It is nearly New Years Eve and we are always looking for fun ways to celebrate New Years as a family.  As Ethan is learning to tell the time we thought that it would be fun to make our very own New Years Eve Countdown Clock craft.

What you'll need to make a New Years Eve Countdown Clock Craft

Or pin this idea for next year!



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I came across this idea for a snowflake craft and just had to give it a try with the kids.  It looks so simple and who would have thought that clothes pins could be so pretty?

Clothes Pin Snowflake Craft

What you'll need:

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

I love the snow, I love it so much I can't even begin to tell you.  As a Canadian I was raised playing in the snow every winter, so I definitely feel like my kids are missing out with these rainy winters that we get in London.  However that doesn't stop us from having as much fun as we can with pretend snow!  So here are our top ten snow sensory activities:

Top Ten Snow Sensory Activities

This post is part of a top ten blog hop of fantastic snow themed ideas, check them out!





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It's almost Christmas and we have got most of our shopping done, it's just time to wrap up those gifts!  So we decided to try something a little bit different with our wrapping paper this year and used the Christmas story for inspiration.

• large roll of paper
• markers
• Christmas Story book

Whoever gets to open up this present will be very lucky!



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Learning those first numbers is so vital and I focused on them for so long, that it almost went unnoticed that I hadn't really put much effort into teaching Ethan how to form two digit numbers. We've been talking a lot about two digit numbers lately to make up for it, noticing them in the world around us on houses and buses, as well as our advent calendar (so useful for counting!) but it was time for a fun game to really solidify those numbers.

Setting up a Two Digit Number Snowman Game

What you'll need:

• cut out snowman shapes
• markers
• pom poms
• paper

I set up a really simple snowman themed game for Ethan to play to really solidify those two digit numbers in his head.  I had some little snowman foam cut outs that I wrote numbers on (0-9, then an extra set of 1-5).  I let Ethan had a look at those first and a bit of a play around with the numbers, just identifying what he saw.  One of the first things he asked was why there were two of some of the numbers, and then I explained that we were making two digit numbers.




The first level of the activity was to simply ask him to make a number for me.  I would say the number to him and he would find the digits that he needed to make the number.  We are especially focusing on the teen numbers as those are the ones that he is struggling with, but we went all the way up to numbers in the 50s.



The next challenge was to make a pile of snowballs (pom poms) for him to count and then form the number.  This was also great for working on his counting skills and one to one correspondence.  He said that he had to put them in a line to be able to count them properly, so he moved them all around before being able to form the number.



The final challenge was to write the number word on a piece of paper for him to them write out.  Ethan's reading is coming on really well so there are some words that he was able to sound out and a few that he needed a bit of help reading before he was able to form the number.




This post is part of a kids activity blog hop, check out all of these super fun snowman activities! 






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It's nearly Christmas and we've all been having lots of fun getting ourselves ready for the season.  The house is decorated and we've been going to as many Christmas fairs and celebrations as we can to get into the spirit.  The lovely people at SmarTrike even sent us some goodies to decorate Ivy's SmarTrike and make it festive for Ivy's Christmas discoveries.



Unfortunately we've all been very ill for the past few weeks so a lot of our Christmas celebrations have had to stay close to home.  But we were lucky enough to have a sunny afternoon for Ivy to decorate her SmarTrike in the back garden, I surprised her with the SmarTrike backpack filled with decorations, and she reached in and pulled out each one to decorate her trike.  And she even rode it around and decorated the the garden plants with Christmas lights when she was finished.

Hopefully she'll be feeling better this week so that we can go for a proper ride on her SmarTrike and make some Christmas discoveries.

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* This is a review post, we were sent a SmarTrike and some goodies to decorate it for Christmas for the purpose of this post.*

I have had the absolute pleasure of being the guest judge for KidsCrafts101 over on Instagram this week.  It is a great community of crafty people sharing their ideas using #kidscrafts101 and it is hosted by Red Ted Art (@redtedart on Instagram) and Incredibusy (@incredibusy on Instagram).  They have a different guest judge each week, and this week it was me (I'm @playandlearneveryday on Instagram)



Of course all of Instagram is filled with festive photos at this time of year, so I couldn't help but choose nine Christmassy crafts to feature as my favourites.  How cute are all of these ideas?  My kids aren't very well, so we're definitely in for a few crafty days at home this week, at least I know that we definitely won't be short of inspiration!




