Developing Imaginations

Fiona — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:27:37 +0000

Last week’s Playfest was on the wonderful and interesting topic of Developing Imaginations, something that everyone has and an area that we are all keen to help our children explore and develop. Imagination is not only used to have fun with creative play but also helps children gain valuable skills that can be used and are relevant to them in later life.

Here are some of the ideas that were discussed and raised in last week’s Playfest:

Imagination – What is it? and Why is it important?

Imagination is role play, pretend, creating! It is all part of learning!
Imagination is very important..it helps a child to be creative.
Imagination is good for being creative and having fun
Imagination is very important..it helps a child to be creative
Imagination is important as it helps children to be creative, gives them ideas and helps them to play
Imagination plays a big part in playing, creative development and literacy later on
Imagination is important for the child’s development and to help them be creative
Imagination is about setting your mind free from the conformity that surround us. That’s why children’s imagination is so crucial
Imagination is important for the child’s development and to help them be creative
I think imagination is important as it has limitless potential. You can go anywhere & do anything with your imagination
It’s all about escapism. Where and how you escape is the exciting part

What is important about developing imaginations? Is it important? Does developing imaginations help with other aspects of a child’s development?

I think its great for kids to use their imaginations, although having an autistic son its hard to explain to him what imagination is and why its there!!
Learning, it is all about exploring themselves and the world!
Imagination is the spark for learning… if you can tap onto their interest, the imagination should follow x
I encourage imagination still, I think while they are so young and innocent its great to stimulate their minds
Imagination is good for creativity and learning through play.
Spud’s imagination is just kicking in. He has an imaginary dog called “Two”
brooke says there is fairies in her bed
Imagination is the spark for learning… if you can tap onto their interest, the imagination should follow x

We then discussed ways in which our little ones had gone crazy with their imagination this week and we had all sorts of things going on from talking to imaginary friends, having fairy tea parties, pretend cooking, animal noises, using doormats as magic carpets, superheroes, pirates and boat games, pretend holidays and pretend cake which although doesn’t taste as good, we concluded was much better for our tummies!!

How can we give a child space to develop their imagination? In what ways does your child express their imagination?

Imagination is something I have lacked in but have improved since having a toddler!
Wonder if escapism at a young age gives good coping skills for later in life too when needed
Encourage it, play along with it, use your imagination too!
Any creative activities and role play toys are good as well
I have had people say ‘what?!’ or no its not to my kids when they are pretending! It makes me cross!
Imagination is the key for successful learning and growth!
It helps not to correct a child when they could be using their imagination and making things up
We’ve found that encouraging creative play and allowing her to use toys and props as she pleases helps
Think my son spends more time being someone else (super hero, daddy, animals, doctor) than himself some weeks,maybe that is bad?!
I would think so as long as they also learn that sometimes you can’t escape everything and have to tackle some things head on even if you don’t want to. It’s that balance thing
Z likes to pretend he is a pirate when we listen to the Now Disney CD and pirates of the caribbean comes on
If she wants to use an apron as a cape and a pan for storing her bricks in then we’re happy to go along with it
We are non-superhero adults for an eternity, a child should pretend to be who they want to be
My daughters is being a princess and it works with whatever she wears! I love seeing their imagination and pretend play
We do try and join in too, I have been jessie (Toystory), Child, Nurse, Supergirl and more this week!
Isabelle loves wearing things around her neck to play as well as popping a towel on her head, its the simple things
I think imagination is cultivated through a wide range of stimuli from books, experiences and play
with Isabelle being 14 months it’s hard to communicate but when we get involved we love to pretend to be animals
Joining in with games and play is all part of the fun. I normally end up being the only one in costume…
we read books together and make the noises of the animals in them
little world stuff is good at that age, my LO is 2 now but we have always played with that stuff
Hubby actually went to the chip shop once dressed as underground ernie! Well the hat (The jacket was tho small!)
we’ve spent a lot of time recently playing with soft foods, especially the ikea soft food
play food is fab! We have a pretend kitchen and all of mine have loved it!
from reading books, getting involved and things around us on shopping trips. Today the local church was a castle with a dragon:)

A thought from Izziwizzi - It’s important because no new inventions or ideas would come about without someone somewhere using their imagination. You can only create what you can imagine #PlayFest. I heard that somewhere too which really emphasised the importance of imagination for me.

