When I was young, preschool kids TV meant Playschool each morning and Bagpuss or the Flumps if I was lucky. We certainly had no dedicated Kids TV Channel.

It is probably impossible for children today to imagine only 3 TV channels and no kids TV on a Sunday. Black Beauty was the best Sunday TV had to offer in my day.

Before my baby was born, I was looking forward to the joys of CBeebies. I think I may have been crazy. Yes some of the programmes are brilliant, but when you have seen the same one 3 times in one day, you start to go slightly bonkers. I will admit some programmes I could watch endlessly. Timmy Time and Pingu are my favourites. Luckily for me, they are favourites of 3yo too! It is slightly disturbing though that he has a fondness for Waybuloo. Just what is that show about? I just don’t get it. Maybe you have to be under 5 to appreciate these things. I hate the dubbed voices, I hate the freaky floating creatures. I hate the fact that pretty much nothing happens.

I like kids TV programmes to be fun, bright and educational. Justin Fletcher seems to get it right. Mr Tumble is genius, Gigglebiz IS funny, Something Special teaches us sign language in a way that I and 3yo actually remember. I love the shows that give me ideas for what I can do with 3yo. I Can Cook – Katy cooks things that are healthy and fun to make. Kids cooking doesn’t have to be just Crispie Crackles. Mister Maker and Doodle Do have fun arts and crafts ideas that keep me and 3yo entertained. (Maybe they just keep the inner Blue Peter presenter in me satisfied.)

It is easy to let CBeebies become your babysitter though. The off button on the TV is hard to press, even when you are going nuts at the thought of watching Balamory AGAIN! Some experts say that you shouldn’t let your young child watch TV. Some say limit it. I agree that if your child is doing something else, don’t have it on in the background. It is a distraction that doesn’t help young minds concentrate on something else, and let’s face it, it can send mum potty! The CBeebies babysitter is useful when you are busy. It has it’s drawbacks though. The songs and theme tunes wafting in from the living room to the kitchen while you are making dinner, can have the effect of getting inside your head for hours. Anyone been humming the tune to Timmy Time – ALL THE TIME?

What do you think is the best and worst of kids TV?

We all know every child is different. I know that I worried about whether my baby was developing at the right level. As he has got older, I have relaxed. His friends, other children at preschool and playgroups – they all have different skills, strengths and weaknesses.

This list below was sent to me by my health visitor. My son can do much better than some of them, and struggles with others. It is a good quideline though…  

Stages of Development of a 3 year old

Posture and large movements

• Can walk up and down the stairs, jumps from bottom step
• Climbs easily
• Turns round obstacles and corners while running
• Walks forwards, backwards and sideways
• Rides a tricycle using the pedals
• Can stand and walk on tiptoe
• Can throw a ball overhand, catches a large ball on or between extended arms
• Kicks a ball

Vision and Fine Movements

• Builds a tower of 9-10 bricks high
• Threads large wooden beads onto shoelaces
• Holds a pencil in preferred hand, copies a circle and a cross.
• Can draw a man with a head and one or two features
• Names and matches 2 or 3 primary colours
• Cuts with children’s scissors

Hearing and Speech

• Gives full name, sex and sometimes age
• Carries on simple conversation,
• Able to briefly describe present and past experiences
• Asks questions – Who?, Where? What?
• Listens eagerly to stories and demands favourites
• Knows several nursery rhymes to repeat and sometimes sing
• Counts up to 10 or more

Social behaviour and Play

• Eats with a fork or spoon
• Washes hands but needs adult supervision in drying
• Can pull pants and knickers up and down, but needs help with buttons and other fastenings
• Toilet trained through the day, sometimes has accidents
• Likes to help adults with domestic activities
• Enjoys floor play, with bricks, boxes, toy trains, dolls, prams
• Make believes alone or with other children
• Understands sharing
• Shows affection for younger siblings
• Shows some understanding between past present and future, ie yesterday, today and tomorrow

Great value books on toddler and infant development

This is a really quick and easy craft idea. 3yo loves making this crown. It is really versatile as it can be made for a special occasion like Christmas, or just for fun with any odd bits of paper or card. Cutting out pictures from magazines looks good. As does painting the crown all different colours.

