Visit me today at the Homeschool Blog Awards site for my Better Blogging review of a sweet new service for online photo storage, sharing, and editing: Adobe Photoshop Express.

I was contacted recently by a representative of Child’s Play Communications to see if I was interested in receiving samples of K’NEX Brands’ new spring product line to review. My answer was a resounding “YES!”

I love the story of how K’NEX were invented:

Joel Glickman, a veteran entrepreneur with extensive experience in the plastics industry, came up with the design concept for K’NEX while at a noisy, crowded wedding in June 1988. Simply to pass the time, Mr. Glickman was tinkering with one straw… then another… and yet another. As he bent the straws into different geometric shapes, he was struck with an idea: There had to be a way to connect the straws so children could build actual models from them. That seed of an idea became K’NEX (pronounced con-NECTS), and a new generation of creative construction toy sets for kids was born.

We tested the Cool Construction 10 Model Building Set and the Rescue Assortment, consisting of four unique sets: Police, Fire, Ambulance, and Rescue. My 11-year-old daughter chose the Cool Construction 10 Model Building Set; just look at the concentration on her face! As a mother, one of my favorite things about it is the handy storage case.

My 6-year-old son wanted the Rescue Building Set; this is a perfect toy for a boy his age. He really had fun putting the stickers on it, too!

My 4-year-old daughter and I built the Fire Rescue Set. She was so proud of herself when it was finished!

My 8-year-old daughter built the Police Rescue Set with some help from her 17-year-old brother, who got in on the action, too.

We had so much fun playing with these exciting new K’NEX building sets and were thankful for the opportunity to review them. I’m sure your children will enjoy them, too!

Last week we received an advance copy of I Love You More from Sourcebooks, Inc. This is a sweet children’s book with a unique concept: If you read it from the front, you get a mother’s story of how much she loves her son; flip it and read from the other side, and you hear of the son’s love for his mother; the two stories meet in the middle.

This is one of those books that will get you all choked up, causing your children to look at you strangely and smile when you read it. I enjoyed the contrast between the mother’s descriptions of love - “I love you longer than the longest path ever wound” - and the son’s - “I love you bigger than the biggest bubble ever blown.” This is a “snuggle up and love on your child” kind of a book, and you can never have too many of those.

Here is the story behind this special book:

I Love You More is the product of Laura Duksta’s incredible personal journey in taking her biggest challenge and turning it into her biggest blessing. At the age of 11, she lost all of her hair to alopecia areata. After 19 years of wearing wigs and pretending to be someone she wasn’t, Laura made a decision on her 30th birthday to throw a coming out party as “The Bald Chick” and never looked back. While it took her many years to love herself and to allow others to love her, the lessons she learned along the way are as heartwarming as they are inspiring.

As a testament to the power of love, I Love You More, originally self published in 2001, sold over 180,000 copies before it even hit a bookstore!

ABOUT THE CREATORS OF I LOVE YOU MORE

Author Laura Duksta believes that when people know they are loved, anything is possible. Her mission is to share her story so that others might see that no matter what challenges they are facing, anything is possible with love. She is now fulfilling this mission through her book, school programs and inspirational talks.

Illustrator Karen Keesler earned the nickname “Hippie” from her love for people and the planet. Upon hearing about Laura’s book, Karen took a bag of pastel chalks that she bought at a yard sale for 50 cents and drew the perfect pictures for the text. Together they become known as the author and illustrator dynamic duo, Hippie and The Bald Chick.