toucanbox

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Screens off, hands-on!

Get kids off screens and creating with their hands, in partnership with National Unplugging Day this Sunday June 25th.

Addicted to tech?

84% of mobile phone users claim they can’t go a single day without their device and I’m definitely one of them. I’m super strict about limiting screen time for my kids, and yet, as my 8 year old daughter rightly pointed out, somehow find it difficult to apply the same rules to myself. Does that make me  a tech addict? Well, according to Dr Richard Graham’s Technology addiction test, with a 5/10 score, I have “a troubling relationship with technology”. Phew! Not quite classed as an addict...yet.

Sunday 25th June: National Unplugging Day.

Want to join us in our mission to unleash children’s creativity? Then take the challenge with us! Pledge to switch off all screens on Sunday and break free from technology to reconnect with your (inner) child.

This year for the first time, toucanBox will be celebrating National Unplugging Day. We will be distributing free arts and crafts kits to help children and parents up and down the country spend quality time together.

We unplug to...craft

What better way to unplug than experimenting with materials? When children do arts and crafts they unleash their creativity. Most importantly, they love to spend time with an adult creating something together!

Crafting often requires patience, whether it is waiting for the paint to dry or pieces to stick together. It’s a great way to learn self control, a key skill for school and life in general.

How are you planning to spend your screen-free Sunday? Will your kids find it difficult?

Join the conversation on Facebook, download the poster, make your pledge and tag your pictures #childhoodunplugged (wait...no posting on Sunday!)

Looking for ideas? Make a fortune teller puppy. Also here in black and white.

Have a crafty weekend!

Virginie

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TOUCANBOX CARDBOARD CREATIONS (Part 2)

Turn your toucanBox into something fantastically fun with our cardboard creations!

Cardboard African Mask

Cardboard Castle

Cardboard Butterfly

Cardboard Boomerang

Happy crafting!

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TOUCANBOX CARDBOARD CREATIONS

Your toucanBox fun doesn't end with the craft inside the box...

You can turn the box itself into something fantastically fun, too! Check out our amazing cardboard creations using the toucanBox, some leftover bits from your toucanBox craft, and few simple items you should find around your home. 

Cardboard TeePee

Artist's Cardboard Paint Palette

Cardboard Dino Feet

Cardboard Honeycomb

Check out more projects here: toucanBox Cardboard Creations (Part 2)

Happy crafting!

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The original aim of International Women's Day – to achieve full gender equality for women of the world – has still not been realised. According to the World Economic Forum, the gender gap won't close until 2186. We need to recognise these inequalities but also celebrate the achievements of women who have overcome these barriers. So, on this#internationalwomensday, we're proud to share our company's statistics: - 2 strong female co-founders - Parity on our board and steering group - 55% of toucanBox employees are women - 100% of our products are designed to appeal to both genders (our customer base is split equally between boys and girls). Want to join us on our mission to unleash children’s creativity, one box at a time? Check our current job openings (https://toucanbox.workable.com/) and be part of the fun!

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Craft Ideas: Whirly Bird

Create this fun little helicopter, which doesn't quite fly, but certainly falls in style. Just download your template here and pop on your flying goggles to get going.

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Make your own colouring sheet

Personalise your very own toucanoo! Choose clothes, hair and accessories to invent a completely unique character. Finally give them a name, then print it off and get colouring!

READY TO GO? LET'S DO IT

First things first, would you like your toucanoo to be a...

Boy Girl

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GET COLOURING: SANTA

Santa’s having his jacked pressed and polishing his boots. The reindeer are warming up their legs for the big flight across the world. So yes, we’re a little bit excited at toucanBox HQ. Unsurprisingly, something that calms us down is a good bit of colouring in. Filling a blank page with waxy crayons? Staying in the lines? Yes please. To celebrate the big man strutting across our roof, we’ve made a cool downloadable colouring sheet of, well, the big man strutting across a roof. Download it for free, print it out and get creative!

Download your colouring sheet here.

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GET COOKING: GINGERBREAD PRESENTS

To us, the true scent of Christmas is fresh gingerbread wafting from the kitchen. All those amazing spices just make us want to cosy up and start munching the evening away. You can cook these super simple gingerbread presents, and give them to your family and friend. Oh, and leave one out for Santa. He needs the energy on Christmas Eve.

