With the holidays either on us, or coming up fast, many families will no doubt be planning some kind of travel, whether it be by air or road. How to entertain kids on a long trip has always been a topic for much consideration. I know that the obvious answer these days is to invest in a in a cheap portable DVD player, but if you are looking for some other bits and pieces we have some suggestions for you.

It’s best if you can do a little preparation ahead of time by finding a bag or backpack and filling it with goodies which your kids can absorb themselves in during the trip. Even each activity only manages to entertain them for a few minutes (this is especially the case with little kids) it should at least break a boredom patch and stop that awful accompanying whining, fighting and grizzling.

Kiddley reader Aoiffe wrote in with her suggestions which she packs for her three year old:

“bubble wrap, manilla folders cut down to half size to stick stickers on (he’s not old enough to stick them in the “right” places in the sticker book by himself), etch-a-sketch, bath toys (minus the water) useful for games and smaller ones to chew on, and a towel per child (useful for blanket, cleaning up and generally annoying other backseat travelers with, and of course Playschool CDs and storytapes.”

You will need:
A fabric bag, strong plastic bag (for older kids only) or backpack per child
(a backpack is especially good if you are rushing through airports)
A Bottle of drinking water
Snacks
Wipes (for hands and faces and spills)
A favourite soft toy

And some of the following from each age group:

Infants:
(hopefully they will sleep a fair bit)
Finger puppet or hand puppet (for you to do the entertaining)
Rattle
Board books (especially ones featuring babies faces)
Rusks

Unbreakable Mirror
Cellophane scrunched up and tied inside an orange net
Music CDs for car trips

Toddlers:
Several small inexpensive new toys for novelty value such as plastic dinosaurs, small car, Small plastic or wooden dollhouse family etc
Finger puppets or hand puppets
Unbreakable Mirror
Magnifying glass
Notebook and crayons (thick unbreakable ones)
Stickers
Audio books or tapes (libraries usually have a good selection)
Sing along music CDs
Magnetic play sets

Preschoolers:
Notebooks and crayons or washable markers
Picture books to look at alone
Audio books or tapes (either home made ones with accompanying books or bought or borrowed)

Threading cards (we have the Chicken Socks Amazing Lacing activity book and it’s great for travel — but you could easily make some of your own with some old greeting cards, glue, a hole punch and some shoe laces)
Magnifying glass
Magna-doodle
Sticker books and stickers
Sing along music CDs
Toy phone (one that can record and playback a little segment is especially great)

5-7:
Activity books with puzzles and games

Magna doodle (great for playing games such as tic tac toe and so on)
Notebook and markers
Road diary for recording adventures or scrapbook
Stickers and tape to go along with the scrapbook
New paperbacks
A book of jokes
Binoculars
Print outs of grids for games of fences

8-10:
Stamps and ink-pad
Road diary for recording adventures
New paperback
Mixed music tapes or CDs
Portable music player
Activity books
Address books and postcards or note paper

Maybe a copy of Kids Travel: A Backseat Survival Guide which gets good reviews on Amazon.
Bird book
Travel games (including print outs of grids for games of fences)

11+:
Magic Tricks
Nail Tattoos
Road diary
Mixed music CDs or tapes
Portable music player
New paperback
Address books and postcards or note paper
Disposable camera or sticker camera
Travel games (dig out your old rubiks cube!)

I got a little stuck on ideas for 5-7 year olds… so if you have any suggestions for this age group or any of the other groups please leave them in comments — I will compile an extended list at a later date for our resources section (which does not exist as yet!) so your help will be greatly appreciated.

If you are looking for a gift for a new baby a personalised spoon from Beaded Things might be just the thing. “Hand sculpted wire transforms this spoon into a one of a kind gift… this 5.5 inch stainless steel spoon is both functional and a true keepsake… Your choice of any 8 letters.”

Fun things to do with your little kid in the supermarket - take his photo over and again and then make a flickr set! These photos of a little boy named Vincent are wonderful. (via Swissmiss)

Healthykids.com (home of multiple pop-up ads — just to warn you) has a slide show which will give you some tips for ways to get your kids into the garden and involved and enthused about gardening.

