Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Back to School Coloring

school house coloring sheet
back to school coloring printableSchool Days Coloring Pages
It's back to school time and that means its time for coloring fun. Today we have tw0 back to school coloring pages.
One is a picture of a book with an apple for the teacher and a writing pencil, and another is a simple picture to color of an old-fashioned school house.

Lots more printable school days coloring book pages.

Magic Balloon - coloring page


Sunday, August 26, 2007

Grandparents Day

Grandparents' Day is on 9th September 2007. We have lots of ideas to help your children to make their grandparents' day special, including crafts, coloring pages and printables!

"Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children."Alex Haley

Grandparents Day at Activity Village

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Fairy Land Coloring Pictures, Puppets and Crafts

Today I found the most wonderfully creative fairy and fantasy arts and crafts site ever: Phee McFaddell.

It's a delightful blend of tea party stories, coloring pages, puppets and paper crafts filled with pages of full color and line art print and cut pages of fairies, elves and mermaids. The characters are beautifully drawn and wonderfully imaginative: fairies, elves, mermaids, sea animals, bunnies, magical creatures, paper dolls, masks ... and so much more. Visit and enjoy the work of Nea Wiseman, the artist behind this lovely fantasy world, and the page samples sent in by many children and adults who have enjoyed her work (it's all free to print and use.)

The drawings to color in are intricate, and so are best suited for older children or adults who like to color detailed drawings with pencils or markers. The printed craft pages will make absolutely charming ornaments for gift packages or the Christmas tree - they'll be adorning my evergreen tree this year and at least one lovely finished puppet will be perched atop my granddaughter's holiday gift for sure.

Yoga for Kids

We enjoyed this video on Yoga for Kids - hope you do too. Please remember not to let your kids browse video hosting websites unsupervised.

My friends

Get the perfect gift for your child! Nicole will draw custom coloring pages for you, according to your specifications. More...

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Movie reviews

If you are ever unsure whether you should let your children watch the latest film at the cinema or on rental, then check out this website:

Kids-In-Mind: Movie Ratings That Actually Work

It includes amazingly detailed reviews of many films, rating them for sex and nudity, violence and gore and profanity. (Check out the Ratings FAQ for detailed explanations of how these are assessed.) This can then help you determine whether the film is suitable for your children to watch. A very useful resource.

Fairy * coloring page





On-line drawing lessons

We just came across these wonderful on-line drawing videos by the well-known author and artist, Jan Brett. They are very detailed and may provide great inspiration for an older child. My 9 year old especially loved the Dolphin video.

Jan Brett's videos

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Beanbag Games And Activities - fun ideas!


We have compiled a collection of ideas for keeping the kids busy with beanbags - from make your own games to tests of skill and challenges. Brilliant for a bored afternoon!


Monday, August 6, 2007

Fuzzy penguin craft

This is more of a winter craft, I suppose, but they are so cute we are definitely going to have a go making some of these tomorrow!

Fuzzy Penguins

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Fisher-Price recalls Sesame Street and Dora the Explorer toys

From The Telegraph this morning:

Toymaker Fisher-Price is recalling nearly a million products because of concerns their paint contains too much lead.

Sesame Street's Big Bird and Dora the Explorer
Mattel Inc, which owns Fisher-Price, said 83 types of toy were affected, including figurines of Sesame Street’s Big Bird and Dora the Explorer.
The recall relates to 967,000 Chinese-made toys which have been on sale in the US since May. Some of the products may also have found their way to Britain.

Read the rest of this article here