When I was first asked by Petits Filous to blog about mixing up the fun when it comes to my kids playtime I have to admit I was a bit stumped. It can be so hard at times to know how to snap your children out of that post school day slump where all they want to do is zonk out in front of the TV set. Seeing as we were being asked to mark the launch of Petits Filous’ new Magic Squares I actually took influence from something I saw in their TV advert.
I find that actually my kids do still have enough energy to engage with a fun activity, but after a day of following instructions at school and being told what to do they don’t always react well to my suggestions as to what to do. So, instead I put the decision making into their own hands – with a little bit of help from my Magic Squares fun spinner which I crafted with them!
Always the thrifty one, I had been saving the empty Petits Filous pots (especially since Little Miss C kept going on about how cool they looked) and I used five of them, along with some cardboard, paint and glue (plus a Numicon spinner from our maths kit) to produce our fun spinner.
It was incredibly easy to do, and also a great craft project to engage children in, especially as it helped give them ownership of the whole process.
“Play with my Mike the Knight Castle” – just in case you couldn’t decode it!
All I need to do now is encourage the kids to write down four different things that they might like to do (or select them from a pile of previous choices), pop them into the pots around the edge and then let the Magic Squares fun spinner decide what they should do. And strangely they’re much happier to do what the spinner tells them than follow any of my suggestions! Also, if you have more than one child, or friends round for a playdate it can help make decisions when all the children want to do something different.
Little Miss C has absolutely loved the task of cutting up pieces of paper and writing activities on them (and of course this is supporting her manual dexterity development and her writing – making it an educational activity too!) and popping them in the four Magic Squares pots round the edge. I’m also busy thinking about how we can use this for other things round the house too – maybe what to help me tidy up first, or even choices about what to have for dinner? A quick look on Pinterest has also helped me come up with some first ideas for maths games with it too.
It’s not only playtime fun that we’ve been mixing up here though – Little Miss C has become a huge fan of these Petits Filous Magic Squares and has firmly decided that the best way to eat them is to mix them up first! They are available in two delicious flavours – Strawberry & Vanilla and Raspberry & Vanilla – and she is determined that I need to buy equal numbers of both flavours as not only does she like both, but she also wants “both colours of special pots!”
As a parent I also know that not only do my kids enjoy the taste of Petits Filous Magic Squares, but they also get both calcium and Vitamin D from them too. So many children in this country actually don’t get their required levels of Vitamin D (which helps their bodies absorb the calcium that all of us know is so important for growing bones) so finding an easy way of helping them to get both is an added bonus.
Disclaimer: This post is an entry for BritMums #MagicSquaresPlaydates Link Challenge, sponsored by Petits Filous.
We were sent a voucher to buy some Petits Filous Magic Squares, but since then, under Little Miss C’s orders, have returned to the supermarket and bought more with our own money. All opinions are my own.
The Petits Filous Magic Squares range is available nationwide from April 2015 in Strawberry & Vanilla flavour or Raspberry & Vanilla flavour from Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Asda. RRP: £1.89
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