Sunny Stroll Arch for Strollers - Review and Giveaway

Update:  The winner of this giveaway is V Ramsey.  Congratulations, V - your Summer Stroll arch will arrive soon..  Thanks to all of you you left a comment here and liked The Grandma Chronicles at facebook.  The giveaway is now closed.

New grandparents  – this one is especially for you.  I am so happy to be able to offer this giveaway of a high quality item for babies.  Most of the giveaways I have offered have been for older children  But, at A Time to Play Spring Showcase, I learned about the Tiny Love product line for the first time.  This table of colorful, multifaceted baby items caught my eye and over I went to learn more and I’m glad I did.

We are all familiar with archs that hang over cribs, carriers and seats for babies.  This is an arch that you can attach to a stroller or a car seat.  I was attracted to the bright colors and varied shapes, textures and sounds.  I could just picture a baby having a favorite that he went back to all the time…and then perhaps exploring new sections as she got older.

As I often do, I checked the product reviews for this item out at Amazon.com and I was not surprised to see that it had a five star rating.  I was surprised to learn how popular an item it is with 364 reviews.  Additional  things that parents liked about this item is that it was easy to attach, secure and manipulate on a stroller or car seat – even very wide car seats.  Too often we learn the hard way after we buy something that this sort of thing is an issue.  But this Sunny Stroll received high marks in this all important category.

And just like my impression that it was eye catching parents reported that their baby was entertained by it.  There’s lots of variety to keep a baby’s attention. As iIsaid earlier, it has lots of bright colors,  varied shapes, textures and sounds.  Every baby will have their own favorite.

This is a great shower gift or gift for a newborn baby.  And grandmas…if you have your own car seat and/or stroller like I do…..this is ideal.  You can move it from place to place and adjust its placement.  It has six adjustable knobs and that was one the favorite characteristics that Amazon reviewers mentioned.  This picture  shows one of many choices you can adjust to.

Priced at $17.99, I think this is a good value for the use you will get out of it.

I’ll be writing about and offering a giveaway on another Tiny love product for an older baby in June.  Check back for that review too.

If you are a grandparent, you may not have heard of Tiny Love.  I am always interested in knowing a little bit about companies that make products for babies and children so if it is an unfamiliar name to me so I usually  include that information in my article.  Tiny Love was founded by Shoshi and Isaac Oren in 1991.  The couple's goal and philosophy is to make high quality infant products that are based on infant stage development research. Once you know that, you can see it in their products.  There is attention to detail and you can just picture how a baby will enjoy and learn at the same time with each item.  Next time you are shopping for a grandchild, check out the other items available from Tiny Love - they amre made with a sophisticated thought process.

Giveaway Details

It is easy to enter.  

Just leave a comment  here on the blog and please, please email me your email address so that I can notify you if you win.  Send your email address to marion@grandmachronicles.com.  I promise not to use it for anything else except to notify you if you are the winner.

Additional entry –Like The Grandma Chronicles on facebook. http://www.facebook.com/grandmachronicles and post comment here that you did.

Additional entry – Like Tiny Love  on Facebook and leave a comment here so I’ll know about it.

All entries posted by May 26th at 11:59 PM are valid.  Sorry - I know that there are Tiny Love product fans around the world, but this giveaway can only be mailed to a US address.  The winner will be chosen using random.org  and  announced on this blog.

Thanks to Tiny Love for sponsoring this giveaway.  I received a sample but I was not paid for writing this review.

Maurice Sendak - My Favorites

Maurice Sendak, author of wonderful children's books died today - How fitting to say his goodbye during Children's Book Week.  Sendak wrote creative, scary stories with big captivating art which excited and captured imagination of children of all ages. Maurice Sendak's most famous book for which he earned the Caldecott Medal was Where the Wild Things Are.  Published in the 60's, it is still always on the list of top children's books today.

