Right now your youngsters may not exactly be jumping for joy when they hear about having to go to school in just a few weeks. The months of summer filled with days of fun outdoor activities seems like a much better choice to them when compared to getting up early everyday and going to school. But, there are ways to foster an atmosphere of learning in your home right now that will make the transition to a regular school setting much easier and enjoyable for your child.

Young children may be intimidated by the thought of leaving home and going to school — especially if your little one is getting ready to go to school for their very first time. It is important that parents encourage their children to see the process of learning, as well as learning in a school setting, as a fun activity. A kid that is truly having fun won’t have time to approach learning with a negative viewpoint. If they are able to enjoy the process, they’ll never view it as a constant chore or an intimidating task. Many of the best methods to employ early on that foster a learning environment that is entertaining and fun is to incorporate music, rhymes, art projects, songs, and educational games into your toddler or young child’s daily activities.

An excellent, easy to incorporate approach for improving your child’s memory skills is to listen to songs with your child, especially catchy tunes that rhyme. Instead of just turning on the radio while you’re running errands with your kids in the car, listen to songs that they can sing and enjoy. Rhyming is an excellent source of establishing the foundation necessary for kids to be able to learn both at home and at school.

Also, make the effort to carve out a little time from your busy schedule to read with your kids. A child who jumps at the chance to read a book is much more likely to enjoy learning in a school setting. Learning requires patience and patience is a skill that has to be practiced (and modeled by parents) over time. Other activities such as art projects also get kids excited about activities that include an educational element. Parents should consider introducing a dynamic approach towards fun learning that includes interactive educational games, songs, rhymes, art projects, etc.

The influx of educational games online reinforces the trend toward engaging game play that has an important secondary educational theme built into them too. These games definitely support the notion that learning can be fun! At one time, educational games for kids were primarily limited to board games prior to the introduction of the Internet and its many creative resources.

Online educational games are especially effective in the areas of reading, writing, and math. Educational games played on the computer require your kid’s interaction and attention. Some of the most effective educational games are those that incorporate easily recognized animated characters from many of your child’s favorite television programs. Many of these games involve an adventure with a specific goal that ultimately encourages your child to feel as if they have accomplished a fun task while learning basic math, reading, and/or spelling skills.

Shopping-Bargains.com is pleased to be able to offer parents of preschoolers and elementary school age children a fantastic discount on Nick Jr. Boost. Nick Jr. Boost is one of the highest rated online educational services available on the Internet. Nick Jr. Boost gives your kids the opportunity to “team up” with some of their favorite Nick Jr. characters such as Blue or Dora in a very personalized environment that guides them through exciting, adventure based game settings that serve a dual purpose: to have fun and to exercise skills such as reading, art, Spanish, and math. The primary goal for Nick Jr. Boost is to create a fun, rewarding learning environment that will help your kids with their transition into a regular school environment.

We hope that these methods will be helpful to you and your children as you prepare them for the upcoming school year. With the permission of Nick Jr. Boost, for your reference we have included a few screenshots below of some popular Nick Jr. Boost online educational games. Click each image to enlarge it for detail.

I’m pleased to announce that today we implemented RateVoice‘s ratings and reviews software into the Shopping-Bargains.com system. This move allows our shoppers to comment on and rate their experiences with and feelings about individual stores. This store ratings and reviews system is fully functional across our full suite of shopping sites.

With more than 2,000 different stores listed on all our websites, I wanted to offer our shoppers a better chance to shop with confidence. I wanted our customers to be able to read up on past customer service and satisfaction records as documented by other shoppers. Based on our own site visitors’ feedback, this option is especially helpful for little-known retailers who don’t yet enjoy the benefits of a nationally-recognized name and reputation.

In our store reviews and ratings system, we’re offering a familiar five-star rating system and a reviews box on every one of our store pages.  Reviews are not purchased or aggregated from other sites but are written by our own site visitors. They are not shared with other sites but are uniquely ours. Ratings are instantaneously calculated while reviews are held for moderation to prevent spam. Profanity is automatically hashed out by the RateVoice system.

I shop online a lot. In the interest of full disclosure please note that I will periodically offer my own reviews based on my personal experiences as a customer. For these reviews you will see that I write transparently under my own name (Mike Allen) and based on actual transactions with these retailers. Please read our blog disclosure policy linked below for additional details on my relationship with the retailers listed on our sites.

I invite you to participate in this effort by adding your comments and evaluations to our individual store ratings and reviews sections. I look forward to reading your feedback and scores whether negative or positive.

As the founder of Shopping-Bargains.com I like to shop the retailers listed on our site. It allows me to test their sites, the quality of their products, their customer service experience, and so forth. For the record, I’ve removed retailers from our directory who had poor products and customer experience records. Today, however, I want to highlight a long-term positive experience I had with one of our stellar retailers — ifrogz, an innovative maker of custom cases and skins for iPods, iPhones and more.

Close to two years ago I purchased a thick black “ifrogz wrapz” skin for my iPhone. I find holding a naked iPhone a little cumbersome because it is both skinny and slippery. Nearly two years ago I dropped my new iPhone and, after being thankful it didn’t break or get scratched, I started shopping for a quality iPhone skin to provide some cushioning and stability. I wanted a tough yet attractive iPhone skin that would provide protection and allow me to hold it easier. I also wanted a quality made skin that would fit tightly, not restrict button usage, hold up to lots of wear and wouldn’t rip.  Simple demands, right? Easier said than done.

Turns out that there are a lot of iPhone skins being sold; however, many are poorly made and simply don’t look like they will hold up. Their prices are cheap and so is their quality. In my search I decided I could go with an inferior one (or, more likely, several inferior ones over time) or I could buy a good one that would hold up for the long run and not frustrate me a poor fit. That’s when I turned to ifrogz and bought one of their quality iPhone skins.

In writing this post I looked back to see when I purchased my iPhone skin. I ordered it (online, of course) on March 12, 2008 and used our exclusive ifrogz coupon code to get a special discount. A few days later my ifrogz skin arrived and I excitedly dressed my iPhone. I was thoroughly impressed with the quality and tight fit of the wrap. It was and remains both stylish and makes the iPhone much easier to hold. I’ve included a few photos I took today of my ifrogz-dressed iPhone after about 18 months of daily wear. One more positive thing to note about this ifrogz skin is my iPhone doesn’t slide off sloping surfaces like desks, furniture and so forth.

You may wonder why I’m writing this story about 18 months after purchasing this product. The reason for this is simple: I still like my ifrogz iPhone wrap. To this day it continues to fit tightly, perform well, and serve my needs. While the skin’s thinnest point above the main iPhone button tore a few days ago (see photo), the wrap still works beautifully and serves my needs very well. In fact, it was this minor tear that prompted me to think about the skin again and led to this post. Overall, I have been very pleased with this ifrogz product. I have also received a lot of questions about it because the styling is unique.

So, bottom line, I strongly recommend ifrogz and am pleased to list them on Shopping-Bargains.com. My experience with them has been very positive. While their initial cost may seem a little high for an iPhone or iPod skin or wrap, I feel their long-term performance justifies the cost and probably represents savings over buying several cheaper bit inferior skins.

Please note our blog disclosure policy.