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This article from The Simple Dollar give a great insight into how to teach your kids about money.

Fine motor skills are small muscle movements of the fingers that help your child to perform school readiness activities such as:

Painting with a paintbrush

Cutting with scissors

Drawing and writing using a pencil or crayon correctly

Holding and using a knife and fork

Holding and manipulating small objects

Craft activities

(Nursery & School Guide Edinburgh 06/07)

THE PLAN

Choose any theme you want and adapt the plan accordingly. My theme is ‘Primary Colours’.

Monday: Do three paintings. A Red painting, a Blue painting and a Yellow painting.

Tuesday: Take some magazines, old paper and cards in the three primary colours, allow your child to cut into squares or other shapes with safety scissors. Take a large piece of white paper or card and glue the paper pieces on to make a primary colour collage. Make signs for each colour by writing the letters on to paper, your child can attempt to cut out by following the lines.

Wednesday: Practise writing their name in the three different colours. Choose the best sign and decorate with glitter and stickers for the wall.

Thursday: Prepare a lunch together of pasta. Give them a jar of pasta and ask them to count out some pasta shapes into a bowl (using their pincer grip). Serve with some ham or chicken and practise using a knife and fork. Make it more fun by heading outside for a picnic - don’t forget to ice some biscuits or fairy cakes with red, blue and yellow icing!

Friday: Make a model house. Take a box (the house), a yoghurt pot (chimney), and some cellophane (windows) and glue together to make a house. Paint the house red, blue or yellow. Add some fabric curtains, and cotton wool smoke to the chimney.

Saturday: Let your child choose an activity or outing that relates to red, blue or yellow!

Photo by flickr user venegas

10 Tips for choosing a good primary school by Little Legends

This post about dads spending time with their kids during the holidays caught my eye whilst perusing this weeks’ carnival of family life.

The importance of ‘daddy time’ is very well documented and any father worth his salt will want to spend time with their kids, however, could it be that some dads lack the creative spark or imagination or even knowledge to know what their kids will enjoy and what activities are most age appropriate.

1. Swimming

Babies through to teens they all love swimming. Cheap and fun its always a good option especially in the winter.

2. Bake Cakes

This isn’t as complicated as it sounds if you buy a box which provides you with cake mix, icing, and decorations…in fact all you need is an egg and some water and you’re cooking (literally!)

3. Trip to the Park

Ideal for toddlers through to primary age kids, great for letting off some steam (and giving mum a break!)

4. Imaginitive Play

Horsee and aeroplanes for babies, cops ‘n’ robbers and cowboys ‘n’ indians for preschoolers. These games are imaginitive games. Experts say that in todays society of computers and tv imaginitive play needs to be especially encouraged.

5. Skittles

Skittles is suitable for toddler and primary age children.

6. Ice Skating

In most big cities there is a winter wonderland with an outdoor ice rink, a real treat for primary age right through to teens.

7. Make a Den

Dads are best at making dens so I’m not going to offer any so-called advice here

8. Make Gunge

Dads will enjoy this one just as much as the kids!

9. Baby Ball Pool

This one is great for babies.

10. Check Out Kids Websites

Surf the net for websites for kids. Here is a good place to start.

11. Make a Happy Sun

An easy craft project, suitable for toddlers and preschoolers.

12. Make Chocolate Fondue

Suitable for toddlers, preschool and primary age children. Yummy!

13. Ice Cream Collage

Another easy craft activity, suitable for toddlers and preschoolers.

14. Exploring Textures

Babies can be difficult to entertain but this usually keeps them amused for a while.

15. Hand and Foot Printing

Messy but fun. Suitable for babies through to preschoolers and maybe a little bit beyond.

16. Play Doh

Easy to set up and easy to clear away. Toddlers and preschoolers will enjoy the most.

17. Christmas Shopping

18. Buy Tree/Decorations

19. Paper Flower Collage

Suitable for toddlers and preschoolers.

20. Baby Games

Easy games that babies really enjoy.

Make a cute hedgehog from a pine cone.

Erin and I made this crown.

We used some card from a box, paint, glitter glue and star stickers.

I cut the shape from the box. Erin helped paint the crown purple. We decorated it with glitter glue in green, gold and red and added the final touch with gold star stickers.

It was a lot of fun, Erin particularly enjoyed the glitter glue part

I have long wondered, should I have been started much earlier in my language training would I now be bi-lingual, or even fluent in more than two languages?

It’s a long argued point that kids in Britain do not start language training early enough, and, not enough emphasis is put on it during the primary school years.

My first taste of a foreign language came very late in my primary school education, I think I was about ten. With these thoughts playing on my mind and recognising the importance of learning other languages and the lucrative jobs that this skill can land you, I have decided to start super early with Erin.

My first move was to buy this bi-lingual toy for christmas. For her birthday I have asked her aunty to buy a French learning pack. I’m not going to sit down and attempt to ‘teach’ her anything at this stage, after all, she is only a baby. However, I will be integrating french words and songs to our daily routine to get her used to hearing the sounds.

I hope that by doing this I will encourage a life long love of learning languages that will open up a variety of opportunity for travel and work in her future.

More to come on learning a language….

Are YOU teaching your kids a second language?

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In the future I will be writing more on junk modelling, it was one of my favourite pastimes as a kid, as a babysitter, and nursery assistant.

In the meantime keep a plastic box stowed away and add ‘nice’* junk to it, allow your kids at it on rainy afternoons to make stuff. Don’t tell them what to make, provide the junk, some PVA glue, and some paint - sit back and see what happens….

*Nice Junk: Washing-up liquid bottles, egg cartons, kitchen rolls, cereal boxes, washed out butter tubs and yoghurt cartons.

Watch this space for some inspiration on junk modelling

You will need;

Tin Foil

and that’s it!!!

Provide your kid/s with a length of tin foil and get them to make sculptures of animals, people, buildings, or anything they want!!

(bet you can sense the possibility of a quiet five minutes with this one!)

This is a quick, cheap and easy activity to occupy kids for a while

You will need;

Thick Paper/Card

Glue

Sand

1. Draw a picture with glue on the card.

2. Dust picture with sand, remove excess.