Cheepa

Cheepa, where you can buy second hand toys.

Talk with your kids

Get contact with your kid about how they feel about the day with this diary Slaapklets -boekje made by Gezinnig.

Winebook

Evelijn van Heuven, who writes for Hip & Hot magazine, made together with her husband Huib Edixhoven from Vindict, a nice winebook about taste and wine. It’s called: “Smaakstof“.

Scratch

 It’s absolutely no fun at all to have this little tiny creatures in your hair. Last week my daughter had them and I was searching for a nice book about it. Which I found: Krab krabbel krab van Miriam Moss.

Appybook, boekjes lezen op de iPad!

The iPad app from Appybook has been launched this weekend! I downloaded it immediately, because Appybook looked promising from the start. Right now they have 2 Dutch childrens’ books available you can order for € 3,99 . They also have books in other languages, for bilengual kids (in English and Spanish). Not expensive and a lot of fun for your money! The books are great. Very interactive, with music, games and locations indicated with a star to click on and make something happen. My daughter spend an hour reading ‘the giraffes’ birthday’ yesterday. She actually loved the last page, with a birthday song and the possibility to launch balloons. She read it over and over again. ‘The library book’ is a lot of fun too. You can choose to have the story read for you or for the older children, to read themselves. In meantime kids can play games, make puzzles, mazes and colour pictures. Appybook works together with various publishers and they have a lot of other books sceduled to launch! So for all you iPad owners, download it. You won’t regret it. You can download the app here or look for the Appybook in the Appstore.

How2talk2kids

A lot of people know this book already or they have heared about it. It’s the book parents should read if they notice they grumble to their children because they don’t do what you want. Efficient communication is the key to solving this problem. But how? How2Talk2Kids explains how. This book has so many recognizable examples for parents, including tips of how to react. This practical explaination makes theory applicable. I think it’s a good and usable method, although I don’t agree on everything they write. It says for example you can encourage a childs’ autonomy by giving a child information instead of an direct answer. I don’t think this always works. Some kids just rather have an direct answer (or they are just not smart enough to understand yet). So, for example, if they ask, can I play over at my friends’ house for a while? The books says you have to tell them, we’ll have dinner in 5 minutes. I don’t think that makes everything clear. I think it’s better to tell a child the combination of information and answer, like: No, because we’ll have dinner in 5 minutes from now. A lot of kids don’t have a notice of time (especially young kids) or they think 5 minutes is more than enough to play. Another point of attention for me is praising kids. The book says you have to encourage children to praise themselves. I agree on that, but in my opinion kids also like hearing their mom or dad (or teacher) tell they did something well. It’s also important telling a child why you think they did something good. It makes the compliment more sincere. I do find good information on that topic in How2Talk2Kids. All together this book sure is worth recommending. You can buy it on the webpage, where you can also get workshops in how to practice this method.

Flavourites Weekplanner

Don’t you just love having a paper weekplanner in this digital world? With a nice cover, sweet colours, easy to use and full of the best shopping tips? Exactly, this is the one thing you can’t miss. I recently came to the conclusion that you just can’t completely rely on your digital planner, for some other reason appointments where erased from my planner…. So that’s why I recommend this nice Flavourites weekplanner! I haven’t seen it in real life yet, but the images on their webpage say more  than a thousand words. I would say: Go get it! Also nice to give to someone else of course.

Een mespuntje moeder

Karien lives in England. With her 3 kids. And she blogs. Recognizable. Stories about her life. With kids and husband. About how great it can be with 3 kids. Full of fun and family atmosphere. But also about the hectics. Like for example situations where you think: No! You make a plan of what to do first. Whipe the poo from the wall your baby just shot at it with precision or pick up the toddler that just fell, or grab the other toddler that decided to paint at that moment and is waving coloured pencils around the room. Such recognizable, hectic and hilarious situations that Karien discribes in her book: “Een mespuntje moeder“. I finished this funny book in 1 day. I sat on the sofa and couldn’t stop reading it. It’s just such a great book. Sometimes I was moved, sometimes laughing out loud. But above all: so recognizable! This is the gift you give your friend who is struggling to be a mum. Or the mama-to-be, just pregnant and no idea of what to expect. So, keep it in mind! ”Een mespuntje moeder“ is a must-have.

Thanks Teacher

It’s almost summer holiday in the Netherlands. This is a Do It Yourself book for the kids to give to their teacher. They can thank the teacher for teaching them this year. The book is called “Bedankt! Juf en/of Meester” from Uitgeverij Snor. Of course it is in Dutch. Just wrap it in with a free printable form this website and you will have the perfect present for every teacher.

