More and more councils are collecting recycling now, which makes recycling household waste easier than ever.  However, before you pop them in the recycling bins, how about you have a bit of play time first!  It will be fun, and introduce the idea of recycling as a positive activity

• Squash your milk cartons: wash out some milk cartons or plastic bottles and squash them, squeeze them and try to stamp them flat. What is the best way to get them small?
• Cardboard boxes: try to tear the boxes into shapes and then try to put the box together again! Its harder that you think!
• Climb on a box: if you have a sturdy box, how about trying to stand on it (with some help) and see how long it takes before it collapses. Will someone else have to join you?
• Build up some boxes and cartons and throw a ball at them to see them topple over! Play 'Ten Pin Bowling'.
• Build a tower: how high can your tubs grow?  Build a tower to see how many you can place on top of each other before they fall over.
• Drumming: with some wooden spoons as sticks, set up a drum kit and bang on all the different boxes and tubs to see how they all sound!
• Arms full: see how many tubs and pot and boxes you can carry in your arms then walk about and see if any drop.  Who can carry the most?
• Sort all the different recycling things into piles and see if you can sort by size, colour, shape or material.
• Count all the boxes and tubs and see how many there are of each.

After lots of loud, exciting, destructive (!) play... see who can throw all the bits and pieces into the recycling bins.

Whether its some long distance driving in England to stay with family or friends or a full blown European motoring vacation, the thought of taking children on a long car journey can seem a great idea when costing out the family holiday, but as the day approaches it seems more and more daunting. 

The secret to a successful trip is to invest some time before you set off so you're prepared and ready to entertain, challenge and keep happy those delightful little passengers strapped in their cosy car seats in the back row.

• Think kids: The most important thing is to remember that they are only kids.  They may not be interested in alpine skylines or breathtaking sea scape.  Think about how they see things and try to think like them.
• Prepare the car: Before you go, have a good clear out of the car inside.  Get rid of old crayons and rubbish tucked in between the seats.  Throw away scrappy colouring books and freshen up the whole car.  Get the kids helping clear up and polish, wipe and scrub away the year's mess and rubbish that may have accumulated.  Give the car a good vacuum and clean the outside too.  This way you'll feel much more ready to hit the road!
• Supplies: Make sure you have wipes, plasters, first aid kits etc on board just in case.  Plus emergency drinks, sucky sweets (in case of feeling a bit car sick).  Also you may wish to think about blankets, pillows, torch, fire extinguisher and jump leads... just in case!
• Safety inside the car: Keep the back of the car clear of any baggage or things rolling around, if you can.  Get a good holder to keep all the supplies together and safe.
• Treats: Ration the treats and entertainment you bring along.  Don't use up all your good ideas before you even hit the motorway.
• Entertainment:
1. Take some different coloured mega blocks and can see if the children can arrange them in order when you shout out the colours.  So, say, red, blue green and see how long it takes them to assemble accordingly. For babies, just getting them to play with a couple of block can easily amuse them
2. Bubbles - blow bubbles (especially good for babies).
3. Balls - to have a run about and play in the open air when you stop.
4. Books - old favourites and perhaps a few new ones.  CDs of spoken books are great too.
5. Post it notes - allow them to write notes and stick them everywhere!  Easily removed and their arms won't stretch too high to obscure the driver's view.
6. Make up a story inspired by what you see outside.
7. Wool, hole punch and old birthday cards - get the children to punch hold, then thread with the wool.

Children love water and if its in a paddling pool on a summers day it's even more exciting!  There are some great games and activities you can get the children to enjoy which are fun and also promote learning through playing.

Listed below are a few ideas:

• Coloured water: how about adding a few drops of food colouring to your paddling pool and floating boats on the blue sea or turn it green and hide some underwater sea creatures under the waves.
• Weights and measures: Find a few plastic containers (yogurt pots, empty milk containers, plastic cups etc) and fill and empty them with the water.  See who can pour from one container to another; see how many little pots fill a bog pot etc.
• Flower pot fun: clean out some old flower pots and use them to play in the water.  Find big ones and small ones.  Put them inside each other; make a tower and fill them with water to see how it pours out through the holes.  It's like a shower!
• Witches Cauldron: get some bits and piece that are waterproof and make a special witches brew!  Add some plastic play food, plastic flip flops... anything crazy that the children think of!
• Texture play: add some smooth spoons, rough pine cones, squishy sponges, watery flannels and look at how they feel and look different in and our of the bath.
• Sink or float: find some bits and pieces round the house and see whether they sink or swim.  Gently place them onto the top of the water and see what happens. Try a coin, a straw, a crayon, a bead, a leaf etc.
• Bubbles in the garden: add some bubble bath to the paddling pool and see how many bubbles you can splash in the pool.  Try blowing bubbles too and have lots of bubbly fun.
• Wash the babies: get some dolls and give them a good bubbly wash in the the pool.  Wash their clothes too.  Chat about needing to wash each day to keep healthy and clean.
• Big balls: get a selection of balls and play with them in the pool.  Which makes a big splash?  Show sinks?  Which spins on the water or is most slippery?  Try playing catch with wet balls... a bit more tricky!
• Blocks in the pool: bring some toys into the pool that don't normally get wet.  It will be a great novelty.  How about building blocks or bricks.  Watch how the children play or do things differently with the toys in the water rather than out of the water.