How do you draw a line and help children distinguish what is telling a lie and what is using imagination #PlayFest? What are the parameters? We want to stamp out lies, not imagination.

never underestimate what young kids understand. They might not be able to talk back but they hear everything.
it’s a tricky one! Depends how old they are! #PlayFest
stories like the boy who cried wolf are good once they are old enough to understand
we’re not at the stage of lying yet but it’d be great to find out for the future
It’s them understanding consequences due to their actions. As parents we need to be consistent so they read the signs
or just be mean and tell them their nose will grow lol
Guess it is explaining it, I would probably start wiv pretending is when u play, lying is when u are being mean – lol
My girls have always had to go to their rooms and count to a suitable number loud so I can hear when they lie. Then come say sorry
our 4yo tells such tales especially about his day at nursery – his best friend fell over and hurt himself today apparently…but just at the point we believed him he said his arm fell off!!!

A question raised was whether it is possible to use your imagination too much to which izziwizzi replied “I don’t think so, but I do think it’s important to spend time understanding the boundaries of what is imagination and what is a fabrication of the truth (or a lie). If you have a really fluid imagination, you can create anything and if you can create anything, you can make things happen. I think that’s really positive.”

On discussing the age for children to start playing imaginatively, we found it could be quite varied from 20 months upwards, with younger children sometimes helping to open up the older sibling’s imagination.

Another question asked how to encourage imagination for children with delayed speech although it was suggested that even if they play quietly, the thought processes are still with them. This led to a suggested future Playfest topic – Speech in Play.

Then came the fun part where we discussed ideas for props or activities that really help stimulate little ones to play imaginatively. The most popular idea by far was cardboard boxes, also books, polystyrene pizza base packing, googols and Grahams, toilet rolls for telescopes, kitchen rolls for rockets, sheets into dens, sofa as a boat, contents of recycling boxes, using your own shadows to make shapes, dressing up items, towels to make capes, sofa as a fort and sheets to make dens.

It was established that the simpler the better, a large cardboard box and a sheet lets them take their imagination anywhere they want.

And that concludes another interesting and exciting week for Playfest. One that I found inspiring and thought provoking leading to the word imagination being on my mind all week. I actively watched and listened to my daughters imagination ticking away as she played and I could see it being used in every activity we did whether it be painting or playing with dolls. Imagination is everywhere and we all use it everyday without realising it.

I’ve really enjoyed collating the thoughts and ideas of last weeks Playfest for you and hope you have had fun reading it.

Thanks

Fiona

@star100x

http://mummyslittlestars.wordpress.com

Facebook Fan Page and join in the conversation.

Twitter on Tuesday 21st February 2012

20.45 – 21.05 – @Moolboots – Kelly Brett

Kelly is mum of two (a boy known as Legs and girl known as Mouse), wife of one and blogger at Writings, Ramblings and Reviews. Kelly keeps her blog as a place to put her writings (poems, stories), Ramblings about daily life and Reviews – hence the name!
Kelly first got involved in Playfest on Twitter over a year ago and have really enjoyed it, Kelly is passionate about how important play is and loves chatting to others about it, swapping ideas and getting recommendations! Kelly loves working with izziwizzi.co.uk and attending the Playfest parties. Kelly has chatted, reviewed and blogged about play, in fact she did her first ever Vlog for Playfest, something she may never have done without Izziwizzi Kids!

