Izziwizzi Kids is all about ‘Changing the World of Toys and Play…Together’. The emphasis here is ‘together’. So in addition to launching a brand new episode of Izziwizzi Kids Play TV every Friday, you can join in the fun and have your say in your weekly Play Fest Party. When the kids have gone to sleep you can come online and play. This gives you a huge amount of influence and input into the world of toys and play.

So How Does it All Work?

Imagine you are invited to a friends party but this is not the sort where you drink too much and regret it, or the sort where you get together and end up spending too much money. Our parties have a twist. We talk about a specific aspect of play that feeds in to up and coming Izziwizzi Kids Play TV episodes.

We team up with companies to bring you opportunities to do product reviews, make product recommendations, receive special offers, take part in competitions and have your say.

It’s a whole lot of fun and everyone is welcome to join in!

And best of all…you no longer have to wait to see what the the TV spits out at you for play and toy inspiration for your kids! Find out what other mums are doing, find out what Izziwizzi Kids is up to, explore what companies have on offer for you and this way you get buckets more inspiration.

Join Us on Twitter

If you are familiar with Twitter this will make perfect sense. If you are not on Twitter or new to it and want to find how to get involved then I’ll give a bit more explanation in just a moment.

Join us on Twitter every Tuesday between 8.30pm-10pm (new extended time). Just follow and use the hash tag #PlayFest or follow @izziwizzi.

If Twitter is new to you then you need to:

a) Setup and account with Twitter and write all sorts of nice things about yourself in your profile. Just Google how to setup Twitter account and you will get help.

b) The trick then is to register with an external free Twitter application such as Hootsuite or Tweetdeck. These tools enable you to track conversations amongst a whole lot of other useful stuff. Whichever you choose you need to setup keyword tracking for the term #PlayFest. Once you have this in place then you will be shown every tweet that contains this keyword / hashtag.

c) Start tweeting. Everything you say has to be in less than 140 characters. Just make sure that you leave enough space to include #PlayFest if you want everyone at the party to like what you say.

d) Please do not be affraid to ask questions during the playfest if you are unclear about anything. We are all in it together. You can just hit reply to any conversation.

e) Have fun!

Join Us on Facebook

Join us on Facebook every Thursday between 8.30pm-10pm (new extended time). Just follow our fan page (click the like button) and the party updates will start feeding into your news feed.

We think that more people are familiar with Facebook, but if you would like further help to get up and running with this, then please feel free to drop us an email to help get you up and running.

Al Boxall-Gordon

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

I found an inspiring quote to share today and I thought it was important as there is something you can get from it no matter what the age of your offspring.

Getting down on all fours and imitating a rhinoceros stops babies from crying.  (Put an empty cigarette pack on your nose for a horn and make loud “snort” noises.)  I don’t know why parents don’t do this more often.  Usually it makes the kid laugh.  Sometimes it sends him into shock.  Either way it quiets him down.  If you’re a parent, acting like a rhino has another advantage.  Keep it up until the kid is a teenager and he definitely won’t have his friends hanging around your house all the time.  ~P.J. O’Rourke

Photography by By Schristia Flickr

Al Boxall-Gordon

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

Are your kids bedrooms in a mess? Does it seem like a hopeless cycle?

Here are some tips to blast your kids bedroom and get them self-motivated to do it for themselves.

Bits missing? toys broken? bits of toys all over the place?

Prefer to watch this on video. Watch Izziwizzi Kids Play TV Episode #20.

The Challenge

- For 90% of children tidying up is not an attractive option as playing is much more fun.

- Yes children will find long lost toys in the depths of their toy boxes and get side tracked in playing with them rather than tidying up.

- Yes it will take longer

The Benefits of Motivating Children to Tidy Their Room

- Your children are more likely to appreciate the work that has been done and keep it tidy.

- You get to spend some quality time together

- It encourages children to take responsibility for their own environment

- It encourages children to look after their personal belongings

- It teaches children some self-discipline and organisation skills

- You will be creating good habits for later in life and save yourself a lot more time and headache in the long run

- You will have a nicer environment to live in

- You never know you might even breed someone who loves tidying and wants to help out in other areas of the house. Well it’s worth a try anyhow.

