If you've left it to the last minute to look for an advent calendar for this year, then perhaps you should consider one of advent calendar apps available.

With attractive illustrations, Bible verses to read and festive music, the free app Bethlehem the Beginning Advent Calendar is a great way to celebrate the approaching holiday season with your children.

You might also like to check out the previous post with links to creatable advent calendars here...

At the moment, commercially produced advent calendars are prominent on the shelves in all the stores. But this special festive celebration is so commercial and mass-produced, and I was really looking for something that was a little different, more creative- a home-style advent calendar. Once I started looking, I found so many great ideas that I found it hard to choose which ideas had the greatest impact and appeal. Check out the following selection and see what you think. Click on each image for the link to the source and instructions with printables, where possible. Please let me know if you've come across any other great ideas that should be included.

If you regularly find yourself singing the VeggieTales theme song in the produce aisle, or even if you’ve never heard of VeggieTales, you and your kids will enjoy the VeggieTales Spotisode Collection app. This free app features high-quality colour animations with clips from VegieTales movies, Silly Songs and gameplay.  Through object recognition games kids develop valuable skills and learn life’s important lessons while having fun . Find it here..

The people from VeggieTales have also produced a digital interactive book, 'The Surprising Knight- a lesson in loving others'. This app is also available.. see here.

But they have now released a new game app in conjunction with their latest movie, 'The League of Incredible Vegetables'. The game app puts the player into this interactive movie world as they choose from different VeggieTales characters and try to defeat fear and save Bumblyberg. The movie and the app present a lesson in handling fear; will the Veggies remember to turn to the One who is bigger than all their fears before the whole town ends up on ice? 

The app includes 28 different play levels and features simple touch-based controls and entertainment for kids 4-years and up. Courage points are earned as they progress through the games to buy super powers. See the promotion clip below.

Sports practice, school concerts, end-of-year
events, appointments…keeping track of all the family’s commitments is always a
headache but at this time of year, it’s almost impossible. 
The award-winning Cozi is a FREE family organiser and mobile app that
  helps you organise your busy life- Family Life.. Simplified. It’s well worth
  checking out, especially as the mobile app is now available for Australian
  families.


FAMILY CALENDAR
 A calendar for the whole family is easy to set up along with reminders for everyone assigned (txt or email) and a weekly emailed list of the upcoming events for the week. Recurring events like school schedules can easily be included. And, it syncs with other calendars.

TO DO LISTS
 Use the To-Do feature and receive timely reminders.  Assign tasks for kids, too, and print off a chore list for each child. Use a premade planning check list for any upcoming event from the lists of household cleaning, party needs, birthday party checklists, pantry needs, school supplies and more.

 FAMILY MEALS
Plan meals with the drag and drop recipes feature to create your weekly dinner plan. Add recipes and ideas to the online recipe box and add ingredients to your shopping list. Your shopping list is available on your app or can be emailed so that it’s always available. 

FAMILY JOURNAL
 Easily add family memories and milestones to the family journal/blog and share family news via email, on a private family website or on Facebook. The Cozi homepage also includes regular, helpful family articles and ideas. Find Cozi HERE...

 Cozi wins awards year after year and you’ll find it invaluable as a family organiser. There are other apps available from Cozi, too, that you might like to check out: Cozi Password Vault and Cozi Kids Colouring.

 Check out the Cozi clip below for a comprehensive overview of the Cozi organiser- specially designed for busy families.

While we all recognise the need to keep up-to-date with media reviews and great ideas to enrich our family life and deepen our faith, we all find it difficult to find time to find quality content. And, the cost of such material can be an issue. 

Here are some helpful sources.. content that is free and is readily available to download in-app to your iPad or Smartphone. Check them out:

Thriving Family (Focus on the Family) provides a free magazine download with content covering family stages, media reviews, ideas for including family faith into your busy life, devotions, family living articles and more. Read it yourself and encourage other families to download and read these informative family articles and features, too. (iPad app)

HomeFront (David C. Cook) is another free downloadable magazine app that you may like to consider. Download and read the magazine as a digital magazine or look through the listed resources- Environment, God's Word, Food and Fun, Traditions, Storytelling and more. Then choose 2 or 3 ideas to incorporate into your family times during the week. You'll find conversation starters, recipes and activities for different age groups.

And.. all these articles, ideas and resources are ready-to-hand on your iPad or Smartphone.

