TOUCH--All our cuddly bears and the products linked to Construction Toys (in the index on the left of your screen) as well as the Bath Toys SIGHT--All our dress-up bears and the books with pictures linked to BOOKS AND LANGUAGE TOYS and the ARTS AND CRAFTS KITS/SETS as well as the GAMES AND CARDS (for their beauty) and the Dress Up (for a chance to make themselves into art) HEARING SOUNDS--Our Musical Toys and CHILDREN'S SONGS, a subdivision of BOOKS AND LANGUAGE TOYS. HEARING (or READING) WORDS--We have books, tapes, Magnetic Poetry, and toys that stimulate children to make up stories (bears, puppets, the Dress Up-Let's Pretend section, etc.) as well as games that encourage talking between the players, particularly Once Upon a Time Cards and OH! Cards. TASTE--Our Cooking Supplies (and links to recipe pages) SMELL--This is a rare one, but we even have a scent mixing kit. In other words, the receiver of the gift (whether yourself or someone else) has special characteristics you will consider when you select it. With children in particular, you are undoubtedly careful not to mistake specialness for a handicap even though some teachers and other professionals may try to convince you your child's strengths are weaknesses. With your help, the child can express these strengths in ways that everyone can recognize. Here are some traits that are easily misunderstood. Physically active. Children who explore the world through touch may be constantly in motion, feeling everything -- literally. They can develop into athletes, engineers, carpenters etc., but along the way you will probably want to encourage their other senses by providing toys that both provide play for their hands and also an important visual and/or auditory component to help those senses develop as well. Mismatching. Very original children tend to disagree often and loudly, but they may grow to make the world better, especially as you help them to express their creativity and original thought processes politely. Show them you respect their mismatching by giving a variety of choices--toys that allow them to exchange and adapt parts while doing things their own way. When you have provided them with some avenue for their mismatching, they may be more willing to listen to you without disagreeing about everything. |
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| Purciful's Magical Toys $20 Gift Certificate The simple (and highly appreciaated) way to give a gift -- let your gift recipient choose their own presents! Did you know the national average spent on an office or baby shower gift is $20? Your Gift Certificate will be sent in the form of a gift e-mail, with an individual gift certificate number(s) that is linked to the recipient's name and email address -- so be sure you enter the EXACT and CORRECT info as you check out! Gift certificates can be purchased individually ($20) or in multiples (2 = $40, 4 = $80 etc) for a single recipient per order. To order gift certificates for more than one person, you need to make a separate order for each person. | |
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| Purciful's Magical Toys $25 Gift Certificate The simple (and highly appreciaated) way to give a gift -- let your gift recipient choose their own presents! Did you know the national average spent on a birthday gift for children is $25? Your Gift Certificate will be sent in the form of a gift e-mail, with an individual gift certificate number(s) that is linked to the recipient's name and email address -- so be sure you enter the EXACT and CORRECT info as you check out! Gift certificates can be purchased individually ($25) or in multiples (2 = $50, 3 = $75 etc) for a single recipient per order. To order gift certificates for more than one person, you need to make a separate order for each person. | |
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| Purciful's Magical Toys $100 Gift Certificate The simple (and highly appreciaated) way to give a gift -- let your gift recipient choose their own presents! Did you know that our most popular gift certificate amount is $100? Your Gift Certificate will be sent in the form of a gift e-mail, with an individual gift certificate number(s) that is linked to the recipient's name and email address -- so be sure you enter the EXACT and CORRECT info as you check out! Gift certificates can be purchased individually ($100) or in multiples (2 = $200, 4 = $400 etc) for a single recipient per order. To order gift certificates for more than one person, you need to make a separate order for each person. | |
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| Purciful's Best Tips for Holiday Shipping & Shopping SHOP BEFORE THE LAST MINUTE! Click this link for more (and more useful) information. | |
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| Our Customers Send Us Comments!!! Click Here to Read What They Say! | |
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| Purciful's Top Service Rating from Yahoo! Shopping Purciful's Magical Toys has been rated a 5-Star Top Service Merchant by Yahoo! Shopping! Our customers consistantly give us "Excellent" Above Average ratings for customer service and quality merchandise. Shop with confidence at Purciful's -- we care about the toys our customers are enjoying! | |
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| Link to Lynn Whitlark's Recipe Page --lots of recipes your children will love -- and love to help you make! Cooking is an excellent project for you and your children to play and work together -- and you get to eat the results! | |
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| Lynn Whitlark's Dyslexia Page If you or a member of your family is having trouble reading, telling time, or just telling left from right -- read a bit by an adult who managed dyslexia and lived to tell the tale....And remember, that dyslexia often goes with increased creativity and ingenuity -- whether you can spell it or not! | |