From Where the Wild things Are

But my favorite Maurice Sendak book has always been In the Night Kitchen. This book about a young boy frolicking in the nude with three bakers caused a great deal of laughter during bedtime reading in our house.  It caused some controversy because of the nudity but that didn't keep it from being a big success.

From In the Night Kitchen

My last post featured children's books for Mother's Day - here's an additional one - Mommy? by Sendak.  It was his only pop-up book.

It isn't as well recognized that in his very early career Maurice Sendak was the illustrator of the Little Bear series.

Our thoughts today are with this most talented children's author who took risks and went all out for children's books that were edgy, scary, fun and a whole lot more sophisticated than we frequently give kids credit for  Maurice Sendak didn't only love kids - he respected them.

It’s Children’s Book Week – Celebrate with Good Books for Mother’s Day

Source: bookweekonline.com via B. on Pinterest

This week is National Children’s Book Week and schools and libraries across the country will be having special events to celebrate.  You can take the opportunity to celebrate with you grandchildren and children too.  Here is some  history about the Children’s Book Week.

It originated in 1913 in the belief that children's books and literacy are life-changers.  Franklin K. Matthiews, the librarian of the Boy Scouts of America, began touring the country to promote higher standards in children's books. He proposed creating a Children's Book Week, which would be supported by all interested groups: publishers, booksellers, and librarians. He found important allies among these groups and this event became popular and has grown ever since even with changing responsibility several times.

Since this is Children’s Book Week and next Sunday is Mother’s Day, I thought I’d feature some books about Mother’s Day to honor both celebrations.  Whether you are a grandparent who lives nearby or at a distance, it is easy to make this a joint celebration.  Amazon.com will be happy to help but I’ll get to this later.

Here are some ideas for celebrating Children’s Book Week

·       Dress up as you favorite book characters.  I know it’s not Halloween but kids love costumes.

·       Write poems together and use felt or construction paper to make a family book of poems.

·       Check to see if your local library has an event – if not, visit the library together anyway

·       Recommend age appropriate books to the children in your life

·       Rent a movie based on a book that your child read

Children’s book good for celebrating Mother’s Day:

Where is Baby’s Mommy by Karen Katz

My grandson loved these lift and flap books by Karen Katz.  He learned words and enjoyed the hide and seek aspect of the books. This one questions - Is Mommy behind the chair? Is Mommy behind the plant? The book provides a delightful interactive book experience for the youngest children.

Just Me and My Mom by Mercer Mayer
My kids loved Mercer Mayer's Little Critter books and I must say I did too.  They always featured humor that an adult enjoyed too. In this one the Little Critter enjoys a special day in the city with his mother. Little Critter gets in trouble and his mother is patient when Critter loses the train tickets, picks up a dinosaur egg in the natural history museum, and misbehaves at lunch. He falls asleep on the train going home, exhausted from the outing with his mother.  The day had its ups and downs but it was an overall success and Mom is glad they did it.

The Berenstain Bears: We Love Our Mom! Jan and Mike Berenstain
This is a brand new Berenstain Bears book that Jan has written with her son Mike.  So grandparents they probably don’t already have this one. This book features Brother and Sister trying to decide on what’s the best Mother’s Day gift they can give to their mother.  Children love to have these picture books read to them – even once they can read themselves.  The Berenstain Bears were always favorite bedtime reading at our house and I am happy that there are still new ones being published.

My Mother is So Smart by Tomie dePaola
Every child should have some beautifully illustrated special books on their bookshelf.  Tomie DePaola is one of my favorites to fill this bill.  His illustrations are beautiful and capture the imagination of children and adults alike.  In this book, a tribute to his own mother, a little boy's mom is so smart she can make the perfect Halloween costume, drive a truck, dress like a movie star, dance the polka, make popsicles, teach the whole neighborhood to sing and even stand on her head.  This book is charming and celebrates Moms  - a perfect match for Mother’s Day.

All of these books are available at Amazon.com  Click below for more information on your favorites.