Children make mess.  The mess seems to generate around them like a magnetic force.  The mess spreads from room to room and creeps up on you. 

Not for one minute I am telling you that your children should not make mess, it's absolutely essential in a child's life and development.  Children who make no mess are either watching too much TV to move or planning World domination and in either case they should be stopped immediately. 

Plotting World Domintaion- (add in evil laugh), ha ha ha ha!

My advice is more of a shared wisdom, passed from my Mum to me.  When I was young I thought my Mum was nuts with her crazy cleaning habits but as a Mum myself I see the method in her madness!  The gem I pass now to you is the "Midday Scutch". 

A Midday Scutch is an event that takes places every day in our house.  About dinner time I take 15 minutes to scurry about the house doing a bit of tidying up.  Stacking toys back up, pushing books back on the shelves and sweeping up any debris scattered about.  We are not talking full on clean up, we are scutching! 

I know my family made that word up.  My family have made quite a few words up and my hubby looks at me in a slightly bemused manner with one eye brow raised high in question of his wife's sanity when I use them.  Scutch just refers to a semi clean and tidy that in the long run makes it far easier to get your house back in order once the little darlings have retired to their beds.  It's damage limitation of mess.  Your kids may also play better when they are not falling over stray toys thrown playfully into the centre of the room so it's win, win!

So embrace the mess but keep it in check, oh and drink plenty of gin after they go to bed and then any leftover mess will pale into insignificance! 

Happy scutching!

Dance like nobody is watching! 

My kids love to dance.  Its super good exercise and it's free and fun- need I say any more!

My childhood was spent at Women's Institute (I must apologise here, My Mum corrected me, they were Ladies NFU Parties not WI!) Disco's in the local Village Hall and with there being only one DJ in the area we were surrounded by the sound of the Birdy song, La Bamba, The Conga and my personal fave Superman!  All of these amazing songs can be found on You Tube and they show you how to move to these impressive songs of days gone by!  Long may children (and grown ups) dance like fools to these classics! 

And I would like to add this little gem- hubby and kids doing it Superman Style!  And yes they are in their pj's!  It was PJ Day in the Chatterton house:

If the idea of cooking makes you start to sweat and tremble with horror but you want to have fun in the kitchen with your kids why not try out these bad boys.  They are so easy and so good!

MARSHMALLOW CHOCOLATE LOLLIES
Ingredients
Handful of chocolate chips (I like to use a mix of semi sweet and milk, but go for any you fancy)
Marshmallows- any size other than the really mini ones
Lolly sticks
Sprinkles/Mini M & M's/Smarties etc etc- the more the merrier, the jazzy the better!

Method
1. Cut a piece of greaseproof/wax paper and place on a baking tray
2. Place the chocolate chips in a bowl and place in the microwave on medium or defrost for about 4 minutes- keep checking for when they melt, burnt chocolate is nasty and very smelly!
3. Stick the marshmallows onto the lolly sticks
4. Dip the marshmallows into the melted chocolate and using a spoon, cover the entire marshmallow in chocolate
5. Whilst the chocolate is gooey add your sprinkles and then place the lollies marshmallow down on the wax paper. 
6. Place in the fridge till set then eat, greedily!

Once home I washed the stones, allowed them to dry and then set up the paint and voila- happy kiddies!

Summer is here and the kids are finishing school- yah!  I am super excited about the summer and having both my boys all day every day is actually kinda cool! 

We are making a summer list.  It's basically just a big old sheet of paper with tons of cool stuff to do written on it.

Why dont you sit down with your kids and do it too?

Here are a few things that will be on our list:

Watch 3D films- In case you are wondering the rag on the head is the only way to keep the glasses on his little head!

There will be lots of craft on our list!

I want to bake more bread and let the kids help out too

Roast more things on the BBQ- spinning food on fire is the way forward!

I made a marshmallow roasting pit in the garden.  Hubby thinks I am mental, kids think I am a legend!

