Are you looking for the perfect Christmas gift for your toddler? Take a look at our fish sorting toy! Both educational and fun, if you have an inquisitive child who loves to investigate shape then this is the thing for them! Simply slot the different fish through the holes at the top of their aquarium which correspond to their size. More practical than a puzzle in that there a less pieces to worry about, the fish sorting toy aids the development of logic skills as each fish can only go through the hole which is the right size for it.

Furthermore, the fish sorting toy is vibrant and bright in appearance so will encourage your child to learn their colours.

Our fish sorting toy can also help children develop their co-operation skills with others as the fish need to go through the holes one at a time. But the very best thing is that there is no limit to how much you can play with the fish sorting toy – their aquarium has an open back which means that the fish can be retrieved again and again to provide hours and hours of fun!

And even if your child isn’t a fishy fan, we have a wide range of sorting toys, including houses, robots and simply colourful shapes.

So visit Kiddyriffic and choose our fish sorting toy – the hours of play it provides will be worth it!

By Ash Nolan

There is a lot to be said for this statement not only regarding education but general child development too. Giving a child free choice can help them to develop quicker in so many different aspects of their lives. I know this from personal experience of the Montessori schooling system – an education system which was originally set up by Dr Maria Montessori which focuses on giving youngsters a choice in what they spend time doing so that they become independent.

I have two younger brothers. When the first brother reached nursery school age, my mother sent him to a Montessori school rather than a mainstream playgroup. Here, as well as meeting and playing with other children, he was encouraged to make his own decisions as to what he wanted to do. Activities were laid out for the children at the right level for their height and they were free to do as they pleased for quite substantial amounts of time. By the time my second brother reached nursery school age, we had moved away from the area and the Montessori school was simply not an option. Therefore, he went to a local playgroup which he thoroughly enjoyed.

Throughout my childhood I noticed that my two brothers’ approaches to life were distinctly different. For example, the oldest brother could manage time effectively from a very young age due to a high level of self-discipline, whereas the younger brother always needed a lot more parental guidance as to what he should be doing. In a social situation, the oldest brother is always the leader of the group, whereas the younger brother is a follower. Perhaps individual character traits or position in the family do play into this but we definitely see an emerging trend here that the child who spends time in a ‘choice-based’ environment develops quicker and more positively than the child who is in a more ‘instruction-based’ environment.

Not all children can attend a specially designed school but we can review our day to day parenting in light of both Dr Montessori and the words of Kenneth Durham. Are we dictators to our children or are we simply there to guide them with the decisions that they are free to make? And if we find ourselves in the former category, maybe we need to consider changing our attitude so that our children really can ‘develop and flourish’ throughout their lives. In the words of Dr Maria Montessori herself, children are ‘drawn’ to something ‘by the needs of their inner life, which must be recognised and developed by its [own] means’.

By Ash Nolan

Is your child bored of their bedroom? Do they want something new?  Are you too busy to redecorate? Here at Kiddyriffic, we think we have the perfect answer to your problem with our fun filled, interactive rugs.  These rugs will brighten up any room with their colourful designs, providing a cheap alternative to redecorating and twice as much fun!

With many different themes such as ‘farm’, ‘playhouse’, ‘racing track’ and even ‘traffic’, you are sure to find one that suits your child’s interests.  But not only do these rugs significantly add colour to an otherwise dull room, as their name suggests, they are fully interactive, meaning that your kiddy can use them as a basis for play, not to mention that they keep any mess that is created in one place.

In addition, they save you time – for example, you will never have to build your kiddy a racetrack again as there is one already there on the rug!  But the best thing about our interactive rugs is that you can easily roll them up and put them away when you need more space!

 At first glance, the idea of our children being educated under a strict, disciplinary regime can seem disturbing.  However, are the methods of discipline in the army fundamentally that different to the methods of discipline in our present schools? The average state school child has to line up in a prescribed way, dress smartly, plan well (i.e. hand their homework in on time) and be courteous to all. I don’t know about you but, to me, this seems positively military already. In my view, the only difference between the two systems of discipline would be that the military school’s system would be stricter, eliminating situations where parents have trouble with their child’s behaviour at home, simply because their school does not come down on them hard enough.

