Beautiful Invitations to Play {Product Review}

I've been lucky enough to put together a few awesome product reviews lately. I typically share educational products on my blog, and only those that I really genuinely like and would honestly recommend to my readers. I'm so excited about today's product review - the flower play dough kit from Invitation to Play.


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Help Your Child Learn Number {+ Yellow Bean Learning Review}

I've written a lot of posts in the past about Literacy. How children learn the alphabet, learn to read, book reviews, spelling ideas, sight words tips etc...and I've done the occasional posts on Number and Shape, but not as many as I would have liked.

Yellow Bean Learning is helping me to change that!

In the average classroom, children spend double the time on Literacy (10 lessons) than they do on Maths (5 lessons). Parents spend time after school hearing their child read and practising their spelling words - but maths is not often included in nightly homework.

Many educational professionals believe that 'Early Number' is all about cognitive understanding and representation of number, i.e. seeing a group of 4 counters and knowing right away that's what 4 of something looks like (otherwise known as subitising). It's also important for children to recognise the numerals before they write them. Writing numerals is a handwriting skill - not a mathematical skill. Young children need to look, touch, play and count in order to develop a good foundation of their mathematical understanding.

Here are some of my favourite resources for teaching number 1-10. It's a beautiful mix with visual appeal and lots of opportunities for hands on, play based learning.


  • Pebbles 1-10 (I just got these from Bunnings)
  • Lego Duplo
  • My First Numbers Book
  • Number Cards + Gems (printables available here)
  • Yellow Bean Learning Resource Kit
  • Number Puzzle

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Funny Stories From the Mouths of Fussy Eaters

Hey All!
My latest post was all about fussy eaters, and I shared a whole bunch of links, recipes and ideas that will hopefully help me (and you!) to get our little ones eating better. Kids can come up with the funniest reasons as to why they wont, or can't eat certain foods as they try to bargain and reason their way out of eating anything green. So I once again called on my favourites mummy groups to share the hilarity!



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HELP! I have a fussy eater! {+ some Sneaky Veg Recipes}

Let me tell you a story. Miss M's favourite food is pinwheels (you know those puff pastry scrolls with tomato paste, ham & cheese inside?). So last week I decided - THAT'S IT!! I'm going to get some vegetables into this kid! So I sneakily grated carrot & zucchini into a batch of pinwheels for her.

Unfortunately - she outsmarted me and it didn't work. She was not too be fooled!

*face palm

I was a really fussy eater as a child. I can remember having stand offs with my parents (and grandparents) at the dinner table on a regular basis. I liked everything plain and covered in cheese, washed down with a piece of bread. Carrots had to be raw not cooked. To get me to eat meat, I had to eat the number of pieces according to my age. At restaurants I would have a bowl of chips. On pizza night I would scrape off all the toppings and just eat the plain pizza base. I could go on and on.

So it's ironic (and often James laughs at me) when I'm trying desperately to get Miss M to eat meat and veg. But we have come to the agreement to avoid have dinner time arguments because that just makes us all stressed! Bribery also doesn't work for us. Miss M is too stubborn. So I sought out some advice (and sneaky veg recipes) from my fellow Aussie Parenting Bloggers and got such a fantastic response!


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10 Awesome Educational Apps for Preschoolers

So I finally got with the times and got myself an iPad for my birthday. It's just amazing and I'm loving it (my blog looks so beauitful on the larger screen!). But of course it's bound to be used by little members of the family, and me being a teacher, I'd rather Miss M be using it for educational purposes wherever possible. So I've put together an awesome list of educational apps we have loved trying out since we got the iPad last week!

KidloLand



Kidloland is jam packed full of nursery rhymes, songs, games and activities to entertain the little ones. There's a huge variety of content and lots to explore. All key early learning concepts are covered from fruit to animals, from numbers to days of the week. Well known nursery rhymes such as Incy Wincy invite children to interact with the scenery and characters, and they'll be sure to learn lots of new songs too. 

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How I'm {just barely} Surviving Life Exclusively Expressing

So - long story short, I started off breastfeeding our Little Man. At about 3 months old introduced the dream feed bottle of EBM and after a week of that it was like he just decided he was finished with the boob and only wanted bottles. This was 5 long weeks ago. I persisted with breastfeeding, with not much luck and have been exclusively expressing milk for him ever since. He is a fussy, stubborn, hungry and demanding BOY!!

As you can imagine, this changes our lifestyle somewhat, as expressing is really time consuming - and I really wish I had of researched into it a bit more before I started and committed to it (e.g. should have bought a double, portable pump with fitted bra). Because it feels like once you go down this path, it's very difficult to go back. I'm certainly not opposed to formula feeding, but I plan to express for as long as I can - and gradually introduce formula when we need to. I figure, every bottle of EBM is doing him good.


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Interview + Advice from a Speech Pathologist

Today's interview is a really special one! We are so lucky to have my friend Kate, a qualified Speech Pathologist here today to share her insights and advice for all parents concerned about their child's language development. It's a question and concern I see come up all the time "Why isn't my child talking yet?" & "What can I do?".

Welcome Kate! Thank you for giving up your time to answer our questions :)

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Could you start by introducing yourself, telling us about your qualifications and where you've worked?


I am a Senior Speech Pathologist currently working with Autism SA. I began my working life as a primary school teacher, later returning to university to gain qualifications to become a Speech Pathologist. After completing a Bachelor of Education (Junior Primary/Primary) at the University of South Australia I began teaching in country South Australia, and then returned to metropolitan Adelaide to continue teaching for a time. I then went on to complete a Master of Speech Pathology at Flinders University. I have since worked as a Speech Pathologist with Education Queensland in Brisbane, a multi-disciplinary private practice in Adelaide, and now with Autism SA. I am a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP) and a member of Speech Pathology Australia (SPA). I am also an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnostician registered with Autism SA. I have experience working in early intervention, with school aged children and with adolescents, who have communication difficulties. I have a particular interest and passion for working with people living with ASD.


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6 Beautiful Books for Mother's Day (+Activity Ideas)

Mother's Day is such a special time to spend with your little ones curled up reading a story. Here are 6 of my favourites that I'm sure we'll be enjoying this Sunday! (And Dad's they'd make a great gift too!)


My Mums’ the Best - Rosie Smith & Bruce Whatley


First up, a lovely starting point to talk about mums, Mother's day and the special things that mum does with you. Find some cute animal pictures to colour in for Mother’s Day as a follow up activity to this super cute book.


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