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| Lynn Whitlark's Mismatching Page For further information about mismatchers and matchers -- go to Lynn's page written for managers, teachers, and others who have the opportunity to put prevention and remedy stratagies to work every day. | |
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| Instructions for the Blank Spellbook Here is a copy of the instructions which will be sent along with your blank spellbook (ordered either separatly, or as part of the Wizard's and Witch's Back-to-School Kit featured on our front page.) | |
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| Tips for Buying Harry Potter Gifts --For the Uninitiated If you are looking for a wizard-themed gift for some young Harry Potter fan and you don't know the books yourself, the toys listed on these pages all stick with the Harry Potter theme for imaginative play. Click into this link for lots of useful information about the characters and kinds of creatures in the Harry Potter series of books! | |
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| A NOTE FROM PURCIFUL ABOUT BUYING ANCHOR BUILDING SETS If you're considering investing in a set of Anchor building stones, here's some important information you can't afford to miss. | |
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| A NOTE FROM PURCIFUL ABOUT BUYING FACE PAINTS If you're considering learning to use face paints or investing in our Snazaroo face paints, here's some important information for you. | |
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| SNAZAROO's: 10 COMMANDMENTS FOR FACE PAINTERS If you're thinking about starting a face painting business, or just looking forward to painting your friends' and family's faces -- or even running a booth at an upcoming charity event.... here's the advice you need to be successful as a face painter! | |
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| TIPS FROM PROFESSIONAL FACE PAINTERS This list of business tips and face painters' do's and don't's was compiled by Snazaroo from a whole host of professional and semi-professional face painters around the world. Lot's of really good and helpful advice for those just starting their face painting business, and the experienced painter as well! | |
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| CARING FOR YOUR QUALITY FACE PAINTING SUPPLIES If you are going to be investing $100.00- $250.00 in supplies, business cards, flyers and such to start up your face painting business, you need to think about how to best take care of your kit so that it lasts as long as possible, and always looks neat and clean to your customers. Click inside for some good tips for taking care of brushes, sponges, water containers, and a few of the more basic supplies. | |
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| A Note From Purciful about Buying Tarot Cards | |
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| A Note From Purciful About Reading to Children In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry and his young friends confront a boggart, a being able to assume any appearance that most frightens the beholder. To overcome this creature, the children use magic to give it a jocular hat, amusing behavior, or whatever will make it ridiculous. This is based on an old psychological trick. If something terrifies, imagine it altered in a way that renders it silly--a bully's voice transformed to that of Donald Duck, the monster in the closet made to wear a preposterous costume. Admittedly, if your intelligent children read Harry Potter
on their own, they will laugh and enjoy it. Nevertheless, however intelligent, they
are still children and may need your help to figure out such things as that the book
is teaching them to control their imaginations. For instance, as they are reading
or hearing, they are actually forming an image of the boggart in their minds and
adding the amusing accessories. With a little explanation from you, they will be
smart enough to recognize that they can do the same to the fears in their lives:
they can imagine them as comic or perhaps just going farther away so that they become
dim and small. There is no end to what they can do with controlled minds, yet this
control is but one of the countless skills they can acquire from books--with your
help. Probably, you already know the main point of reading to children--use
the book to talk to them--but this is such an important idea that it deserves a bit
of thought. Every instant that you perform a book, you are teaching something. As
the narrator, you are the voice of authority. As the characters, doing high and low
pitched voices, accents, slow drawling ones, and ones as fast as auctioneers, you
prove that you can be trusted to adapt to different situations. You are inspiring
your children to model themselves on that ability, a practice that will sensitize
their ears to understand tone, speed, volume, and all the other sonic effects that
cannot fit on the printed page. They learn to use these, and--since they are intelligent,
this knowledge eventually enriches their reading when they are alone. But whenever you are the one reading, you can be learning more
about your children by noting what they like. And when the text says precisely what
they most need to hear, you can speak a bit more emphatically--though, of course,
not so much as to sound as if you were preaching. They're smart, after all, and will
catch you at that unless you just let your natural love of books and their information
flow. By reading aloud, you demonstrate that you care about knowledge and above all--about
your children.
