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Friday, December 23, 2016

The Twirlywoos

Have you met the Twirlywoos?

Great BigHoo, Toodloo, Chickedy and Chick are some of the newest residents of ABC Kids, landing on our screens here in Oz about 3 months ago now. When the show first came out bub would run around the house saying it's the Twirlywoos mummy, the Twirlywoos are back! It took me ages to figure out what she was saying.... Twirly boos, tombliboos? I had no idea, so I sat down and watched it with her to see why she was so excited.


It turns out The Twirlywoos are actually pretty funny {even though they don't talk properly}. Great BigHoo, Toodloo, Chickedy, Chick and their friend Peekaboo are incredibly curious. They sail to our shores from far away on their special boat to learn something new each day. They hide, watching inquisitively what's going on around them, then when the coast is clear, they investigate what they've seen.

The show is made by the creator of The Teletubbies and In the Night Garden {perhaps why the name is so close to the tombliboos} and is purposefully designed to introduce and explore age appropriate concepts with preschoolers. Each episode the Twirlywoos go on wacky adventures and learn new concepts like up, over, behind, round and round, through and upside down. The show teaches these concepts to toddlers and preschoolers using a combination of stop frame animation and live sequences using images that correlate with how 3-4 year old's perceive the world around them. There's also lots of added humour with jokes and funny mishaps occurring along the way as they explore the world around them.

Like most of the tv shows on ABC Kids, there's also an abundance of Twirlywoos merchandise to support the show and bring the stories to life at home. I'm all for imaginative play so of course some of it has found it's way to our house. Naturally there are character play sets and figurines, but being the mean mummy I am {i.e. being super strict about what plastic toys enter our house}, I went for the activity books and plush toys {sorry, not sorry}.


Board books are seriously one of the best gift ideas ever, especially for kids who still like to tear pages instead of turn them [we had a mishap with one of her favourite books last night that required emergency reconstructive surgery}. The Twirlywoos board books show a complete reenactment of an episode {minus the live scenes} so you can recreate your child's favourite episode as a bedtime story. The sticker activity book allows kids to place the stickers in scenes from the show to tell the story. I love that it makes the stories interactive and also makes kids problem solve about where the stickers go, plus what kid doesn't love stickers? I still love them as an adult. Aaand how cute is the little Toodloo plush?! There are plush toys, both big and small, available in each of the characters {perfect for pretend play, or terrorising the cat, if your child is anything like mine}. The Twirlywoos books, plush toys and play sets are a great way to bring the fun of The Twirlywoos to life in interactive play at home.

To get to know the Twirlywoos and all their friends, play games and watch the Twirlywoos explore their world, visit www.Twirlywoos.com, or check out the latest Twirlywoos news on Facebook www.facebook.com./Twirlywoos

Disclosure - I was gifted the books and plush toy shown above. All opinions expressed are based on my extensive experience watching The Twirlywoos {soooo many times} with my 3yr old and from playing with the products provided. I did not receive payment for this post.
Tuesday, December 20, 2016

7 Free Printable Christmas Activities for Preschoolers

A couple of weeks ago a wonderful thing happened, I finally got my own laminator. To say I'm slightly obsessed with it would be a gross understatement. I've never loved a machine as much as I love my laminator {if that's not a sign I should be a teacher I don't know what is}. Needless to say ever since I've had the laminator I've been on a quest to laminate all the things and that's involved printing out a tonne of printables that we can re-use.

There are so many super talented bloggers out there making educational, fun and interactive printables and the cool thing is you can pretty much find them for any theme, you just have to know where to look for them. Over the last fortnight I've been scouring Instagram to find the best free Christmas printables from some of my favourite kid bloggers. 

Holiday themed printables are great because they help build excitement for Christmas, while also reinforcing fundamental developmental skills. Like most kids bub learns best when playing and printables are a wonderful way to facilitate this {in a slightly more structured way}. These are our favourite free Christmas printables we've been using this year and links to where you can download them for yourself.

Learn shapes, letters, numbers, counting and more with these free christmas printables
Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Animal figurine sensory, small world, bookish and game play ideas

I'm a huge fan of learning through play. It all started when bub had to go to speech therapy at about 18 months old. She was referred for two reasons, speech delay {she wasn't saying as many words as they expected for her age} and more importantly they suspected she had some sort of sensory processing disorder {because she wouldn't engage with many people outside our immediate family members, and she had no interest in socialising with other children}. With a family history of autism it was decided to get her into speech therapy asap to try and get her engaging with others as well as helping her develop her speech. 

During her months at speech therapy I learnt a lot of techniques from the therapist and it became my main goal to utilise them at home between visits, so I could help her speech and social skills develop as best as possible. Her therapy really propelled my interest in learning though play and it's never been quashed, despite her being discharged from speech therapy after 9 months {she caught up to all the required levels for speech and was even above some of the markers for her age}. To this day we still do many play based activities at home and I don't see that changing anytime soon.

