Marcia, here. I’m the product manager for Language Arts and Teacher Resources, and I make toys for Educational Insights.Here’s one I invented last year --- Magic Moves. It’s my absolute, all-time favorite.
There are thousands and thousands of toys in catalogs and stores! Where do they come from and how do they get there? Magic Moves started with an idea from my past life as a preschool teacher. For seven years, I read stories, did arts and crafts, dug in the sandbox, turned a jump rope, and “Hokey-Pokeyed” my way about. By far, circle time was my favorite time of day. It was cut-loose fun where we sang, danced, and got the wiggles out assisted (back then) by a tape player!Fast forward 20 years to working in product development for an educational toy company. I wanted to make something that would make circle time magical, that parents could use to inspire their kids to be active, and that was simple enough for preschoolers to play with themselves.I put my idea – a talking, musical magic wand that would promote creative movement play – down on a piece of paper and pitched it to the team here. I wish I could say its brilliance cast a spell over them, but it actually took me three tries to convince the group that it would be successful. So, if you think you have a great idea, stick up for it!After the idea was approved, I hired an industrial designer to draw a picture to show the factory what it would look like.
I worked with a programmer to write a document to show the factory how it would work.
I worked with a musician and lighting designer. He wrote the tunes and designed the light shows that go with them. He also designed this cool simulation to show us how they worked together.I had taken some wonderful workshops on creative movement and music and wanted to make sure the wand had a variety of musical styles so we incorporated Latin, Afro Pop, and techno or “club” style music.
I also wanted to inspire children to move in different ways so there are slow tunes and fast tunes; heavy, ponderous tunes for stomping, and sinuous, mysterious tunes for slithering. And, that’s another thing. I wanted the children to hear rich vocabulary in the course of their movement play –
stomp,
slither, and
strut, for example.In the meantime, the factory made me a model so I could test its size with children. It turned out to be too big so they made me a smaller one to test with kids again. This one worked.
Next, the factory made me what we call a breadboard, a circuit board with switches that simulate how Magic Moves would work. It’s kind of weird looking, isn’t it? This helped me test the wand’s programming, lights, music, and speech.
The factory also made me a plastic model with nothing inside. That model was used for photography for the wand’s package which our Creative Dept began designing. They also designed the decorations that add to the wand’s magic – like the stars and swirls.
At this point, the factory made me another model. This model looked like and worked like the real thing only the electronics were outside the toy. It had to be tested and tested some more so that we could determine that it was working as expected.
Finally, in October, everything was ready for production to begin. The factory started making Magic Moves. The first shipment of the toy arrived in our company’s warehouse in December – ready to ship to the toy stores that ordered it. From concept to shelf, it took over a year and a half to develop Magic Moves.
I’m so proud of it I want to ….
strut like a peacock!
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I’ve got a case of the Mondays. It’s almost guaranteed that I’ll have a case of the Mondays on Monday. No matter how great a weekend we had, no, wait, in fact because of the great weekends we have, it always makes me sad to go our separate ways on Mondays. I think it’s the pace of the weekend. Cartoons in bed, lazy days at the beach, evening play dates at the park, movie nights with popcorn, dragging out our telescope to check out the moon (although it may seem counter-intuitive, it’s not so easy to see stars in L.A.), even errands are fun on the weekends. Spending time together is easy on the weekends. It happens naturally on the weekends. I never feel like a B.M. (Bad Mom, to be clear) on the weekends.Then Monday comes with the relentless beeping of the alarm clock, sending me scrambling to work out (thanks for cutting that down to 20 minutes, Jillian!), shower, dress, and make three lunches before I wake up Emma (nothing sadder than waking a sleeping child). Then the facade of a relaxed, slow pace. Emma has breakfast; I round up the darks and toss a load in the washer. Emma puts her dishes in the sink; I unload the dishwasher (I’ve got it down to 90 seconds). She brushes her teeth; I realize I only put eye makeup on one eye. She recites her spelling words; I search high and low for the car keys. Happy conversation on the two-minute drive, scramble for a parking space (is there anything worse?), get in line, kisses, hugs, and off she goes. And off I go. Trading in two days of together-time fun on the weekend for 57 minutes on a Monday morning… anyone else have a case of the Mondays? 