It’s moving into a chilly winter here and we are fighting off colds and ear infections and all sort of other nasties. I am craving comfort food — Momready.com has a page of Comfort Banquet recipes which I have just printed out ready to stick in my recipe book. Columnist Joe LoCicero includes Creamy Southern Style Mac & Cheese (above) and Green Bean Casserole - the Chocolate River Pie also looks pretty delicious. Yesterday I made this delicious Recuperation Soup from Esurientes which was easy and really delicious.

Kiddley reader Jen from Semantically Driven submitted her tips for dressing your kids a tight budget. We decided to turn her ideas into topics for a series which has been running over the last few weeks.

In the first week we looked at Hand-me-downs while last week we had lots of great pointers from Jen and other Kiddley readers on buying second hand kids’ clothes. Next week’s article will be about buying and selling kids’ clothes on Ebay and finally making clothes for your kids… If you are interested in submitting your own tips on these future topics please do so. If you have any tips for this week or the first two weeks’ topics please leave them in the comments.

This week we are looking at (one of my personal favourites) Buying clothes on sale at the end of a season.

Jen says:

“There are always sales on at department stores and other shops and you can browse through to find clothing for the next season. Obviously you’ll have to guess what size your child will be but that’s usually fairly easy to gauge.”

Kiddley says:

Personally I love a good excuse to gather huge amounts of clothing in my arms in a department store. Shopping for next year in a size up is something I love to do. As with any sale there often isn’t too much left that will really WOW you or your young clothes horse, but I stick to really cheap, cheap, basic pieces in natural fibres (t-shirts, socks, jeans, shirts and so on) which they must over-stock on and I usually come out feeling satiated by some totally guilt free spending. I also love to pack all the purchases into plastic storage containers and then rediscover them the following year.

My favourite experience was hunting through a Target store in a big country town. It became clear to me that my “city mouse” taste is pretty different from the rural shoppers that had already been through so I found mountains of good stuff including gorgeous things I had eyed off months before in the city at full price and here they were, totally reduced ($2 for a beautiful dress? Heaven!). Perhaps my city taste vs. country taste is a bit of a furphy and it was just a wonderful shopping day for me, but if not, I wonder if this same idea would work for people from the country coming in to the city stores? I am guessing that the city sales are never going to be as good as the country sales.

Another thing I do when I am shopping at sales is that I keep in mind that while the item might be incredibly boring (but cheap!) as it is (plain overalls, plain t-shirt, plain pair of basic pants and so on) I can add embellishments, transfers or appliques to turn something very dull into something quite unique. Stay tuned to our fifth part in this series “Making clothes for kids” in a couple of week’s time for some more ideas in this area.

Good things about buying kids’ clothes at sales: Brand new, basic clothes for sometimes about the same prices as thrift store finds.

Bad things about buying kids’ clothes at sales: Sales are usually busy and almost the worst place on earth to take a child. The number of frantic, clothes flinging people is overwhelming and I am often flabbergasted by how rude and mercenary some shoppers in children’s boutiques suddenly become in the heat of the moment. Most times I decide that finding that extra special child’s poncho on sale for a few measly dollars less is not worth the trouble and I will wait until the sale has been on for a few days or a week. This often means sorting through the leftovers but prices will usually be even further reduced.

Another thing is that sale prices are sometimes pretty pathetic and only a few dollars off the original price. Make sure you are thinking clearly and are not just in a frenzied-sales-mindset which is so easy to get into. Use the tip from last week of asking yourself if your child really needs the piece of clothing and also perhaps ask yourself if you would pay twice the price for it anyway.

The only other negative thing about sale shopping for the following year that comes to mind is that your child will be wearing last season / year’s clothes. Probably not really a major concern for thrifty shoppers but I know that it does matter to some and maybe to those who have picky pre-teens.

