Play Activities

Learning through play Spring ebooks bundle

April 8, 2013 by melitsa Leave a Comment

Brought to you by Melitsa of Raising Playful Tots and Cathy of NurtureStore, along with some of our favourite bloggers and authors, the Spring Learning Through Play special offer is now open – but for April 8th to April 14th only.

The special off is over but you can still buy all these books – click through on each link to buy direct from the author

We have put together a package worth over $130 – but available to you at a very special price – of e-books and resources, all based around Learning Through Play. This Spring Special Offer includes books, resources and an on-line course, and covers sensory play, outdoor play, art and crafts, positive parenting, learning to read and write, math and lots more. There’s so much in the bundle it will give you ideas to use with your children all spring and summer long. You’ll recognize the authors as the writers of some of your favorite blogs – check out the full details below to see who’s joining in.

Learning Through Play Spring special offer

This special bundle of books is available for you to buy only between April 8th and April 14th. So buy it now or you’ll miss the deal!

I’ve read the books (and written one of them!) and I’m so happy to recommend this offer to you. These ladies really know their stuff and the books and resources are packed full of fantastic creative and practical ideas that you can use with your children. There are sixteen different authors joining in, bringing you over $130 worth of resources. And, guess what – you can buy the lot for just $9.99!

Read on to see all the items included in the spring special offer – and start looking forward to getting your copies!

Treasure Basket Play by Melitsa Avila of Raising Playful Tots

Treasure Basket Play lets you learn step by step how to make your own natural sensory baby play activity with a Treasure Basket. Includes case studies and interview with a sensory play expert on using Treasure Baskets. Value $8.95

ScienceArts by MaryAnn Kohl of Process Art & Treasures of Childhood

ScienceArts inspires children to explore the world of science through art with open-ended experiments. 141 pages of art experiments amaze & delight children as they discover the magic of crystals, light, constellations, plants and more. All scientific reactions and concepts explained. Value $9.99

The Playful Family by Shawn Fink of Awesomely Awake

The Playful Family encourages and challenges busy parents to slow down and spend quality time together with their children, regardless of their age. With nearly 100 ways to connect, engage and play together this easy-to-read e-book is a must-have resource for any parent interested in becoming more playful and happy while raising children. Value $4.99

Connecting Family through Creative Play e-Workshop by Gina Kimmel of Connecting Family & Seoul and Katherine Lockett of Creative Playhouse

Connecting Family through Creative Play is a 30 day e-Workshop designed for families who wish to connect with their children on a daily basis through simple, creative play. These ideas are perfect for parents looking to find a balance between the everyday responsibilities and connecting with your child in meaningful ways that fit into your family’s daily rhythm. You will receive daily messages from us in your inbox with inspirations to play, ideas for connection, and resources to help spark your imagination, including access to a private Facebook community. {Please note this course is running April 29th 2013 to May 28th 2013 only and you must register on the course before May 15th 2013} Value $25

Alphabet Glue: Volumes Nine through Eleven by Annie Riechmann of Bird and Little Bird

Alphabet Glue is a downloadable e-magazine for families who love books, and aims to help more families to incorporate creativity, imagination and all things literary into their everyday routines. Each issue contains leveled book recommendations organized by theme, bookmaking tutorials, story-building activities, and hands-on projects that complement favorite titles in children’s literature or teach basic elements of science. Value $11

Alphabet Summer Learning Pack by Erin Wing of Small Types

The Alphabet Summer Learning Pack is a collection of flexible summer learning ideas organized around an “A to Z” theme. Use these resources to prevent the dreaded “summer slide” and build fun learning routines into your summer plans. Ideas are simple and flexible, so families can pick and choose the activities that work for their particular child and schedule. They provide opportunities to practice key literacy and math skills, and they leave plenty of time for lemonade stands and sand castles. Value $7

Pink and Green Mama Crafts: Backyard FUN by MaryLea Harris of Pink and Green Mama

Backyard FUN brings you 13 Art Lessons and Craftivities to create your own Backyard Fun Camp at home or in your classroom with step-by-step instructions, supply lists, and full color photos. The supplies for these fun and easy projects will come from your own art and craft stash, garage, hardware store, and recycling bin! Value $10

Alphabet Crafts by Allison McDonald of No Time For Flash Cards

Alphabet Crafts lets you create the alphabet from A-Z with fun crafts that promote more than just letter recognition. Kids will love making their own alphabet and forget that they are learning in the process. With 5 exclusive crafts never published on No Time For Flash Cards. Value $8

The Garden Classroom by Cathy James of NurtureStore

The Garden Classroom brings you fifty-two creative and playful outdoor activities, giving you a whole year’s worth of garden-based projects to enjoy with your children. Value $9.99

Alphabet Games by Malia Hollowell of Playdough to Plato

The Alphabet Mega Pack includes 12 hands-on games that teach children to recognize the names and sounds of letters – skills that are important for learning how to read. Each a activity includes easy to follow parent instructions and helpful photos. The games are additively fun for kids AND their families! Value $6

