Joyful Mama's Favourite Finds: Me and Marie Printables

I just have to share with you about this super cute Baggie Game I downloaded for Sweetpea from a delightful website called Me and Marie Learning! (Thanks to Georgia over at Love and Lollipops who introduced me to Me and Marie!)

Me and Marie is the brainchild of Ashley, a mom and ex-school teacher with a Master's Degree in Reading and Literacy. She designs beautiful games and early-learning printables that you can download from her site. Categories include Baggie Games,  Pretend Play, File Games, Circle Time, Colours, Shapes and more, all for under $4 (that's about R30!) I love the Post Office and Library sets under Pretend Play - those will definitely be finding their way into our home soon!

But the first pack I bought was the Farm Baggie Game. What is a Baggie Game? Well...here is how Ashley describes it:

Baggie Games are fun, educational and fit in a sandwich bag! Learning materials can take up a lot of room, but Baggie Games are a great solution. Each set of Baggie Games includes three games featuring the same theme but, different skills.

Great uses for Baggie Games: ~travel ~waiting rooms ~restaurants (waiting on food) ~gifts ~preschool classrooms ~home school ~ANYTIME you need a quick and fun game!

The first game I printed out was the E-I-E-I-O Match, where you have to match the heads, bodies and feet of farm animals. It was great fun, but my daughter is all about precision at this stage, and it frustrated her that the pieces moved about on the table, so I quickly turned the Baggie Game into a File Game. I glued one part of each animal's body to a file folder, which helped them stay put. I cut open a small seed envelope and glued it also onto the folder to keep the loose matching cards. This has been a great hit!

I have been struggling lately to get my pictures to upload correctly - sorry about the odd angle of this one!

The other two games that are part of this pack are Barnyard noises and Animal count, and as soon as I get a chance between a mountain of ironing and a teething baby, we'll be playing with them, too! In the meantime, why don't you head on over to Me and Marie and get your little one in on the fun! Enjoy!

Joyful Mama's Favourite Finds: Dizzy Dots Pocket-size High Chair..and a GIVEAWAY!

I am in love! With this....

A friend of mine recently returned from a holiday in the UK with her husband and 18 month old daughter, and was singing the praises of a rather plain looking piece of fabric which converts into a high chair....?!?
I was bemused, so she quickly whipped it out of her handbag and before I could *blink* she had converted the chair in the cafe where we stood, into a very safe little 'high chair' for her daughter. I was hooked!

So... I came home, Googled Dizzy Dots, browsed their website and then very blatanly e-mailed them to ask if they would sponsor a high chair for me to 'test drive' on our upcoming Brenton holiday. Not only did they agree to my request, but they are also giving away  Dizzy Dots Pocket Size High Chairs to three lucky readers!! (Details at the bottom of this post!)

If you read my last post you will remember that this little vacation was a second honeymoon of sorts, so we decided to re-enact that blessed time by stopping for breakfast at the Shell Ultra City outside Worcester, just like we did on that first morning as Mr. & Mrs. T. (Terribly unromantic, I know, but we were so in love and so hungry, we didn't care one bit!)This was a great opportunity to try out our high chair for the first time!

We were shown to a booth, and the Dad, Sweetpea and I slid in and then pulled up a chair from the table next door to which we attached the high chair for ArrowBoy. It worked perfectly! Arrow was happy and safe and we all enjoyed our breakfast in peace - no baby trying to slide off the seat to chase a piece of sausage the previous patrons dropped, and I had both hands free! And we where the center of attraction as waitresses and people at other tables craned their necks for a look at our handy little on-the-chair-baby-holder!

At our chalet in Brenton-on-Sea we enjoyed our meals at a counter with bar stools  - so where to put the baby? Well,  we stacked three of the plastic garden chairs on top of each other for height, slipped the high-chair over the back of the top chair, and little Mr ArrowBoy sat right there with us for every meal, feeling part of all the mealtime action ,and,  once again..leaving Mama's hands free to eat a complete meal with a knife AND fork!

We used the high chair almost eveywhere we went, with the exception of a few places that had only picnic-style benches. (Why do 'family friendly' establishments always have those benches? Have they no idea about the proportions of little people's bodies? Toddlers always end up standing on their knees and have to stretch to reach their plates and drinks, resluting in inevitable spills and messes.)

