crafts, create, FREE printables, gardening, gardening with kids, google+ hangouts

Fairy tale crafts reward chart

Who would have thought we would be making a fairy tale craft tonight – Fridays are usually our ‘film night’ after a full-on week at school.

HOWEVER, I was taken to one side by my son’s teacher on Thursday to discuss his behaviour – and we between us to set a reward system in place… sigh, just when I thought we were getting somewhere!

So, the plan is, a thumbs up from the teacher = one reward point. And so the Jack and the Beanstalk fairytale craft reward chart was invented. And he is really engaged with it so far – we found an old wooden shelf I’d been hoarding since our kitchen cupboard makeovers (11yo wanted me to write that if you don’t have a piece of board, a sheet of paper or card will do), and found a wiggly stick on the way home from school – and got busy!.

To get started, cut out your leaves – If you use the FREE printable here – gently stick the sheet to another blank A4 sheet with a low tack magic tape, and cut around the leaves. This gives you a printed leaf, and a plain white leaf. Place the plain white leaves in position on the board, and using them as stencils, put a little paint on a scrunched up piece of kitchen paper, and dab around the edge of the paper leaf to reveal a leaf shape.

Glue the branch of the fairy tale craft beanstalk onto your board (oh yes, I DID use a glue gun), and pop the green leaves somewhere safe. We used a CD sleeve, which we glued to the top of the board to make a pocket to hold the leaves. And rewarded the boy with his first ‘thumbs up’ leaf at the foot of the beanstalk – here’s to a completed beanstalk for Jack to climb up by the end of the week… Also on the blog today – how to make the Snow White Mirror.

If you’d like to see the finished fairy tale craft article, click the youtube link here, I got together with Missie Lizzie who talked magic beans, Anthea with her elves’ shoes, Kelly talked Rapunzel, and Maggy at Red Ted Art (talking three little pigs) who hosted a Fairy Tale Craft google+ hangout.

Oh, and I’m on twitter and Instagram is my new favourite thing, I also blog at incredibusy.com, and Erm, and funnily enough on Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x Like it? Pin it!

charity, life

Team Honk Relay London for Sport Relief

What an amazing thing to be a part of… the #TeamHonkRelay – Team Honk is a collection of bloggers, Tweeters and Facebookers who come together to raise money for Comic Relief and Sport Relief.

Team Honk, set up in 2013 by Tanya Mummy Barrow, Penny from Aresidence and Annie Mammasuarus, have this year designed a blogger team honk relay challenge where a baton is being passed from Lands End to John O Groats. Bloggers up and down the country will be using a range of weird and wonderful modes of transport to pass the baton over.

Yesterday was London’s turn… Our leg of the team honk relay was an ingenious Monopoly theme – #Honkopoly! We covered every colour of the Monopoly board with a couple of extra iconic points of interest along the way. We walked, skipped, ran, skated, and pushed buggies. Armed with the baton and props including Get Out Of Jail , Chance and Pass Go cards as well as amazingly designed leaflets which we gave out to people with details of what we were doing…and tonight we find that we are on the leaderboard of Sport Relief’s ‘freestyle‘ fundraisers!

Bloggers who took part in the London leg included: Vanessa from HPMcQ, Sophie from Franglaise Mummy , Sarah from Grenglish, Swazi from Chocolate is not the only fruit, Alison from Not Another Mummy Blog, Me (KidsChaos) in my Hi-Tec trainers, Jennifer from Jenography, Gillian from A Baby on Board, Rosie from Mummy and Boo, Gretta from Mums Do Travel, Julia from I Carried a Watermelon, Stephanie from Was This In The Plan?, Jacinta from Jacintaz3, Maria aka @maniasmama3, Sachelle from Holiday Tots, Maggy from RedTedArt, Nell from the Pigeon Pair and Me, Kelly from domesticgoddesque, and Uju from babesabouttown.

We had a great day being a part of the team honk relay.

supporting this worthy charity and raising money for a fantastic cause. So, we’d love it if you could sponsor us all here please. Thanks so much!

I think it’s worth it for Maggy, Red Ted Art‘s eyelashes, and our tutu and tights get-up from Delights UK – we certainly got some *HONKS*.

You can keep track of the journey by following the hashtags #TeamHonkRelay – and let us know when you have sponsored us, so that we can tweet about you too!

And if you’re interested in actively getting involved with Sport Relief, the first ever Sainsbury’s Sport Relief Games take place from Friday 21st to Sunday 23rd March 2014. The public can join the fun and games by running, swimming or cycling their way to raising cash at over a thousand venues around the country, including the landmark events at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

As one of the biggest fundraising events, Sport Relief brings the entire nation together to get active raise cash and change lives. The money raised by the public is spent by Comic Relief to help transform the lives of some of the poorest and most disadvantaged people both at home in the UK and across the world.

