The Sapporo Snow Festival - A World of Fascinating Snowmen

Most children who live where it snows enjoy building a snowman. In Sapporo, in Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, snowmen come in all shapes and sizes, and it's adults who do the building. Some of these creations weigh over a thousand tons, and are breathtaking in their artistic detail. There also are snow creatures, snow gods, snow houses, pagodas and castles -- a virtual world modeled in snow!

It is a short-lived world, just seven days in late January or early to mid-February. Then all the models are reduced back to snow.

The Sapporo Snow Festival, (Sapporo Yuki Matsuri), is the biggest in Japan. Though Sapporo is a little less than one hundred and fifty years old, it has blossomed into a bustling metropolis of 1.75 million people, and is now Japan's fifth-largest city. One snow model depicted "Sapporo's One-Millionth Citizen" as a bleary-eyed individual with just two bottom teeth. Not a very flattering image of the Sapporo residents!

Annually the show attracts around 2 million visitors.

Sapporo was designed with the aid of British and American town planners, it has wide, straight boulevards, and a 330-foot-wide park runs east and west through the center of the city. This is lined with lilac and acacia trees, which blend with green lawns and colorful beds of flowers in summer. However, it is a contrast in white in wintertime, and especially during the festival in snow.

This festival dates from about 1950. To brighten the drudgery of the north's long winter, the children were organized to build snow models, for fun and exercise. As the festival grew larger, the city fathers saw big possibilities in using it to popularize Sapporo. The festival is now huge.

A solid snow platform is constructed for each exhibit, and wooden scaffoldings are anchored into this base. These must be sturdy, as a thousand-ton avalanche of snow and ice can be dangerous to the viewer!

During the seven day festival, Sapporo is transformed into a glittering fairytale land of snow and ice sculptures large and small.

For the 1970 exhibition, ancient history was represented in a beautifully carved representation, forty-five feet high and one hundred feet broad, of the Abu-Simbel Rock Temple of Egypt, said to have been built by Ramses II in celebration of his conquest of the Sudan. This was complete with pharaohs, winged lions and hieroglyphics.

Modern history was featured at another exhibition site, where the visitor could make his 'first big steps' among craters of the moon, but with feet crunching snow instead of moon dust. Alongside, two snowman astronauts, a snow lunar module and a snow Apollo 11 rocket lent realism to the scene.

More recently, in 2004, there were statues of Hideki Matsui, the famous baseball player who plays for the New York Yankees.

Odori Park - Sapporo's central park & playground hosts the artistic snow sculptures, the festival launch, and much of the live music and other entertainment. This section is open all day and illuminated each night. Two other sites are in use also - the Susukino site and the Satoland site.

What is the weather like?

It is very cold. Unless the weather is unusually warm expect it to be below freezing. Snowstorms are not uncommon. If you visit you're very likely to spend a great deal of time outdoors, so layer your clothing. Consider thermal underwear and take gloves or mittens, a warm hat, and a hooded jacket. For your feet you need something which will keep the cold and water out, so boots are likely to be the best option.

In 2009, the Snow Festival will be held from February 5 through February 11, 2009.

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What Is The Best Age To Introduce A Child To Electronic Educational Toys?

When searching for a new toy for your child, you may experience a bit of sensory overload when walking through the toy department. There are all kinds of colors screaming at you with huge numbers and letters to accompany them. However, there are more than just colors and numbers getting your attention. There are also lights, sounds, and talking toys. If the kids are with you, they are really excited and decide it is time to turn on every single toy that makes noise so that they can hear them chiming, ringing, singing, and beeping all at the same time. Obviously the kids know how to operate these toys, which means they have been introduced to them at one time or another. So what is the right time to introduce a child to electronic educational toys?

We see them everywhere for all ages. We see them for babies, toddlers, and school age kids. For babies, these toys will have very colorful buttons on them that may make animal sounds and say what the animal is or play music for them. For toddlers, the toys will say the name of an animal when the little one pushes the button or will even start teaching numbers and letters. For school age kids, they can improve their spelling and math skills in order to do better in school. The possibilities are endless, but that still brings up the debate of when a child is too young for electronic education toys. Or are they too young?

The consensus seems to be that children who are of school age should be the ones introduced to electronic educational toys. The reason for this is because children of this age are more likely to understand the different functions of the toy instead of being constantly confused as to what all it can do. For children younger than that, it is believed that non-electronic toys require more imagination. Electronic toys do teach numbers, shapes, and the alphabet, but non-electronic toys encourage creative thinking.

Also, although electronic educational toys are interactive, the interaction of non-electronic toys ties in with the concept of creative thinking. Non-electronic toys also encourage children to interact with each other, whereas electronic educational toys are primarily made for individual play. Non-electronic toys also promote physical activity.