It is astonishing that the first 3 pages of Google are dominated by computerised games where children can pretend to tidy up. And yes, some of these games even said you could really please your mum by showing her how tidy your computerised room is. Wow!

How to get your kids motivated to tidy their room:

- Get some music on to get you in the mood

- Make a game of how much you can get tidied up in one song. The problem here with experiences is that children focus on quantity of tidying rather than quality. They will pick everything up off the floor and pile it up as a mountain in the corner.

- You can make games up with younger children to encourage learning, shapes, colours, toy types e.g. put all the toy food in one box, put all the dolls in another box.

- Talk with your kids and ask them about their toys, which ones they particularly like and why.

- Make games up with the toys that you find now and again e.g. make a puppet show.

Extra Tips:

- Keep the process simple by having a set of rules. Which toys belong in which place, what to do with broken ones or toys with missing parts.

- Be prepared to repeat yourself

- Have an ‘abandoned things’ box for small bits that get lost. Don’t worry about matching everything up, when you come to play with it and something’s missing, then go to the abandoned box.

- If you find toys with lost or broken bits check the abandoned box first. If you can’t find it there then it’s worth considering contacting the manufacturer as they often have replacement parts. So contrary to advice given elsewhere on the web, don’t just chuck it.

- If you do decide to get rid of broken things (get the permission of your kids if they are aware of what you are doing)

- Do not stop and examine anything was the advice given on one website. Everything broken should just be thrown straight in the dustbin. This is the worst advice from an environmental perspective that I have seen. If you can fix or replace bits before you throw them away. Even if you don’t want the toy anymore it could be re-used.

- Sort out clothes that don’t fit in another bag and toys and books in a bag

- You can give re-usable items to a charity shop or do a boot fair. Your kids will get loads out of doing a boot fair. Marketing their toys, practicing money and appreciating the value of money. They can buy a new toy as a reward

- You might also want a bag for things to put away for later and rotate if you don’t have enough room for everything right now.

How To Motivate Your Child to Keep Their Room Tidy?

Make it easy for them, easy boxes to put things in, easy hooks to hang coats on.

Habits are things that we do repeatedly without almost being aware that we do them. They become an unconscious thing that we just do. So if you are not a tidy person naturally you need to make it become a habit and you do this consciously making yourself repeat behaviour until you do it regularly without even thinking about it.

And here is how to form good habits

Consciously dedicate 15 minutes a day to a ‘tidy up time’. Set a specific time of day for doing this and stick to this as much as possible.  Write it down somewhere, ideally in your diary or chart. Something you look at daily. If you write it down you are far more likely to act upon it.

Avoid introducing pocket money for tidying their room if you can. It seems to really work on the face of it, but then the reward of money becomes the focus of attention rather than the original benefits discussed. A financial reward can come for older children by selling old toys. But if keeping a tidy bedroom is mixed with other activities during the week as part of a pocket money rewards scheme for general good behaviour it can work really well.

And Don’t forget those other day to day things that kids can be doing to keep those tidy habits

- After getting dressed make their bed before breakfast

- Put dirty clothes in the wash basket after they’ve taken them off

- Put toys, CD’s and DVD’s back in their boxes

- Put their coats and shoes away when they get back from school

- Take plates and cups back into the kitchen

- Put towels back on the rail in the bathroom

How many times do you find yourself doing these things for your kids just to get on with it? Do you find yourself getting sucked in?

Al Boxall-Gordon

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

I had a poem that came into my head last night out of nowhere and it made a couple of people laugh, so that was enough for me to take it to the world. I thought I’d share it with you to see what you think. An absolute must read if you have more than one child in your life.

The Daily Life of a Multiple Parent

By Al Boxall-Gordon

A 7am start, starts a damn fine day,
That’s if you’re lucky many parents do say.

The day starts good after a good nights sleep,
They emerge like angels that do smile and greet.

But that’s if you’re lucky and the night has awaken not the beast,
Who decided it would be good to have a midnight feast.

