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This is a compensated review from BlogHer and Sonicare for Kids.

When BlogHer Ads contacted me about doing a paid review for the Philips Sonicare Toothbrush for Kids I jumped at the chance. I admit, I was a bit biased already. I bought myself a Sonicare toothbrush years ago, about 15 years (or so) ago. I love that toothbrush! It still works; the only thing I’ve had to do was buy new heads as necessary.

So this review is not about the toothbrush I bought so long ago (that still works). This review is about the new electric toothbrush they are offering for children (I have high expectations). This review was intended for children ages 4-10. I have three children that fit this age range. I thought at first I would have my almost 10 year old and my 5 year old help me with this review. That would cover both ends of the age range requested.

I thought better of that after I gave it deeper thought. More on this in a minute.

I unpacked the box and checked that everything was included. It was and I had some fun showing it to one of the children and letting her look at it first.

This toothbrush offers a fun bright color with interchangeable face plates. While the interchangeable panels would neither sell me on an item or turn me from it, the children thought it was cool. The charging unit is also removable from the base for easier traveling/packing to take to grandma’s house or a smaller space.

Now back to which children we wanted to try this toothbrush. While I though it would be great to cover both ends of the age spectrum I thought I’d give a better spin on this brush from a special needs point of view. With instructions like “Do not scrub teeth, but gently glide the brush head slowly across the teeth.” It didn’t take much thought for us to give Miss Princerella a shot at brushing her teeth completely (well almost) by herself.

Princerella brushing those front teeth all by herself.

Princerella brushing those sides and back teeth all by herself.

This children’s toothbrush comes with two brush heads, a smaller one for children 4+ years and a slightly larger one for children 7+ years. Because Princerella is a bit small for her age we opted to let Birdie use the more standard 7+ brush head and let Princerella use the 4+ head.

A non-exhaustive list of pros and cons:
Pros

• the children say the colors are a +
• the light indicators for power/charge and power mode
• the base that holds the brush heads
• and the fact that the travel charger pops out for smaller packing needs (which we hope to use next month)
• the musical tones that indicate when to switch to another area of the mouth
• automatic shut off
• smaller head for the smaller mouths

Cons

• For the smaller hands, I think this brush handle is a bit large. It would be nice if for the smaller/younger crowd it is possible to make this handle a bit shorter. I realize it may be difficult because of the rechargeable battery, but it would be nice to have a slightly shorter handle for younger children.

We’ve been using this brush for a few days now and the children love it! I must say that as a parent I love it, too. Like I said at the beginning of the post I began this review with a bias therefore with some high expectations because of my previous love of another Sonicare toothbrush. This toothbrush passed the test with flying colors and we are thrilled to have it in our home as part of our toothbrushing routine!

SURPRISE!!!

Well, it was a surprise to me. I didn’t realize that there was going to be a contest involved with this review. So I am thrilled to announce that I have the wonderful opportunity to host a drawing for a … are you ready … wait for it …
wait for it … $100 VISA GIFT CARD!! O_o I KNOW! Can you believe it? There are some rules and you MUST follow them carefully. If you do not I will be forced to disqualify you from the drawing. Sorry, but rules are rules.

To enter, leave me a comment below and tell me How do you handle your kids’ dental hygiene? – or you may leave a link to your post on your own blog in the comments below. The contest will begin at 9:00 a.m. (PST) 10/15/2009 and will end 5:00 p.m. (PST) 11/15/2009. Make sure that the e-mail address you leave is correct.

Rules:

• No duplicate comments.
• You may receive an additional entry by linking on twitter and leaving a link in the comments.
• You may receive an additional entry by blogging about this contest and leaving a link in the comments.
• This giveaway is open to US-residents, 18 years of age or older
• Winners will be selected via random draw, and will notified by e-mail.
• The winner will have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.
• Please see the official rules here: Sweepstakes Official rules

You have a total of 10 chances to win a $100 Visa gift card from BlogHer Reviewers, plus the chance to win a Sonicare prize pack on the BlogHer.com special offers page! For more information: Official site

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I’d like to thank BlogHer and Philips for the opportunity to do this review. It has been a pleasure reviewing such a great product and my children and I have had fun together with the toothbrushes.

Recently Jessica over at Balancing Everything wrote about making writing paper for her children to practice handwriting. I did that a number of years ago myself. Not being able to find exactly what I wanted for my children I got to work in my word processor and made what I wanted and I even got all happy with it and made a page for each child’s level. At that time I had three different sheets for handwriting levels. Jessica’s post reminded me of those days and that I don’t do that anymore.

Then one day I found a really cool program called StartWrite. This nifty little program allows me to create and print handwriting worksheets for them. Not only can I print worksheets for them, I can print plain paper for them as well.

Want cute graphics? Go for it! While there are some included with the program you can use your own as well, just browse to the file and choose it to add to your page. Large fonts? sure! Small Fonts? why not! Dotted fonts? Dashed fonts? Starter dots? Directional arrows? Yes. Yes. Yes. and Yes.

Let me take a list off the website itself and show you just a few things it can do.

