This giveaway is now closed. View the lucky winner here. Thank you all so much for entering!

This is a joint giveaway with Hobo Mama Reviews and Natural Parents Network. You may enter at one site only. Please find the section marked “Win it!” for the mandatory main entry and optional bonus entries.

UPDATE: Contest has been opened up worldwide by the seller due to the strong enthusiasm! Yippee!

WILL TRAVEL special event: We are featuring a few special travel items for review and giveaway that Lauren, our reviewer, was able to use on her trip with her three-year-old son and eight-year-old niece this summer. If you win, you’ll have your items in time for December holiday travel or Christmas gifts!

Giggle Junction is offering our readers a giveaway of an I Spy Bag! Giggle Junction is a fabulous Etsy shop that exclusively features hand-crafted I Spy Bags, a quiet, self-contained educational toy.

I (Lauren) had seen Giggle Junction’s I Spy Bags and thought they were beautiful and intriguing, so I was so glad the owner agreed to let me bring one along on our trip to the beach this summer. It ended up being a really rainy vacation, so good thing we had clever entertainment like this!

Giggle Junction’s spy bags are like a small pillow that’s actually a toy. They’re made with soft flannel with a cute design on the front and a coordinating flannel back. The bags are secured inside then turned and top-stitched for added durability. There are 30 miniature objects hidden among the non-toxic plastic pellets that you can see through the spy window.

They’re just the right size for kids to hold and shift the pellets around until the hidden objects in the spy window reveal themselves. Kids can just enjoy what they discover, or they can try to search out the photographed objects on the back of the attached card that reveal what to look for.

I like that it’s a quiet and absorbing, tactile activity. It’s perfect for an airplane or car ride, or waiting in a restaurant or doctor’s office.

Younger children can choose a spy bag with a larger window, and older children might enjoy the challenge of a smaller window, so it’s harder to find the objects. The spy bags can be used for toddlers on up, but use supervision around young children; even though it’s unlikely that any small objects could somehow escape, they would pose a choking hazard if they did.

This is good to know as well:
“Spy bags are washable if handled delicately. Carefully remove the laminated tag and either hand wash in warm water using mild soap and rinse or if your washing machine has a delicate setting you can throw it in there. Never use the dryer; always air dry.”
Machine washable! Score!

What I really love about Giggle Junction’s I Spy Bags is the obvious care that went into making them. The soft and durable fabrics, the bold top-stitching, and the charming objects were all impressive. What I loved most of all, though, was seeing my son and then my niece happily engaged in their search.

My three-year-old son needed encouragement and help to sift through the pellets and look at objects. We would find one, and together we would determine what it was. Sometimes he wanted to search for a particular item again, so we would do that.

My eight-year-old niece was having such a good time with the I Spy Bag on a train ride we took that my mom and dad got in on the action, helping her find every last object. I think older kids like working toward a goal like that.

The tag gives clues for what to find. (I’m not showing my niece’s face since I don’t have explicit permission. I assure you she is more adorable than she has any right to be.)

Squishing around the pellets inside the window.

Truly, in this picture, both my mom and dad (my niece’s grandparents) had gotten in on the search and were just as obsessed.

Now that’s a new method of searching!

Giggle Junction points out you can also remove the laminated tag and suggest your little ones find, say, an orange object, or a square one, or one that starts with the letter K, to turn it into a different type of scavenger hunt and keep the I Spy Bag fresh. Older kids can even race each other to see who finds an object or all the objects first. They’re good for pre-readers or children with communication difficulties, because the pictures make it easy to search for items. If you save this treat for just special occasions when you want some peaceful activity and mix up the way you interact with it, your kids will look forward to playing with the I Spy Bag every time.

There’s a wide range of designs in Giggle Junction’s Etsy shop, suitable for both boys and girls of varying ages. The items inside are partially coordinated as well, gender- and color-wise, so she puts a lot of thought into these bags. Here are a few of my other favorite designs:

You can even personalize your I Spy Bag by having your child’s name embroidered (for an extra fee) and the letters of the name hidden among the objects. If you email a picture, Giggle Junction can even crop it down to face shots and hide those in the bag as well. What a fun surprise!

