ToyQueen.Com

At Toy Fair 2011 in New York City at the Jacob Javitts Center a few weeks ago, there were many products making their debut! There I was finally able to meet in person, the creators behind Poofin! You might be wondering what a Poofin is, but it’s a soft, plush, star shaped pillow. It has a small zippered opening on the back and a small round opening in the middle of the star on the front. Small, soft, personalized pillowed charms are purchased and stored inside the Poofin Star.

Poofin is for children ages 3 and up, and was designed to help children demonstrate confidence and self-awareness about their own individuality. Pictures can also be uploaded to the website and printed as unique charms– which we did with our ToyQueen logo and Halloween picture, and they came out absolutely adorable!  Some pre-designed charms include ice cream cones, a yellow lab, sharks, ballerinas, cat, slice of cheese pizza, baseball, and a bicycle. The Poofin holds up to 50 different charms! Children can also vote on the new charms developed on the website.

In the day and age of teaching our children about self-esteem and self-discovery I thought of many uses at home and in the educational arena for such a  unique concept.

– For young children simply developing vocabulary, why not scatter the unique charms around the house while they look for their own individuality in a hide and seek fashion, then you can talk about the pictures before placing them back in the Poofin Star.

– I often hear about friends whose children are learning to spend time away from home at friend’s houses during sleepovers but are still at the age where they worry about being away from their families and might be self-consious to bring the favorite stuffed animal they have loved since infancy. This could be the perfect sleepover pillow, where kids can bring along a little something special and unique from home to help them feel comfortable in new and different situations.

– At school many school psychologists and guidance counselors are working with children to help expand their social skills, to not only help children find new interests, but to be aware of other’s likes and dislikes. It’s a great open ended activity that uses simple objects to open the door for communication and discussion in either an individual or small group scenario.

– Teachers could benefit from this in the classroom when highlighting stars of the week or as a show and tell option. What a perfect way for kids to find ways to identify with similarities and differences amongst peers! My mind is already racing to all sorts of mathematical graphs and charts teachers might develop where kids in the class communicate and poll each other regarding how many like pizza, bowling and Harry Potter!

– As an OT I am always thinking of creative writing topics. For children who are capable of writing words, simple sentences and short paragraphs, why not reach into the front of the star and write a story based on the sequence of charms that emerge? Use this in conjunction with a journal and a child will be able to individually record all the stories behind their special charms.

Poofin provided a pillow and personalized charms as a sample for review. The opinions are my own.