Are Toys Really The Best Kids Christmas Presents?

The question is: are toys really the right kids Christmas presents? The simple answer is a resounding yes.

Welcome to the age whereby your kid’s eyes are a little more inquisitive and they are, in general, far more savvy of the world around them than we ever were as kids. Their minds are being shaped by everything around them at an alarmingly fast rate, and it’s important to make sure that those surroundings enhance and promote good character traits.

Creative Development

Since the beginning of time, children have loved toys, and of course in more recent times, they love to play video games. Whether you are talking about childhood in your grandparent’s time, your time, or today, imagination is still the greatest gift that we can give our children, and toys are of great assistance to the creative development of any child.

With such an abundance of toys on the market, it gets harder each year to choose which are the best toys for our little ones. The first place to start would be to ask your child to write a Christmas list. Go over the list and fine tune it to ensure that as well as having entertainment value, “want” value and that it will make your child extol your praises to all their friends, that everything has a positive learning, or playful, experience. Avoid buying anything with an implication of violence or negative influences – traits which have unfortunately made their way into some of our children’s toys.

Promote Healthy Competition and Creativity

Contrary to popular belief, video games do have the capacity to offer a very positive learning experience if they are chosen wisely. They have the ability to promote healthy competition and creativity, and some online games offer your child the ability to make friends with other players around the world.

While there are those that frown on kids video games, remember that the skills gained by the player are transferable into everyday life. Competition, creativity, persistence, social skills, determination, turn taking and patience are all skills we want our children to learn, and why not kill two birds with one stone and teach these skills via a medium your child is keenly interested in? After all, isn’t the first vehicle of learning for a child through play? I guess video games present the same vehicle, albeit for today’s child.

Toys and games are terrific kids Christmas presents because they also promote sharing whilst attaining personal enjoyment. Some toys, like educational toys, are primarily offered to promote learning, while others promote creativity and problem solving. It’s really quite amazing how we can align many toys to the building blocks of life with a little imagination. A karaoke unit, for example, may be instrumental in helping a child to overcome shyness, while a Barbie doll will allow a child to venture into the depths of their own imagination.

It is essential that you follow any age recommendations given by the manufacturer, as these are included for the safety of your child.

Never forget that one of the best presents you could ever give your kids comes in the form of unconditional love. While it’s not something we can wrap up in pretty paper, and it can’t be tangibly seen, it’s one of the most powerful kids Christmas presents that can be felt.

Hey… don’t forget the batteries!

3 Reasons You Need Bespoke Presentation Products

If you do not yet have bespoke presentation products for your business including presentation folders, ring binders and clipboards then you are missing out. There are many ways that bespoke presentation products can help your business, and here are three reasons why you should not miss out on the opportunities they present.

1. Distinguish Yourself from the Crowd

Your brand is unique so you should make sure it stands out from the crowd. By making use of interesting designs and copy you can make them more attention grabbing so that they become a talking point at industry fairs and events. Don’t miss out on the branding opportunities that your presentation items can provide.

2. Take Advantage of Sales and Marketing Opportunities

There are some great marketing opportunities to be had from all of your presentation products including presentation folders, ring binders, clipboards and A4 folders. Imagine an industry fair where you hand out folders to all your clients and contacts. They will take them away with them and you’ve just got some free advertising. If they are quality, well made products then they will last even longer.

You could even add messages such as details of your latest offers along with a telephone number – you may be surprised by just how far your marketing message can travel.

Or you could choose to add something memorable such as a catchphrase or slogan that helps it to stand out further. If your clients have other contacts who might want to do business with you then they could use your branded presentation products to get in contact with you.

3. Create a Professional Image

Nothing creates a more professional image than a branded presentation folder or other presentation products. It immediately states that you are a business which cares about its image and this will help you to get taken more seriously and impress your clients and customers.

If you make sure your presentation products are of a high quality, well designed and good to hold and touch then these little touches can go a long way. You wouldn’t write a letter without headed paper, so why miss out on the opportunity to look even more professional with bespoke presentation items.

Conclusion

Don’t Miss Out on Bespoke Presentation Products

There are too many benefits of bespoke presentation products to miss out on for businesses of all sizes. Don’t allow yourself to miss out on the great opportunities to look more professional, distinguish yourself from the crowd and market your brand further through personalising your ring binders, presentation folders, A4 folders, clipboards and other presentation products.

Practice Makes Perfect – 7 Tips for Making the Most of Your Presentation Practice

Believe it or not, preparation is a better determinant of presentation success than knowledge, experience, or even talent. The best presenter is almost always the presenter who is the most prepared. Even so, there are a lot of conflicting ideas about what constitutes thorough presentation preparation.

So what exactly is thorough preparation?

Here are seven straight forward tips to increase the effectiveness of the time you invest in your practice.

1. Practice Delivery Out Loud. Practice is NOT mentally rehearsing your presentation on the drive over to the presentation or even thinking about your presentation while tossing and turning at night. Both of these are something, but not practice. A lot can happen between thinking about what you want to say and actually getting the words to come out of your mouth coherently. If you don’t actually practice speaking out loud, when the time comes, you may struggle to articulate your mentally well rehearsed thoughts. To the audience, this struggle will appear to be lack of preparation.

2. Try to Conduct Your Practice in a Situation Similar to the Real Speaking Venue. Whenever possible, conduct your practice in a situation that closely mirrors the real presentation. For example, if you will be speaking in front of a large group in an auditorium or large conference room, try to practice in a large room filled with as many audience recruits as possible. Why? Research indicates that if your practice closely mirrors your real presentation, once you are in the actual presentation your brain will think you have done this before. Besides practice, the next most important ingredient in your success is experience.

3. Practice in Front of Real People. If you can’t find any audience recruits at work, ask your spouse, best friend, or if all else fails, your pet to listen to your presentation. Interacting with a live audience is an important part of your practice. It helps you not only rehearse your delivery, but gain experience reading and reacting to the silent messages your audience is sending you about their understanding, their likes, and their dislikes.

4. The Mirror is Your Friend. Even after you’ve practiced in front of an audience, continue to rehearse in front of the greatest critic of all, yourself in the mirror. The mirror is a WONDERFUL if underused presentation practice tool. It will allow you to see and hear your delivery live and make decisions about how to enhance your style. Remember, when it comes to practicing your presentation, the mirror really is your friend.

5. Practice From Beginning to End Without Stopping. Practice all the way through the presentation without stopping–even if you make a mistake. Most presenters have a tendency to stop their practice each time they make a mistake. Besides reinforcing this negative practice, when you continually stop and start over you get very good at the beginning of the presentation, but can’t deliver an effective conclusion because you’ve rarely made it to the end of the presentation. As the second most remembered part of your presentation, it is important to have a strong, well-rehearsed close.

6. Practice With Your Props. If you are using visual aids such as a PowerPoint slide show, make sure you practice with your slides. Visual aids of any kind add another layer of complexity to presentation and require practice to use effectively. Practicing with your slides will help prepare you for the things that inevitably go wrong and help you avoid unprofessional behaviors such as not knowing how to advance your slide show or how to put the slide show in the proper view for display.

7. Do it One More Time. After you feel you’ve done it well in practice and are happy with your performance, practice one more time to make sure your success wasn’t just a happy accident. All in all, depending upon you and your content, you may need to practice your presentation delivery out loud 5 to 10 times. Yes, that’s right, you might have to practice out loud up to 10 times, but don’t worry, your audience’s thundering applause will make the effort worthwhile!