And more stories!

This site features a super collection of stories, read aloud by assorted actors. Watch and listen to the story, and then print out the related downloadable activity book to keep the children happily occupied and entertained.

Storyline online

Stories, stories, stories!

This page from CBeebies pulls together all sorts of stories which you can enjoy with your kids - whether you are watching and listening online or printing out and colouring. This is a brilliant page to have up your sleeve from the long summer holidays!

Stories and Rhymes

Coloring Page Database updated with lots of new characters!

Get the coloring pencils and crayons out! We have just added many new favorite characters to the Coloring Page Database, including:

Caillou coloring pages
Toddworld coloring pages
Miss Spider coloring pages
Backyardigans coloring pages
Doodlebops coloring pages
Max and Ruby coloring pages
Happy Feet coloring pages
Koala Brothers coloring pages
JoJo's Circus coloring pages
The Wiggles coloring pages

Many other pages have been updated, too - so why not have a good look through the Coloring Page Database and print out some pages to keep your kids busy over the weeks ahead!

Naps and "Quiet Time" - some good advice!

I very much enjoyed this blog post and wish I had read it many years ago, so that I could have insisted on "quiet time" for my son, who would definitely have benefited from it! Well worth a read...

Scribbit's Teaching Children Responsibility: How to Play

Make A Doll's Cradle - a sweet rainy day craft

More Ancient Greece for Kids

I've just added even more Ancient Greece coloring pages to the site, as well as a large collection of Ancient Greece printables - writing paper and frames for school, projects and notebooking bedecked with Greek gods, hoplites, olive wreaths and mythological creatures! If you are feeling creative you can color and cut out your very own Ancient Greek coins. You will also find three new word search puzzles - Greek gods, Greek creatures and the Ancient Olympic Games. And, finally, I have added the first of our Greek Myths for Kids - rewritten specially for children - to read online or print for later.

Ancient Greece for Kids

Ancient Greece for Kids

Activity Village is taking a trip to Ancient Greece and we have started off with some Ancient Greek coloring pages (try your hand at some Greek myths, Greek gods and general lifestyle pictures) and some fantastic Ancient Greece crafts to get stuck into with your kids. Tracy and Sarah and their kids have really gone to town with these - please take a look!

Ancient Greece for Kids

Fun Drawing Lessons for Young Children

This is a fun website with very easy step-by-step instructions for drawing 12 different cartoon type images. The whole family has enjoyed trying out the different images today, with my 5 year old being especially pleased with her results. Why not try it yourself?

Draw and Color with Uncle Fred

Lunch Box Ideas

I just stumbled on this brilliant blog full of lunch box inspiration. The food is unusual (for my family, anyway) and quirky, with a Japanese bent, but I have come away with plenty of ideas and I am sure you will too. I am going to have to start searching for some of the molds she uses to shape rice balls and boiled eggs - what a brilliant idea to perk up your kids' lunches!

Lunch In A Box

Arctic Tale - polar bears, walruses and global warming!

This looks like a must-see movie for the family this summer:

Because I said so!

Let’s be honest. Have you ever felt that parenting was a losing battle? You do what you think is best, but the end result is frequently a battle and a temper tantrum… sometimes thrown by you. Lately, my 5 year old son and I have been experiencing this more often than I care to admit. He is defiant and persistent and wears me down until I start doubting my parenting skills. Yet, surprisingly, we have been doing remarkably well during dinner, the venue of struggle for many other families.

Instead of sitting down to a pleasant meal, parents are frequently bombarded with complaints about the food being served. Worn down by repeated objections, weary parents comply with the wishes of their children and give them alternatives, such as yogurt, frozen fish sticks, chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese. Don’t be disheartened. Be proud. You have such intelligent children! They know that if they are persistent enough, they will get what they want. Why should they eat what is being served if they can have whatever they want afterwards?

Look at this as a learning opportunity. We have already seen that persistence usually pays off… but remember that it goes both ways! It usually takes between 8-12 exposures of a new food before people will enjoy it. So, beat ‘em at their own game. Give them their dinner and nothing else. Eventually, if they are hungry enough, they will eat it. Don’t worry that Child Protective Services will come knocking on your door – no child has ever willingly starved himself to death when there is food available.

How did I manage to avoid a riot when implementing these ideas?

• I am NOT a short order cook, and my kids know it.

• I invite them to help me select the recipes we prepare each week. My kids are opinionated and love to tell me what they think. We gather recipes from a variety of sources and they help to pick ones that sound good.

• I invite my kids to help me cook. (No, I am not crazy! I am not handing them the chef’s knife and going to sit on the sofa to eat bon-bons…) We work together to complete some of the steps of the recipe. Sometimes they help with only one or two steps, such as peeling the garlic or measuring, but other times they become so enthusiastic that they help with the whole recipe! Kids are infinitely more likely to taste a recipe that they have helped to prepare. They take all of the credit when a meal turns out well, and happily eat their fill.

For now, I’ll chalk up our success at the dinner table to my years of experience teaching cooking classes to children. This seems to be the only area in which I can avoid power struggles with my son, and don’t catch myself saying the words that I swore I would never say…”Because I said so!” He eats because he wants to. He eats because he likes it. And best of all, he eats because he helped to make it himself.

Article by Michelle Stern. Michelle Stern owns What’s Cooking, a business that offers cooking classes and gifts to children of all ages. She recently launched What’s Cooking Weekly, a healthy family meal subscription service. http://www.whatscookingweekly.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michelle_Stern
http://EzineArticles.com/?Because-I-Said-So!&id=632870

Family recipes at Activity Village

Online animated books and games

Free online animated books and games to enjoy with your children - some better than others, so you might want to check them out first!

SillyBooks.net

"I Like Elephants" - a music video to watch with little kids

Kids Games and Activities

Please come and take a look at our new Kids Games and Activities section. It is in its early stages yet, with just under 50 games and lots more activities added, but we have over 400 more ready and waiting to be added over the next few weeks! We've divided the games and activities into categories to make it easier for you to find inspiration quickly when you need to, and we will be providing as much information as possible for each and every game (age or child, quiet or noisy activity, etc). If you have any favourite games of your own to contribute, they would be most welcome .. add them as a comment to this post or send them in an email to me at editor @ activityvillage.co.uk (without the spaces).
Kids Games and Activities