Yoga for Kids

At Happy Play Happy Children we were very privileged to recently be invited by CBeebies Asia to attend their CBeebies Club Yoga in the Park morning at our local Singapore Botanic Gardens.

The girls had a wonderful time learning about Yoga which is a big part of one of their favorite shows The Waybuloo's on CBeebies - so you can imagine my delight at being invited to attend this event with them!

I was amazed to learn all about how much fun and health benefits children can derive from participating in Yoga such as:-

• It gets them moving and helps with their flexibility and bone development so important to their young little bodies.
• Improves concentration those little minds have to work hard in getting those poses down. They also have to focus on the task at hand and be in the moment.
• A children's yoga class integrates many aspects of learning such as storytelling and music in our class we worked through a story taking place in the forest with various animals.

And whilst Annabelle & Scarlett could not get all the moves you can see them in action below and how happy they were and us as Mum & Dad in spending this fun quality time together....

Perhaps you may want to introduce your child to the fun of Yoga to do this I have included a video from our friendly Waybuloo's to show you and your little ones how to do it!

For more you can visit the Waybuloo's channel on You Tube here.

And if you would like a copy of the sheet that outlines three pages of Yoga moves for your little ones that I received please send me an email to laurambrookesmith@gmail.com or leave your details in the comment sections below and I would be happy to send along.

Happy Play Times :-)

Happy Play Happy Children publisher Laura Brooke-Smith was not financially remunerated for this post but did receive a morning of Yoga and CBeebies goodies for her two children all opinions and sharing are her own.

Get Your Groove On

Who doesn't love a good dance off?
I can tell you your little ones certainly do.
We have had a lot of dance-a-thons in this house recently!

Children have a natural urge to move and dance so it is a great way for you to spend some fun playtime together by putting on a favorite playlist and grooving away together keeping you both fit and moving.

Did you also know that dancing helps your child with body control, creativity and mood enhancements all great reasons to participate in this form of play. 

And because we couldn't resist check out this little cutie pie doing the Paso Doble to his adoring crowd look at how much joy dancing brings him.

Happy Play Times :-)

Our Favorite Old MacDonald Clip

So we are currently in the throws of loving animals, learning their sounds and imitating them.

I searched through You Tube trying to find an appropriate Old MacDonald clip but they were either to cartoony, to boring and the kids wouldn't be interested.

Then I cam across the Fox Pail version and it has everything you could want, cartoons, but real life animals on the farm and realistic sounds they also love Jack the dog who makes an appearance.

They are giggling, clapping and mimicking along with it and I feel it has helped their understanding and development in addition to the other animal activities we do.

We have embedded it here if you want to check it out and show your little ones.

Happy Play Times :-)

Taking the Time to 'Just Be' in Play

I am a big one for giving my children the time to enjoy the simple things.

Children need stimulation and engagement but sometimes they just need to stop and watch the world go by.

So this is a just a quick post to remind us of taking things back to basics with children's play.

One of our favorite quiet play times is to just sit and look out the window and see what is happening below us. I point out interesting sights or name objects but we are taking the time to just be...

What simple quiet activities do you like to do with your children?

Happy Play Times :-)

Show and Tell with Your Pre Schoolers

Some of you may have children that already do this who are of school age. Others like me may just remember the fun it was to do at school as you took something or someone of great love to school and told everyone about it.

Children between 3-6 love this activity and it is great for building confidence, learning to communicate and developing a deeper understanding in the world around them.

But does it just need to be done in the classroom? No you can be a captive audience for your little one at home and have them pick various objects to conduct show and tell for Mum’s, Dad’s, grandparents, the postman ;-)

It’s a perfect indoor activity for those cooler months coming up in the Northern Hemisphere and the scorchers to occur in the Southern Hemisphere.

Weekend Watching - Thanksgiving Day Activities & Games : Turkey Stories for Thanksgiving Games

Learn about a fun way to implement play and games into your Thanksgiving holiday this year!

Also if you are looking for more ideas You Tube is full of great fun and creative games to get your children into the holiday spirit and have loads of fun.

Happy Play Times :-)

Weekend Watching - How to Make a Thanksgiving Kids Craft: Thanksgiving Gratitude Tree

I have noticed many people on Facebook are doing a month of giving thanks status updates for November in readiness for celebrating thanksgiving.

It got me thinking how you could get your children involved in this activity. So we went searching and have found this clip for our weekend watching series where it shows how your children can build a tree of gratitude. Such a lovely idea and a great way to have kids learn what they are grateful for and have fun doing so.

