Plutonium Sox
Crafts

10 easy crafts for young children

10 easy crafts for young children

With half term upon us, it’s great to have a few craft activities to turn to when the children need entertaining. I’ve done a few craft projects this year and I’ve also seen some amazing crafts from other bloggers. So I thought I’d share 10 of my favourites. These are all really simple crafts for young children. None of them take any specialist equipment and children can really get involved. 1. Paper plate birds Jenny from The Gingerbread House has been making paper plate birds with her little ones. This is a super easy craft that involves folding a paper plate…

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Toddler

Young children and screen time

Young children and screen time

This is a collaborative post. I’ve written before about how screen time impacts children’s behaviour. We bought an iPad around a year ago because I didn’t want Libby to be the only one who couldn’t use it when she started school. Prior to that, both girls would watch television and watch nursery rhymes on the computer. But neither of them could use devices themselves. Our screen time These days, the girls have a very limited amount of screen time. This is predominantly because they’re too busy doing other things. Now that the evenings are lighter, they go straight outside as soon…

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Crafts

Craft for toddlers – when you forgot to buy a card

Craft for toddlers – when you forgot to buy a card

I know it’s difficult to believe, but sometimes I’m a bit disorganised. I know, you wouldn’t believe it from my polished exterior. When it comes to birthdays and special occasions, I tend to make sure I get a gift in plenty of time. But for some reason, I never get around to buying a card. At Christmas I don’t send them at all. What to do when you forgot to buy a card In this day and age, there’s always a garage open. I really could pop out and buy a rubbish one. But having been the proud recipient of…

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Toddler

Why I won’t #RethinkToddlerPortionSizes

Why I won’t #RethinkToddlerPortionSizes

A few weeks ago, I noticed that mumsnet were looking for bloggers to take part in a campaign about toddler portion sizes. It involved the not-so-catchy hashtag #ReThinkToddlerPortionSizes, and was done in conjunction with the Infant and Toddler Forum. I thought it was an interesting concept, but decided not to apply to take part because I don’t want to make food into an issue for my girls. The campaign Fast forward a few weeks, and I started to read blog posts about the #ReThinkToddlerPortionSizes campaign, including this from one of my favourite bloggers, Donna from What the Redhead Said. On first…

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Lifestyle

To the mum who turned a blind eye

To the mum who turned a blind eye

I saw your children playing together. You mums were chatting nearby. How sweet to see your girls getting along so well. Two good friends holding hands, taking turns, whispering together and sharing secrets. My little girl saw them too. She didn’t know them, but they were only a bit older than her and she was so excited to find someone to play with. She went bounding over with a huge smile on her face and made it her mission to join in with their game. I saw her copying them, trying to get their attention. Soon, they were playing a different…

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Pets

Toddling dogs and teenage cats

Toddling dogs and teenage cats

Have you ever noticed the striking similarity between dogs and toddlers or between teens and cats? I’m not talking appearances here, although my staffie does look rather like a stroppy toddler when she sulks. But just think about the mannerisms. If you don’t believe me, here are a few short experiments that you can conduct at home to see for yourself. Toddling dogs 1: Tantrums Give a ball to a toddler and an identical ball to a dog. After five minutes, take both balls away and watch carefully.  Bottom lip out, temper tantrum. Walking back and forth to where you…

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Days out

Hogwarts in the snow with toddlers: Review

Hogwarts in the snow with toddlers: Review

Last week, we were lucky enough to go to the Warner Brothers Studio Tour, London to see Hogwarts in the Snow. I have always loved the Harry Potter books and was really impressed with the film adaptation of it so the studio tour appealed to me. However, my girls are very young. They have both watched little bits of the Harry Potter films and quite enjoyed them, but they’re not old enough to be really into them. I did wonder how much they would enjoy the studio tour. There was another problem too – my husband is still unable to…

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