***Giveaway closed– and the winner is Heather R.  Congratulations, Heather!  Please check your email and respond within 48 hours or a new winner will be chosen.***

When searching for learning toys, one of my “go to” place is Learning Resources. I absolutely love the fun, bright, colorful products offered by the Learning Resources site, all aimed at helping you help your little one learn.

Since we are working on ABC’s and 123’s, as well as sorting, I was absolutely delighted when I learned that I would be able to review the Let’s Tackle Kindergarten tackle box. The thing that first drew me to it was the pet counters, which are washable, soft plastic animals that can be used for sorting, patterning, counting, color identification.  The pet counters are 1 1/4″ and the Let’s Tackle Kindergarten kit has 16 of them in it.  Of course, this kit has stacking cups, a write and wipe board, attribute blocks that can be used for patterning, foam dice, plastic links, and much much more.

Let’s Tackle Kindergarten™

Ages 3-6

The tackle box is packed with fun activities that help prepare your child for early success in school.

Engages kids in practicing 10 key kindergarten readiness skills: social skills, personal well-being, listening and speaking, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, reading, handwriting, math, thinking and problem solving, and creativity

Features appealing hands-on activities, that ease the transition to learning different skills and subjects in school

Allows you to track and reward progress using the checklist included in the 24-page Activity Book

Includes 10 double-sided photo cards, 4 stacking cups, 60 plastic links, bean bag, 2 foam dot dice, 8 attribute blocks, 26 uppercase letters, 26 lowercase letters, 20 numbers, 16 pet counters, write & wipe board and 2 sticker sheets

Plastic tackle box with sorting tray and carrying handle measures 13″L x 7″W x 6″H

Ages 3+

I’ve read that having your children tell stories about the pictures they see helps them get ready to read.  So, when we show the double sided photo cards to Mister, we ask him to tell us what is going on in the picture.  You should see how animated he gets when he talks about the soccer picture.

We use the stacking cups and the pet counters to play a sorting and counting game, which Sister is able to join as well.  She can count to three, then starts throwing in random numbers.

I found that while Mister does like the plastic links, he doesn’t quite have the fine motor skills to link them on his own.  Either that, or the ouchies that he gets on his fingers from the Hay Wells Syndrome prevents him from manipulating them.

Buy it… The Let’s Tackle Kindergarten retails for $44.95 and is available at http://www.learningresources.com and on Amazon.com.It is currently on sale on Amazon for $26.32, which is 41% off!

This set really is a sound investment in your child’s learning future, and at that price, you get a lot of bang for your buck!

Learning Resources also has a Pretend & Play® School Set with US Map that we have on our list.

Packed with 149 must-have supplies, our School Set earns an A+ in imaginative play.

Features everything kids need for the ultimate pretend classroom, including grade book, stickers, hall passes, clock, bell, dry-erase board, Hand Pointer, crayons, double-sided calendar, double-sided map and much more

Encourages school readiness and conversations about going to school that help reduce first-day jitters

Includes storage pocket to hold supplies

Folds for storage when play is finished

Nylon tri-fold measures 38″L x 16″H

Ages 3-9

I haven’t added it to our learning supplies yet is because I can just see Mister and Sister poking each other in they eye with the Hand Pointer.  LOL.

Win It… Learning Resources would like to give one lucky Lady V dZine reader a Pretend & Play School Set with US Map.

Mandatory entry… simply visit Learning Resources and comment back her telling me another item you would like to own.

***Please note- this must be done before any bonus entries will count***

Bonus entries–

• +1-  Follow me on GFC—right side bar, comment with your user name.
• +1-  Like Lady V dZine on Facebook and comment back here with your screen name.
• +1-  Subscribe to Lady V dZine by RSS or email and comment back with the e-mail you signed up with (one each)
• +1-  Follow Lady V dZine on Twitter AND tweet this contest using @ladyvdzine and linking back to this post- comment with your tweet status (may be done up to 4x/day, at least 30 minutes apart)
  • May use “#win Pretend &Play School Set at @ladyvdzine (12/02) http://goo.gl/Cu3Lc @LearningHandsOn #preschool #giveaway #Christmas #homeschool”
• +1- Like Learning Resources on Facebook and comment back with your screen name.
• +1-  Follow Learning Resources on Twitter and comment back with your profile name.
• +1-  Share this giveaway on your Facebook page and comment back with a link to the share (may be done 1x/day).
• +1-  For each current giveaway that you enter- comment with name of giveaway
• +1-  For each non-giveaway post that you submit to StumbleUpon *may use the button in the top/bottom of each post to submit- comment back with your Stumble Upon profile and name of the post you submitted.
• +1-  For each non-giveaway post that you leave a RELEVANT comment on- comment back with post title or link to post.
• +5-  Blog this contest linking to this post- leave 5 comments here with a link to your post

The fine print…

Contest open to US addresses..  Contest ends at 11:59 a.m. CST on 12/02/2010.  Winner will be selected randomly.  Winner will be notified by email and will have 48 hours to respond with mailing address.  If no response is received from the winning entrant, a new winner will be selected.  Prize will be forfeited and donated to charity if not claimed by primary or alternate winners.

The fine folks at Learning Resources provided me with the Let’s Tackle Kindergarten set to facilitate this review.  No other compensation was received.  All opinions express are 100% my own and are based on my own experience.  Your experience may differ.