Developing and sourcing products specifically for pre school kids, to keep them outdoors, active and simply happy,  LIVE PLAY CREATE have found a niche that many toy creators seem to have neglected.   “We wanted to produce beautifully crafted toys that honour the days when it was normal to end up covered in dirt and stay outside for hours …..when play things were treasured, not just used a few times and discarded”  says Cathy Ballardin from LIVE PLAY CREATE.

“Each Birthday and Christmas we were stuck for choice for play items that encouraged experiential learning.  There were a lot of toys for toddlers that encouraged them to stay inside and stay safe, but few products designed to develop such fundamental skills as balance and coordination.  Most of these were aimed at school age children and neglected the tots who are desperate to explore their growing freedom.”

‘Over-entertaining’ seems to be the future for kids play.  We were determined to make sure our kids grew up balanced and adventurous…..to be curious, confident and capable of making their own fun .  To this end we set up LIVE PLAY CREATE explains Cathy Ballardin, so we could supply toys we wanted our children to learn from and enjoy.

The lead product in LIVE PLAY CREATE’s quest is the tike®, short for “toddlers bike”.  It is a bike without pedals, designed for pre school age children to master balance, steering and motor skills beyond their years.   They quickly gain the skills and reflexes to transition to a regular bike without fear or training wheels.

The rider learns balance first, pedalling last. In contrast, with a normal bicycle fitted with training wheels, where the rider learns to pedal first, balance last.  It is generally agreed that a bicycle with pedals is too difficult for most very young children and that training wheels may encourage the rider to learn some bad habits which later must be unlearned.

tike’s® allow young children freedom to explore and have fun while  nurturing the development of  balance and coordination.  They can walk, ride or glide as their skills develop. tike’s® are fun, whichever stage they are at.

The perfect blend of simple fun and stylish design, the tike, is a welcome respite for the toy weary parent,  with no batteries, no lights and no crazy tunes.

With a sustainability commitment of one tree planted for every product purchased, LIVE PLAY CREATE are a refreshing twist on commercial toy suppliers.

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For further information please contact Cathy Ballardin, LIVE PLAY CREATE on Australia 1300 722 430 or INT +61 8 9467 9690 cathy@liveplaycreate.com. www.liveplaycreate.com

Somewhere between now and when the shops close on December 24 you will jump in your car and race to the toy section of your favourite store where you will be overwhelmed by the sea of the latest ‘must have’ toys.

The fact that this article caught your attention suggests that you are genuinely interested in doing the best for your child. You worry about the consequences of not buying the full series of “brainiac” dvd’s, electronic learning devices and over-priced brightly coloured plastic developmental toys, that you know will end up at the bottom of the toy box with all of those previous ‘must have’ purchases.

Stop! Take a deep breath and slow down for just a minute. These five tips will help you choose the perfect gift for your child this Christmas

1. Try to avoid ‘over-entertaining’

Children today can take part in an endless variety of activities. From computer games to piano lessons, and from soccer practice to karate, there is no shortage of skills for kids to learn. However, children also need regular playtime that is not focused on structure, skill building or electronics. While those things are all good for children, too much can crowd out the kind of play that is essential for developing one of the most amazing gifts of childhood: imagination.

There is a bewildering array of toys that have enough buttons and lights to fill a modern spaceship…. They will certainly entertain for a moment but will they actually teach your child anything or just stifle their creativity?

Remember the freedom of wind rushing through you hair as you rode for the first time or the joy of kicking the unattainable goal . The favourite story read everynight at bedtime by a mum who smelled of talcum powder…or the story made scary by a crazy uncle with a torch under his chin once a year when he visited. These kind of memories could be from the 1930s or 2007 and are all from presents that do not have bells, whistles and automated laughs.

2. Less is the new more

There is no question that kids today are benefiting materially from recent economic boom times. Frequently, parents shower their kids with gifts and attention, bending over backward so everything is perfect for their children. Children who are given so much without having to work for it acquire a sense of entitlement and may not develop a work ethic, which they will need later in life.

One well considered, age appropriate present is better than 50 cheap trinkets that are broken by the end of the first week.

3. Think Green

Your children and your children’s children will inherit the world that we create today, so purchase decisions we make now should have a ‘green’ consideration. Look for products which are sustainably resourced, have long term appeal and have environmentally friendly packaging/components (unlike batteries).

Some toys now also have a carbon offset such as trees planted for each product sold or a degree of the toy manufacture carbon offset.

There’s no greater time than now to start teaching your child about more being more sustainable. Look for gifts that are safe, green and healthy!

4. Stoke the fire of adventure

Children are naturally curious, and the more that you indulge this curiosity, the better.

