Congratulations to the 4 winners of the Outdoor products for the summer contest!

1. Katrina

2.  Angela

3. Janis

4. Dani

Winners of the Outdoor products is a post from: Play-Activities.com

Welcome KMGH-TV Channel 7 Denver viewers! Thanks for watching this morning and stopping by for more information about the products I featured on TV.

While you’re here, you can learn more about me and my work on my profile page.

Featured products

Sport Brella

At the park, beach, pool or campsite, the SKLZ Sport-Brella gives you instant protection from the sun, rain, and wind with its domed shape, side flaps and 125 SPF. Its umbrella action open mechanism allows it to be set up in just three seconds and fits the whole family. Includes top wind vents, side zippered windows for efficient airflow and additional visibility, internal pockets for gear and valuables, convenient carry bag and tethers/ground stakes for use when necessary for additional stability. $69.99, sklz.com

Thermacell Outdoor Lantern

The ThermaCELL Outdoor Insect-Repellent Lantern is the best option for keeping mosquitoes and other insects in any outdoor setting. The Patio Lantern is both a powerful insect repellent device and a functional and portable, long-lasting outdoor LED lantern, with both functions being usable separately or together. Providing a 15×15 ft mosquito-free zone, it is 98% effective (tested and used by the Department of Defense and the United States Army), making it the most effective insect repellent device on the market. It is also non-toxic, safe and non-intrusive, being DEET-free, silent, portable and odor free. Rather than a harmful toxin, ThermaCELL utilizes allethrin, an artificial version of a natural insecticide found in chrysanthemum flowers. Weighs only 13 ounces. $31.99, mosquitorepellent.com

Pottyflip

Pottyflip is a full size, clean, safe, portable, disposable and biodegradable child potty that folds out from a palm-sized package. Easy to carry several in any purse or handbag, it is also easy to use. Just unwrap, flip open and it is ready to go. After use, fold it back up and dispose of the whole potty. No mess, no fuss. No more dirty public restroom seats or trying to find some hidden corner for a child to go to the bathroom. Also environmentally-friendly, it is fully and rapidly biodegradable. $24 for a pack of 12, pottyflipusa.com or at stores throughout North America.

Snack-Trap

The Snack-Trap is a child feeding product (designed for toddlers/kids ages 1-5) that minimizes wasted snacks and saves associated clean up time while promoting the development of self-feeding skills among infants. Consists of an attractive, colorfully imprinted, tip-resistant, handled cup that allows toddlers to grasp and hold the cup themselves with a unique, patent-pending lid with slits that allow toddlers to see and retrieve food with ease themselves but automatically closes when the toddlers remove their hand. 4.99, snacktrap.com, or at retailers throughout North America.

I’m giving away these 4 items. All as seen in the TV segment.

• Green Sport Brilla
• ThermaCELL Outdoor Insect-Repellent Lantern
• Potty Flip (2) unopened.
• Green snack trap with a dinosaur.

Four winners will be randomly chosen, each person winning one item.

To enter, leave a comment and tell me which two of these products you’d most like to win and why.

Please leave your e-mail address so I can reach you easily if you win.

For bonus entries, you can do one or more of the following – be sure to leave a separate comment for each extra entry:

• Follow me on twitter at @playactivities and tweet “@playactivities is giving away awesome outdoor products at http://tinyurl.com/2wqqazq . Enter today! “
• Subscribe to the RSS feed for play-activities.com
• Subscribe to the Play-Activities newsletter
• Subscribe to the Raising Playful Tots newsletter found here
• Post an entry on your own blog about this giveaway and link back ( trackback)
• Subscribe to Raising Playful Tots, the play activities podcast through iTunes. Come back and leave a comment here.

Contest details ( closed)

The contest will close at 11:59 p.m., MST, Friday 2nd July 2010. Four winners will be chosen using random.org. I will do my best to match the item to the person’s first or second choice, however I cannot guarantee that. If a winner does not want the assigned item, another item will not be offered, they will forfeit their win and another person will be chosen. After e-mailing the winners, they will have 48 hours to respond before I draw another name. I will publish the winners first names on my site after they have confirmed. Continental U.S. Entries only.

Disclosure: I was not paid to appear on TV or review these products. I did receive free products so I could show them during the segment. I was given the option to keep all of the products, however, I am choosing to share the love and give them away to readers. I will personally pay shipping fees to mail products to the winners.

Good luck

Outdoor products for the summer is a post from: Play-Activities.com

What should I do?

This is the common cry on forums and mother/child groups up and down the land. Not many of us have enough experience other than our own children in knowing if what we as seeing is typical or not.

Below are three real life examples from parents…..