For so many children, going to bed in the dark can be frightening - for months they don't mind going to bed with the lights out and suddenly they develop a fear of darkness, are worried about what's under the bed or nervous of what's lurking in the wardrobe.  Here are a few activities to reassure them and lessen the threat of darkness terrors by playing a few games that use a torch to light the way.

Hunt the teddies - Hide a few teddies around the room prior to bed time and turn off the lights.  With a torch search for them together and discover their hiding places.  You could make it a bit crazy by hiding some things that don't belong in a bedroom.  Hide a few wooden spoons from the kitchen or new toilet rolls or plastic food bowls.  You could hide some family photos too and see who can be discovered.

Who's under the bed? - Show your little ones that there is nothing under the bed to be scared of.  Ask them to choose a couple of favourite teddies to stay under the bed and look after the bed during the night.  They could easily report back in the morning that there was nothing to be afraid of. Similarly put a couple of trusty teddies in the wardrobe to stand guard during the night.

Finding things - Another activity for slightly older children would be to find really small things like small pompoms or cotton wool balls.  Give them a collecting bucket and tell them they need to find all 12 pompoms that you have hidden.  Then try it again but this time in the dark, just using the torch to see.

Sleeping Mummy - Hide yourself in a room and cover with a blanket or toys and see if your little one can find you just using a torch.  Pretend to be sleeping when they do discover you.  Try to avoid jumping out to startle them though... the aim is to build their confidence rather than scare them!

Learning phonics and understanding the sounds that different letters make is essential for reading and the earlier you start introducing letters to the children the better because as they become more and more familiar with the sounds, so they will find reading all the more easy. It's understandable to want to get children reading early, but in fact, it's better to get them 100% confident with the phonic sounds first, even if they can read whole words already.  That way, once they see words, they will be able to easily combine the sounds to read the word.

Here are some easy and fun ideas to get phonics into your daily routine and introduce them to little ones in game format:-

1. Pick a different letter each week to focus on.  Start by drawing the letter on a big page and colouring it or decorating it. Say the sound together.
2. Found a Sound Telescope: Make a telescope to look through to find the sounds.  Simply decorate a kitchen roll tube and use it for hunting.
3. Say the sound the letter makes and go on a sound hunt.  Find things beginning with that sound.
4. Sound box. When you find something beginning with the right sound, collect it in a box.  Put any things you find that are not actually the right sound into a 'bin' box.
5. Give masses of support, guidance and help as its hard to begin with, but once they get it the children will be off on an adventure with no trouble at all!
6. When you have a few items, gather them onto a table and look at them and say the sounds and the words together to reinforce that the correct letter and correct item has been found.

Have fun, and expand this sound game with your own ideas too!

What were the games you liked best at school: skipping, Cat's Cradle, British Bulldog, hand-clapping rhymes, marbles?  People would have us believe that all these games have completely been wiped out by the advent of the DS, television, DVDs etc.  However recent research has found, not surprisingly, that playground games are as popular and as fun as ever they were!

The Universities of London, Sheffield and East London carried out research on traditional games children play and it found that many of the traditional games we enjoyed are still played today, with some modern references thrown in.

Two years was spent studying the children at play in schools.  There were lots of imitation games such as their own version of Britian's Got Talent and chat shows, and lots of mimicking their childhood heroes such as Simon Cowell and pop stars.

The finding suggest that children are in fact better informed by their access to the digital media of today.  They are not, as many would have us believe, walking around zombiefied once starved of their Wii or DS. Instead, they use the information they have and build ideas and develop themes in an accomplished way.