Raising a Creative Kid: Simple Strategies for Igniting and Nurturing that Creative Spark by Jillian Riley of A Mom with a Lesson Plan

Raising a Creative Kid will help you raise a creative thinker by simply setting up a creative environment, using intentional language, and nurturing mistakes. This easy read is full tips and tricks that will help you transform your environment into a creativity growth center. Value $7.99

5 minute reading tricks for raising rockstar readers by Amy Mascott of teach mama

Fifteen 5-minute reading tricks that cover everything from teaching names to what parents should say during read-alouds, from learning sight words to reading fluently. It’s about rolling out the red carpet for our rockstar readers. Now. Whomever you are, wherever you are, no matter how busy you are. Value $10

Parenting with Positive Guidance: Building Discipline from the Inside Out by Amanda Morgan of Not Just Cute

Parenting with Positive Guidance gives you the tools for understanding your child’s behavior and effectively teaching and guiding your child toward increased self-control while fostering a healthy parent-child relationship. 100+ pages of information you can start using today! Value $9

Play Grow Learn Issue 2 by Christie Burnett of Childhood 101

Issue 2 of Play Grow Learn is packed full of playful fun with 55 pages and over 100 activity ideas. Includes ideas for creating family stories with internationally acclaimed author Hazel Edwards, an exclusive full colour, printable sea themed bingo game, 12 pages of active and outdoor play ideas, recipes, art, literacy, creativity, construction, imaginative play, books and more! Value $4

Spring Literacy and Math Activities and Games by Christine Lanyon of Scribble Doodle and Draw

Spring Literacy and Math Activities and Games includes 15 fun learning center ideas. Skills worked on include, addition to 8, patterns, counting to 20, measurement, number sequencing, abc order, writing 3 letter words, rhyming, syllables, compound words and more. Value $8

How to buy and download the bundle

You can buy the bundle on any device, including computer, Apple, Android and portable devices. You’ll get an instant download of the books and resources so you can start enjoying them straight away. The book will be sent to the e-mail address associated with your paypal account. The delivery system gives you 9 attempts at download within 120 hours, so you can buy now and do the download a little later if you prefer.

A note about mobile devices

Depending on the apps you have installed and your operating system you might be able to go ahead and download each book on your mobile device but if you have any doubts or problems, we recommend you use a computer to download the books and then share them to your mobile devices.

Leave a Comment Filed Under: download, Good reads

Choosing Yes and Choosing No- Sunday Parenting Party

April 7, 2013 by melitsa 2 Comments

Over the past few weeks I’ve been adjusting.

Switching over my late and later nights for earlier and earlier mornings.

Who was I kidding?

I was always an early morning early night kind of gal but circumstances meant I was often up and doing things later and later at night. Once I got my second wind, who needed sleep. Except I did at the other end.

Waking up groggy and foggy, I didn’t like but I tumbled into the day. I’m not a coffee drinker so there was no pick me ups during the day to keep me. This fuzz would remain in the background. [Read more...]

2 Comments Filed Under: Join in, The Sunday Parenting Party

Scheduled separate and special times- Sunday Parenting Party

March 31, 2013 by melitsa 3 Comments

Once a week do you get the chance to just stop.

Not the end of the day flop when the children are in bed and you’ve got time to catch breath.

I’m talking about during the week with the children. A chance when you all stop and spend time together?

When I look back on my childhood I have very clear memories of having a day when we would do the same routine in the morning and the afternoons we would spend together as a family. [Read more...]

3 Comments Filed Under: Join in, The Sunday Parenting Party

Getting a Deeper Read with Children’s books- Sunday Parenting Party

March 10, 2013 by melitsa 2 Comments

For the past few weeks, we’ve tried an experiment at home with our books.

We’re big fans of books. More books = More reading.

While this maybe true, we certainly found that we also noticed that the reading wasn’t what we were expecting.

We would find piles of books and keen children looking through them, flipping pages, reading parts and sharing the books with each other. All good success criteria for us as parents. Yes the children are engaging in books.

Taking a pile of the books I knew one of the children were reading I ask some basic comprehension type questions about who were the characters, what problem happened? how did they solve it? What was interesting or funny? Show me your favourite bit? Okay, not all those questions every time or for each book but a few of these or others.

This was different to our usual cuddle and read sessions.

3 Things You Must Do Before the Children Return- Sunday Parenting Party

February 24, 2013 by melitsa 1 Comment

When the children stay at a daycare, the carer, nursery or family member for a session, there are so many things you plan on getting done.

Why is that?

We could rest. We could get some mama self care time. We could sleep.

We often pick up the laundry, tidy an area, go shopping, work, blog, interview- you name it we’re cramming it into that space.

I want to share three things we must do before the children return.

4 Tips for Meal Time Bliss- Sunday Parenting Party

February 17, 2013 by melitsa 2 Comments

Gathering together for breakfast or dinner time is a busy and loud activity. Is it in your house?