My son is 20 months old and he does not talk alot, we read to him and as he points to things we talk about what they are.  The Dr.  says all of his other communication skills are great but I am starting to get concerned that he does not say a lot of words, at time he will repeat what you say but not on a consistent basis.  He has said mamma and dadda for a long time.  Does anyone have some advice or some activities my husband and I can use to help this process?

It’s become obvious that my son is having trouble with speech, specifically stuttering and having a hard time getting the words to come out.  It’s been going on for about 9-12 months and I thought it would get better or he would grow out of it, but it’s just getting worse.  So much so, that last night he was crying because he couldn’t get the words.

I thought my daughter had a problem with her speech b/c at 1, she wasn’t talking, everyone including Drs. told me I was over worried, (she will talk) they told me ,( give her time !), at 2 she wasn’t talking, nothing, zip! Same scenario, im a worried Mom, she’ll talk when she wants too. At 3 still not talking, Drs. after Drs., even switched Drs., im still a worried Mom, after all Albert Einstein didn’t talk until he was much older than that! So at 4 my daughter started talking, but we had a prob., it sounded like Chinese, very weird, so I took her to the DR and demanded that they evaluate her! So they did and she failed everything! So she started speech therapy and she was talking in 1 yr., yes, at 5 yrs old she could finally talk. They asked me why I waited so long to have her tested, I was like, don’t even go there! She’s 11 and still in speech. I say if you think there’s a problem, make them listen to you! Do something about it. I wish I hadn’t listened to family, friends and Drs., they all were wrong! I knew something was wrong and I wish she would have gotten the help she needed sooner!

Raising Playful Tots is an Internet radio or Podcast available 24hrs a day . Host: Melitsa Avila of Play Activities. Download each episode yourself visit each show notes to do this or have iTunes do this automatically for you.

Week 13th June 2010: Talking Tots with Lisa Houghton. Lisa share answers to questions like those above in this weeks show. A must listen if you have a little one.

Raising Playful Tots show 29: Talking Tots

Keep up to date with new show by signing up for the newsletter. When you sign up for the newsletter you get a free 11 page special report 10 ways to extend your child’s play. New show on Wednesday!

Help my child’s not talking! is a post from: Play-Activities.com

There is something special about the feel of paint between your fingers.

Finger paint and stamping must be the most time consuming of paint types to set up and clean up but…..but gives the most satisfaction!

This was the 10 to 15 minutes into the painting session. I think we only stopped because we’d run out of surfaces to hand the paper on to dry out of reach of the LO.

The question : Tell me what’s going on there? Gave a very long answer that made me smile.

Painting isn’t just for them it’s for us too.

Do your children stamp?

Stamping with kids is a post from: Play-Activities.com

Raising Playful Tots is an Internet radio or Podcast available 24hrs a day . Host: Melitsa Avila of Play Activities. Download each episode yourself visit each show notes to do this or have iTunes do this automatically for you.

Week 12th May 2010: Lets Explore with Amy Anderson. Are you an impulse buyer when it comes to toys and craft activities? How do you curb the I wants as you go down the toy aisle? Join Amy, writer and mother as we explore play activities tips

Listen to the show .

Keep up to date with new show by signing up for the newsletter. When you sign up for the newsletter you get a free 11 page special report 10 ways to extend your child’s play. New show on Wednesday!

This is our 25th episode. New show notes. If you’ve listened to the show please consider telling others on your social network.. Thanks.

Ideas about Play Activities for the little ones is a post from: Play-Activities.com

Adults who take part in creative play as children are more likely to have a healthy diet and to take regular exercise, according to a new study.The research from the University of Ulster, which was presented at the British Psychological Society’s annual conference in Stratford-upon-Avon last week, surveyed 505 young adults about their experiences and opportunities for play during childhood.

Source: The Nursery World

Where do you stand? Do you think your lifestyle now is from what you did when you were younger?

I don’t encourage play to get these benefits but it sure is nice to know that there are knock on benefits.

Photo credit:carlol

Creative play then and now is a post from: Play-Activities.com

We play in the kitchen.

Welcome to the drums section of a very loud concert ( Can you hear me shouting that!)

or is it official taste tester of the new and improved LO sauce. Better than mummy’s with the secret ingredient?

or is it just fun to take things out of cupboards and off tables and line them up in a row?

I think it’s all three and more.

This post is part of Childhood 101 ” We Play”

“Come over and play at the Childhood 101 We Play link up” and see the others.

We Play….

Mentioned in the Raising Playful Tots Podcast

Raising Playful Tots is an Internet radio or Podcast available 24hrs a day . Host: Melitsa Avila of Play Activities. Download each episode yourself visit each show notes to do this or have iTunes do this automatically for you.