The results of the study entitled 'Children's Playground Games and Songs in the New Media Age' will be presented at the British Library next week by former children's laureate Michael Rosen.

It has been found that children today are more likely to be able to use a mouse to play a game on a computer, than tie their shoe laces or ride a bike.

While it seems a shame that so many can't or won't ride a bike, is it really their fault?  After all, it the parents who put them in front of the computer and are pleased when they learn to use it.   It's the parents who use their iPhone in front of the children or encourage them to play a game to 'keep them quiet' and it's the parents again who are not helping them tie shoe laces by providing them with velcro fastening shoes!  But, as long as parents try to show and teach a balanced way of life (a bit of TV and a bit of swimming; a game on the computer then a nice blowy walk) then it's great that our children are being exposed to such brilliant and creative technology that computers provide.

The research published information that suggested 70% of children aged 2-5 can play computer games but that only 20% of them could swim on their own.  Well, to be honest, the stats may sound threatening, but swimming unaided is actually a great deal more tricky to master at 5 than using a computer which is, after all, very simple to use, and the type of games the children play are specifically designed for children... It's not rocket science to suggest this might be the case!

S0me people suggest that in this digital age, children's skills are being measured by their ability on a computer.  It says that parents are too busy or too lazy to help their children learn practical and physical skills.  This is rather harsh.  The fact remains that we do live in a digital world.  It's not negotiable.  We have to embrace the digital age or we simply won't be able to function!  What we need to do is teach them all the traditional values and skills in addition to all the new-fangled ones.  Then we will develop balanced and well rounded young people who don't sit in front of the TV all day, but who can ride bikes, swim but also use a computer.

Maths and counting and numbers may not be your preferred subject and it may bring back memories of dreading the maths lessons as school and struggling over homework, but it doesn't have to be like that!  While hard sums are a long way down the line for our children, it's a great idea to get them in the swing of counting and using numbers, even when they are small, so they are confident when they get older.  It will serve as vital building bock for future maths.

Here are a few simple way of incorporating numbers, counting and sums into your toddler's life.  You'll see how easy it is!

1. Count together at every opportunity: Count when drying toes and fingers, when marching up stairs, when passing trees, when stepping along the road to nursery, when passing cars in the street. Make it something you do at least once on every outing! It needn't be counting to 100; just to 10, and then 20, is a great start.
2. Sort things: Arrange things in order and sort into groups.  Mix coloured bricks or trains and cars and ask them to sort them into piles.  All yellow bricks here and all red bricks there!  Sort the washing together, sort the food after shopping: fruit here and vegetables here.
3. Cooking: Make a cake together and mix in spoonfuls of raisins or cherries, measure and mix together to make a delicious cake.  Or simply cut vegetables and count a few for each person at dinner.
4. Shapes: Go round the house naming shapes, or when out for a walk spot things that are a particular shape: rectangle letter box, round, sign, square garage.
5. Compare Size: Find the big book and the small book. Ask which is widest, which is longest? Sort books or other objects into size order.
6. Patterns: Teach patterns and talk about patterns.  Sort coloured blocks and make patterns with them or look at patterns on clothing or in books.
7. Bath time: Even in the bath measure and pour water into little jugs.  Talk about full and empty.

Making learning fun is the fundamental ideal of ToucanLearn, it's fun and learning for you and your little ones!

Have fun!

During the Christmas holiday, there is every chance that you will be taking a long car journey with your little ones to visit family or friends away from home.  We nearly all dread this element of time away from home, but with a little help it needn't be a total nightmare.  Here are some tips!

Travelling with a new or tiny baby. Pack up the car and then feed well and then leave quickly.  Hopefully they will be lulled to sleep by the motion of the car, and you'll have a nice, quiet journey.  When the next feed is due, try and stop around this time and feed in a service stop or somewhere calm and warm.  Then head back on the road, and they are likely to nod off again.  Keep some favourite toys nearby so you can clip them to the car seat if they wake and need amusement.

Travelling with toddlers. This may be a bit more of a challenge as they get tired and bored and restless sitting in one position in a car for too long.  It's understandable, really!