But the good news is that by the age of 5, a child has developed many of these skills and can be introduced to electronic educational toys to help them in their studies. However, it is still beneficial to incorporate non-electronic toys into a child's life to allow them to continue using their imagination. Although the child may have an electronic educational toy, it is still beneficial to use old fashioned flash cards, alphabet blocks, refrigerator magnets, and other such toys to promote imagination and learning. One such way to promote imagination is through the use of building blocks that allow children to build things.

Yes, the electronic educational toy market is huge. There are actual consoles and so many games and educational programs that it can make a parent's head spin when walking through the toy department. Even after leaving the store, the toys that come home continue to make a parent's head spin with all of the beeping, music, and other various sounds that appeal to children. However, despite the constant noise these toys make when the kids are playing with them, when a parent hears the toy say, "Well done," "correct," or "good job," a parent can't help but have a smile on their face because they know they have a little genius on their hands.

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Educational Toys Help Kids Develop Life Skills

Educational Toys and Life Skills
Educational toys not only promote developmental skills in children. They also help children acquire and improve essential life skills. Creativity, self-confidence, independence, responsibility, and integrity can all be cultivated through the use of carefully selected educational toys.

Creativity
One hallmark of educational toys is how well they support creative, open-ended play. A tray of wooden food can inspire a child to spend a whole afternoon running a pretend restaurant or planting and harvesting crops on a pretend farm. A set of blocks can be turned into a tower, a road system, a fort, a car, or even different animals. And the possibilities for a pound of modeling clay are endless! The more time a child spends exploring all the different things a toy can become, the more developed the child's powers of imagination will be. This fosters an open-mindedness to new possibilities that will help the child think of creative and innovative solutions to any challenges he or she ends up facing as an adult.

Self-Confidence
One way to build self-confidence is through play that encourages a child to assert him or herself. Singing, performing, and acting in front of an audience all help children assert themselves both in the planning stage and during an actual performance. Children also learn to assert themselves by acting out scenarios or performing informally with peers. Open-ended toys such as musical instruments and dress-up clothes and props encourage this type of play.

Taking risks that pay off will also develop a child's self-confidence. Susan G. Solomon, author of American Playgrounds: Revitalizing Community Space, notes that "Children need a chance to take acceptable risks, learn cause and effect, make choices and see consequences. If they don't learn to take risks, we'll lose a generation of entrepreneurs and scientists."
To take such risks, children must develop powers of risk assessment and decision making so that they can be sure that the risks they plan to take are, in fact, acceptable. The act of riding and controlling large toys such as bicycles requires children to calculate physical risks. The logic needed to play certain strategy-based board games like Monopoly, chess, and checkers involves risk assessment such as whether or not to invest in a property or risk one piece for a future, greater gain.

To improve their ability to calculate risk, children should also develop their decision-making skills. Science and engineering kits can help by requiring children to use observations and directions to make decisions about how to run an experiment or build a working machine. Puzzles and building construction sets can also hone this skill.

Independence
In general, allowing children to direct their own play and be in charge of what to do during their free time helps them become more self-sufficient and resilient. In particular, certain educational toys foster skills such as problem solving, taking charge of a situation, and leadership.
One aspect of being independent is being able to solve a problem on your own. Working with a construction toy system allows a child to explore different solutions to the challenge of building various items. Logical challenges faced on your own, such as figuring out how to use a set of pattern blocks to replicate certain complicated patterns, also build problem-solving skills.

Another aspect of being independent is taking charge of a situation. This can be as simple as providing your baby with two toy choices and allowing the baby the autonomy to make his or her own decision about which to play with. Beyond that, you can also encourage the development of independence by allowing your child to direct what roles you will take on when playing with your child or letting your child be in charge of how a toy will be played with. Providing your child with open-ended play sets such as farms, fire and police stations, pirate ships, tree houses, and train stations creates a situation where your child can control what scenarios he or she will act out that day.

A third aspect of being independent is taking a leadership role. While unit blocks and communal building sets of oversized hollow wood blocks, huge foam blocks, or sturdy cardboard blocks can foster cooperation skills, they can also offer opportunities for one child to lead others in a positive way to build a specific construction that that child has in mind. Educational toys can also help children become self-motivated and self-directed so that they can lead themselves to accomplishments without always relying on outside support and affirmation.

Responsibility
To become good citizens, all children should develop a sense of personal, societal, and environmental responsibility. In general, trusting children to take good care of their toys, to play nicely with them and put them back where they belong when play is done, can begin to foster a sense of responsibility. At the most basic level, a chart such as Melissa and Doug's Magnetic Responsibility Chart can help a child keep track of his or her personal obligations. Beyond that, specific toys can develop other kinds of responsibility.

