Izziwizzi Kids » Activity Ideas from 8 Imaginative Ways To Play and Learn

Valentines Day Fun

Al Boxall-Gordon — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:46:07 +0000

Here are some ideas to liven up your valentines day with your little one.
These ideas are brought to you thanks to the brilliant mostly mums who come along to Play Fest every week and on this particular week we had a focus on Valentines day fun with kids. Traditionally, valentines day isn’t really aimed at kids, but we saw it as a great opportunity to show how much you care and give them opportunities to show their loved ones how much they care too. You can do this in a fun way and enjoy some time together.

Using the letters from VALENTINES, here are a few fun things to try out for valentines day with your kids.

V – Vaccuuming

A – Art

L – Lots of love

E – Poached egg hearts for breakfast, lunch or tea

N – Make a nice treat

T – Time together

I – Do something using imagination

N – Nagging – not so much of it ;o)

E – Something educational

S – Sticking and glueing

Other fantastic creative fun ideas to try include:

1. Making heart jewell biscuits. Make some heart shaped biscuits and cut a shape out of the centre. Bake with a boiled sweet in the centre.

2. Have a treasure hunt with heart shaped clues and romantic cryptic clues if you are feeling really clever

3. Stimulate those creative poetry skills by saying words and asking your LO to point to the various parts of their body. For example, shed, flair, boulder, tree, peg, race, peir, pie etc.

4. Make a cake or cup cakes and use jelly heart sweets to cover.

More creative valentines fun ideas:

For more play ideas. Come along and join Play Fest every Tuesday on Twitter from 8.30-10pm and every Thursday on Facebook from 8.30-10pm.

What are your favourite actitivities to share for valentines day?

Al Boxall-Gordon

I am the founder of IzziwizziKids.co.uk and the Play Fest.

Toys and Technology

Al Boxall-Gordon — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:40:09 +0000

What do mums think about technology and toys? Do children over indulge? Can technology become problematic in play?

Play Fest mums shared their views on technology and toys, with many positive benefits and only a couple of down sides.

0-100+ years

Technology is so simple now, it has the ability to connect different generations. Happiest and most memorable family time is spent playing with games consoles together such as the Wii or even more so with controllerless Kinnect. Children can also play very well together with technology which helps parents when they need to get on with jobs.

On the flip side there were reports of some children getting frustrated and bad tempered when they get interrupted. Some children can also get bad tempered if they are not allowed to play on a games console. On the opposite perspective it was also highlighted that a games console can act as an excellent reward for good behaviour.

The earlier children get introduced to technology the better, was the general view held by mums at Play Fest as it forms an integral part of everyday living for children right into adulthood. However, there was also a general view that this should be in moderation and combined with other play activity which is more tradititional.

What were views about mobile phone game apps?

These were viewed really positively as providing a great tool for distraction when in queues in public places. It can help to control a childs behaviour and adults sanity. Children from as young as 18 months play on mobile phone applications.

Quality of technical toys

It seems that in modern times, toys can either be designed really well and benefit children in fanastic ways with education and learning, but there are still some interpretations of technology which don’t work. Providing toys are well designed, then technical toys can be really effective.

When should we introduce technical toys?

Technology is part of everyday life and gets children interested in all sorts of things and should be embraced. The Play Fest even brought about a traditional toy shop considering stocking some high tech toys. It’s about a balance and making sure that introducing technology does not put them off traditional toys and play within the home. The only downside to technical toys is that they eat up batteries, which cost money and often run low. When technology in toys can embrace extended battery life or wireless batteries, this will overcome the most popular widespread problem with technical toys.

The following websites were highlighted by Play Fest as being fun websites to try for play and learning with technology:

Favourite Kids Apps:

Mind shapes

Duck Duck Moose

John Higham Early Reader Apps

What are your favourite online game websites and mobile phone apps for kids? Are there any we have missed?

Al Boxall-Gordon

I am the founder of IzziwizziKids.co.uk and the Play Fest.

Fantastic Kids Parties

Al Boxall-Gordon — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 22:53:30 +0000

Are you looking for tips and ideas to make your childs party really special? Izziwizzi Kids Play Fest got together with mums and party entertainer Pippa Saunders @PippaTrulyMadly and hosted a party on Twitter and Facebook to brainstrom some ideas for fantastic kids parties. We hope these ideas will spark lots of really creative ideas and get your party off to a lively start in a way that suits your budget. We’d love you to share your ideas by contributing to this post.

