We love a simple invitation to create, and the craft boxes that Bostik send us every month are the perfect starting point for some fun crafts!  This month our topic is birds, and it didn't take Ethan long to choose some materials to make a cute peg bird craft.


What you'll need to make a peg bird craft:

• dolly peg
• lolly stick
• feathers
• Bostik Glu Dots
• Bostik Foam Pads
• googly eyes

Ethan had a plan straight away to put the lolly stick into the space in the peg to be the birds wings, so we used a few of the sticky foam pads to get it to stick in and to stay in place.



Next Ethan decorated the birds' face using glue dots to stick on some googly eyes and drawing on a face.


Finally our bird needed some feathers!  We were able to wrap a glue dot around the pointy end of a feather and then stick it into the space in the dolly peg.


It was a really simple craft but it came out looking lovely and involved some problem solving to figure out how to get everything to stick to the dolly peg.  


Now Ethan enjoys playing with his bird craft and flying it around.  We may have to make a whole flock!


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* This is a review post, we were sent a box of craft supplies from Bostik in order to create a bird craft.*

We love Easter (and any reason to celebrate!) it's a great opportunity to welcome spring and all of the fun playing and learning that we can do outdoors (as well as indoors on those rainy days!)  So I wanted to create some Easter baskets for the kids this year that did exactly that. They also get some yummy healthy treats, and won't even miss the chocolate!



First, instead of regular Easter baskets I decided to use bicycle baskets!  These ones are perfect as they can fit on pretty much any bike or scooter and they promote the kids being active outdoors this spring (and they can also carry their own water and snacks this way!)

• Spiderman Bicycle basket (buy from Amazon UK / similar from Amazon US)
• Flower Bicycle basket (buy from Amazon UK / Amazon US)

As for the treats, we are not short on those either!  Of course the kids will get some chocolate for Easter from various different people, so we do like to balance it out with healthy treats that they will also really enjoy. We always love the delicious healthy treats from Kiddylicious and Organix. They're great for the Easter baskets and also perfect for hiding in plastic Easter eggs for the hunt!

• Fruit Wiggles
• Smoothie Melts
• Raisins
• Mini Oaty Bites

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* This is a review post, we were sent the Miffy soft toy, Sylvanian Rabbit Family, Orchard Toys games and healthy snacks from Kiddylicious and Organix in order to use them in our baskets and write our honest opinions.*

We just got the most fantastic new book that I can not wait to tell you all about.  It's called Old Tracks New Tricks and it's written by Jessica Petersen, who you might know from the fabulous blog Play Trains.  





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* This is a review post, we were sent a copy of Old Tracks New Tricks in order to read it and try out the activities and write our honest opinions about it.*

Ivy recently turned three, and the lucky little girl received a lot of fabulous gifts, so of course she had a lot of people to thank for their generosity.  I love that the children are now old enough to create their own thank you cards, so our plan now is always to use blank cards to create masterpieces to send to thank everyone.



What you'll need to make our painted thank you cards:

• blank cards and envelopes (buy from Amazon UK / Amazon US)
• Paint Sticks (buy from Amazon UK / Amazon US)

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* This is a review post, we were sent a pack of Paint Sticks in order to create something with them and write our honest opinions about them*

I have been wanting to get the kids a really good globe for a while now, they are very interested in the countries of the world and love looking at maps and pointing out where we live and where our family members around the world live too.  So I was very excited to review this fantastic Puzzle Globe from Learning Resources.


The Puzzle Globe, first of all, looks bright and colourful so it's very inviting for children to play with also looks lovely on a shelf in one of the children's rooms.  Of course it hardly stays on the shelf, because the kids love playing with it!  


Ethan and Ivy couldn't wait to get this globe out of the box when it arrived, but I did manage to show them the continents and how the puzzle globe works before they got started with playing with it.  The continents all come off of the globe, and each name label comes off as well.  The children can then place all of the pieces back by memory, but if they aren't quite ready there are a few features to help them out.


Each continent is colour coded, so that the colour of the land mass is the same as the writing on the label.  That makes matching up the names to the continents easier.

Each continent also has a shaped peg that matches the hole in the globe itself.  So if you look at the peg and find it is triangle shaped, then you just have to find the triangle shaped hole to place it into.


Knowing this Ethan is now able to place all of the pieces in the right places on the globe, and Ivy can as well (with a little bit of help).  It is also a great talking point, for each of the continents also has pictures of landmarks and of animals.  It's a great way to introduce the children to a few key features of each of the continents, without overwhelming them with too many facts.


We love this Puzzle Globe, it's such a simple toy in many ways but all of the details and features make it a really useful learning tool.  We will definitely be playing with this one for years to come.

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* This is a review post, we were sent the Puzzle Globe from Learning Resources in order to play with it and write our honest opinions.*

Video games for kids can often be a controversial topic, especially as we're often looking to limit our childrens' screen time rather than add to it.  However, I think that if we're playing the right video games they can be lots of fun and used as a tool for learning.  And that's where the LeapTV comes in.


The first thing that I like about the LeapTV is that it can be played with in an active way, and that this doesn't require multiple controllers.  The controller for the LeapTV can in fact be used in 3 different ways, one in the traditional way, secondly as a pointer and finally it can be put down and the game can be played just with body movements.  By having multiple ways to play within each game the kids are constantly challenged to move in different ways and to keep active whilst they play.  I think that the thing that we worry about most with video games is watching kids zone out and sit still for ages whilst they play, but with the LeapTV I found that the kids were constantly up and about and trying to figure out how they need to be moving for each game.

I also love that the games themselves are educational.  The games that we were sent to go along with the LeapTV were Sports which is a maths game, Bubble Guppies which is a science game, Jake and the Neverland Pirates which is a maths game, and Frozen which is also a maths game.


This means that concepts that can be difficult to work on with the kids at home can now be done in a way that they find interesting and different.  We worked on ordering numbers, adding and taking away, sizes of numbers and learned so much just from trying each of the games out.


It's also fun for the whole family, so on a rainy day or when the kids aren't feeling very well it's a great way to spend the day and to get us having fun together.  Of course video games will never replace running around outdoors or playing other active games together, but I definitely think that they are worth looking at as an addition to the games we play at home when there isn't a chance to be active in other ways.  And the kids think it's a real treat when we get the LeapTV out, without even realising how much they are learning from the educational games, which is a real bonus!


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* This is a review post, we were sent the Leap TV and a few games in order to play with it and write our honest opinions about it*