From top left:

• the cutest DIY Christmas Tic Tac Toe game from @adventuresadam
• an adorable Rudolph ornament from @handywithscissors
• these lovely Nativity Story Stones from @craftsonsea
• the sweetest little egg box gingerbread house from @menziesclaire
• some fantastic DIY glow in the dark clay snowflakes from @muminthemadhouse  
• this fab rolled up cardboard Santa from @starlightjj
• the coolest painted truck snow globes from @weewarhols
• a fun Christmas tree play dough and loose parts activity from @creativeplayideas 
• some cute stained glass Christmas trees from @littlebuttondiaries

We have also been very busy with the Christmas crafts, and while last year we went through a real salt dough phase (these Salt Dough Gingerbread Photo Keepsakes are my favourites) this year it seems to be all about the air dry clay!  We've already made these Air Dry Clay Stars and these Clay Snowflake Christmas Decorations.  Our tree is looking fantastic with all of these homemade decorations, I couldn't love it more.  






Take a peek at some more fun Christmas crafts, activities and ideas for kids here.

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We love a good craft challenge, so of course we were excited to take part in a project with Wynsors to come up with a Christmas craft.  We were sent a lovely box full of craft supplies and a few fun goodies for the kids too (more about those later).

Making Button Reindeer Christmas Cards

The kids were very excited to start creating their cards when they saw all of the materials on the table.  They love gluing things everywhere, and they really love buttons too.  Ethan wanted to start by drawing his reindeer first, he wasn't interested in using the brown buttons as heads, he decided that he wanted to draw their heads and bodies and just stick on a red nose for Rudolph.  He then drew another reindeer, a sleigh and a house on his card.


Ivy took a different approach, she just stuck loads of buttons all over the card!  She drew a little bit with the markers, but when I suggested drawing antlers and bodies for the reindeer she wasn't interested.  But that's the beauty of a process art or invitation to create project, it doesn't matter what the final product looks like, all that matters is the fun that they had and the skills that they worked on while they created.

If you like these, take a look at all of our other Christmas crafts, games and activities!



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* This is a review post, we were provided with craft supplies and Christmas treats as well as slippers for the kids from Wynsors in order to write this post, all opinions are our own.*

Christmas shopping is in full swing around here, so of course when Wicked Uncle offered me a peek around their site to choose a couple of gifts for the kids I just couldn't say no. They have got a great selection of unique gifts for kids from babies to teenagers and loads of toys that I actually hadn't seen anywhere else before.



I was able to choose presents based on the children's ages or on their interests, which made it a bit easier to narrow the gift ideas down, although I did struggle to make up my mind in the end.  There are a lot of really fun gifts to choose from!  It will be really helpful for buying for other children as well, I'm also using it for inspiration on what to buy my 10 year old nephew!



For Ethan I chose a Racing Maze game that he can play.  It is a race against the clock to get the ball through the complex maze housed inside a steering wheel.  There is a timer at the bottom so you can see how fast you can get through the maze and it even makes sound effects (who doesn't love a noisy toy?)  Ethan is going to absolutely love pretending to race around with the steering wheel and the challenge of figuring out the maze.



For Ivy I chose the Nutty Squirrel a balancing game.  I have a real love of wooden toys, and this one is definitely of a very good quality.  It's also going to be a fun game for Ivy to play, working on her focus, concentration and balance to try and get as many of the acorns onto the squirrel's back as possible before they fall off.  It is also a great game for colour recognition, hand eye coordination and counting.  I can't wait to play this game with Ivy, I know that she'll love it.

Here's some more Christmas crafts, activities and ideas for you to take a peek at to help to prepare you for Christmas.

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* This is a review post, we were sent these items from Wicked Uncle in order to write our honest opinions about them.*

We've got a new car seat for Ivy and it's just in time for all of the winter travelling that we'll be doing.  Christmas always involves lots of long car trips, so it's really important that both of the children are comfortable and safe in the car.  The car seat that we are trying out is the new Diono Radian 5 with great safety and comfort features.

Diono Radian 5 Car Seat

Features:

She was very excited to get into the car and try out her new car seat.  She easily climbed into her seat and was strapped in comfortably.  I like that the seat is adjustable so that we could make it nice and cosy around her.  Ivy's favourite part is still the cup holder, we'll definitely be putting a few extras in there too, so that she can easily reach snacks and toys on long car trips too.


Hope you're heading off for some fun winter travel over the holidays, keep safe and have fun!

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* This is a review post, we were sent a Diono Radian 5 Car Seat in order to try it out and write our honest opinions.*