“Argh, argh, argh…” – Tim Allen in his iconic role as Tim ‘The Tool Man’ Tayor

Today’s paid guest post article comes from Allen Michael, the founder and editor of Saws Hub, who shares some great information about ways to introduce your child to tools and teach tool safety.

Some of the best memories that I have as a kid are working with my dad on a project and using tools and seeing the work that we have done take shape in things like a bird house, fixing my bike together, or putting something together that requires tools. Introducing your children to tools doesn’t have to be scary or dangerous, but it should be done with their safety in mind. This is a great post to get your kids started while sharing your your experience with them to make life-long memories while putting in a little bit of elbow grease into something you can say you worked on with your kids. You built it/put it together with your kids. You’ll be surprised what kind of memories your children will latch onto. This could be one of them.

Thanks for the great article, Allen.

Enjoy.
– Will

Reasons why buying a home appliance warranty is worth it…

Today’s guest post article comes from Richard O’Neill, content writer at Everythingbreaks.com, Consumer Electronic Warranty Provider Company, which also offers Appliance Extended Warranty, who shares some great information about why a home appliance warranty is worth purchasing.

Personally, I have always used the convention that if I can easily afford to replace the appliance, I avoid picking up the warranty. However, if it is a big ticket item, like a washer, dryer or refrigerator, it is a no brainer. I recently had to use my home appliance warranty form my General Electric (GE) Profile refrigerator. It was in the last month of the warranty. I paid nothing for the repair and it would have cost upwards of $700+ to fix a broken fan and computer board to fix the refrigerator to have the repair diagnosed, for parts and labor. It saved our family’s budget that month and I couldn’t be more glad that our family picked it up at the time when we purchased the refrigerator. However, if you didn’t pick up the extended service plan at the time of purchase a home appliance warranty is a good alternative and you can pick one up anytime when you own the appliance. Appliances breaking down due to use is inevitable. Are you ready for the time when that happens? Be ready by learning more about home appliance warranties and how they can save you boat loads of money in the long run.

Enjoy.
– Will

When it comes to storing chemicals at home… Know your role and keep your children safe.

Today’s guest post article comes from Lynn Place, Vice President of Marketing for SolvChem Custom Packaging Division, who shares a great infographic on the topic of household chemical storage. Properly storing and securing chemicals in your home and keeping them out of the hands of children is very important and must not be an after thought. As a parent, I couldn’t agree more.

What to do if you or your children are exposed to a household chemical or poison

If you or someone in your home is exposed to poisonous chemicals, please call the Poison Help Line at 1-800-222-1222 or visit PoisonHelp.org.

We’re going dental…

Today’s guest post article falls on the topic of your dental health and it comes from Clarence Rivera who writes on the topic of overbite and its effect to your oral health. As we all have teeth and with all of the recent advances in mail order dental alignment, this article makes sense for us to share it; even with parents who may have an overbite themselves. Thank you for the guest post, Clarence.

Enjoy.
– Will

Know your teeth: Overbit and its effect to your oral health

An overbite is a malocclusion or misalignment of the teeth, and it is when your upper rows of teeth cover the lower rows of your teeth, especially the front. For you to have a beautiful smile and excellent oral health, both your upper and lower jaws have to meet evenly.

However, it does not mean that both your upper and lower rows of teeth have to be perfectly even. The upper rows of your teeth should slightly overlap the lower rows of your teeth. Your teeth should then easily fit inside your mouth without any tooth sticking out of another.

The essential functions of your teeth won’t be able to perform its best if your teeth are not properly aligned. Here are the oral health problems that an overbite might cause if you ignore them.

What else do I have to know about overbite?

An overbite doesn’t necessarily mean that you upper rows of teeth extend abnormally over your lower teeth. Minor overbites are the most common type of misalignment of teeth. On the other hand, there are also overbites with an excessive overlapping degree of about 4 to 10 millimeters.

Severe overbites are caused by genetics, misaligned bites, poorly fitted crowns, gum disease, a recessive chin, or a result of an injury. Also, there are cases in which the direction of the growth of the teeth come out in an awkward way.

Don’t panic if you see that your child has a slight overbite because that’s normal. The shape of our skulls will naturally allow the upper jaw to extend beyond the lower jaw. Moreover, you could have your dentist or orthodontist to measure your overbite and underbite. That will make sure if there is any misalignment.

Effects of overbite to your oral health

Overbites can be easily treated with conventional methods. It is even easier to fix in young children. There will always be time to fix the issues of overbites if the patient wills it. In line with this, here are the problems overbites can cause to your oral health.

Tooth Decay
Your teeth have a higher risk of decaying even with proper dental care if you have an overbite. The reason for the higher risk of tooth decay is because your teeth are constantly rubbing against each other, which wears down the protective coat called enamel.

