Off for the Holidays

Late last year, I was going through a bit of a rough patch. I was stressed-out busy and my sweet little three year old was giving me a very hard time. That all changed over the holidays and peace was restored to the Butler household. So, I decided this year to not work too much. I love my writing work and my blog, so I decided those two things could stay, under strict time management conditions, but I let every thing else go. And so, this year has been lovely so far. I write while Ed is at Kinder and I spend the rest of my time being a relaxed, in-tune, happy mum (well most of the time anyway). I have to say, I'm really enjoying myself and I'm happier than I've been in a long time (and my sweet little three year old has returned!)

So, in the tradition of my new found peace, I'm going to take the school holidays off. I'm going to enjoy having my 2 children around for 2 weeks without having to worry about getting some time on the computer. I have a deadline for PP to manage, I'll probably check my emails from time to time and I'll be back with a quick link when the Practical Parenting website goes live (things that can all be managed while the kids are resting), but apart from that, I'm going to have a break writing about play so that I have time to play with my children while they're around. Here are some of the things I plan to do:

1. Some Art and Craft

As I mentioned last year, I love doing a structured "art and craft" activity at Easter time. I was tossing around between decorating eggs and making easter baskets, but after I read Liss' post over at Frills in The Hills, the baskets won hands down.

I also want the kids to paint a couple of canvasses for their bedrooms so I've got these ones ready to go. We're going to experiment a bit with paints too.




2. Out and About

I always try to take the kids on a couple of outings through the holidays. Last time we went berry picking and it was such good fun. We're just in time to catch the end of the season, so we'll head off to do it again. If berry picking might be your thing, you can visit to find out what's available in your area by visiting pickyourown.org



I also plan to take the kids on a minature train ride to keep my little train-spotter happy. Here in Melbourne, we like to visit the Diamond Valley Railway

3. Play time

I'm hoping to leave a few days for some home-play time. As I've mentioned earlier, school is running in my lounge room and that has been going on for months. The play has evolved to include a staff room and an office and the kids play in this area drawing, talking and learning every single day. I might take them on a special shopping expedition to get some more supplies.

In my banner above, there is an elephant standing in some grass. I've been thinking about growing grass with the kids again this year. Ed confirmed it the other day when he asked "Mum, can we do that elephant in the grass thing again?". So, we will through the holidays. I'm going to grow the grass in lots of different sized meat trays this time so we can use them as different play spaces. I'm going to be writing to about growing grass for play spaces for PP in the coming months, so I'll keep you posted about that.

Ed has a new found passion for dressing up at the moment. He did it a lot when he was two, but hasn't really enjoyed it for about a year. Then, just yesterday, he was a lady bug, a dragon, a "girly-boy" (?!) and a builder in the space of about an hour. I'm going to encourage this new interest over the holidays too, because it's a great way for him to expand his learning and development.

4. Jet setting

The kids and I are off to Adelaide for a few days too. It's only an hour flight and the kids are pretty seasoned travellers, but I don't want to be complacent about the need for them to be kept busy. So far I've got some small activity and colouring-in books that came from Big W for just $2. If I combine these with a pencil case of new textas each, some Littlest pet shop toys with some plastic conatiners as houses, some matchbox cars and some foam roads, and some tasy snacks, I should be just about set.

I'm really looking forward to the holidays and I'll be back in just over 2 weeks to tell you all about it. Hope you enjoy your holidays, wherever you are, too.

Practical Parenting News

I have an article in April's Practical Parenting magazine which is out now. It's all about setting up a home corner at home and how to get the most from your childs' play while he's busy playing there.

I'm also excited to let you know that Practical Parenting is (finally!) launching a website on April 1st. Some of my work will be featured, as well as a link back to my humble little blog. I haven't heard too much about it, but PP is such a wonderful magazine, the site is bound to be fantastic. It's very exciting news. I've been trying to do a bit of housekeeping and tidying up around here before the launch. I'll be in touch with the link when it goes live.

We're Going on a Leaf Hunt

Leaves are falling all around us here at the moment. On the weekend I took the children down to the park for a quick play to burn off a little energy. We took a couple of plastic bags with us on the trip to collect any interesting leaves that caught our eye on the way.

I thought it would be a nice way to pass some time. There are many great developmental advantages to this kind of 'Nature Treasure Hunt". It was something I wanted to do with my children because:
- it slows them down and helps them to be in the moment rather than rushing ahead and just thinking about getting to the park
- it teaches them to look at and appreciate nature and beauty in general
- it gets them talking about colours, sizes and shapes
- it encourages them to think about the seasons and life cycles
- it gets their imagination working overtime. There were many discussions about the shapes of leaves and what they look like - "Look at this one, it looks like a witches hand"
- it adds to creativity as they think about what they want to do with their treasures.
- it's a lovely way to spend a beautiful autumn morning



We had such a lovely time meandering to the park and the walk and search became the main focus of our trip, the fact that we eneded up at the park was just icing on the cake for my two. What would normally be a 10 minute walk took well over half an hour. It's made an impact too. Every walk we've done since then, the kids have their heads down, looking for more treasures. We're yet to decide what we're going to do with our leaves, but I'll keep you posted if anything interesting eventuates.