Cake Pops

Did you here about the latest hype? I didn’t, but fortunately I am in touch with press people that keep me informed. Making cake pops is somthing that came from The States and seems to be the next hip thing. That’s why I, armed with my cooking book Cake Pops from Angie Dudly started to try it out. And I have to admit: it’s not as easy as it seems and you need to take your time for it. I spend something like 3 hours on more or less 50 cake pops. But I did have a nice variation of cake pops. And I had fun making them. It’s almost relaxing. Baking cake can be a nice thing to do with (small) children, but after that it’s better to tell them to leave the kitchen because my 4 year old daughter was making a total mess out of everything. 

Candy Melts and sprinkels all over the place. Thank god for our cleaning lady and my daughter did enjoy the DIY (and eating sweets)!  In short how it works: you bake a cake, crumbles it and mix it with icing, after that you make little balls of it, freeze them for a while, melt the candy melts in the microwave (available at f.e. Dekofun), put a stick in every ball, put the balls in the melted candy melts, decorate the balls and stick it in foam rubber to let it dry. It looks great! Feel like trying it yourself? At Bol.com you can order the book Cake Pops for €17,50 and you have all the info, recipies and examples. I can recommend it for sure!

Culinary presents

If you like DIY and baking, you’ll love this great book! The book called Culinaire cadeautjes by Hanneke de Jager doesn’t only look hip, but it’s also full of hip DIY gifts. You’ll like making it and will love giving it.  I always love getting gifts someone put a lot of effort in. A sneak peek of some things in the book:  a hip bottle of chocolate milk, chocolate lollipops, with great wrappings. But also lime lemonade and blackberry jelly, all packed in a super hip DIY package. I think it’s a great mothers’day gift! Available at bol.com.

Uitgeverij madelief!

I love childrens’books! Allmost all childerens’ books have a bright imagination and are lively. Uitgeverij Madelief publishes books like ‘Dragon will learn’ and ‘Little hedgehog stings’. The books are written by Annika Schepers and illustrated by  Ineke Koene.  Their perfect co-operation makes these books very happy and a lively story.

These picture-books by Madelief contain small lessons of life for the children you read them to. They are easy to read to because the sentences rhyme.

Also good to know: Publisher Madelief donates 10% of the profit to the Kaisz foundation. By supporting this good cause, reading these books feels even better!

Goed van Doen

It was a hilarious moment when I received this boxer by mail. Apple green, the color already. I couldn’t imagine shorts ever being apple green at all. And then came the manual! I didn’t expect a manual with boxershorts, this is nuts. When I started reading the manual I just couldn’t stop laughing! OK, I am not going to give away everyhing yet, because if you are thinking about ordering this hip shorts for yourself or sweetheart I don’t want to spoil the ‘Laugh out Loud’ moment. And, these shorts are made of organic cotton, so good for our planet. You can order the shorts from MONSIEUR CHAT L’HEUREUX at the belgium webshop GOEDvandoen, who simply sells everthing that is GOOD for our planet.

Know what’s best? I can give away 3 gift certificates of 20€ of this GOOD webshop. So you can shop GOOD if you win this. Besides these great apple green shorts they also have lots of other fun stuff. So, answer the following question: what would you buy at  GOEDvandoen with a gift certificate of 20€? Don’t forget to check the binnenGOED and fill out your answer on this form. This competition lasts until March 28th, 2011.

Happy in 3 and a half months

Are you also suffering from winter depression? Or does the stress of December make you feel down? Is your resolution for next year to be more positive? Than I can recommend the book  “Vrolijk in 3 1/2 maand” (happy in 3 and a half months), available at Uitgeverij Snor. Sublime, I can tell you, the first page already made me smile. And it stayed that way. Every page had a new surprise for me and put a smile on my face.  Just a selection from the funny assignments they give you: order an impossible pizza, find a huge box and walk to the other side of town with it and make everybody help you, reply every email with a drawing, buy 12 boxes of colored pencils with 12 colors and fill every box with the same colors, xerox your ass.  Really, it’s so funny, I am sure you will be happy as can be after 3 and a half months. Also great as a present for someone who could use some happines in his life. You can buy the book  here.

On behalf of Uitgeverij Snor we can make somebody happy with this book. Fill out this form and tell us who illustrated this book  and who knows you might receive a course of happines by mail! This contest lasts until Februari 1st 2011.