It’s time for us to put Kiddley on the back-burner for a while. Since the birth of our daughter Lily back in June we have been struggling as a family to find the right balance of life, work and blogging. Unfortunately life has been suffering more and more. It has been regularly occurring to me that it’s somewhat ironic that a website dedicated to helping parents and carers find things to do with their kids has been taking us away from ours! In one of those blinding flashes of reason I suddenly realised that something had to give, and unfortunately blogging is it.

Kiddley has been a joy and I want to quickly thank some good people for their support since its inception. Asha Dornfest, Kathreen Ricketson, Darren Rowse, Ben Hosken, Michelle Griffin, and Amber Carvan have all helped out in various ways, and we are most grateful.

To the awesome array of guest contributors we had in November and December who took the time to put together beautiful ideas and tutorials which made me realise just how amazing Kiddley could be - Thank you!

And thank you to our kids! Amelia and Lily who are our biggest inspirations every day.

And your kids, for getting in and doing stuff, for taking photos and for sharing the joy with us on Flickr.

And you - for your ideas, emails, comments, photos and links.

We hope you will still find much fun in the Kiddley archives. Please see our new sidebar links which will take you to some other fabulous kid’s activities sites.
Lots of love,

Claire and Phil

xx

Over at Knit & Pearl you will find these beautiful decoupage buckets, ready and waiting to be filled with Valentine’s treats. Joy says:

“Want to make one? it’s easy
- cut out illustrations from a damaged or favorite book
- glue stick them on to the pail
- once pail is covered with illustrations, brush on a few layers of modge podge
- once dry, add your favorite pom-pom trim or ribbon
- fill with candy, valentines, cookies, or love letters”

Further instructions for decoupage can be found at About: Family Crafts.

Tags: decoupage, valentines day

Ann from Mason-Dixon Knitting wrote in to tell us about her family’s theme dinners. After Ann’s son came out with those dreaded words “Mom. I don’t mean to be rude, but I really am not loving dinner these days.” Ann started having weekly dinners based on a fun theme.

“We do it once a week or so: the fellas put themes into a pot, and at the conclusion of a Theme Dinner we pick a new theme. So far: Japanese Night, Astronaut Night (for which I served military MREs which were as close to NASA food as I could get, and about which Hubbo complained like a new recruit at boot camp), Vibrant Colored Food Night, German Night, Stadium Food Night, and All Liquids Night. Beige Night is still lurking in the pot.

I’m no Martha Stewart, people. It was pure, stinkin’ boredom that led us to this. And it is, I have to say, really fun. As long as there’s dessert, you can’t lose.” - Ann

In the Kiddley archives you can find a post on having International Food themes for school lunchboxes. We linked to an index of International recipes on Martha Stewart which might be useful when choosing food to match a theme.

Tags: 11yrs+, 5 7yrs, 8 10yrs, cooking, dinner, preschoolers

Simple yet inspired (surely my favourite of combinations!).

Far quicker than carving a design into a potato, Angela from Colorfool and her little girl Keely used heart shaped cookie cutters to make speedy potato stamps. Create your own Valentine’s cards, wrapping and decorations in minutes!

Tags: potatoes, printing, valentines day

Happy happy! Apartment Therapy launched it’s newest blog this month - The Nursery. Expect lots of nice stuff:

“As with all the AT blogs, this one is devoted to supporting the home, but it takes special aim that part of the home that is occupied by babies and small children…

…Hailing from the West Coast, the Midwest and the East, this savvy team is going to be blogging all the good ideas and resources they find on the web, in the news, in magazines and on television. Nothing is sacred, everything is fair game.

In addition, we want to know what makes your Nursery work for you. We want to know your favorite tips, treasures and achievements, the stuff that makes you love your home AND your children. Please don’t be shy, your comments, emails, photos and suggestions are all welcome. It is the spirit of community, the mutual respect and support that really makes Apartment Therapy work.”

(via decor8)

Tags: links, websites

Releia from Bare Clementines has blogged about an easy way to draw a labyrinth in chalk on the ground for your kids to run around. Find some chalk, enlist your kids to help out and set about creating the most complicated labyrinth you can, causing major backache while you’re at it!

Releia’s labyrinth is created according to the following steps (I hope I got it right, Releia):

If you are keen, you can find some more complicated desgins for drawing your own labyrinths over at Instructables. It’s as simple as creating a key (a basic key is shown in step one in the diagram above) and then slowly and systematically connecting the points. Instructables provides a number of different, interesting keys.

Tags: chalk, labyrinth

Last Saturday’s Guardian (UK) had a craft booklet full of crafts for all ages, including a handful for kids, and it’s available online (thanks Zoe!). You will find a great article on the joys of crafting with kids, instructions for how to make a box kite, sock puppet and my favourite; a living willow wigwam. Perhaps before embarking on this project, read Will Hodgkinson’s first hand account of putting one together with his 4 year old and 6 year old.

For more information on putting together a living willow wigwam, Willows Nursery has a great page full of wigwam before and after (above) photos.

Tags: 11yrs+, 5 7yrs, 8 10yrs, gardening, preschoolers, wigwam

Andrea of Love Monkey sent us this great tutorial for “The easiest no-sew tutu ever!”

You will need:
Crinoline - in a few colours
Scissors
Elastic band - i used a large hair band in pink but you could always sew one from elastic just a little smaller than the child’s waist.

Cut the pieces of fabric into strips. They can vary on width and on length as this will work well for the tutu when completed. My strips were approximately 3 inches wide by 20 inches long.

Loosely knot a strip of fabric onto the elastic band - make sure that the knot is in the middle of the strip so you have approximately the same amount of fabric on either side of the knot. Do this many times, alternating colours, until the elastic is covered. It is better to overcrowd as the tutu elastic will grow once it is worn.

Do a little trimming if pieces are too long or too uneven.

That is it!! The easiest, no-sew tutu ever!! Enjoy!

Tags: 5 minute fix, costume, tutu

Sarah sent us this quick collage idea she did yesterday with her kids.

You will need:
A stack of magazines
Scissors
Glue

“They are so simple to do: Just hack up some old unwanted magazines (not the latest issue of Selvedge, or the most recent Boden catalogue, some things are just off-limits!), and re-construct!” - Sarah

For something similar you could pin the bits on a to a potato and create “5 minute potato people“.

Tags: 11yrs+, 5 7yrs, 5 minute fix, 8 10yrs, collage, preschoolers

Angie from Northreads sent us this easy-peasy idea for packaging up a Valentine’s cookie. Using paper CD sleeves (available at office supply stores), slip the cookie inside so that it can be seen through the round plastic window. Decorate the sleeve with Valentine’s stamps, attach a cute label with rick-rack and you’re done! (link)

Tags: cookies, package design, valentines day