Tying shoelaces comes easy to some children and for others it’s quite difficult.

We adults often forget how much it means to learn things like tying your laces, and how hard it can be for children that are having difficulties learning it.

Shoes and Laces Wooden Toy is meant to make shoe lacing fun, and might be the exact thing some children need to make them want to learn.

The Shoes and Laces Wooden Toy is available at Linen Kids for 7,50 EUR.

Sanrio will be working with Mimoco, amongst others, in the celebration of Hello Kittys 35th anniversary this fall.

In time for Hello Kittys anniversary on November 1st Mimoco will have designed and produced several different USB flash drives, and Hello Kitty® will be the first to hit the stores, in early September.

Soon thereafter Badtz-Maru®, My Melody®, Kuromi®, Keroppi®, Chococat®, and TuxedoSam™ will also show up in MIMOBOT form.

The line will be available for purchase at MIMOBOT.com and SANRIO.com, select SANRIO boutiques and other specialty retailers.

Remember when you were a child and had to write your name in all your schoolbooks? If you’ve saved some of those books you might scoff a bit at the childish handwriting, especially if it was a book you really loved.

My Retro Baby to the rescue! If you have young children already in school or soon to be enrolled you can have them stamp their stuff with these rubber stamps. It looks nicer and is more fun. There are lots of different “faces” available for these stamps, e.g. with glasses, freckles, plaits or afro and you can of course personalize the stamp with the name of your child.

The retro rubber stamps cost $ 24.00.

Wallters The Slat Rack has a beautiful cartoonish- and childish feeling over it.

I love the way the “hooks” looks all randomly placed, and that the shapes of the “hooks” are slightly different from eachother. It makes me think of a cartoon fence.

The Slat Rack is made out of powdercoated steel, and is available in white, orange, green and brown.

It costs 145.00 USD and can be bought in Wallters online shop.

Via Coochicoos

The Teethifier is a new kind of pacifier that reaches the sore gums in the back of the mouth. It looks like something that would work pretty well for sore gums, and something the baby will instantly know how to use, as it still looks like the familiar pacifier.

The Teethifier costs $4.50 and can be bought at Kid Gear.

The new Australian brand Il Tutto has some gorgeous diaper bags and matching accessories. The Il Tutto bags are made in Italian nappa leather and can be recognized on the little leather monster teddy which adorns them.

There are five different models to choose from. All have practical details like a lining that can be zipped of, an insulated bottle holder, a watertight blanket and a clear plastic zip pocket case for wet items.

The diaper bags cost from 299.00 to 449.00 AUD, and can be bought in Il Tuttos web store.

Small things like pacifiers tend to disappear amongst all the necessities lying around at the bottom of the diaper bag, and will be filled with dust when you decide to dig your way down and recover it.

Cry Babyz has made the Paci Pockets to help keep the pacifier clean and at hand at all times. Paci Pockets can be fastened to the diaper bag, handbag, stroller, crib and other places where you’d want to have a pacifier at hand.

I was sent a Paci Pocket to review, and even though I thought the product was very interesting before even getting the sample, I was pleasantly surprised, as the Paci Pockets are of great quality and the product pictures simply does not do them justice. The seams, hook, loop closure and elastic closure all seems like they will last forever.

I received the “Chain Monkey” Paci Pocket, which has a wonderful white fabric with happy monkeys on one side, and a brown dotted pattern on the other side. All Paci Pockets, except the silver- and gold colored once, are made with two different patterns, so that it can be used on both sides. There are many decorative patterns and colors to choose from.

It would be a great idea to use the Paci Pocket as part of a practical christening- og baby gift.

Paci Pockets and Paci Pocket gift sets, including a Cry Babyz pacifier, are available at Cry Babyz for $12.99 and $17.99 each.

Summer is here again and the kids are out of school.  Long days of playing outside and hanging out with friends are before us.  These are the days of our children’s innocence and it’s our responsibility as parents to safeguard it.  There are so many dangers out there but we don’t want to restrict the fun available to our kids.  We need to achieve a happy balance between fun and danger.  We’ve come up with a list of six different ways to ensure a healthy mixture of good times and safe times:

1. Sunscreen at all times.  It’s recommended that children under twelve wear at least SPF 20 when they’re outside.  They’ll resist at first as you try to smear them in suntan lotion but just simply make it a routine and they’ll soon expect it before they can play.
2. Preach bike safety.  Get your kids in the routine of always wearing helmets when they’re riding their bikes regardless of how long or short their distance is.  Teach them the proper hand signals for when they have to make turns.
3. Keep an eye out for traffic.  Motorists may not be used to children running around in the mornings and early afternoons now that school is out of session.  Make sure your kids know that they are never to go near traffic as there is no good reason for them to venture near moving cars.
4. Dress your kids properly for outdoor fun.  Light colored clothes are the best types of clothes to have your kids wear when they’re playing outside.  This will make them more visible in case they are near traffic.
5. Keep the poolside clear of clutter.  It’s a wise idea to keep all playthings away from the pool.  This will eliminate the curiosity factor that could lure a young child to the poolside when unaccompanied by an adult.  It’s also a good idea so that if children are running near the pool there are fewer obstacles they have to dodge which limits their chances of falling in the pool or hitting their heads on the side of the pool.
6. Know where the bugs are.  When the weather gets warmer insects are more apt to find cooler, darker places to congregate.  The most dangerous insect to watch out for is the mosquito that can carry encephalitis and are generally unhealthy insects.  Standing water, shallow ponds, marshes and streams are hot spots for annoying insects.

This article is contributed by Heather Johnson, who regularly writes on Citi Rewards. She invites your questions and writing job opportunities at her personal email address: heatherjohnson2323 at gmail dot com.

The Capitalist Pig is great piggy bank for those who like to make lists. It has a blackboard surface that allows you to write and draw on it to motivate yourself to save money.

You can for instance use its surface to write the amount you’ve saved, the amount left to save and/or what you’re saving for.

The Capitalist Pig comes with 4 sticks of chalk and costs GBP 12.95 at the new web shop Giftlab.

My guess is it’s white chalks, so why not buy a package of colored chalks for the kid as well to increase the fun of saving?

Via Cool Hunting.