I've loved watching how her play and interests have evolved as she's grown older and learnt so much more. She's very much into imaginary play at the moment so I'm often leaving out activities which facilitate that and let her imagination run wild. Without a doubt some of her favourite toys for imaginary play are her animal figurines. She plays with them pretty much on a daily basis in some way shape or form, so needless to say we've gathered quite a collection of creatures over the last few months. The good thing is they're so versatile so we use them for a number of play based learning activities and bub never gets bored with them. These are just some of the ways we've used our animals to create fun learning scenarios over the past few months.



BRING STORIES TO LIFE WITH BOOKISH PLAY



We love reading so books are always on high rotation around here. I used to only use my high pitched enthusiastic voice and hand gestures to bring stories to life, but these days we take things further and extend stories with our toys via bookish play. This works particularly well as she can re-enact the story after with her toys, adding to or changing the story line as she sees fit. We have so many animal based books {especially little golden books}, so our animals have been the perfect props for story time.

Bookish play with our orcha whale and manatee

LEARN ABOUT ANIMALS WITH BOOKS



We also use our animals to help bub understand books that are a bit above her comprehension level. Obviously she can't read yet, so picture books are her jam at the moment, but we do have some other lovely books in our collection that we use for learning rather than stories. Our mini edition of Animalium is like a mini encyclopedia of animals from around the world. It includes all different types of animals from invertabrites through to mammals and explains the evolution of the animal kingdom in chronological order. Children {and adults} can explore the pages to discover facts about each species including their body structure, life cycle and the habitats they live in. The book {written by Jenny Broom} also includes many intricate and colourful illustrations by Katie Scott {which of course are bub's favourite part at the moment}. The book is also available as a set of Animalium flash cards.



With bub still being so young we haven't really used Animalium to it's full potential yet, but it's still been a great little learning resource for her. I skim read the book to her {skipping the in depth explanations} and we look at all the illustrations and talk about the different features of each animal. We also get our Oh Ivy animals and match them up to the illustrations to help her correlate the pictures in the book to real life animals {the 3d animals make the 2d images more relatable for her, especially at such a young age}. We've also been talking a bit about where the animals live and what they eat as her understanding grows. She also likes to "read" the book back to me and quiz me on the facts. "What's this animal mummy? And what colour is it? Where does he live?"


ANIMAL SMALL WORLD PLAY



One of our favourite ways to use our toy animals is for small world play. Small world play involves creating little "real life" environments so children can act out scenarios from real life helping them process new concepts through play. Small worlds can be an independent activity, but are also great for play dates allowing many children to role play different scenarios together {they're also a great way for them to learn sharing and turn taking}.

Small world play is my favourite type of play because for the most part she can do it independently and it provides so many opportunities for learning, many of which are self initiated. Small world play is great for language development, fine motor skills and cognitive skills as she move pieces around and acts out different scenarios she comes up with. We also usually combine small world play with sensory elements such as water, playdough, dried food {cous cous, rice, pasta}, fake grass, stones, or sand to add a textural element and engage even more senses.

Farm small world featuring log fence, hay bales, horse, sheep, goat, hereford cow and fresian cow


I also sometimes set up small world's that represent stories or shows she's seen so she can act out storylines that she's aware of. The photo above is a Peter Rabbit small world where I included our fox, racoon, rabbit, echidna and squirrel to represent characters from Peter Rabbit {Mr Tod, Tommy Brock, Peter Rabbit, Mrs Tiggy Winkle and Nutkin}.

We've also done a rock pool inspired small world which I designed specifically to teach her about how pollution in the ocean can harm animals. I used some small pieces of real rubbish and some of our Coles mini collectables to represent the litter discarded into the ocean and I entangled some of the animals so she had to rescue them. There are in depth instructions to recreate our rock pool small world here.


I have even more small world's planned using our farm animals with cous cous and oobleck and our arctic animals with blue water beads, amongst others {check out my small world posts for more small world animal play inspiration}.

FLASH CARD FUN



Flash cards are often used to help children learn things like colours, shapes and letters, so it's no surprise that they can also be used to learn animals. We've been using our Two Little Ducklings animal sound flash cards with our animals to play lots of matching games. We've mainly been matching the animals by the picture and by the sounds they make. I vary our matching games each time so it's interesting for her. Sometimes we pick a random flash card from the pile and she needs to match the right animal then we talk about its colour, the sound it makes, how many legs it has, where it lives, what it eats etc. Other times we put out all the cards and I give her a collection of animals and she simply matches them all up with the right cards. We also turn them into a simplified memory game where she needs to guess and turn the cards over to find where the animals are {instead of matching two cards she just finds the matching animal card to her guess and then pairs it with the correct animal figurine}.