• Leave really early before the morning rush hour.  Transport your toddler to the car whilst still asleep and get most of the journey under-way before the traffic gets busy and before the little one wakes up!
• Have a sun shade in case low winter sun streams in through the window.  It can be very irritating and cause lots of trouble for a toddler if the sun is directly in their eyes.
• Get a rear seat mirror especially if you are the only driver so you can see what's going on without worrying too much and turning round in traffic.
• Plan stops so you can all get out and have a run about to stretch legs and get some fresh air.  Every 2 hours is probably best.  Change nappies and have a toilet stop even if you don't need it.
• Attach a box on the seat next to the toddler with a few toys, colouring and crayons etc. so they can go through the box and help themselves rather than you trying to pass over things during the journey.
• Play games: the old ones are the best!  I-Spy, Spot a Red/Green/Yellow car, First to see a... (lorry, telephone box etc).
• Have all you will need in the change bag including bottles, milk etc and all changing things.  Searching through the suitcase to find a clean pair of trousers can be very frustrating and time consuming.
• Have lots of dry snacks for the journey to keep hungry tummies full and active fingers happy!

Bon voyage!

If your children attend a nursery, there's a good chance that they come home talking about what they've done on a smartboard, and you're possibly left wondering what on earth a smartboard is?! Classroom technology has shifted from blackboards to whiteboards, through acetate projectors and onto computer projectors. The smartboard is your children's generation classroom presentation equipment!

A smartboard is an interactive whiteboard.  A computer projects a video display onto a touch sensitive screen and children and teachers can interact with the screen using their fingers or special 'pens', which may also have buttons on like a mouse.  Smartboards can be used for a variety of purposes including:-

• watching television and videos
• playing interactive games
• drawing and writing
• story telling

At one level a smartboard can be used just as a large screen for a computer, but it is enhanced with interactive games that allow people to interface in all sorts of fun ways.

In nursery schools, smartboards are often used for projecting children's TV programmes, telling stories (sometimes interactive) and for educational games to introduce colours, numbers, letters, shapes and other basic learning.

All of this is introducing children to information and communication technology from the age of 3 years and upwards.  There's no doubt that children are growing up in a world very different from the one we grew up in; by the time they are starting school at the age of 5, most children already have varied exposure to computers, ICT and numerous digital gadgets!

As Christmas approaches, your mind is probably turning to which gifts to buy the children, and by now you're fully aware that there are some great toys out there, but also some terrible ones too!  There's nothing worse than having a toy break before you even reach Boxing Day, or finding that a game that looked like it would be brilliant turns out to be useless and the kids just aren't interested!

Luckily we have help at hand.  Over the last few years the Internet has been fundamental in shifting shopping patterns from the high street to the home.  Even if you haven't braved that revolution, we have also seen a new and welcome trend in online shopping.  Many online stores allow buyers to review products that they buy, and nowadays you can quickly find great gift ideas with positive reviews, products that others have lavished on their children and you can now buy in the reasonably safe knowledge that you're buying a good gift!

Some stores allow buyers to review products in their own site directly, others plug in to independent review sites that specialise in collecting reviews rather than selling, arguably making the reviews more trustworthy.  Do retain a healthy scepticism for sites that seem only to have one or two really positive reviews for every product as they could have been left by the manufacturer or seller, make sure that there are a good number of reviews that concur.

Reviews will often cover the quality of items, as well as giving a good indication of how suitable the product is to children of different ages.  If you are wondering how good a product is and whether to buy it for your children, seek out reviews online and use the experience of others help make up your own mind!  If you are later either pleased or disappointed with your purchase, then take the time to leave your own review in order to help future shoppers.

As your little one approaches their special day of the year, it is very easy to get carried away by throwing extravagant parties at play barns or hiring lavish halls.  Then comes helium play balloons, piles of food, prizes, party bags, decorations and all the other bits and pieces that go with it.  However, you can still have a great party without it costing a fortune and with a bit of thinking, the kids will still have a fabulous time!  Here are a few party themes to get you in the party mood.

• Fairy Party - feature flowers, fairy wings, fluffy clouds, sunshine
• Pirate Party - feature pirates, treasure, ships, islands
• Under the Sea Party - features fish, mermaids, sharks, dolphins
• Circus Party - tight rope walking, clowns, juggling
• Dance Party - make up a dance and teach it to the children
• Princess Party - features princes and princesses, crowns, jewels, thrones
• Superheros - Star Wars, Spiderman, High School Musical and any superheros
• Traditional fancy dress party - with musical statues, musical bumps, Oranges And Lemons, Duck, Duck, Goose, and lots of fancy dress

Ideas you can adapt to make the party really unique!

