Play It Smart with Thumball

Play It Smart with Thumball by Answers In Motion: "The Smart Balls" for Learning through Play! www.thumball.com

1. Meet & Greet Thumball for Family Reunions & Home Product Parties: provides thoughtful questions that stimulate interesting and fun conversations.
2. Ice Breaker Thumball for More Memorable Meetings: fun, easy way to increase employee participation & attention at trainings.
3. Virtues & Values Thumball for Building Self Esteem: encourages self-reflection on personal characteristics. How do you see yourself and how do others see you?
4. Category Mania Thumball helps "It's on the Tip of My Tongue" disorder: practice word finding with ease. Kids build vocabularies and older adults keep their brains sharp.
   
5. Emotion Mania Thumball for all including those with Asperger's: practice understanding and using facial expressions. Expands emotional intelligence.
6. Who Are You Thumball for all particularly those with Autism: fun way to socialize, turn take & make casual eye contact.
7. Move Your Body Thumball for Getting Active: teaches verbs, adverbs, body language & fitness. Act out each direction in reps of 3 to 5 for an entertaining work out.
8. Answer Mania Thumball for Making Silly or Serious Decisions: ask it any yes/no question and it helps you know what to do or not to do!
9. Thumball Literacy Set for Better Reading Comprehension: reinforces story elements (plot, conflict) and provides practice in retelling classic tales.
10. My ABCs or Letter Mania Thumballs for Learning Letter Sounds: enhances phonological skills essential to reading development.
11. Numbers Thumball for developing Math skills: count, learn 1 to 1 correspondence, practice math equations. Throw it twice and add, subtract or multiply!
12. Shapes Thumball for Early Cognitive Learning: develops visual perception, language skills and introduces prefixes.
13. Animals Thumball for Early Language Learning: develops naming skills, expands animal descriptions, perfect for Old McDonald sing along.
14. Catch Peace Thumball for Promoting Peace Around The World: increases cultural awareness and discussion of current events.
15. Soccer Mania Thumball for teaching skills & coaching: makes drills more fun, stimulates discussions about the match and reinforces rules & terms.
16. Love Always Thumball for showing you care: learn to say, “I love you.” in 10 languages and reflect on 20 quotes about love. Great for anniversary, wedding, showers, Valentine’s Day.
    

Thumball Bible Set Arriving in August 2009.
Baseball Thumball, Full Deck Thumball and Football Thumball soon to follow!

Team Building byTraining Wheels with Thumball

Trainers & Team Builders LOOK! 2 Fantastic New Thumball Designs:
Conflict Resolution & Debriefing http://bit.ly/tvLXv

It is exciting to see Thumball's reach expand and grow as we create custom products for forward thinking companies. Training Wheels is a known leader in the team building industry and prides itself in creating quality, affordable activities, books, and trainings for those seeking experiential resources. Owner Michelle Cummings has created a wide variety of facilitation, debriefing and team building activities that have collectively changed the way experiential educators and trainers work.

Michelle has designed two very useful tools: Conflict Resolution Thumball and Debriefing Thumball which make trainings and team building experiences even more effective and memorable. Those special designs are now available on her website and we encourage you to check them out.

There are many creative people out there in every field developing their own Thumball designs tailored specifically for their goals. We at Answers In Motion are here to turn those ideas into reality. As the exclusive manufacturers of Thumball products we are ready to serve the needs of businesses, celebrities, charities and families that want an attention getting way to convey their message. Thumballs are really catching on!

An Entrepreneur? Give Thanks for the Terror

Blogs are wonderful but like most wonderful things it takes focus and discipline. I posted less in August than expected but I am on a quest of self forgiveness so this gave me a chance to express it.

As we wait for our first shipment of Thumballs made under the stricter European standards (CE), for half the shipment to go to the UK establishing us as a worldwide company and for the new designs our customers asked for I take a moment to reflect. The past 4 years since the pivotal dream, literally a dream that urged me on to manufacture our product I am amazed. Defining ourselves as entrepreneurs has been exhilarating, enlightening and terrorizing. Gregg and I have taken a bigger risk than we ever thought possible.

With my husband's tenacity and business sense we have created something that was not there before and that is stunning. There are more reasons not to do this than to do this unless you want some real excitement. Now my goal to make Thumball™ a household word like Frisbee™ or Magic 8 ball™ or Duncan Yo-Yo™.

I believe Thumball™ is truly beneficial and powerful in a surprising way. One toss of an Icebreaker or Who Are you Thumball and you can be communicating with someone you may never have spoken to in your life. One toss and the playing field is evened whether for students having autism, learning disabilities, ADHD or for diverse employees brought together for trainings. They may have all seen each other and even nodded politely but actually engaging in verbal interaction probably not.

So it is time to give thanks for those that believed in our dream. Family members and friends willing to work on our project and attend the trade shows with us and watch our dogs when we went on the road, thank you.

We have businesses to thank for their orders and support including;
Trainer's Warehouse, S & S Worldwide, Nasco, Self-esteem shop, Marco Products, Courage To Change, Self Help Warehouse and recently added to The Speech Bin catalog.

Of course our independent toy store retailers gave us an early start as well and we are grateful for them. There are so many others and we appreciate all of you. Thanks to our customers who ordered through the website or sent a PO from a school or business.

I don't always know where a blog post will take me as I write it. This foray led to thankfulness and that is a great place to go on any day for any reason. Giving thanks gives back every time. I am thankful for this journey the good, the bad and the terrorizing.

Thumball At Work? What is it Good For?

Thumball is ideal for trainings, meetings and teaching. Employee inservices become more interesting with the introduction of ball play. Audience participation increases. An alert brain retains more information. Co-workers from different departments that may have never met are now talking together. The Icebreaker Thumball is perfect for sharing preferences and experiences in a casual yet stimulating way.
Workshops turn into word play with My ABC's Thumball. Throw it, catch it and respond to the letter under your thumb with a word relating to the topic that begins with that letter. Challenges our brains and creates a lively interactive learning experience. Human Resource directors praise Thumball as the easiest most useful tool ever.