Custard Pie Fight World Record Attempt - 31 May at Horsham Kidz Stuff Festival

At attempt on the World Record for a custard pie fight is being held on the 31 May as the finale to the Horsham Kidz Stuff Festival.

Sponsored by Hawkin’s Bazaar, as many people as possible are being encouraged to participate. Visit the Hawkin’s Bazaar shop in the Swan Walk Shopping Centre to buy tickets for the Kidz Stuff event and register for the pie fight.

Entry to the Kidz Stuff Festival is £8 a day - participation in the pie fight is £5. For more information on the Kidz Stuff festival visit www.kidzstuff.org.uk.

Big Toddle - Coronation Street’s Tina O’Brien Urges Parents to Get Involved

Former Corrie star and mum Tina O’Brien is teaming up with children’s charity Barnardo’s and Fairy Non-Bio Gel, in encouraging parents to get involved in the Big Toddle.

The Big Toddle is the UK’s biggest charity event for children under the age of five, and a fun opportunity for parents to celebrate a special and worthwhile experience together with their little ones. Each year, up to half a million children take part in the short sponsored walks across the country, with the money raised going towards charitable projects that help less fortunate children learn and play.

To get involved in celebrating your little ones, you can organise your own Toddle, or join one near you! Throughout the summer anyone can Toddle – nurseries, crèches and playgroups; to parents, friends and family. And this year, parents are encouraged to bring along any unwanted clothes to their local toddle to pop into ‘Fairy’s Basket of Softness’, which will be donated to Barnardo’s at the end of the event.

Terence Lovell from Barnardo’s, alongside Fairy Godmother and mum Daniela Pinto, give some handy hints and tips in this video to help you get the most out the Big Toddle.

For more information about the Barnardo’s Big Toddle and how to donate to ‘Fairy’s Basket of Softness’ at selected July Toddles visit www.softeningyourworld.com

Shoe Aid for Africa - UK Families Making a Difference

The collection for the 2008/9 Shoe Aid for Africa campaign took place last October and finished poignantly on Child Poverty Day - Friday 17th October. Children and families across the UK rallied together to donate their unwanted shoes in a bid to change another child’s life, in Africa.

Shoe care experts Kiwi launched the campaign to give UK families a chance to change lives in Africa. Children’s shoes from the UK, which would otherwise have been thrown away, will be cherished by children who have never known the luxury of owning a pair. This first pair of shoes gives these children enormous self-esteem and pride.

A selection of schools, Sure Start centres as well as Scout groups across the country kindly donated over 20,000 pair of shoes to the cause last year. Kiwi representatives spent time in UK schools talking to children about the shoes they donated and how they felt about helping a child in Africa. The children wrote letters to accompany the shoes wishing the children in Africa happiness and describing life in England.

Here is an example of one of the letters that were written

Andy from Cippenham Primary School, Slough

Hello my name is Andy and I am 9 years old. The shoes I have donated are the ones I dearly loved and I played football with them and all kinds of sports with them. I hope you have a wonderful time with them. I want to be a footballer when I grow up and if that doesn’t go well I can always get a job at the theatre selling tickets and popcorn. I am happy to give you these shoes because I don’t know what I would do without my shoes. I don’t know what you like but I certainly love animals and if you can, can you please give me a new species of animal, especially cats, I adore them.
From Andy
I hope you really like my shoes and rock on!

Just over a month after the collection, sorting began at the Planet Aid UK warehouse in Corby, Northamptonshire. Planet Aid UK is the British member of Humana People to People. On 20th November 2008 Kiwi representatives wrapped up warm and got stuck in helping to sort thousands of pairs of shoes.

The country identified as being most in need by the African branch of Humana, ADPP, was Mozambique. The shoes started their three-month journey to Mozambique just before Christmas and were shipped via Durban in South Africa to Beira, the primary port of Mozambique. At present when second hand clothes and shoes are distributed in Africa it is common for the recipient to be charged a small sum to cover the transport and handling costs. In the case of the ‘Shoe Aid for Africa’ campaign, all costs are totally funded by Kiwi so that both adult and children’s shoes can be given out for free.

Whilst in Mozambique, Kiwi representatives spent a week in April travelling around ADPP programmes including TCE (Total Control of the Epidemic) HIV/AIDS camps, townships and street children’s schools and orphanages in the Sofala and Manica provinces of Mozambique. The Kiwi team were greeted with wonderful African singing and dancing at the symbolic distributions. They spent time meeting children and learning about their daily lives. They also took with them footballs and plenty of classroom equipment including crayons, pencils and notepads to aid the children in their classes. With their new equipment the children wrote letters of thanks back to the children in the UK. This enabled the children to engage and understand each other’s diverse cultures and made the donations far more personal for the recipients of the shoes.

ADPP street school in Chimoio, Mozambique

My name is Adam Fernando. I’m from Mozambique and I have short hair and brown eyes. I would like to say to you thank you for offering us the shoes. I used to walk bare feet but due to your help, now I’m happy with the shoes. In Mozambique the climate is temperate, it’s sometimes cold and sometimes rainy.

