Keeping kids busy on the go is an art that takes a lot of preparation and the right entertainment tools. Travel games and activity packs are great on airplanes, car trips and at the restaurant. There is also a wide range of digital games on the market, but - call me old fashioned - I have never been a huge fan of portable video games. I find them alienating and I dislike the image of children lost into a tiny screen completely unaware of the world around clicking away with their thumbs. I don’t deny they do the job and keep kids occupied, but I believe children should be entertained with stimulating activities.  I always opt for portable art & crafts packs and activity sheets, but recently I have opened up to the world of iPhone Apps, which are very different from portable video games. For starters the owner of the phone is the parent rather than the child, and that in itself puts a limit to the usage and more importantly the applications available for kids are interactive and educational designed to stimulate rather than alienate. Stories and interactive learning are always winners in my book.

Lorraine and Annabel, the founders of My Busy Kit developed a cool iPhone App for kids on the go called My Little Suitcase, which is available to buy from the App Store. My Little Suitcase is a fun App that lets children decide the holiday destination and consequently the items to pack for their trip. Once they get there, they can play games with a bouncing ball and make the sun shine at the beach or dress a snowman and make the snow fall on their ski trip. This is a simple and very effective App for kids aged between 3 and 6, which is not only entertaining but it stimulates children’s free choice and independence through imaginary play.

As well as the App, My busy Kits has some fabulous travel kits containing a mix of toys and arts & crafts material to keep kids entertained on the go. The standard kits are suitable for children between 3 and 7, but on request they can be customised up to 10 years old. I like that the kits come in useful transparent bags that can be reused again and again.

I like the new collection of children’s accessory by Danish design company Ferm Living due to be released in April.
The lovely guitar cushion with the rush hour print is a cute addition to any little boy’s room. Made of 100% organic cotton and filled with polyester, this soft cushion is part of the rush hour collection with the matching junior bedding set and wall stickers. The bedding set includes a duvet cover with a zip for easy closing and comes with a matching bag, which makes a good sac for toys or the perfect place to put the laundry.
For the boys who are more into robots, Ferm Living has an equally appealing robot cushion that comes in two sizes, small and large. The robot cushion also has matching bedding set and wall stickers to complete the look.

The bookshelves in my son’s room have had such tired overflowing look for a while that I could no longer ignore their plea to be freed of some of those books that are far too young for my so grown up boy.  In the attempt of making space for new books I have started piling up those old favourites that kept us company during the toddler and preschool years in the hope of passing them on to another child who would give them the loving care they deserve. As you do at times like this, I went down memory lane and I found I still know by heart the rhymes of the Mr Men little books and other catching stories like Each Peach Pear Plum. You may laugh, but you never know when such knowledge might come in handy in days to come.

Jokes apart, there were some great early year books on our shelves. This is what I found.

1. Little Rabbit Lost by Harry Horse is a classic book with beautiful old fashion drawings and a sweet story of a little rabbit that gets lost on his birthday because he felt so grown up he went wandering by himself during a visit to the Rabbit World. All ends well and he finds his mum in the end. An old classic with a message: stay close to your parents when out and about!

2. Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell is a lovely book with the zoo animals hiding under pull up windows, which is sure to keep the little ones entertained for a longtime.

3. Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg- eh in two pieces I am afraid; this book went through a lot! - Another old time classic with beautiful rhymes and captivating drawings.

4. The whole collection of the Mr. Men books

5. Two copies of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

6. Tigers Love to Say Goodnight by Sue Mongredien and Sebastien Braun. This is a sweet bedtime story of a little boy’s toys snuggling up at night.

7. Two Magic Windows books of the Touch and Feel collection: On the Go and Life in the Jungle. They are both colourful books with clues and pull out windows with the respective answers. We had a lot of fun with those. We actually had a lot of these interactive books, but these two are the only survivors.

8. Everybody’s Activity Book by Pascale Estellon - a fantastic book with a range of activities including cutting, sticking, colouring and drawing. It comes with sticker sheets and printed pages for extra cut and paste fun. It is great for recognising shapes in everyday objects, visual coordination and creative learning.

Yesterday we made our first Easter card. I got the inspiration from allaboutyou, which is a great source for simple kids’ crafts.

All you need to make the card is blue card or thick paper, green paper, an old paper bag, cotton wool, glue, colouring pens or paints and brushes.

I like the kind of craft where you just use what you have in the house and we were very frugal about it as we used only left over paper to make it.

Instructions

1. Cut a piece of blue card and fold it down the middle to make the shape of the card.

2. Tear a piece of green paper to make the grass and glue it to the front of the blue card. Ripping the paper rather than cutting it helps to obtain the rough edges of the grass.

3. Draw little flowers on the grass with colouring pens or paint and brush. We used acrylic paint and a fine pointed brush because the pens we had in the house were not suitable and the colours were getting all mixed up.

4. Draw the outline of two bunnies sitting down and cut around it. For this step use any brown paper you have in the house, an old paper bag is just the kind of thing that works well.

5. Stick the two bunnies on the card with glue as they were sitting on the grass.

6. Make two tiny balls of cotton wall and glue them to the bunnies to make the tail.

Finally a paper cup that you can recognise! When I first saw these fabulous ABC cups on Bloesem Kids I thought wow what a fun way to spell words and then I actually saw the practical side to them. They are great for parties, not only their individual design is fun but you can actually use them to spell words and you will be safe in the knowledge that you are not drinking from someone else’s cup. Yuk! Designed and sold by Seoul based IaM Design. 

Photos via IaM Design