• Invites: Try and theme your invite to match your party.  Make fairy party invites into the shape of flowers, or pirate party in the shape of a ship.
• Decorate: the simplest shapes like stars or flowers or car shapes in bright paper and stuck to a dull church hall wall can really bring the room alive.  Try making bunting or hanging glittery curtains to make it feel special.  Try hanging cut out shapes or pictures from the ceiling or by the window so they blow in the wind.
• Have a colouring session as the children arrive.  Prepare colouring pictures and lots of crayons on a big table and invite the children to colour a picture while you wait for everyone to arrive.
• Balloons are great to play with and look fun hung about the place.  Tie one balloon to each end of some ribbon or wool and hang over any pictures on the wall.  Give each child one to take home.  You could also place a piece of jewelery or sweets inside each balloon so there is a treat inside when the children get home!
• Make something like an edible necklace out of cheerios or popcorn and thread with string or wool.
• Throw a tiny bit of glitter over each child as they arrive: magic dust to make them have a great time!

Apple bobbing: good old fashioned for bonfire parties and Halloween, or a health and safety menace that should be banned?

According to the organisers of a Didsbury Apple Bobbing event, it is too dangerous for our children to bob apples and instead the children were furnished with a pair of chopsticks and invited to bob using chopsticks!  The organisers were worried about the implications of accidents happening.

In another part of the country, a hospital eye consultant suggested children wear goggles when doing apple bobbing and that the stalks should be removed as they could poke an eye. In addition, it was advised to use bottled water as dirty water could lead to eye problems and ultimately blindness!

This does seem silly, however, the doctors in A&E do get to see some dreadful eye injuries each year. Scratches on the cornea for example made by stalks are apparently a real risk. Perhaps health and safety has a point!?

Apple bobbing dates back to the Romans. It was thought that you would see the image of your future husband or wife in the reflection of the shiny apple you picked with your teeth.

However, despite all the warnings, according to health experts, there is no risk to children's health and that common sense would rule that it was a simple game for children to enjoy rather than wrapping it up in red tape and health and safety rules.

There is little risk of infection by doing apple bobbing and it is not unsafe according to NHS Manchester. Indeed, a representative from the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health commented that there is no reason apple bobbing should be canceled due to health and safety issues.

So, go on, enjoy a spot of apple bobbing with the children this bonfire night before its banned!

Toddlers may be too young to be able to play word games, but as soon as they start talking, you can play sound games based on word games that older children enjoy!  Here are some fun ideas:-

• I-Spy: Rather than playing I-Spy for words beginning with letters, play I-Spy for things beginning with sounds.  For example, I-Spy with my little eye, something beginning with 'TR' (for 'tree'), 'K' (for car) or 'Sh' (for sheep)
• Alphabet Animals: Go through the alphabet giving the sound for each letter and ask your little one to name an animal beginning with that sound.  Couple this with a trip to a petting farm or zoo where they can learn new animal names!
• Word Chains: Look around and say the name of something that you see.  Then have your little one say a word that begins with the sound of the last letter.  For example, you might start with Table, then your toddler must offer a word beginning with 'L', perhaps Lamp. Then you say a word beginning with 'P' and so on...
• Sounding Words: Take words and sound them out with your toddler so that they begin to understand sounds and syllables.  This will give them a head start when they start to learn spelling phonetically at school!  Trak-ter, spag-ett-ee, okt-o-puss, tel-er-vish-un and so on.  Have your little one sound out words for objects they see in the room.

These games are great to play when you have to pass time, perhaps when you are waiting at the doctor's or dentist's, on a car journey, or queuing at the supermarket.

Walking to pre-school or nursery in the bad, autumnal weather can be  a real bore for little ones, especially those who are only just out of the buggy.  Here are a few ideas to perk up your walk together and do a bit of fun learning on the way!

Weathery Walk - walk the way you might in different types of weather.

• Trudge through snow
• Battle against raging rain
• Fan yourself in the heat of the hot sun
• Keep upright in the blowy wind

Colour-Spy - spot things that are certain colours.  Find 3 red things (traffic light, post box, car) etc.

Letter Think - think of things that begin with certain letters.  Name 4 things beginning with "d".  Even little ones can do this with come help.  Give a clue to help them get to a "d" word.

Wonkey Walks - Walk in different ways between the trees you pass.  So, walk like a frog to the next tree.  Then walk like a monkey to the next tree.

Tree Races - If you live on a quiet road you could race to the next tree.  See who gets there first.

Count the Steps - estimate how may steps you need to get to the next landmark (tree/traffic lights) and simply count how many steps you actually take.  How close were you?

Car Count - name a colour and count how many cars you see on the way of that colour.

Walking to school or nursery is a great, healthy way to start the day;  these ideas will make it fun too!  Have a good day!