One of the best things about AJ now having a good grip on tummy time is that I can encourage it through a range of activities now. 

Normally the following activity is something that I do with toddlers when its a wet, rainy and day outside to minimise the amount of mess as I've always done painting as an outside activity. However, this is also great for babies. With both toddlers and babies it helps develop their fine motor skills and it's also a sensory activity for them. Plus at the end you get a beautiful artwork that you can hang on your fridge, send to someone they love or use it for other projects. 

DIY Sensory Mobile for Play Gym

I've been a fan of Play at Home Mummy on Instagram for a little while as I have loved the activities that she was doing with her 13-month-old. As I was going through her highlights I found a couple that centered on when Miss 13 months was 4 months, the same age as Arielle, and fell in love with the mobile she had made for her. 

It made me want to make my own version of it but the problem was that I didn't know how I could rig it in our house, due to the fact that we rent. It took me a little while but I eventually worked out how to so it worked on our play gym that we got from Kmart. 

It ended up being very simple and easy to make and so I documented the process so I could share it on Instagram. Then realised that some people may want an easier to read version and decided to write it down on here as well.

5 Reasons Why You Should Bake and Cook with Your Child

I wouldn’t call myself a master baker. In fact, if you asked T he would say that some of my cooking was sub-par at best. Despite this, when it comes to kids and the kitchen, I find that getting them involved in making things that they eat is not only a great activity but also helps to foster a lot of learning.

How?

A lot of early childhood education is based on the concept of learning through play or hands on learning, and this is a subject that I'm going to get into at a later date. As more and more research is done into the way children learn, we are discovering that having kids sit at a desk and do work sheet is not a way that all kids learn. Many children grasp concepts such as language and maths through hands on activities and it’s been found that it sticks in their mind a lot better this way. My brother, J, for example was a kid who could sit at a desk and would soak knowledge up like a sponge this way while we had cousins who learnt a lot better by getting out and being hands on.

5 Great YouTube Channels for Your Kids

YouTube has become one of the big entertainment centres for people, especially as it allows everyday people to be creative in a way that TV didn’t allow before it. Despite this, there have been a lot of channels and videos pretending to be for children when they’re actually not, making it hard for parents to be sure what is safe for their child to watch.

One of the things I try to make sure that I’m on top of is the current trends in regards to what kids are interested in or not. It makes it a lot easier to make sure that they are viewing things that are appropriate for their age and that they are protected from the dangers of everything being online these days. YouTube is thankfully one of those places that are very easy for me to keep an eye on because it’s just a matter of hearing about a channel or video and sitting down to look through it myself before letting the parents I work for know what is going on.

Believe it or not, that is actually how I found Tik Tok but that is a story for another day.

Since I’m on YouTube a bit for professional and personal reasons, I wanted to share five of my favourite channels that are aimed at children. Some of them focus on developing skills while others are just or fun or to learn something interesting.

TOY REVIEW | K's Kids Block N Learn Blocks

If you're looking for a set of blocks for your little one that will last a while then I would suggest the K's Kids Block N Learn blocks. As a toy they're an amazing set to play with as they're good for all ages, and as a learning resource, they're fantastic.

5 Easy Activities For Your Toddler Using Things From An Easter Craft Tub

With Easter just around the corner, it means that the Easter Crafts are out in numbers. I'm sure that you have all seen the Easter Craft tubs that are out, you can usually find them at Kmart and Big W plus a few other places that I'm not thinking of as I write this. What is so great about them is that you can do a lot more than just do arts and crafts with the items that are inside.