What do you need to think about when you start to organise a kids party?

Play Fest came up with details of all the things that you need think about when you embark on your project of organising your child’s party.

1. A theme

2. Who to invite

3. A venue

4. The games and activities to bring your kids party to life

5. The food

6. The cake

7. Your budget

8. Crowd control

9. Party bags

1. A Theme

Your party theme could be based around something that your child loves to talk about, but you might also like to consider the mixture of age ranges who will be attending the party and what might capture their imagination. Ideas include pirates and princesses, nursery rhymes,

2. Who to invite

How many children can you invite within your budget? What will the age range be? A smaller age range makes it easier to maintain the interest of children in the games and activities. Don’t forgot to check with your child who they want to invite to their party and guide them where appropriate.

3. A venue

You need to think about where you will host your childs party. Do you want to have lots of children in your house, or will your budget allow for hosting your childs party elsewhere? Sometimes it can be as cost effective to host your childs party elsewhere and save you a lot of cleaning up at home.

4. Games and activities to bring your party to life

The games you select make a difference to your party. Do you want to energise children? Do you want to calm them down? Do you want to get different age groups involved? Here are some party games and activity ideas that Play Fest came up with.

Fish for your party bag
Pass the parcel – You can include a prize on every layer such as a golden coin or medal to maintain the interest of younger children.
Musical statues
Dead ants – where children lay on their backs and wave their arms and legs in the air. Thanks @Chaoskay
Treasure hunts – using golden coins for example
Parachute games – e.g. for a pirate theme you could make the parachute the sea and catch the fishes i.e. the children running around under the parachute.
The bumps
Bubble machines seem to go down really well
Plate or cup decorating
For a space theme create rockets with plastic bottles and launch them with alka seltzer
Make and decorate a biscuit
Fabric snakes
Picture frames
Simon says
Pin something on something e.g. pin tail on donkey, pin tail on Peppa pig

5. The Food

A couple of food ideas came out including plenty of fresh crunchy food such as carrots, cucumber, grapes etc and lots of nibbles. Don’t go over the top with food. They will be so interested in playing that food often gets left. Themed food boxes are an idea as an alternative to a buffet style.

6. The Cake

Play Fest came up with some novelty cake ideas to spark your imagination. Please do share your creations to spark more ideas. Cakes included bomb cakes (using liquorice sticks as the fuse), toadstool, numbers, hedgehog (using chocolate buttons as the spikes), princess castle, spider man cake with web cup cakes, fire engine and a Vanessa Phelps look alike Tinkerbell.

7. Your budget

Think about how much you are prepared to spend and hopefully these ideas will give you lots of low cost ideas to bring your party to life.

8. Crowd Control

What techniques will you use if your party guests get over excited to calm them down and get their attention? What will you do if some children don’t want to get involved? How will you keep the interest of different ages? Ideas to gain the attention of lots of noisy children include sounding a horn to let them know that you are ready for the next game.

9. Party Bags

Will you provide party bags for kids, or do you prefer something alternative. Ideas for party bags include personalised colouring pages and crayons, bubbles and cup cakes in a box. Printed t-shirts were also mentioned as a big hit.

Relax as much as you can. You know your kids party will deviate greatly from the plan, but that’s all part of the fun.

Finally Play Fest came up with some ideas for your Party Play List. Try some of these to see if you can get your little ones jiggling.

Time Warp
Agadoo
Zingzillas theme tune
Party rock
Birdy song
Hokey Cokey
Witch Doctor Ooh Eeh Ooh Ah Aah Ting Tang Walla Walla Bing Bang

How do you get a good response to party invitations. Do you have any tips on how to increase your response rate to party invitations?

Al Boxall-Gordon

I am the founder of IzziwizziKids.co.uk and the Play Fest.

Playfoam by Asco

Al Boxall-Gordon — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 11:31:44 +0000

Think of rice crispy cakes with the
moldability of clay and you’ve got
PlayFoam. Lightweight foam
sculpting beads that you can
squish, stretch and shape into
hundreds of exciting designs. It
never dries out, does not crumble
and will not stick to surfaces, so
you can use it over and over again
and cleaning up is so easy. It is
non toxic and non allergenic

Try PlayFoam with this starter pack
containing 6 blocks of PlayFoam in
yellow, orange, pink, blue, green
and white.

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