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September is here, which means the start of another round of school runs. Do you have calm, orderly mornings where you all work as a team to gather belongings and then have a pleasant journey to school, reciting times tables in the car on the way? Or is it a mad scramble of bags, ties and lunch boxes, racing out the door for a stressful drive in the rush hour, hoping to get a parking space outside the school gates? We try for the first scenario but it doesn’t always go to plan and I do sometimes wonder what impression I’ve left on the children having delivered them to school in somewhat of a hurry. Children are keen observers of grown-ups behaviour and are learning how to deal with situations by watching what we are doing, which is why I was interested to hear about the AXA Car Insurance Respect on the Road campaign. The campaign is focused on bringing courtesy and respect back to our roads. Their video Road Rage Kids showing children modelling drivers behaviour is thought provoking.

AXA have also been out on the streets on London with their Cab Cam asking passengers for their opinions on driving in the city.

You can find out more about Respect on the Road on the AXA website and on you tube . You can also ‘like’ the AXA Facebook fan page to show you support their I Respect the Road campaign. And rather than modelling the children in the video, you could get out your toy cars and encourage your children to try out some considerate driving skills.

I spy my name

Put a selection of letters on the fridge door (making sure they are all the right way up) and ask your child if they can hunt out the ones which are in their name. We’ve been writing L’s name on drawings, coat pegs, cards to send to friends and so on ever since she was tiny so she’s had lots of chance to get to know what her name looks like. I sound out the letters of her name as I write them and she has learned the sounds, order and shape of them pretty much just by observing this. A child’s name is a great place to start working with letters: they’re pretty ego-centric so they like it being all about them! We always use a capital first letter and lowercase for all the others (so I replicate this with the fridge magnets too).

Letter snap

We put all the letters on the fridge and I select one and say ‘this is an ‘a” and ask L if she can make a match. Snap! She likes to take a turn choosing a letter for me to match – which lets me see how many letters she knows the sound for.

Have you got a set of magnetic letters on your fridge door? How do you play with yours?

They have a website which is available to everyone, with games and resources linked to lots of books and which is well worth a look. There are interactive online books read by the authors, including Eric Carle and Ed Vere, and tips for making the most of family reading. There are games you can play too, which include number and colour recognition skills, and recommendations for lots of children’s books whatever topic your kids are interested in.

Eric Carle Prize Draw

This autumn 680,000 copies of Slowly, Slowly, Slowly Said the Sloth by Eric Carle will be given free to all children starting in English reception classes. Booktime are also offering primary schools and libraries in England the chance to win an exclusive artist’s proof from the book, signed by Eric Carle. If you’d like to nominate your school or local library you can enter the competition until 31st October 2010 and you can find full details at the Booktrust website.

Our summer holidays are drawing to a close and my Little is starting school on Monday (oh my!). I feel very strongly that our play should keep going. B is moving up to the Juniors and although her school offers are great curriculum including play, art, music, drama and experiments I think it’s inevitable that her lessons will become more and more about schooling. September always feels like the start of the year to me, so I’m keeping in mind my resolution to make 2010 our Year of Play, and we’ll certainly be limiting our after school clubs and weekend commitments to allow plenty of time for playing. How do you feel about finding a balance between schooling (or home educating) and play?

I’m looking forward to getting even more inspiration from your Play Academy ideas this week – hope you’ll add a link.

1. Add your post to the Linky below. Remember to link to the individual post rather than your homepage. If you are not a blogger please visit the NurtureStore Facebook page and share your photo there.

2. Go and visit some of the other blogs on the Linky. Leave a comment and say hi. Get ideas. Tell them you’re visiting from the Play Academy.

3. Add a link back from your own post to this Play Academy – your readers can then come and get ideas too. You can use the Play Academy badge if you like.(Grab the code from the column on the left.)