Please Watch, Enjoy and Share 

We would love to hear what you are grateful for and what your children are grateful for when doing this activity.

Happy Play Times :-)

Family Fun Project Sites

Annabelle and Scarlett my gorgeous babies are about to turn one in less than 5 weeks - how did that happen!!

I wanted to make them something special but guess what I am not crafty at ALL!!! But I love to color & I can do scrap booking so I am creating them a disney princess collage on canvas. Fingers crossed it turns out kind of like what I have envisaged in my head....

How does this relate to play? It doesn't really I just wanted to share :-)

BUT when looking for the Disney Princesses I could use to color to form part of the collage I stumbled across the fantastic Disney sites with coloring and craft projects for your little ones toddler through primary.

So I thought I would share some helpful links, this is great for a cold or rainy fall/winter day OR in the Southern hemisphere projects for when the weather will become in the 40+ range and to hot for the outdoors in the middle of the day.

I do hope you find it useful.

Get Crafty

Toddlers

Disney Family Fun - Toddler Crafts

Pre Schooler's 

Disney Family Fun - Pre School Crafts

Primary School

Disney Family Fun - Primary School Crafts

Coloring Fun

Disney Junior

Disney Characters Coloring Pages 

General Coloring 

Coloring Pages

Happy Play Times :-)

Weekend Watching Fun Tabletop Games : How to Play Simon Says

Here is one for the toddler and primary aged children in the family.

As we have been doing a series on old fashion games with this weekend’s watching clip I wanted to bring a game from my childhood memory to visual life and have Fun Table Top Games show us how to play ‘Simon Says’.

What I think is great about this game is it is a way to help children learn important listening and following skills.

So get the family together and have a game or two this weekend.

Happy Play Times :-)

Weekend Watching - How to do a cartwheel - Tutorial

This week a weekend watching for the older children.

I know as a young girl I was always keen to cartwheels, somersaults and handstands what child isn’t however a cartwheel was always out of my reach.

Where was YouTube instructional clips in the 1980’s – oh that’s right not even invented yet in fact I am pretty sure the creators just like me were in diapers.

So as an ode and revisit to my childhood and what I wished was available I wanted to share “How to Do a Cartwheel’ for this weekend’s watching clip.

Good luck and I hope this helps other children fulfill my dream ;-)

Have a wonderful weekend.

Happy Play Times :-)   

Weekend Watching - How To Make A Can & String Telephone

We have been doing a series on classic games recently and it gets the mind thinking of all types of fun stimulating things you used to do when we didn't have all that is at the disposal of children today.

Then my 10 month old daughter was using the bath cups where she was holding one to her ear and one to her mouth and making delightful screeching noises (anyone with young babies know that excitable ear piercing but oh so sweet until the 1000th time sound) and it made me think of the old tin can phone my Grandfather showed us how to make.

So therefore this weekend's watching is in honor of an age old communication tool way before the Iphone or Blackberry.

Give your children the joy of yesteryear and make one together and tell them that now the challenge is they have to make a game out of it there is not one built in :-)

Have a wonderful weekend to you and your families.

Happy Play Times :-) 

Children's Play The Old Fashion Way - Part Two

This post once again is to take another trip down memory lane and bring old into the new generation once again!

Please enjoy and use some of these classic old play games with your family.

Hula Hooping

(4+)

Ok who remembers this as a child?

Great fitness, great for improving motor skills and hey great fun!

How long can you keep that hoop spinning?

I remember we used to have a group of girls in the neighborhood and we would compete round after round for the best hula hooper.

How to Play

Pick up a hula hoop have loads of energy and sway the hips!

Elastics

(4+)

Why was this so much fun?

Who knows???

But as a youngster I whittled away hours with my sister and next door neighbor on this game.

How to Play

Get a large piece of elastic (2 meters  +) and have it looped around two peoples ankles.

The player then performs various skips and jumps through the elastics raising it higher to increase difficulty until they can't complete then the next person takes a turn.

Rock-Paper-Scissors

(3+)

A great game needs nothing but two or more players and your hand.

This is fantastic to amuse youngsters in the car. I remember playing it on long road trips to pass the time.

How to Play

Open Palm = Paper

Closed Fist = Rock

Two Fingers in a Sideways V = Scissors

Count to 3 and make one of the 3 shapes.

The following combinations show you who is the winner...

