10.29.07

During a recent play date, a friend commented how our playroom looks like a library. I had to laugh as I looked at our bookcase, since it was literally overflowing with children's books. From an early age, both of my boys loved to snuggle and read a book, so I kept buying them. And because of their passion, I am always on the hunt for books with great lessons and illustrations, which brought me to my favorite new "find", the products at School Zone!

Because of my new love for School Zone, I dug a little deeper in to "who they are" and discovered School Zone Publishing Company began as The School Zone Learning Center in 1972. The Learning Center was a retail teachers' supply outlet, specializing in sales to teachers, with two stores in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In the mid-70s, in response to schools instituting changes in educational methods, parents experienced difficulty finding educational material for use at home. Therefore, parents turned to the Learning Centers, requesting workbooks and other at-home teaching aids. From that moment on, successful workbooks and other educational products have been available from what is now called, School Zone.

What I love most about School Zone is how easy it is to shop from their website. They break down their educational materials and products by age, and clearly describe what skills your child will refine from the product. For example, under the "Baby" section, are the adorable Happy Faces and Baby Faces Infant Mirror Cards. Not only does my 14-month old love these, but so does his big brother. Each character card has a circle cutout which may be placed over the "mirror card" or the "happy face card". 

For example, my baby's favorite character card is the baby in the bathtub which says, "Splish, splash, look at me! I'm as clean as clean can be!" Depending on his mood, he either 1)  places the card over the mirror and gives himself a kiss, or, 2)  places the card over the happy face and smiles back, or, 3)  uses the cut-out circle for his "death grip" and walks around the house shrieking! Regardless of whether he is enjoying the baby in the bath tub, or the helicopter whirring in the air, or the balloon bobbing in the sky, these cards have become the first thing he looks for in the morning when he wakes up.

So whether you are looking for some cute and whimsical books for your
baby, or alphabet flash cards for your preschooler, look no further than School Zone. You will find it all here!