Giveaway: Story Starters Game from Mama May I – $25 ARV CLOSED

October 30th, 2012 by Dionna | 1 Comment
Posted in Children, Current, Eclectic Learning, Preschoolers, Reviews and Giveaways

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This is a joint giveaway between Natural Parents Network and many other natural parenting sites. You may enter for all of the giveaways at one site only. Please find the section marked “Win it!” for the mandatory entry and optional bonus entries.

Welcome to the Natural Parents Network Holiday Gift Guide!

This giveaway is part of the Natural Parents Network Holiday Gift Guide. Natural Parents Network, Code Name: Mama, and more than 20 other natural parenting bloggers are giving away 70+ items perfect for gifting for the holidays.and 24 other natural parenting bloggers are giving away 89 items perfect for gifting for the holidays as part of the Natural Parents Network Holiday Gift Guide. The combined total value of all of the items is $2,550.

Have you finished your holiday shopping? The NPN Holiday Gift Guide is a great opportunity to complete your gift-giving purchases for family and friends, while supporting many naturally-minded small businesses. The companies who have provided items for giveaway are almost exclusively made up of small and/or work at home families.

The Rafflecopter entry system will be live on this post (and at every post/site taking part in the Gift Guide) on Thursday, November 1, 2012. Until then, please visit some of the other review posts and read about the fabulous companies offering giveaways in the Natural Parents Network Holiday Gift Guide. Scroll to the bottom to see a full list of reviews and when they will be published.

Please continue reading to learn more about Mama May I, which is offering our readers a giveaway of the Story Starters Game, a value of $25.

About Mama May I

Before you read any more, just go spend a few minutes perusing Mama May I. Seriously – her work is beautiful.

Ok now that you’re back (and your shopping list is a little lighter), let me introduce you to Jessica Perkins, the mama behind Mama May I. While she’s only been a mother for four years (she has four-year-old Layla and spirited 17-month-old Lillian), Jessica says she has forever been a mother, because children and art have always been a part of her life.

Jessica has been interested in creating things for as long as she can remember. She has memories of designing things on paper and bringing them to her mom to help her turn them into real life objects.

She even commandeered classmates into realizing her artistic visions. In a childcare and development class one year, she had to plan a “birthday party.” Jessica’s project was an outer space party, and she somehow convinced her group to build an actual spaceship playhouse. It had a doorway, seats, rocket engines with crepe paper “fire” windows, a lighted computer command center with a picture of the universe, a keyboard; they left it assembled in the classroom for the preschool students to use for pretend play for the rest of the year.

When Jessica finished college, she was still searching for what she wanted to do with her life. Then she found out she and her husband were expecting their first baby. After Layla was born, Jessica began to craft things for her – to meet her developmental, psychological, and emotional needs. Friends would often suggest she sell them; eventually she did, and Mama May I was born.

Mama, Mama, May I explore?
May I dance, may I sing, may I cry?
May I roam, flap my wings,
Pretend to be king
May I dream, may I play, may I fly?

Jessica crafted this poem while fiddling around during a brainstorming session. She says the poem “is still so freshly in my mind – and still so connected to my day-to-day designing, creating, playing, and learning with my own children and my products.”

Her first products were bibs, burp cloths, and learning loveys. As her little ones grow, so does her product line. She creates new things to teach them; play with them; learn from them.

Her favorite products? She loves the little Gnome Man’s Land (to the right) and the Fairy Friends (immediately below). Jessica’s preschooler, Layla, is completely enamored with the world of pretend. Whimsical, magical, playful, friendly . . . both of these sets were made for her.

They pack up easily and offer a multitude of ways to explore at home on a rainy day or on the go. Wherever they are, Layla’s imagination lights up with story lines from their daily adventures. Jessica loves overhearing these little insights into her daughter’s world.

All of Jessica’s creations were made with her own little ones in mind. Each piece was thoughtfully designed to nurture her child’s development through open-ended play. These pieces can be used to broaden your little one’s understanding and knowledge of our world and were created as early educational toys. Jessica is inspired by the teachings of Montessori; the natural beauty of Waldorf; and she incorporates a myriad of other learning-through-play philosophies when she designs.

Jessica’s little explorers have the wonderfully engaging job of “product testers.” They are her inspiration for new products as well as her initial testing market. She does not add things to the product line that aren’t played with and loved first at home.

