Celebrating Texas – Where Everything is Big!

I can’t think of any better place, to brag about our award-winning, English-Spanish Bilingual Songs series, than in Texas. For the past week I’ve been doing just that, criss-crossing Texas via planes and rental cars in order to visit as many educational retail stores as I can.

Now I can truly vouch for the old adage that everything in Texas is BIG! Big stores, big hearts and big aspirations! Texas is so big, as a matter of fact, that it’s easier and more cost effective to fly, from city to city, than to drive.

I began by visiting Cynthia Huereque in El Paso. Check-out her enormous, 9,000 square foot, store, Eraser Dust.

Then on to meet with Irma Escontrias, the owner of Houston’s Eraser Dust store.

Houston is also home to some pretty interesting and bright kids’ toy stores. About 30 minutes of GPS assisted driving took me to Esther Charubhat’s brand new colorful toy store, Westside Kinder Toys. This store has so many toys and activities packed into it that it is hard to walk!

It took a lot of sleuthing to find the site of Elayne Wolfe-McNeil’s A+ Literacy Education and Development but it was well worth it.

Next stop was Crystal Children and Teacher Supply to meet with manager, Merrylyn Thornton. This interesting store fills all of the curriculum needs of an educational store but also rivals the brightness and visual appeal of a toy store. With a teaching background, and presently directing the tutorial services, Merrylyn knows almost everything about every product in the store and can answer the questions of concerned teachers and parents with authority.

Houston’s West Side Teacher Supply store is managed by Rosalyn Arredono. Originally from El Salvador, Rosalyn is able to accommodate the needs of Hispanic as well as English speaking shoppers. West Side Teacher Supply is fairly new, and was one of the original sites of the Southwest Teacher Supply stores. The place was buzzing with the activity of teachers and parents doing last minute shopping before the beginning of the next school year.

Looking at the front of Coastal Teacher Supply in Houston, one would never imagine that Carole and Clyde’s store is as big as it is. This store is deceiving and you could spend an entire day inside discovering teaching materials.

Bright and cheerful Aurora Hart is the owner of Learning Tools in Humble, Texas. Since Aurora bought the business three years ago her store has now grown to 2 locations within the same plaza. Congratulations Aurora!

I’ll continue soon with the rest of my Texas tour, the home of big stores, big aspirations and big hearts!

p.s. If you ever rent a car, make sure you pay for the insurance package. Look at this damage and learn from my experience! Luckily I had paid the extra for insurance.

Many thanks to the guys at Midas Muffler, who found and replaced a burned-out fuse in my rental van, so that my GPS could continue to function. These guys saved my life as I tried to navigate the freeways of Houston!