Paper beats Rock (Paper can Wrap)

Scissors beats Paper (Scissors can Cut)

Rock beats Scissors (Rock can break Scissors)

Doing the same combination is a draw.

You can have a best of competition say 3,5 or 7.

Hope you've enjoyed these three additions in our series please check back soon for more old fashioned play ideas.

Happy Play Times :-) 

Children's Play the Old Fashion Way - Part One

We will be doing a multi part series on some good old fashion games of times gone by.

With the multitude of tools available to entertain children 24/7 we've lost some of that young wonderment of just you and a group of friends who could do so much with so little.

This is why we want to introduce some of the games of old to become the 'old new'

Chinese Whispers
(4/5 + Age)
Can you relay what you first hear or how will the story change.
How to Play
This needs a group of children and adults can join the fun as well.
Sit in a circle and a person is selected to start.
They whisper something such as "My favorite color is Red" to the person next to them, who then whispers to the next person on what they think they hear and so on.
At the end when you get to the last person they say what they heard and you see how close it is to the original statement.
This game can be so funny as messages can change greatly the more people playing.

Hide and Seek
(2/3+ Age)
You hide and I will go seek.
I am sure this game has not lost favor and still played the world over!
How to Play
One person is selected to seek out those who are hiding. You need at least two players.
The seeker counts to ten (or any age appropriate number) the hiders find a place that is difficult to be found (note to parents don't let it be to hard where no one can find them!) and when the number is reached the seeker seeks the other players out.
Usually whoever is first found becomes the next seeker.
I LOVED this game as a child.

Musical Statues
(2+ Age)
Get your little musical monkeys learn stop go by playing this super fun game.
How to Play
Have an adult be in charge of the music and play it fun and fast so your little ones can run and dance around BUT be aware when the music stops so must they as still as a statue the last child to stop waits for the next game.
Great for exercise, learning rules and patience waiting until the next game.

Please check back soon for more in this fantastic  play series.

Happy Play Times :-)

Weekend Watching - How to make a Door Name Plate

Here is this weekend's watching video.

A simple fun craft project for your little ones from www.simplekidscraft.com 

Let them get creative and put their name and mark on their bedroom or playroom with this door name plate.

Let me know or share some pictures of the project outcomes if you try this at home.

Happy Play Times :-)

Weekend Watching - The Wiggles, Rock a Bye Your Bear

My sister bought us a Wiggles greatest hit CD which has fast become the girls favorite CD as I may have mentioned previously they are just starting to rock and bop to music when it comes on.

They go crazy for the below song (so does Mum to be honest I have been singing it repeatedly for 3 days I can not get it out of my head!) and whilst they can not yet do the movements when they can it will no doubt be a family dance :-)

Have a watch with your children this weekend and if old enough get them to bow to their partner and rock the bear to sleep.

Happy Play Times :-)

Get Your Shop On

We all know the importance of our children using their imagination and for us as parents to give them the tools and space to use it.

Having my parents visit at the moment has made us take a walk down memory lane and think back to my childhood and the games I would play.

One of the things that whittled hours away and is a great indoor activity or outdoor if you have the space and weather was to play shop.

Because children’s imagination has a basis in reality it is a situation children are exposed to often and they love to play make believe of real situations.

For this game my mum would collect old cereal boxes, laundry powder boxes, wash out bottles etc… and put them away in a play box. My sister and I would then get chairs and tables and set up a grocery store. We would then label prices on the items and Mum made us fake money.

Each of us would take the time to go through and play ‘Mummy’s’ doing the weekly shop and the other would be the shopkeeper.

The benefits to this play are:-

It helps children use their imagination.

It teaches children to understand early good social skills by pretending to be the friendly helpful shopkeeper.

Improve mathematic skills by adding up the totals and giving correct change.

It is free and uses household items you already have.

So start collecting and saving household grocery items today and let your children get their shop on!

Happy Play Times :-)

Kids in the Kitchen for Fun Playtime

Welcome to Monday and the first post in a series this week on the fun play time of kids cooking. We look forward to sharing with you and hope you find lots of fun ideas!

*****

Fun can be had in the kitchen at all ages.

I believe kitchen play gives children
A greater appreciation and understanding of food helping to develop a lifelong love of food and healthy habits.
Provides wonderful bonding opportunities
Improves motor skills as they can do simple tasks at each stage of development

Please see some ideas below for the various stages of development.

Babies
Personal experience at this age is when I am making my own baby food or preparing dinner the girls at 8 months are fascinated to sit on the kitchen floor with a spoon, spatula and bowl to bang around with as I cook.