In the morn you are prodded ‘I feel weary and lame’,
Their eyes are wide and bright and ready for a game.

But it’s the school rush, you need to get them clothed, fed and ready,
But their main focus is bed for a teddy,
Or maybe walking backwards as slowly as they can,
Or if you are lucky they decide they’ll be your fan,
Then you can get them to behave like no other,
But it’s usually to get one up on their sister or brother.

If they clean themselves nicely and dress themselves well,
‘Relief’ you can get them to school for that bell.

But the younger ones aren’t there yet, at home they do stay,
And they are cleverer than you think. They have their own plans for the day.
“Mess and more mess is how I like to play”
And we practice our patience with the things we calmly say.

Let’s do something educational are the words we do render,
“Oh no! mummy and daddy I have my own agenda”

“Make more mess! Make more mess!” as you tidy up,
You know in your heart you should handle this rut.

And now they are hungry and now want their lunch,
But the thing that you gave them, well they want something else to munch.

Until the school bell goes and “It’s Home Time!!!” What fun!!
‘Til you start hearing vocabulary like widgie, boobs and bum.

And by 5 o’clock they are all hungry, tired and battered each other,
“Dinners Ready” as you aspire to be a good father or mother.

Then it’s time to calm down with bath-time and bed,
But they come back to life and it rings in your head.

You finally settle them down to a good nights sleep,
And it’s in those quiet moments thoughts and memories we most do reap,
How tranquil and beautiful the children we have sewn,
As they sleep peacefully in a world of their own.

After your moment of sanity you had to yourself,
You go to bed putting the bits you got wrong on the shelf.
Then you fall asleep and all your cares drift away,
‘Til your woken again for another new day!

But would we have it any other way?

Photo attribution – Embarrased Father Toby Alter Flickr

Al Boxall-Gordon

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

Yesterday afternoon was a nice sunny day here in Yorkshire and I took a little walk for a few minutes to see what was going on in the big wide world. To my delight I walked around the corner and there before me was a brand spanking new Yorkshire Pudding Parlour. The smells were yummy scrumptious. At that point, the cogs in my brain started going again as I connected together that my children absolutely love Yorkshire puddings, this is one of Yorkshires best kept secrets, but most importantly that I could tease out the secrets and give them to you. So, without further ado, I went into the parlour and asked the owner if she would share with you the secrets to making successful Yorkshire Puddings and she kindly agreed.

As I was born in Kent I always thought that I didn’t have it in my blood to make successful Yorkshire Puddings. I’ve been trying to tease out the secrets from James’ family (Yorkshire born and bred) for years. So, in conjunction with what I learned from ‘The Pud Pot’ and years of picking the brains of Yorkshire Women, I’ve now pulled together a series of techniques and secrets that last week made all the difference, so here goes….

4oz (100g) Plain Flour (it’s very important that it’s plain)
1 egg
half pint of fluid (split 50/50 milk and water)
pinch of salt

Heat the oven, so it gets really hot (gas mark 7, 425°F (220°C)). Put a knob of fat or a bit of oil into each yorkshire pudding tin, (equivalent so it covers the bottom when melted) and put in the oven. Put the egg into the bowl and whisk until light and fluffy. Add 3/4 of the milk/water fluids. Fold in the flour. The mixture needs to be quite a thick and creamy consistency. You can add more of the fluids if you need to. You may need a final whisk to get rid of any lumps and bumps. The secret is to catch and keep as much air in the mixture as you can. You’ve got a good idea that it’s got lots of air in it with the tiny bubbles that form on the top. When the fat is very hot (almost smoking) pour the mixture in to each tin until each is around 3/4 full. Cook for around 15 minutes.

Yorkshire puddings were traditionally given as a filler before the main course smothered in onion gravy. My children enjoy them with their own vegetables inside and gravy on top.

Do you have Yorkshire Pudding success secrets to share? Post them on your Izziwizzies Blog below. This worked really well for me, but how did this recipe work out for you? Share your comments below.

I’ve also been busy working on a great money saving offer for you. All will be revealed for you next week.

Take Care

Al Boxall-Gordon

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