Anchor Bay Entertainment has released the "Best of James" ($19.98 DVD), a new compilation from the "Thomas & Friends" video series.
James, "The Really Splendid Red Engine," is a puppet who appears alongside Thomas the Tank Engine in short (5 minutes on average) vignettes for preschool children about morality and coexistence in everyday life.
James is an arrogant and mercurial engine who often annoys or insults his fellow engines that exist together on a fictitious island called Sodor. Events in each episode seem to teach James a lesson in humility or caution.
There are eight episodes and a sing-along on the 46-minute video.
Details: www.anchorbayentertainment.com/childrens or www.thomasthetankengine.com .
WORKSHOP ON FEELINGS
The center, a nonprofit organization offering reading and math tutoring, speech and language services and other academic aid to children, is presenting the lecture with the center's school psychologist, Liza Sipe.
The main purpose of the workshop is to encourage children to examine their emotional well-being, and how they can manage difficult or stressful situations.
Registration is $35.
Details: (412) 741-4087.
On-the-go games
BABY THOUGHT PROCESS
Scientists from Hungary had 14-month-old infants watch adults turn on a light switch with their foreheads. If the adult's hands were free at the time, the babies tended to imitate and turn on the switch with their heads.
But if the adult's hands appeared busy - holding a blanket in this case - the babies were more likely to use their hands.
It's as though the babies figured out that the adults were using their foreheads only because their hands were busy, the scientists report in the latest issue of the journal Nature.
The study suggests that babies think for themselves when learning from others instead of just imitating blindly.
CHILDREN'S DECOR
Products soon to hit the market range from stackable rolling storage in primary colors (StyleMaster's Kids line, which will be available at Wal-Mart on March 1; $14.99 to $29.99) to the SpongeBob SquarePants Spin-O-Clock, featuring numbers that rotate each hour - like tiles on automated billboards - to form scenes from the show with dialogue and music. A light sensor on the wall clock turns the audio off at night. (ThinkTek, available late March, www.buyhottvproducts.com , or call ThinkTek then at (888) 844-6598, $29.99.)
Available now are Kidstation's computer desks and chairs, which adjust to be ergonomic for youngsters ages 3 to 8. The desktop can rise from 12 inches high to 22; chair seat height, from 8 inches to 12. The monitor shelf and chair backrest also adjust. Shapes are funky and fun; $199.95 for a single desk and chair, $259.95 for a double desk and two chairs, $199.95 for a computer/printer stand ( www.kidstation.com or (800) 397-9055).
LumiSource's accent lighting comes in a variety of animal shapes. The Night-Pals line includes a pink pig, a green frog and more. Kumo paper covers metal frames, and the lamps, about $25, come with a 25-watt candelabra bulb. For a catalog and retailer locations: (888) 461-5864 or www.LumiSource.com .
Children can get creative with their furnishings - we're talking chairs, tables, rockers or a castle - with Mixed Nuts' Crazy Cardboard FUNctional Furnishings. Made of laminated, triple-layer, precut corrugated cardboard, they're assembled in a slide-and-lock system, like a puzzle, and can be decorated. The Crown Me Throne, $22.50, is 34 inches tall and 19 inches wide, and is made to hold as much as 100 pounds ( www.crazycardboard.com or (888) 333-1931).