Reader suggestions:

Heather writes:

“I stock up on basics, like t-shirts, cardigans, shoes, socks, and leggings at the end of the season sales. I buy the same thing in several sizes ahead and various colors. When something is outgrown, I just go to the closet to get the next size.”

Andi writes:

“A lot of the kids boutiques give discounts when you buy more than a set number of items at the end of season sales. There’s one that gives 75% off their designer wear when you buy 8 pieces or more at the end of the season. I grab what fits my boys (or will fit my boys) and make up the eight with stuff I can sell on ebay. It works out so that I don’t pay anything for the stuff for my kids because I’ve made up the difference selling the other pieces.”

This one is an old favourite but sometimes it’s nice to be reminded of the obvious. Making a chain of paper dolls is a quick and easy craft activity but you may be surprised at how entertaining kids can find it and how a whole afternoon can disappear in this pursuit.

You will need:
Light cardboard or sturdy paper
Scissors
Pens, markers and crayons
Decorative materials such as scraps of paper and fabric, buttons, lace, trim, glitter, tin-foil, stickers, sequins etc.
Glue

Cut a strip of paper about 10 cm high and as long as you like. The longer the strip, the more dolls you will end up with.

Fold the strip of paper accordion style, making each panel about 6cm or so wide

Your (older) child can draw a figure on the top panel making sure that parts of the body (hands, feet etc) touch the sides of the panel.

Cut around the figure but don’t cut along the folds where the parts of the body touch.

Unfold the chain of dolls and then decorate with either just markers and crayons or use glue and stick on all sorts of wondrous outfits.

Older children will be quite capable of drawing their own shape on the top panel. Preschoolers may need you to draw the figure and cut out the shape but will have plenty of fun unfolding the chain and then decorating it once you are done.

Tip: A great idea is to do a little preparation before hand. Gather a bunch of fabric scraps and then cut them into little squares with pinking shears.

This makes it easy for especially little kids to create all kinds of different outfits for their dolls using the pre-cut scraps. (idea borrowed from Caroline Zoob’s Childhood Treasures book).

Strings of paper dolls can also be used for cute folded birthday party invitations which would be especially nice if you can get the guest of honour to decorate all the sets personally - perhaps a big ask. Stick them around a plain paper lampshade and you immediately add colour and fun. You could also Hang them as a mobile, or stick them to the outside of a bedroom door and use them as a name plate - one letter of the child’s name could be pasted or drawn on to each doll’s dress or stomach.

We have a page of downloadable templates for you to print out to get you started. This includes the classic doll shape (above), an alien (above), a fairy and a grizzly monster.

Paper doll pdf

AJ currently doesn’t get much time in front of the computer. When she does, it’s usually to spend some time using TuxPaint or to play games at Disney Playhouse.

Compared to many other sites we’ve looked at, Disney Playhouse has high quality content for kids, especially preschoolers. The games and activities on the site are really well done; almost all of them feature verbal instructions, making it much easier for preshool kids to know how to play the games and navigate around the mini-sites. Most of the featured programs are also shows that we really like, including Charlie and Lola, Bear in the Big Blue House, and The Koala Brothers.

Although the main playhouse page has ads including pop-ups (still pretty crappy in my opinion), the featured sections are all ad free. It’s also fairly easy for kids to unknowingly click on fun-looking links that actually take them to less desirable parts of the disney website. AJ has become pretty adept at knowing which links keep her in the playhouse and which ones don’t, but supervision here can be pretty important.

What other sites would you recommend for preschool age kids?

Whilst our blog is published in Australia, just like all blogs we have an international audience and an especially large group of our visitors come from North America. So especially for you, coming up on the 24th of June, is the National Wildlife Association’s second Great American Backyard Campout (via Parent Hacks). You are encouraged to gather your kids and grand-kids and enjoy a night of s’more-making (being an Australian I have no idea how good these are), stargazing and nature-watching right in your own backyard or favorite camping spot. The National Wildlife Federation have most noble intentions. They are keen to get kids to turn off the TV, and to get them “outdoors to experience the wonders of nature.”

