Patent Application
20240041172
Various types of compactable, foldable, and self-contained activity kits for children are known in the art. However, use while traveling presents problems where the child is confined to a child safety seat: When the child drops an implement or component of the kit, the implement or component is often irretrievable without stopping the vehicle and retrieving the implement or component for the child. Many a parent is familiar with the attendant outcry if the implement or component is not retrieved.
Prior to 1979, there were no laws in the United States requiring use of car seats for children. Children were, for all intents and purposes, free to roam around inside a vehicle. In 1979, Tennessee became the first State to adopt a car seat law that required securing the child in a specially designed car seat, sized and suited to the child's physique, to protect the child from collisions or traffic accidents.
By 1985, all States had adopted car seat laws. Yet, 80% of children were still not using them in transit. Play during long trips, therefore, was not confined to a particular area in a vehicle, and children were able retrieve items dropped during use in the vehicle while freely moving about the vehicle interior.
However, in reaction to unnecessary fatalities, no doubt, specifications for car seats have increased and become more stringent over the years. In the present day, children under eight years of age must be properly restrained in an automobile with a separate restraint system or booster seat designed to properly accommodate their size and stature. As a result, children are limited in their range of motion—if a child drops a writing implement, for example, during transit, the implement may be irretrievable until the vehicle is stopped. This can be frustrating for parents, who often provide their children with booklets and activities during long trips. Stopping the vehicle to retrieve the item on behalf of the child is time consuming and inconvenient. Worse, attempts by a parent to retrieve the item while operating the vehicle can be extremely dangerous.
The present invention, therefore, addresses this issue by providing an activity kit with tetherable components: writing implements that are storable and usable in transit while remaining tethered to the activity kit. If a child drops the writing implement, the implement is retrievable by the child at the end of the tether.
The present invention relates to travel kits and activity kits, and, more particularly, to an activity kit with tetherable components that presents storage capacity and includes interior and exterior surfaces upon which to interact with booklets and writable surfaces whereon a child may draw, color, or otherwise create and interact with content during travel.
The present invention has been devised to assist children perform activities while traveling in a vehicle. The present activity kit with tetherable components maintains access to media and associated writing and coloring implements for drawing, coloring, and/or writing. The activity kit with tetherable components enables a child to retrieve a dropped implement without having to move from his or her seat, wherein he or she is subject to restraint while in transit.
The present activity kit with tetherable components presents a compact, portable profile, and has been devised to contain writing and/or coloring implements tethered to a case. The case is foldable and has an interior surface and an exterior surface which are orientable between an open position and a closed position. In an example embodiment contemplated herein, the case is foldable in half whereby the exterior surface is bisected by a spine. The case may be configured to unfold through approximately three-hundred-and-sixty degrees, whereby the interior surface is positional exteriorly in the open position and the exterior surface is positional interiorly. When moved to the open position, the interior surface is accessible and is presented as a work surface upon which a child may conduct activities, as exemplified herein below, and the exterior surface is folded against itself.
A pocket is disposed within the interior surface, said pocket disposed to slidingly receive and secure an activity booklet therein. The activity booklet may be a coloring book, or a pad of paper, or other book, magazine, publication, or interactive medium (such as a smart tablet, for example) presenting a plurality of leaves or pages upon which activities may be performed or a surface or screen with which to interact. The activity booklet is enclosed within the case when the case is moved to the closed position.
In an example embodiment contemplated herein, at least one receptacle is disposed upon the interior surface in spatial relation proximal to the pocket and, when present, the activity booklet or smart tablet therein positioned. This at least one receptacle is configured to releasably receive a portion of a writing implement whereby the writing implement is securable to the interior surface of the case when inserted into the receptacle. In an example embodiment contemplated herein, the at least one receptacle is configured to engage an associated writing implement endwise—that is, the writing implement is inserted into the receptacle along a longitudinal axis whereby an end of the writing implement is housed interior to the receptacle. However, other types of receptacles are contemplated as within scope of this disclosure such as, for example, clips or ties that engage against at least a portion of the writing implement to releasably secure the implement in close contact with the interior surface of the case.
At least one tether, having a first end and a second end, is releasably connectable to the interior surface and, also, releasably connectable to the writing implement at some portion thereof. A plurality of tethers is contemplated as within scope of this disclosure, by which a plurality or writing implements may be secured to the case.
The at least one tether may be threaded through at least one aperture in the case, whereby the tether's two ends are freely disposed for connection to writing implements, for example. In another example embodiment contemplated herein, the tether may be connected or connectable to the case by one of the tether's ends, and then connectable to the writing implement at its other end. In another example embodiment contemplated herein, the tether may be intermittently connected across the interior surface presenting loops to which or through which writing implements may be releasably secured. In another example embodiment, a combination of the aforementioned arrangements and configurations of the at least one tether is contemplated.
The at least one tether is contemplated to be an elongate string, strip, ribbon, or elasticated member, or other elongate nonrigid member, enabling uninhibited use of the writing implement within a range of the case described by a radius extending the length of the tether disposed between the writing implement and the case. Thus, should a child drop the writing implement, the implement may be readily retrieved by means of the tether.
In at least one embodiment contemplated herein, a writable surface may be disposed upon the exterior surface of the case. In an example embodiment herein disclosed, the writable surface upon the exterior surface may comprise a dry erase surface whereon a child may mark or draw and erase the markings or drawings for reuse. In an example embodiment contemplated herein, a soft, raised perimeter may be disposed surrounding the writable surface upon the exterior surface of the case to serve as a padding or wrist rest when the case is positioned upon the child's lap in the closed position with the writable surface disposed uppermost.
Thus, has been broadly outlined the more important features of the present activity kit with tetherable components so that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated.
Objects of the present activity kit with tetherable components, along with various novel features that characterize the invention are particularly pointed out in the claims forming a part of this disclosure. For better understanding of the activity kit with tetherable components, its operating advantages and specific objects attained by its uses, refer to the accompanying drawings and description.
An example embodiment of the activity kit with tetherable components, designated by the number 10, is shown in the accompanying Figures. These drawings are set forth to exemplify features of the present invention and are not intended to be limiting. Additional and other embodiments are contemplated as within scope of the present invention; the form and arrangement of fundamental features and parts set forth herein defined and controlled by the accompanying claims.
Discussing now the drawings in example embodiment,
Writing implements 42 are securable to the interior surface 24 of the second portion 28 by means of receptacles 44 disposed adjacently proximal the pocket member 40. In this example embodiment, receptacles 44 are configured to releasably receive a portion of writing implement 42 whereby said writing implement 42 is secured to the interior surface 24 of the case 20. In the example embodiment shown in
In this example embodiment depicted, tether 46 is releasably securable to second end of markers 42, whereby markers 42 are retrievable by a user holding the case 20 if the markers 42 are dropped during use when not secured in receptacles 44. In the example embodiment shown, tethers 46 are releasably attachable to markers by elasticated sections 48. Other means of attaching to writing implements are contemplated as within scope of this invention, however, including for example, hook and loop fasteners or releasable adhesive members or fictively engageable collars (such as manufactured from silicone or other polymer, for example), or other means of selectively attaching ends of tether 46 to at least a portion of writing implement 42.
Embodiments are contemplated that include combinations of all of the example embodiments disclosed in a single embodiment. Embodiments are contemplated in variation of the example embodiments disclosed, wherein variation is within the scope implied by the claims.