If the overbite weren’t present, your teeth wouldn’t usually rub against each other. Further, tooth sensitivity in the areas with the worn down enamel and tooth decay also won’t be possible. Having overbites can also be the reason for cavities.

Gum Disease
Gum disease is caused by the teeth hitting the gum tissues when they’re not supposed to. Because of overbites, the back of the upper teeth may hit the gum tissues of the lower teeth. As a result, you won’t only be getting gum damage and inflammation, but can further lead to gum disease.

It was estimated that as much as 50% of Americans have gum disease. Although the majority of the percentage is for adults, children could still get gum disease because of overbites, despite it being a rare case on children.

How cute are these free printable origami bookmarks for kids?

Today’s guest post article is a bit different from our usual commitment to sharing great information for families of young children. Today, Marielle Lea and Katie Santos from PersonalCreations.com reached out and asked if we could share these free printable origami bookmarks for kids with our audience and after taking a look, how could we resist? These free printable origami bookmarks for kids are so incredibly cute that we were really excited to share them with you, our readers. As luck would have it, there is also an Easter set, so it could make for a great arts and crafts project with your kids this weekend, being that Easter is tomorrow. Our kids already picked out which ones they want to do and we can’t wait to see how they turn out. If you end up trying out one of these free printable origami bookmarks for kids, please share with us on Twitter or Facebook and we would love to add to the collection of results here on this post. Marielle and Katie, thank you for the great post and contribution to Windy Pinwheel.

Enjoy.
– Will

Free printable origami bookmarks for kids

Whether you have a little one with their nose forever buried in a book or a kiddo who would rather not go anywhere near one, encouraging children to enjoy reading is crucial for their development of good literacy and problem-solving skills.

To help get kids reading (and have fun doing it), Personal Creations has printables to make origami bookmarks. These little bookmarks are easy to make and so much fun to use when reading a good book! With everything from kitty cats to superheroes, there’s a bookmark for kids of all ages to enjoy!

Get LEGOs at a significantly reduced prices at Bricks & Minifigs

If you have a child that loves building with LEGOs or Duplo bricks toys, then Bricks & Minifigs is an absolute must location to visit in south Reno at 18180 wedge pkwy suite 1, Reno, NV 89511.

Located near Galena High School on the south end of town off Mt. Rose Highway, in the same shopping center as Bully’s Sports Bar and Raley’s, sits a quaint little shop known as Bricks & Minifigs. Technically, it is a franchised store, but boy, this store has a local flair and vibe where you can’t tell that it is a franchise.

My son and I visit this location frequently, sometimes once or twice per month. The employees know us, almost by name at this point. In fact, we had my son’s 7th birthday party there earlier in November 2017 as well.

Bricks & Minifigs has just about everything a lover of all things LEGO could ask for besides the amusement park and water park attractions that come with a visit to Legoland in California. Bricks & Minifigs has pre-built sets covering everything from Star Wars to Scooby Doo and everything in between. They also have other boxed sets that are both new, used and discontinued that you might not find anywhere else. Most people would claim that LEGOs are geared towards boys, but they also have sets that a girl would like too. My 9 year-old daughter especially likes to get a new minifig under their glass counter each time we visit. It’s just something that comes with the territory when visiting Bricks & Minifigs

Bricks & Minifigs has open bins where you can fill a bag of miscellaneous LEGOs for anywhere between $15 to $50, depending on the size of the container if you’re not interested in getting a set (what I call building with instructions). When sifting through these bins, you may be able to find missing pieces to your own sets or enough to let a young child’s imagination run wild with pieces that can make just about anything. They also have pre-assembled minfigs that are in plastic clear balls and open bins to assemble a truly custom minifig that is as unique as the child assembling it. Even further, there are open bins with rubber tires for those wheels that are missing their treads and mini-sets in bags that you can pick up and keep in a purse or bag while out and about, such as a restaurant to keep your kids entertained when the kids’ menu and crayons don’t seem to do the trick any longer and you don’t want to necessarily give them your iPhone to play with at the table.

Beyond that, there are LEGO Dimensions characters there too from the Simpsons to Lord of the Rings and more, in boxes as sets where you can build the minifig that comes with a vehicle or gadget. But that isn’t the real reason why I am mentioning LEGO Dimensions.

Beetlejuice Fun Pack game play: It’s ShowTime!