SENSORY FOOTPRINT GAMES



One of the most simple ways to use toy animals is to make footprints in different materials. We've used them in playdough and most recently play foam {as shown in photo} as well as using washable paints to make prints on paper. What starts out as comparing different footprints usually evolves into pretend play where animals are stuck in mud/swamps/grass etc. Last time she spent a good 45 minutes telling a huge story about how the cow was stuck and the lion needed to come rescue him, but then the lion got stuck so the horse came to rescue them... It kept evolving and somehow the animals morphed into batman and bandits {3yr olds have the best imaginations}.


SORTING GAMES


Another simple way to play with toy animals is to play sorting games. You can sort by colour, type {mammal, reptile, bird etc}, sort by the number of legs, sort by habitat {as shown below}, sort by the food they eat. Just adjust the sorting game depending on your child's age and level of understanding.


All of the animal figurines pictured in this post are the CollectA brand which make up 99.9% of our entire animal collection {we have a few Schleich ones floating around}. I prefer CollectA because the animals are so lifelike and nice and sturdy, they easily withstand rigorous toddler play, which can get quite animated at times. They're also all one piece with no holes making them great for water play {no funky black mould can get in there, thankfully}. They're also a bit cheaper, which is always a bonus.


Disclosure - All animals shown in this review have been purchased by myself. I did not receive payment for this review, however this post contains some affiliate links which means I may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you, should you make a purchase.
Friday, November 11, 2016

I haven't met you yet but I already love you.


For the last few months I've been quietly pondering in my head how I'd possibly love you as much as I love bub. I literally didn't know if it would be possible, but then again I didn't know how much I'd love her until after she was born. I've watched friends agonise over whether to have more children because they're unsure they'll be able to love a sibling as much as they loved their first child. I guess it's such a huge change the first time developing a love for someone who never existed before and you can't possibly know if it'll be the same the next time. Love for a child is a whole different kind of love and it's hard to imagine your heart expanding even bigger yet again to love two little people. For me though, it was never a question of whether to have more children, but I've still wondered if my heart was indeed capable of expanding yet again.

I haven't even met you yet, but I already love you so very much. In fact I literally only just discovered you exist an hour ago and I've been over the moon giddy with love {much like a teenager} ever since. There have been many happy tears, tears of disbelief, thanking of the universe and lots of smiling uncontrollably. I always believed this day would finally come and now its here and its even more special than I ever imagined.

Just like your sister there weren't really many signs that you were even in there. There have been a few twinges here and there, but that's been the same every month so I tried not to read anything into it. Of course now I know you're there I'm hypersensitive to every little ping, twinge or cramp and I'm trying so hard to not read anything into it. I don't want to be scared the whole time like I was last pregnancy. I'm going to think positively. You're not going anywhere you're going to keep baking away and when the timings right I'm going to hold you in my arms and smother you with kisses.

I can't wait to see if you're a little mister or little miss. To snuggle you and be addicted to your new baby smell. To tickle your toes, hold your little fingers and stroke your forehead. To make you laugh and smile and wipe away your tears when you're sad. To waste hours of my day staring at your beautiful face. I adore you already and I can't wait to meet you in person. My heart has already expanded and you already hold a piece of it.

Mum x



Friday, November 4, 2016

Twinkl teaching resources

I'm not sure if I've shared on here before, but I'm planning on studying early childhood education once bub's gone to school, with the plan to work in childcare and possibly teach kindy. I wanted to work in childcare back in my early 20's but knowing I had fertility issues I chose not to because I thought being around little kids all day would just make me long for my own even more. Looking back I think that was the right decision because just seeing babies would make me sad for what I was missing, so I can imagine how much pain I would've been in being surrounded by children day in and day out. However, my desire to work with children has never waned, if anything it's gotten stronger since becoming a mum. Needless to say we do a lot of learning through play activities at home so I can indulge my passion and she loves it.

I share most of our activities over on Instagram, which has earned me the nickname pinterest mum from some of my friends. Ironically I hardly ever use pinterest, instead I either think up our activities myself or am inspired by other teachers and homeschooling mums I follow on Instagram. We do a lot of sensory play and small world activities as well as working on the alphabet and counting. I've started adding printables and activity sheets lately to mix things up and keep it interesting for her. One great resource I've discovered for these is Twinkl.


Twinkl is a comprehensive teaching resource site providing teaching, planning and assessment materials for babies right through to school aged children. The twinkl resources include lesson packs, power point presentations, display materials, worksheets and craft ideas. Twinkl is originally UK based, but an Australian curriculum section has been added to support Australian teachers and homeschooling families. In addition to this there is also a create section where you can create your own resources based on various templates. There are also heaps of resources for parents and child minders to use at home.

For the last few weeks I've been feverishly trawling the birth-twos section of the parent resources and downloading anything I know bub will be remotely interested in. There are so many different resources available including games, busy bags, sensory bin ideas, sensory recipes {playdough, cloud dough, slime etc}, puzzles, playdough mats, phonics cards and can you find posters. Needless to say I've also bought a laminator and been going to town printing and laminating all the things {seriously where has this magical machine been all my life}. Bub's been a huge fan of the phonics cards and can you find it posters. She's been using glass pebbles to find the items on the posters so we can reuse them and she even cheers herself at the end saying "yay I did it mummy, I did it".