At one particular school in Chimoio called “Formigas de Futuro”, meaning “ants of the future”, the Kiwi team spent an afternoon listening to a cultural programme of song and dance followed by an exhausting football game! The children loved playing in the long grass and sweltering heat, most of them barefoot, and they certainly gave the Kiwi team a good game!

The experience was a real eye-opener and it soon became evident how important education was in changing attitudes and driving development in Mozambique, which remains one of the world’s poorest countries.
Director for Kiwi, Margaret Jobling, is thrilled with the response to the Shoe Aid for Africa campaign and overwhelmed by the number of shoes donated. She hopes that it’s success can be built upon with this year’s campaign:
‘The Shoe Aid for Africa campaign has allowed us at Kiwi to engage with children around the country and educate them on the difficulties children face in less privileged parts of the world. It was a fantastic for members of the team to visit Mozambique and take part in the distribution of the shoes first hand. They were privileged to meet the Humana representatives working there and learn about the fantastic work they are doing across numerous projects. Getting actively involved at every stage of the campaign enabled us to see how Kiwi’s support can make a difference and drives us to build on this success for Shoe Aid for Africa 2009’.

The Little Gym - Olympic Camp Activity Week this August

The Little Gym is getting ready for 2012 with its new Olympic Camp Week this August, at centres across London and Hertfordshire. Suitable for both boys and girls of all abilities, from 3 to 12 years, the special half-day camps will allow youngsters to explore lots of Olympic-themed activities, in a vibrant, fun-packed activity session. Camps will focus on gymnastic-based skills needed for a variety of sports, including balance, flexibility, rhythm and co-ordination. All sessions will be led by professional instructors, with lots of one-to-one tuition – and gold medals are assured for all entrants!

Like The Little Gym weekly classes, all camps are non-competitive and are designed to boost confidence while building skills. All sessions will be held at The Little Gym’s purpose-built OFSTED-registered centres and will incorporate a ‘cool-down’ creative session and refreshments. (For info, visit www.thelittlegym.co.uk)

Virginia Barlow, Gym Director commented, “Seeing Team GB achieving so much at last year’s Olympics has really fired-up local youngsters. We’re keen to get behind London 2012 and help kids, of all abilities, to discover gymnastics, get a great sports grounding and to enjoy the benefits it brings. Who knows, we might help someone realise an Olympic dream in the future!”

For more information, please contact:

The Little Gym Bishop’s Stortford on 01279 652017
The Little Gym Harpenden on 01582 712423
The Little Gym Westfield on 0208 735 0817
The Little Gym Chiswick on 020 8994 3729
The Little Gym Hampton Hill on 0208 977 0099 or
The Little Gym Wandsworth on 0208 874 6567
or visit The Little Gym

Retro Inspired Children’s Fashion Range from Aunty Ollie

Revisit childhood with sweet summer collection from Aunty Ollie

Aunty Ollie, a new retro-inspired children’s fashion label with an emphasis on prints, is celebrating the new website going live with a free offer on all shipping in May and July 2009. The clothes, designed and made in Dubai by Australian Jodie Hampshire, stand out thanks to colourful, unusual prints that are completely different to other high street children’s wear.

Suitable for children aged 0 – 8, the 100% cotton range features classic, slightly nostalgic styles with a roomy cut to encourage freedom of movement when playing. But it’s the prints that pack the punch, with four main themes:

o Elegance: prints include a Viennese masked baroque ball, a 1930s Havana nightclub, vintage ladies and cupcakes

o Asia: prints include Japanese ladies and icons, Chinese girls and peacock feathers

o Nature: prints include a French farm print, toile, roses, owls and classy deer camoflauge for the boys

o Transport: vintage planes, trains and automobiles for boys

Styles include the ‘I like to twirl’ skirt, ‘Tea Party’ dress, ‘Dress Up Day’ dress, ‘In the Park’ top, ‘Summertime’ dress and ‘Mama play with me’ top. For boys, there are ‘Little Man’ shirts while ‘Sunny Days’ hats will have everyone ready for the beach.

“I’ve tried to create stylish, yet unfussy clothes that are easy for children to wear, giving them lots of room to move, so that children are free to be children. The dresses are girly and slightly retro, definitely reminiscent of a past era. They’re perfect for tea parties, picnics, playing in the park or on the beach and even hitting the summer festivals,” says Jodie Hampshire, founder of Aunty Ollie.

“I became a parent to three adopted children within the space of year,” explains Jodie. “My five year old daughter was desperate to have a pink dress for her first Christmas with us all together, but everything I saw was slightly garish, overly branded, expensive or poor quality. So I made her one with some fabulous printed fabric I’d found. I gradually made her more and people began to ask where I’d got them. It was the impetus I needed to turn my creations into a full fashion range.”

All the style and print combinations will be limited edition to ensure exclusivity. On a practical level, they’re machine washable and well made to ensure they’re suitable to pass on to younger brothers or sisters, while the prices are affordable, ranging from £11 for sun hats to £29* for long dresses.

Aunty Ollie will also be introducing a range of children’s bedding and nursery décor later in the year. The new website is now live www.auntyollie.com.

