'Bright ideas for young minds', book review

'Bright ideas for young minds' is a giant book filled with ideas and activities to keep your child entertained and busy :)

It is laid out in chapters with titles like "Young Artists", "Budding Scientists" and "Busy Bodies". The activities are free or contain inexpensive ingredients for play that you might find around your home.

This book is HUGE and you certainly get your money's worth and the activities are varied and have a good balance of indoor and outdoor projects and ideas.

This book is the brain child of the team at BestStart who are New Zealands largest early childhood provider. They have done an amazing job of putting together an engaging resourse for kiwi families.

My daughter River is actually in the book on page 134 and it is so cool seeing her in there, as its usually her sister who gets all the limelight lol.

Overall I feel like the activities in this book would be best suited for ages 3 to 6 year olds. Although there are many pages that have ideas for babies and toddlers like "baby talk" and "sensory baskets".

It contains great pictures of happy kiwi kids at play, kids from different cultures and ethnic backgrounds.

It really is an awesome book!

It gets 4 out of 5 pumpkins from me :)

You can find this book online and in 'The Children's Bookshop', 'Piccadilly Bookshop' and 'Time Out Bookstore'

Check out the activity below (an excerpt form the book) on how to make straw necklaces.

STRAW NECKLACES

Things You Will Need

* Coloured drinking straws

* Piece of string long enough to fit around your child's neck

* Scissors (to cut the string)

How to do it

Work with your child to safely cut the straws into 1-2cm pieces, ready for threading. you can talk about size, length and colour as you do this. Next, measure and cut the string to the desired length for your child's necklace.

Take one end of the string and tie a knot around the first straw to secure your necklace - your child will most probably need some help here. Once secured, your child can thread the pieces of straw onto the string. They may like to talk about patterns of colour and size here, or just thread them on randomly - the choice is theirs!

Once your child has completed their threading you can put the string around your child's neck and tie a knot to join both ends of the string together to make their necklace.