Western Toys in Shanghai in 1930s

Have bought few nice pictures recently. Three pictures show Chinese kids carried Teddy Bear and another large picture ( about A2 size ) shows a lady carried an American Doll. These three pictures help me to understand what kind of western toys exported to Shanghai during 1930s to 40s.

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Simple introduction about SIMBA and Bandai

If you parents, you would often buy too many kids toys for children, however, do you know some famous toys brands in the world? What's more, do you know why these brands are so popular? Two world famous toys brands are introduced below.

SIMBA in Germany
The SIMBA was established in Germany, 1952, and now it has the largest and the most advanced production base in the whole Europe. Along with the Mercedes-Benz and BMW, SIMBA is also the  pride of the German. Nowadays, there are two advanced toys research and development center in the Hong Kong, China and Germany. All the products made by SIMBA get the certification authority in European and a variety of toys are the design of international toy awards. Domino, hula-hoop, o-yo, building blocks are the four great inventions of the SIMBA.

Bandai in Japan
Bandai is the largest toys manufacturer in Japan and also one of the argest toys manufacturers all over the world. In 1950, Bandai was established in Japan and now they have great advantage in several fields such as the animation, comics, toys. At the same time, it has lots of  portrait rights, including Mobile Suit Gundam (Gundam), Saint Seiya, masked Superman, Ultraman, Sailor Moon, Digimon and so on.

Three Common Educational Toys for Babies

Nowadays, there are too many kids toys in the toys shopping center and supermarkets, among all these kids toys, educational toys are strongly popular among children and parents because most of them are used to develop children intelligence.

Three educational toys are introduced below for parents.

Building Blocks
When babies are eight months old, they are able to know lots of items such as toys and furniture. They can feel which items are the soft one while which items are the hard one. If parents give the building blocks to them as toys, they would use their two little hands to hit against two piece of building blocks or pile them up higher and higher.

Music Box
Do you believe that all the babies love good music, when babies are 18 months old, they are able to choose their own favorite music, at the time, it is better to send the music box to them as the kids toys, children's feeling on music would be developed.

Cloth doll
When children are two years old, they have their own thinking way to express their likes and dislikes. Give the cloth doll to children, especially the girls, they would take good care of the doll. For example, wash the doll face, dress it up and even praise or blame doll.

And Now for Something Completely Different (but totally related)

I’m not going to have a Flannel Friday post this week. I’m actually hanging out for a few days in a small town a few hours from Denver, getting a little R & R, and doing a lot of reading and thinking. One of the things I’ve been thinking about a lot, and am trying to get started this week, is a second blog – one that focuses exclusively on early literacy: What it is, and how we, as librarians, caregivers, teachers, parents, and those generally interested in creating a literate society, can do to support children as they’re developing the tools to learn to read. I want to share book ideas, activities, research, information, and inspiration. Early literacy learning is something I’ve become super passionate about over the past several years as I’ve discovered how easy it is be to get children aged 0 to 5 prepared to learn to read and how important it is that we do so.  I know I share a lot of early literacy information in this blog, but it’s centered around my storytime work and there’s lots of cool stuff I DON’T share here.

I gave a speech about this very topic several years ago, and I called it “A Read Aloud Revolution.”

So, I’m ready to start this blog, but I need a name. Read Aloud Revolution is the obvious choice, but it’s taken (and a wonderful blog in its own right, about continuing to read aloud to children as they grow into their tweens and teens – almost an extension of what I’m hoping to do). So, as that’s not an option, and I don’t want to step on the toes of this fine family’s mission. Help me out, people – what should I name the blog? I want something related to the idea that reading aloud to children can change the world. I’ve saved the name “Revolution Read Aloud”, so it could be that. “Reading Aloud is Revolutionary” seems to long for a blog address. So, let me have ‘em – your best ideas, and I’ll be sure to give you credit.

All those who enjoy my Flannel Friday, storytime, and preschooler antics posts (thank you!) fear not, I do intend to keep this blog going as home to my librarian-centered stuff. The second blog will relate, but will not be focused so much on my library job. I hope it will be informative to lots of different folks.

Thanks in advance for helping a girl out!

