When one hears the name "Hallmark", the first thing that likely comes to mind is greeting cards.  Hallmark has made its name as a trusted company that specializes in all your greeting card needs, but it's not just cards that Hallmark has!

I won't lie.  Whenever I'm at the mall, I sneak into the Hallmark store! I can spend a very long time in there, so I'm lucky my little one loves the store too!  The Hallmark store is filled with thoughtful gift items that let loved ones know how much they meant to you.  I buy picture frames, coffee mugs, jewelry boxes, figurines, and other special gifts there. They carry a wide variety of products for all the special events and moments in your life.  They have gift items for milestones like births, birthdays, weddings, graduations, etc. They also carry items for every day moments...because every moment with friends and family is a special one.

As a member of the #HallmarkPressPause Panel, I get to share all the latest and greatest items and news with my readers, friends, and family.  One of the biggest surprises in the latest #HallmarkPressPause shipment were the Text Bands!

Text Bands are "The Coolest New Way for Kids to Connect".  Kids can bump fists, shake hands, or high five each other to exchange messages. Kids can choose between the charcoal and purple starter bands with text module and then if they want to switch things up, the text modules can be inserted into other fashion bands (sold separately).  My favourite is the Minnie Mouse one!

Want to see how they work? Check out this video!


Though Little One is not even 4 years old yet, she was intrigued by the Text Bands. Hubby and I thought they were really neat and had fun playing with them. The ones who were even more excited about the Text Bands were the older kids (nieces and their friends)!  There's even a Text Bands site kids can go to and find lots of cool games they can play to trade messages with their friends.

Some of the Text Bands games include Zombie Outbreak

and Silly Sentences.

Here's where I insert my honest opinion:
I'm a "Word Girl" and though the idea of words morphing into shortened versions of the original word makes me cringe, I also realize that in many cases now, words are shortened to 'fit' into a message box that contains only a few characters.

Take Twitter, for example. How do you fit everything you want to say into a 140 characters? As a teacher of English, seeing "Sup?", "C U L8TR", "TY!", "YW!" and "That's Gr8!" irritates me. However, just as long as my students and my daughter realize that those are just shortened versions and not the actual words, and know how they are spelled and used, I'm okay with that. Using "CRZY" and "L8TR" is absolutely fine...so long as children don't write their essays that way, I'm fine.

In short, the Text Bands are great for getting kids interested in playing with words. It's a fun way to interact with friends. If a game (or in this case, a Text Band) can get kids excited about words, I think that's pretty cool.  

Pssst! FYI: I'm guilty of shortening words too these days. If you are on my BlackBerry contact list, you'll notice this when I'm busy or in a rush! My BBM messages are very brief when I'm busy!

I'll be sharing more exciting products from Hallmark soon! Stay tuned!

Disclosure - As a member of the #HallmarkPressPause Panel, I received an assortment of Hallmark products for review purposes.  Regardless of my affiliation with the brand, all the thoughts and opinions on this blog are honest and my own.