21.10-21.30 – @Mummy_Blogger – Charlotte Everiss

Charlotte stumbled into blogging in 2003 when she set up a blog devoted to her love of the VW beetle. The blog took off and an owners club was born, from that she moved into running her own business as a social media consultant & virtual PA and used social media to build herself a successful web based business which got her clients across the UK & Europe. Last year she sold her business and the void to blog led her into the world of mummy blogging about everything from toddler dramas to cooking to current affairs and bad hair days. She loves to write & finds it a great way to unwind.

21.35 – 21.55 – @TheLazyGirlBlog – Claire 20SM

Claire is a stay at home mum of two in Berkshire. She has been blogging since 2006 (pre-Motherhood), but has been writing as a parent since 2009. In 2010 Claire won the Best Blog Writer at the Gurgle awards and is now the head writer at The Lazy Girl’s Guide to Life, The Lazy Girl’s Guide to Cooking and The Family Panel Reviews.

Facebook on Thursday 23rd February 2012.

20.40 – 21.00 – @LauraCampell – Laura
Laura is a mum to Wee Z who is 4 and Miss C who is 2. Laura finds the best thing about being a Mum is being able to see the world through her childrens’ eyes and learning about new things with them that she never really noticed before. That and having a free pass to play with all their toys even when they don’t want too. Laura blogs at Yummy Mummy Flabby Tummy

21.00-21.20 – @DanielleGParker – Danielle Parker

21.20-21.40 – @spudandspike – Lauren Goodchild

21.40-22.00 – @yummymumto2 – Kate Pollard

Kate is mum of 2 boys who are now at school which leaves just enough time for her other role which is a primary school teacher! Kate currently teaches foundation (reception class)! Kate LOVES to be busy… Blogging and Vlogging have been part of Kates life for nearly a year and she LOVES it! She was first introduced to the blogging world by Izziwizzikids and things have taken off from there! It has taken Kate into a world of photography, videoing and reviewing.. all things she never thought she would end up doing! You can usually find Kate on twitter or facebook… and if she’s not there she’ll be cooking or singing – both of which she has a HUGE passion for! Kate’s boys are her life… and together they have embarked on their journey to discover just what me and the boys say!

Attribution of image Jelene from Flickr

This is a Facebook story captured from Play Fest. A team effort from 6 different Play Fest guests contributed line by line to make this story. It’s amazing what minds come up with when working together!

Once Upon A Time, In a land filled with sweeties and cupcakes there was a gnome called Jim and a Snail called Al. Jim was bald and round with a huge beard and Al was eating all the cupcakes whilst trying not to get buttercream in his shell. Unfortunately, he had forgotten who the cupcakes belonged to. The big scary village dog called Huracio. He was supposed to be guarding the cupcakes when he’d gotten distracted by the village cat…Grissom who was only a few feet away, picking his fleas out of his ears.

Grissom saw this opportunity for a chase and that’s why things began to unravel quickly. Jim rode Grissom bare back to get to Al before all the cupcakes were gone. But when he got there he just stopped and stared in horror as he realised that one of the cupcakes…was…ALIVE!

Al had transformed from a slimy snail into a beautiful butterfly!

And the moral of that story is…

Don’t eat the cupcakes with the snails on top!

DO eat the cupcakes with the snails on top, cos it’ll not be long before they turn into beautiful butterflies!

Cupcakes don’t make you fat but make you turn into beautiful butterflies LOL a girl can dream eh!

you should always eat ALL the cupcakes to make sure that there are no naughty snails left lurking in the buttercream

Which is your favourite ending?

Here is the story transcript between @chelseamamma and @bluebearwood from Play Fest.

CM – Once upon a time there was a Piglet called Percy and he loved to snuffle around in the mud

BBW – But on this particular day Percy found something in the mud he would never forget

CM – but what was it you ask?

