Colouring in and paddicks

Izzy has been really getting into colouring in lately, and mazes, she loves mazes. I love it that she can sit in one spot quite happily for a while. 

I've been going to websites like ABC4kids, you know, the Giggle and Hoot channel, and Nick Jr, for printables of all her favourite TV characters. The printer is almost out of ink! 

I have a folder in the filing cabinet labelled 'kids printables', where I put all the extra ones I print out for a rainy day.

Back in my day, in the dark ages, when not every household no one I knew, had a computer and printer, my mum used to just do scribbles on paper and we would colour in the spaces. Turns out Izzy loves doing this!

Colouring in is quite addictive, you will get sucked in.

I did notice that one of the things on the four year old health check, that she will be doing in a few weeks, is colouring in a shape. I reckon she'll shit it in!

Refrigerator d'art nouveau 

I remembered this game too, that we called 'Paddicks'. Is that a word, or is it just paddocks? Maybe it's an australian thing. 

Anyway, the page is gridded full of dots. Each person take turns connecting the dots with a line. When a box is formed, the player puts their initial in the box. When the page is full of 'paddicks', the player with the most formed is the winner. My brothers and sisters would play this 'til the cows come home. The worst bit is putting all those dots on the page to start with.

I have made a printable game of 'Paddicks' to make the work easy, if you are looking for something to keep kids amused for hours! You can download it here. It could possibly be a good travelling game for older kids, or a game for rainy days to keep them occupied, besides screen time. 

Does your fridge look like mine? 
Remember doing any of this in your childhood?

*Follow One Mother Hen on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ 

Klop

Over the Australia Day long weekend, I was introduced to a great game called Klop. 

A friend had made her own version with logs from the wood heap, probably from garden cleanups. There are 12 pegs and a spare for using as a throwing peg.

It's claimed to have come from the forests of Finland and the 'klop' sound, made by hitting the pegs, broke the silence of the forest and in turn scared away the bears.

For two players or more, the first person to reach exactly 50 points wins. If the score goes over 50, that players score goes back to 25.

If you don't hit any pegs, three times in a row, you're out of the game.

The players stand at a mark, 3-4 metres back and throw a peg(the chuck) underarm at the set up pegs. If one peg is knocked over, the score is the number on that peg. If more than one is knocked over, the score is one point for each peg knocked down.

The pegs are stood back up where the fall.

It is available to buy, and the rules downloadable from the Klop website link above, it's lots of fun, and easy to play. A drink on hand doesn't go astray either, and after a few, the game becomes even more interesting.

Fun for all the family. Izzy did excellently, I on the other hand, was crap!