Interview | learning 4 kids

Interview with Planning with Kids – Nicole Avery Plus Giveaway

Posted by Janice on November 29, 2011 31 Comments

Nicole is a mother of 5 and the voice behind the popular blog, Planning with Kids. She writes about many useful tips and advice about organising the chaos that comes with having kids, from recipes, meal planners and finding time for you.

One of Nicole’s biggest accomplishments is writing her first book Planning with Kids, which just happens to be one of my parenting bibles! Along with this interview today Nicole has offered a fabulous giveaway of her book for one of our learning4kids readers. When Nicole mentioned the Planning with Kids book to me as a giveaway with this interview, I was so excited because I knew that my readers would love it too! So, don’t miss out, it is definitely well worth a read with so many fabulous tips! This is such a great resource for parents!

Details are below on how to enter for the giveaway.

I am so thrilled to have Nicole from Planning with Kids as a guest interview today on Learning 4 kids.

What was your reason for starting up your blog ‘Planning with Kids’?

My reason for starting a blog was two fold. I had been out of the paid workforce for eight years and wanted to updates my skills to have a better understanding of the web. I was forever sending spreadsheets and recipes to friends when the saw my creations. Blogging seemed to combine technology and sharing perfectly.

How do you fit it all in? What would be your advice to other parents?

I don’t actually fit it all in. It is more about priorities and making choices about what I don’t do. I watch virtually no television – I have
swapped on screen for another! I blog mostly at night when the kids are asleep and on the weekends when my husband is home. Blogging is a part time occupation for me now, so my husband supports this accordingly, given me time away from the kids to complete the necessary work.

If you have an activity or passion you want to pursue, plan for it. Get the family on board and allocate time across the week that you can have on your own, to attend the class or read the book or visit the library, whatever the case may be. You have to be proactive about this and once
you have the time use it wisely and be disciplined in how you approach it – don’t give yourself any excuses!

Learning 4 kids is all about activities for kids.

What are some of your favourite activities you have done with your kids?

Two of my favourite activities to do with the kids are:

Recycled creations – we will often visit the Reverse Art Truck just before school holidays start and stock up items for our “useful box”. I let the kids choose the recycled items we bring home and allow them free reign with them once the school holidays start. They use the glue gun and come up with all sort of amazing creations that they can then play with throughout the rest of the holidays.

Inside camping – we don’t go camping anywhere as often as the kids would like. To make up for this we will have a inside camping trip. The kids can either use the beach tent we have or make their own from the house furniture and sheets. We let them sleep in there for the night and replicate camping type activities like toasting marshmallows – we dip them in melted chocolate instead!

What would be your best tip for making kids craft activities fun for parents?

Don’t over complicate or direct the activity. Kids have way more creativity than adults if given the space to develop and explore their thoughts. I like to provide materials and let the kids work out what the end product will be. For me the focus of a craft activity with the kids is not so much about what they have made at the end, but the process of doing the making – using practical skills like cutting, pasting, measuring, matching, designing etc.

If you would like to win a copy of Nicole’s FANTABULOUS book, Planning with Kids, this is what you need to do.

Terms and conditions:

Leave a comment here on this Interview Post with Nicole Avery, explaining what is your best tip for making kid’s craft activities fun for parents? ( Leave a comment can be found at the top heading of this post)
The giveaway is open for 1 week only. Wednesday 30^th November to Wednesday 7^th December 2011. Closing at 6pm WA time.
Sorry this giveaway is only open to Australian residents.
The winner will be randomly drawn and contacted by email and if I do not receive a reply within 48 hours I will draw a new winner.

You can also purchase the book here:

Filed Under: Learning4kids | Tagged: Tagged With: Interview

An Interview with Be A Fun Mum – Kelly Burstow

Posted by Janice on October 26, 2011 2 Comments

Kelly is a wonderful Mum of four kids and the voice behind the popular blog Be A fun Mum.
Kelly writes about many wonderful things but she particularly writes about her journey of motherhood; the highs, the lows, the fun and the not so fun.
I am very excited to have Kelly as a guest interview today on Learning 4 kids.