INGREDIENTS:

350g plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

125g butter

175g light soft brown sugar

1 egg

4 tbsp golden syrup

4 tbsp icing sugar

Sweets for decorating

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C, gas mark 4. Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon. Mix in the butter until it looks like breadcrumbs. Mix in the sugar.

2. Beat the egg and add the syrup. Mix into the main mixture until it all combines.

3. Roll out your mixture so it is less than 1cm thick. Cut into squares.

4. Place the squares on a lined baking tray. Pop in the oven for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown. Once cooked, leave to cool.

5. Mix a few drops of water into the icing sugar, and mix together. Add dollops of icing sugar to the gingerbread, and decorate your presents.

Give out your yummy presents to friends and family!

Return to the toucanBox Advent Calendar

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THE ULTIMATE FESTIVE HOT CHOCOLATE

I don’t know about you, but I spent the final weekend before Christmas wrapped up by the fireplace (reality check, it wasn’t on; health and safety), in my novelty pyjamas, enjoying the glow of the Christmas lights on my little tree and getting slightly stressed out at the glow of my laptop screen as I frantically ordered all the presents I had so far not managed to think about or stress over.

And the festive spirit was with me in spades. Cheese and biscuits out, eating advent calendar chocolate before breakfast in the morning, and giving Noddy Holder a few quid in royalties. But there was one key thing missing: a really scrumptious winter hot chocolate.

So Colleen from Magic Freebies UK has come to the rescue. She’s cooked up the perfect festive hot chocolate, and it’s just so good we can’t keep it a secret! It’s super-easy to make, and once a responsible adult has heated up the milk, the kids can get involved with the best part - going mad with decoration! A tray will come in very handy, as those pesky little sprinkles can, and will, get everywhere.

Let’s get cooking! Take it away, Colleen...

You Will Need:

Milk (1 cup per person)

Hot chocolate powder or cocoa powder

Marshmallows (pink and white)

A Flake

A can of squirty cream

Sprinkles

Edible gold stars

What To Do:

1.  Add 3 heaped teaspoons of hot chocolate powder and a small amount of milk in your chosen mug or glass. Stir your mixture with a spoon to form a thick paste. This will help make sure your hot chocolate is properly mixed together when you pour in the rest of the milk.

2.  Meanwhile heat up the rest of your milk in a saucepan and stir. You can easily judge how much you need by using your chosen mug as a measure. If you’re heating it in a microwave, make sure you stir every 15 seconds on medium-high until you see steam rise.

3.  Stir your hot milk into the mug and keep stirring until your paste is mixed in well.

4.  Shake your squirty cream can and then spray on top of your hot chocolate. You could go for a neat swirl, or with peaks if you’re feeling artistic. 

5.  Grab your Flake and, while it’s still sealed, give it a smash. Carefully open it up and sprinkle it on top of the cream.

6.  Add a few marshmallows (we’ll leave it up to you whether you’d go for a modest few or squeeze as many on as you possibly can), and add some sprinkles. Finish with a few glittering gold stars.

7.  Pop your cheesy Christmas songs on, throw on the biggest slippers you have and get cosy. Take a huge sip. If you don’t get a top lip full of cream, you’re not doing it right. Enjoy!

You can find our new collection of 24 Hot Chocolate recipes here: https://www.toucanbox.com/activities/24-hot-chocolate-recipes

And, of course, have a very merry Christmas!

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GET COOKING: Squishy Reindeers

Let’s get in the kitchen and make these yummy reindeer treats. You can add brown chocolate discs to make Santa’s gang of reindeer, and a special red chocolate disc to make Rudolph!

Skewers

INGREDIENTS:

Marshmallows

Mini marshmallows

Milk chocolate

Pretzels

Sweets for decorating

1. Place the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl. Put in the microwave for 15 seconds, then remove and stir. Keep popping it in the microwave and stirring until it has completely melted.

2. Place a big marshmallow onto each skewer. Using a spoon, scoop up some of the chocolate. Roll your marshmallow in the chocolate to cover it.

3. Add mini marshmallows for eyes. Add a chocolate disc nose.

4. Break a pretzel in half to look like horns. 

5. Put your reindeer to one side to dry.

Return to the toucanBox Advent Calendar

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GET COLOURING: DECORATE A TREE

Decorating a Christmas tree is just too fun. So much fun, that’s it a shame we only get to do it once every Christmas. So we thought it would be cool to make this free downloadable colouring sheet, so you can decorate as many Christmas trees as your heart desires! Just print it out, grab your favourite colouring materials and get scribbling. Add baubles, tinsel, lights and the craziest decorations you can dream up. Have fun!