• Choose Handwriting Fonts including Manuscript (similar to Zaner-Bloser), Manuscript-Simple (similar to Zaner-Bloser, Simplified), Modern Manuscript (similar to D’Nealian) and Italic (similar to Getty-Dubay or Portland Italic).
• Use Cursive Fonts that correspond to the above-mentioned educational fonts, for the advanced student.
• Expand Font Sizes anywhere from 1/4″ to 2″.
• Choose Shading of Fonts from Dark to Light for all levels of learners.
• Choose From Four Guide Line Options: Top, Middle, Bottom and Descender. Change any line to solid or dashed and colors to red, black or blue.
• Type dotted, dashed, or solid letters.
• Starting Dot to help in your child’s learning of letters.
• Stroke Arrows for proper letter formation.
• Clip Art Included or import your own JPG or BMP clip art to make pages fun…
• Print Worksheets on Plain Paper from your own printer–no hassle and no expensive special paper needed.
• Print in Landscape or Portrait for your convenience and creativity.
• Custom Lessons are included (or can be downloaded free from Homepage) for quick and easy lesson preparation time.
• Use Startwrite’s other Standard Word Processing Functions like cut, copy, paste, new, open, save, print, zoom, etc. for extra ease in preparation.
• Utilize 100,000-Word Spell Checker for accurate worksheet preparation.
• Save Lessons for future use to create your own curriculum in minutes, and save time and effort when repeating lessons.
• Use Spanish and Math Fonts* for even more learning potential.
• Create a Variety of Pages like phonics pages, spelling pages, a letter to a friend, scrapbook pages, etc. for more practice and fun while learning handwriting.
• And much more.

Here’s the full list of available fonts: Manuscript, New American Cursive, ManScrip2, Cursive-Simple, Modern Manuscript, Modern Cursive, Italic, Italic Cursive, PLMR, PLMR Cursive, HWOT, HWOT Cursive.

Along with each of these fonts and all the available variations for printing sheets with these fonts you can add text boxes that will utilize any font already installed on your computer. So if you want to type up some instructions for your work sheets you can use any font on your computer for that. You can even use multiple options on the same page simply by creating a new box to format. And the formatting is as easy as clicking an option button right at the top of the screen.

This program is available to both the PC and Mac markets and is currently priced at $39.95US. I bought this program a few years ago for my PC (you know, back before I was a cool kid with a MacBookPro). I e-mailed them about switching the licensing code to my Mac OS and the customer service they provide is spectacular; not only was the e-mail reply speedy, but the response was personal. I needed to follow up with a phone call for making the switch (requested by company) and Ms. C. (I did not get permission to use her name) was very courteous and helpful.

Get yourself a FREE TRIAL

The Free Trial Version of Startwrite is a Fully Functioning, Complete Program. You are allowed to use it 1 time with all the features. After the first time, then several of the letters and the Spell Checker are deactivated, but all other functions will still work.

I signed up to do reviews at ReviewMe and this is my first paid review.

The website is called withcharacterkids. For all the children out there that just love products with characters and for the parents who want to have character themed items on their baby’s gear this would be the site for you. I am personally not a big fan of so much placement of characters. I have no problems with my children having favorite characters. I just choose not to buy many items like that as my children have proved to change their minds so often with what is great today may not be great next week. Through the years with these six children of mine we’ve had many favorites; some have stood the test of time and others have gone away with the times, but they are all a part of what my children have liked. We’ve had (and have) Thomas the Tank engine and almost all his friends. Some Carter’s items and Little Einstein’s as well. Having said all those things let me just say that withcharacterkids has many other products than just the ones with characters on them. There are diaper bags, bedding, and room decor for the baby to the tween.

Being the mother of six and having gone through many baby items I have chosen to give a quick review of a diaper bag that they sell.

Hi, my name is Rae and I am a diaperbag-aholic. (Now, all together: “Hi, Rae.”)
Why would I not jump at the chance to review a diaper bag? I am reviewing the Carter’s® Easy Access Diaper Bag in Brown sold for $34.99.

First off, let me give you the details as described on their site and then we will discuss them:

• This fashionable Carter’s diaper bag made of water-resistant suede-like fabric allows convenient, effortless access to all of Mom’s and Baby’s essentials.
• Magnetic front-flap closure offers easy one-handed maneuvering.
• Hangs neatly on a stroller with loops in back pocket.
• Includes insulated bottle holder, large, coated changing pad, and plastic dirty duds pouch for easy clean-up.
• Adjustable shoulder strap with padding for additional comfort.
• Personalize the back side of the diaper bag with your child’s initials for just $6 more!

Specifications: 15″W x 11.5″H x 5.5″D

The fact that this bag is water-resistant is a major plus for any diaper bag or children’s bag. It must be able to repel at least a minimum of spills and leaks and the weather elements. I’m personally not a fan of the big flap openings, but this one has an easy one-handed opening magnetic front-flap. when carrying a baby on a hip or many bags in hand this makes it that much easier to reach in and find what you might need in a hurry. Any mom, whether the mother of one or the mother of many, can use all the extra ease possible. I love that this bag has stroller loops. I think there ought to be a law that says that every diaper bag should come with stroller loops on them to free up stroller basket storage space and the ability to get in and out of the bag while pushing a stroller easier. This bag comes with the basics now that I think most diaper bags come with: bottle holder, changing pad, and dirty duds pouch. I also really like the adjustable shoulder strap because let’s face it, mothers come in all heights and I’m on the shorter end and would need a shorter strap than my taller mothering friends.

One of my favorite details about this bag and more, about withcharacterkids, is that this diaper bag can be personalized, for an extra fee.

A little more about the site:
You can shop by product, by brand, by character, and by child’s age
shop for baby to tween
character and non-character products

I was glad to be able to offer a review of this product and this web site and that I have a new site to browse through. I love finding new things and new sites to visit.

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While I wasn’t asked to review this product I really, really like it and wish I had it for baby Bairno’s bed (as he has no special bedding, but wish he did). I may have to start saving for it. Since just before he was born I’ve been attracted to almost anything that has blues and green in it. And I love how fresh and clean it looks.

If you have a product you would like to be reviewed by bloggers follow this link and set up your account: Get Reviewed At ReviewMe!