The teachers at the proposed military school would be service men and women. Although some parents may consider this a dangerous concept for the fear that these people would drastically skew their child’s view of life; I personally think that these teachers may be more effective than the average PGCE holder. Having a positively more varied life experience, they would be able to come up with more creative and well-informed ways of dealing with the issues that face the average child or young person today

Furthermore, having children in a military environment during the day may act as a deterrent from today’s ever- growing gang culture – young people simply wouldn’t need to find a gang as they would already be part of one collective, elite body of people who know how to fight to defend themselves.

Therefore, despite the fact that some dismiss military schools as being merely a scary, fleeting idea, they could actually benefit our children a lot more than we would initially think and really do make a lot of sense.

By Ash Nolan

School uniform helps members of the public to distinguish which school a child attends, thus helping to maintain a safe community (should the child be making trouble).  However, contrary to helping to solve problems, uniform can fuel  prejudice towards a child for it clearly marks their status within society – for example, one can instantly tell the likely financial position of the child’s family, for their uniform marks them as attending either a state or a private school.

When King Henry VIII was on the throne and school uniforms were first established on a large scale, they were affordable to many as they were blue in colour – the cheapest dye at the time.  However, nowadays, certainly in the private sector, a school blazer can cost ten times as much as a decent suit jacket in Marks and Spencer’s.  Surely this is not the most cost-efficient way of clothing our children and we would actually save money if school uniform was scrapped.

Individual expression is another issue.  Although a child’s school equipment, such as their lunchbox and stationery, is unique to them, it is almost impossible for them to make any individual, visual impact on those around them.  Most schools not only enforce a strict uniform but also publish guidelines for hairstyles, shoes make-up and jewellery. Naturally, this clone-like approach can cause children to feel that they are simply ‘one of a crowd’, thus demotivating them both socially and academically.

It’s time for us to step back from the chaos of getting our children back to school and question this long-accepted tradition that we, as parents, have always taken for granted.   

By Ash Nolan

Quite rightly, the report states that in the “old days”, any children showing signs of melancholy would have no doubt been referred to the grandmother – who, in my experience, will have simply told them to snap out of it, and give them a list of chores to help with.

And I think this could be the key, here.  The article also mentions parents who are out at work each day (which includes most of us), spend little quality time with their children and constantly worry about money and work.  In particular, it comments on a young boy who, along with his suspected au pair, rides the bus each day, blankly staring at a screen showing cartoons, headphones on, instead of communicating with her.

As a working mum, I can identify with the stresses and pressures of everyday life, and I think we could do a lot worse than refer back to only a couple of generations ago.  Unless we have a number of staff looking after us at home, we have to do chores, right?  So why not think of some age-appropriate chores in which to involve our children?  You’ll be working together as a team, chatting as you go, and teaching your child about responsibility at the same time.  My six year old daughter helps to prepare the dinner, lay the table and is a mean hooverer.  She is in charge of keeping her bedroom tidy and is so proud when congratulated on a job well done.

Of course, it’s difficult to keep our worries from our children.  But come on, rather than simply dumping them in front of the TV or games console for hours at a time, why not set aside at least an hour each day to give them your undivided attention and play an educational or imaginative game of their choice, before the two of you crack on with the chores together?  It’ll help you, give them a feeling of pride and togetherness, and provide a few hours of intimacy in a world of uncertainty and pressure.  Isn’t that what all children need?

Throughout the seventies and early eighties, most children could be found glued to the TV every Saturday morning, whilst their mums were off doing the shopping.  Of course, with no satellite TV, DVD or even video at that stage, and only three TV channels, a regular TV slot dedicated to kids was cause for real excitement. 

Some programmes, such as Swap Shop or Saturday Superstore featured not only the latest pop acts, but also touched upon issues which were particularly pertinent, offering up campaigners and politicians for interview.    However, of course if you fancied something a little more silly and madcap, there was always Tiswas on the other side!

This blend of play and education really hit a note with the children of that time and proved to be effective for many years.  Unfortunately, in the latter part of the eighties, more choice and variety of programme became available, and instead of continuing to cater for children of all ages, producers instead chose to focus on the teen market.  Younger children were either left to attend scheduled activity classes or watch cartoons on satellite TV.

I feel it’s such a shame that children no longer have that common bond and the exposure to educational issues that we once had.  However, it’s sad but true that we have lost that age of innocence, being bombarded by choice and watching whatever we want, whenever we want.

