Saturday November 9th is Neighborhood Toy Store Day and I hope you know if your favorite retailers are doing anything for the occasion. My family and I have been Beyond the Blackboard fans for years with the types of toys that we actively search for. This store, in Arvada and Southlands, is great for those looking at the world with respectful curiosity. The store was started for educators looking for teaching supplies and expanded into brain games me and other adults like to play as well as no-to-low media toys that work for my family and my kids’ friends.
For Neighborhood Toy Store Day they are offering TWENTY PERCENT OFF their inventory.
What kind of cool stuff can you buy? We popped in for a holiday preview and the entire family found something that spoke to them.
As we were leaving I turned around to see my husband snuggling a giant Squishable Comfort Food. He is now calling this his Emotional Support Piña and has found a reason to hug it most days this week.
We found some board games we really liked and played at the store including Qwirkle here and Sky Games next to it. Simple games work well for our family and for friends who come over.
The boys took have been playing with individual IQ Puzzler games all week when looking for alone time from each other
I didn’t realize how excited I was going to be for the Ooze Labs Soap and Bath Bomb Lab. The youngest and I already make bath bombs but not with a lab base and test tubes. I plopped some safety specs on the kids (to add flair) and they have self-directed three “experiments” so far. They are really recipes with some explanations of phenomena but if you do have a more rigorous science background you can easily hypothesize test with manipulated variables. This one has been a win-win for the family. The boys are self-directing with some supervision to make cosmetics, I am asking them to guess what would happen if changed the ingredient quantities, and dad is loving the coffee soap.
We found some great toys for the family and our friends to use during our afternoon at Beyond the Blackboard. Check them out on Saturday even if you do not know what you want yet. They have ages and stages recommendations along with what toy types. Here is a link to strategy toys for teens and adults for example. We also love this store because we do not feel confined to gendered ideas of toys. It is our source for play wrapped around respectful curiosity. And they are our neighborhood toy store, thus we have popped in for birthday gifts for friends for years.