A constant refrain for many families is, 'Life is too busy!' and, while we acknowledge its truth, we seem incapable of slowing down. But it's especially important to slow down sufficiently to take photos, regularly, of our kids and grandchildren. Someone once said that film of childhood can never be run through for a second showing, and if we miss those moments, those days, those seasons of our children's development, we can never reclaim them.

One way to set up a regular photo reminder to record a memory is to use the app TinyBeans. If you missed our earlier review of this app, you can read it here.

It's also helpful to have a suggested list of photo ideas or suggestions to help you create an unique and meaningful snap of your family. Rebecca Cooper has provided free downloadable lists to trigger your imagination and make these photographic moments fun! You can check out her list 'Embrace the Camera: 50 photos to take with your kids' below (just click on the illustration to enlarge) or see more of her lists on her site here.

Her books, 'Don't Say Cheese', and '40 Top Tips for Better Photos' provide you with ideas and tip to help you make the most of any photographic opportunity with your children. Your can find her books here.

When your children are young, you sometimes feel like you need to make a weekly appointment with your family doctor. Certainly, it is time-consuming to keep track of childhood growth and development, vaccinations, childhood illness, allergies and other medical records.

Now, you can easily maintain a mobile family medical record using one of the iPad/iPhone apps available. This type  of app is essential for emergencies or when there’s been an accident and medical information is needed on the spot. But you’ll find just as much use for this type of app in recording the progress of your children’s development, illness history, vaccinations records and allergies.

Two apps of this type stand out- My Kid’s Health and My Medical for iPad. Both of these apps sync with your iPad calendar for ease of use when making doctor’s appointments and receiving reminders. Medical contact information is automatically included from your contacts.

My Kid’s Health includes personal vaccination schedules for your child from the World Health Organisation and national health organisations. It has an easy interface and attractive graphics. Growth records- weight, height, head circumference etc can be easily viewed in table or graph format. It is the more expensive of the two but requires no upgrades.

My Medical includes common medical test templates to track results- height, weight, blood pressure, CAT scan and more. Files can be attached and a report can be generated from the medical records and printed or emailed as required. My Medical can be used for the whole family.

Someone has mentioned that a Notes area would be useful to record any questions to ask the doctor or to list any instructions given verbally, but I’m sure additional features will be added later.

Check out both these useful apps and find that your medical record keeping becomes a breeze.

It doesn’t seem so long ago that we were searching for warming, winter soup recipes and now, the heat has hit and ice-cream is looking pretty good.  These Traffic Light iceblocks are a great idea for kids from Annabel Karmel. Annabel has produced some wonderful little recipe books for families with which you may be familiar. Not only do the healthy recipes cater for particular age groups of kids, they are also creatively presented. And these fruity ice creations are no exception. I’ve included the recipe below but you can check out her website for more wonderful meal ideas to tempt the most fussy of eaters. The website also includes videos of Annabel cooking some of these recipes and I’ve included one below.
Check out the website here…


Annabel Karmel also has an app- The Essential Guide to Feeding your baby and Toddler- filled with recipes, cooking tips and teaching videos. See below...

Traffic Light Ices
Prep time: 20 minutes plus freezing time Its easy to make fresh fruit lollies and you can use just one type of fruit if you prefer.

 Ingredients
250g strawberries
4 ½ tbsp honey
3 large ripe juicy peaches, peeled,
stoned and sliced or used tinned apricots in juice
5 large ripe kiwi fruit,
peeled and sliced

 Method
In a blender, puree the strawberries and then sieve the puree to get rid of the seeds. Stir one and a half tbsp of the honey into the strawberry puree.

Then pour the strawberry puree into each of the ice lolly moulds (or use empty yoghurt pots) until each mould is one third full and freeze until firm
(about 1 ½ hours).

Repeat the process with the peaches and 1 ½ tbsp of the honey (no need to sieve the peaches) and freeze until firm, then add the kiwi fruit mixed with the rest of the honey and insert the sticks

You've been planning it and looking forward to it for months and now, it's just a few sleeps way... a wonderful travelling holiday for the whole family. It's going to be great! You've planned the exciting destinations along the way, the stop-offs to visit extended family on-route, the special tourist attractions and the 'must visit' scenic rainforest and bush walks and mountaintop panoramas.
But, are you organised for those long hours in the car with bored children? 
Here's a couple of suggestions that might help to quell those painful 'Are you there yet?' questions.

