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*

It's World Poetry Day, so when Viking approached us to take part with their project of course we were very excited!  I absolutely love poetry and have always enjoyed teaching it to children as well.  I will never forget, my first teaching placement as a student teacher when I had to introduce the poetry unit and everyone told me that it was the most difficult thing to teach because the kids hated it!  But I came in that day and told the kids that I couldn't wait to teach them about one of my favourite things, and by getting them excited about it they were then keen to learn, and came up with some incredible poems!  


So today it was time to introduce poetry to Ethan and Ivy, even at just 3 and 5 it's never too young to learn.  Viking sent us a fun box of poetry writing supplies, including:

• calligraphy pen set
• chisel pen Sharpie
• fine point Sharpie
• mini canvas
• parchment paper
• coloured paper
• metallic silver paint pen
• metallic gold paint pen

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* This is a review post, we were sent a box of poetry writing supplies from Viking in order to write this post, all opinions are our own.*

Who doesn't love a trip to the zoo, it's such a great chance to see all sorts of animals up close and learn more about them.  Of course we don't get to the zoo very often, but making our own little zoo small world busy box is the perfect way to use toys that we already have to create a fun little play set that's easy to bring with us wherever we're going!

What you'll need to make a Zoo Small World Busy Box:

• metal lunch box (buy from Amazon UK / Amazon US)
• felt (buy from Amazon UK / Amazon US)
• foam sheets (buy from Amazon UK / Amazon US)
• scissors (buy from Amazon UK / Amazon US)
• glue (buy from Amazon UK / Amazon US)
• polystyrene / styrofoam balls (buy from Amazon UK / Amazon US)
• card (buy from Amazon UK / Amazon US)
• small toy animals and people (buy from Amazon UK / Amazon US)
• toy fences and plastic containers (buy from Amazon UK / Amazon US)

This post is part of a kids' activity blog hop, check out all of these fun zoo themed ideas:





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* This is a review post as we have included the special edition copy of Dear Zoo which was sent to us to read and write our honest opinions about.*

Did you know that a group of rabbits is called a colony?  And the collective noun for bunnies is a fluffle!  So with Easter fast approaching we decided to make our own little colony of rabbits using cardboard tubes and lots of pastel coloured paper, perfect for welcoming spring.



What you'll need to make a colony of rabbits:

• cardboard tubes (from toilet rolls, paper towels or wrapping paper)
• pastel coloured paper
• elastic bands
• Blu Tack clear glue pen or Bostik white glu
• scissors
• lolly sticks / popsicle sticks
• markers
• loom bands
• googly eyes
• pastel coloured ribbon, buttons and other crafty bits to decorate

Next we covered the paper with glue and wrapped it around the cardboard tubes.



Then we used our favourite method of helping things to stick while the glue dries, and wrapped elastic bands around the tube.



While the glue dried we coloured in the lolly sticks using markers, as these will be our bunnies ears.  Ivy coloured hers all in one colour while Ethan decided to draw little pictures on his ears.



Because the lolly sticks were quite heavy (and we were too impatient to wait for more glue to dry!) we used loom bands to keep them on our rabbits.  These are perfect as we've got quite the collection that need using up and they come in lovely bright colours.



Then the loom bands became a perfect way to attach our whiskers as well!  We cut pipe cleaners long enough to be two whiskers and folded them in half, then tucked them into the loom band, one on each side.



Next we decorated our rabbits with googly eyes, button noses, ribbons and paper cut outs.



Our colony of rabbits is so cute, and really fun to play with.  Ethan has already made them some little carrots to eat!  I think we're going to have a lot of fun with them.



This post is part of a fun blog hop of collective nouns!  A group of bloggers (what do you call a group of bloggers?) has got together to share some fun ideas.  Check out this Pod of Whales Craft from Let Them Be Small and tomorrow you'll get to peek at a Pride of Lions over on Kids Craft Room.

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* This is a review post, we were sent a box of craft supplies from Bostik in order to create an Easter craft, all opinions are our own.*

We have reached a real reading slump, Ethan is half way into his first year of school, he has learned the basics of reading, learned all of his sight words and moved onto the third level of reading books, but now he's just not interested anymore.  So I am looking for a way to get him motivated!  So we are setting ourselves a challenge to read a book each day for a month!  I was just going to print out a blank calendar and write the different books on it each day, but I thought that we ought to make it fun and silly each day to keep Ethan interested.





So I've come up with 30 different ways to read a book, these can be the books that they bring home from school, reading books that you've got at home or books from the library. We will also be reading books online some days as Ethan's school has a special program they can use (but there are plenty of other reading apps you can choose for the 'read on a screen' day)

1. Read in the dark (use a flashlight / torch)
2. Read while dressed up like a book character
3. Read in a den / fort
4. Read out loud in a funny voice
5. Read the story then make up your own ending
6. Do 3 jumping jacks / star jumps after reading each page
7. Read under a cosy blanket
8. Read in a whisper
9. Read on a screen (phone / tablet / computer)
10. Read outside
11. Have a reading snack (cheese and crackers look like the pages of a book!)
12. Sing each sentence after you read it
13. Write a sentence about the book when you finish
14. Read to your toys
15. Read to someone on the phone
16. Squeeze a ball of play dough while you read
17. Read under the table
18. Read while standing on one leg like a flamingo
19. Retell the story to someone after you finish reading
20. Read upside down
21. Draw a picture of the story
22. Balance a book on your head while you read
23. Write a letter to a character in the book after reading
24. Read in a tent
25. Read wearing sunglasses
26. Build a Lego scene of the story
27. Use puppets to act out the story
28. Make a reading pointer and use it to follow along while you read
29. Record yourself reading and watch it back
30. Make funny faces while you read
31. Choose your favourite way to read and do it again!

Download our printable calendar to keep track of all of the books that you read this month!

Or pin this idea for another month:


If you'd like to join us I am sure that we could all motivate each other!  Use #30DayKidsReadingChallenge on social media and tag us (links below) and we can all join in the fun together!



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