What you will need:

•A large sheet of paper or card
•Pens & Crayons
•Star stickers
•Other stickers, glitter glue, and other decorative touches (optional but the more the merrier!)

What you need to do:

1. Sit down with your kids and talk about the things you might like to do this summer. Create columns for different types of activities (such as things to learn, things to make, places to go, and so on), then fill them in.  Make sure you add things on there for the grown ups too- summer is not just fun for kids!
2. Decorate your list! Draw pictures of the things you’ll be doing. Let your imagination run wild!
3. Each time you complete an activity on your list, mark it with a gold star. See how many stars you can collect before you go back to school.

In case you need some extra inspiration check out the following links:
21 Fun things to do this summer
60 Summer Crafts for Kids
100 Summer Activities

If you want to make a start cooking with your kids, here is a very good place to start:

Fairy Cakes

Ingredients
100g caster sugar
100g very soft butter
100g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Icing
200g very soft butter
200g icing sugar
food colouring , sprinkles, marshmallows etc- the more the merrier, kids don't do minimalism when decorating!

1.Ask a grown-up helper to turn the oven on to 180C/350F. Put a paper case in each bun hole.
2. Put the sugar and butter (it must be soft or you won't be able to mix it properly) in a bowl and mix it together. Sift in the flour.
3. Break the eggs into a separate bowl (spoon out any bits of shell that fall in) and add them to the bowl with the vanilla. Mix everything together.
4. Divide between the cases using a spoon, scraping it off with a knife. Ask a grown-up helper to put the tray in the oven for 20 minutes.
5. Mix the butter and icing sugar to make a creamy icing. Add colouring, if you like. Push an icing nozzle into an icing bag, then scoop in the icing.
6. Let the cakes cool completely in the tray. Pipe icing onto each cake and decorate with marshmallows or sprinkles, or whatever you like.

The big shiney BBQ in its box

Just chillin in his PJ's with a bit of TV, in the box of course!

The box den!  Alfie saw me taking piccy so rushed to get his camera too.  Oh and he is a hat man, just loves wearing hats.

I built that den (said very proudly)

I cannot promise they will be instant Jamie Olivers, but as much as I like a tidy kitchen kids have got to learn to cook and making a mess is how they do it best- in my humble opinion!


My golden rule when cooking and baking with kids is to let the mess happen. If mess makes you stressed, look at ways to contain the disaster zone. A large tray underneath any sprinkling or mixing can really help and when weighing out, give your children a spoon to scoop out flour and sugar rather than upturning a whole bag into your measuring bowl. Let them get their hands dirty (putting flour on your hands and then clapping them together is a particular fave of mine!), but have a sink run with soapy water at the ready. 

There are so many recipes I would like to suggest to get you and your kids cooking but remember a few rules when selecting:

• Keep it simple- not too many ingredients, not too many steps and not too complicated a process.
• Keep it fun- pick things that can be iced, decorated and covered in sprinkles to start off with.
• Keep it tasty- My kids love a relatively spicy Thai chicken curry but don't think your kids will love chili so hot it tingles their lips into meltdown!  If your making a meal for all the family pick something everyone will love- if your kids helped cook it, getting to watch everyone finish their plates, smiling will be the best inspiration to keep cooking.
• Keep up with gadgets- my kids love revving my KitchenAid up to full tilt!  Their faces light up as the beater spins furiously, spraying mixture all over the surrounding area!  It's a way to get much smaller children involved.  My 6 year old can stir a hot pan at the stove now but my 3 year old is quite happy with revving the gadgets.  Both are involved but at the right level for their age!  Simply letting your kids switch things on is a start to cooking.

I hope my two boys will love cooking, or at the very least be able to fend for themselves in the big world one day.  I know they will still order bad food from a shop with a fluorescent sign at 2am in the morning but I just hope they don't try to warm a pot noodle up on the oven hob (Hubby's friend at University did that, only to set many fire alarms off!).