BUY IT!

You can buy an I Spy Bag online from Giggle Junction’s Etsy shop. The price for a single bag is $15. Shipping is $4 for U.S., $6 for Canada, and $9.50 elsewhere, so it’s very reasonable for such a quality custom item.

You can also buy Party Packs for $47 that include one regular-size bag for the birthday kid and eight coordinating mini-bags for party favors (like the firetruck party pack up above). What a fun idea! If you want a specific theme, you can contact Giggle Junction to ask the owner to accommodate you.

WIN IT!

For your own chance to win an I Spy Bag of your choice from Giggle Junction, enter in the comments below! Contest is open worldwide. (Yea!)

MAIN ENTRY: Visit Giggle Junction’s Etsy shop and tell us which I Spy Bag you’d love to win!

Leave a valid email address in your comments (the line where it says “email address”) so we can contact you if you win. Email addresses are not made publicly visible.

This is a joint giveaway with Hobo Mama Reviews, the review and giveaway arm of Hobo Mama, and Natural Parents Network, a site co-founded by Lauren of Hobo Mama & Dionna of Code Name: Mama and intending to bring together those interested in attachment parenting and a natural lifestyle. You may enter at one site only, and we’ll be recording IP addresses to ensure that there are no duplicate entries. That said, please do check out and enjoy both sites!

BONUS ENTRIES, to increase your chance of winning (leave a separate comment for each so we can count them all):

• Heart the Giggle Junction shop on Etsy and leave your Etsy user name in the comment.
• Heart your favorite Giggle Junction product on Etsy and leave your Etsy user name in the comment.
• Let us know who would use this cute bag if you won.
• Subscribe to Natural Parents Network in a reader or by email.
• Follow www.HoboMamaReviews.com publicly through Google Friend Connect, or subscribe to the Hobo Mama Reviews RSS feed in a reader or by email (1 entry for each).
• Follow www.HoboMama.com through Google Friend Connect, or subscribe to the Hobo Mama RSS feed in a reader or by email (1 entry for each).
• Follow @NatParNet on Twitter and leave your Twitter name in the comment.
• Follow @Hobo_Mama on Twitter and leave your Twitter name in the comment.
• Tweet about this giveaway (up to 5 times total, at least 24 hours apart). You can use the retweet button at the top of the post or tweet this text: Enter to #win a cute I Spy Bag to keep children happily busy from @NatParNet & @Hobo_Mama! http://bit.ly/bWg79c {11.30, Worldwide}
• Like Natural Parents Network on Facebook.
• Like Hobo Mama on Facebook.
• Follow Hobo Mama on Networked Blogs on Facebook.
• Enter another of the giveaways on Natural Parents Network or Hobo Mama’s current giveaways (1 extra entry per giveaway — check back for more, because they are coming soon).
• Put the Natural Parents Network badge on your website or add http://NaturalParentsNetwork.com to your text blogroll for 2 extra entries each. The HTML code for the badge is on the front page of NaturalParentsNetwork.com. Leave your site URL in the comment.
• Put the Hobo Mama button on your website or add http://www.HoboMama.com to your text blogroll for 2 extra entries each. The HTML code is in the sidebar of HoboMama.com. Leave your site URL in the comment.

RULES:

• Contest open worldwide.
• Contestants may enter at either Hobo Mama Reviews or Natural Parents Network but not both. Entries will be combined for the drawing of a single winner.
• Leave each entry as a separate comment so we can count them all.
• For actions like following and subscribing, if you already follow or subscribe, just let us know in your comment.
• For tasks that garner you multiple entries, you can copy and paste the comment with a #1, #2, etc.
• You don’t have to do any of the bonus entries, but you do have to complete the first mandatory one.
• We will pick the winner through Random.org after the contest closes and send an email notification. Leave a valid email address as you comment so we can contact you if you win. If we can’t reach a winner or don’t hear back within a couple days, we’ll draw a new name.
• Any questions, let me know: Lauren {at} NaturalParentsNetwork.com

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