Uncategorized

How to Effectively Monitor Your Children’s Screen Time

Natalie writes: We live in a digital world; from computers to tablets to telephones and televisions, we are face to face with screens more than ever before. For many adults, screens are a relatively new part of life but many children in today’s world have never known life without them.

Kids today not only love technology, they have a remarkably intuitive understanding of how it works. Whether it’s a computer game, playing with their friends on the internet or manoeuvring a new gaming console, children possess the unique ability to understand the language of technology in a way that many parents struggle to keep up with.

With technologies and apps designed specifically for preschool aged children and sometimes even younger, the idea of ‘screen time’ becomes an important consideration for modern parents. This in mind, here are some great tips for parents looking to create structured screen time schedules for kids and positive relationships with technology for the whole family.

Make Sure Everything is Age Appropriate

The internet is vast and contains all types of information. A lot of it is not appropriate for young children (article in The Guardian). When setting up internet or television accounts, take advantage of the parental control settings and use passwords or timers to ensure your kids aren’t seeing anything they’re not old enough to understand. With younger children, try to make time spent with technology productive and educational, establishing good habits from a young age will pay off in the long run.

Participate

Whenever possible, try to get involved with your children’s relationship with technology. Watch what they watch, learn to play some of their favourite games and find programming that entertains you both. Making an effort to understand what your children spend their time doing, watching or playing on various screens will open up a dialogue and enable you to relate to them in new and important ways. Set weekly dates to watch a show the whole family likes or find games that you can play together, even if it’s just for a half an hour a week.

Set Limits Early

Establishing boundaries and time limits as they relate to screen time are most effective when they’re implemented from an early age. This enables parents and children to develop positive habits as they relate to technology and to understand that there are plenty of other ways to spend time beyond starting at a screen all day. Make sure as a parent you’re flexible with your rules and maybe consider adding screen time as a reward for good behaviour or to mark a special occasion. Above all be sure to regularly reevaluate your rules as your children grow and develop.

As school work has also gone the way of technology and many kids now require computers to complete assignments, this presents an interesting dilemma for parents as it requires a more diligent approach to technological monitoring. However, so long as you have rules in place and balance their screen time with physical exercise and family time, there’s no reason your kids can’t have a healthy relationship with computers.

Natalie Bailey lives with her family in Manchester and works part-time as an online journalist, specialising in parenting advice and practical tips for other families.

Image by Orin Zebest, used under Creative Comms license.

cooking with kids, food

Honeycomb Recipe with Golden Syrup

You’ve always wondered how to make honeycomb right?

So 9yo has searched out the crunchie honeycomb recipe for us, and he made this honeycomb last night after a week of nagging to buy Bicarbonate of Soda and Golden Syrup! (be careful, it gets super-hot)

Honeycomb recipe let’s go!…(start by lining a cake tin with some greaseproof paper)

Then, melt the Butter (80g) Caster Sugar (160g) and Golden Syrup (80g) in a pan over a low heat. When melted, whack the heat up and it’ll start bubbling like crazy. Shake the pan (don’t stir; just like James Bond’s favourite cocktail) and you’ll see it start to darken, as it bubbles away – sprinkle your Two Teaspoons of Bicarbonate of Soda over the bubbles, and whisk for about ten seconds, before pouring the honeycomb mixture very carefully into your prepared dish to set. Let it sit, don’t move it or the air will drop out (and it’ll go flat!).

When it’s cool, pop it in the fridge to set. Take photos and post on instagram…for people to click the little heart and make you happy…

Meanwhile, melt some chocolate in a bowl with a splash of milk, 30 seconds in the microwave, and when the crunchie crunchy honecomb has set, bop it with a rolling pin, and dunk it in the melty melty chocolate dip…. nice 🙂

Your very own chocolate fondue…This could be a great playdate activity, always fun to include the children in your kitchen activities, and a bit of a science experiment too… How does the Bicarbonate of Soda Work? It’s an alkili which gives off carbon dioxide which expands the mixture.

(now brush your teeth)

Oh, and I’m on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x Like it? Pin it! I also write over on aGreenerLifeforus.com – you’ll find more delicious chocolate recipes there…

baking, cooking with kids, crafts, food, google+ hangouts

Plum Pie recipe perfect for Valentine’s Day

So we have frozen plums and frozen pastry in our freezer = The Perfect Plum Pie recipe for Valentine’s Day!

