Parenting - Computer Games

The nursery told us that my son's computer mouse skills weren't great; reason being that he didn't get to use the computer at home. Following their feedback, I subsequently let him start using it and he's literally become obsessed. He is now a huge fan of computer games! Even when he's running about outside, he turns playing into levels and points... He also draws computer games too on paper.

I've restricted his use to weekends only and I time how long he is on the computer so that he's not on it for too long. I do however notice a change in his behaviour when he's been on it, and not for the better. But computers are now part of everyday life and are a life skill we need to learn. He gets computer classes already in Primary 1! At my house he only plays games on Lego.com (sometimes CBeebies) and his favourites are Lego Creator, Lego City and the Star Wars games.

I sometimes wonder where he gets it from, but when I think back to my childhood, my sister and I were massive fans of computer games. Ali more so than me, but we spent a lot of our spare time playing on our PC. My mum was keen for games to encourage our computer skills and so a few of our games involved typing commands of some form. A lot of the time we played together taking turns to be either the typer or the controller of the arrow keys. Our favourites were Leisure Suit Larry and Heroes Quest. Crazy to think though that we were aged 9 and 11 years when we completed Leisure Suit Larry. What were our parents thinking!?

{Heroes Quest}

{Leisure Suit Larry}

We also loved Theme Hospital, Lemmings, The Sims and Prince of Persia.

{Lemmings}

{Prince of Persia}

We never owned a console and I'm personally not keen on them at all. Guess that's just down to my own experiences though. I have never owned a laptop or tablet either. I do now have a laptop for work but that's all it's used for. I also have a Kindle Fire but the kids are not even aware of its existence! I think if we had a tablet device with games on it then there would be even more fights!

My son has recently been asking when we can get an iPad and eventually I guess I'll need to buy a tablet device of some form. He's been drawing an iPad on paper & making up games in his head...

What are your thoughts on gaming for youngsters? What ground rules do you set and what games would you recommend for little ones?

{Ideas for the Activities with the Kinder}

The title says it all really! The kids and I have loads of fun painting, drawing, playing with Lego, Play Doh, gardening, jumping on the trampoline, baking cakes etc., but sometimes it's handy to have a few activities up your sleeve that don't take much organising and that will pass the time for half an hour or so whilst dinner cooks or whatever.

Here are some of the suggestions that I've come up with, lots others can be found on my Ideas board on Pinterest. Do come and say Hello and check out my other boards whilst you're there :)

Start with a magazine or newspaper clipping and let the child expand the picture. Genius! From artmommie.blogspot.com

We love Cheerios and we love the birds that visit our garden. What better idea than these Cheerio bird feeders from happyhooligans

Marble races with a pool noodle or you could construct a track out of toilet & kitchen rolls. This idea is from myhomespunthreads.blogspot.com

And whilst you're out with the marbles, why not try and spot of marble painting? theschoolsupplyaddict.com

Make colourful salt dough ornaments, from two-daloo.com

I've got a number of heart decorations hanging here and there in the house, and it would be nice to replace these with some homemade ones :)

Trace your outline and decorate. Looks great! From passionatehomemaking.com

You'll also find some other ideas over on an older post of mine, here.

What are your go-to activities for entertaining little ones?

{Guest Post: The Winter Blues}

Today's guest post touches on the topic of a previous post of mine, technology and the impact it has on playtime. Karen's children are obviously older than mine as she talks of texting and Xboxes, but I agree that being inside because of miserable weather does not need to mean boredom. As my kiddies get older, I love the idea of starting a tradition of family game night... I also have lovely memories growing up of doing puzzles with my dad before bed. I picked up this game at the supermarket recently. We're yet to play it, but I thought with the penguins it was perfectly themed for winter! 

Penguin Pile Up Game from Sainsburys, £4.99

Anyway, enough of my blabbing... over to Karen:

Getting most kids’ out of the home during summer time is not a big deal. With the sun shining, ice creams vans parked on every corner in the UK, fun activities, music blaring and long days you don’t even need to give them that nudge they sometimes need! When winter arrives it seems harder and harder to keep them active as they would rather sit in front of the heater than pop down to the corner shop to get that desperately needed loaf of bread. As a parent of two, during winter I have to admit that after a long day at work all I want to do is curl up in bed and switch the telly on...but then where does that leave my children? Most of their winter is spent in front of the T.V, playing games, texting...just about anything that will reduce their boredom.

Family Movie Night {image source}

When I do have the energy I find that my short winter days are spent nagging them to do something productive and get out for a while. I get them off the T.V so they get their phones out. I take away their phones so they fire up the Xbox. I demand they switch off the Xbox and I wave my arms towards the front door like a mad woman and I can see their scepticism as the rain and wind darkens the skies and batters the window. At that moment I asked myself ‘Would I really go out in that weather?’ I think that every parent reading this will know what my answer would be.