They are to little to help but they love the inclusion and watching Mummy.

It also gives me the opportunity to show and explain new things and words. I show them each vegetable, let them touch and smell it and name it.

Toddlers
The same can be said for toddlers as babies in explaining food and the steps involved.

At this age you can let them be a big kid helping Mummy it will do wonders for their confidence. They can do things like hold the bowl (you may want to use a non slip mat underneath just in case), hold the beater with you or press the mixer button.

At this age let their creativity take over with decorating cookies or cupcakes. I remember a friends daughters 3rd birthday when they let the children decorate their own cakes the squeals of delight and the big messy smiles as they devoured the creations was priceless.

A little older on the toddler scale let them mash foods for you in helping to prepare the family meal.

Primary 
This age you can let the children become more hands on.

I remember helping prepare summer salads with veggies from the garden at this age. I'd wash the vegetables, tear the lettuce and shell peas.

You can also show children how to measure things out and add the ingredients at this age - another benefit is using numerical skills.

Make a fruit salad using a dull blunt knife for the upper primary children they can cut easy fruits such as banana, strawberries and kiwi fruit for example.

Do you have other ideas or suggestions for kids in the kitchen? Please leave us a comment.

Happy Play Times :-)

Weekend Watching - Outdoor Lawn Games

Have fun with your family if the weather is fine with these great lawn games.

Fun and healthy activity for the whole family - what could be better.

Happy Play Times :-)

Create Your Own Olympic Fun with Games of Old

One of our Friday Fun Facts was that Tug of War used to be an olympic sport.

This got me to thinking what did I do as a child at school sports days or just in the backyard with the neighbours we used to always be having friendly competitions in our neighbourhood.

So this post will give you ideas on how to put together some of these old fashioned games and let your children create their own Olympics over the coming two weeks but they are great for summer time fun at anytime!

What is great about these games is they promote exercise, co-ordination and teamwork in some cases.

Egg and Spoon Race

See who can get across the line without dropping the egg

What You Need

- Spoons

- Eggs (Hard Boiled so it is not to messy)

- Something to mark out the start and finish line (Bin, Rope anything really…)

Line the children up and give them a spoon and let them get the egg balanced.

Start the race and the children have to cross the finish line as fast as they can without dropping the egg – if they do they go back to the start line and try again.

Three Legged Race

Pair up the children and have them use teamwork to balance and complete the race together.

What You Need

-Scarf or Rope to tie the legs together

-Something to mark out the start and finish line (Bin, Rope anything really…)

Place the children side by side and tie the ankles together

The children then walk or run (this may make them tumble) the whole point is for them to work out the most effective way to get to the finish line together.

Mark out the distance and begin the race

Tug of War

A show of strength and tactics this is a fun competitive game for all. Even get Mum and Dad involved to even it up.

What You Need

-A Rope

-A marker in the middle of the rope

Place an even number of children on each side

Mark a line on the gorund

The team achieves success when they pull all team members across the line marked

I hope you and your family have much fun with these fun old fashioned games.

Happy Play Times :-)   

Let your Kids Get Muddy with Mud Pies

When I say mud pies what do you think of???

The delicious chocolate goodies OR the fun and imagination of children baking mud pies in the backyard.

For me it is the latter and one of my favorite childhood memories.

At my grandparents house be it summer or winter (we lived in Australia no snow) my grandma would give us some old plastic mixing bowls, utensils to mix and saved icecream containers/egg cartons to set about making our gooey, messy, muddy creations.

Into the garden we would go to dig up the dirt, turn on the taps (in summer really splash about) until we had the right consistency, mix it up and mold away.

We would then put them into our pretend oven, which was an old stone BBQ and move onto to our next adventure in the garden. We would return an hour or so later to un-mold and set up a bake sale. Which was an old wooden bench but we would decorate and make festive while dragging, Pop, Grandma, Mum, Dad whoever would indulge us as we tried out our sale pitch – needless to say we always sold a good amount (perhaps that’s why I went into sales ;-) 

What I love about this is it is good old fashioned, use your imagination child play – it gets kids outside away from the TV & Computer screens and participating in the world around them.

How about following the tips of old here and let your kids get muddy, messy and baking today it really does pass the time in a fun and creative way best of all they are doing it in the fresh air and it isn’t so hard to clean up when you can hose the paths and the children down (in the summertime of course).

Happy Play Times :-)