Saturday, May 13, 2006

NoteNiks Healthy Eating & Exercise CD-ROM Wins Dr. Toy 2006 Smart Play/Smart Toy Award

NoteNiks Healthy Eating & Exercise CD-ROM Wins Dr. Toy 2006 Smart Play/Smart Toy Award

NoteNiks receives prestigious recognition from the Institute for Childhood Resources for CD-ROM that teaches young children the benefits of eating healthy and staying active.

Oakland, CA (PRWEB) April 24, 2006

Sound Advice, Inc., makers of the NoteNiks product line, today announced that their newest offering, the NoteNiks Healthy Eating & Exercise CD-ROM, has been selected as a recipient of the Institute for Childhood Resources Dr. Toy Smart Play/Smart Toy Product of Excellence Award for 2006. The CD-ROM, which debuted earlier this year in partnership with software design veterans Vendor Nation, is the first piece of educational software that teaches children ages 3 – 8 the importance of selecting healthy foods and keeping active.

Dr. Toy's “Smart Play/Smart Toys Product Awards Program 2006” was developed by noted child development authority Stevanne Auerbach, Ph. D. (a. k.a. Dr. Toy), as a service to consumers who desire to purchase safe, affordable, educationally oriented and stimulating toys and other products for children.

“As a childhood specialist for over 35 years,” says Dr. Toy, Director of the Institute for Childhood Resources, founded in San Francisco in 1975, “I have seen the continuous, essential need for more year-round resources for consumers to identify and choose the most appropriate, safe and engaging learning and developmental products for all children. Children learn best through play, and these ‘Smart Toys and Smart Products’ encourage children to maximize their potentials and make the most of ‘Smart Play’.”

The CD offers 8 different games, all featuring the colorful, diverse band of NoteNiks comic characters. Children learn to distinguish fruits and vegetables from junk foods, identify items needed for activities such as riding bikes, swimming, planting a garden, and more. At the end of each game, players are rewarded with a win screen and fun facts about healthy eating and staying active.

“This is a CD-ROM that will get your child excited about eating healthy,” says Dr. Toy.

The NoteNiks Healthy Eating & Exercise CD also contains the recent addition of a Healthy Eating Curriculum. The downloadable pages feature a full health lesson plan, complete with printable activity pages and activity ideas. The lessons can be used for home schooling, after school programs, or in conjunction with traditional curriculum for preschool – grade 3. Topics include: “What are the benefits of healthy eating?”, “Fruits & Vegetable Families” and “Eat All Your Colors!”

“Choosing an apple as a snack instead of cookies is not an innate decision, especially with the barrage of fast food commercials bombarding a child,” said Mindy Myers, CEO of Sound Advice, Inc., whose background is in educational systems design and child development. “Children need to be taught to differentiate healthy food from junk food. The 8 interactive games in the Healthy Eating & Exercise CD encourage a child to make healthy eating choices a new habit.”

The CD was developed with, and has been tested by, educators, nutritionists, parents, and children nationwide. One of the first to sample the game was 4-year-old Marisa Dinsmore of Morro Bay, California. “Marisa loves the NoteNiks Healthy Eating CD. She spends about an hour at a time playing all the different games," said Helene, Marisa’s mother. “The skill levels seem very age appropriate for her. Right now she is bugging me to get off the computer so she can play her ‘exercise games.' It's Marisa's new favorite thing.”

In addition to the CD, Sound Advice, Inc. offers NoteNiks Healthy Eating & Exercise Comics for parents to place in lunchboxes, Roxy’s Eat Right Game, a board game that teaches kids to differentiate healthy foods from junk foods, and Motivational NoteNiks for teachers to reward student’s productive behavior. Future Sound Advice/Vendor Nation CD-ROM titles include “Be Safe. Be Careful,” with topics around children’s safety, and “Respect the Earth,” dealing with recycling and ecology.

The NoteNiks Healthy Eating & Exercise CD-ROM is available online and through select retailers nationwide. Netshare options for up to 30 computers are available. For more information on the NoteNiks Healthy Eating & Exercise CD-ROM, please visit www. noteniks. net. For more information all of the Sound Advice products, visit www. noteniks. com, or call (510) 547-0125.

About Sound Advice

Sound Advice, Inc., based in Oakland, Calif., develops educational support products, which enable parents, educators, librarians, dentists, doctors and others to connect with the children in their lives. Research shows that when a child feels commended, guided or appreciated they behave better, make better life decisions, and are more open to learning. Sound Advice’s products include Healthy Eating & Exercise NoteNiks, Medi-NoteNiks, Lunchbox NoteNiks, Motivational NoteNiks, Dental NoteNiks and NoteNiks Posters. More information is available at www. noteniks. com or by calling (510) 547-0125.

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