There are also numerous themed resources designed to help teach certain story books, such as the Gruffalo {see the image above for just a tiny selection of Gruffalo resources}, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Jack and the Beanstalk and Room on the Broom, just to name a few. We've printed out a heap of Gruffalo themed resources as bub loves the movie and the book. There's also resources themed around seasons and special holidays and events. We printed out the Halloween phonics cards {below} and I've downloaded heaps of Christmas activities which I'll share on Instagram as we do them.



There are so many other resources I've downloaded to try later on including dot-to-dot sheets, colouring sheets, letter formation worksheets, number formation worksheets, pencil control activities and a heap of other playdough mats. Bub has show a keen interest in learning how to write letters and numbers so we'll be working on playdough mats and formation sheets to help with that soon. I've only really scratched the surface with the resources available on the site though, every time I go on I find other cool things to download, now it's just a matter of finding enough hours in the day to do all the cool activities.

If you're a teacher or early childhood educator I would definitely recommend Twinkl as there are so many resources for the classroom. It's also just as beneficial for stay at home parents, homeschooling families and nannies as there are numerous activities that can be done at home, especially for younger children. Twinkl offers a range of free resources {simply sign up for a free account}, or there are paid subscription options which give you access to all resources on the site. We've been using the paid subscription and will continue using it as it's definitely value for money and there are so many more activities that will become relevant as bub's abilities continue to develop and once she starts school. There's also the Twinkl Facebook page and a special Twinkl Australia Facebook group for even more inspiration and ideas.

Toni x

Disclosure - I was gifted a premium subscription to Twinkl to access all resources in order to provide a review. All opinions expressed are based on our experiences with the website and printable resources. I did not receive payment for this review.


Monday, October 24, 2016

Halloween Play Ideas for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Halloween is gaining popularity every year here in Australia, so I know my daughter will be exposed to it more and more as the years go on. So I've decided to introduce it to her in an age appropriate and fun way by incorporating Halloween themed activities into our daily play. These are some of the fun Halloween play ideas we've tried and how you can put them together for your own kids.

Toddlers and preschoolers don't have the longest attention spans so I deliberately put together low prep Halloween activities that I could set up in a few minutes. Lots of them are Halloween themed sensory play ideas because that's what holds her attention the longest at this age. They also work well as portable activities and are easy to pack away.

halloween fairy door on tree

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Teletubbies Musical Lullaby Laa-Laa

I have a confession to make, I actually like watching kids shows on tv. Yep, I'm one of those mums who automatically sings along to all the theme songs when the shows come on. Which is probably a good thing because I've caught myself watching ABC Kids more than a few times when bub's not even next to me. Everyone's done that, right? I can't help it, I {not so} secretly love cartoons. I'm also loving that a lot of the old shows from my own childhood are back again now, it's so much fun reliving them with bub. I still remember the joy I felt watching them the first time around and now I get to see her face light up the same way.

One of her favourite shows as the moment is the Teletubbies. The Teletubbies first aired in 1997 and recently returned to our screens after a hiatus from 2002. The show follows the adventures of Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po, four lovable pre-school characters who each have touchscreen bellies and different shaped antennas on their heads. The Teletubbies communicate non verbally or through babbling much the same as toddlers. Bub is captivated by the show because of the bright colours, relatable characters and everyday adventures that they go on in each episode. I remember my favourite was always the purple Teletubbie {who I thought was Po, but is actually Tinky Winky, whoops}, but bub has a huge soft spot for Laa-Laa. 

These days there's so much merchandise that goes hand in hand with popular kids tv shows. There's a plethora of characters, games and toys that can be purchased so children can recreate their favourite shows at home through creative play. Other parents may argue that everything is being over commercialised, but I happen to love that these items allow kids to bring their favourite characters to life and extend on the show story-lines through their own imaginary play. Since the Teletubbies have marched back onto our tv screens recently they're now also a firm fixture in many toy shops. There's a huge range of Teletubbies merchandise available including plush toys, figurines, play sets, and our favourite Lullaby Laa-Laa.


Lullaby Laa-Laa has been living with us for a couple of weeks now and she's quickly become bub's favourite bed time friend. Bub has never really had a comforter or favourite toy that she takes everywhere, but Laa-Laa has quickly become a much needed bedtime buddy and she won't go to bed without her. I've enforced a rule that she isn't allowed out of the bedroom though, mainly to make sure she stays clean and also to ensure she never gets lost, because I don't even want to imagine the meltdown that would ensue if she ever goes missing. Thankfully for now she's abiding by my rule and Laa-Laa happily resides in bub's bed day and night.