Here is a step by step guide to making the paper plate crown – which we made here as a festive Christmas Crown.   You will need:

1. Paper plate
2. Scissors

Then for decoration, either paint, or coloured paper/card and glue.

Glitter, tinsel, feathers, or leaves, could be used as well.

First start off by making your crown…

Now you are ready to start decorating!

1. Take a normal paper plate
2. Fold it in half
3. Cut from the middle of the folded part towards the edge, like pizza pieces.
4. Fold the pieces back to make a crown
5. Try it on for size!
6. Start sticking coloured paper, leaves, glitter, anything – onto the triangles
7. Add as much or a little onto your crown
8. You should now have a colourful crown

All it needs…  is little more bling – as it is Christmas we added some tinsel.

I am already imagining everyone sitting down to Christmas dinner, wearing these hats!  I like making this crown, as the variations are almost endless. Toddlers love making things and they can do almost all of this themselves. Cutting the paper plate with scissors, is the only bit I take total control of!

Great crafty idea from Ang at www.amumssurvivalguide.co.uk Thanks Ang!

If you enjoy art and craft ideas for kids try:

Great gifts and a fantastic way to keep the children occupied in the holidays!

You’ve forgotten what sleep is like and you’ve ran out of energy – but you toddler is still going…. ideas to keep them occupied.

Toddlers are demanding – there is no way round it! However, they can be an utter joy and being part of their young lives is a privilege and an honour.  Sometimes though, you need a hand thinking of new things to do to keep them entertained.

I know sometimes we all need a hand thinking of new things to do… I have put together a PDF of things you and your baby can enjoy together.

You can view and print the PDF ebook for FREE
Toddler activities – ways to keep your youngster entertained

I have included the following ideas:

Water Games

• Sink or swim
• Washing up
• Bubbles

Indoor fun

• Follow my leader
• Tunnelling fun
• Household help
• Measure this measure that
• Bubbles
• Indoor Olympics – or sports day!
• Puppets
• Indoor Toddler Hopscotch!
• Tickle Wheel!
• Let’s pretend
• Hide and seek
• Cardboard box fun

Music and songs

• Home made orchestra.

Action songs:

• Head, shoulders, knees and toes
• The Hokey Cokey
• Incey Wincey Spider
• Incey Wincey spider went up the waterspout
• The Farmer’s in his Den
• One Finger, One Thumb
• The Wheels on the Bus
• Five Little Fishies
• Five little fishies, swimming in a pool
• If you’re happy and you know it
• Pat-a-cake
• A Ring o’ Roses
• This little piggy went to market
• I’m A Little Teapot
• Two Fat Gentlemen

Cooking

• Fruit Kebabs
• Edible Aquiarium
• Peppermint creams
• Crispy crackles
• Cheesy Dip
• Smiley Toasties

Crafty two’s

• Finger-paint
• Foot painting
• Blow painting
• Pattern painting
• String painting
• Mini-sandbox
• Food necklaces
• Drawing big!

Outdoor fun

• Home Made Kite
• Rainy Day Painting
• Chalk people
• Hopscotch
• Sandpit fun

Remember – you can download the PDF for FREE

You can view and print the PDF ebook for FREE
Toddler activities – ways to keep your youngster entertained

All you need to view it is Adobe Reader, if you don’t have this already you can download it for free.

Adobe Reader download

When you are 2 it is important to have your friends round for dinner. I wouldn’t mind at all if Callum or Connor or Bethany or Jessica came for their tea. However the guest in question, and a guest that HAD to be treated with the utmost of respect and be given only the BEST food – was a grubby, tatty teddy bear. Teddy is 2yo’s best friend so I suppose he SHOULD come to dinner.

Teddy was the perfect dinner guest. He was quiet and very well behaved. He never threw his food and  always waited patiently to be served. Teddy came dressed for the occasion. He was sporting the very best in nappywear. He was not allowed to eat pretend food, or have a pretend drink. That would be silly – wouldn’t it?

