With spring and the Easter holidays on the horizon, here are some ideas on how to get your kids outside at this time of year:

* Easter egg hunt: look in your local newspaper to see if there is an egg hunt happening near you. If not, make up your own: you can buy buckets with several small, hollow eggs, or buy a selection of caramel, chocolate or cream-filled eggs that are always around at this time of year, then simply hide them outside, invite some friends around and let the kids go hunting!

It’s a good idea to let younger ones hunt first, and keep some eggs back to replace found ones so that everyone gets a turn. If you don’t want them to have too much chocolate, set up a series of questions and clues for the hunt part, and reward everyone with a single egg at the end.

* A lovely way to help children appreciate nature in all its glory is to go flower spotting in early spring. Take a book with you so you can identify all the new leaves and flowers you see beginning to emerge.

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What happens when you cross a pillow with a pet? You get… hugapet!

Perhaps your child is begging for a pet (and you’re not so keen) and also, per chance, needs a pillow. If so, the best kids bedtime accessory, hugapet is the answer!

The cuddly, ‘soft toy’ pets are held together by a Velcro tab that when undone converts into a pillow. Hugapet is a fun, daytime pet but also a cuddly sleep time accessory.

My daughter is two, sleeps in a ‘big girl bed’ but doesn’t use a pillow. Instead, she uses her teddies as a resting place for her weary head. I can’t imagine that Tigger’s leg, monkey’s face or Care Bear’s arm are particularly comfortable. But comfort is not my little girl’s objective. She sleeps on her teddies because she loves them.

I imagine that she’d love a hugapet (preferably a kitty), and at least it’d provide a comfier head rest. And the best kids bedtime accessory is also a great for travelling companion.

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Theodor Seuss Geisel – American writer, poet and cartoonist – also known as Dr. Seuss: the man’s works are genius! He was a satirist, a comedian… and just knew how to relate to kids.

His rhymes are hilarious and beautifully catchy. I adore his stories and am in the process of making sure that my two-year-old daughter develops the same ‘love of Seuss’ – a euphemism for indoctrination. Don’t judge! Dr Seuss is totally worthy of a little brain-washing. Big brother says yes.

Gurgle magazine (Feb/March edition) has published a list of ten Seussisms. I had to share these because they are so clever and reveal Seuss to be quite the philosopher. Behind the simple words and witty humour are life lessons that are both poignant and true!

Here’s the Top ten Dr Seuss quotes…Enjoy!

1. “It is fun to have fun but you have to know how.” – The Cat in the Hat

2. “From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere.” – One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

3. “Shout loud, ‘I am what I am! Thank goodness I’m not just a clam or a ham.’” – Happy Birthday to You!

4. “Some days are yellow, some are blue. On different days I’m different too.” – My Many Coloured Days

5. “You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes, you can steer yourself any direction you choose.” – Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

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Get your children high on literature with iF Poems; a poetry app for kids and for adults of any age.

iF Poems has 230 classic poems from Lear’s “The Owl And The Pussycat” to Belloc’s “Matilda Who Told Lies And Was Burned To Death” to Yeats’s “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death”.

It is a carefully chosen selection of poems by poets including Eliot, W.H. Auden, Siegfried Sassoon, Lewis Carroll, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Rupert Brooke, William Shakespeare, Lord Byron, Edgar Allen Poe and Dr Seuss… plus others.

Some of the poems are read by acclaimed actors Helena Bonham Carter and Bill Nighy but there is also the option the app also offers the option for you to record yourself reading the poems – so your toddler can listen to you whenever, wherever.

Other features on the poetry app for kids include the ability to:

* email a poem and email your recording of a poem.

* tap on any word for a dictionary definition.

* save poems to a ‘Favourites’ page.

* search by title, author, first line or by any word.

* get a dictionary definition of any word.

The app can be searched by section – you can look for a ‘Funny poem’, a ‘War poem’ or a ‘poem for Bedtime’ – making it easy and fun to navigate. You can also search by age; poems have been separated the poems into three age groups: age 0-6, 7-12, and 13 and over.

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Let’s cut to the chase: Personalised Vintage Nursery Blocks by Chipper Nelly – they’re gorgeous. I’d buy them myself, give them as a gift, share them on facebook, tweet them, ‘like’ them, love them…

… Perfect vintage nursery products, I want them. And you should too.

Each block is solid birch, measures 5cm and is covered in beautiful paper, sanded and inked to give an aged feel, then coated in sealant.

They are customised to order. Five of the sides are covered in vintage imagery – with wood visible in places. The front face is covered in coordinating plain paper, ready for a letter of your choice, which can appear in upper or lower case – as you wish.

The little treasures are then wrapped in spotty cellophane, tied with a piece of gingham and enclosed with a manila luggage tag.

And to tempt you further; the price per block (£5.95) decreases the more you purchase.

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