There needs to be lots of conversation about who is collecting the cutlery and all the things that’s needed for the table. We need to know what we’re all eating and where we are eating. The list goes on and on.

With so many different activities, many self directed there is a good chance there will be tension, dissatisfaction and upset creeping in with the added time crunch meal gatherings can become really stressful and emotional. We were not experiencing much meal time bliss.

With three opinionated boys setting the table, sitting down to a meal starts with mellow and good intentions but once we’re all there there’s often a hint of frustration as an uninvited guest at the table.

It’s hard to not to jump into the discussions and often I do find I’ve become the referee. Kids have a wonderful memory of how many times they last put the table mats on the table verses their brother and how many times they put on the glasses.

These types of squabbles were escalating in our house and really didn’t make going to the table a nice experience.

Sitting across the table from frustrated and moody children, some wailing and others refusing to sit next to another because they didn’t get to do the activity of their choice. Who wants to start dinner with a rant and being frustrated themselves?

We’ve tried some ideas out recently that have eased this somewhat or maybe shifted theses feeling. Read on our 4 Tips for Meal Time Bliss

Small steps to an easier morning exit

February 4, 2013 by melitsa Leave a Comment

Disclosure: This post from my archives is being re-run as part of BlogHer’s Smart Mom’s Guide to Being Busy editorial series, brought to you by Rice Krispies and BlogHer.

With three children to get out the house, I needed an update to the ‘ getting the kids out the house’ routine. Also known as the morning exit!

Before, with two children to get to school, it was easier as they fell into two distinct camps.

One who was task driven; what do I have to do and let me do it. One who would experience and notice everything. He was easily diverted, distracted or waylaid by frankly anything. With a third added to the mix I wanted the LO to choose the good habit of routine but risked his exposure to the his brother and his slower paced method.

Not underestimating the power of their personalities I felt it was better to have tried, tried and tried than to have never tried at all. It would do everyone good to have a better routine, including myself.

Perhaps you’re in a similar situation with children who need to get on a school bus? Or you need to make it out the door to drive to school with everyone- no latecomers, get to the drop off at preschool, daycare, or work each weekday morning without it turning us all into a bad version of Good cop/bad cop.

Try these 7 steps to making the routine stick with young children because who wants to start the day in a fluster of emotions everyday when there are other ways.

1. Evaluate what worked and the hotspots [Read more...]

Leave a Comment Filed Under: 2-3 year olds, 3+ year olds, 4-5 year olds, Conversations around play, parenting Tagged With: kid morning routines, morning exit

8 Kid and Play Activities Newsletters you should know – Sunday Parenting Party

January 28, 2013 by melitsa 2 Comments

Enjoy these 8 kid and play activities newsletters bringing some inspiration to the play we do

Where does our inspiration come for the kid and play activities we share with our children?

Sometimes we can be all out of ideas and when that happens I turn to my trusted source of play activities.

You can sign up to most blog posts by clicking the subscription information on each site but these links below are sharing more than the blog posts from the past week. We all have archives and you can search for keywords but sometimes you just don’t know what you’re thinking of and just need to see a few ideas and it gets you thinking of an idea for your child.

Each of these newsletters below have been writing play activities for a long time and do them with their children. Pop on over with the links to sign up to the ones you see here and you’ll have lots of activities and ideas to keep you on those I’m not sure what to do days.

Share them with your friends. Often Nurseries, playgroups and daycares centers are looking for ways to encourage play and these ideas are perfect to share with your local place.

How to be attractive to new followers on Pinterest

January 21, 2013 by melitsa Leave a Comment

Pinterest housekeeping

Over the years we’ve been collecting Christmas ornaments in a box.

The box has got bigger each year as the children make more, more goes in at the end of the season. Each year it is a surprise what we have inside as things slip down. We have no real system other than, if it’s Christmas it goes in the box.

Pinterest can get like that sometimes.

All the different pins and new boards. You can end up with your boards in a mess. It’s a bit like the Christmas box. Except- no one needs to see inside our Christmas box but everyone looks at your pinterest boards.

If it’s pretty hard to navigate through your boards or find pins who will follow you?

If you’re looking to connect with people then you need to show your best first. Get a little organized and do a little Pinterest housekeeping. We want to see who you’re about really quickly. We make our choice in seconds. Follow these simple steps to become more attractive to new followers on Pinterest.

[Read more...]

Leave a Comment Filed Under: Join in, parenting, Personal Growth, Roundups Tagged With: Pinterest

Expressing gratitude- Sunday Parenting Party

January 20, 2013 by melitsa Leave a Comment

I’m sure you’ve got a lot more to be thankful for than you realise.

No really. Today’s two posts with the Sunday Parenting Party have a focus on expressing gratitude.

expressing gratitude

We’re linking up parenting posts that involve us as parents. We keep the Sunday Parenting Party free of activity based posts and instead focus on helping each other as parents through giving and seeking advice and sharing things that worked.

[Read more...]