Toddler Activities for Rainy Days

Hello, 


Today's post hopes to give you a few ideas on how to keep your toddler busy at home, especially on a rainy day!





1: Russian Dolls

Nearly everyone's mother or granny has a set of Russian Dolls in their home that are never used. Ask for them for your toddler. My girls love the challenge of fitting all the various characters into each other and trying to do it faster than the previous go!






2. Skills Boards

I recently purchased the Mellisa and Doug 'Basic Skills Board'. It is a lovely handcrafted piece. It challenges your toddler with laces, buckles, buttons, belt buckle, zip and popper button. It is mentally challenging and teaching them life skills. My 18month daughter particularly loves the buckle challenge whilst my 3 year old daughter enjoys the other harder tasks. Great purchase for toddlers of all ages.




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Melissa & Doug 'Basic Skills Board'





Georgia at 18 months loving the challenge of the buckle!







3: Toy Picture Collage

My 3 year always requests this one over and over. Toy picture collage. With a safety scissors she cuts out her favourite toys from the Argos or Smyths catalogs. She then glues them all on to a page. She adores this activity. She is planning her Santa letter in her head whilst doing it ;-)








4: Peg Boards

Peg boards really catch a toddlers attention. It is great for practicing the pencil grip.



Beading is a lovely activity for toddlers. It requires great concentration and they also get to wear what they create.





5: Toilet Roll Bracelets

Making bracelets out of toilet rolls is a great hit in my house! Never throw away toilet rolls, you will always find an Arts&Crafts project with them involved.



6. Indoor Tent

Make a tent; Use chairs, blankets, duvets and pillows. then camp out in the sitting room :-)




7: Shoe Shop:

Shoe Shop; line up all the shoes and play shop, not forgetting the cash register, fake money , receipts and bags.





8: Hide the Spoon

Hide the spoon; Hide it in the sitting room and various places around the house and let the kids find it, never grows old!





9:Indoor Picnic

Indoor picnic; Blanket on the floor, teddy bears ready!





10: Puppet Show.

make puppets out of old socks and sew buttons on for their eyes.





10: Home cinema

Draw the curtains, make popcorn and put on their favorite film.

11: 

GO OUT!!

Put on the Wellies and waterproofs, take umbrellas and splash in puddles!

 

Finding ladybirds in the rain.







Let me know if you have any other cheap and cheerful activities for keeping your toddler busy at home?





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Orla and Kerri xx

Bepanthen Review

About a month ago we were very fortunate to receive a wonderful package in the post from the lovely people at BAYER makers of Bepanthen to review. Not only did we enjoy the products but we also found the website very helpful; packed with Baby Skin Care and Nappy Care information, tips and links.

Timing of the products however was perfect:

For Kerri the Bepanthen Baby Moisturiser  has been the star of the summer.

 With the weather just begining to improve we struck for the beach on many an occasion. Anyone with kids will know that getting stuck down into the sand, digging the "biggest hole ever", and becoming covered from head to toe in layers of wet on dry sand is all part of the days fun. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the beach. However Seán seemed to be constantly covered in sand.

 We live near the beach, so one sits on a towel in the car and with the quick trip home you come in with your wet togs and jump straight into the shower. This is where I really found Bepanthan was a life saver. Each day I washed the sand off. I know its not good to over bath children, especially children with dry skin as Seán does (very slightly on his arms). However what was I to do? It was a comforting reassurance that a very suited moisturiser was going to be applied within minutes. Bepanthen Baby Moisturiser is free from alcohol,colours, fragrances, parabens and other preservatives, lanolin or paraffin and is suitable from birth.

