We have an easel with whiteboard set up in our kitchen. For the two years we’ve had it, it’s been an invaluable educational and social tool! We use it to explain things when helping out with homework, for playing Pictionary and just for fun! As Mrs ToysOnline is French, we’re a bilingual family, so the easel is also invaluable when it comes to teaching language, where daddy is usually the main beneficiary of its benefits. Have you any idea how humiliating it is to be taught stuff by a 4 year old?

Anyway, yesterday I thought it would be great fun if everyone drew an alien. There’s 4 of us in our family; mum, dad, big sis and little sis! Can you guess whose is whose? Looking at our aliens, I think each one is very consistent with our personalities, they eash say a lot about their respective creators.

Our easel is from the French toy company Janod. It’s height adjustable, has a paper roll holder, blackboard and white board and comes with paper and loads of accessories. You can get this Janod easel here.

Aliens in our house! Every home should have an easel!

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Jody Parenting, Reviews, Toys and Parenting

We have our very own Sophie’s doll house at the ToyBlog HQ so we decided a nice dad and daughter activity might be to do a video review of it, so here we are - we hope you like it and find it useful. It was a very enjoyable production to make, we hope you like it as much!

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Jody Reviews doll houses, le toy van, review

If you’re a parent of school going children like I am, you’ll know how much valuable family time homework can take up. So to learn that school principals are coming out to

Is homework really of "no real benefit"?

say that it has “no real benefit” is quite disturbing to say the least. According to this article, that’s exactly what they have come out and said in a submission to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Curriculum Reform.

But has homework really “no real benefit”. Honestly, I find it hard to believe. Very interesting discussion taking place on the whole topic over on the very excellent boards.ie parenting forum.

Firstly, I find it difficult to see how you can come out with a blanket statement such as “home work has no real benefit”. It’s like saying “working isn’t good for learning”. What learning and what work? Surely it completely depends on the homework and the subject matter. Reading for example. One teacher on the boards discussion thread has pointed out that to listen to each child’s reading in class would take over an hour. That’s not efficient use of class time. Reading is something that can easily and enjoyably be done at home. Then there’s maths, for example. You learn the theory and the methods in class but this stuff has to be practised and put into practice. Children need time to digest what they have learned and work through it by themselves, I believe. Again, it seems to be that home is the place where this is most efficiently done.

Secondly, homework involves parents in their education. Helping out with homework shows our children that we value their learning and we see it as important, effectively giving parental endorsement of their efforts in school. I believe this is very important. I remember once when I was a child, having difficulty with my Irish homework. My dad would go off on this rant about how useless learning Irish was. Needless to say, that didn’t help. So the opposite is true here too. Homework can be an opportunity to support and endorse, or undermine our children’s efforts in school.

Perhaps the issue is that homework is issued indiscriminately with no real thought given to what it is supposed to achieve. More thought needs to be given to it. If more judicious use of homework was made, perhaps parents and children would have a more positive experience of it and the effectiveness of it in both learning and involving parents would be so much greater. So I’m all for reform, but I really can’t see that meaning getting rid of homework, as much as some may loathe it!

What do you think? Would love to hear your comments and thoughts.

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Jody Parenting, Personal Ramblings education, homework, Parenting, school

It’s that time of year again and in a thinly veiled attempt at bribing people to sign up to our email newsletter, we’re giving away a Vilac Kitchen Playset for nothing, nada, zilch! Just head on over to our give-away page on Rollercoaster.ie and don’t forget to sign up to our newsletter (we send around one a month and it contains details of give-aways like this one!)

More about the kitchen now, though. It’s made by French toy maker, Vilac and comes with plenty of wooden kitchen accessories including pot, pan, utensils and even salt and pepper! The kitchen itself is sturdy and well built and measures 38 x 20 x 70cm. The counter height is 45cm.

We're Giving it Away!

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Jody ToysOnline.ie News Play Kitchens

We’ve just spent the morning reviewing the most wonderful entries for our colouring competition. Picking winners was tough so we’re sending everyone that entered a brand new Mystery Lego Mini figure!

The competition was divided into two categories, 4 and under and 5 and up. The winner in the younger category was Lauren with a wonderful display of colour. We really love what she’s done with the sun Lauren’s entry is shown below. We also used part of Lauren’s work for our website banner… have a look in the top left of toysonline.ie and you’ll see it - well done Lauren, a PuddleDucks.ie voucher for €30 is on its way to you as well as a Mystery Lego Minifigure!