BBW – It was very long and flat with two pokey out things

CM – and it was smooth to the touch and sparkled the brightest rainbow when the sunshine shone

BBW – Percy pulled and pulled with all his might until he had it out of the mud. “Cough, splutter” said the flat thing

CM – Percy was taken aback – “It can talk” he whispered under his breath

BBW – “Of course I can talk you silly Pig. What else does a magical sword do? – Now hold me high so I can see where I am”

CM – Percy held the sword alot and the sword gave himself a little shake, showering Percy in mud. “Clean at last” he laughed

BBW – “I never thought a Pink Pig would save me from the Bog Monster. Quick we must head to Bluebell Wood and find the Prince”

CM – “He has the magic shield and you should see what we can do when we are together”

BBW – Percy thought for a moment. It was nearly lunchtime and he was a little hungry, plus he’d never left Mud Bank before

CM – The sword, sensing his reluctance promised lots of lovely berries to eat on the way to the forest

BBW – “Just follow your nose” said the sword, “it will lead us in the right direction”. So with a mouthful of berries

CM – Off they trotted to find the Prince and the shield. Suddenly there was a loud bang that made them stop and look

That was the end of the transcript from playfest, but I thought I should end it:

CM – “What was that” Percy whispered, afraid

CM – “Hold me high and let me see” said the sword

CM – Once again Percy held the Sword aloft, but this time the sword burst into fits of laughter

CM – Percy looked up and in the reflection of the sword, saw a rather crumpled pile of clothing that appeared to be shaking

CM – “What is it” asked Percy fearfully

CM – “Why it’s the Prince” said the sword “He has fallen out of the tree and the shield has turned into a bouncy castle to save him”

CM – With that, the Prince, still chuckling, beckoned Percy onto the bouncy castle, where they bounced and bounced for the rest of the day, whilst the sword looked on and imagined what new adventures they would get up to tomorrow.

THE END!

Last week over at Playfest the topic was ‘The Art of Storytelling.’

Tuesday evening from 8.30-0pm Playfest can be found on Twitter using the hashtag #playfest.

Kicking off Playfest, there was hot chocolate and mulled wine all round it seemed! Izziwizzikids explained how that this week they would be creating a special chain story where everyone could add a piece to the story, and see what they ended up with.

The first question for playfest was ‘How is your story telling from your head?’

Striderdealer said they were good at making up stories that involve something bad happening if William doesn’t eat his tea! Domesticgoddesq said she was rubbish but is getting better. Bluebearwood explained how her dad is a rubbish book story teller, due to being self conscious but makes up the most amazing ad lib stories, and Mummy_blogger explains how she makes up stories every night, her daughter Roo goes on amazing adventures.

Izziwizzikids asked, how do you create a brilliant story out of your head , or with your children, any ideas to get those ideas flowing…

HP4MarketingSol explained that they have lots of dinosaurs and scary bath monsters in their stories. Kidzoutdoors said that their little boy is the best at making up stories, his imagination quite regularly gets the better of him. Domesticgoddesq advised to know what your children like, and if there is a moral to the story that you want to teach them. Daisyclothbum suggested using an object as a starting point, or choose a theme, such as a colour place felling or time. Mummy_blogger creates an event that is familiar like a party or adventures at the beach and then brings in her favourite things. Sebsmummy said to let your mind run away with you, the more outlandish the better. Her dad used to make up stories for her and she still remembers them. Other suggestion which came up were to ask questions about what would the character eat or what they would fly to encourage imagination and participation. Fridge_door found that reading a book then asking the kids what happened and letting them make up their own endings worked well. Al told us how her dad used to tell her stories of Mr upside down wh went through life doing everything you are not meant to.

Someone suggested Mission explore, create a mash and make up a character for it, then tell the story from the perspective of that mask/character. Fridgedoor’s children love making books before they could even write, emergent scribbles, staples folded paper they would then ‘read’ it to you. A great way to get children talking and explaining. Lauracymft says if they make up storeis it has to be where their child defeats something scary and saves the day. Kidzoutdoors explained that their stories usually involve a little boy who eats all his vegetables. It appears that stories are a great way to get your child behaving, as well as teaching them morals.