Article Source: And Now for Something Completely Different (but totally related)

Obama Controls Sphero ball with iPhone

There is a video online that Barack Obama, the President of the United States, are using the iPhone to control the Sphero small ball, which is most popular toys recently. When playing, you can use iPhone to control other all kinds of actions. It was the scene of Obama's visit to the University of Colorado and he went to the students gathered in the streets and one of the students gave them the Sphero to him and Obama immediately operate with skilled operating.

Well, if you are not the president, you can buy this small size from the official online store, which is the 130 dollars. Of course, you would get such delicate gift from other people as gift.

Some basic principles about buying toys

As parents, do you believe that buying kids toys is not simple and it is even the science. Some basic principles are introduced below.

Firstly, buy second-hand toys for children
In daily life, almost parents are more likely to buy new toys for their children, in fact, it is better to buy some second-hand toys for them. You can choose the good toys at the flea market. As parents, you should change the toys buying thinking way.

Secondly, you should know which toys are your children favorite one
Maybe your children are good at music, or your children are more likely to draw the pictures. As parents, before buying toys, you should know your children's hobbies and interests. What's more, buying toys from the perspective of children.

Thirdly, repair the damaged toys
In daily life, most children don't cherish their toys and always damage them. Under such circumstance, parents should try your best to repair their toys. By this ways, children can feel the care and love from their parents and then they gradually know how to cherish the toys.

Fourthly, classifing kids toy well
Parents always put all the toys in the bucket, for a long time, all the toys would become the useless items because children don't know which toys are in the bucket. The smart solution is that classifing kids toy according to different characteristics and it is easy for children to get.

Bus Stop

“Bus Stop” hailed from Bowie and Reeves Gabrels’ stillborn attempt to write a musical of Steven Berkoff’s West, but the song was lively enough that they kept it in the mix for Tin Machine, on which it served as an oasis of wit and brevity. It helped that as the song pre-dated the “first take” rule, “Bus Stop” had a polished lyric, with some of Bowie’s funniest and sharpest lines in years (the “shrieking and dancing till four AM/another night of muscles and pain” could refer to a number of activities, some spiritual, others not). A young East End man tries to reconcile his skepticism about God with his lover’s fervent belief, which seems to work for her; he’s on his knees with her at the bus stop, grunts out a muffled “hallelujah” at the end of it. It’s a spiritual song that’s almost entirely centered on the body, from the feet to the grumbling stomach.

Set firmly in D major, “Bus Stop” is just three chords, two 12-bar verses and two 8-bar refrains, with a brief outro.The version cut for Tin Machine was built on a tension-release guitar riff that calls back to the Damned’s “New Rose.” With Hunt Sales again dedicated to bludgeoning his snare four times a bar, his brother mainly provides fills on bass, like the fifth-spanning arc of notes to cue the move to G major in the verse (0:30, 1:03). The song spins to an end with a brief guitar battle between Gabrels and Kevin Armstrong—Armstrong holding his ground, Gabrels trying to outflank him.

When Tin Machine went on its 1989 tour, Bowie turned “Bus Stop” into a country music parody (an apparent inspiration was Mick Jagger’s country burlesques: “Dear Doctor” and “Far Away Eyes.”)  Of all the popular music genres, country had been the one no-go zone for Bowie: the closest that he’d ever come to it was “Bars of the County Jail,” a 1965 demo, which was more an English folk ballad with a few lines borrowed from imported TV Westerns. Still, working-class British culture had had a storied relationship with country music, with the likes of Jim Reeves and Slim Whitman getting #1 albums in the UK at the height of the counterculture (Marcello Carlin recently wrote an incisive piece on a Whitman LP that hit #1 in 1976). The countrified version, while fun, slightly oversold the joke.

The original “Bus Stop” was cut ca. August 1988 at Mountain Studios, Montreux, and/or Compass Point Studios, Nassau, Bahamas, ca. November-December 1988. “Country Bus Stop” was unveiled at the Machine’s first official concert in NYC on 14 June 1989 and a live version from Paris the same month was included as a B-side of the “Tin Machine” CD single. Bowie kept the countrified “Bus Stop” around for the Machine’s 1991-1992 tour, then never played it again.

Top: “Mikey G Ottawa,” “Boom Box, Montreal, 1987.”

Article Source: Bus Stop