Make a Calm corner with Zones of regulation check in Dice.

If you have been wanting to create a calm corner to teach your children to self-regulate then now is the time. I have written an in-depth post about our "chill out Zone". You will find it over at PBP right here.

Head over and check it out. I have a free template of these Zones of regulation coping strategy dice. I use these along side our Zones coping toolbox that has tools to help bring the kids back into their optimal calm happy place.

Plus, you will find some ideas on what toys to put in a calm corner. How to set it up. Information about the Zones of regulation. A link to my poster and activity set. And some alternative calming activities. 

Visit Play based parenting for more info :) 

Follow our adventures at play based parenting

Hello everyone.
Just a quick little message to let you know that this once loved blog went off air for a while, I had a break from blogging and returned with a new perspective and wanted a new look.

I have Dimples and Little Miss T, over at Play Based Parenting.

You can now find our hands on, fun play adventures, kids activities, plus much more at Play Based Parenting.

AND I am back on Facebook.  So if you come across this blog and get exploring only to realise it is not active anymore, please pop over and visit me on the new website above, or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/playbasedparenting/ and Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com.au/playbasedparent/

Interactive Colouring-in characters with Crayola Color Alive

Product review- Crayola Color Alive.

Crayola is changing a child's way of colouring in with color Alive and its virtual colouring effects.  The colouring-in books look like a classic book, lots of cool pictures with details characters to customize, plenty for a child to have fun with.  However there is something really special about these books.
Here are some pics of how we had fun using the Color Alive range, and what I really think of it...

Capturing the imagination, creativity and focus of children (and adults).

Customize.
Color Alive combines colouring with a 4D interactive experience. The colourer-inner, aka creative child can customize their picture using any combination of the colours and then bring their picture to life in a 4D app.   The anticipation for bringing a character or creature to life is really engaging. I found that Dimples coloured in so much more detail and he was focused for much longer than he usually would be. All because he really wanted to create his own pet.

Transform.
Watching the Colouring in that they just completed transform with a spinning magical portal, they'll see their design and creation transform into a 4D figure above their page. They have their own theme music and virtual tricks. They move and make sounds and have fun little individual characteristics.  Dimples eyes widened as he seen the "portal" and all the magical effects before his pet dragon appeared.

Interact.
Children can bring Characters to Life, bringing them off of their drawing and then can interact with the characters, take ‘selfies’ with them, tickle them, play or poke them.  They can also be saved as your own pets or characters for use anywhere, any time, with or without the colouring in page.  Here Miss T laughed at her Medusa sitting on her head, and put it on a forest play mat.  "Snake lady looks real there" she giggled...

Dimples was so excited to show his pop his creation, and they had lots of fun taking selfies of the dragon sitting in the palm of his hand, on his shoulder and on his head.  You could get really clever with this and do some trick photography.  Hey!! That gives me an idea... Stay tuned to my Instagram.

Special effects.
Children will love the "elements" that the characters and creatures represent.  The new books by Crayola contain a set of special crayons can even create virtual Colouring Effects; Special Effects Crayon  add animated effects such as comic symbols, fire, ice sparkles and pixie dust.  Can you see the REAL fire on Dimples Dragon picture below? Pretty amazing really.  Then he used his dragon pet in a balancing act and poked it for a while as it sit above his page.

The products RRP for $7.99 each and are available from all good leading retailers.  The Colouring in pack includes six Crayons, one Special Effects Crayon, 16 Action Coloring Pages, and a FREE app download that makes it all so much fun. 

If you want to check out how amazing it really is, social media #CrayolaAU

I would definitely recommend them, and I would say any child would love one of these magical books as a gift! They are fantastic and really have to be experienced to be appreciated.

Happy Adventures  :)

This review was brought to you by Nuffnang and Crayola ColorAlive. 

Spring Craft Yarn Dancing sticks & dreamcatchers

Kids craft activities using yarn are always unique, giving children a different opportunity to create something individual and bright for them self or for a gift.
We had lots of fun collecting and painting sticks for these spring time dancing sticks made with spotlights colourful flinders yarn.

Using this silky smooth 100% cotton 8 ply yarn from Spotlight  in kids craft was great for developing fine motor skills, making patterns, discussing colours and the craft ideas are endless. 

With our bright spotlight yarn we made Pom-Pom dancing sticks, a twirling wand and a zig-zag dancing stick.

The kids loved dancing around with them, twirling and waving them in the wind.  after a cold miserable winter, the sun is finally shining and the air smells like Spring, these were a little celebration to inspire the kids to get outside and enjoy the outdoors again. Making them was a process that involved a bit of patience, focus and fine motor skills. Dimples did great weaving the yellow zig-zag yarn through his forked stick. Because this yarn is thick and smooth, it is great quality which made it easy for the kids to handle.

This yarn is available in the most bright and beautiful colours from spotlight stores. you can find them on Facebook.

Spotlight is a family owned and operated Australian business that has become as household name. Spotlight is a brand loved and used by many for all things crafting, fabrics and home wares. They also have an awesome party section.