1. What was your reason for starting up your blog ‘Be A Fun Mum’?

I originally started Be A Fun Mum to get back into the habit of writing. Since I was knee deep in nappies, talking about my parenting experiences seemed an obvious choice of topic. Through blogging, I’ve experienced much more than I anticipated. Yes, my writing has improved a little, but more than that, I found a wonderful community.

2. What is your best tip to be a fun mum?

Laugh a lot

Try not the sweat the small stuff

Look for the joy in small things

Be yourself with your kids

That’s not really one tip is it? You can read my post How to Be A Fun Mum here.

3.Love the moment is your slogan for be a fun mum. What inspiration is behind this for you?

In my recovery from Postnatal Depression, I focused on all the little things around me. Small, precious things that are easily missed, like the colour of a yellow flower, the feel of the soft breeze on my face and the smell of my children’s skin after a bath. It was a case looking for the rainbow through the rain. I’m fully recovered now but loving the moment has changed the way I see the world; I experience so much joy from recognising the little things as important. And I love sharing this joy with my children. Little things, they are big things.

4. Learning 4 kids is all about great activities for kids. What is one of your favourite activities you have done with your kids?

One of our all-time favourite activities is to make an Op-Shop Cubby. The idea is I give each of my children $5 to spend in a second-hand or thrift shop on items suitable for a cubby house (think pots, pans, blankets, misquote nets). We bring the items home and the children create an amazing space, usually outside under a tree. They play in it for weeks! You can read more about it here: Op Shop Cubby.

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Filed Under: Learning4kids | Tagged: Tagged With: Interview

Interview with The Book Chook

Posted by Janice on October 18, 2011 1 Comment

Here at Learning 4 kids, we have a real love and deep passion for books and reading. We understand the value and joy they can bring to our world and our children’s world!

Someone who shares this passion for books is none other than The Book Chook, aka Susan Stephenson. Susan Stephenson knows a whole lot about books and the world of children’s literacy and literature. She is a writer, editor, teacher and reviewer. One of her biggest accomplishments is writing her first picture book, Monster Maddie.

I am very excited to have Susan Stephenson as a guest interview today on Learning 4 kids.

What was your reason for starting up your popular blog ‘The Book Chook’?

Some of the first advice I read about blogging was to write about your passion. And mine is definitely children’s literature, literacy and learning. I love to find great educational websites where kids can have fun and learn something at the same time. Sharing my finds with parents and teachers makes me happy.

Why is learning to read important for children?

Reading is a great way for kids to find things out, and to enjoy themselves. It develops imagination, language skills and greater knowledge of the world. Educational success depends to a great degree on reading, and I think most parents want their kids to be happy and successful at school. If your child hasn’t begun to enjoy reading yet, my post Help! My Kid’s Just Not Into Reading might give you some ideas.

How can we make reading fun?

I believe we should read to our kids from when they’re babies. We don’t have to try hard to make it fun because our little ones love to be snuggled up with us, listening to our voices. As kids get older, we can increase their enjoyment by bringing a story to life for them. I do that in different ways. I might try to use different voices for different characters in a story, or have a puppet read part of the story for me, or make sure I let children interrupt the story to point out something they spotted in the illustrations.

It’s important to avoid making reading a chore for our kids. I also believe we should not stop reading aloud to them just because they enter a certain grade at school. The very best gift we can give our kids is to help them love reading. Whether that reading is a comic, an e-book, a dictionary, a book about dinosaurs – it doesn’t matter, so long as a child enjoys it and is engaged with it. Letting kids choose their own reading material is a big part in making reading more fun.

Name 3 of your most favourite children’s books at the moment?

The last children’s books I’ve read are my current favourites! Honestly, that’s almost always the case with me – there are so many wonderful children’s books being published, and I love to find new ones! Recent reviews of picture books on The Book Chook were about Alphab’art, and For All Creatures. I have a review coming soon at www.thebookchook.com on The Bicycle, a project of Colin Thompson’s for Save the Children. Visual youngsters will enjoy discovering how different artists have interpreted the bicycle theme, and I hope will be inspired to create their own responses.

Thank you Susan for completing the interview with us on Learning 4 kids. I have enjoyed getting a professional insight into the Book Chook’s wonderful world of books. The picture book For All Creatures is a fabulous book that on my list of books to get! Thank you for sharing!

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