pages. Here are the latest list of free downloadable Animal & Wildlife coloring pages and other great related links to follow.

Sited Links;
National Geographic | Animals Coloring Book
Los Angeles Zoo | Printable Animal Coloring Book Pages
Fun School | Animal Adventure Coloring Pages
The Coloring Spot | Animal Printable Coloring Pages
Karen’s Whimsy | Animal Coloring Pages [*beautiful stuff!]

meta-DAD | The best kids activity and coloring pages ever
meta-DAD | Great coloring pages online
meta-DAD | Mod coloring books for your lil’ Picasso

The many adventures of Benny & Penny

Artist, Geoffrey Hayes, has illustrated many other children’s books including Margaret Wise Brown’s, When the Wind Blew. But his latest efforts are on The Adventures of Benny and Penny series published by TOON Books in NYC. These charming handcrafted drawings give these stories a soft and sweet old fashioned feel and somewhat timeless quality to them.

Both stories, “Just Pretend” and “The Big No-No!” capture with great accuracy the quick and sometimes bitter conflicts young siblings deal with many times throughout any given day. I think it is this that makes these stories engaging for the kids. I think the kids actually connect with the characters in the stories, quite simply Benny and Penny speak directly to them often responding to situations exactly like a preschooler would, case in point, at one point Penny proclaims, “I had to go pee-pee!”.

Then again, there are the Vaudevillian prat falls and other physical humor peppered throughout these stories get a chuckle out of them and keep them turning the pages.

It also helps that the panel-work of these junior comics is easy to follow, Hayes employs simple dialogue with proper doses of repetition and a well-chosen yet limited vocabulary to tell these simple stories.

It should be said that the publishers of this series, a small division of RAW Junior (husband and wife team, Francoise Mouly [*The New Yorker & Raw Books] and Art Spiegelman [*Maus]) have done a splendid job packaging these storybook/graphic mini-novels designed as primers for graphic novels and comics.

In summary, I would give these books two thumbs up. The timelessness of the pencil drawings and simple story make these Beginner Toon books very approachable for first time readers. They are labeled as age appropriate for 4-8 year old’s but feel they are well within reach for pre-readers (toddlers) as well as preschoolers.

Related and Sited Links:
Geoffrey Hayes | Benny and Penny; Just Pretend
Geoffrey Hayes | Benny and Penny; The Big No-No!

Margaret Wise Brown | When the Wind Blew
Art Spiegelman | Maus
Other TOON Books…