Go Play!

One of my very favorite photos of M
playing in the leaves. :)

Fall really is a great time to get outside and enjoy our world.  Something about the change in seasons makes us want to warm up our homes and let our bodies soak up the last of the year’s warm sunny weather.  It’s a great time for being outside and enjoying the beautiful displays of nature.  

I recently participated in the Shout Go Play initiative, set up to stress the value of play in childhood.

Message from Shout:

”Shout knows play is so much more than fun and games.  Studies show that unstructured play helps kids build fundamental skills like problem solving, coping, and conflict resolution.  In other words; play is how kids become happy, healthy adults.  Fall has arrived with crisp, cool air and new reasons to go out and play.  So, let your kids take that rewarding jump into a pile of leaves.  Take a trip to the park and watch their imaginations run free.  The one thing you won’t do is worry about their clothes; play should get messy and Shout can help.”

I received a package of 3 laundry products from Shout (these were sent to me for free in return for writing a review.  All opinions in this review are entirely mine.) – Shout Trigger, a spray stain treatment; Shout Advanced Ultra Gel, a gel stain treatment with a scrubber brush attached; and Shout Color Catcher, sheets that absorb and trap colors in your wash water.
With two messy boys in our home, and one messy mama, we were able to test two of these babies out right away. :)  All of the products seem to work well.  

M had chocolate stains on a white and blue striped shirt.  The spray bottle says stains can be treated up to a week prior to washing.  Since this was  an old shirt that he won’t be wearing much anymore I decided to use it as our first guinea pig.  I waited 3 days after spraying the stains before washing it.  All but the very worst of them came out in the first wash.  I then used the “Advanced Ultra Gel” on the remaining couple of stains and washed them right away.  His shirt came out looking perfect!  

I have a pretty good laundry system set up so I wasn’t sure I’d get to test the color catcher since I never wash colors and whites together.  However, I did a test with my husband’s newest dress shirt that had never been washed.  I washed it along with some other, lighter fabrics (his shirt was dark blue), and the color catcher sheet really did capture the color and left all the clothes looking great.  I’m not sure how often I’ll have use for this product, but I do think it’s good to have on hand when crises arise or we are sick and regular laundry doesn’t get done – it will be nice to be able to throw everything in the wash together without having to separate it into several different loads.

All in all, I think I appreciate the Advanced Ultra Gel the most, since it really works on stains that sprays just can’t get out.  The spray treatment  worked on par with other leading brands of sprays I’ve used.

I was also very pleased to receive this little pack of cards in our Shout package:



It has 52 cards, each with an outside activity described on it.  These are simple, fun, easy activities to spur on the creativity of children and their exploration of nature. 
 

Have a beautiful day! :)