The Great American Backyard Campout site has some great resources for getting prepared for your big night out including a detailed packing-list and recipes to try over your campfire.

I have been doing a lot of thinking about nursery design over the last couple of months. Colours, fabrics, space, storage and so on have been flittering in and out of my nesting mind. I turn to magazines and books for inspiration and have since come up with my top 10 tips based on the input from a lot of these publications and from our experiences working on the room for number two. These points are pretty basic but if you are feeling your way through this for the first time they might be useful.

1. Keep it basic - choose things which can be added to as time goes by.

Your essential needs in a nursery are:
A crib
Changing mat (either on a dresser or a table) with storage for wipes, nappies (diapers) and lotions
Rocking chair / arm chair
Lamp
Bedding including a waterproof mattress protector
Waste basket
Storage for clothes

2. Keep function firmly in mind. In the longer term, will this room be the room when they need to put in a desk for homework or a computer? Will your child also have use of a playroom or family room or will this be where all their toys are kept and most of their playing is done? Will they be sharing with older or younger siblings? Plan built-in fixtures (bunk beds, storage etc.) accordingly.

3. Choose a unisex colour scheme if you don’t know whether you are having a girl or a boy — or a boysie-girl or a girlsie-boy. The most suggested colour seems to be white which you can then accessorise with colour, but other suggestions are apple green (we love and recommend this one - we have one wall painted this colour in AJs room and glows), tangerine, cherry, duck-egg blue or turquoise. These colours are all pretty overpowering so you might want to paint most of the room white and then paint one feature wall a vivid colour.

4. The best way to add personality to a room is with soft furnishings and textiles which are comparatively cheap and can change with your child’s interests and age. Crib quilts, blankets, cushions for the reading chair, lamp-shades and curtains are all good places to add little colour and personal expression into a room.

Instead of pasting up an almost impossible to remove wall frieze, why not try a string of fabric bunting in pretty colours or a string of flags or fairy lights.

5. When looking for a theme, focus on one particular element which appeals to you for inspiration - it could be a vintage toy, a particular fabric, a certain style (contemporary, country, eclectic, vintage etc) or a favourite family pastime (hot air ballooning was my nephew’s nursery theme).

6. Keep a scrap-book of clippings from magazines of ideas which appeal to you. Refer to it often for inspiration and to keep you focused.

7. Consider heating, cooling, natural light and ventilation. Do you need to install some safe heating? Does a lot of cold air come in through the window and should you place the crib well away from it? Will you need block out blinds for day time napping?

8. Attempt to use non-toxic materials which are kind to the environment as well as the baby such as low VOC paints and natural fibres.

9. Electrical tips: As with every other room in the house, lighting adds so much mood and personality to a nursery. Fit a dimmer switch for the overhead light. Have enough electrical outlets so you have one for a baby monitor, CD player, a fan for summer, a lamp and a night-light. Have your electrical outlets tested and buy baby-proof socket covers.

10. Don’t choose expensive baby furniture which looks cute but will be outgrown quickly. Choose a full-sized wardrobe, and consider using a change mat on top of a dresser rather than splashing out on a baby change table.

Choose a good arm chair for breast feeding and later story telling and even later still lounging on in a teenage kind of way. It doesn’t need to be a special breast-feeding chair, just make sure that it is comfortable, has good back support and low arms.

My sources of inspiration:

Rooms to Grow In : Little Folk Art’s great rooms for babies, kids, and teens by Susan Salzman and Daryn Eller. Cute, country, folk-art chic. Lots of inspiring pictures if you like flea-market goodies and vintage styles. Leans on the “more is more” philosophy of interior design.

Children’s Spaces: From zero to ten by Judith Wilson. There are lots of great rooms for kids in this book in a variety of styles. It’s one of my favourites but the nursery images are limited.

Babies’ Rooms: From zero to three is another Judith Wilson book and it’s quite beautiful. She is definitely of the “less is more” cool, uncluttered design school. Big on white interiors but lots of good ideas.

