GIVEAWAY CLOSED!

Imagine this, you are sitting on the bus with nothing to do, the ride ahead of you is the same every afternoon without fail, then you hear the faint sound of Joe Satriani playing in the background. Looking over in the isle next to you is someone playing guitar on their shirt with a mini-amp attached to their belt buckle, Or a keyboard on their shirt blasting out some techno Chopin. How could this not be the BEST bus ride ever?

ThinkGeek.com has outdone them selves again. They never fail to amaze me; I was stunned by the T-Qualizer shirt which I used to see in the clubs from time to time. Now, they have come out with the Kids Electronic Rock Guitar Shirt and Drum Kit Shirt.

Each T-shirt has:

• Battery pack with speaker stores in hidden pocket near hem of shirt
• Adjustable volume… the top volume level is really loud
• Black 100% cotton shirt
• Requires 4 AAA batteries (not included)
• Exclusive product designed and manufactured by ThinkGeek
• Electric guitar and drum kit T-shirts for young rockers that produce authentic sounds for rocking out
• Belt out your favorite rock tunes on these t-shirts based on real playable instruments
• Each button on the shirt’s guitar neck represents a major chord, which makes playing classic rock songs easy
• Drum shirt features 7 different drums and sounds and has an embedded speaker
• Strum the guitar by waving the included magnetic pick over the strings

BUY IT : If you think you don’t get enough “playtime” with the kids in your life, I challenge you to go to ThinkGeek.com, grab these shirts and see how long it takes for your kids (and you) to be jamming out at the kitchen counter for at last a half an hour.

These shirts go way beyond my expectations and have always met with the quality of ThinkGeek.com. In fact, I have seen co-workers around the office with some of these shirts on. They are perfect for the young and old alike, get a handful of them and get ready for a rockin’ good time, it’ll be a HUGE hit.

WIN IT : Now, one of our lucky US reader will have an opportunity to win a piece of Kids Guitar & Drum Kit Electronic T-Shirt which retails for $29.99. Here’s what you need to do to enter this giveaway:

• One Mandatory Entry- visit the ThinkGeek website and let us know which Interactive T-shirt design is your favourite
• Two Additional Entries- follow us on twitter and tweet this giveaway.  Be sure to leave a comment including your twitter id and the tweet url.
• Five Additional Entries- leave us a comment letting us know which of our blog tour product appeals to you
• Giveaway is open to US shipping addresses only.
• Giveaway ends March 22nd 2011 and a winner will be picked using Random.org. We will not be emailing winners, so please make sure you subscribe to our feed or check back here for the winner announcement post.

Disclosure of Material Connection : http://cmp.ly/2

My kids are huge fans of Trebellina. HUGE. They cannot get enough of Trebellina…. I tell ya, the DVD cover is pretty much shredded, because my youngest loves taking it out and looking at it. Tries to stuff it back as best he can, but obviously his fine motor skills are quite there yet. Can’t blame him, he’s not even 3 yet! We have been patiently waiting for the Trebellina sequel, as we’ve reviewed it during our blog tour in May 2009. We hope that we’ll be able to see this new sequel, in the coming 2011!

Just a recap of Trebellina, we hope you’ll take a few moments to read on :

The Trebellina DVD occupies a special place in a modern baby’s musical development.  Trebellina fills the gap between the mommy-and-me music classes currently offered to young children and the formal music lessons that young children typically wait years before they can begin.   Trebellina also helps round out the musical experience for young children who study Suzuki through its emphasis on reading written music. Moreover, with Trebellina, parents jumpstart their children’s music education at a fraction of the cost of just one typical music lesson!

A batch of fresh new eyes, got their chance to review Trebellina, from across the globe, and here’s what they have to say :

Sasha’s Bla Bla Bla : They love it when the character- Rock Bassey calls out Trebellina’s name “TREBELLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINA” and they would giggle and giggle. I have no idea what the dvd was about so I asked my kids in the car the other day. “So what has Trebellina taught you?” and they replied “I know about music instruments..Cabasa, Maracas, Wind Chimes, Bongos, Triangle, Piano, Congas, Cow Bell…..”

Rambling Moo : Though she is still so young, the music and the characters (Trebellina, Rock Bassey and Rhytmo) attracted her attention and made her glued to the screen a good 5 minutes! Since she is still a baby, she still do not have a very long attention span.

Montisorri Mum : We put on the DVD the moment we received it. JS immediately recognizes the treble clef and bass clef. (But she couldn’t guess what the green swirly thing is..neither do I). Since we are so use to singing “DO RE MI FA” at home, the kids need sometimes to get use to the English Note Names ( as in C, D, E, F, G etc). I have to keep telling them that C = Do, D = Re . But it is good reinforcement for jiejie who is now learning to read notes as in English form instead of solfege.