* Travel Journals Provide each child with a notebook to create their own Travel Journal that they can fill with drawings, pressed flowers/leaves, lists of places you visit and more. Even better, check out the Smiggle's 'Are we there yet, Journal. These idea-packed spiral bound notebooks contain pages and pages of fun activities to keep kids occupied. There are note pages as well as sticker pages and heaps of places to store mementos.
*If you're thinking of creating a travel journal yourself, why not consider My Vacation app. You can take photos and videos and add a caption to each. View a map of where the photo was taken. Keep a diary of each day of the trip. Keep a list of important travel information and things to pack. Enter travel destinations and see useful travel links including weather and timezone information. Generate an email postcard to send to friends and upload journals to Dropbox, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger and more. Find it in the App Store.
* Travel Blogging If you're wanting to blog on your trip, check out Travel iBlog HD, a writing blog that helps you create beautiful travel entries.
*Find-it books Check out your local bookstore for some copies of FInd-it Books with pages and pages of pictures with small items to locate hidden in each.
* Find It Adventure Australian Geographic have a similar idea created as brightly coloured, solid, sealed tube with hidden items to find.Twist, shake, spin or roll the tube to try an bring new objects to the surface! It is a great travel game, terrific learning center activity, or is fun played as a timed game with others. There are no pieces to lose and the list of objects to find is conveniently printed on top of the tube so you'll never have to worry about losing part of the game.
* Puzzles Download some activity sheets from Momsminivan and keep the kids occupied for hours with Travel Bingo cards, as they look for animals, road signs and more to complete their sheet. Or, hand them each a sheet of Lines & Dots to play together.  
* Apps If you're running out of time, just download the iPhone 'Scavenger Traveler' app that puts a new twist on the classic scavenger hunt. This is a multi-player, multi-level game that challenges adults and kids to locate different objects within their surroundings. On the road, in the air or around your lodgings, the five categories of lists: easy peasy, kind of easy, not so easy, super star and champion. Each one challenges players to search and find items ranging from the very general for younger ages (something round, something green) to the very specific (a napkin, a pine cone), checking them off as they go.
* Scribble art Give all passengers a washable marker, paper, and a hard surface to write on (use a book or lap tray). Have everyone draw one squiggly line on the paper, then trade with someone else. Now try to make a picture out of what's there. Can each of you guess what the other's drawing shows?
*Handmates Take finger puppets or, with a marker, draw funny faces on your child's fingertips. Then let him put on a puppet show for you or his seatmates (a good way to keep a younger sibling entertained).Homemade puzzles On your child's tray, break a large cracker into several pieces and see whether she can put it back together. She can make new puzzles by nibbling at the pieces!
*Twisty creations Pack a bag of pipe cleaners. What contraptions can your child invent?*Hue hunt Give all passengers paper and a pencil, then have each person pick a different color and print it at the top of his page. When you yell "Go!" everyone should look for passing cars and trucks in the color they chose. The first one to get ten wins. Pick new colors to start again. 
* Snacks  Provide plenty of snacks to help while away those hours. Check out this list of healthy snack options..here
* Where to Eat or FastFood app might be useful to help you find a cafe or restaurant wherever you stop and check ratings.
I hope these suggestions and help, and that you have a wonderful holiday together filled with heart-warming memories. 

We may all have 1440 minutes every day, but somehow or other there just never seems enough time to complete all that we'd hoped to accomplish.
If you find it hard to organise your day or complete weekly tasks, then the productivity blog Day-Timer might be helpful. Day-Timer suggests a simple process:

• Spend 5 minutes each day re-writing a new daily to-do list.
• Start with 3-5 priority tasks you know you can accomplish today.
• Evaluate which tasks must be done and others you'd like to accomplish
• Park the tasks you don't see yourself doing today on a holding list for another day.

Now.. if you need some help with writing up your 'To-do List', you may choose to print your own or purchase some professionally printed versions. Many are available but you might like to check out some of the suggestions below. Or, you may wish to use an online family planner/calendar.  Cozi is an excellent online solution, and it's free!  Cozi is a FREE online organizer and mobile app that helps you manage the family schedule, organize shopping lists and to do lists, and capture favorite memories—all in one place.  


Check out some of the links below....

www.cozi.com   Online organiser for families
www.kikki-k.com   Purchase these great organisational booklets online here.
www.ishareprintables.com   A great selection of free printables including organisational helps.
Printable daily planner