I wonder which flavours would fill the pages of your child's dream recipe book?! Whilst sandwiches are always a good place to start when it comes to giving a child the reigns in the kitchen, why not try something a little more adventurous this Spring?

At Pictologue, we cherish each child's choices and we seek to create thousands of opportunities for children to show us what they like and share their ideas - it's all part of getting to know someone and show them that we love who they are and what they're about.

So, put your apron (and brave face) on and find out what your little chef has in store...

Here are a few of our Pictologue thoughts to help:

1. Special time

Choose a time when you have nothing else to do as this will require your undivided attention :-) it's also important that your child feels no sense of pressure - set aside a good morning or a rainy afternoon.

2. Guaranteed success

Group together preferred ingredient choices here (this will also reduce the risk of all your kitchen contents being added to the pot!) Think about things your child enjoys eating (e.g. cupcakes/flapjacks/pastries) and different ingredients which would make the recipe work (e.g. flour/oats, juice/milk, brown/white sugar). Limited choices are still choices and it's better if the end result is edible!

3. Visual choices

As your child selects each ingredient, draw a picture of it on your 'recipe'. This may look different depending on your child's stage (e.g. matching a cut-out label to the corresponding ingredient, taking a photo of it, watching you draw it, colouring in a picture of it, writing the first letter of it). Put away spare ingredients and show your child where each one 'lives' to help their categorisation and organisation (e.g. in the fridge/larder/cupboard/drawer).

4. I can do it!

Children love to try out the things they see you do each day. Remember it doesn't matter if the flour is light and fluffy or if all the butter is perfectly integrated here! Ask your child what they think - should we mash it or chop it, mix it with a spoon or in the mixer? You can also add in sequencing skills here by talking about what needs to happen first and next. Write/draw their ideas on your recipe card as you go along. 

5. Set the routine

Whilst their delicacy is setting or baking, encourage your child to participate in the tidying up to whatever level is appropriate (e.g. stacking the dishwasher, putting items in the sink, popping the bubbles as you wash up). It's important for children to learn a sense of responsibility and the full sequence of events - not just the 'fun' parts!

6. Share the experience

Hopefully your child has created something beautiful and tasty for you both to eat together. Share the goodies and recipe with family and friends to show your little one how proud you are of them. It's also a really good opportunity to practice recall and storytelling skills (e.g. what did we do first? Which ingredients did you choose?)

Enjoy!

We would love to see what your little chefs have made, so please do share your recipes and photos with us. Hand-drawn and cut-out pictures would suffice but please don't hesitate to get in touch if you would like us to provide you with any of the pictures you may need to help make this creative activity truly Pictologued.

Play therapy refers to a large number of treatment methods. Play therapy is an umbrella term that describes several modalities including:

Play Therapy is a therapeutic approach for communicating with children through their form of language. Play is their language while toys are their words. Play is the natural medium of children and play therapy has been proved effective as it is based upon the natural habit of play. Based on the brain development, usually, children have not developed the cognitive or verbal skills to process their feelings and experiences. Trained play therapists provide children a safe, supportive, non-judgmental therapeutic environment for them to process their experiences.

Two major approaches are 'Non-directive play therapy', meaning that the child is on the lead of the session, and 'Directive play therapy', where the child engages in structured activities which will facilitate positive growth and development and are based upon their individual needs and personalities. A skilled practitioner will adopt a mix of both approaches in order to create a safe pathway to the child's inner world aiming to establish healing. Play therapy can be healing for children who went through a major trauma, or may be going through various transitions in life.

In more detail, Play therapy allows children to:

1. Understand diversity.
2. Experience a less threatening approach to talk therapy.
3. Think creatively – encourage new ideas
4. Express themselves as a metaphor for conflicts, emotions, and relationships.
5. Allow parents, caregivers, and others, into a child’s inner world.
6. Respect and accept themselves and others.
7. Develop self-control, self-responsibility, and a healthy self-esteem.
8. Rehearse and master skills.
9. Increase their levels of concentration
10. Cultivate empathy and respect for thoughts and feelings of others.
11. Communicate ideas, thoughts, feelings and experiences.
12. Acquire responsibility for behaviours and develop more successful strategies.

The Therapeutic Environment

Pictologue's playroom is child-friendly and filled with toys, love and adventures. In addition, therapeutic playrooms offer children a great variety of materials (e.g. clay, sand, water, play-dough, art and craft props etc.) and give them the opportunity to participate in many different activities (e.g. role-play, story-telling, singing and dancing, experimenting with colours and marks etc.) all based upon their individual and unique personalities, likes and dislikes.

Please feel free to post any questions and comments that you may have in regards to Play Therapy below. We would be more than happy to hear your ideas and share our thoughts and experiences with you. 

Impress your Easter Dinner guests with these amazing looking main dishes and desserts. Use your imagination and create amazing Easter themed plates for the whole family to enjoy. Here are some easy ideas that can be made with ingredients of your choice depending on yours and your family's favourite flavours !!

Have a lovely Easter everyone !!!

1. Bunny shaped bread with filling of your choice

2. Chick cupcakes or muffins (use icing for decorating)

3.Easter themes sushi puddings (use sweets and marshmallows for toppings and rice krispies in marshmallow cream to make the rice art of the sushi)

4. Chick eggs

5. Easter shaped bread of your choice with favorite dip

6. Carrot shaped puddings (inside you can make a filling of cake, chocolate or rice krispies. Use icing for decorations)

7. Easter themed biscuits, bunnies and sheep !!! Use buttercream and icing sugar for decorating your favorite flavored cookies. 

8. Easter themed healthy breakfast for your little ones

9. Pudding Pie Baskets - can use pastry or apples for baskets and a filling of your choice

10. And of course, impress your guests with this nest themed cake this Easter.

Good luck and enjoy the holidays this Easter. We hope to see you soon in Pictologue. 

Let us know if you would like a Picture pack to go along your Easter dinner recipes this year !!

It's still absolutely freezing but the sun is shining with increasing strength and the brave new buds are starting to open up and blossom, making tall dark trees begin to dance again.

Springtime... It's always exciting, full of anticipation and the perfect time to prepare your home for the year ahead with a good old-fashioned Spring clean!?

I recommend starting with the playroom or children's corners - it seems more manageable than anywhere else! Here are just a few Pictologue Playroom tips:

1. Less is more - start a toy rota and hide away half of the toys on offer. This will not only free up more playing space, but it will allow your child to focus, choose and enjoy playing with each item in turn.
2. Everything has its place - put individual activities or groups of toys together. For example, a musical box, an art and craft basket, a cosy teddy corner, a family games shelf... This will not only look super-organised but help your child to categorise, associate, learn and remember where to find similar and different play things. 
3. Pretty as a picture - it doesn't take long for too much fun to untidy things here so to help keep your playroom in shape, create labels, stickers or photos so that everyone can help to keep the place looking perfect. If you use Velcro to attach them to toy boxes or shelves, they can double up as picture choices too.  

Please share your photos to inspire us and let us know if you need any help to Pictologue your Playroom this springtime.