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| LINK TO US! Click here to grab our Banner and URL! Want to link to Purciful's Magical Toys? Here's the banner and URL you need to do it! We love to hear that our customers have linked to us -- and we will be starting our links page soon -- so if you are sympatico to Purciful's kids and grown-ups loving and caring philosophy, let us know and we'll give a link to you, too! | |
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| Helpful Info: Caring for Cast Iron Cookware Here's helpful page of information about taking care of and using cast iron cookware! | |
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| NOTE FROM PURCIFUL: PLAYING WITH & COLLECTING BEARS Here's a quick note from Purciful about buying bears for children, adults, and collectors of all ages -- and especially about the difference between collectable and play-able bears! | |
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| A Note From Purciful to Serious Bear Collectors We have many more bears and accessories than just what is listed here in these few pages -- all you have to do is read our collector's page and then ask for what you're after! | |
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| Safe Toys in the Global Marketplace & the Global Village How do you tell a safe toy from a not safe toy? That's the question everybody is asking these days. Here's the list of the 5 best answers we have been able to find for our customers here at Purciful's Magical Toys (and for the children of our own family and friends) : 1. Look for American made merchandise. If you can't tell by looking at the toy, ASK SOMEBODY or do some internet research. American OWNED and MADE is the phrase you're looking for -- US toymakers are the main reseource we can all be ABSOLUTELY sure of as far as safety --because keeping children safe is an important value here. We send people to jail and companies to the scrap heap for putting our children (and us) in reckless danger just to have a fatter bottom line. --at least we hope that's true. But -- you can broaden that list to include toy companies from just about any Western, industrialised nation -- because they really do share our values on this. The key is to make sure they are actually producing toys rather than importing them from emerging nations who count their money without looking back. Not all trade is equal -- and not all capitalism is healthy. And this seems to be a hard truth for US buisness to learn. 2.Where new babies are concerned -- you know, the ones who put EVERYTHING in their mouths -- just skip anything that's painted plastic or wood (or nylon, or rubber, or vinyl, or anything that was once oil.) We're smart enough not to give a baby a piece of glass or metal to cut their teeth -- is it that great a leap to give them only safe and sure toys? And yes, we do sell teethers and such here at Purcifuls. They're made by Gund and Manhattan Toys, and from what we've learned from these companies, they're all testing harmless. But if you're not sure -- then do what my grandmother did -- wrap a few bits of ice in a wet washcloth and tie it with twine. It feels good to red and swollen gums. Purciful's Magical Toys sells lots of baby-safe toys -- and we also sell toys for older children, and even adults. Nobody is going to mistake our "Office Toys" section for our "Itty Bitty Purses" section -- so don't make the mistake of giving a toddler a "Hula Jane Bender" with her tiny plastic grass skirt or her strong mini-magnet hands and feet -- and don't give your Uncle Roger a Cookie Monster Activity Toy or Dora the Explorer finger puppet -- unless Uncle Roger is a little different. 3. Go onto the internet and search for current lists of recalls. When in doubt -- put it up in a box in the hall closet. Wait for information. Read. Be over-cautious -- because it's far better than the alternative. 4. Always - ALWAYS give children toys designed for their own age group. Really. There's no problem giving a 7-year-old a train with small parts so long as your 7-year old has the sense to eat food and not electronic parts and jewelry. Or his/her own toys. The problem is when your 18 month old gymnast and rock-climber scales the shelves in her room and decides to eat whatever is there -- from the picture frame to the musical angel. For the record, our trains are made by Maple Landmark (of Vermont) from untreated Vermont Maple wood, and tinted with non-toxic water-based stains. The magnets that hold the cars together are much bigger than any magnets being cited as problems, and the magnets are held in place by metal screws and wood glue -- next to impossible to remove. We only carry Maple Landmark specifically because of their high quality and clever designs -- don't go for the dime-store versions and knock-offs when you can get good stuff for your children with a little searching. 5. Be a parent. We're not talking about taking iPods away from 15-year-old mallrats. We're talking about babies and toddlers and pre-schoolers. Be the grown up. Read. Study. Don't buy everything they poiint at in the Dollar Store. In fact -- just forget the Dollar Store and the Discount Mart and the Flea Market where your babies are concerned. Give them real toys made of real, healthy, safe materials. Buy some cloth or yarn or a couple of red-toe socks and make them a doll or a puppet. ***** In short -- now that we know emerging nations and those trying desperately to enter the global market can't be trusted to value our lives and our health (is this really a big surprise? We have seen how they value the lives of their own citizens....) then it falls to us to be vigilant and BE THE GROWN UP. Protect your children from anything suspicious -- and if they don't tell you on the package what it's made of, don't buy it. If you can't remember what the package said last Christmas -- then put it up in the closet and save it until they are older. If you can't find a phone number for the company, then don't buy their stuff. If the person answering the phone at the toy manufacturing company sounds 16-years-old and on their first job -- ask for a manager. If the manager's accent is too hard to understand, ask them to mail or email you the information. If it costs $1 at the Dollar