Saturday, April 21, 2012

ToyDozer Winner!

The winner for the ToyDozer giveaway is #12, Samantha! Thanks to everyone for entering and remember that you can still use the code BLOGGER20 to save 20% on a purchase of ToyDozer on their site.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Toydozer Review AND GIVEAWAY!

Read through to the end to find out how to win your own ToyDozer!
Find me a woman who has raised small children and I will show you a woman who has stepped on a small, very sharp toy in the middle of the night. No matter how educational and brain-enhancing a set of blocks, Legos or Tinker Toys are, I can guarantee you that many of these mothers have pitched said toys into the trash; most likely in a feverish, one-foot-hopping, swearing rage.

Enter the ToyDozer. A simple solution for a universal problem. If you want your kids to clean up their toys (the toys that you bought them and encourage them to play with), provide them with a tool to make this process less daunting, more enjoyable and more likely that they will follow through. The ToyDozer reminds me of a deeply-sided dust pan with a scraper that pushes the desired mess inside of it. Scoop and dump, scoop and dump; just like a real bull-dozer!Strangely enough, this product arrived at my house on a day that it was ALREADY CLEAN. Let's just step back and enjoy that sentence for a moment, shall we? Already. Clean. Ahhh...

I thought that this meant that we would have to test it out on a different day. Sadly enough, my 6 year old decided that she needed to test the ToyDozer out THAT VERY MINUTE. She proceeded to dump not only the 2 boxes of building blocks onto the clean floor but also a box of Lincoln Logs, just for kicks (cue head exploding).

Being the understanding mother I am, I only yelled for a few minutes and then maturely huffed out of the room. She built and stacked and made a block outline of herself (which I would totally put a picture of right here if I could find the cord that connects my camera to my computer...). After cooling down for 20 minutes, I returned to discover a very respectable disaster area.

Sigh.

We ToyDozed our hearts out. While she wasn't thrilled with the process of cleaning, it did make scooping the toys up a lot easier. My only concern with the product is that the scooper doesn't attach to the bucket area in any way. I forsee losing the scoop at some point in time. If it could have a latch, hook or slot to slide it onto the scoop, that would make this product perfect, in my opinion. Edited to add: I have just been informed that the ToyDozer DOES have a Velcro attachment for the two piece to stick together but the company is having to adjust the strength of the adhesive that holds the Velcro on. If you order or win a ToyDozer, it is my understanding that your product WILL have a way for the two pieces to attach to each other! Perfect!

It retails for $18.99 and is available exclusively on ToyDozer.com. If you would like to purchase one today, you can use the code BLOGGER20 to save 20%! Or, you can enter to win one on a giveaway here, today!

To win a ToyDozer of your own, please follow the directions below and I will pick the winning comment on April 20.

Do as many or as few of the possibilities below that you'd like, but be sure to enter a separate comment for every entry!! (you may tweet, share, etc. more than once in a day, but please try to space them out with a respectable amount of time. Be honest. Muwah.)

~ Follow ToyDozer on Twitter

~ Follow me on Twitter

~ Tweet about this giveaway being sure to use the hashtag #toydozer and connect with @justanothermom

~ Share this giveaway on any other social media site (Facebook, Google+, etc.) and link back!

* This post is part of a
Toydozer blogger outreach campaign. Participating bloggers have been provided with a complimentaryToydozer to review and have been compensated for their time.

Consider Grammarly.com

This may be difficult for you to read. Avert your eyes if you are easily shocked...

I am not perfect.

I KNOW! It's crushing to learn that your idols aren't always what they're cracked up to be, but I never asked to be put upon your pedestal. :)

Considering how it's quite obvious that I am anything but perfect (Thank God. Perfection sounds like torture), it's fabulous to find sites designed to aid those of us who may struggle through Life (i.e. EVERYONE). One website that is worth considering is Grammarly.com. Grammarly, an online grammar checker, goes a step further than your basic spell check and grammar check. Grammarly offers help with those steps, and also for more obscure assistance. Check out this page where it suggests alterations within different sentences to improve the flow and structure of the author's thoughts. Your basic grammar checker doesn't cover that!

One unique feature that I intend to employ with my own homeschooled children will be the the help it provides in avoiding plagiarism (either unintended or purposeful). Grammarly can assist in checking for originality and generating citations. My eldest is nearing the high school years and needs to improve his report skills. Writing with the assistance of Grammarly.com sounds like a whole lot easier than typing on an electric typewriter like his mom used to do...


*disclaimer: This is a compensated post but all words remain my own.