Lullaby Laa-Laa isn't your average stuffed toy either, she's a combination of plush toy, musical toy and night light. When her tummy is pressed she comes to life playing twinkle, twinkle little star alongside a colourful light show that shines from her belly. Although bub already has her ice-cream night light beside her bed, she loves watching the colourful light show twinkle across the ceiling. Most nights she watches it continuously for about 10 minutes as she's falling asleep cuddling Laa-Laa.



We're still using Lullaby Laa-Laa on the try me setting so she plays the song and lights up when bub presses her, but she can also be set to other functions. The song can be set to play for 5, 10 or 15 minutes or there's also a night light only mode which fades away over time. For now bub's loving being able to press the song on whenever she wants and surprisingly enough she doesn't do it to the point that it's annoying so we haven't changed the settings yet.

Lullaby Laa-Laa would make a great Christmas or birthday gift for little Teletubbie fans {she was actually on my Christmas list for bub before we got the opportunity to do this review}. She's available from Big W, Myer, Target, Kmart, Kid Stuff, Toyworld and Mr Toys. For any customer enquiries or more stockist information please email customerservice@bigballoon.com.au.


Did/does your child have a favourite toy or night light?

Toni x

Disclosure - I was gifted a Musical Lullaby Laa-Laa for the purpose of review. All opinions expressed are my own based on our experience with the product. I did not receive payment for this review.

Linking with Kylie
Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Our Dream Come True - An IVF Story

During both of our infertility journey's IVF was a very real possibility. In fact both times we were told very early on that, given our combined fertility issues, it may be our only viable option. The first time we were very lucky to fall pregnant with Clomid only, which even our fertility specialist thought was a miracle, and I still have no idea how it happened. This time, we weren't as lucky.

Staring down the barrel of IVF raises a lot of questions. How will we be able to afford this? How will I be able to handle all the needles when I'm petrified of them? Will our relationship survive the emotional roller-coaster? What if it doesn't work? If it does work, how will I explain it to my child? Surprisingly, the last question was the one that played on my mind the most, even before we started preparing for IVF.

You see despite the fact that IVF is seemingly much more common now than it was 20yrs ago, its still not overly talked about outside of infertility groups. It's still seen as somewhat taboo and is misunderstood by people who haven't gone through it. I can understand why, its a complicated process. It's a hard enough concept to explain to an adult, so how do you explain something like that to a small child?

A few months ago in the midst of our fertility treatment, I stumbled across the perfect answer to this question thanks to local children's author Gilly-Elle Wiltshire. Gilly happened to be in the same IVF support group as me and was in the process of publishing a children's book to help parents explain the IVF journey to their miracle IVF babies. Having gone through IVF herself Gilly initially wrote the book for her own daughter and after reading it to other people realised many other IVF parents would benefit from it as well. I'm happy to report that Gilly's book Our Dream Come True is now published, and in my opinion is the perfect way to let IVF children know how they came into the world. 



Gilly has broken down the complicated concept of IVF into bite sized pieces using age appropriate language so it makes sense to small children. She's used clever rhymes and bright, cartoon like illustrations to convey the process and emotions that go along with it. Gilly is qualified in speech and language therapy and it's clear she's used her understanding of language development to explain a very complex series of events in a way that children will be able to comprehend {and in a way I never would have thought of}. I'm a big believer in using children's books to help explain complex situations to young children and Gilly's book is no exception, in fact I think parents all over will be thanking her for making what could be a very complicated conversation into an engaging picture book. 


I was so excited to be one of the first people to receive a copy of Our Dream Come True as I knew it would be the perfect way to explain to our future baby how they were conceived. As it turns out though, on the morning I had to call the fertility specialist to arrange our IVF cycle, I found out that our IUI had been successful and I was already pregnant. Even though I won't be needing it for this baby, I'm still so grateful that I discovered Gilly's wonderful book. I think it's an amazing book for IVF children and it turns a potentially awkward conversation into a simple one and a celebration of how loved the child is. I know so many friends, readers and acquaintances who would benefit from this book which is why I'm sharing it with you all, despite not needing it myself at this point in time. I'm actually passing my copy on to a dear friend {who conceived via IVF} and if we end up having a 3rd child via IVF in the future I will purchase another copy of Gilly's book when the time comes.


Our Dream Come True can be purchased online at www.gillyelle.com. You can also follow Gilly-Elle Wiltshire on Facebook.

Have you ever used a book to explain a hard concept to your children?

Toni x

Disclosure - I received a copy of Our Dream Come True for the purpose of review. I honestly believe this children's book is a must have for all IVF parents and I've passed my gifted copy on to a close friend who conceived her children via IVF. I did not receive payment for this review.

Linking with Kylie

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

The Creative Toy Shop

One of the things I love most about social media is its ability to create real communities and bring people together. I'll probably never be a "famous" blogger because I don't subscribe to social media strategies such as follow threads, follow/unfollow on Instagram or automating my social accounts in order to grow my numbers, I much prefer to keep things real and develop proper connections with real people, even if that means I don't have as many followers as others. I've made some wonderful friendships with other ladies from all over the world thanks to my Facebook page and Instagram account which was one of the main reasons why I started blogging in the first place. Being a stay at home mum can be lonely a lot of the time and having these connections can make it feel a lot less lonely.

