Little Simon sent me these books to check out and is partnering with me for a giveaway!

Just when I thought we had outgrown the "board books" phase, we were delighted to receive a sampling of the some of the most thoughtful, durable, colorful, and inspiring stories we've owned as a homeschooling and lit-obsessed family! The newest Little Simon board books (a division of Simon & Schuster) are the sturdy, chunky books you'd expect from the "board book" name, but these are so much more than what you'd expect.

Little Simon board books make the perfect gift for all of the young readers in your life! With cute and creative illustrations, accessible and engaging stories, and the perfect size and durability, these books are great for new parents and for reading aloud. These fun series teach important lessons and concepts through adorable characters, interesting stories, and hilarious creatures!

Here are the titles we enjoyed:

• Roary the Lion Roars Too Loud by Anne Dyckman
• The Itsy Bitsy School Bus by Jeffrey Burton
• Hello Knights! by Joan Holub
• Dia De los Muertos by Hannah Eliot
• This Little Scientist by Joan Holub

We learned about STEM pioneers, dragons, and more. While geared toward kids 2-5, even my 8-year-old enjoyed looking at the pictures and reading aloud to his younger brother. You just can't help but learn stuff with Little Simon books.



As a homeschool mom, I know that kids learn best through having good lit lying around. With these books being so chunky and durable, you can literally leave them lying around. They will take all the trauam little boys put their stuff under, and come out ready to be read another day.

Learn more about Little Simon books when you follow them on Twitter!

Wanna Win? One lucky reader will receive a collection of five Little Simon board books plus a Pottery Barn kids book rack set to store them! Enter by October 21st at 11:59 pm EST. Open to U.S. residents only. Prizing and samples provided by Little Simon.

When we first agreed to review the ReadySetz Urban Playset this fall, I was all set to show you amazing stop-motion movies that my boys were going to make with brick figures, clay, and more...

And then, my preschooler got a hold of our sample. We never got it back.




You see, ReadySetz playsets are so realistic and so well-designed that my younger boys use them for everything. They fold, unfold, add ramps, and reconfigure this set so many different ways and can use it in any room. It's easy to take from the couch to the floor to the top bunk (their favorite) and into the living room again. They pile trains, Peppa pig race cars, McDonald's Happy Meal toys, robots, stuffed animals, and minifigs onto the sturdy surface. They attach string and empty juice bottles and board game dice and dump fuzzy pom-poms and glitter and paper all over it... well, you get the idea.




This easy, amazing, and durable play environment is so simple and yet it opens doors to imagination. My two youngest boys are jumping, racing, blasting, crashing, falling, flying, and shooting their way through, around, over, and under the set.

And, at the end of the day, we fold it up and put it away in a tiny corner of the closet -- until the next day, when we get it out and do it all over again. The cleverly designed set is going to last a long time, I can tell. With a super kid-friendly surface that resists dirt and moisture, it's the kind of toy #BoyMoms like me can appreciate.

View this post on Instagram

Seriously though... how many toys CAN you fit on a @ready_setz play structure?? My kids be crazy.... 😂😂😂

A post shared by Linsey Knerl (@lknerl) on Oct 10, 2018 at 7:41pm PDT

This 3D foldout playset is the open-ended toy of 2018. Made from 100% recyclable materials (no plastic), it will take your kids through many happy years of play -- but won't leave a negative impact on the planet. Take it anywhere your kids go. It comes in two designs and two sizes and is made right here in the USA. Woot!

Find out more about this must-have imagination station here.

*Sample received to review. Opinions are my own.

The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free.

We bought our last soundbar over 8 years ago -- and it shows. Still hooked up with red/white AV cords, we were eager to test out the Polk Command Bar as an upgrade for our new LED TV. With HDMI the way of tech, it made no sense to continue using the old soundbar that crackled and gave too much feedback with our new TV.

We got the box with the bar inside, and it was HUGE. Make room for this! The sound bar was actually four inches longer than our other sound bar, so we had to make some adjustments. Since the Polk Command Sound Bar also comes with a decent-sized subwoofer, you'll need to make extra room (along with find a spare outlet) for that, too.



We managed to squeeze everything into our tiny living room, and the newer, slimmer sound bar actually looked better in our entertainment system.



We followed the Quick-Start guide to get everything running, and -- for the most part -- it was seamless. A few things will really depend on your TV (such as whether the HDMI port was "ARC" on it.) Our did, so the hardware was simple plug-and-play, and with a few menu adjuments on our TV (via the user manual for our TV), we were connected.

Then, we had to download the Polk app to my smartphone. It prompted me to register for an account, verify our home wi-fi settings, and we were up and running. While there were separate instructions for connecting the subwoofer to the bar manually, ours paired without extra steps. We also had to connect the system to our Amazon account so that Alexa worked, but that took just a minute.

Now, it was time to test it out. There was a football game going on, so we jumped right in to ask Alexa what channel it was on, then - using our TV remote -- turned it to the right station to start watching. The Polk Command Bar was smart in that it would respond to either the Polk remote, the TV remote, or Alexa commands to do things like turn up the volume, change outputs, or mute. Things like boosting bass or commands for Polk-specific tasks could be done with the Polk remote or Alexa voice commands. There is also a limited number of tasks you can do by pushing buttons on the bar itself -- such as volume up and down, or mute.



Since we were watching football, we chose the "sports" sound mode. It was awesome, the bass was rich -- but not so overpowering that we couldn't hear the sports commentators, which were crisp and clear. There were also music and movie modes for those types of viewing. I personally like the "night mode" button, which changes the bass and clarity slightly for lower volume listening (such as when mom and dad are watching TV and don't want to wake up the kids.)

How did the Alexa feature work? At first, I found myself screaming into the bar to get it started. It was my first Alexa device, and I really didn't know how it worked. After it was going, however, my husband merely had to mention "Alexa" from across the room -- even with the volume up -- to get it to wait for a command. When Alexa is listening and responding, the speaker goes quiet, which is a handy feature. You can also press the "listen" button on the remote to quiet the speaker and wake up Alexa to wait for a command. Like other Alexa enabled devices, you can change privacy settings and defaults in your Amazon account from any device.

This is a game-changer for our family, who got tired of losing the soundbar remote and had no way to turn up up the volume. The Polk Command Sound Bar just gets what today's family needs to do, and offers seamless integration with smart devices such as Fire TV. You can use the USB and HDMI connections on the bar itself to expand your available ports beyond what may be available on some smaller TVs, too. And since I like to use Bluetooth to stream music from my Amazon Prime Music library, I can add the Polk Command Bar to my phone's connected devices to stream music from any room!

Learn more about this amazing sound system for today's connected family at Best Buy. 

• Mini pumpkin
• Mason jar (no lid needed)
• Bag of candies
• Acrylic paints
• Paintbrush
• 2 kinds of small ribbon
• Black and orange construction paper
• Toothpick
• Yellow Sharpie paint pen (optional)
• Glue gun and glue

You're all set!  Simply place the pumpkin head on the body of the jar.


This is a cute way to store candy, and it took less than an hour start to finish!