Store, remember that it only cost the Dollar Store $0.50 when they bought it from the importer, and the importer paid the factory just $0.25 for it. And the factory made it from the cheapest possible componants and paid the workers less than a penny for their labor to produce a daily quota -- and frankly, that kind of incentive doesn't cause most people to take the time and check for defects, sub-standard componants, or safety. We've been writing "hot checks" in this country for a long, long time -- buying cheap goods made of sub-standard materials, fabricated in sweat-shops by underpaid, impoverished labor pools who couldn't even imagine what health care or retirement could possibly be. We've gotten accustomed to having what we want, when we want it - and the idea spreading capitalism is so close to imperialism that most global companies don't even bother to differentiate. The reason our parents and grandparents didn't have closets full of toys wasn't that toys didn't exist -- it's because buying well made, safe, practical, beautiful toys costs money. If you pay a craftsman what a beautiful toy is worth, then that craftsman can make enough to live on. But it also means you can't buy 14 presents for little Skipper's birthday. Instead of 14 cheap-o discount plastic toys on hanger cards -- little Skipper might just get one, really terrific, lasts-forever well-made gift. Be the parent. Read them bedtime stories. Make a hand-made toy (you might even enlist the help of your older children....) Learn a new skill like knitting, papermaking, or wood carving. Learn something new and then MODEL that ability to learn for your children. Learn to grow violets or tomatoes. Learn to sew or make bead necklaces... then teach your kids. That's a great present to give. I know. We're a toy store. And we love being in the toy business because it brings so many smiles. And -- we want you're children (and ours) to be the happiest, healthiest, and most creative they can possibly be. | |
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| New Year's Resolutions at Purcifuls | |
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| The Last Great Taste in the World -- Grazie ed arrivederci, Signore. On the passing of Ernesto Illy | |
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| An Open Letter to the Presidential Candidates I've listened, read, watched, contributed. Still, energy/environmental statements seem as out of date and out of step with reality as if they'd been written 25 years ago. Goals set for 2030 and 2050 do not require fast enough and comprehensive enough change or incentive. This has to be real now -- not after the next president leaves office. I appreciate all the community and hope and change talk -- I really do. But I expect a true leader to lead. Especially in the uncharted waters of global climate change. You can't let the leadership-by-committee tempo be the pace for the US and the world on this issue because we don't have that kind of time. From where I live, SW to El Paso and SE to Abilene is one giant wind farm. The fields are as dense as the TX/OK derrick fields in the early 20th century. And by my calculations, 10K of these turbines would provide all the non-industrial electricity necessary for the state of Texas -- most of it coming from the wind-rich panhandle-south plains. And that would include low-cost recharge stations for electric cars, universities, schools, hospitals, and recreational areas. Which presupposes a lot. --A lot of things nobody in the political arena is saying. What politicians are still talking about is biofuel -- which costs more in energy to create than the energy it produces -- incremental standard improvements, and "further study." But the further study politicians talk about is not research and development, not tax and fine penalties for corporations failing to retool to carbon neutral, or grid-contribution, not tax incentives for personal greening or grid contributions, not incentives for hiring up to retool cities, counties, states, and the federal consumption. None of the really positive, groundbreaking and gutsy moves. What about incentives for cities and counties to retool infrastructure? What about an scientific institution the caliber of NASA to extend the water purification work done by Dean Kamen and others to a level that it would benefit communities and countries rather than just individuals and villages? What about just getting back to a time when our own best and brightest aren't having to go to CERN to do real physics research, or to other labs and hospitals in Europe to do real medical research? Even more basic, how about making a university education/post grad education affordable enough so we know who our best and brightest are? Right now, half the grad school slots are filled with the best and brightest of other countries! While our kids are all becoming bankers and lawyers. But I digress -- there are a lot of issues tied to this one, central, important issue. How about, instead of talking about incremental standards changes by 20 or 40 years from now -- could we please talk about actual change? That is the battle cry, right? So how about making it more than charisma and rhetoric. How about really changing the world -- for the better, as opposed to what we've had before. You're all meliorists -- so do it. Prove it. If a president can get us into a war without actually getting congress to declare war -- why can't a president get us committed to a war on greed and apathy, delusion and self-sustaining corporations? I've watched, listened, read, contributed -- but if my vote is just going to be for more of the same -- then you're all equal at this point. At least Arizon has the virtue of being plated with solar collection panels -- with more going in every day. Somebody there gets it. And I remember "It's the economy, stupid." That's true. It is the economy. But even the economy won't matter if the environmental issues aren't addressed fast, loud, often and with the full force and gravity of the Presidient of the United States. I'm watching. I'm reading. I'm listening. And I haven't heard it yet from anybody. Not one of you is really the candidate I believe can change the world. Not yet. | |
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