One of the lovely people I've met on Instagram is Brianna from Notes From a Home Educator. Brianna is an in home educator who works with a family of four young boys. She shares the activities they do each day on Instagram to inspire other educators and parents. I share a lot of the activities I do with bub each day on Instagram as well so I've been drawn to similar accounts and Brianna is one person I've developed a friendship with over the last year. She's so generous with sharing her ideas and is constantly inspiring me with her activities. As of this past weekend she's also now opened her own online store selling beautiful educational toys, activity guides, printables and resources. I'd secretly love to do the same, but I'd want to keep all the toys for myself bub, so instead I'll feed my toy addiction by buying from her.
The The Creative Toy Shop stocks gorgeous educational toy brands such as Magna-Tiles, Tegu, Hape and Grimm's {amongst others}. You all know by now I'm a sucker for wooden toys, right? Hape and Grimm's are two of my favourite high quality wooden toy brands so needless to say I now have a huge wish list from her store {don't tell T}. Bub's been lucky enough to add the Grimm's portable doll house to our ever growing wooden toy collection and I dare say we'll probably add more Grimm's toys in the future.

Grimm's are a family run wooden toy brand from Germany, made most famous by their iconic rainbow stackers. They also make a number of other stackers, puzzles and dolls. A common theme across all Grimm's toys is that they're very open ended to provide numerous different learning opportunities, depending on how children choose to explore them. I have to admit back when bub was little I was a big fan of literal toys that had an obvious {and most of the time singular} purpose, most likely because my ocd makes me want to do things the right way and not deviate much from that. Over the past few years I've changed my views and now fully embrace open ended, multi-purpose toys because I've seen just how much they inspire bub's imagination, which brings about many play experiences my literal adult brain may never have thought of. This is one of the reasons why I'm currently replacing all bub's plastic toys with wooden ones.


The Grimm's portable doll house makes the magic of pretend play portable so children can enjoy it anywhere without having to move a heavy doll house from room to room. Bub's had fun playing with hers on her activity table, in the lounge room and even outside. I'm almost certain it'll make a trip to grandma's house soon as well. I just need to get better at making sure it gets packed away after she's finished playing because I'm constantly finding pieces all over the house.



The doll house is made from lime wood coloured with non-toxic water-based dyes. It comes with 14 different pieces that all stack together within the carry case. Pieces include a bookshelf, sink, oven, chairs and table, as well as arched pieces that can be used as beds, walls, sofas {or bridges as bub sometimes does}. Each time bub plays with the doll house it's been in a different layout with different pieces being used as different furniture. As it's so open ended and transient kids wont lose interest as quickly as they would with traditional dolls houses or more literal toys because they're limited only by their imagination. There's also a blue/green and neutral version available because dolls aren't just for girls, just like cars aren't just for boys...

I'm so happy for Brianna as she embarks on this exciting new venture and I hope its a huge success for her, no doubt we'll be helping her with that by shopping up a storm. Make sure you check out the printables section for heaps of downloadable worksheets and puzzles to use at home.

Are you addicted to toys like me?

Toni x

Disclosure - I was provided the Grimm's portable doll house for the purpose of review, however I've already purchased more items myself. All opinions expressed are based on our experience with the product. I did not receive payment for this review. This post contains affiliate links.

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Happy Hands Happy Heart Natural Playdough Review

We're huge fans of playdough in this house, even as an adult I still love playing with it. It's such a great sensory experience and you can't help but want to keep squishing, squashing and moulding it. Playdough was one of the first sensory play ideas I ever tried with bub, back when she was about 15 months old and going to speech therapy, since then it's been an almost daily fixture in our house. The learning and play possibilities with playdough are pretty much endless, it's such a great open ended play medium. We've used it to learn letters, shapes, numbers and colours, as well as practising fine motor skills, developing language and for hours and hours of imaginary play. 

The one thing I don't like about playdough however is when all the colours get mushed up together and become a big ball of poo brown or snot green. You know what I'm talking about right? My OCD just can. not. deal. with. that. at. all. I think that's partially the reason why I've never made my own playdough. Despite the fact I'm a relatively crafty SAHM {I think?} and I've gone and bought all the ingredients for playdough, with the best intentions of actually making it, I just can't bring myself to do it. The thought of creating the perfect colourful, soft, fluffy playdough only to have her smoosh it into a pile of poo goop half an hour later is soul destroying. That probably sounds a bit over the top but seriously I would be having an internal breakdown watching playdough that I made being ruined before my eyes. Perhaps I'll mellow over time, but for now it's just not happening.