Giving your kids the right start in the kitchen is a win win situation!  I figure in a few years they can cook me a meal, whilst I relax, gin and tonic in hand.  Oh, one final tip- teach them to love washing up too, and if you figure out how to make men love this job let me know!!

My top kids recipes to follow soon.......

We had some brushes too, so the boys could combine printing and painting in their masterpieces!

Modern art at its best!

Teaching children to use computers is pretty darn vital these days.  Everything seems to revolve around them whether we like it or not!  I love my computer and use it so often it's natural I will teach my kids to use this very handy tool too!  Here are a couple of sites that I head to when my children fancy a computer session:

Disney Junior: http://www.disneyjunior.ca/en/ An excellent site with games for all ages and abilities
CBeebies (BBC, UK): http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/  Good for those in the UK
NASA Kids: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forkids/kidsclub/flash/index.html  It's got Rockets, so it's soooo cool, apparently!
National Geographic Kids- http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/  My son likes to ask questions about everything and this is a good place to direct him when Mummy has run of of useful answers in return!

Panic not, you don't need real snow!  This game is such fun your kids will have a ball- oh and you might too! 

Simply take newspaper and screw it into balls.  Split into teams on opposite sides of the room.  Set the timer for 1 minute and throw all of the newspaper snowballs into the middle.  The team with the least snowballs on their side after 1 minute wins!  Let the chaos start...................

I have two boys who just love a bath.  Having worked with children, water play features highly on developing important skills in your youngsters- more thumbs up for bath time!  Most people are not willing to let their little darlings tip water all over the place like a nursery setting allows, so letting your kids learn, play and enjoy their bath is great for you and them!  Clean, happy children! 

Now my tip for making bath time better is bath toys.  Now I am not talking about expensive, shop bought toys.  I am talking plastic household items.  Old plastic bowls, plates, cups and plastic spoons are by far and away my kids favourite bath time additions.  Kids have a fascination with filling and tipping and this is key to learning through water play.

So why not make bath time more of a feature in your day?  Extra tips include, plenty of towels next to the bath- kids tend to make water exit the bath via the sides and if the plastic toys leave scuff marks on your bath simply put a little toothpaste on and use an old toothbrush and scrub away the mark. 

Happy bath time!

Ok, so Spring is around the corner and you want to start getting as much fresh air into your little ones as you can.  It's easy enough to turf them out into the garden but if your feeling in the mood to explore a little further afield check out http://www.naturedetectives.org.uk/

Using your computer and printer is an excellent way to keep your kids happy.  Now I am not suggesting you let your two year old smash at the keys and spit on the screen- my two year old blows raspberries on Skype and my screen has an interesting spotty spit pattern most of the time!  There are many sites out there that with just a few clicks can lead you to instant child entertainment.  Here a few of my favourites:

http://www.crayola.com/  There are colouring sheets and craft ideas galore here!

http://www.sparklebox.co.uk/  This is a UK site that links directly to school education.  I love the themed projects for Christmas, Easter etc.  Just be aware that many of the print off's are pages and pages long so just pick the ones you want to print rather than sending them all to the printer- you may need a new printer cartridge sooner than you think if you dont! 

http://family.go.com/printables/ Everyone loves a bit of Disney (well I do!), and this site has some fab printables.  We are making these today: http://family.go.com/printables/article-1029266-muppet-hand-puppets-t/



There are many more sites you can turn to for a wet, cold, not going outside kind of day, these are my fall backs and they normally keep them happy and peacfull- for a while, anyway!

I am no expert, but I have two kids and I have worked with children whilst doing a qualification in childcare, learning and development.  I believe that happy kids make for happy parents and the odd activity aimed at children will go a long way to keeping everybody sane! 

In my opinion free stuff is best.  Kids don't care how much something costs, so keep it simple, keep it cheap- and better still free! 

I am adding a feature to my blog:


Monday, as a stay at home Mum, marks the start of another child crazy week, so what better day to post ideas on how to keep your kids happy and entertained- for a short while anyway!

So watch this space every Monday!