Childhood Treasures: Handmade Gifts for Babies and Children by Caroline Zoob. While this is not really an interior design book it is loaded with photos of cute corners of nurseries and packed full of good ways (and tutorials for projects) to inject a little personality into a child’s space. Definitely in the folk-shabby-chic-vintage school of design.

Claire bought this CD from Amazon after seeing a Dan Zanes segment on Sesame Street. It’s a folksy collection that includes a number of original songs along with some traditional folk songs and covers like What a Wonderful World (sung with Lou Reed) and Woody Guthrie’s So Long it’s Been Good to Know Yuh.

Night Time! is packaged up like a board book, complete with liner notes and illustrations that pull together the theme of loose and relaxed night time music. My first reaction was that this CD was a little old for AJ (she’s 3.5) and I wasn’t entirely certain about the suitability of lyrics like ‘pay me or go to jail.’ It wasn’t an instant hit with her either in the same way that I Like to Sing was, but after two or three plays the infectious melodies and gentle magic of the songs grabbed both of us, and it’s currently in high rotation both at home and in the car. Night Time! is less of a kids’ album and more of a family album; there are aspects of it that can be enjoyed by everyone regardless of age. Because of that I suspect it will have a lot of longevity; it’s not likely to be something she grows out of in a year.

One practical note: the CD case doesn’t have a traditional disc holder (the disc slides into a flap at the back of the book), which I suspect makes the CD particularly prone to scratching. Kiddley house policy is to make a spare copy of all kids CDs for playing so that we still have the original kicking around. That’s highly recommended with Night Time! as well.

Dan Zanes Night Music! at Amazon.

Some samples:

01 Night Owl:

02 Pay Me My Money Down:

08 Siyahamba:

A great flickr group to join if you are looking for printable vintage collage images for scrap-booking or kids projects is Collage Images — with almost 18,000 copyright free images including old ads, photos, greeting cards and scientific drawings. You need to join the group to view the images but it’s a very useful resource. (via artsymama)

Babble, Scribble, Read! is a Denver Library web project which looks at ways you can encourage your baby, toddler and preschooler to begin to appreciate the experience of reading way before they are actually ready to read and write themselves. The activities and tips are great.

Make presents a video podcast from the recent Maker Faire of young people making new stuff out of recycled materials.
“If you are a teacher or work with small children, you could follow the Make Magazine lead here and call up your local recycling center and get a load of old technology and then let students take it all apart and put it back together in new ways.”

Kiddley reader Jen from Semantically Driven submitted her tips for dressing your kids a tight budget. We decided to turn her ideas into topics for a series which will run over a number of weeks.

Last week we looked at Hand-me-downs and next week’s article will be on looking for clothing on sale in regular stores, followed by buying and selling kids clothing on Ebay and finally making clothes for your kids… If you are interested in submitting your own tips on these future topics please do so. If you have any tips for this week or last week’s topics please leave them in the comments.
This week we are exploring the intoxicating world of buying kids’ clothes second-hand.

Jen says:

Op-shops (thrift shops): Keep an eye out for children’s clothing in op shops. It’s possible to pick up some great stuff in almost perfect condition… if you’re fashion conscious for your child, is that fashions are cyclic so something that was fashionable 20 years ago is probably fashionable again now if you’re lucky enough to find something from that long ago… there are more babies and toddlers clothes available in op shops because they haven’t had the chance to be worn out as easily as older kids clothes.

Specialty secondhand clothing shops: The other option in second-hand clothing shops is the specialty clothing shops for kids. Usually you can take in your pre-loved items of clothing and get some money for them and you can buy pre-loved clothing there as well. This clothing is a bit more expensive but still cheaper than buying brand new.