 The packaging is very user friendly and is a great size tube (pictured far right above). It goes on as a light white lotion and soaks into the skin within minutes. By bed time I could feel Sean's skin rehydrated and ready for another day at the beach. I used it each evening after his bath or shower so a couple of times a week and after a month I can see such an improvement in his skin. I love that there is no smell form it, and even Seán commented that it not sticky! I rub it on in circular motions and its a real hit. Back in the nappy days Bepanthen Nappy Care Ointment was a God Send however I had never tried the Bepanthen Baby Moisturiser. After using it for a month, I will certainly continue to use it and  I would highly recommend it for children of all ages. 



For Orla:

I have loved trying out the Bepanthen range. I used the Bepanthen Moisturiser on both Farrah and Georgia after their baths, it contains Provitamin B5 and you can notice the difference this unique ingredient makes to your child's skin. The girls skin looked and felt hydrated. Their skin was soft and it was not a heavy moisturiser, I could see that their skin looked fresh and could breathe after application.
Bepanthen recently launched their 100g Nappy Care Ointment in a new plastic pack with a flip top. For me this is a major improvement by Bayer, makers of Bepanthen. The original packaging annoyed me. You would have to screw off the lid and roll up the packaging as time went on to get cream out which resulted in it cracking and cream coming out from all angles, usually all over my changing bag. With changing a toddlers nappy and all the wriggling that goes with it, you just don't have the patience for a screw top lid, give me flip lid any day!Well this problem is now a thing of the past. The new plastic packaging and new flip lid is clean and easy to use! It is 100% better for me due to this. Now I would certainly recommend this product. Georgia still gets nappy rash when she is teething. We have a long time of teething left as at 18 months she only has 8 teeth. Recently she cut a tooth and had runny nappies resulting in nappy rash. I used Bepanthen Nappy Care Ointment and it cleared it right up. Bepanthen Nappy Care Ointment is gentle and can be used everyday to prevent the causes of nappy rash. It contains lanolin and Provitamin B5 resulting in a long lasting breathable transparent layer, therefore I would certainly recommend applying it daily especially when teething strikes.

Thanks for reading! Have you tried Bepanthen products? Did you find them good? We would love to hear from you?

Kerri & Orla Xxx





Disclaimer:  We received the Bepanthen products above free of charge in exchange for a fair and honest review. We did not receive any other remuneration for this post.  All thoughts and opinions in this review are our own.


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Our kids do chores do yours?

'Everybody wants to save the earth; nobody wants to help Mum with the dishes' :-)  P.J.O'Rourke

On today's blog I am discussing children and chores. We both feel very strongly about ensuring we provide our children with opportunities to be responsible and carry out their own jobs in their own home. Good habits last a lifetime and your future daughter/son in law will thank you for raising tidy children :-)



Here are a few jobs I have my girls carry out in the home; watering the raised beds, putting their dirty clothes in the laundry basket, putting toys back in their right place in the playroom, laying the table, handing me the clothes from the basket to be hung on the washing line and recently Farrah has been doing some hoovering for me! Happy days! Kids like to help,embrace this and always provide lots of positive reinforcement.

Kerri also get's her son Seán to do his daily "jobs". These include counting out the correct amount of cutlery for dinner, setting the table, bringing the used bowl or plate back to the sink and then putting it into the dishwasher. This is a chore but also something that if taught from a young age, when do so out of home especially, it becomes good manners. Hoovering is also a favourite of Seán's: if he does a good job he then gets a spin on the hoover! Of course he does not hoover to any great standard, but thats not the point. The idea is teaching him responsibility and identifying and realising the jobs that need to be done in a house. Bringing his clothes down to the washing machine is a new job for him and the novelty factor is keeping it going..here's hoping it stays!  Tidying away toys in the playroom before bed is one we are currently working on...it's not going too well, but i'll stick to it! 

Here are some tips in getting your children to help with chores at home;

Start young. Make a tidy up session before bathtime an integral part of the day.

Set ground rules. For example-pen lids must be replaced,outdoor shoes(wellies) must always be put away, and pyjamas folded under pillows.