Izziwizzikids then asked Playfest– what makes a real good story when you tell it from a book, what is the art to telling a great story?

Al thinks its amazing to have a different voice and accent for each charcter but I always forget who speaks like whats. This is something I can relate to, as I start with the best intentions but forget half way through what voice is which character. Bluebearwood said to read slowly most people read at the pace they speak, slowing down allows you to deliver well. Missionexplore thinks its great idea to go and actually live the story find insipratin through discovering new places. Someone suggested making it fun for the kids, silly voices, funny faces and having fun. Kidzoutdoors thinks its important to read the story with your child, lots of pointing and taking at their pace. Ask them what will happen next in the story. A great way to get communicating with your child and engaging them in the story. Its also a fabulous way to get their imaginations fired up!

Lauracymft said that a story has to be fun and havesomething memorable about it like a character.

Interact. Kiddiesbikes – turn the pages.

Domesticgoddesq have found that stories are a good way of occupying her girls at resturants whilst waiting for food, a fabulous idea! Someone said how pictures bring the story to life. Mummy_blogger suggested keeping it short as long stories make little minds tired. Magicbelles feel its important to create a safe place filled with magic wonder and no baddies, the characters help each other out as friends and overcome simple problems and have lovely experiences together.

Izziwizzikids then asked ‘What tips can you to help kids develop a real art for storytelling, so you play to encourage storytelling?’

Domesticgodessq uses audio books talk about things around them, and how they would react in that given situation. Bluebearwood finds they naturally want to read and make up stories. Spudandspike says that spud isn’t 3 yet but can make up some right corker, there is a fine line between stories and fibs though?!!! Magicbelles found that kids can grasp the constructs of stories very early though even the simplest books.

Mummy_blogger get them to tell it in their own way mixing up words and muddling along is how they learn.

Someone suggested leaving gaps in stories for their imaginations to fill. Storycubes also came up as being handy. Al explained that their daughter won some praise in school for her ending to the 3 little pigs this week.

Izziwizzikids then rounded the night off by asking ‘Any experience onsuccesful story telling to groups of children? What are the top tips to really get your audience gripped?’

Suggestions included Recordable story boards. Dramtic pauses, with big eyes. @mummy_blogger said to get the group to join in creating alternative endings. Spudandspike also suggested funny voices and dramtic tone.

Thursdays Playfest is held over on Facebook from 8.30pm-10pm at http://www.facebook.com/IzziwizziKids

Kicking off Playfest, the first topic for conversation was..

‘Do you think up stories in your head and ad-lib? Do you prefer to read from a book? Or do you swap and change? How good are you at thinking up stories from the top of your head? What tips or ideas can you share with Play Fest to get your imagination going with thinking up stories off the cuff?’

Laura Campbell said how she loves reading books, ‘I just need 5 mins then sitting with the kids reading a book sorts me out. I’m not good at making things up on the spot but I used to love writing stories so I think I could do that for the kids. No pictures though, I’m rubbish at art’. Kelly Brett said ‘We like to mix it up with books and made up ones. We read books everyday, we are definitely a book loving family. But, often Legs will say mummy tell me one of your stories and I have to make something up! She also added ‘My biggest tip is go with the flow – don’t try to be factual, you can have purple grass or a tiny giant!’ Balance 1st – Authorised Strider Bike Dealer explained ‘William likes to attribute something (objects or pictures) in whatever we’re reading to Mummy Daddy & Evalyn, so we usually end up going off on a tangent about that!’ Some of the stories mentioned as being favourites amongst children and parents were ‘The Gruffalo’, ‘How do dinosaurs say goodnight’, and ‘Bear in the square’.

Izziwizzikids then asked ‘What are your top tips to share for making reading stories really magical Play Fest?’

