Bernadette1: Lensography

When I started my Squidoo adventure, I was a brand new mother, and concerned about lead paint in toys (more about that below). These days, my child is past the age of putting toys in her mouth, so I am looking for high quality educational toys and am concerned with early education while letting kids remain kids.

You may think this is no big deal, yet when we go skating (something we do as a family, and I wrote about the experience and our wonderful skating coach), we see plenty of kids being bribed or browbeaten into training as if they were professional athletes. Give me a break, these are 4 year old kids. Let them be kids for a while longer.

The same approach is rampant in kindergartens and preschools - why would anybody teach a 5 year old to read and write? Sitting still and fighting with letters and words, why? At that age, they need to be running around, playing, jumping, chasing frogs and birds, and discovering the world around them. It's great for parents to read to their kids, but forcing kids to read and write at such an early age is not a good thing.

When my child was born I 'd become crazy about babies (I am also crazy about Macs), toys, early education etc. I started my adventure with Squidoo building 1000 Toys NOT Made in China , Baby Toys NOT Made in China and Best Toys Made in the USA.

I have found tons of great toys made in USA and Europe and and put them into my shops Toys Made in Europe and American Made Toys

These days, I am adding lenses about toys that help kids develop skills - manual, creativity, social skills - it's amazing how much kids learn during the first few years of their lives. Will be writing more on education and parenting as well.