For those who don’t know, LEGO Dimensions (view the wiki devoted to the game) is a video game where you can assemble a character and their vehicle/gadget and use it in a video game by putting them on a pad and putting their pad on the “Dimensions” portal. The “Dimensions” portal is a pad that connects via a USB cable to an XBox One, PS3 or PS4 where the character joins the game and unlocks their world. Some of my favorite characters to play as are Beetlejuice, the Goonies, E.T., The Powerpuff Girls, Slimer from the Ghostbusters and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, Finn the Human from Adventure Time, and a couple of others. The ones I am still working to get for the game are Ethan Hunt from Mission Impossible, Gizmo and Stripe from Gremlins, Knight Rider and the new, 2016 version of Ghostbusters (Abby Yates is the buildable character) and the LEGO Batman Movie Story Pack.

These characters are able to travel from world to world and mostly the game is a bunch of puzzles that unlock gold bricks that you can use to upgrade their vehicles/gadgets to enhance the gameplay. I really enjoy the game because it isn’t all too violent (there are times when there are bad guys you need to defeat to get a gold brick) and they also have different kinds of packs. From Fun Packs and Team Packs (where you get to play around in the worlds) to Level Packs where it unlocks a level to play in that is themed for the character that contributes to the game’s storyline that is rather engaging. The most fun I had playing a level is the Dr. Who Level Pack. That one was really long and a lot of fun with their puzzles and taking the TARDIS to different chronological eras and times, and locations on Earth and in outer space.

LEGO Dimensions game play with Buttercup and other Powerpuff Girls

Psst… Come here. I want to tell you a little secret about Bricks & Minifigs

Now, here is where I let you in on a little secret. At Bricks & Minifigs, they also have just the LEGO Dimensions character game pads for anywhere from $1 to $2 each. No character, no vehicle/gadget, just the game pad. This was a game changer, literally, when my son and I found out they had these pads, becuase it expanded our gameplay exponentially. In fact, just this weekend, we picked up Bubbles and Blossom from the Powerpuff Girls universe for $8 total where it would have been $24.99 (at the time of writing this article) on this site/via Amazon.com. They don’t have every single character’s game pad in stock, but if you’re like me and lucky enough to puruse the bins of game pads and recognize one you don’t already have, you can pick it up for a fraction of what it costs to buy it as a full pack at retail. Through this method, I was able to pick up Marty McFly from Back to the Future, Dr. Who, Homer Simpson, the Lord of the Rings characters, Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, the Powerpuff Girls as I mentioned above and many more.

However, even more telling of this story, I seem to spend way too much money at this store every single time we visit. Black Friday, this past Friday was especially dangerous for us as a family financially. We walked away with some great deals, including a free minifig (sorry R2-D2! He was eaten by the dog, so we lost one of our two that the kids got for free within minutes of coming home; I guess that is the nature of a 1 year-old Chessapeake Bay Retriever for you).

Here I am, rambling on… Let’s continue, shall we.

Goonies Level Pack game play: Hey, you guuuys!

Did you say Bricks & Minifigs hosts birthday parties, too?

Yep. My son, as soon as he set foot in that store and found out that they have birthday parties, immediately begged for his next birthday party to take place at Bricks & Minifigs. Who are we to deny our middle child who wants nothing more than to play with LEGOs and play video games about LEGOs all day long? He even wears clothes with LEGOs on them too.

The birthday party accommodations included:

• Time to build special LEGO cars to race down the track;
• The opportunity for every kid to build a minifig to take home with them;
• A movie playing in the background, my son chose the LEGO Movie;
• A Bricks & Minifigs t-shirt with a minifig body where the head is the child’s head out of the shirt;
• Bricks & Minifigs supplied the plates, napkins and decorations, we just had to show up with the cake, drinks, and pizza; and
• The best part, lasting memories and the happiness of a son who wanted to have his birthday party here for so long.

All-in-all, my son and most notibly my wife, really enjoyed the affair. I did too. We didn’t have to clean up anything. Bricks & Minifigs staff took care of cleaning up after the party. We were able to be in the party room for 1 and a half hours too! That was a real bonus. It didn’t feel rushed between activities. They were really laid back in their approach to handling the birthday party.

I used to work at Fun Quest, when it was still the Reno Hilton in the late 90’s – early 2000’s (does that date me?) and I know a thing or two about making a successful birthday party happen. Bricks & Minifigs staff really know what they are doing when it comes to birthday parties.

Well, that is pretty much all I have to say about this family-friendly store. Although, if you let me, I can keep going, I’m sure. If you’re looking for more information about Bricks & Minifigs, please check out some Bricks & Minifigs reviews on Yelp or stop by to see this fantastic store for yourself and tell them you heard about the store on Windy Pinwheel.

As always, thanks for stopping by Windy Pinwheel.

Where: 18180 wedge pkwy suite 1, Reno, NV 89511

What: Bricks & Minifigs, (what I like to call a LEGO lover’s paradise)

Need to know: They accept all major credit cards, host birthday parties, LEGO sets in the box or in open bins including minifigs (mini-figures), LEGO tires, small and large sets for any price point you are seeking to spend.