These pictures from the Dizzy Dots website shows how it works:

Here are some of my favourite features of the Dizzy Dots Pocket Size High Chair:

• It fits over the back of almost any chair you will find in a restaurant, cafe or coffee shop.
• The long ties makes it adjustable to babies of any size - as soon as they can sit unsupported, up to toddler.
• There are two sets of loops at the back to accommodate the size of the child and the height at which you need the front piece of fabric to go around the baby's body.
• It weighs almost nothing and folds as flat as a wash cloth!
• It is fully washable!
• It is safe - ArrowBoy could not stand up while tied to the chair, but I think in another few months he will be able to. The high chair should therefore never be used without parental supervision. As long as you are right there with your baby, though, this is a very nifty little device that greatly contributed to the enjoyment of our holiday!

Be sure to visit the Dizzy Dots website to check out their other clever ideas for making life easier! (I like that car seat insert  - "Keeps seats dry when toddlers are wet!")

If you could use a Dizzy Dots Pocket Size High Chair - and who wouldn't!? - be sure to enter the giveaway! There are three high chairs to be won!
Here are the details:

1. This giveaway is open to South African residents only.
2. The closing date for the giveaway is Saturday, 10 July.
3. Enter by sending me an e-mail, telling me what your favourite family friendly cafe or restaurant is.
4. You can earn extra entries by getting your friends to enter, too! Just make sure they mention your name in their e-mail!
5. The winners will be notified via e-mail.

Joyful Mama's Favourite Finds: Co-operative Board games

When I joined Nucleus Toys a month or so ago, I was intrigued by a category in their catalogue called
Co-Operative games. I was given an already opened set to bring home and explore...and I am hooked!! These are the perfect entry-level board games for little ones who often struggle with the pressure of competition, or the disappointment of losing a traditional board game.

So here is what it is all about:

The players in a co-operative board game play together against the board, using strategy, logic and problem-solving. Yes, they still take turns, but since they are all on the same team, players have to work together to achieve a common goal. If they win, they win as a team, and the same goes for losing.

Although there are many of these games available to players of all ages, most readers of this blog are parents of toddlers and pre-schoolers, so I will use an example of a game perfect for this age group!

MAX is a lovely game by a company called Family Pastimes (click on the link to visit their web site and see my note at the bootom of this post) and is available in South Africa through Nucleus Toys. (You can  contact me for ordering information).

A fat old cat named Max finds his way out the door of his house. His owners have only so many treats to get him back inside, and Max is a quick treat-eater. Can you distract Max long enough for the woodland creatures to get safely home? Watch out-- Max is hungry!

The aim of the game is to help the chipmunk, bird and mouse to get home safely before Max catches them. This happens if Max lands on the same space as one of the little animals.

The game is played with a set of special dice, with only one dot on each side, either black or green. There are three possible results to each roll of the dice:
• Two black dots (this will let Max advance two spaces)
• Two green dots (This helps one small animal advance two spaces, or two of them can move one space each)
• One green and one black dot (this lets Max advance one space, and a small animal move one space)
Depending on the roll of the dice, the players have to consult with each other as to what the best strategy would be to keep the woodland animals out of harm's way. They have access to four treats which can be used once each during the game to lure Max back to his mat on the porch, and there are also short-cuts on the board - BUT...these can be used by the woodland animals and by Max, so players need to anticipate Max's next move!

The game helps children to understand the relationship between cats and other small animals (we try to help the small animals get to safety, but we also understand that Max is a natural hunter!), an encourages children to make meaningful decisions.

I found a lovely review of this game here, and the writer, Evelyn Saenz, gave the following suggestions for how the game of MAX  can be used to teach children a variety of skills:

LANGUAGE ARTS: Oral communication
MATHS: One to one correspondance, counting, probability, and strategies
SOCIAL STUDIES: Cooperation, taking turns, caring for and taking responsibility for pets
SCIENCE: Natural Selection, backyard habitat, animal behaviour
ART: How about drawing Max and the other creatures?
MUSIC: Could you make up a song about Max?
GROSS MOTOR SKILLS: How about going outside and reenacting the game of Max? Be sure to scurry, scamper and flap your wings!!

MAX is suitable for ages 3/4 - 10, and 1 to 8 players can play at a time.

There are 18 co-operative games from Family Pastimes in the Nucleus Toys range. You can view the online catalgoue by clicking here.

Joyful mama's favourite finds: Teddy Roller Ball Paints

Just a short little post to let you know that I love the Teddy Rolla Ball paint set I bought for Sweetpea recently! 

I was a little sceptical at first and thought it was going to be very messy, but I was pleasantly surprised! Sweetpea had great fun in covering her page in colourful squiggles and asked for a new page three times!

Always happy to do artsy things!

Cool, mamma!