Download your colouring sheet here.

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Saint Nicholas’s Early Delivery

On the night of 5th December children in several German, Austrian and Polish towns (amongst others) will place a pair of shoes by a door or window. And, if they’re lucky, on the morning of the 6th they might just find that their shoes have been filled with treats left by Saint Nicholas.

In German culture, Saint Nicholas (or Sankt Nikolaus) swings by before Father Christmas does. He’s there to see if children have been naughty or nice, because Father Christmas has quite a lot on his plate as it is. He’ll scribble down all the nice names and pass them onto the big man. And the naughty children? Well, that’s another story.

Saint Nick wears a red bishop’s robe and fashions a big white, curly beard. Some tales suggest he travels around on foot, which is a lot of ground to cover over one night! Others say he has a magical horse. My family used to mix traditions and think that he too had a magical sleigh and some reindeer buddies. Much like the children in Netherlands do, we used to put a carrot snack in our shoes on the evening of the 5th. When we woke up in the morning the carrot would have been gobbled up, and in its place a yummy candy cane. Which isn’t a bad trade-off at all.

To celebrate Saint Nicholas day, why not pop a carrot in your shoe tonight, just to see what happens? You never know, you might just have been nice enough this year to get a little something special.

Return to the toucanBox Advent Calendar

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THE TOUCANBOX TRICKSHOT CHALLENGE

Hi, I’m Mark Allen, and welcome to the Mark Allen toucanBox Tennis School Of Trick Shots, or MATTSOTS for short. Catchy, am I right?

Before I joined the toucanBox Design Team, I was, amongst other things, a tennis coach. And seeing as we’re in full Wimbledon flow at the moment, I thought it would be great to put some of Team toucanBox through their paces.

I’ve come up with five cool trick shots that you can practice at home. And practice you must! Don’t worry if you don’t get it first time; just keep working at it.

So who’s the next Henman, and who got sent home for a bout of McEnroe rage? Let’s learn the tricks and find out…

1: THE DJ

First things first, let’s get the ball bouncing at a regular pace. Got it? Now, each time, using your other hand, pass it under the ball as it bounces in the air? How many can you do? Steve did… well, not that many.

2: BODY PARTS

Between each regular bounce, instead of using your racket to keep the ball up, use a body part. Start with your knees or head, and then experiment. How about your shoulder, or nose? Fiona made it look so easy.

3: FISH AND CHIPS

Now we’re getting a little tricky. Bounce the ball on the rim, shout “FISH!”. Bounce it on the strings. “AND!”. Then bounce it on the rim again. “CHI… oh it fell on the floor. Again.”

4: THE WORLD

The ball is the world, and the racket is the moon. I think. Bounce the ball up and see if you can orbit it before you bounce it up again.

5: THE HOTDOG

And here we go, the grand finale. Bounce the ball up in the air, put the racket through your legs, and keep the ball in the air. Fiona became a master of it in mere seconds. And now she’s playing internationally.

Only kidding. She needs a bit more practice, but at the Mark Allen toucanBox Tennis School Of Trick Shots, we’ll get her there!

Right, back to the day job.

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TOUCANBOX + DJECO = THE PERFECT PARTNERSHIP

We’ve redecorated our toucanShop, in a big way. It’s beautiful, if I do say so myself. If you haven’t checked it out yet, make sure you do (www.toucanbox.com/shop). And as you potter about you may notice a few extra treats.

While we’ve got lots of great toucanBox projects to kick things off (and many more to come over the coming weeks), there’s a big surprise: toucanBox has got a wonderful line of Djeco products to showcase! So why did we team up, and what does this mean for you?

In short, toucanBox + Djeco = the perfect partnership.

toucanBox makes the best craft projects imaginable. We’ve been changing the way parents and children spend time together since 2012. And to boost that extra creativity, we’ve been building some limited edition boxes, exclusive to our online shop. But once we’ve got you buzzing with creativity, where do you go next?

We thought we’d feature the best toys that are ideal for young, curious toucanoos. Toys that get you exploring, discovering, crafting and learning. Once you complete your toucanBox crafts, you can jump into even more adventures, all themed around the projects that you’ve just been doing. Leading to a comprehensive and irresistibly fun learning adventures.