It therefore seems, unfortunately, that choice of TV has overruled quality, so it appears unlikely that our kids will ever have the benefit of such considered programming again.

Luckily, we still have educational toys which involve a degree of concentration on the part of the child!  If you’d like to offer your child some choice in their playtime, yet maintain an educational theme, just take a look at www.kiddyriffic.com.

And nothing is more likely to make a baby excited than a well-designed, colourful toy which will encourage them to explore sounds, colours and textures.

Chunky blocks and rattles which will no doubt be explored with the fingers, closely followed by the mouth are always great favourites.  However, baby gyms and mobiles can either invigorate or calm a baby respectively.

A playgym should be designed with safety in mind, unable to topple over and hurt the child lying underneath it, with secure parts which cannot be ripped off by enthusiastic sucking or inquisitive fingers. 

Most suitable for babies who are not yet able to sit up, the most appropriate position is to lie the baby on a rug, mat or prop them up on a beanbag.  From here they should be able to both see and lightly touch the components of the gym, without being able to tug them sharply or push the whole object over.

This Heimess baby gym has all sorts of objects and characters which will both amuse and delight the young child.  The rings and bells are ideal for stimulating the hearing and touch senses – just watch baby smile and jiggle with excitement!

Available from http://kiddyriffic.com/productdetails.cfm?id=416 for £39.99

A report in The Sun newspaper recently indicated that many parents were delighted that their children were choosing to abandon their X box and Wii, returning instead to actually playing with more traditional toys.

The toy used as a focus in this particular instance, however, was a pea shooter.

Now of course boys (and girls) for generations have loved playing with pea shooters and generally getting up to mischief.  I myself saw a local child only a few days ago, using his pea shooter to aim a missile at a neighbour’s parked car.

My personal opinion is that whilst it’s annoying for us adults, it is relatively harmless, provided the missile in question is indeed something small and not particularly sharp.  Aiming large stones at any human, animal or expensive object is an absolute no-no in my book, and should be equally so with any parent who has an ounce of common sense. 

What worried me was the opinion of the retailing spokespeople within the article, who indicated that parents felt the country’s Health and Safety legislation had gone too far, and that it was refreshing to allow kids to enjoy the more old-fashioned toys.

My point is, do we have to rely pea shooters, cross bows and cap guns to provide our children with entertainment?  Yes, boys in particular will naturally be drawn to such toys, but can’t we provide equally entertaining, yet educational toys sometimes?

You could always involve your child in gardening, explaining how plants grow and allow them to take responsibility for cultivating and nurturing something, rather than destroying it.  A sandpit will allow them to be creative and as mucky as they like, as they make mud pies to their heart’s content.  And what about a bike or a scooter, to ensure they’re getting fresh air and exercise, without worrying about the possibility of them smashing a neighbour’s window?

The typical “pocket money” toys certainly have their place and will continue to be an attraction for children, but don’t forget that as a parent, you need to also provide a more creative outlet for your child.

Pen tops, bells and other small parts are notoriously dangerous for children under three.  However, poisoning from the paint used in cheap toys can also cause serious damage to their health.

To ensure that as a parent, you’re doing all you can to keep them safe during play, follow these guidelines.  Most of them are purely common sense, but as we all know, when we’re rushing around, it’s difficult to watch our children constantly, so rather than chastise ourselves when something goes wrong, why not prevent accidents from occurring in the first place, with a little bit of preparation?

1. ALWAYS give your child a toy that is appropriate for their age.  A toy suitable for an older child may well have removable or small parts, which a toddler or baby will naturally put in their mouth.  Kiddyriffic always labels each product with an appropriate age group to help.
2. If you have a younger child (under three), check that the toy has no parts which could fall off during rough play and that it’s large enough so that the child wouldn’t be able to fit it into their mouth.
3. Check there are no liquid substances inside.
4. Ensure that the toy has passed EC regulations for child safety. 
5. Make sure that there are no sharp edges which could cut your baby or toddler. 
6. And finally, we can’t watch our children all the time, but never leave a child in another room to play for any length of time, where an accident could occur without your knowledge.  Always have them in your eyesight at this early age, so if they begin to choke, you can act immediately.

Toys sold at Kiddryriffic are made to the highest standard to ensure that your child can play in absolute safety.  To choose from our vast selection simply visit our website at www.kiddyriffic.com.