I encourage all of my readers to go find something to love at Mama May I. Your purchase will be supporting a fantastic work at home mama. And just for our readers, Jessica is offering a 10% off coupon from now through December 31, 2012. Use coupon code NPNHOLIDAY.

About Story Starters

If Kieran had his way, he’d curl up and listen to audiobooks just about all day, every day. Even better than audiobooks? Having me read to him or make up stories. And ever since he was old enough to talk, he was creating his own stories, too.

Lately, one of our car trip games is to make up a story together. We take turns spinning a sentence or three, and we build off of each other’s creativity. So when I saw Jessica’s Story Starters set, I knew it would be a fun addition to our storytelling props.

The directions included with the set advise players to grab a die and take turns rolling. Players create a group story, bit by bit, with inspiration from whatever pictures are rolled. You can also create stories alone by rolling all four dice.

The Story Starters set includes a nice silver tin with directions, four 1” dice – hand-stamped with non-toxic, archival black ink in a variety of pictures, a pocket Moleskine entitled: “My Little Book of Why,” a laminated Story Telling Symbol Key to help with spelling and ideas, and a miniature, tin-sized pen.

Many of the images on the dice can be interpreted to be different things. Jessica wants her toys to stimulate creative, open-ended play. She says, “My favorite part about doing craft shows is watching how the children interact with my creations. They are not bound by “sets” or “boxes” or “bags”. They take pieces from here and use them over there in completely new and ingenius ways. When left to their imaginations, children come up with pretty amazing story lines that lend themselves to a myriad of learning through play discoveries.”

And that is just what we are doing with our Story Starters set – encouraging Kieran to flex his mental powers of creativity and tell stories.

BUY IT!

You can purchase your own Story Starters set (or any of the beautiful toys pictured in this post at Mama May I. The Story Starters set is $25, plus applicable USPS flat rate shipping domestically, and the quickest affordable options for international shipments.

And just for Natural Parents Network and Code Name: Mama readers, Mama May I is giving a 10% discount on all orders from now through December 31, 2012. Enter code NPNHOLIDAY during the ordering process.

WIN IT!

For your own chance to win a Story Starters set from Mama May I, enter by leaving a comment and using our Rafflecopter system below. (Rafflecopter will be live November 1-25).

The winner will receive a Story Starter set. Contest is open WORLDWIDE.

Our Rafflecopter entry system is now open.

MANDATORY ENTRY: In the box provided in the first Rafflecopter entry, tell us where you would have your prize shipped if you are one of the winners. You must enter your name and email address while leaving a comment in the Rafflecopter system for your entry to count.

Leave a valid email address so we can contact you if you win. Email addresses in Rafflecopter are not made publicly visible. Please leave the same valid email address in your mandatory comment so we can verify entries.

This is part of a larger giveaway hosted by Natural Parents Network. You may enter the whole giveaway at one site only, and we’ll be recording IP addresses to ensure that there are no duplicate entries. That said, please do visit and enjoy all of the participating sites!

Please note that each entrant can win only one prize, and NPN will be randomly assigning prizes to the winners. One of the giveaway questions asks which are your top five prizes so we can try to match winners to their preferences.

BONUS ENTRIES:
See the Rafflecopter entry system for bonus entries to increase your chance of winning after completing the mandatory entry. All bonus entries are entered directly into Rafflecopter. Give it a try, and email sponsorship {at} naturalparentsnetwork.com or leave a comment if you have any questions!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

***

Thank you for your interest in the Natural Parents Network Gift Guide! We invite you to read the reviews of other participating bloggers and return to enter the giveaway between November 1 and 25. Many of the giveaway items are open worldwide!

Here are the participating sites and companies. (Reviews go live between October 25 and October 31, and all links will be live by November 1.) We’ve included any coupon codes the companies have offered so you can get your holiday shopping under way!

Publishing on Thursday, October 25, 2012

Publishing on Friday, October 26, 2012

Publishing on Saturday, October 27, 2012

Publishing on Sunday, October 28, 2012

Publishing on Monday, October 29, 2012

Publishing on Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Publishing on Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Disclosure: Our reviewer received a sample product
for review purposes.
Some links are affiliate links.
We try to seek out only products we think you would find
relevant and useful to your life as a natural parent.
If we don’t like a product, we won’t be recommending it to you.
See our full disclosure policy here.

One Response to:
"Giveaway: Story Starters Game from Mama May I – $25 ARV CLOSED"

  1. Kaila
    Nov-1-12 at 8:35 am

    I love the story starter!

http://www.nest.ca/


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