There was an upside to the sillyness. As Teddy mysteriously ate all his food, 2yo was first amazed, and then slightly concerned that Teddy might eat HIS food. Daddy had nothing to do with the slight of hand while Mummy cried “look what’s that” pointing to the ceiling – honest!  2yo made sure Teddy couldn’t get to his food and quickly ate up every last bit. Mummy and Daddy were very pleased that both of them ate ALL their food, though congratulating the bear did feel slightly unneccessary.

Of course, all this had the desired effect; 2yo ate all his food and every plate was clean. The dinner party had gone well. Up to the point where dessert was about to be served. Ice cream is not the best dessert for a fluffy teddy bear to consume. He had to make do with jelly babies. It was a poor substitute apparently. Ice cream is the only dessert that should be served to important guests.

Despite Teddy being a superb dinner guest, our enthusiasm in ‘going along’ with the whole scenario soon back fired on us.

Teddy stayed over night and turned up for breakfast demanding Shreddies.

Getting young children to eat fruit and vegetables can be a chore. You can make it more fun by turning tasting fruit and veg into a game.

Firstly wash, peel and chop the fruit and veg you are using, make sure you remove any pips and stones. 3 types is about the right number to start with.

Choose any, but these are great to start with:

Fruit, can be fresh or tinned

• Banana
• Strawberry
• Apple
• Pear
• Peach
• Carrot
• Red green or yellow pepper
• Mushroom
• Tomato
• Cucumber

Get your toddler to cover their eyes, and feed them a small piece of fruit or veg, ask them to tell you what it is. Congratulate them if they are right. If they get it wrong, ask them questions about it to help them and guess again. Is it sweet, crunchy, sticky, soft, etc.

You can join in the game too, by swapping round and you cover your eyes and get your toddler to feed you bits of fruit and veg. You should be good at guessing the right one, but you can say, oh it’s sweet and crunchy, is it an apple?

This games makes tasting new food fun, and helps with improving their vocabulary – it can get messy though!

My tot was a great eater. There is nothing he wouldn’t try, and meals were a dream. Then at about 2 1/2 he just stopped eating bread. He would just eat the filling – never the bread.  “NO NO NO” was all I got at lunch time if bread was offered.

OK, a new method was called for.  What does he really like… Numbers were a big fave. Luckily IKEA were selling cookie cutters in number shapes – I had some in the cupboard.They had been sitting there as I had never got round to the baking cookies thing!

He got to choose which numbers he wanted – and it was easy to do. Hey presto it worked like magic. He was eating bread. Margarine on numbers, jam on numbers, cream cheese on numbers.

At the moment he will only eat the number 5. He has gone through 2 3 4 and 8. I wonder which will be next?

Bread ‘fives’, with slices of strawberry and banana with halved grapes.

Lunch went down a treat!

To a toddler most everyday chores can be made into a game, and mopping, dusting, washing, and brushing are just a few.

You can either buy ‘toy’ household cleaning items, or what seems to be much more fun, is helping Mummy by using hers. Kids love to copy and help, all the more when they are praised for their help.

I have a dustpan and brush that just my toddler uses, this way I know it is clean, and he just loves brushing up crumbs when he’s eaten a biscuit, or thrown cereal all over the floor. This ‘game’ also helps him understand that you have to clean up if you’ve made a mess.

Of course your little helper will probably be more of a hindrance than a help, but it is fun to a toddler and does help them learn about chores around the house that have to be done,

Other chores that work well with kids ‘helping’:

• Sweeping up leaves outside. The ‘big brush’ seems too big for my ‘helper’ but he manages quite well, and insists on brushing up, even when there is nothing to sweep.
• Filling and emptying the washing machine. Folding and putting away clothes follows on from this, and can include pairing up socks, sorting clothes into a pile for each member of the family.
• Washing up. My son loves washing up his dishes after meals. OK, so I let him do this more in the summer – outside. Plastic crockery is a must as it means no breakages!
• Window cleaning. A soft cloth with no cleaner on is perfect for your little one to help keep the windows clean. With lots of praise, they will be really pleased that they have been such a big help. Do make sure the window is secure, firmly locked shut, and at ground level – shut doors are great.