Suggestions included making it personal, use the childs name, Kelly Brett said ‘Kelly Brett Don’t take it too serious! Use different voices, tones, volumes! Get excited and laugh!’. Other suggestions included letting your children get involved, even if they can’t read, get them to recite it or even make it up! Laura Campbell suggested asking them what might happen next, especially if its a new book.

Izziwizzikids explained that there was a special guest for Playfest, Conrad Burdekin who is a genious kids Author who writes amazing poems. You may remember Conrad on Playfest last year with his release of the Hungrumptious Blumpf. Conrad is back with his new release Teachers Pick their Noses. Conrad has bags of experience in the Art of Story Telling, so he was there to share his top tips as well as answering any questions Playfesters had.

Conrads started off the conversation giving some fantastics tip for Storytelling, firstly he said it was important to make it fun, he added ‘Make it personal. Put your kids in the stories. We’re forever having Alice and Polly stories. Polly is made up, but Alice is our oldest daughter. She’s five now, but just loves hearing her name in the story.’ He explained ‘Another major thing is not to be scared. I know it might seem a bit funny to be ‘scared’ telling a story to your kids, but really, it can be a bit daunting. Thoughts of ‘I don’t have enough ideas’ or ‘what can it be about’ can often stop you from trying’. Finally he suggested, ‘Why not ask them what the story will be about (I often do this!), and then if you get stuck in the telling, ask them what happens next. They’ll be only too happy to help out. With Alice, I’ll be telling her a story and she will say ‘No daddy, that doesn’t happen’ and then goes off on her own tangent.’

Some fantastic ideas from an experienced story teller!

Al kicked off the questions by asking what gave Conrad the inspiration for his new book. Conrad answered ‘Well, lots of the poems in there have inspiration from lots of different places. One of my favourite poems is one called ‘Caitlyn Cakey Pants’ about a girl who makes a huge cholcolate cake that then grows out of control and takes over the world. She decides that the only solution is to eat it. That idea came from meeting a girl at a school whose nickname was Caitlyn Cakey Pants because of her love for chocolate cake’.

Laura Campbell asked ‘Did you publish yourself or how easy or difficult was it for you to get published?’ Conrad answered ‘Hi Laura, my books are self published. I’ve tried for a while to get my poetry published, but in this climate lots of publishers are keeping with their already established authors. Plus to get children’s poetry published is very tricky as not nearly as much kids’ poetry is bought as kids’ books. I eventually decided that if I didn’t do it myself I might never have my books in print! And it seems to have worked. I’ve sold over 2000 of my first book, and this one is going really well in its first few days. I work in loads of schools doing writing workshops so I really have a captive audience. And schools are always really helpful with marketing my book. It wasn’t hard to self publish. It was much harder to DECIDE to self publish. Did take a bit of a risk with money, but it’s turned out to have been well worth it. Lucky for me!’

Sarah Lewis asked how Conrads daughters reacted seeing their dad’s book in print. Conrad replied ‘Hi Sarah. Um, with almost complete disinterest I would say. Although Alice was VERY excited the other day. One of her friends, Jo, had been to the library and got a yellow poetry book out…MY book! He got very excited to realise he knew me, and then Alice was excited that Jo was excited. I guess as she gets older it’ll mean more. But it also puts her in the firing range. A while ago I read some of my poems in her school. Went down really well. Apart from with one boy who a day or two later saw Alice and told her that ‘Your dad’s poems are rubbish.’ Really upset her. Hard for me too. Hate the thought of her getting that kind of comment cos of something that had nothing to do with her in the first place’

It was a brilliant week for Playfest, with loads of helpful tips and advice from parents and professionals! I took all of these onboard and my kids were enthralled to hear me read their ‘Funnybones’ with lots of emphasis, funny voices and pauses! I learnt many tips that will remain with me forever. Go Playfest!