Luckily for me {and all the other OCD mums out there} there are plenty of places to buy ready made playdough. I know a lot of mums worry about the possible nasties used in pre-made playdough, but there are many places to buy beautiful homemade, chemical free versions as well. A few months ago I discovered Happy Hands Happy Heart on instagram and immediately fell in love, firstly with the gorgeous playdough creations on their insta feed, and then with the playdough itself when I found out it was all natural.


Happy Hands Happy Heart natural playdough review
Happy Hands Happy Heart {HHHH} is a family run business creating homemade all natural playdough that's taste safe and designed to be visually vibrant and also scented to promote a calm, enjoyable play experience. HHHH are passionate about encouraging creative sensory play and have created playdough that's perfect for play based learning, fine motor skill development and scented to promote well-being and calm.

Happy Hands Happy Heart currently have 9 flavours in their range, including mandarin, blood orange, cinnamon, vanilla, lemon, pink grapefruit, lavender, spearmint and licorice. Each flavour of HHHH playdough is dyed and scented using different fruits and vegetables, herbs and spices and essential oils, so you can rest easy knowing there are no nasty chemicals. We've been playing with the lemon, lavender and licorice flavours and I have to say they smell absolutely divine. I honestly wish you could smell them through the computer {although you might want to lick your screen then}.
Happy Hands Happy Heart lemon, lavender and licorice scented playdough
My favourite of all the flavours we have is lemon, and that's purely because the smell reminds me of lemon meringue pie. I literally sniff the jar a good 5-10 times when we get it out to play with. That's not weird right? It smells sooo yummy! So naturally we play with that one the most. It's a good way to satisfy my need for lemon meringue pie, without actually consuming any calories. 

Lemon meringue playdough
Can we all just take a moment to appreciate this playdough lemon meringue pie Emma from HHHH created...
The Happy Hands Happy Heart playdough is so soft and fluffy, it literally scoops out of the jar like ice-cream. It doesn't have a thick plastic feel like mass produced playdough either, it's so squishy and light and super easy to mould. In fact when we played with it again yesterday bub and I spent a good 15 minutes just squishing finger prints into it because it felt so good. Most of the time though bub likes to roll it with her mini wood rolling pin and make heart cookies with the cookie cutter that came in our set.


I'm also a huge fan of creating what I call playdough stations for bub where I put out a colour of playdough and then a selection of cutters and loose parts for her to use with it {usually in a variety of dip trays}. I often find these playdough stations keep her entertained on and off for hours throughout the day as she comes and goes as she pleases. They're also a wonderful way to ignite her imagination and its always fun to watch what she makes with each of the bits and pieces I leave out for her. One we did recently included the licorice playdough, some black beans, rocks and the mini rolling pin and heart cutter.


Each flavour of HHHH playdough comes in a generous 400g jar, which is more than enough to keep the kids going for a long time. I'm used to tiny 50g tubs so 400g seems enormous. To make it last even longer just give the kids a little bit at a time, that way if it ends up all smooshed together with other colours you still have more in reserve. If you're OCD like me though you'll probably still only give them one colour at a time which means it can easily be put straight back into the jar when they're done playing. The glass jar keeps the playdough nice and air tight, and despite opening and using ours numerous times its still soft and squishy. If it does start drying out though its just a case of adding a few drops of water and moulding it through to make it soft again. HHHH are committed to being as environmentally friendly as possible which is why their playdough comes in a recyclable jar. When you need to restock your playdough you can also return the jar to HHHH to save $1 off your new purchase.

I love that Happy Hands Happy Heart playdough is all natural with no nasties or preservatives so I know its completely safe for bub to use. We've spent hours playing with our few jars already and the playdough is all still in perfect condition. Not to mention it still smells absolutely divine. If your children love playing with playdough, but for whatever reason you don't have the time or inclination to make your own, HHHH really is the next best thing. The Happy Hands Happy Heart playdough is available in single jars or smaller party favour sets from www.happyhandshappyheart.com.au.

Do your kids love playing with playdough too?

Toni x

Disclosure - I was provided Happy Hands Happy Heart playdough and accessories for the purpose of review. All opinions expressed are my own based on experience with the products. I did not receive payment for this review.
Tuesday, June 21, 2016

How To Create A Magical Shadow Box Fairy House

When I was little one of my favourite movies was Fern Gully, I was so in love with the fairies and the thought that they really did exist. I wanted to be Crysta and have all her magical powers. I wanted to fly around all day protecting the forest. Imagine being able to really fly, how cool would that be?

girl dressed as fairy flying

Isn't it amazing how the things that excite us stay with us for years after we've grown up? I still get excited at the thought of fairies living in the forest, and there's a teeny part of me that believes it's possible. It proves just how powerful our imaginations really are. I want bub to experience this magic for herself. I want her to believe in fairies and I want her to think that anything's possible, like I did. I also hope her imagination lives on long after her childhood. 

