Category Archives: Children

Make Your Own Very Hungry Caterpillar

Arts & Humanities, Children, Fun Stuff, Recreation,

Here is a fun craft activity to do with the kids – how to make your own very hungry caterpillar. This could be an activity for your own kids or something you can do in batches for a group of children, e.g at a playgroup or preschool.

The result is this, the caterpillar before he ate through all that food and got a tummy ache!

Instructions

What you will need:
  • green card (or paper or can be white)
  • red paper (again can be white)
  • white card
  • sticky eyes (optional)
  • lolly stick (optional)
  • green paint
  • yellow paint
  • glue stick
  • sellotape

Firstly paint your green card or paper with a very rough mix of dark green and yellow paint. Make sure the colours don’t blend together too well!

Mark up the back of the card with discs. If you are just doing one or two you can obviously make them much bigger.

Cut them out so that they all have slightly differing colours in them.

Cut a body shape out of white card and a head out of the red paper. if you don’t have red paper colour in some white paper with a red pen!

Use a glue stick to start gluing down the body pieces one at a time, overlapping each other onto the card body.

Stick on the head and then you can either use sticky eyes or else just draw on your own eyes (the rights colours are green in the middle and yellow outside but sticky eyes do just fine). Draw in his mouth with a marker or felt pen.

You can then use sellotape to attach the lolly stick to the back of the head so that you can move the caterpillar around – ideal to use with the story book.

And there you go, the finished hungry caterpillar:

How to make your own very hungry caterpillar

 

And if you want to buy the book…

Why You Should Raid Your Child’s Piggy Bank Before October

Business, Children, Home & Garden, Money, News & Current Events

Raiding your child’s piggy bank is not something that I would generally suggest although I am sure there are plenty of people who have suddenly found themselves short of cash or just some change that have needed to do it in the past!

But it might be important that you do it before the middle of October 2017!

The new one pound coin will have 12 sides.

The reason for this is the introduction of the new £1 coin that is happening on 28th March of this year. The new £1 coin will be completely different to the old round one as it will be 12 sided and not round for starters. There are many other aspects of the new pound coin that will be different from the old one in a bid to stop counterfeiters.

You will still be able to use the old £1 coin until 15th October 2017 but after that nobody is obliged to accept the coin. However you will be able to pay it in to most post office and bank accounts, even though you will likely not be able to spend it.

So it is probably a good idea to maybe empty out that piggy bank and either swap it for new coins when you get them, or maybe pay it in to a child’s savings account if they have one.

It will be easier to do this before the 15th October deadline as you (or they) will be able to spend it in shops along with the new one pound coin.

So on 15th October 2017 the old one pound coin will no longer be legal tender.

If you find a stash of £1 coins after the October deadline then take them to your bank.

If you are reading this and it is after the 15th October 2017 deadline and you have found a stash of the old £1 coins then take them into your bank and they should be able to credit them to your account.

No doubt there will be plenty of people finding £1 coins down the back of sofas and in clothes for quite a while to come!

 

 

Summer Holiday Cheats – Cheap Cinema Tickets

Children, Entertainment, Recreation

If you are looking for things to do with the kids in the summer holidays then one thing you may not have realised is that a lot of the cinemas have special screenings for kids (and their parents!) at really great prices this summer.

Often these screenings are in the mornings as this is a time when the cinemas are normally closed and also is a good time for younger children to venture out to the cinema.

Not all of the cinemas in the particular group show the same films to it is worth looking around to see what is on where.

Check out the information below for details for the larger companies:

Cineworld

cineworldCineworld has 82 cinemas in the Uk and over 800 screens and they offer morning showings of child friendly films at around 10am during the summer holidays and selected weekends.

Their promotion is called Movies for Juniors and prices for a 2D film showing are £2.00 or £1.80 if you book in advance with a Cineworld account. 3D films cost £3.50 again with a 10% discount if you book online.

Odeon

odeon-kidsOdeon have over 120 cinemas in the UK and also have special movies in the summer holidays and weekends through their “Odeon Kids” scheme. These films are £2.50 for children and adults and can be (and are advised to be) booked online in advance as they prove pretty popular.

Vue

vue_logo_headerVue has 85 multiplex cinemas in the UK and offer a similar scheme known as “Mini Mornings” which cost from £1.99 for 2D and £2.79 for 3D films at weekends and during summer holidays.

 

Empire

empire-jnrs.bmpNot as big as some of the cinema chains but Empire have their “Empire Jnrs” movies for all the family every weekend. So these are not specifically for summer holidays but if you have an Empire cinema near you this could be good at weekends.

Ticket prices are not specified on the Empire website but said to be at ‘pocket money prices’ but when we tried to book a price of £1.75 per adult and child was quoted for the particular movie and location we chose.

So on a rainy day this may be a great option to keep the kids occupied for a few hours. Summer holidays can be an expensive time and although obviously this is not a free activity it is certainly a lot cheaper than normal screenings which are becoming out of reach for some parents on lower incomes.

Where Can You Get Linkee?

Children, Entertainment, Fun Stuff, Games, Shopping,

linkeeLinkee is a board game for all of the family that was launched in 2012 and has taken the country by storm ever since.

Having been rejected by the dragons in Dragons’ Den, the founders went on to prove Peter Jones and the rest of the dragons wrong by making a success of a new board game.

So if you have heard of it, or played it at a friend’s house and are wondering where can you get Linkee? Then look no further!

The fact is that  board game sales have been increasing in the last few years as people are embracing the non-screen culture. Many new board games have come on to the market as well as the old favourites still being sold in ever larger numbers such as Monopoly.

Linkee has become one of the most popular and best selling board games in the UK and is sold online as well as in good toy shops.

There are two versions of the game, a general family version and a version specifically designed for children from 8 years old and upwards. The game only takes a couple of minutes to learn and is fun because everyone can play at the same time and players don’t need to wait their turn.

Check out the links below if you want to buy one of the versions of Linkee that are available:

You can also get booster packs with extra questions for the game although there are 1400 questions in the original pack so that should keep you going for a while.

If you are looking for some of the old style board games then you can often pick up new versions on Amazon or else you can frequently find the original versions for sale on eBay for quite good prices.

If you have the time then take a wander around car boot sales and you will more than likely find some old board games for sale there, just check that they have all the pieces before buying!

Potty Training Manual

Children

So I’m thinking in advance in terms of potty training my little boy. He’s only 15 months old at the moment but I can tell when he is pooping so this is a good point at which to start thinking about potty training.

however, having never done this before I am not really sure where to start so I thought I would get myself a manual that had good reviews and would get the process over with quickly. I may not use it straight away as obviously he is a bit young right now but i thought I needed to get myself ready for potty training as soon as possible so that I know what I am doing.

Anyway, this is the manual I am buying and I’ll let you know how I get on with it when I start using it (this might be in 6 or more months time – OK I am a bit ahead of myself but forward planning is always good!