We’ve been practicing for Valentine’s Day at our house this week… and reminiscing on last year’s Valentine’s Day cake, where we used a small heart-shaped cookie cutter, and some ready-roll-out icing to decorate Daddy’s cake – we came up with the perfect idea, ready-roll-out pastry, and a heart-shaped plum pie of course!

How to:

Using the frozen plums from late summer’s picking frenzy, we warmed them from frozen in a saucepan with a tablespoon of sugar, when the plums start to thaw, strain the juice into a cup (to use later as a sauce if you like), and pour the sugary plum mixture into the plum pie dish (we have a heart-shaped cake tin, perfect for many occasions!) Meanwhile lay the pastry over the plums, and crimp the edges, cut off excess with a sharp knife, and use that excess for your little hearts. to:

Brush the pastry with a beaten egg, and add the little hearts in whatever pattern you like, the egg will help them stick to the pie, don’t forget to brush the hearts with the egg glaze too, and for extra sweetness you can sprinkle some course sugar over your plum pie. Bake for about half an hour, or in our case, until the plum pie crust starts burning!

If a Plum Pie recipe is not your thing, try our Cake in a Mug, click through to Ali’s other blog aGreenerLifeforus.com

For more Valentine’s Day inspiration, try my easy to make hand in heart cards, and FREE Printable jigsaw puzzle piece crafts Valentine’s greetings cards and check out our Google+ hangout hosted by Red Ted Art, featuring Kelly from domesticgoddesque.com with her glitter heart cake toppers Lizzie with her missielizzie-meandmyshadow.blogspot.co.uk rustic twig heart wreaths and her silver birch bark candle – amazing… Plus Anthea’s needle felt hearts and Maggy’s collection of Valentines Day craft ideas.

Oh, and I’m on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough on Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x Like it? Pin it!

baking, crafts, google+ hangouts, kids

Valentine’s Day Hand Hearts

Ah, this one is SO easy to do, once you start, you won’t be able to stop, and you’ll have a whole room full of them stapled together as Valentine’s Day bunting!

Simply fold a sheet of paper in half, and draw around your child’s (or your own) hand positioning the thumb and forefinger slightly over the folded edge of the paper – (see the red paper image here) As you are drawing the area which will become the ‘heart’ slightly curve the tip of the thumb up, so that you can see the shape of half a heart appearing… cut around the fingers, and unfold to create this lovely shape of hands holding a heart, and repeat! If you have access to a sewing machine, you could join them together to create bunting, a stapler would work just as well, or simply write your message on the hands, and pop into an envelope! #SWALK (that’s sealed with a loving kiss if you aren’t familiar with that acronym!)

Granny has had several of these hearts over the years, dated, so we can see their little hands growing in size every year…. so sweet!

For the recipe for the Cake in a Mug seen here, click through to Ali’s other blog aGreenerLifeforus.com

For more Valentine’s Day inspiration, try my FREE Printable jigsaw puzzle piece crafts Valentine’s greetings cards and check out our Google+ hangout hosted by Red Ted Art, featuring Kelly from domesticgoddesque.com with her glitter heart cake toppers Lizzie with her missielizzie-meandmyshadow.blogspot.co.uk rustic twig heart wreaths and her silver birch bark candle – amazing… Plus Anthea’s needle felt hearts and Maggy’s collection of Valentines Day craft ideas.

Oh, and I’m on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough on Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x Like it? Pin it!

Uncategorized

A Fairer Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and that means it’s time once again to start seeking out a gift for that special someone. But beyond that, this holiday is an opportunity to give gifts to close family members, though the real trick is in finding a unique, romantic gesture for a significant other. Of course, there are a number of traditional options: an intimate date night, a bouquet of roses, a nice card with some decadent chocolates, and so on.

These are all standard ideas with which you can’t go wrong.