And this new adventure begins with Djeco for many, many reasons.

Much like the toucanBox team, Djeco are dedicated to creativity. They research, test and build products, carefully considering, at each stage, their educational value. They make items that give their customers freedom, spark imaginations, and encourage fun.

They are driven by awakening the unique sense of wonder that children possess, and running with it. Have you spotted the Tap Tap Garden game? While its essence harks back to traditional toys, in reality it reveals itself to be so much more. Completely reinvented, it’s more beautiful, with more stimulating activities for toddlers and young children.

And when it comes to thinking big, Djeco come into their own. Take a peek at Leon, the giant dragon puzzle. When he arrived in the office, the toucanBox team couldn’t wait to put him together. And before my very eyes appeared a huge (1.38m!), magnificent beast. It inspired us to crack open the toucanBox Royal Crown project, and parade about like medieval monarchs all afternoon.

We’re one and the same: we make products that are impossibly amazing; we never want dreaming and playing to stop. Here’s to a curious creative childhood.

Now come along and see what’s new in store. I hope you find the perfect gift you’re looking for.

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HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!

This week we shared our amazing Mini Monster Father’s Day card with you. And our own little toucanoos got creative, and made cards for their dads and granddads. Here are our favourites.

AXEL

Axel graced us with his presence at toucanBox HQ, and made us all have a very crafty day (as well as watch The Karate Kid. Wax on!). He made a very cheeky monster card:

And then took it home to share with his dad, who was so surprised and overwhelmed his face just didn’t know what to do!

LYRA

Little Lyra thought she’d gift her craftiness to her Grandad. Though upon viewing her own marvellous work, she struggled to let it go.

CONSTANCE

Constance got scribbling, and made a beautifully colourful, polka-dotted monster for her dad. There were a lot of tears of joy this Father’s Day. A lot.

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads, granddads, step-fathers, guardians and all round heroes. Have a great one!

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Mini Monster Father’s Day Card

When I was a little girl I was a very cheeky monster. I was definitely a bit bossy (that hasn’t changed), but loved my Dad very much. I liked to make him things so he knew I still loved him, no matter how cheeky I became!

Download and design your Mini Monster Card for an easy but very effective Father’s Day card.

You can make your monster look just like you, or go crazy with decoration to make it the most colourful monster in the world!

Print your downloadable card template.

You will also need: Coloured card or paper Glue Scissors Pens Decorative materials - spare sequins, ribbons, glitter, etc.

Print out your Mini Monster template. We printed it straight onto white card. Fold it along the lines. Unfold and colour in your monster.

On coloured paper, draw around your hands and cut them out.

Glue your paper hands onto the monster’s arms.

Decorate your monster! Write in a nice message for your dad, grandpa, or whoever you’re celebrating Father’s Day with this year.

We made Mini Monster cards for the toucan dads. Check the blog after Father’s Day to see their reactions!

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BOOK REVIEW: VERDI by JANELL CANNON

When Sara recently visited home in Washington DC, she got a little nostalgic with some of her favourite children’s books from her teaching days…

When I was asked to choose a book to review for our blog I jumped at the chance. Unfortunately the task turned out to be quite a difficult one as I was only allowed to choose one book! Having been a preschool teacher for over 10 years I have a rather large collection of children’s books. How could I possibly choose just one?

I love to read and when I choose books to share with children I pick books that I hope will inspire a love of reading in them as well. The illustrations have to be beautiful, clear and engaging. A simple, fun plot that tackles everyday, familiar issues keeps the story interesting. Overall I find the best books are the ones that I enjoy reading as much as kids enjoy listening to. Finally I settled on a story by Janell Cannon.

Having just celebrated a rather big birthday recently I can relate to the main character’s desire to remain youthful and fun. Verdi is a young yellow python who doesn’t want to grow up, turn green, and get old. All the old snakes he knows are lazy, boring and rude! When the first hints of green begin to appear on his skin he panics and tries all sorts of crazy tricks to stop ageing. Eventually one of his stunts goes awry and he ends up needing to be bandaged and looked after by some of the older snakes. While recuperating the older snakes share the stories of their youthful adventures and Verdi begins to view them in a new light. Once he’s recovered Verdi settles into his role as an Dzolderdz snake who can still have fun and show off every once in a while.