Voucher Winner

The 'True Random Number Generator', has decided the winner of the $30 voucher giveaway is comment number 2 which is Melissa!!!!! Congratulations and a big thank you to all 4 people who entered (gotta love those odds!). Melissa if you drop me an email with your email address and a contact number, I will forward these details to Maree from buyster who will look after you.

Early Learner's Booklet Pt II

Thanks to a very favourable mention from Nicole aka The Planning Queen, the "Early Learner's Booklet" I spoke about late last year has gone into another print run. If you missed out due to the chaos of Christmas and New Year and would like to purchase a copy, you can email me at the address on the top of my blog. The booklet is $15 plus $1.50 p&h. You can read Nicole's review by clicking here and even if you're not interested in reading the review, check out Nicole's blog if you haven't already, it's one of my favourites.

Product Review and Giveaway

Well, after a small amount of drama, I received a package of doll's house furniture last week from buyster.com.au to review. To be honest, it wasn't the first lot of furniture I received (hence the drama). When I opened the first box, quite a few pieces were no longer put together. But, to the credit of Maree from buyster, the issue was dealt with very promptly with a great amount of apology and a huge effort to rectify the problem. A great example of fantastic customer service.

My new box of "Annie's Furniture Set with Ladybug Pattern" arrived just a couple of days later, much to the delight of my Emily who was very keen to get her hands on it after seeing it the first time. It just so happened that she was in the middle of a game with her 'Littlest Pet Shop' pieces and the furniture worked in beautifully with the game she already had going. This is the beauty of doll's house furniture, you don't necessarily need a doll or a house to enjoy it.





The furniture itself is wooden and painted white with a gorgeous little ladybug and flower design on it. There were lots of different pieces in the box, certainly enough to furnish a whole house. Apart from the staples - tables, chairs, lounge suites and a bed etc, there were also some sweet little extras like a table lamp, a floor lamp, a bath, a TV, an oven and a couple of wardrobes with doors that open and close with shelves to put things on, 19 pieces in all. It really is a very sweet set, the kind that makes grown-ups go 'awww' and want to take a closer look (which is what my father-in-law did when he came to visit the other night) and makes children want to get in and play. Ed wasn't even put off by the girly design, he is itching to get his cars involved.

Unfortunately, a couple of pieces in the second box had fallen apart too. It seems as though in a couple of cases, the glue just hasn't worked to stick the pieces together. It really is a shame because apart from that, it is an absolutely gorgeous set of furniture that any girl would love. I'll be getting out my glue to fix the two broken pieces in the second box, because I know we have a lot of playing with this furniture ahead of us.

buyster.com.au have a $30 gift voucher to give away to an 'everyday play' reader. All you need to do is leave a comment below to enter. It could be something as simple as 'I'd like to win please!'. The voucher can be spent in any of buyster's stores. There's a great range of play rugs (including the one that Ed has that has featured in many of my posts) as well as toys and children's furniture. Unfortunately, only Australian residents are eligible to enter. You have until Monday March 8th at 1pm(EDT)
to leave a comment. Good luck!

Packing Up

Packing away toys at the end of a busy day of play is a job no-one in our house enjoys. The majority of the time, the children are encouraged to clean up after themselves and take responsibility for their own belongings, but I understand that sometimes it's hard to be motivated to pack up, especially when there are a lot of toys to go away.

For these tough times, I've invented a game we like to call "Job Step". It's quite a bit of fun and doesn't actually involve me doing any of the tidying, I just need to be around to run the game. I think it's effective because it breaks down the task of packing up (which can be overwhelming for young children) and gives an extra motivation for packing up (because, let's face it, when you're 3 and 6 years old, the prospect of tidy lounge room is not motivation enough!).

How we play:
- We have some steps going down to our lounge room, so the children sit on the "job step" (hence the name) and await their instructions.
- I then assign each child a small, easy job. I say it in a quick, fun way though, so it sort of sounds like a race eg. I'll say "Right, Em, put all the plastic animals back in their container, go!" "Ed, take your shoes to your bedroom, go!"
- They then rush around, completing their task until it's all done, then run back to their step to wait for their next job.

It's a really simple way to manage packing up time and the kids love it. Sometimes I make it a bit fun and silly by commentating on the packing up like a horse racing race -caller and other times we have a tiny sticker at the end of each job. But most of the time, we just play the simple version and the packing away is done before we know it.