• Washing the car. A favourite with my son. He just loves the bubbles, the water, ‘being grown up’ an d getting very very wet!

Never leave your child unattended while they are ‘helping’ you with chores.
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To a toddler most everyday chores can be made into a game, and grocery shopping is one of them.

Shopping with young kids can be split into 3 parts.

Making your shopping list

Get a piece of paper and a pen and walk around the kitchen with your toddler.

Saying, “Do we need some more carrots?” and looking to see. If you do, put them on the list. Soon enough you will have a list to go shopping with.

My advice would be to stick to items in the fridge, freezer, store cupboard and fruit and veg. It’s not a good idea to discuss bleach and where it is kept with your toddler!

At the shops

Ask your toddler if carrots were put on the list, and where they are in the shop. You can ask how many carrots you need, and they can help put them in a bag.

While in the fruit and veg section you can see how many items they recognise or can find.

The same can be done to find ‘their favourite cereal’ or ‘which milk do you drink?’

Putting away the shopping

Once at home with the shopping you can ask where different items go. I was surprised that my son knew better than me where all the different food went.

Of course this is a game best saved for those smaller shopping trips – it could easily take hours if applied to a big shop, as well as your youngster will simply get bored lose interest if the game takes too long.

The shopping game helps with their vocabulary, memory, planning skills, and gets them more involved in shopping and makes it more fun.

You of course can reminise about when shopping didn’t take even half as long to do!

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We are told by every expert under the sun that fruit and vegetables are good for us and we must eat 5 portions a day.

Yes, fruit and vegetables are delicious, tasty and good for you, but sometimes you need some new ways to get your youngsters to eat them.

Here our favourite Vegetable Snacks For Kids – please add more!

Raw vegetables

Cut up fresh raw vegetables into bite size pieces, or sticks.

Be careful about serving broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower to young children as they could choke. You can grate some veg, like carrots, instead. You can serve the vegetables with cheese, or milk to provide protein and fat. Add crackers or fruit juice for carbohydrates.

Good vegetables to eat raw include:

• broccoli
• green beans
• carrots
• green peas
• cauliflower
• turnips
• celery
• cucumber
• peppers
• mushroom

Tomato and vegetables juices
You can blend chopped up vegetables to make a juice, or use the water you boil your vegetables in (cooled down of course!) as a nutritious drink.

Vegetable Art
Instead of arranging vegetables for your kids, give them sliced raw vegetables and let them design their own vegetable creations – then they can eat them!

Vegetable dips
Chop vegetables into bite size pieces or sticks and dip into hummus, natural yoghurt, unsweetened apple sauce. Good dipping vegetables can be carrots, celery, green or red pepper and broccoli.

Vegetable smoothies

How about a spinach smoothie? – sounds odd but tastes great!

How to make:
1 banana, sliced
150g (5 oz) green grapes
1 (200g) tub vanilla yoghurt
1/2 apple, cored and chopped
50g (2 oz) fresh spinach leaves

Blend all together. Add a little milk if your smoothie is too thick.

Apple and carrot smoothie?

How to make:
250ml milk
1 very ripe eating apple
1 small carrot

Pour the milk into the blender
Peel and grate the apple and carrot, add them to the blender.
Blend until smooth.

Grape and broccoli smoothie

Simply add seedless grapes and raw broccoli to your blender and blend until smooth
Add ice to make it less thick if necessary.

Remember to be aware of allergies and only give food to your child that is age and development appropriate.

A great recipe book for helping your child eat healthy nutritious meals: Big Book of Recipes for Babies, Toddlers & Children: 365 Quick, Easy and Healthy Dishes: From First Foods to Starting School

Just one comment on the book is:

I can’t praise this book highly enough! It’s very well laid out and even the pages are tough enough to be wiped down easily. I have tried loads of the recipes already with my own toddler and have recommended it to all the parents in the nursery where I work. I was amazed to find how easy it is to make root vegetables into a fun and nutritious meal. My son’s favourite is Toddler’s tortilla but I have yet to try any recipe that he won’t eat! A real find!

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