September, 2010

 Hi, Everyone!

August passed by me in an absolute blur!  Wow!  Our back-to-school season is usually our busiest time and I’ve been ordering product since March!!!  But there is no way … absolutely NO way I could have predicted the influx of new customers who visited us this summer!  I understand some of you may be crushed that your very close & convenient Holcombe’s has closed, but we are all very glad to have you here with us now.  So, welcome to you!  Grab a cold glass of your favorite beverage and spend a few minutes with me while I tell you what’s new at The Thinking Cap!

If you’ve been here in the last 2 weeks, you’ve seen a lot of empty hooks everywhere.  I’ve been writing reorders during every spare moment and some of the shipments are starting to roll in already.  We are currently well stocked in fall leaves, pumpkins and candy corn decoratives, just to name a few!  (Mmmmmm … I can smell the hot apple cider already!)  And more are coming very shortly!  Please trust that we are doing our level best to restock and refill all those empty slots!

Our calendar for Family Game Nights is also filling up fast.  If this is something you and your PTO, administration, church, or organization is considering, I urge you to contact us as soon as possible.  If you need more information on how the Game Nights run, just call (724-282-1173) or email me (thetcap@zoominternet.net).  It’s a lot of fun and the kids absolutely LOVE the one on one time they get when they sit down to a game.  Our program also ties in well with Title I directives for parent involvement.

And while I’m on the subject of games, let me point out a couple of new ones that I am very excited about!  Check out Math Mart by Edupress!  When I first saw the game, I assumed it was a game to reinforce Money skills.  Ooooh, so wrong!  The game comes in two grade levels and will engage 2 – 8 players, making it perfect for school AND home!  Math Mart for Gr 2-3 covers all four operations, plus Time, Money, Graphing, and Fractions.  Math Mart for Gr 4-5 covers all four operations plus Decimals, Graphing, Algebra, and Geometry.  Each card has a monetary valuation on the back of it – quarter cards are less difficult than 50cent cards that are less difficult than the $1 cards.  Players choose a card to answer by it’s value and if answered correctly, they “win” that amount of money.  Play to $5, play to $10.  Your choice, depending on how much time you have to play.  Simple directions and curriculum based questions make this game a winner!

We’ve always love Jingo games!  The seasonal ones are most popular with room mothers when it’s party time!  But there’s some new Jingos in the mix.  As long as we’ve sold Jingos there’s been a Math Jingo.  The set includes 30 bingo-type cards with math symbols and terminology on them.  Instead of calling out “Plus sign” for the players to find, the teacher/leader will have a clue card to read and the players must find the object on the playing cards that they think goes with that clue and then cover that with a marker (not included.)  But now here comes Math Vocabulary for Primary Grades and Intermediate Grades!!!  There’s also a Jingo for Telling Time, Money, Calendar, Library Books, and so much more!  Come take a look at all of them!  (And Halloween Jingo is already in-stock!!)

This summer I have stopped just short of guaranteeing the stick-tivity of Mavalus tape!  We have made believers of so many of you!  I have to admit, we have had just 3 customers who have returned and said it wasn’t the greatest thing since sliced bread, but when you consider how many have come back for MORE Mavalus tape, I still feel pretty secure (no pun intended) in telling you it IS the greatest tape on the market for hanging up all your decoratives and posters.  It was developed specifically for cinder block walls, will not peel off paint, and does not leave a sticky residue.  It truly is Maaaavalus!  (And I always feel so stupid saying the name, but I didn’t name it!)  We have one teacher in particular who swears she’s had the same posters hanging on her walls for 3 years without falling down!  Honest!  If your decorations are on the floor every morning when you come in, give this tape a try.  What have you got to lose?

Just in time for Back-to-School, we received the long-awaited, big release for Playmobil this year … the Schoolhouse!  The set comes with everything your child(ren) needs for hours & hours of imaginary play including, a working recess bell, chalkboard, and moveable hands on the classroom clock.  Additional pieces include a gymnasium, cafeteria, and school crossing guard!

Recently, Beth said one of her boys was having monster issues.  Monsters and things that go bump in the night.  I told her to take a peek into a recent shipment from Rich Frog of Anti-Monster Flashlights!  Hahahahaha  These are the cutest blue (or pink), hand-held flashlights with a picture of a friendly monster on the front for searching out these critters under beds and in closets.  We all know that any self-respecting monster takes to the hills when a light comes on!  We’ve also stocked some firefly lights for those autumn evenings on the front porch or the last few camping weekends.

Beth also has a baby under a year old.  When the Indestructibles came in, we asked her to be our test market.  If Bryson loved them, that’d be good enough for us!  Not only did he wave it about, but he slobbered all over it, and balled it up to the best of his 7 month old abilities!  And it still looks great! These books are marketed thru Workman Publishing, but were invented by a mother of triplets who wanted to share her love of books with her children, worry-free.  The books are tear-resistant, washable, and pretty much all ‘round baby-proof!  Big bright pictures on every page, but NO text.  (Beth said Bryson was totally enthralled by the pictures!)  Share the book with your child and talk about what you see in each picture, or make up a story to include all of the pages.  Make it different everytime, or find the same things over and over.  The available titles also include 3 nursery rhymes … Mary Had a Little Lamb, Humpty Dumpty, and Hey Diddle, Diddle.  Again, there’s NO text, so you are free to tell the story behind Humpty Dumpty as he falls off the Great Wall of China, and that crazy cat who plays the fiddle in New Orleans!  Not your ordinary Mother Goose Rhymes for sure!  The shipment of these books came in the end of July and already I need to reorder!  There’s still a few left … come take a peek!

Don’t forget the Argus Poster sale is still going on through the 4^th of September.  Buy any 2 Argus posters, get one FREE!  This is a once-a-year sale, but when it’s done, it’s done.

Same with our Melissa & Doug floor puzzle sale … buy 2 get one FREE through the 4^th of September.

Please keep in mind that we will be closed on Monday, the 6^th for Labor Day.  Labor Day for me has always marked the end of summer.  I hope all of you have had a wonderfully relaxing summer and that you get to spend at least one day of the Labor Day weekend with family and friends.  I’m off to Charlotte to spend some much needed down time with 2 of the cutest little boys God ever created … our Grandsons!  Hahahaha  I’m not at all prejudiced, now am I????

Hope to see you all again soon!

Carol

PS:  For those of you who may be new to us … if you happen to call the store and you get the answering machine, it means we are with another customer.  Please leave us a message and we’ll call you back during our next free minute.  Promise!