Danielle from www.blogbybaby.com and www.thefamilyexpress.com

The lorry shape sorter has been designed so that all 16 blocks are different coloured and differently shaped so that manipulation and exploration is required to place the block on the right point and in the right position.

This is not just something to educate your child though, it is still and toy and it will still create hours of excitement and enjoyment to toddlers everywhere as they race around in the truck and release their creative imagination.

Height: 30.5cm

Length: 26.5cm

Width: 9.2cm

KeyFeatures

- Variety of different coloured blocks

- Variety of different shaped blocks

- Charming lorry with trailer

- 16 blocks to sort in total

- Sort by colours or shapes

- Encourages hand to eye co-ordination

Buy Now

This is my first ‘guest post’ for playfest – and after having been a regular ‘playfester’ for nearly a year now I am quite honoured! I got into playfest through twitter ( I think it was the lure of chocolate as far as I can remember) but I have never looked back. As well as ‘meeting’ some genuinely lovely people, I have learnt so much and got so many new ideas to support learning through play at home! Getting the chance to talk to other like minded mums and dads, and bounce ideas around is invaluable… and I know if I’m ever stuck, I’ll get some great ideas back! Its also great to know that my ideas may be inspiring others! Win Win!

So, it has fallen on me to do a round up of the fabulous playfest chat that we have had this week – and for once I feel quite knowledgeable! Playfest this week was all about Early Phonics… and once again there was some fabulous chat, ideas and links that I hope to summarise for you now!

Lots of people were aware of Early years phonics… it seems that our children have bridged the home-school gap and told us all about the sounds they are learning at school, but for a lot of us it seemed very different to when we were at school and the differences between how we were taught to read and spell, and how it is done today became apparent!

Phonics was defined as…

‘a way of teaching reading… its based on the sounds of letters, groups of letters, and syllables. Letters (or graphemes) are the written representation of the phoneme (sound). … Children are basically learning letter sounds, children learn them with associated actions, to build up sounds in how the the letters join up into words and then ultimately use these sounds to forms words. Children seem to learn this in a multi-sensory way, listening, looking, speaking and sensory with actions.’

It seemed apparent that we were worried that children were being taught to spell wrong, concentrating on the phonetic spelling rather than the correct one. It was noted that it is not particularly ‘taught wrong’ but that the different ways of writing sounds (144 in total!!!) are taught over 6 phases, so as the children progress they learn all the different ways of representing different sounds, as well as being given the skills to try and choose the most likely spelling for that word. There are also ‘tricky words’ which the children have to learn, as they are not phonetically plausible.

Some playfesters were also concerned about the coverage of phonics in school, thinking it may go too fast and that for some children certain things needed reinforcing – whilst also being worried about making sure you took the same approach as your child’s school at home so as not to confuse the children by teaching different methods! The suggestion here was to speak to school and see exactly what approach they were taking – and that way any learning you did at home would complement and support even more!

Whatever the viewpoint, it was obvious through the chat that we all wanted to support our children’s learning at home – and we all seemed to have weird and wonderful ways of doing this, whether a game or an activity!

Playfest came up with some FAB ideas for supporting phonics education at home through play:

Singing – rhymes, songs and the alphabet song!
Vtech – their laptops came highly recommended!
Leapfrog – particularly the ‘My First Leaptop’, ‘Scribble and Write’ and the ‘Fridge Phonics’
Magnetic letters ( used on the fridge to spell and create words and find sounds – great for lots of little activities!)
Bottle tops with letters on to turn over and sound out and also create words with
Finding matching sounds in books
Making word cards
Foam letters and bath crayons in the bath
Playing i-spy… starting with saying the sound and progressing the the letter name!
Hopscotch – but with letters rather than numbers!
Ping pong balls with letters on – use a fishing net to scoop out and say the sound or make a word!
Orchard toys – Alphabet lotto (lots of scope for phonics play!)

Playfest also came up with a lot of free and easily accessible resources to use at home!