Look for play things that encourage your young ones to get outdoors, get exercise and provide them with the opportunities to explore their urban and natural environments. Your fondest memories of childhood are probably being covered in mud at the local river or wet through from water bombs. Priceless memories from simple play.

5. Quality not Quantity

Look for play things that are going to last, that will bring as much joy to your second or third child, or your child’s children and will teach your child about the value of treasured items. These gifts need to be simple in design with universal appeal to ensure their longevity. Think of all the typical kids’ items you see on the side of the road when it is rubbish pick up time and try to avoid purchasing them … for it’s an easy guess where your kid’s will end up eventually too!

Gift Suggestion

A gift that gets a big tick for all of the above 5 points is the LIVE PLAY CREATE tike. It is the perfect combination of simplicity, exhilaration and sustainability.

TIKE: Encouraging Adventure

tike is a wood bike without pedals, designed for pre school age children to master balance, steering and motor skills beyond their years.   Tots can now experience the exhilaration and freedom of a bike on a ‘tike‘ .

• Walk, ride then glide…. tike develops with your child
• Exhilarating fun for 2 - 6 year olds
• Develops balance and coordination
• Learn to ride without trainer wheels
• Naturally Beautiful

tike is made from plantation European Birch. For every tike sold a tree is planted in support of www.carbonneutral.com

To order your tike log onto www.TIKE.com.au

Order yuor TIKE today

Who would have guessed then that using tike as a toddler could be helping your child achieve at school in years to come.

The best way to ensure children can achieve academically with less effort is to hone motor skills in early childhood. Dr. Jean Piaget, a Swiss child psychologist and biologist, recognised that for children, sensory-motor intelligence represents the foundation for and integration of a child’s later ability to abstract, generalise, analyse, and synthesise natural and social phenomenon. In other words, a child’s ability to understand the world around him and communicate with others is based on early, adequate sensory and motor-skill development and integration, as well as stable emotional development.

A strong and well developed posture and movement (gross motor skills) form the basis for developing age-appropriate speech, language and behaviour. Which inturn form the foundation for later movement skills, such as drawing or writing and as adults when performing complex and high-precision motor activities like those of surgeons, airplane pilots, violinists, figure skaters, etc.

A well-trained and developed sense of balance and coordinated movement are also fundamental skills in developing attention spans, in concentrating and remaining focused for a long time when learning and communicating.

Tike develops fundamental motor skills, balance, coordination and independence, all essential for helping your child reach their potential in the future.

Did you know that;

• Around a quarter of Australian children are now overweight or obese and conservative estimates suggest this is increasing by atleast 1% per year.
• Around 80% of these obese young people become obese adults.
• Since the 1980s the amount of overweight and obese Australian children has more than doubled.

Obesity in childhood causes significant physical health effects, including raised blood pressure, high cholesterol and elevated blood sugar. There is an increasing number of cases of type 2 diabetes being diagnosed in Australian adolescents. Other problems include orthopaedic complications due to excessive weight bearing upon joints, sleep apnoea, asthma and fatty liver. It also affects their mental health by generating poor body image and self esteem, issues that children carry for life.

Two of the main ways to avoid childhood obesity are simply a healthy diet free from over processed foods and those high in fat and an active lifestyle.

Physical activity not only ensures that children maintain a healthy weight, it has a significant impact on behaviour, concentration and their ability to learn.

It is widely considered that attitudes towards physical activity are established at an early age; parents therefore have a prime responsibility to encourage their children to engage in active play to help prevent problems associated with childhood obesity, stress and poor self esteem.

Live play create are focused on the challenge to provide kids a healthy, active and balanced lifestyle. We choose to develop and stock products designed to ignite a kid’s natural passion for independence, exhilaration and old fashioned, simple fun.

tike is a fantastic tool for encouraging the exhilaration and fun of activity from an early age. It also develops critical motor skills and coordination, fundamental to future learning and sporting prowess.

Reference - The Prevention of obesity in children and young people - NSW Government action plan 2003-2007

As part of our commitment to the environment, we have formed a relationship with carbon neutral whereby one tree will be planted for every product sold.

Carbon neutral plants hundreds of thousands of native trees each year in environmentally vulnerable areas. Planting trees is seen as a significant way to slow the rate of global warming through its effectiveness in absorbing carbon dioxide emissions.

This commitment to carbon neutral is just one way we care for our environment.

• Our wood is Plantation European Beech.
• Our packaging is recyclable
• Our products use human energy and endeavour to make them fun and therefore do not require the use of batteries or other environmentally harsh components.
• We stock products to outlast a generation in appeal and design

We hope you enjoy your live play create toy more knowing it hasn’t cost the earth.