Role Play for Children - The Benefits

Babies and children learn the vast majority of what they know from watching adults and those people around them. Most children have an identifiable primary carer –the person to whom the child is most strongly attached, and who they watch and learn from at an amazing rate. The more closely attached a child is to a person, the more easily they will learn from him/her. Young children spend a lot of time at home whilst the primary carer is engaged in everyday activities such as shopping, cleaning, laundry, DIY, cooking etc. Children will learn from watching these activities being done, but they will learn so much more, and so much quicker if they are able to get involved as well.

However, this is not always possible (too dangerous) or practical (time/mess considerations). It is therefore important to help children understand adult behaviour and activities in a safe, age-appropriate way and role-play is one of the most powerful ways of achieving this. Role-play toys provide a wonderful opportunity for children to model their carer’s behaviour with props that are appropriate for children (safe, smaller, lighter, and sometimes with exaggerated or simplified features) of various ages and abilities.

There is a place for all types of toys, but in contrast to highly prescriptive products (those with rules or instructions), toys that act as props for a child’s own game help develop creativity and imagination. Toys that encourage role-play also develop communication and social skills if playing with friends or siblings. Children have to follow rules a lot so, when possible, it is wonderful for them to be able to create their own play. Even more benefit is gained if children are playing together or with an adult. Parents can learn a great deal about their child by getting down to their level and allowing their child to dictate the game.

It seems that parenting has become a real minefield. The more we understand, the more pressure there is to ‘do the right thing’ for your children. Food and health is an area of particular stress for parents today. The well-documented rise in child-hood obesity has been linked to a number of factors including sedentary lifestyles and fast food. On the other hand, anorexia is also a growing problem and seems to be affecting children at younger and younger ages. It is a minefield for parents trying to help their children grow into healthy teenagers and adults.

Children will copy their carer’s approach to cooking. Role-play with toy food, play kitchens and utensils will facilitate discussion about food and increase children’s understanding of the importance of a balanced diet. Even very young children can pretend to cut with play knives and prepare pieces of play food. By doing this they can explore their food and develop a healthy, balanced attitude towards nutrition.

The same is true of most adult activities. Children’s development is driven by the fact that young children always want to seem more grown up than they are. By enabling them to feel grown up by modelling everyday adult behaviours (cleaning, laundry, shopping, DIY, looking after the children etc) parents are validating their children and bonding with them. Role-play toys that encourage these activities are incredibly valuable and should not be overlooked in favour of the latest high-tech toys. Many of the life skills that children need to develop in order to live successfully as an independent adult are not taught at school so as well as bonding with their children, increasing imagination and communication skills, parents who facilitate role play are helping them to learn skills that will benefit them in later life.

Five Top Tips to encourage positive Role-Play

1. Make it relevant to an activity that you’re doing or have done recently.

2. Help your child if he/she is stuck for ideas at the start but then stand back and let them direct the play. Be willing to take directions about the role-play without trying to change them or suggest your own ideas.

3. Be enthusiastic about your child’s ideas and praise them for their imagination.

4. Ask open-ended questions to encourage the progression of play - (e.g. ‘what shall we do with this baking tray?’ rather than ’shall I put the baking tray in the oven?’).

5. Be creative with equipment - a saucepan doesn’t have to only be used as a saucepan, it can be a helmet or a drum or anything else that a child wants it to be.

All items featured in this piece, plus many more suitable for role-play, are available at www.whywoodworks.co.uk.

Win Kites with Pom-Bear in our Giveaway

Fly a kite with Pom-Bear

The first National Family Week will run from May 25-31st to celebrate family life. With a bank holiday marking the first day of National Family Week, there’s no better time to spend the day outdoors together.

Flying a kite is great fun and provides a no (or low cost) day out for the whole family.

Pom-Bear’s top tips for flying your kite:

1.     Check that your kite is put together correctly, or it may not fly

2.     Stand with your back to the wind

3.     Hold your kite up by the bridle point and let the line out. If there is sufficient wind, your kite will go right up. Let the kite fly away from you a little, then pull in on the line as the kite points up so it will climb. Repeat this until your kite gains sufficient height to find a good steady wind

4.     If there is a light wind, ask a family member to help by taking the kite downwind and holding it up until you signal to let go

5.     If the kite sinks tail first, there might not be enough wind. If it comes down headfirst or spins, there might be too much wind. Adding tails to your kite helps it remain stable in stronger winds and looks great!

This year Pom-Bear is learning how to fly a kite and we have 10 Pom-Bear kite sets worth over £10 to giveaway. Each set contains a Pom-Bear pocket kite plus a multipack of Pom-Bear teddy shaped potato snacks for your kids to enjoy as part of a balanced diet.  To enter all you need to do is sign up to our newsletter (see right-hand side) and you will be automatically entered into our free draw. All entries must be completed by 31 May 2009.

Visit www.pom-bear.co.uk for information about kite flying, and for your children to join the Pom-Bear club and play fun games. Pom-Bear is also giving away special edition kites every hour from May 18 - August 18 - see promotional packs for details.