Maybe the resource that came the top of the recommendations was the Alphablocks... children get to learn all about phonics and blending and segmenting sounds from these 26 very cute alphabet characters which come to life! They are great for us too as they help us to pronounce the sounds correctly!

It may be all change from when we all learnt to read and write… but with the ideas and resources that were shared through both twitter and facebook I think it is clear we are all keen to support our children!

Kate x

@yummymumto2 / www.whatmeandtheboyssay.posterous.com

Here are some ideas to liven up your valentines day with your little one.
These ideas are brought to you thanks to the brilliant mostly mums who come along to Play Fest every week and on this particular week we had a focus on Valentines day fun with kids. Traditionally, valentines day isn’t really aimed at kids, but we saw it as a great opportunity to show how much you care and give them opportunities to show their loved ones how much they care too. You can do this in a fun way and enjoy some time together.

Using the letters from VALENTINES, here are a few fun things to try out for valentines day with your kids.

V – Vaccuuming

A – Art

L – Lots of love

E – Poached egg hearts for breakfast, lunch or tea

N – Make a nice treat

T – Time together

I – Do something using imagination

N – Nagging – not so much of it ;o)

E – Something educational

S – Sticking and glueing

Other fantastic creative fun ideas to try include:

1. Making heart jewell biscuits. Make some heart shaped biscuits and cut a shape out of the centre. Bake with a boiled sweet in the centre.

2. Have a treasure hunt with heart shaped clues and romantic cryptic clues if you are feeling really clever

3. Stimulate those creative poetry skills by saying words and asking your LO to point to the various parts of their body. For example, shed, flair, boulder, tree, peg, race, peir, pie etc.

4. Make a cake or cup cakes and use jelly heart sweets to cover.

More creative valentines fun ideas:

For more play ideas. Come along and join Play Fest every Tuesday on Twitter from 8.30-10pm and every Thursday on Facebook from 8.30-10pm.

What are your favourite actitivities to share for valentines day?

What do mums think about technology and toys? Do children over indulge? Can technology become problematic in play?

Play Fest mums shared their views on technology and toys, with many positive benefits and only a couple of down sides.

0-100+ years

Technology is so simple now, it has the ability to connect different generations. Happiest and most memorable family time is spent playing with games consoles together such as the Wii or even more so with controllerless Kinnect. Children can also play very well together with technology which helps parents when they need to get on with jobs.

On the flip side there were reports of some children getting frustrated and bad tempered when they get interrupted. Some children can also get bad tempered if they are not allowed to play on a games console. On the opposite perspective it was also highlighted that a games console can act as an excellent reward for good behaviour.

The earlier children get introduced to technology the better, was the general view held by mums at Play Fest as it forms an integral part of everyday living for children right into adulthood. However, there was also a general view that this should be in moderation and combined with other play activity which is more tradititional.

What were views about mobile phone game apps?

These were viewed really positively as providing a great tool for distraction when in queues in public places. It can help to control a childs behaviour and adults sanity. Children from as young as 18 months play on mobile phone applications.

Quality of technical toys

It seems that in modern times, toys can either be designed really well and benefit children in fanastic ways with education and learning, but there are still some interpretations of technology which don’t work. Providing toys are well designed, then technical toys can be really effective.

When should we introduce technical toys?

Technology is part of everyday life and gets children interested in all sorts of things and should be embraced. The Play Fest even brought about a traditional toy shop considering stocking some high tech toys. It’s about a balance and making sure that introducing technology does not put them off traditional toys and play within the home. The only downside to technical toys is that they eat up batteries, which cost money and often run low. When technology in toys can embrace extended battery life or wireless batteries, this will overcome the most popular widespread problem with technical toys.

The following websites were highlighted by Play Fest as being fun websites to try for play and learning with technology:

Favourite Kids Apps:

Mind shapes

Duck Duck Moose

John Higham Early Reader Apps

What are your favourite online game websites and mobile phone apps for kids? Are there any we have missed?