Everyone helps. Children grumble about clearing up when they didn't personally make the mess. You can make the point that it wasn't mum or dad who scattered jigsaw pieces or dropped play dough on the floor. Make it clear that everybody tidy's up,every day.

Show what needs to be done. If we don't water the vegetables we won't have them to eat for dinner because they need water to grow big and strong. Also dont expect a child to know what to tidy up,show them exactly. Children often don't recognise toys on the floor as mess.

Make it easy. Use easy to reach boxes for example, one box for play food, one box for Lego.

Reward particularly good behaviour. Positive reinforcement is so important and works wonders. Household tasks should be regarded as part of family life, not something that children are paid to do. Besides lots of positive reinforcement, extra special effort can be recognised with sticker charts for younger children and additional pocket money for older kids.

Easy Tasks For Children

Pre-schoolers
Picking up toys
Watering plants
Putting clothes in laundry basket
Laying the table

5 to 10 year olds
Loading the dishwasher
Washing the car
Sweeping the floors

11 to 16 year olds
Vacuuming
Gardening tasks
Taking out the rubbish

Let me know if your children help at home,what tasks they carry out,do they complain or enjoy it? We would love to hear.



Until next time, thanks for reading!

Orla and Kerri  xxx

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The Smell of Home

Although I'm a huge Yankee Candle fan, I still can't understand how they haven’t bottled up he smell of a typical Irish home and sold it by the bucket load. Now I'm not talking the smell of days old wet GAA training gear or the smell of spuds and bacon cooking  for the 12 noon dinner (all very homely  smells of my childhood) I’m talking about the smell of fresh scones or soda bread just about to come out for the oven....... Heavenly. 

There's no smell as warm and comforting as a batch of scones or a loaf of soda bread that is minutes away form layering up with real butter and homemade jam. My taste buds are tickling as I write. I know it's nostalgia that's playing a key factor here but none the less, we cannot deny that no matter how much of a health kick we are on that it is a difficult task to decline such an invitation as a cup of tea and a warm fresh scone. I was spoiled as a child to come in off the school bus to this said invitation, and still today there is no greater txt I rather receive than "scones  in oven, kettle on, will ye call?" From mammy. I now try to recreate  such smells in my home today (well the days old wet GAA gear smell has been perfected!) and with that I share with you my favourite scones recipe.  Perhaps some day I'll be as good as Mam and won't need a recipe, I'll know my own recipe and quantities form experience but for now it’s my tried and trusted Rory O'Connell recipe.

INGREDIENTS

4 cups white flour

1/2 heaping teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 heaping teaspoon sugar

Sift ingredients into a large mixing bowl.  2 cups buttermilk

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 200°.

Sift ingredients into a large mixing bowl.

Make a well in the center of the dry mixture and add buttermilk.

Mix together by hand until thoroughly combined (be careful not to overwork the dough, as this causes toughness). At this point add in some raisins if desired. (I would if I was you!) 

Turn out dough onto a well-floured surface and form into a large rectangle about 1 inch thick.

Using a rolling pin and extra flour as needed, roll rectangle into a ¾ inch thickness.

Using a scone cutter (or in my case a glass!) class out as many scones as you can. Keeping them good and thick.

Lightly flour a large sheet pan and arrange the scones in rows just barely touching.

Bake for 10 minutes, rotate the tray, and bake for 5- 10 more minutes. (Depends on your oven, fan etc..) 

Then plug in the kettle, get out the real butter and jam and sit back and enjoy the smells of home until the scones are ready!

I always make two batches of scones when baking: one batch as above and one batch dairy free. I do this my simply substituting almond milk for butter milk and sunflower butter for real butter. In my eyes theres an obvious winner, but my son knows no different and loves them. Scones are also so handy to put in the freezer and pull out as needed.

Hope you enjoy recreating my favourite 'smell of home'.

We would love to hear what smells sum up home for you, and how you recreate those smells in your home today xxx 

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