Nordic Rocker {A Guidecraft Educator Review & Giveaway}

For educators, August often marks the beginning of the "end" of summer, as it's time to start preparing for a new school year. For those of you who haven't yet read my bio, I'm the lead teacher in a 4-year old Head Start classroom in Upstate NY. I've been blogging about children's books for just over two years and have recently decided to expand my blog from children's literature to children's products and all things learning related! Along with this decision, I was presented with the opportunity to participate as a "Guidecraft Educator." Each month, the Guidecraft Educators will share our honest feelings about a Guidecraft product(s) and how these products would fare in an early childhood classroom.

Our feature product this month is the Nordic Rocker.

About the Nordic Rocker

The Nordic Rocker is a part of Guidecraft's Table & Chairs collection. There are several pieces of furniture in this collection, ranging from your basic rocker (Nordic Rocker) to a Kiddie Couch to a Jr. Roll Top Desk with Chair. The Nordic Rocker is currently available only with a red cushion, however, after putting the chair together, if you're at all handy with a sewing machine, it would be simple to make a different colored cover to suit your decoration needs!

As for the assembly of the rocker, I was a bit overwhelmed when I opened the packaging, wondering how I'd figure it out... However, I was pleasantly surprised! The frame consisted of 4 wooden pieces and one metal piece. There were 20 pieces of hardware and one Allyn wrench included for the assembly. The assembly instructions were incredibly easy to understand and I was able to have the rocker assembled in less than 15 minutes! Definitely doable for a busy teacher!

What Do We Think?

Unfortunately, for the month of August, the "we" has become an "I," as school is out for the summer and I have no 4-year old friends to share their thoughts and uses for the Nordic Rocker. The completed, assembled rocker seems extremely durable and will (hopefully, spare any mistreatment by my little friends) last for many years in my classroom. I have spent a large amount of time this summer "redoing" my Quiet Area (not pictured - that's my porch where the rocker has made its home for the summer) to make it a more welcoming area for children to enjoy during their "work time" - exploratory play. I really think this rocker will make for a welcome addition, although I am seriously considering attempting to sew a different colored cover to help it fit in with the Quiet Area's pond theme a bit more! At some point, if I could secure some funding for it on my wish list, it would be really nice to add to the collection one of the Kiddie Couches!

As the Nordic Rocker awaits arrival in its new home, the pooch has found it to be a rather ideal perch for squirrel watching and just hanging out on a cool day!

Find Out More

You can find the entire line of Kids Table and Chair sets that Guidecraft offers on their website. The Nordic Rocker is available for purchase at Amazon.com and also through the Guidecraft website.

The Giveaway

Guidecraft is generously offering ONE Nordic Rocker to a reader of the Guidecraft Educators blogs!!!!

Here’s How To Win:

MANDATORY first entry:

• Visit the Guidecraft Website, then come back and leave a comment here telling me which is your favorite product.

Optional additional entries (leave in a SEPARATE comment):

• Become a fan of Guidecraft on Facebook.
• "Like" Katie's {Little Ones} Learning Lounge on Facebook.
  
• Tweet or Facebook about this giveaway; @kateh12783 is giving away a Nordic Rocker from @guidecraft ~ http://katiesliteraturelounge.blogspot.com/2011/08/nordic-rocker-guidecraft-educator.html . Giveaway ends 8/8.
• Become a follower of Katie's {Little Ones} Learning Lounge, unless of course you already are. :) Just let me know!
• Blog about this giveaway and share the link here.

Giveaway Information:

• The give-away will be open until 11:59PM EST on Monday, August 8, 2011. The winner will be notified by Wednesday, August 10, 2011.
• Make sure to leave a separate comment for each entry, winner will be chosen at random!
• Please leave a way for me to contact you in your entry otherwise another winner will be chosen.
• NOTE: This giveaway is offered to US and Canada residents only.

Want it NOW? If you can’t wait to win, the Nordic Rocker is available for purchase at Amazon.com and also through the Guidecraft website.

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If you're interested in finding out more information about any of the books reviewed or if you'd like to purchase the books, click the cover image for a link to Amazon.com. I am an Amazon Affiliate, so any purchases you make after clicking these images will result in my receiving a small percentage of the sale price!