Now days there are new fairies on the block to entertain our kids. Bub's favourite is princess Holly from Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom, closely followed by Nanny Plum {who just quietly is one of my favourites too}. Holly spends her days playing with other fairies and elves, doing magic and solving problems. Bub loves watching her adventures on tv each day and I'm fairly certain she thinks Princess Holly is just as real as I thought Crysta was.

What if we could take that magic out of the television screen and bring it to life? 
Friday, June 3, 2016

Love to Dream 2.5 tog nuzzlin sleep bag + arm warmers review

This week Queensland finally realised that its meant to be getting colder around here {only a few months late, but never the less we got there in the end}. I'm not sure if it was Autumn showing up fashionably late or Winter popping in a few days early, but since the start of the week its been decidedly cooler. I'm actually a huge fan of the cooler months, I love nothing more than jeans, socks, layering and lounging on the couch under a warm blanket {not that I do much of that since I had bub, but I can reminisce of days gone by}.

Thanks to our never ending summer this year, the sudden cold snap has come as a bit of a shock, especially at night. Just last week we were still sleeping with the air conditioner on to keep cool. This week we're sleeping with the air conditioner on to keep warm. It's funny how 20 degrees has gone from feeling really cool to really warm all of a sudden.

Bub isn't so lucky in her room though. She's gone from an average of 24 degrees overnight to an average of about 18 degrees. Even though she's nearly 3, I'm still paranoid about whether she's too hot or too cold overnight. Yep almost three years in and I still have anxiety about certain aspects of parenting, please tell me you do too? Thankfully Love to Dream sent me some of their new products for winter recently so we were prepared for the cool change this year.

LOVE TO DREAM NUZZLIN 2.5TOG SLEEP BAG


Love to Dream have recently released the 2.5 tog Nuzzlin sleeping bag, which is perfect for winter. We've been huge fans of the Nuzzlin range of bags so I definitely wanted to try out the new winter bag. The new 2.5tog Nuzzlin bag is nice and cosy for winter, but still quite lightweight like the rest of the Nuzzlin range. It's made from soft knitted cotton and is padded with 100% natural bamboo filling, meaning it's nice and warm, but not too heavy {your baby won't look like the michelin man}. The bamboo filling is also hypo-allergenic so it's great for littlies who have sensitive skin.


Like the 1.0 tog Nuzzlin bag, the 2.5 tog bag does up via press studs over the left shoulder and an extra long double ended zip. I love this system for so many reasons. Firstly it means the bag completely opens up flat making it really easy to get bub into it, especially on the nights she falls asleep before I've put her in the bag, getting a 17kg toddler manoeuvred into a sleep bag while they're passed out can be quite tricky, but having the bag laid flat certainly heaps. Secondly, the press studs above her shoulder mean she can't escape from her bag. Thirdly, the double ended zip {and the fact it goes from her toes to her armpit} means nappy changes are super easy during the night and I don't have to take her out of the bag.


The Nuzzlin 2.5 tog bag comes in three different designs, pink with a stripy penguin, blue with a stripy seal and grey and white stripes with a red whale. Of course we went with pink, because we're a little pink mad at our house, and seriously how cute is that penguin?! The bag also comes in three sizes - 4-12mths, 12-18mths and 18-36mths. Bub is in the 18-36mths size and is almost 3, but the bag is still quite long for her so it will definitely see us all through winter, which I'm so glad about because I'm not ready to give up sleeping bags yet.


BUT HOW DO YOU KEEP BABIES ARMS WARM IN WINTER?


The one drawback I've found with all the sleeping bags we've used however, has been that they don't have arms. Obviously the summer ones don't really need them, but I always worry in winter that her little arms are going to get so cold even with long sleeve pyjamas on. I know I certainly feel the cold in my arms at night and unlike me she doesn't have the luxury of snuggling her arms under a blanket {she would if she'd use them and stay underneath them, but clearly she hasn't learnt how awesome they are yet as she just kicks them off}. I know I'm not the only mum to feel this way either because we've had many chats about this in mothers group over the years.

Thankfully Love to Dream have been working behind the scenes to fix this problem and have now released new arm warmers. Like the Nuzzlin sleep bags, they're made from soft knitted cotton with 100% natural bamboo filling. They come in the signature Love to Dream grey marle with striped sleeves and are available in three sizes {4-12mths, 12-18mths and 18-36mths}.
The arm warmers are 2.5 tog and designed to work with any sleeping bag. They're also a great trans-seasonal item for when its just starting to get cool at night, but its not cold enough to switch sleep bags yet. We've been using these for a few weeks with her 1.0 tog bag before we switched her over to the 2.5 tog bag and they worked a treat. Probably one of the best inventions for babies and toddlers ever.




Disclosure - I was kindly gifted a 2.5 tog Nuzzlin sleep bag + a set of arm warmers for the purpose of review. All opinions expressed are my own based on our experience with the products, as per my disclosure policy. I did not receive payment for this review. Stock images used with permission from Love to Dream.