Even the dad couldn't resist having a go with these nifty little paint pots!

You can buy your own set of Teddy Rolla Ball paint by clicking HERE

And order some more Teddy products by clicking on the LINKS below the pictures.

                                             Teddy Finger Paint

                                                 Teddy Slime

Joyful Mama's Favourite Finds from the plastics shop!

I LOVE shops selling plastic ware! I like to think of them as creativity incubators, because everytime I go there, my mind starts racing to come up with innovative ways to use the really well-priced little tools and containers they sell. So, I thought I'd share with you some of my favourite buys for Sweetpea!

1. Plastic scoops

They come in a variety of sizes and are excellent for scooping anything from sand to dried beans when playing, or for practical life excercises like scooping sugar from the large storage container into the sugar bowl.

2. Boxes with compartments

A plastics shop stock item, they come in ALL shapes and sizes and the sky is the limit when it comes to uses for these! Right now we are using this particular small box for organizing wooden beads with different shapes that I got from a craft shop.

The larger ones, like those used for fishing tackle, are ideal for storing craft supplies. I am now searching for a long rectangular one with about ten compartments. I'll mark each compartment with a number from 1 to 10. Sweetpea can then place the corresponding number of popsicle sticks into each compartment. (Similar to the spindle box in Montessori method)

3. 5 liter ice cream containers

LOVE LOVE LOVE these for organizing toys! I stuck a sticker with the day of the week on the front and divided the children's toys into them. (I kept similar toys together, eg. finger puppets and hand puppets in one, musical intruments in the next, farm animals in another). This way the toys get rotated from day to day and the bambinos don't get bored! I have separate sets for each of the children - the baby's contain sqeaky toys, unpainted wooden blocks, a collection of rattles etc. They stack very neatly on top of each other and gives me a wonderful sense of being on top of things! Look out Martha Stewart!

4. Plastic Tea set

Stored very neatly in another stackable plastics shop container, this gets taken out nearly daily and Sweetpea loves colour matching the cups, saucers and teaspoons and then spends hours pouring water from teapot to milk jug to cups and back again. And she squeals with delight when I drink my 'tea' and pretend to take bites out of the felt cupcakes I made for her. She loves stirring, so I get offered endless spoons of air 'sugar'! I encourage her to bring me full cups which she carefully carries by holding on to the saucer with both hands, meticulously trying not to spill. A great practical life excercise!

5. Long-spouted watering can

We don't have a very large garden, so most of my plants grow in large pots on the patio. Sweetpea really wanted to help with the watering, but the large watering can was just too big and heavy. So I bought her this one and showed her how to hold onto the handle with one hand, and the spout with the other, to help her with control. She rarely misses and knows that the smaller pots are especially hers to water! Oh, and from the first time she used it I also showed her where we keep it. Now when I ask her to quench some potplants on sweltering days, she knows where to get it and always replaces it in he same spot. Do this with every new toy or tool you bring into the house and you will soon have a pint-high co-worker who'll make your job of picking up much easier!

6. Small dustpan and brush

If you show them how to use it, you encourage little ones to take ownership of their messes and to become your allies in cleaning up! (There's a whole lesson on training in that sentence! Maybe I'll explore it a little further in a future post!) Sweetpea cannot sweep up crumbs on her own yet, but she knows where the dustpan is kept and will fetch it and hold it for me while I do the sweeping with the brush.

7. And my ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE: The Two-step stool!!

This is by far the most uitlized piece of 'furniture' in our home! I bought it when Sweetpea had outgrown the kitchen sink (she used to sit in one ink and rinse the clean dishes in a tub of clean water while I washed in the other sink).

I was looking for a nice wooden one that would complement my decor, but the only one I could find was ridiculously expensive, so once again it was the plastics shop to the rescue! Not only could she now reach the sink without effort, but in the mornings and at night it gets dragged to the bathroom for brushing her teeth. (In retrospect, the pretty wooden one would have been too heavy for her to move around by herself).

If she asks for a banana and I give permision, she uses her step stool to open the basket drawer herself. She stands on it when she packs the clean cutlery into the drawer (yep, the cutlery orgnizer is another plastics shop find and letting her do this gets the job done AND is a lesson in organizing - a good pre-maths exercise!)

I have seen some wonderful ideas all over Blog-ville of other mums using inexpensive platic ware for teaching early childhood skills. And there's a bag with a few new purchases waiting in the hall closet to be re-purposed as exciting learning tools - I will keep you posted! I'd love to hear about YOUR favourite finds - please e-mail me!