GIVEAWAY CLOSED!

Kidz Bop 18 is the newest release in the Kidz Bop franchise (which has been around since 2001). Kidz Bop are compilation albums of popular songs, covered by children singing rather than the original artist. They are edited to remove the blatantly “questionable” things so that kids who want to listen to what’s hot on the radio can without constantly hearing the “bad” stuff the songs may discuss.

For instance; on Kidz Bop 18 there are two Lady Gaga songs performed – Alejandro and Telephone – both having some major lyrics changes (I only really caught them because I am a HUGE Gaga fan and have heard both originals many, many times).

Another edit I caught is on the “Billionaire” song – original lyrics are “I wanna be a billionaire so fricking bad.” Kidz Bop changes the “fricking” to “very” which is more appropriate.

Then on the song “Hey Soul Sister” I caught “like a pop star you’re Madonna” instead of “like a virgin you’re Madonna.”

It’s actually fun for me to catch the rewrites – don’t judge me, lol.

Songs on Kidz Bop 18 include:

• Baby (Justin Bieber)
• Telephone (Lady Gaga ft. Beyoncé)
• California Gurls (Katy Perry)
• Hey Soul Sister (Train)
• Do You Remember (Jay Sean ft. Sean Paul & Lil Jon)
• Naturally (Selena Gomez & the Scene)
• Whataya Want From Me (Adam Lambert)
• Nothin On You (B.o.B ft. Bruno Mars)
• Break Your Heart (Taio Cruz)
• All The Right Moves (One Republic)
• Two Is Better Than One (Boys Like Girls ft. Taylor Swift)
• Evacuate The Dancefloor (Cascada)
• Billionaire (Travie McCoy ft. Bruno Mars)
• Alejandro (Lady Gaga)
• Breakeven (The Script)
• Single Ladies (Beyoncé)

Now – my son (who’s 5 years old) and his friend (who’s 6 years old) both were jamming along to this cd – and I could get into it a little also since I listen to a lot of the songs on the cd anyway. But – this is really for parents who want to censor their kids music a little. I personally don’t care what music my son gets to hear for the most part. The company says that the Kidz Bop cd’s are geared towards ages 5 to 12 but I would think age 8 would be more appropriate since by 12 they’ve certainly heard the real lyrics and may question why they are listening to a bunch of kids since edited versions.

Buy It: You can find Kidz Bop 18 both at “local” stores like Target or Wal-Mart or at online retailers including Amazon and even the Kidz Bop website.

Win It: We’re giving away THREE copies of Kidz Bop 18! If you would like to enter for a chance to win this CD, here’s what you need to do:

• One mandatory entry – Visit the  website Kidz Bop and name another of their album (besides Kidz Bop 18).
• Two additional entry – Follow us on twitter and tweet this giveaway “Win this awesome Kidz Bop 18 CD“  with a link back to this post. Please leave an additional comment including your twitter id and your tweet url. You can do this daily until the giveaway closes.
• Two Additional Entries- Post this on FB and share this piece of good news with your friends!!!! Let us know if you’re a fan too!
• Giveaway is open to US  shipping addresses only.
• Giveaway ends  August 2nd (11:59pm) and a winner will be picked using Random.org. We will not be emailing winners, so please make sure you subscribe to our feed or check back here for the winner announcement post.

Disclosure of Material Connection : http://cmp.ly/2

GIVEAWAY CLOSED!

I downloaded this digital audio compilation of “Beautiful Creatures” by Ed Jordan and Alan Glass, and was tickled with the ‘tales’ within the songs! A number of songs are about a particular animal from South Africa, be it a lazy lion, wonderous warthog or the luckiest lizard! My sons and I enjoyed them all, simply because it was basically a story told in a musical way. Our favourite picks were African Lullaby (because it’s very soothing), Lucas the lazy lion (because we love imitating ‘Lucas” ~ RawrrrrrRRrr! ) and Mafutha (because my eldest son loves elephants!).

It may have been released 6 years ago, but I feel that it’s timeless and still relevant today. The music is catchy and very easy to listen to (as opposed to the usual high-pitched kids’ music we hear nowadays). I think there’s always something magical when you can ‘hear’ for yourself the effort they’ve gone through in making children’s music, special. So, I think these guys did a fantastic job! My kids not only liked dancing to the songs, but they also learnt about the animals itself (eg : warthogs hate being clean and are omnivores, and don’t get too close to Hippos even if they seem to be very friendly looking).

About the people behind Beautiful Creatures :