Autumn Snuggles and Fun

It’s never easy to wave goodbye to summer, however, autumn does a good job of making that task easier. There’s really nothing not to love about autumn; the sounds, the smells, and gorgeous colours are just a few examples of where we here at Dotty Hippo love this season.

Here are a few ways we may help you and your little ones get the most out of your autumn.

Get Out and About

From conker hunting to pine cone foraging to crunching through leaves, autumn, with her many colours can be a great time for outdoor adventuring. Make sure you take a backpack with you to store your autumn finds. Don’t forget to use some of the natural treasures you find for fun art and craft sessions.

Snuggle Up

There’s something lovely and cosy and about autumn and it offers the perfect excuse, now that the temperature has dropped, for you to break out the hot water bottles. YuYu “Warm Worms”, currently available in pink and orange are perfect for keeping warm day or night during the cooler autumn months.

Story Time

Snuggle up with a new book and a blanket for story time, whatever age your children are and enjoy being transported to another world for a little while. Ask at your local library for new book recommendations and explore new places and meet new characters.

Indoor Fun

While outdoor fun can be great during the autumn sometimes it may be too cold or too wet and so having some fab fun indoor activities at hand to help little ones use up their creative energy is a must. Our Micador range features a number of fun sensory-led activities which help develop and practice fine motor skills as well as keeping young minds and hands busy, as do these wonderful colourful toys and more from our new Small Foot range

Baking Fun
Who doesn’t love the smell of baking in the autumn? Spend an afternoon with your little ones making scones, fairy cakes, bread and biscuits. You can choose anything you like, as long as your little assistants are ready to help too. Extend the activity by giving the children icing pens (readily available from supermarkets) to decorate buns and biscuits with.

Theatre Time
What’s better than helping your little ones put together a special play to perform for you? Our Fiesta Crafts finger and hand puppets are available in so many characters! Once your stars have practiced their parts, switch off the lights, put on the cinema lights (pointed lamps or similar) and don’t forget the popcorn!

If you don’t fancy a play or mini-concert why not snuggle up and watch a family friendly movie instead? If your little ones are quite little it might be an idea to choose shorter movies or a series (if you have Netflix or similar this can be a great place to find entertaining shows).

How do you keep yourself busy and happy during the autumn season? We’d love to hear!

Organising Your Week

Here at DH HQ we understand what trying to juggle work, the home, small children and everything else that goes on in life looks like and it isn't always pretty! Firstly, how on earth are we supposed to remember it all when our sticky notes are removed and rearranged by little hands because "they weren't pretty where they were" and secondly when did our tots and tweens develop better social lives than we have?  

What is very clear is that if us parents want to stay on top of it all we need to get organised. 

Pick a Day for Weekly Organisation 

 Many choose Sunday night to plan for the following week however Friday night works better for us at Dotty Hippo HQ as it gives us a chance to organise / pick up anything needed over the weekend before Monday. Whatever day you choose stick to it and make it a weekly habit.  

This time is for updating calendars and charts, making sure everything is in place for the following week, making to do lists or shopping lists for items that need picking up and of course reminding yourself of upcoming appointments and events. 

A chart like this fabulous Fiesta Crafts one is perfect for keeping evevryone on track and seeing who is doing what, where and when!

Create a Command Station 

If you've spent any time on Pinterest the chances are you've seen fabulous pictures of command centres. A command station is a set place where items for school or nursery lives, where papers, seasonal items and more all reside so that you may grab them when you need them. It means that even if you are in a rush you'll know where new name stickers, the sun cream or gloves, the permission slips for a school trip and everything else is. 

 Pull it all together by using a weekly chart or similar where you can record the activities for the next week as well as anything you need to remember. It is so much easier to have a visual reminder of things and of course if they are right there for everyone to see there's a fighting chance someone will remember even if you forget to do / supply something! 

A command centre needn't be boring when you have fabulous fun wall organisers such as these from 3 Sprouts to choose from!

Don't Overbook Yourself 

 The best way to stay on top of your week is not to have too much going on. Of course all families are busy, especially when little ones get old enough for play dates, activities out of the home and such like however it is important to have time in your week to just relax and be together as a family. 

What are your best tips for organising your week? Do comment and let us know. There's no such thing as too much organisation when you have a busy household with small children in it! 

Creative and Crafty Fun Inspiration

Art and craft is a favourite activity for the majority of children regardless of the weather. Indoors or out there is always somethig to make, to fix, to build and of course to get messy with.

Here we share some of our favourite creative or crafty projects for you to add to your collection. Don't forget to comment with yours so we may do the same!

Get Outside

Collect up seasonal treats such as pretty leaves, twigs and more to great a nature bowl, a collage or similar. Whether you want to take advantage of pinecones, conkers and colourful autumn leaves or fresh green grasses and wildflowers seen in spring and summer is up to you.

Fun with Magnets

For less messy play or for an activity you want your little ones to enjoy time and time again why not look at some of these fabulous Fiesta Crafts Magnetic Mosaics?

There are a number of different designs to try and all are perfect for whipping out when the rain arrives and you hear the dreaded words "I'm bored!".

Paper Craft

Paper Craft covers a wide range of fun activities. You can print out 3D shapes and models for older children, run origami challenges, make a collage.... the possibilities are endless! Try using chalks or a white pen on black paper for something different.

Beading

Colourful beads provide hours of colourful crafty fun making jewellery, snakes and more. What's more this type of activity also helps little ones to practice and develop their motor skills so is a winner all round.

Scrapbooking

This is an activity that children love. Collect together pieces of coloured paper, pictures, odds and ends, photographs and more and let the children fill their scrapbooks with memories of special days out, pages about their family or their friends, their favourite colour, animal, letter..... the possibilities are endless. Scrapbooking is not only great fun and offers a brilliant creative outlet, it also helps build some fabulous keepsakes for you to all look back on when they are older.

What have your favourite creative or crafty projects been? Which ones do your children ask to do again and again?

Gifts for Older Children

Looking for inspiration when it comes to buying presents for older children isn't always the easiest of tasks, especially if you are buying for someone else's children. Your own are usually quite happy to tell you what they'd like and what they are currently into and yet still finding something as a suprise or something a bit different may require some extra help.

Buying for young children is fairly easy as toys and games are the order of the day and we have plenty of these to choose from. When buying for older children try some of these gift suggestions out for size....

Educational Fun
Children starting school or already enjoying the experience often benefit from more educational gifts, as long as these are fun and not boring. Help them learn and practice the fundementals of maths and literacy with magnetic fun from Fiesta Crafts perhaps?

Cool Accessories

When it comes to being out and about you have to look cool (this awareness of coolness seems to start at around 4 years old!). Choose brightly coloured accessories such as water bottles, lunch bags and backpack which will be useful as well as being fun. Our Stephen Joseph and Skip Hop ranges have proven extremely popular with children from tiny tot age upwards.

Bedroom Decor

Older children love to personalise their own space and how better than with decorative items such as shaped mirrors, wall stickers and more? With a wide range of themes to choose from, from alphabets to fire trucks or fairies, as well as some seriously cute Babyface gingham bedding in a range of colours there are plenty of gift ideas here. 

Many gift buyers struggle to find something new or different when buying on the high street which is why we put together ranges full of fun and quality items all in one place for you to choose from. This makes buying presents much easier when you are trying to find something cool or useful and yet don't want to  try and work out what the latest "thing" or trend is.

Do you have any ideas or advice for buying for older children? If so please do share!