Extra Extra: Ask to take a look at their LEGO Dimensions game pads. Bricks & Minifigs sells them for $1 – $2 depending on the kind of gamepad to find those characters you don’t yet have or don’t need the set to play.

Website/Contact Information: (775) 501-5364, 18180 wedge pkwy suite 1, Reno, NV 89511, https://bricksandminifigs.com/store/reno-nevada/ or reno@bricksandminifigs.com

Hours: Monday – Tuesday (10AM – 6PM), Wednesday (closed), Thursday – Saturday (10AM – 6PM) and Sunday (11AM – 5PM)

Learn about 5 of the best iPhone 8 apps for kids

Today’s guest post comes to us from James Barret of ApplePit.com, and he shares 5 of the best iPhone 8 apps for kids. James writes about some games you may have heard of, like Pokémon Go and some you might not have heard of like Sago Mini Road Trip. Overall, James covers a wide breadth of iOS apps for children of all abilities and ages.

After you’re done reading James’ article, please take a look at some of the iPhone apps we have reviewed, here at Windy Pinwheel.

Thanks for the great article, James!

Enjoy.
– Will

5 best iPhone 8 apps for kids

Kids love to play games and some of the most entertaining apps out there for iPhone users. And, when it comes to your iPhone 8 apps arsenal for your kids, it’s not just the games that can entertain your kids. In fact, there are many game-like apps out there that are also learning apps that your kid can spend good time with. So, without wasting any time, lets dive straight into exploring some of the best iPhone 8 apps for kids that you can download on your new iPhone 8 to help your toddler grow and develop both hand-eye coordination skills as well as getting educated by the app at the same time.

Pokémon Go

Pokémon Go is a simple idea that still feels brilliant and has taken the gaming world by storm. Even after an entire year since its launch, the app still retains around 65 million users from all over the world. Catching extra Pokémon combined with some special events are what that keep the children spell bound and they never seem to leave their iPhone when searching for the next Pokéstop. It’s quite an encouragement for them to get up off the couch and walk around to different locations in the real-world and catch Pokémon while collecting things from the Pokéstops and battling in the gyms.

Even though there are certain safety concerns, like watching where someone is going, especially near busy streets and intersections, but Pokémon Go really deserves to be accredited for bringing people outdoors. Though it is power-draining, it is also quite addictive. Just remember not to download it if you’re not ready to take the kids to some local park or just about everywhere for catching those pocket monsters. "Gotta catch ’em all," right?

Toca Life: Vacation

Coming from Toca Life family of games, the app is another digital playset which allows your kids to pretend that they are going on a vacation. They can use main screen as their navigation tool and allows your kids to tap the place they’d like playing on like the beach, the hotel, the airport, etc.

Everything that appears on the screen is interactive. You can open the suitcases to rearrange the contents inside, dress up different characters using the clothes from the shops, and can also accessorize them as well.

YouTube Kids

Next in our list of best iPhone 8 apps for kids is YouTube Kids. As we all might have seen, kids really love watching videos – from cartoons to everything else – on YouTube. And, when they start watching something on YouTube, it’s really hard to get them to do something else as they keep playing videos one after the other and to keep entertaining themselves. However, everything available on YouTube today isn’t suitable for many kids to watch. Therefore, Google has now come up with a child-friendly YouTube version that comes with a simple interface and filters out everything not worthwhile for your kids to watch.

You’ll find that you won’t need to ask your child every 5 minutes what they are watching, knowing they are watching videos that are suitable for them and other children.

Sago Mini Road Trip

Sago Mini Road Trip is a specifically designed app for your toddler or kids between ages 2 to 5. It mimics the exciting road trip experience for your kids and lets them have all the fun. Within the app, your kids can enjoy packing their suitcases, select a car for the trip, and stop en route to have their car washed and getting their gas tank filled. A total of six destinations are there, but only three of them appear at a time. No driving rules are in place and your kids can enjoy their app simply by picking up their car and heading to the destination.

Forestry

Our final iPhone 8 app in our best iPhone 8 apps for kids list is Forestry. Forestry is an iOS-only app that allows your kids to play some educational and funny mini-games. Within the app, kids have to help out people living in the forest in building their house, gathering food, enjoying swimming, picking up those sweet berries and preparing for sleep. It’s one of the games that can help your kid have a learning experience as it serves as their attention and memory trainer as well.

So, if you are having a hard time picking up some of the best iOS games and apps for your kids, just cut the hassle and pick a couple from the above mentioned list of best iPhone 8 apps for kids. Believe it, your kid will have some amazing time playing these wonderful games.

About the Guest Post Author

James Barrett is a passionate writer who writes mostly about tech with a focus on Apple’s products, news and reviews. Currently, he’s a contributing author at ApplePit.com.

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