It finally dawned on me that I had to change my attitude towards winter so I could teach my kids’ something. I thought back to my childhood winter days and knew what I had to do. No amount of pushing them out the door was going to do it. I understood that winter is opposite to summer in physicality and in the spiritual sense. The idea that both summer and winter balance each other out led me to make very small changes in our lives...without stepping out the door.

Changes began with simple conversations. After work rather than allowing everyone to escape to their individual rooms I would try and get them to sit down together at dinner and ask questions. After a few times filled with tired responses and moody faces I was delighted to see my kids were actually enjoying our little time together! Baby steps led to our winter being completely transformed and I started to look forward to the end of work to finish off that ongoing game of monopoly or that television series we were watching together.

Family game night {image source}

Thinking back I realise it was the small changes that brought me closer to my children during the winter. It finally dawned on me that it wasn’t my children that had to be taught a valuable 'lesson'...it was me. I made the effort to make my kids winter just that little bit more magical and maybe one day they will carry on the small traditions I introduced to them with their own children. So, to all parents out there have a happy family winter!

Author Bio

Former British Airways cabin crew member, Karen Rayner currently lives in Warwick with her husband and two children, Charlotte and Jack. She is the founder of Childrens Funky Furniture, an online furniture store which provides imaginative and creative furniture items that appeal to young children. Karen also writes extensively about how to create artistic and vibrant bedrooms that children can relate to and enjoy. Follow Karen on Google Plus.

{Messy Play}

Messy play is a few of my friends worst nightmares, but I'm all for it! I love to let the toddlers get creative with paint, glitter and glue and we are very messy bakers with flour and sugar everywhere!

This week my eldest had one of his friends over for lunch & a play, and I set up some messy play for them.

My inspiration came from Pinterest, as always!, and the two boys were very excited when I said we were going to create a foaming car wash.

I've seen lots of reference to Tuff Spots, but on seeing them in B&Q that morning I decided to get two slightly smaller trays which were just as sturdy from the gardening section - easier to store!

I set up one tray with baking soda and the other I filled with water. After letting them shunt their cars about in the 'snow' we then added some vinegar.

The baking soda started to fizz and expand, but it didn't last long and to be honest we were all rather disappointed.

Thankfully, I had also purchased a cheap canister of shaving cream which we squirted into the tray instead. It worked a treat and the three kiddies had great fun.

from What Do We Do All Day? blog

A recent email from Galt Toys has prompted this blog post. I don't think it will come as a shock to find out that technology has had a negative impact on some children's playtime at home and apparently playtime with mum and dad is less than an hour a day. The statistics are quite frightening. 

I've never owned a tablet or laptop computer and rarely spend time on my iMac whilst the children are awake. (I admit that I'm known to send the odd tweet, upload the occasional photo to Facebook or check my emails whilst they're around, but I'm not glued to my iPhone). I made the mistake initially of letting my son play with my iPhone, but he now does not get to use it. I do have some toddler friendly apps downloaded and would use them if necessary to keep him amused but only as a last resort, for example if we had a long wait at the GP surgery.

I definitely believe that traditional playtime is better.

"A parent is a child's first teacher"

You'll find me running round the house or garden on 'missions' or we're escaping from imaginary monsters. We're jumping up and down in fits of giggles on the trampoline or we're at the kitchen table with paints and Play-Doh. 

Don't get me wrong, I do think that technology has it's place. We will occasionally sit at the 'big computer' and watch some short videos on YouTube - number songs usually - and we also watch CBeebies or Disney DVDs for quiet time when we've had hectic days and we all need a rest.

What are your thoughts?

{Daughter's 2nd Birthday - a Painting Party}

For my daughter's first birthday party, I hosted an afternoon tea party for family & friends. This year I decided on a smaller affair - a little party for her cousins (six children under 5 years of age!). One of her favourite things to do is paint, so what better than a painting party!

I got lots of inspiration from Pinterest and put together a few ideas.

{The decorations}
Coloured streamers
Lots and lots of brightly coloured balloons

{To eat}
A selection of rolls
Cocktail sausages, crisps & nibbles
Strawberries & grapes
Jelly & cream
Iced biscuits
Paint palette cupcakes

{The cake}
A plain madeira sponge which the kiddies 'painted' with food colouring

{The games}
Painting a canvas using paper plate stencils
Pass the parcel - each kiddie received a packet of pencils and a box of paints for the winner
Musical statues

Here are the pics...:

Presents for the birthday girl 

Busy baking - thank you to Auntie Ali

Streamers from Party Delights (where I also bought some brightly coloured plates, cups & bowls)

Cupcake paint palettes inspired by this pin. I got the wooden palettes from eBay.

Creating their masterpieces (I managed to find cheap canvases from a local cash & carry - they were £2 each). I cut out stencils on paper plates of stars and hearts which I drew using cookie cutter shapes. I was inspired by A Little Learning for Two for this :-)

Note the dust sheets everywhere! We were hoping to be in the garden for this activity, but the weather had other plans!!