Here's our Fun Fact of the Day: The human body has 45 miles of nerves.Forty-three pairs of nerves connect the central nervous system to every part of the body. Twelve pairs go to and from the brain, and 31 go from the spinal cord. 
Here's another fun fact for you: There are 206 bones in the human body. One fourth of them are in your feet!The muscles in our feet are too often overlooked. Think about all the things you do on your feet. Can you imagine life without them? Take a minute out of your day to appreciate them and all the hard work they go through by treating yourself to a foot massage. Better yet, spend some time bonding with your spouse, your kids, or even a friend and have a foot massaging party! You'll be surprised how much better you'll feel when you start taking care of yourself from the bottom up. 
Here's a fun fact about this healthy snack: Almonds actually aren't nuts. They're technically seeds and they are members of the peach family! 
[My daughter, Emma. Her daddy is 6’3, with 6’ sisters and a 6’7 brother!]Flash back…there we were…waiting to see the class list and meet Emma’s teacher. We’d heard such great things about both kindergarten teachers. We’d played for years on the kindergarten playground and peeked through the kindergarten windows at the adorable little chairs and tables. Even the in-class bathroom door was tiny!What a surprise to learn that one of those two teachers had taken on the school’s new preppy-K class and my daughter was assigned to a new team-teaching pair. At first we were thrilled—two teachers in the classroom! Too good to be true! And it was. What it really meant was that two teachers would split the week. Really? Neither one could commit to a 22-hour work week? Then the other shoe dropped— neither teacher had ever taught kindergarten before. Oh, and that cute little classroom on the cute little playground? Nah, we were down the hall with the big kids. And the tiny bathroom door was replaced with the big girl’s bathroom—across a corridor open to the street.I did what any good parent would do—I panicked. I tried the principal, to no avail. There would be no relocations; the classes were full. I wasn’t alone: we were all worried—two teachers, two sets of rules, two styles— and in this crucial year, no less! After a few sleepless nights and more conversations than my friends care to remember (oh, and a deposit at the private school down the road, which we really couldn’t afford and whose religious tenets we do not believe), I caved. I mean, what choice did I have?Well, a year later, I am both thrilled and embarrassed to report that the year could not have gone any better. One teacher was nurturing and sweet. The other was stern, but conducted kitchen science lessons every Friday with edible treat results. I never heard any student or parent complain of trouble adjusting to different styles or routines. In fact, they may have come out more flexible for it. The highlight of my daughter’s year was winning the silent auction at the spring carnival. The prize? Lunch. At Burger King. With her teacher. The stern one.I am not a go-with-the-flow person, but man, lesson learned. So when the flurry of phone calls, texts, and emails started rolling in when this year’s class assignments were mailed, I’m happy to report that I closed my ears and went with the flow.And I’m glad I did. Emma’s new teacher opened this year’s Open House by telling the parents how grateful she was to have a job that she loves so much. Teaching is probably the hardest job in the world (okay, tied with being a mom). Teachers wouldn’t do it if they didn’t love it. So let’s give them the benefit of the doubt. I know I will! 
October is Children’s Health Month and we'll be celebrating all month long with fitness/health related tips, articles and activities for the whole family on our blog and Facebook![Here's a quick tip: If you like us, you'll be entered for a chance to win $500 worth of EI products!]Keep a look out for upcoming posts regarding child health and well-being this month and keep your eyes open for a behind-the-scenes look at our featured product of the month, Magic Moves! If you didn't know, Magic Moves is all about... MOVIN'! It has your kids shakin' it up and workin' it out. What better way to get healthy than to dance it out and have fun with your kids? To kick start the month, here's a fun fact: Did you know that your heart is about the size of your fist and weighs about as much as a softball? Speaking of softball, why not take 30 minutes out of your day to play outside? It's time to get up and start movin'! 
Get your classroom ready for Halloween with today's spooky Deal of the Day! From now until midnight tonight PST you can get our 3-D Skeleton Demonstration Magnets for only $24.99 (down from 
