[blparent] Educational tools/toys

[Melissa Ann Riccobono]

Discovery Toys has a great Giant Peg Board that has 5 different shaped pegs
in five different colors, and the board itself is yellow.  You can
definitely label the colors of the pegs in Braille, and you can also talk
about the shapes.  The pegs can be stacked into towers, arranged in
patterns, and the board itself has small posts on the back so you can use it
as a geoboard with older children.  It's a wonderful toy--no batteries
required!
	Discovery Toys also has a fun game called Roll and Play.  It won't
help much with shapes, but it comes with a large fabric dy with six
different colors.  The child needs to roll the dy, pick a card of the same
color as rolled on the dy, and then do the activity on the card.  These are
simple things like hug a stuffed animal, knock on the door, say your name,
have a tea party, etc.  It's a very fun, easy first game for kids between 18
months and 3 or 4 years old.  Again, the shapes aren't covered, but the dy
can easily be labeled using puffy paint arranged in Braille dots for the
first letter of each color, or any other way that will distinguish the color
for a blind parent or child.  
	There may be other toys Discovery Toys has that address shapes and
colors, but I'm slightly drawing blank at this moment.  Also, our new
catalog will be coming out on September 26, so we may have other products at
that time.  
	You can check out my Discovery Toys website at
http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/riccobono

You can order toys online, and I'm happy to answer any questions you have
about any of the products--I own lots of them!
Feel free to email me off list at toys at riccobono.us any time.
I hope this helps!
Melissa
-----Original Message-----
From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Bridgit Pollpeter
Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2011 2:20 PM
To: blparent at nfbnet.org
Subject: [blparent] Educational tools/toys

Does anyone know of stores/websites offering accessible educational
items for blind parents teaching sighted kids shapes, colors, letters,
numbers, etc.? We've made items accessible, or have some things that
don't require accessible modifications like shaped blocks, but I'm
wondering if anyone has used a really great product that was accessible;
or just any really great product that can be labeled or made accessible
in some way. I prefer educational-based products and nothing electronic-
I'm more old-fashioned when it comes to education! *smile*

Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
Read my blog for Live Well Nebraska.com at
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/


_______________________________________________
blparent mailing list
blparent at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blparent_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
blparent:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blparent_nfbnet.org/melissa%40riccobono.us