Lauren's Winning Entry (Age 3). Well done Lauren! We've also used your work on our website banner!

In the 5 and over category, we really liked Aideen’s entry. Aideen is 12 years old and we love how she’s coloured the sky blue. We love the attention to detail too (the  underside of the bunny’s ear for example!). Well done Aideen, a voucher is also on it’s way to you. You’re also getting a Mystery Lego Minifigure (tell us which one you got on Facebook! ). Here’s Aideen’s entry:

Aideen's (age 12) Winning Entry in the 5 and Over Category. Well done Aideen!

Keep an eye out on our Facebook Page for more competitions, discounts and offers!

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Jody ToysOnline.ie News

Triangular crayons... genious!

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Jody Toy News, Toys and Parenting

The Chicken and the Turtle, by Leah Dillon, aged 6

Once upon a time there was a chicken. He lived on a farm. His name was Bob. His best friend was Dylan the turle who lived in an aquarium. One day they met up on the beach. Suddenly Bob saw a castle. “Look!”, said Bob. “Wow!” cried Dylan. They signed up for two nights… and they fought all the baddies! And they got golden medals.

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Jody Personal Ramblings

We were out having tea and chocolate cake today… a reward for a very positive report from our elder daughter’s teacher and for a stunning performance at parent’s day at ballet class. The camera was out and we were reviewing some of my dreadful snaps. Our 3 year old wanted to take some pictures and bravely, or stupidly (we’re not sure which) we gave it to her. I’m posting some of the more interesting ones here. They give you some insight into the mind of a child.

The snaps are remarkable, given that she was trying to show us the outcome, even before the button was pressed! Melanie says she centers the shots better than my mother.

Sissy's Hand

Sissy's Boot

Some Suger

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Jody Parenting, Personal Ramblings

I suppose every generation of parents thinks their kids are way more educated than the generation before. I certainly hadn’t heard of the food pyramid when I was 5! We bought our daughter an Usborne book about the human body when she was 5. She really loved it. Kids seem to have photographic memories. Not only does she read it and understand it, she remembers every little thing in it.

There is one chapter in this book about food and the food pyramid. The general idea being that different foods serve different purposes and we only need so much of each type. Her being familiar with this has made things so much easier. Like explaining why she can’t have Coco Pops every morning. Ok, the secret’s out, we have Coco Pops in our house… but they’re administered sparingly and infrequently… honestly and I really don’t feel the least bit guilty about it… really. Anyway, she often comments on the food she’s eating and where it lies in the food pyramid. It even creates a degree of self regulation.

A lesson here is that it’s so much better to take the time to explain to kids why they can’t do or have something… when they understand, it’s so much easier for them to accept.

One day Leah was blowing bubbles. Then she started trying to catch them in her mouth. Her mum told her this probably wasn’t a good idea. Leah paused, looking pensive and after a fewe moments came out with this:

You know, there should be a section above the food pyramid for things you should never eat, like bubbles.

Priceless. The mind of a child is awesome. So I’ve taken this concept and produced my idea of what should lie above the top of the food pyramid.

The Extended Food Pyramid

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Jody Parenting, Personal Ramblings bubbles, food pyramid, Parenting

Remembering Summer

As the rain pours outside, this is a nice reminder of what summer was like this year, now that it’s all over. There’s something wonderful and honest about a child’s drawings. Nothing is hidden or held back and notable features are disproportionate and exaggerated. It really gives tremendous insight into the mind of a child. If only us adults were so open and honest.

I just love this picture. I can’t quite put my finger on why I like it so much. The girl’s big smile, the enormous sun, the flowing dress and the huge flowers. Everything nice, pleasant and positive is exaggerated and emphasized. There’s a lesson there. Maybe we should focus on the positive more. Especially in these times - it would certainly be good for our mental health to concentrate on the positives.

As we crossed paths, I had a 2 minute conversation with a colleague the other day. 

 - ”How are your girls?”, he asked.  (I have three, two small ones and a wife ).

 - “They’re great”, I replied.

- “Well that’s the main thing, isn’t it”, he said as we parted.

It left me thinking. That is the main thing. You can loose your focus. You can be distracted by the overwhelming incompetence of the government, the scale of the financial crisis, the crapness of the weather… but in the end, my girls are happy. It’s so obvious in the picture that my daughter is happy. That’s all that matters and that’s what should concern me most of all.

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Jody Personal Ramblings children's art, happiness, summer