Kiddley Says:

It really does make complete sense to buy second hand clothing for your kids. Nothing last more than a few months in those early years so it’s hard to justify spending huge amounts on designer clothing when it will get such limited wear. Likewise, the second hand stuff you can find in thrift stores, flea-markets, consignment stores and garage sales often has only had a little use and can be still quite new and up-to-date (or as Jen mentions, excitingly vintage!). You really need to do a little exploration of your local op-shops and find out which ones are discerning and stock the better stuff. I have seen baskets of faded, greying, stained kids clothing many-a-time which makes my skin kind of crawl even imagining dressing a child in them, but in other places I have found heart-stoppingly cute things which I can’t believe anyone would toss.

Our local flea-market seems to be a goldmine for baby and children’s clothing. Quite often there will be whole stalls of goods manned by parents whose littlies are obviously not so little anymore. As with all flea-market (and garage sale) excursions, it’s important to go early to get the best stuff.

Stephanie at Little Birds has a great list of things to keep in mind when going out thrifting. She has useful tips such as “Keep a thrift store wish-list. Sometimes you need a little reminder.” and her golden “Is this worth twice the price to me?” rule which is something I really need to keep in mind. She also mentions how she manages to thrift shop with kids… “If my kids aren’t happy being there, we leave. I try to make it work, but I much prefer going thrifting on my own or with an adult companion!”

HGTV has a page of tips for shopping at garage sales, including “Take clothing measurements of family members ahead of time. Carry a list of sleeve lengths, inseams, neck, chest and waist sizes, and pack along a cloth measuring tape to see if items are likely to fit” (useful!)

Here are some more pages of tips for garage sale shopping:
Shopping Tips for National Garage Sale Day &
14 Tips to Help You Find Great Deals at Garage Sales

Gurl.com has a guide to thrifting for teens — and while most of the stuff is very much about finding groovy vintage looks and taking the time to swot up on your vintage labels so you can spot a good bargain, it also has some invaluable advice such as “Go to the bathroom and eat before you go. There’s nothing worse than having to pee while you’re trying to thrift.” (!) and “Get to know the sorters: They can tip you off when good stuff comes in, or even set it aside.”

A wonderful book on the subject of Thrifting is the now classic:

Thrift Score by Al Hoff.

It now seems to be sadly out of print, but you can still find it second hand it seems.

Reader suggestions:

Adrianne points us to her friend’s new venture - Baby & Kid’s Market with Australian dates and locations.

“I have bought so many fab clothes for my children here from 50 cents to $20. If you go early you get the best choices but if you leave it to late in the day the bargains are unbelievable! A great way to declutter your cupboards and take a stand against mass consumerism whist dressing your kids in stylish clothes”

Heather writes:

“I frequent thrift stores in a wealthy area, where kids tend to wear uniforms for private schools, moms and grandmas like to shop at children\’s boutiques, and families are small so clothes are rarely handed down to siblings. Most of these parents are not interested in holding tag sales or dealing with consignment stores, so they donate carloads of practically new clothes and toys to the charity thrift stores. In fact, a lot of what I buy from the thrift IS new and unworn.”

Asha from Parent Hacks has some tips for selling your kids’ used clothes and one of her readers sent in a tip for making sure you match clothes (sizes and styles) in the store so that you come away with a few useful complete outfits rather that lots of odds and ends.

Iona says:

” I’ve only recently started thrifting and overcoming my congenital blindness to op shops and garage sale signs, so what I’m about to mention is probably appallingly obvious but here goes anyway. Op shops are great for kid sized pieces of fabric going very cheaply. But I’ve found the greatest saving is in sewing patterns - these often sell for 50c or $1 which is a whole lot better than $15 or $18. Many are unused; there are lots of kid’s patterns; and sometimes there are great vintage finds.
The best finds have been sewing manuals such as a 1979 Simplicity sewing manual ($2!) which covered fitting, pattern alterations and sewing technique and other manuals for stretch knit fabrics. This has given me the confidence to go through the patterns and make the most of what I find - if the pattern’s a size 3 but my child is size 4 I know that I’ll be able to adjust the pattern to fit.”

Thank you for your ideas this week. If you have any more around the topic of buying second-hand kids’ clothes please leave them in the comments below. If you have any useful tips for next week’s topic which is finding bargains in regular stores, please be sure to email them to us.