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The Joy Journal for Magical Everyday Play
The Joy Journal for Magical Everyday Play by Laura Brand showcases fifty engaging activities for creative, everyday playtime to encourage a connection to nature, sense of joy and bonding with your kids, while nurturing your own inner child too.
The activities are mindful, creative and, crucially, very easy things to make and do with children that you will enjoy as much as they will. From moon sand to flower soup and nature wands there are short, long, loud and quiet activities to take you from morning to evening – each with a focus on the risk volume of effort vs child engagement and mess. Laura Brand has been testing these while writing and raising her two-under-two, and shares the happy accidents and road blocks she’s hit along the way in honest, open and often funny introductions to each of the exercises.
This beautiful handbook will help you to inject fun, mindfulness and craft into bath-times, rainy afternoons, long journeys and play dates and to resist (as much as possible!) the temptation to succumb to screen time. Chapters take you through the seasons, with indoor, outdoor and on-the-go activities that are easy and fun every day.
The Joy Journal will arm you with a variety of fun, focussed activities made with store cupboard and easily foraged supplies that you can turn to time and again. All activities are suitable for toddlers, pre-schoolers, grown-ups and everyone in between.
The activities are mindful, creative and, crucially, very easy things to make and do with children that you will enjoy as much as they will. From moon sand to flower soup and nature wands there are short, long, loud and quiet activities to take you from morning to evening – each with a focus on the risk volume of effort vs child engagement and mess. Laura Brand has been testing these while writing and raising her two-under-two, and shares the happy accidents and road blocks she’s hit along the way in honest, open and often funny introductions to each of the exercises.
This beautiful handbook will help you to inject fun, mindfulness and craft into bath-times, rainy afternoons, long journeys and play dates and to resist (as much as possible!) the temptation to succumb to screen time. Chapters take you through the seasons, with indoor, outdoor and on-the-go activities that are easy and fun every day.
The Joy Journal will arm you with a variety of fun, focussed activities made with store cupboard and easily foraged supplies that you can turn to time and again. All activities are suitable for toddlers, pre-schoolers, grown-ups and everyone in between.
- GenresParentingNonfiction
208 pages, Paperback
Published August 15, 2023
19 people are currently reading
165 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 20, 2024
Exactly what I've been looking for!
My six year old has complex additional needs and learning disabilities and this book is full of activities that are perfect for helping him explore his environment and learn through playing, which is always my preferred way to teach.
I'm excited to get stuck into these activities, especially now that the weather outside has gotten so miserable - the sensory water play especially sounds completely perfect and it's already sparked more ideas for me to make it seasonal for autumn and winter too.
Even if you don't have children, this book is great if you want to find a creative and mindful way to spend your time instead of endlessly scrolling social media. Being creative is so relaxing and it's definitely good for your mental health too.
My six year old has complex additional needs and learning disabilities and this book is full of activities that are perfect for helping him explore his environment and learn through playing, which is always my preferred way to teach.
I'm excited to get stuck into these activities, especially now that the weather outside has gotten so miserable - the sensory water play especially sounds completely perfect and it's already sparked more ideas for me to make it seasonal for autumn and winter too.
Even if you don't have children, this book is great if you want to find a creative and mindful way to spend your time instead of endlessly scrolling social media. Being creative is so relaxing and it's definitely good for your mental health too.
June 7, 2020
I loved the idea of this book, it’s very beautiful and room to write about your ideas and crafts, I’d of preferred some pictures of craft too x
March 12, 2021
The Joy Journal for Magical Everyday Play is a lovely book that will appeal to parents of pre-school children, (maybe even kids who are developmentally early primary school age).
There are lovely ideas to keep little ones entertained and the author has so thoughtfully presented each activity with all the materials needed, an enjoyability rating for parents, as well as for the amount of mess to be expected. Personally I loved this, as it enabled me to do a quick mental calculation as to whether any given activity was a goer in terms of the mess/effort/enjoyability trade off at any given point in time.
The author even highlights some activities as being particularly quick, which is super helpful to parents of young children for whom time is so often of the essence.
There are pages at the end of each section to make notes which gives this book that lovely journal feel, while the illustrations and quirky font further support this impression.
Some of the activities require virtually no equipment enabling people to get started straightaway, most equipment is fairly easily sourced, some activities even encourage the reader to forage in nature to find the required materials, which I’m sure is no bad thing!
I would thoroughly recommend this book to parents, whether they are first time parents, or negotiating life with 2 or more small people to entertain. It will certainly support children’s development, as well as giving parents the kudos of knowing they are providing fantastic stimulating experiences for their young children.
Clearly a lot of thought has gone into the activities in this book, and how to make these as accessible to parents as possible.
My thanks to NetGalley, author and publisher for the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an honest review.
There are lovely ideas to keep little ones entertained and the author has so thoughtfully presented each activity with all the materials needed, an enjoyability rating for parents, as well as for the amount of mess to be expected. Personally I loved this, as it enabled me to do a quick mental calculation as to whether any given activity was a goer in terms of the mess/effort/enjoyability trade off at any given point in time.
The author even highlights some activities as being particularly quick, which is super helpful to parents of young children for whom time is so often of the essence.
There are pages at the end of each section to make notes which gives this book that lovely journal feel, while the illustrations and quirky font further support this impression.
Some of the activities require virtually no equipment enabling people to get started straightaway, most equipment is fairly easily sourced, some activities even encourage the reader to forage in nature to find the required materials, which I’m sure is no bad thing!