Jelly and whippy cream with sprinkles - yum!

Inspired by Sprinkle of Glitter, I recreated some milk bottles with sprinkles and heart straws. 

Sorry for the absolutely rubbish photograph, but you get the idea!

After lunch we then 'painted' the birthday cake with food colouring

The finished cake, complete with sparkler!

My daughter's finished canvas.

The party was a great success. There were enough activities to keep the kiddies entertained and they all left with a piece of cake and a canvas!

{The Circus Is In Town!}

As you know, last weekend was my sister's (@the_grey_house) hen party. I didn't want to share up front what we had planned as I didn't want to ruin the surprise (but I had already stupidly let slip to my sister what the activity was weeks before the event anyway... oops!).

So the bridesmaids & I had planned a weekend of antics, starting with pizza & wine on the Friday night, which was a huge success. I had pre-ordered a selection of pizza and nibbles with Domino's for the 16 girls that were partaking in the weekend's activities.

£100 of Domino's

The main event was a trapeze workshop that I had booked with Glasgow's Aerial Edge. With this in mind, we themed the weekend around the circus. 

I made a few posters and circus themed bunting to decorate my living room...

...and I had ordered some balloons from a local party shop.

On the Friday night we had pizza, lots of wine and we played a few games. The first to break the ice was a drinking game called 'G'Day Bruce'. It was hilarious. With my baby brain, I really thought I would struggle, but I wasn't as bad as some of the other girls and managed to hold my own. 

If you haven't heard of it, then here are the rules:

1) Sit in a circle. The first person says 'G'day Bruce' to the player on their left, who replies 'G'day Bruce'. The first player then gestures to the third person along, saying 'Say g'day to Bruce, Bruce'.
2) The second player then turns to the third and says 'G'day Bruce'. The third player replies 'G'day Bruce', and then, as before, the second player points to the fourth saying 'Say g'day to Bruce, Bruce'.
3) This continues around the circle until someone makes a mistake, at which point they must drink and their name will change (e.g. Sheila, Kylie, Jason, Lou, Harold, Madge etc.)
4) The game gets pretty complicated as everyone's name changes and you have to remember who you're introducing!  And it pretty much goes without saying that Australian accents must be used at all times.

We then had organised a Mr & Mrs style quiz for Ali, who had to guess what her fiance had replied to each question. When she got the answer wrong, she had to down a shot of margarita (her cocktail of choice).

On the Friday night we also viewed a presentation that I had put together with photographs of Ali as she was growing up... lots of embarrassing pics! We also gave Ali a couple of gifts - her outfit for the following morning and a necklace that I had chosen from a local jewellery shop.

Silver Love Letter Necklace (my local jeweller personalised the letter with their names and wedding date)

Saturday morning we were up bright and early (although I think there were a few fuzzy heads - mainly Ali!) as the trapeze workshop started at 10am.

Ali in her ringmaster outfit

We then headed back to my house for afternoon tea and cocktails in teapots. We had another game... this time we split into teams of 3 and dressed up a member of the team as a bride using toilet roll. Here are the results:

Toilet Paper Brides!

We also presented Ali with her final gift - a photo book that her bridesmaid Linsey had designed with a load of photographs of Ali, her fiance and all their friends. We also had some tat for her to wear - the obligatory veil, sash and willy whistle!

That evening we went to eat cafe in Shawlands for dinner, more wine and then hit the local pubs and clubs for more cocktails and some dancing.

We didn't do any silly dares for the bride-to-be, but we did play one game. In keeping with the wedding poem, something old, something new, something borrowed & something blue, Ali had to kiss (peck on the cheeks!) someone old, someone new, someone borrowed & someone in blue! All very tame, especially compared to Becky's hen party! (Sorry Becky!!).

All in all the weekend was a great success and from the emails we've had from everyone that was there would suggest that everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. 

{Fabulous Finds: Activities for Little People}

Here is another of my Fabulous Finds posts, this time on activities and games for the little ones - all ideas that I came across on Pinterest. I'm stuck in the house today waiting for a delivery, so I'm thinking of doing some food stamping, and if the weather is ok then I might do a scavenger hunt in the garden (we found a snail last weekend as well as a few wiggly worms!) and I will definitely try the supermarket bingo next time I do my food shop! I try my best to be organised and do food shopping online, but I'm not in a routine yet and invariably have to make a trip to the shops with the kiddies in tow most weeks which can be testing at times. This game might keep the toddler amused! 

Ten pin bowling with bottles filled with coloured liquids. For even more fun, add glow sticks for night-time bowling!

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I Spy / Scavenger hunt!

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Rainbow rice - like sand but less messy!

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Fairy houses out of milk cartons!

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Paper plate stencils for painting!

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Help me shop! Supermarket bingo game for kiddies!

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Food stamping with celery!

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As always, do let me know what you think. What activities do you do with your little ones?