Week 25th April 2010: Positive Parents with Sue Atkins. Sue is a Parenting coach and Author of Raising Happy Children for Dummies about being a positive parent.

Listen to the show .

Keep up to date with new show by signing up for the newsletter. When you sign up for the newsletter you get a free 11 page special report 10 ways to extend your child’s play. New show on Wednesday!

We Play is a post from: Play-Activities.com

Screen free week 2010!

So hands up! Did it creep up on you this year? Now you’re wondering if you can do it but you’ve not planned for it.

Screen free week used to be known as TV turnoff week but we have more screens in our lives now and with a changeover in organization it seems more apt to say screen free. This year it’s today April 19th until Sunday April 21st. It’s a chance for our children to experience a time without screens. Time for us to work together as a family. Whether you’re a big fan of  computers, hand held games, Video games, DVDs etc it’s a chance to redirect and refocus on something different for a period of time.  Judy likens it a camping trip- something to be experienced.

Screens in moderation

Children under 5 have a lot of access to screen type activities more today than ever and it’s just growing. Each family sets their own limits over what is acceptable, as we have to live in this modern technological media savvy world and what isn’t.  There are guidelines from the AAP as well.

Screens however can easily become a babysitter or a fallback position. We did all cope before the electronic babysitter, ask your parents. Sometimes we need to stop something to realise how much we rely on it or use it. It also gives us a chance to be reflective and see if this is what we want for our family.

Happiness quotient

Last year I didn’t warn my children and they were not happy with losing screen time so abruptly. This year I’ve planned a little more and will not be doing the whole week. Yes, I said not the whole week.  I loved camping with my folks when I was younger but I wouldn’t take my kids camping now for a long session without testing the water. Being in charge is different. I learnt my lesson last year. For our family we’re doing a few days at a time. What works for your family is great too. So trying an afternoon, an evening, a day, a few days or the week investigate what will work for your family. Choose carefully so that it’s a great experience albeit an uncomfortable one for some.

Out of sight out of mind

Our DVDs and Wii games will be going ‘ on holiday’ . Not having the visual taunt there will help the younger ones. Will power will be tested by all of us.

It’s only a week

There will be a naysayers that say it’s only for a week then you go back to the way it was. What’s the point! I’m not here to determine that for your family. You know if screens are a big deal in your family or if you would benefit from some alternative activities. It’s a chance to change habits and form new traditions. Just like we have the 2 week vacation in the sun then come back to our home we wouldn’t be without the change and feeling of renewal that gives. I’d suggest that yes we should be doing it more and every little helps. We have to do some uncomfortable things as parents for the good of our family and this here is one that we’ll grow as a family together on.

Not to worry.  I’ve got some resources for you.

1. Listen to Judy Johnston of Tessy and Tab talk about Screen free week on the Raising Playful Tots podcast.
2. Download resources from Judy’s sites http://www.screenfreeweek.org/ and http://www.screensmartkids.org/
3. Screen free activities and resources from the Montana NAPA  Nutrition and physical activity program.
4. Sign up to Play Activities newsletter for open ended play activities for the under 5s
5. Get your school involved. Print this flier for your child’s teacher| Early childhood version
6. Look for special activities in your local area around Screen free week
7. Sign up to Productive Parenting for some screen free activities
8. Newsletter of ideas for nutrition things to do
9. Pledge
10. Screen free for a week in one family| The results
11. Volunteers needed to teach children games for Screen free week at an after school club
12. See a school’s response

Together activities

• Dig out the board games
• Find a new game to try
• Start a large puzzle with everyone in the family getting to choose the music while you puzzle.
• Start an Earth day project
• Follow No Time for flashcards for some preschool crafts activities
• Buy a project kit to assemble something.
• Sort through the toy box. You’ll find things you forgot you had.
• Start your Summer garden together.
• Start that family chapter book as a read aloud every night after dinner
• Go for a family walk| Bike ride| time at the park together.
• Borrow new games from friends.
• Switch toys/ dressing up clothes/pretend play items from your friends
• Complete a project from
• Make playdough , paper maiche or gloop
• Bake cookies, muffins, dessert or toss a salad
• Playdates
• Museum trips

Activities alone

• Set up stations of activities
• Have out in a basket some art materials. Rotate them each day. ( Paints then crayons then markers) Also change from paper to card, to material.
• New books
• Start a book marathon
• Pick a theme- sensory activities
• Allow ample opportunity for unstructured play
• Give some ideas of activities to play
• Let them choose from their I’m bored jar.
• Baby play activities
• Start a food journey

Hope you have fun in Screen free week. Don’t forget to come back and let everyone know how you got on and what you did.

Good luck!

Photo credit:wearebutlins

Play Activities for Screen free week 2010 is a post from: Play-Activities.com