4. Come back next Friday and swap some more play ideas. The next Play Academy linky will be Friday 10th September.

Role-play vets

Have you ever seen such a pitiful looking kitten? Good job the vet is on hand with raisin tablets to bring her temperature down.

To make our vets kit we used our doctors’ set and added in some cotton wool, cotton buds, a jar of raisin tablets, some water to go in our syringe to irrigate any wounds, and some bandages made from an old muslin cloth.

Role playing is a great way for children to rehearse everyday situations and try out new experiences. It’s also a really good way for them to develop their language and practise co-operating with others as they play. Do your children enjoy role playing?

Happily shared with ABCand123

I’m looking for fun ways to teach shapes – got any ideas for me?

We started our mission by eating a lunch of circles, easy to make a whole meal of circles once you start looking!

Happily shared with ABCand123
and Weare ThatFamily

Sunday 29th August 2010

Two girls, not a care in the world, playing in the garden and enjoying the sunshine.

Sand, flower pots, matchsticks, shells.

On the same day three mummy bloggers, Sian, Josie and Eva flew to Bangladesh with Save the Children to see what life is like for children living there. Please take a moment to visit the Save the Children site and find out about the campaign.

Makes me think what childhood my girls would be having had they by chance been born somewhere else.

This post is shared with the Gallery at Sticky Fingers which this week is taking a snapshot of life on August 29th 2010

#goplay Twitter Tip #1  Consider what makes a great toy: fun, stimulating, open-ended, multi-use, still interesting as the child grows

#goplay Twitter Tip #2 What’s an un-toy? Natural materials & everyday objects: an alternative to plastic, battery-operated, one-purpose toys

#goplay Twitter Tip #3 I find children play longer & with more concentration with un-toys: they’re versatile & offer more play opportunities

#goplay Twitter Tip #4 Some un-toys we love: sticks, boxes, shells, pots & pans, wooden spoons, bottle tops, button, fircones, food packets

#goplay Twitter Tip #5 There’s no ‘right way’ to play with un-toys: let your child’s imagination decide & watch each child play differently

#goplay Twitter Tip #6 Did you know the stick and the cardboard box have both been inducted into the Toy Hall Of Fame? http://www.museumofplay.org/nthof/toys/index.php?toy=cardboard_box

#goplay Twitter Tip #7 A cardboard box can become a train , a story tent or a house

#goplay Twitter Tip #8 How about collecting some pebbles this weekend and making a set of story stones?

#goplay Twitter Tip #9 How about providing some un-toys for dressing up? fabric, scarves, ribbons so children can create their own costumes?

#goplay Twitter Tip #10 Why not try some un-toys & see what your child thinks: have fun, #goplay, go green, be creative, use your imagination!

*These #goplayTwitter Tips are tweeted each Friday at 8.30pm – follow @nurturestore or the #goplay hashtag to share

View the Twitter Tips on playdough, water play,  travelling with kids junk modeling and encouraging reading and writing

Happily shared with…

What have you been playing this week?  Will you share a play idea with the Play Academy?

1. Add your post to the Linky below. Remember to link to the individual post rather than your homepage. If you are not a blogger please visit the NurtureStore Facebook page and share your photo there.

2. Go and visit some of the other blogs on the Linky. Leave a comment and say hi. Get ideas. Tell them you’re visiting from the Play Academy.

3. Add a link back from your own post to this Play Academy – your readers can then come and get ideas too. You can use the Play Academy badge if you like.(Grab the code from the column on the left.)

4. Come back next Friday and swap some more play ideas. The next Play Academy linky will be Friday 3rd September.

Thank you for joining the Play Academy – I can’t wait to see what you’ve been playing this week.

We used pencil crayons and felt pens to decorate our stones and used the shape of the stones to suggest some characters.

The illustrated stones have now moved into our fairy garden and the girls have spent a happy afternoon playing out stories with them. Make sure to pop over to the Frugal Family Fun Blog to see how Valerie added some extra play-factor to her set.

Happily shared with…

ABC and 123