Littlemummy.com

Family holidays and teenagers rarely mix (I should know, it wasn’t that long ago!). Too young to enjoy the delights of being an adult and too old to even consider the kids clubs, it’s difficult to keep everyone happy especially if you have children of different age groups. Here’s an idea;
Tell your teenager that you are going away for the weekend. Charge them with choosing the destination (within a specific mile radius), the route, tell them they must ensure that the destination/s must suit the whole family …

When I talk about toddlers I usually mean ages 18mths – 3 years. The following activities and games can be adjusted to suit these ages easily, and extended out for preschoolers ie by including more unusual colours.
Colours
For young toddlers I would stick to the primary colours, red, yellow and blue. For the older toddlers I would include green, orange, purple and pink.
Art & Craft
Rainbow Picture – Get a huge piece of paper, plain wallpaper works well, draw a rainbow and paint with correct colours.
Make a Kite – …

The Simple Dollar offers some advice on how to begin teaching a teenager to manage their finances. Erin isn’t old enough to have any concept of money, in fact, she doesn’t have any concept of wanting anything other than if she sees someonelse with something, sweets, a book, a drink. As soon as she begins to ask for things in a shop, sweets, a toy, I will introduce the concept of swapping ‘pennies’ for toys/sweets etc.. I expect that point to come in the latter part of …

The best way to ‘teach’ toddlers is to provide stimulating activities. When I worked at the nursery, we would focus on one topic each week and provide various activities that the children would enjoy and learn from.
Shapes
I would stick to the basics, circle, square and triangle.
Art & Craft
A Shape Collage – Pre-cut shapes from coloured paper, let your toddler stick them down onto a piece of card.
A Shape Mobile – Cut large shapes from thick card, punch a hole and thread with string.
Traffic Light Picture – A traffic light …

A while back Dorling Kindersley sent me a couple of books to try out and write a review on, if I so wished.
Both books are written by Dr Miriam Stoppard, most of you will have heard that name before, she is a famous childcare expert that writes various columns for parenting magazines, she is also quite prolific on tv programmes regarding children.
The first book is Baby Games.

Baby Games helps encourage playing simple games with your baby, included is a finger puppet which the games revolve around.
The finger puppet …

We had fun last week doing chalk drawings, it’s one of the easiest activities for Erin’s age group going. It’s simple to set up, only requires chalk and paper, and is pretty tidy too.

As easy as it may seem, as you can see it takes the ultimate in concentration.
Click on either photo to see more photos of chalk drawing.

A couple of other bloggers have written an ABC list for summer inspiration. I did it for Christmas so here’s my Summer edition.
Aeroplane Spotting
Bark Rubbing
Chocolate Krispie Cake Making
Dvd Night
Eating Competition (Dooking for apples or donut on a string?)
Foot Printing
Gardening
Hide & Seek
Ice Biscuits
Jigsaw Puzzles
Kite Flying
Library visit
Make a Mosaic from Old Cards
Nature Walk + Scavenger Hunt
Organize a Football/Rugby/Cricket Tournament
Paint a Canvas
Quiet Time (aah, I think this one is wishful thinking!)
Rounders
Start a Summer Scrapbook
Treasure Hunt
Under the Sea Collage
Visit a Museum
Websites for kids
Xylopohone and other Musical Instruments
Your Turn – Each family member takes …

We (Alex, Erin and I) went to a local buffet restaurant for lunch today. We go fairly regularly, about every six weeks or so, Erin loves it, she gets loads of attention from the staff as she has been going there since she was born.
Today I noticed how well Erin’s table manners were coming along, at sixteen months you can’t expect too much, here is a couple of things we do expect, and to be honest Erin rarely lets herself down – if you can even call it …

It’s all work, studying, floor laying and learning to walk in our house…
I really appreciate the balance of education and recreation in ordinary mom’s post preventing the summer boredom blues. You may be able to find more activity inspiration here.

Parents – It’s not all about the children is a great post that certainly applies to a minority percentage of parents. Of course there is the other group who could be doing a little more which would help society as a whole, but that’s a different post.
Having a second …

Erin turned sixteen months yesterday, if she’d received a pound for every time someone asked me if she is walking yet she’d have a healthy car/mortgage deposit/uni fund by now.
Erin stood unaided for the first time today, she also walked for the first time with her push along toy, and refused to be spoon fed preferring to feed herself. Aaah my baby is growing up and I’m experiencing the same blend of pleasure, sorrow and pride that we (parents) feel every time a new skill is learned, …