Things I like Thursday

I've been lucky enough to win a lot of cool giveaways in the last few months. Oftentimes the giveaways are companies and products I've previously never heard of. I wanted to highlight a couple of my favorites, in an effort to get the word out about a couple of cool companies you may not be aware of. Please note that I'm not being reimbursed for my endorsements.
First of all, I won a giveaway around Christmas of a Boca Beth DVD/CD/puppet/activity book. Boca Beth products aim to introduce young children to Spanish by teaching them the words for things they regularly come in contact with. (No conjugating verbs, and stuff like that. The DVD I have covers items around the house.) My first response to the video was that it was cute and educational, but I wasn't sure if my son, who is used to lots of fancy whiz bang animation would be that into it. He ended up liking it, and asking for it repeatedly. He also enjoyed the puppet a lot. It's a great tie in to the DVD, and makes the whole experience more interactive. He requests the CD often in the car, and even the baby seems to like it, since she usually quits her mandatory car wailing when it's on. I'd still rather be listening to my rock Cd's, but that's the price of having kids, I guess. All in all, I think the Boca Beth products are great. My son is learning some new Spanish words in a fun, no pressure atmosphere. These are the kinds of products I'm always looking for, as a parent, and a new homeschooler.
There are numerous free resources on the Boca Beth site, and this month they're offering free shipping. Go check them out.

The other company I wanted to recommend was NoPlastic.ca. The premise here is pretty self explanatory. Lots of people are worried about using plastic dishes and utensils. NoPlastic.ca offers alternatives. I recently won a cool stainless steel sippy cup, which can be seen here. It's awesome. My daughter likes it, which is saying a lot. She's still nursing, and rejects most bottles and sippy cups. A major plus is that the Avent spout minimizes spills. I hate sippy cups that leak everywhere if the kids shake them or drop them.
They have some really neat other products too, like some cool stainless steel lunch boxes, and a set of stainless steel mugs that would be a great replacement for the ugly plastic cups we've been using lately. If you're looking for healthy plastic free alternatives for your family, NoPlastic.ca probably has them.