But if you’d like to do something a little bit more unique for Valentine’s Day in 2014, here’s another idea to consider: go the route of Fairtrade products or homemade crafts? Not only are these options more socially and environmentally efficient, they’re also very on trend and often one-of-a-kind gifts. If this idea appeals to you, here are five fair-trade and craft gift ideas for the coming Valentine’s Day. 1. Romantic Homemade Soaps Bath products and soaps are popular “gifts for her” on Valentine’s Day. And for 2014, Red Ted Art provides us with a recipe for how to make these gifts at home! Homemade, heart-shaped soaps are irresistibly cute gifts that show some real effort on your part and that will certainly be put to good use. Plus, you can get a bit creative within the recipe to infuse special scents and colours. 2. Fair-Trade Teas & Chocolates These are fairly standard gifts for Valentine’s Day, but many people have a tendency to opt for high-end, expensive brands simply for the occasion. However, if you’d prefer to go with a niche option, or a brand that upholds Fairtrade practices, there are plenty of teas, chocolates, and coffees that can suit your needs. For example, Divine Chocolate is one brand that practices fair-trade efforts. 3. Fair Trade Flowers The easiest option is always to stop by the nearest supermarket for a bouquet of Valentine’s-themed flowers, but fair-trade options are out there for you to use, too. The Marks and Spencer “Plan A,” for instance, dictates that the store practices fair-trade and environmentally conscious policies for natural products. And as a result, there are various bouquets and arrangements of fair-trade flowers available for the holiday. These can be lovely options as they’re traditional but of the highest quality. 4. Homemade Fortune Cookies This is an idea from Martha Stewart that’s very romantic. The idea is to construct homemade fortune cookies out of soft, red and pink felt while the messages within can be whatever you please! It’s simple, but if you’re looking for a fun new way to wrap up a personal massage coupon, it’s worth considering! 5. Homemade Votives Candles can be very romantic for a couple, whether used over dinner, during a massage, etc., so why not make a few artfully crafted homemade votives? Real Simple has some nice and easy tips for this simple, though deeply romantic and thoughtful, gift idea.

This is a guest post, I’m also over on aGreenerLifeforus.com for further ethical, Fairtrade stories….

Uncategorized

FREE Printable Calendar 2014

So the New Year is upon us again, so apologies for not posting this sooner – so many of you have been asking for a FREE printable calendar – I’ve quickly rustled up one for us, which you can print off for your walls too!

Ours is printed on to alternatively, white, and red paper, and we’ve used a great big cardboard box as the backing, and used a fabulous gilt-printed tape as a ‘frame’ which we found in New York, and have been waiting to use it for ages!

I’ve saved the 12 pages as a printable PDF for you CLICK HERE TO PRINT, with space for meal-planning, and a little ‘bonus point’ reward chart at the bottom – whether for your kids, or yourself – that’s up to you!

Oh, by the way, I’m also on twitter/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, funnily enough on Google+, Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over say hello x LIKE IT? Pin it!

Ali also writes over on AGreenerLifeforus.com

crafts, create, google+ hangouts

Easy Teacher’s gifts for kids to make

The boys wanted to MAKE something for their teachers this Christmas, and LOVED these wallets my sister had made for them for their birthdays earlier in the year, so we’ve been saving our wide 1 Litre Tetra Pak cartons, and got busy!

All you need is a sharp pair of scissors and you’re ready to go… Make sure the carton is totally clean. Fold the carton flat so that it has gussets down both sides (see photo).
Cut the bottom off the carton. And at the top too, and cut the three centimetre deep panels into both the sides, cutting the ‘front’ into a curved flap-shape.

Fold the pack in half again, width-ways, up to the point you have cut down 3cm for the sides, and fold the back and front flap-shape over so that it starts to look like a wallet.

Open again slightly, and the panel (back) that you have not cut into a curve then tucks into the front section.

Add some velcro and your upcycled purse is ready to go. If you’d like to WATCH me make one of these, check out the Netmums Craft video here where I was joined by Maggy, Lizzie, Kelly and Anthea. “Bloggers get Crafty – Teacher gift ideas”

Oh, by the way, I’m also on twitter/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, funnily enough on Google+, Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over say hello x LIKE IT? Pin it!

Ali also writes over on AGreenerLifeforus.com

education, kids

Make the World Better with a Sweater

So Friday 13th December is #XmasJumperDay – my Mum wouldn’t approve of that hashtag, so it her honour, I’ll also refer to it as #ChristmasJumperDay and have taken a couple of photos to show you what it’s all about! #Selfie no.1…

It’s not too late to join in – I took these this morning before school, and you can ALMOST see me in the bauble reflection outside my friend Smudgetikka‘s house too…?

The idea is simple – get into the Christmas spirit by wearing your best Seasonal Jumper and donate a pound to Save the Children to help support the wonderful work that they do for children around the world.

Don’t forget to text TEAMTHINLYS to 70050 to donate just £1 to Save The Children. Go on, make a difference this Christmas.

For every blogger who writes a post about Christmas Jumper Day and includes a selfie of themselves in their jumper, Westfield London will be donating an extra £10 to Save the Children. All you need to do is tweet a link to your post to @westfieldlondon What are you waiting for bloggers?

Oh, by the way, I’m also on twitter/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, funnily enough on Google+, Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over say hello x LIKE IT? Pin it!

Ali also writes over on AGreenerLifeforus.com