I would thoroughly recommend this book to parents, whether they are first time parents, or negotiating life with 2 or more small people to entertain. It will certainly support children’s development, as well as giving parents the kudos of knowing they are providing fantastic stimulating experiences for their young children.
Clearly a lot of thought has gone into the activities in this book, and how to make these as accessible to parents as possible.
My thanks to NetGalley, author and publisher for the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an honest review.
June 2, 2021
I really liked this book, it was packed full with lots of activities I'd never thought of - as a newly arrived step mother, I wasn't sure if some of my ideas were age appropriate, and a little book like this just helped me feel so confident and not out of my comfort zone, and I am forever grateful for that.
Coupled with my need for creativity and being a bit more of an expert that I am in play, Laura Brand manages to aid me in a lot of trial and error, luckily you don't need a lot of stuff for kids to have fun times, I've had so much fun just flicking through, bookmarking and revisiting!
I will love to have this hand held in a hardback or paperback format, I think it will be so useful to have on the shelf and the ideas are so refreshing and easily adaptable. It's like budget fun on a shoe string, the best fun costs nothing! Perfect book, I've not seen anything like this out there, definitely impressed!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-copy of this book, in return for my honest review!
Coupled with my need for creativity and being a bit more of an expert that I am in play, Laura Brand manages to aid me in a lot of trial and error, luckily you don't need a lot of stuff for kids to have fun times, I've had so much fun just flicking through, bookmarking and revisiting!
I will love to have this hand held in a hardback or paperback format, I think it will be so useful to have on the shelf and the ideas are so refreshing and easily adaptable. It's like budget fun on a shoe string, the best fun costs nothing! Perfect book, I've not seen anything like this out there, definitely impressed!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-copy of this book, in return for my honest review!
June 1, 2020
Absolutely flipping love it. Every parent should have a copy of this book on standby.
There isn’t anything negative to say about it really - it’s so superbly simple that I was able to do three of the activities straight off the bat with my daughter, and she loved them all. I love the explanations and the prep, the layout and the variety. I love how Laura has put so much thought into everything and you can feel her willing you to have a great time with your kids.
This book is going to get tatty and worn with all the use I foresee. I’m already thinking how great it will be when I’m a grandma 😂
There isn’t anything negative to say about it really - it’s so superbly simple that I was able to do three of the activities straight off the bat with my daughter, and she loved them all. I love the explanations and the prep, the layout and the variety. I love how Laura has put so much thought into everything and you can feel her willing you to have a great time with your kids.
This book is going to get tatty and worn with all the use I foresee. I’m already thinking how great it will be when I’m a grandma 😂
November 20, 2020
I loved, loved, loved this amazing book. This is an amazing book filled with simple activities that can be done by kids or adults, it has everything DIY and I realized its one of those stress reliever which is a must have. There are simple craft activities for different types of moods and days which is more amazing. What I really loved was the DIY glue making and color preparation. I loved the concept of the book and I am sure this book will keep you engaged, will make you feel happy and it's the happy book which will remind you of your childhood! This book is a great gift if you wanna gift to yourself or something you love! I will highly recommend it.
February 4, 2021
This is such a beautiful and well thought out activity book for cool kids and fun Mum's and Dad's.
Thank you for sending me a copy, I have loved trying some of the activities and craft with my kids at home, such a blessing during lockdown, we have had the best home school fun.
Will be highly recommending to my customers and friends and family with wee ones.
Thank you for sending me a copy, I have loved trying some of the activities and craft with my kids at home, such a blessing during lockdown, we have had the best home school fun.
Will be highly recommending to my customers and friends and family with wee ones.
August 12, 2020
Such a helpful book full of resources and play ideas for parents & children. I'm going to be using quite a bit of these ideas!!
October 6, 2020
This book is like having a sensible but fun nature fairy as your arts and crafts teacher.
I cannot wait to try out all of the recipes in it.
I cannot wait to try out all of the recipes in it.
January 17, 2021
Nice ideas, mostly ones I have read in other books too. Perhaps I've read a few too many books like this now 🙃 good for reference
April 8, 2021
This is a stunning book with the ideas put together so accessibly. I finished it all in the same day. Such a great idea to compose your most loved activities in to a journal.
October 17, 2021
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-copy of this book.
It's hard to properly comment on an e-copy of a book like this. It looks well laid out and illustrated but I think it's the kind of book that needs to be held, flicked through, bookmarked and scribbled in. At the end of each section there is space to write notes and ideas so it's very much a practical book.
There are certainly lots of activities and ideas for young children - indoors, outdoors, messy, clean-ish, quiet, noisy etc. All of them are clearly described. I tried the Moon Sand with my granddaughter and she played with it for hours, and there are lots of activities like that - cheap and easy to make but engaging for children (and adults!)
Definitely worth having this on the bookshelf for ideas to keep little ones busy.
It's hard to properly comment on an e-copy of a book like this. It looks well laid out and illustrated but I think it's the kind of book that needs to be held, flicked through, bookmarked and scribbled in. At the end of each section there is space to write notes and ideas so it's very much a practical book.
There are certainly lots of activities and ideas for young children - indoors, outdoors, messy, clean-ish, quiet, noisy etc. All of them are clearly described. I tried the Moon Sand with my granddaughter and she played with it for hours, and there are lots of activities like that - cheap and easy to make but engaging for children (and adults!)
Definitely worth having this on the bookshelf for ideas to keep little ones busy.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews