The premise of this lovely Kiwi book is to provide lots of recipes using everyday things, to engage your children in hours of play. Encouraging you and your kids to get messy or just pile some cushions on the floor and jump on them, this book presents plentiful opportunities to be creative together as a family.
For clarity’s sake, I will mention that these recipes are not food recipes as such – they are ‘activity recipes’. Many of the recipes do use your pantry contents though.
I’m liking
The book has an attractive, clear layout. Bright, bold colours and clear instructions make it very user-friendly. The book’s introduction states ‘ponder the results of actions as a team and fill [your children] with a sense of wonder and accomplishment’ – that sounds like a pretty good way to handle the many ‘whyyyyys’ and ‘but hooooooooows’ that you might be hearing each day from your toddler(s) and/or preschooler(s).
The recipes clearly lay out which senses are engaged through the activity, as well as the set up and clean up times and the mess factor involved.
One of the innovative things I really like about the book is the chapter for ‘takeaway play’. Listing some great ideas for ‘to do bags’ to take on the road, to appointments or to tuck in your handbag for the moments they are needed – I think these ideas could be useful in a plethora of different situations.
Things that made me go hmmmm
I would have appreciated an age-appropriateness indication on the various recipes, as being a first time mum I’m not always good at guaging this on my own.
The conclusion
Extra mess can be daunting for parents who are just trying to make it through the day, have dinner on the table and pick laundry and food particles up off the floor. The authors of this title are mums themselves and well aware of this fact – however the benefits of messy play are compelling reasons to jump in and do it anyway (and you know how much you’re getting yourself into beforehand with this well laid-out book).
This is a lovely title for having around home, but would also be fabulous on Playcentre and Kindy shelves, or for use in daycare centres. It retails for $30 a copy and is published by Penguin Group (NZ).