When a child is provided with an open-ended toy such as a construction set that must be assembled by the child, he or she will take on the personal responsibility of following the directions and making sure the toy is put together correctly. This will train the child to take a sense of pride and personal responsibility in any future jobs he or she is expected to do. And, when a child takes care of a doll or pretend pet, he or she also develops a sense of personal responsibility for fulfilling his or her obligations to someone else.

Role-playing of obligations can extend to creating a sense of responsibility to society. When a child pretends that he or she is a construction worker or a doctor, that child is practicing taking on adult responsibilities that must be fulfilled if people are to live together in communities. Such role-playing socializes the child and allows him or her to get used to the idea of becoming a contributing member to such a community once he or she is grown.

Finally, science kits that encourage children to study the earth can educate children about why people must take care of animals, land, resources, and so forth. Plus, toys that are crafted from sustainable materials (such as Plan Toys) or bioplastics (such as Green Toys), or designed to use recycled materials (such as the Uberstix Scavenger sets), encourage a respect for the conservation of natural resources. This in turn leads to a developed sense of responsibility for caring for the environment.

Integrity
Educational toys can also help children develop integrity. Using costumes and props to role-play situations such as customer and server can help children practice politeness and manners. Acting out scenarios such as taking care of an injured doll or animal can foster compassion and empathy. And playing competitive games fairly by taking turns and following the rules develops a child's appreciation for right and wrong.

The educational benefit of toys for child development cannot be underestimated. The childhood pursuit for play and discovery continues into adulthood. Children develop fascination about their surroundings from playing with toys and continue to pick up hobbies late into their adult life.

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Candle Buying Checklist

There are many important things to know while making your candle purchases yet not many consumers would know to look for simple information such as, are your candles clearly marked with the ingredients and warning labels? If you are making a purchase for a friend, do they prefer natural wax candles, container candles, or possibly pillars. By keeping your checklist with you while you are shopping either on line or at the store, you can write down what appeals to you or what your friend may enjoy and the next time you are ready to purchase your candles you will have it readily available.

While you have a brief moment, think about the following items that should be on your checklist:

Candle type such as container, tea light, pillar, or votive
Wax type i.e. bees wax, palm wax, paraffin wax, soy wax
Room that you want to place them
Fragrance
Where purchased
Is the candle for yourself or for a gift
Price
Occasion
Dinner candles
If purchasing candles for a romantic dinner for two, make sure you do not use fragrance candles as this will take away from the aroma of your dinner.

Using your check list will help to keep your purchase in prospective and keep you from purchasing more than you need. If you are shopping on-line and you cannot find the answers to some of the questions that you may have added to your checklist, email the owner of the e-store with your questions, I am sure they will be happy to help.

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The Benefits Of Plastic Fruit And Vegetables

Go into any toy shop and you'll almost certainly see fake food. Whether it be plastic vegetables, plastic chickens, plastic platters of dinner or plastic bananas, you'll see it scattered everywhere. Sometimes this comes in net backs, alarmingly similar to those found in supermarkets, and sometimes you can buy it as part of a bigger set - either a shop till and basket, a miniature home cooker complete with plastic saucepans and a couple of spoons, and sometimes as part of a tea party. Should we be concerned about tempting, or confusing children with plastic food, or does this type of toy serve a greater purpose than simply lowering the cost of our grocery bill?

There are two things that you will notice about any of the plastic food you see. The first so that there are usually clear guidelines on age restrictions, usually suggesting that at least 18 months or even 3 years being the minimum age at which the child should be allowed to play with it, (and even then, of course it should still be supervised by a responsible adult). The second thing to notice is that you will never find small fruits and vegetables, such as peas or beans. This is for fairly obvious safety reasons - any plastic food must be large enough to prevent accidental swallowing. All plastic food is large and chunky and far too big to fit into a child's mouth, at least, not completely.

So what purpose, or purposes does it have, and why is it so popular? It could hardly be argued that it is an educational toy on the grounds that it helps children to recognise and learn the names of various foods, since the similarity between a plastic stick of broccoli and the real thing is about as recognisable as the similarity between a brussel sprout and a banana. It seems unlikely that children will learn the names of their fruit in any way other than seeing them in the shops as real fruit and vegetables, watching in the kitchen as they're prepared, or in the actual eating of them.

The real benefit of course is in the way they are used as props for role play. Children, particularly when either paired up with another child or as part of a group, will naturally tend towards role play games, and the props used to represent the adult world are essential ingredients to helping all member of the role play experience understand what is happening, and play their part more effectively.

So, if the game is 'shops' this will allow one child to play the role of shopkeeper, whilst the others will be customers; should it be a home based game, then perhaps one of them will be the parent in the kitchen (usually mummy!) whilst the other will be either a child or the other parent. The role play experiences are essential to help a child establish roles, identities, and understand how the world works from various perspectives. It also helps them to understand rules and social expectations in ways which they could not otherwise experience for themselves. In other words, a plastic cauliflower really can help a child learn about becoming a member of society.

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