With our bright yarn we had the opportunity to #getcreative and craft some spring time dream catchers and dancing sticks to have fun with.

What you need:

Flinders 8ply yarn from spotlight 

Rainbow painted sticks

Feathers

Metal ring

Glue and scissors.

 

 

Dancing sticks:

First have your children find some cool sticks and paint them in beautiful bright spring colours.

Talk about the colours, name them and point out other colours in nature. We sat by the lake on a grassy hill to paint our sticks.  If your not a fan of painting with little ones, here are some tis to make it easy.

 

 

Once dry, weave yarn around the sticks. Depending on the shape of your stick, they could thread it around, tie strings off one end like a wand or put two sticks in a cross and weave it around all four ends to make a pattern. 

Pom-pom spring time sticks.

These are awesome, they look about like mini Lorax tuffaluffa trees or big bright flowers.

First make a pom-Pom. its easy enough to do on your hand.

Next glue it to the top of your rainbow stick. Done. Isn't it cute? This was both Dimples & Cherubs favourite.

Dream catcher:

Crochet a circle pattern, like a doily, as your centre piece feature (I cant knit or crocket so had Mum do some cute little ones we could use). 

Shape wire into circle and cover it around and around with spotlights 100% cotton 8 ply yarn.  It was really easy to manage, it circled in evenly, covered all the wire smoothly and was not fluffy at all.

Then with a little help, get your child to thread through the doily and back to the sides in the pattern of a star. It's a little bit tricky and requires a lot of concentration but dimples had a good go of it and practiced tying knots at the bottom of it.
Add hanging strings and feathers from the bottom.
 

We still have plenty of yarn left and will be making some more dream catchers to give as gifts. smaller kid friendly ones. with the rest of the bright colours, the kids was some more pom-pom sticks.
Visit Spotlight and check out their online catalogue to see what type of yarn and craft activities you can #getcreative with.

This product talk is brought to you by Nuffnang and Spotlight

Frozen Theme Party ideas

 

Little Miss Cherub is TWO - Can you believe it? and she is a little Frozen obsessed. You know the song all the frozen fans sing? she can sing all three words of it "let it go" over and over and over and over...  So for her party we held a Frozen Theme party with a blue & purple theme, I pulled out our blue Christmas lights and it made it all so magical.

 

I used some glittery silk and chiffon material to create a frozen skirt that lined the kitchen area ( you can see it in the picture above), and as I have said before when we have had kids Parties for Dimples, I always forget to take photos of these small touches. Its often the small touches that pull it all together. The fortnight before, I made a Frozen theme Backdrop for some photo fun. Miss Cherub helped paint Olaf, and Dimples helped cut out some paper snow flakes. It sat nicely among the Christmas lights and all the kids (of all ages) had a go at being Elsa or Olaf.

For party Activities we had a couple of awesome Sensory tubs thanks to Sensory Playground Australia - They gave us some of these cool water bead cubes, they're firmer and more fun then water beads. The children tried stacking them and building Queen Elsa a castle before they crushed them and mixed them into a field of snow.  One tub had large frozen glitter boulders (made in a balloon with glitter, food colour and water) as well as the cool water bead cubes and some frozen figurines.

 

 

I did some face painting for the kids, the boys wanted Olaf and snowflakes on their cheeks and the girls got a tiara above their brows. There were also frozen theme tattoos and a take home goody bag for the guests that consisted of stickers, a balloon, magic sand, bubbles, a frozen badge, tattoos, a bracelet and a small lolly bag.

 

 

 

The other Sensory tub had massive 'Amaze balls' also given to use by sensoryplaygroundaustralia - They were by far the most intriguing thing the children have seen. You can see the size difference between the usual water beads and the amazeballs.

If you want to get your hands on some of these beauties check out Sensory Playgrounds Ebay Site. They have so many cool sensory resources that you can purchase for less then a cup of coffee.

Highly recommended.

 

 

 

There were balloons strung up every where, a starry background and lots of purple and blue things.

We had a bubble machine going, a ball pit full of balloons and balls, some silk materials hung up along the clothes line and lots of pink/purple food including; fairy bread, pink biscuits, strawberries dipped in white chocolate, watermelon and red grapes, pretzels dipped in purple or blue icing, strawberry & cream lollies, Blue jelly, baby spring rolls and party pies.

 

The cake was a castle of course. I made 3 layers each a different shade of purple, and cut stairs from them then covered it in blue roll out icing. I used a play dough roller with a brick pattern on it and decorated it with baby marshmallows to represent the snow balls. The tower was made from rice crispies and based on this Princess Cake tutorial by Paging fun Mums.

 

 

I think half the fun for the girls was dressing up in frozen outfits and chasing bubbles around, dancing among the streams and silk curtains and listening to their favourite song... You guessed it! Let it go.

There was also play equipment outside, a nice fluffy rug to sit on and various frozen books and colouring.

 

 

And the day after the Party, Miss Cherub was still having fun with those sensory trays. Who would have thought they were nice to use as a toe massager.

Happy Adventures 

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