I just came across this devastatingly simple way of helping your child tell their left from their right so they can put the correct shoe on the correct foot.

It's brought back loads of memories for me; I was one of those children who could grasp really quite complex things easily, but putting my shoes, slippers or riding boots on the right feet?  WOW, that was tricky and my mum was forever writing L and R on the bottom of all my footwear.

This idea from ParentHacks takes the L and R with permanent marker, using a little colour coordinated, hand-made friendship bracelet to make it easier for even very young ones to get to grips with tricky task of learning right and left and 'right foot, right shoe - the one you're left with goes on the left'.

• Click HERE to read the full hack 

I love these gorgeous donut hedgehogs! They're so cute and dead easy.  I can just imagine needing a quick treat for a child's party or play date and at £1 for six donuts at our local supermarket, these hedgehog donuts won't break the bank either!

I just love this idea. I know I sometimes collapse into bed feeling like I haven't even seen my hubby all day, and even if I have it's been all about bills, chores or children. This is such a romantic and sweet way to remind your partner or kids you love them.

What a lovely - and inexpensive - Father's Day gift idea this is! And there are so many ways you could customise it and make it completely unique to your family too! Just love this DAD photo! The author says they give Dad a picture like this every year, and I think that's a brilliant concept too, so you can almost 'chart' the family's growth from year to year.  Brilliant.

I've been hit by some kind of delayed nesting fairy this past week and have been organising, sorting and clearing clutter. One of the things that has to go now is a box of photographs my daughter loves to scatter around the house. I've been scouring the web for ideas on what to do with leftover photographs that never made it into the photo albums, and I love the idea of photo bookmarks. Not a bad idea for a crafty Fathersday for a dad who reads either!

I've just been sitting here for a few minutes trying to think of anyone I know, child or adult, who isn't partial to the odd bag of crisps now and again - I didn't come up with a single one.

Most of my offline life is devoted to heath and fitness and, I'm sorry, but crisps are a big NO!  Their fat content is high, their sugar and salt content is high and they're just generally NOT GOOD for you.

However, a life without crisps can just be too much to bear for some people - if you're one of them then you're going to love this parenthack I came across this morning; if there's such a thing as a healthy crisp, this is about as close as it's going to get.

Click HERE to read the full hack 

It will tell you how to make your own crisps WITHOUT oil and WITHOUT salt - my top tip to add to this: add spices instead of salt to make them tasty.  It's funny too, just to give you a taster...

Let cool for a moment (the longest moment of your life), then shovel all the chips into your mouth. All except for one, which you may share with your child. If you have more than one child, break that one into equal pieces

By the way - if you don't want to eat white potatoes then use sweet potato instead.

What a lovely idea for a child snack at a garden party! These spring flower pot mini muffins are really cute and I'm sure they'd go down a treat.

I've never been a big lover of birthday cake and as we become more and more health conscious, more and more parents are starting to look around for, and offer, alternatives to the traditional birthday cake.

How about a lovely fruit salad? It sounds great to me, but I can guarantee my almost six-year-old son would be LESS than impressed.  UNLESS it was something like this Shark Fruit Salad - which looks properly awesome and, dare I say it, is so cool that kids at a party may even choose it instead of cake!

Okay, so maybe not - but I do think making fruit fun like this will help you if you're having trouble convincing your little one of its healthy merits.  Kids couldn't care less, below a certain age, about healthy - but they love 'COOL!'

I found this on Pintrest - there aren't any instructions, just the picture, but I don't think you're going to need a degree in brain surgery to figure out how to do it; a few practice runs might be required though.

And, you know, you don't even have to have use this as a birthday cake alternative - you could just do this for kicks one day over a weekend or during the school holidays; fruit carving is no longer just for Halloween!

If you have a bash at this, or come up with any other clever ideas, send in some photos - we'd love to see them.

I absolutely love this over-the-door toy collector idea that I just read over at Parent Hacks - if you've ever trodden on a Star Wars figure with up-turned arms (the figure, not YOU standing on it with up-turned arms, that would just be weird) or rogue pieces of LEGO then you're going to be rushing off to your nearest Argos this afternoon.

An over-the-door shoe organiser makes a great condo' for all those toys and bits and pieces that don't belong with anything else or have any other homes to go to when they're not being played with.

I rather like the idea of storing current LEGO creations in a pocket or two, too - my youngest is rather partial to keeping various LEGO things he's made for a little while and this would be the ideal place to keep them safe and tidied away.

Of course, you could always store the odd pair of shoes and slippers in it as well, if you've got any pockets hanging around with nothing to 'do'.

• Read the full hack HERE 

I came across this nifty little solution on Parent Hacks and then sat here for a good half an hour umming and ahhhing about sharing it - not because it's not clever, it is, but because I wonder just how many of us have the need to, or would ever, dry shoes in the tumble drier?

Then I figured, if it just gets one of two of us out of a hole and helps to keep our sanity intact then it can only be a good thing!

I have, on the very odd occasion had need to put shoes in the tumble drier; it was an emergency, they weren't expensive and it was worth a bash, they weren't leather either - which reminds me of a funny story - my friend's dog got hold of her not-cheap leather school shoes and chewed off part of the strap. Fearing her dad was going to go berserk she decided to dry the strap in the microwave before trying to sew it back onto her shoe.  Wet leather SHRINKS when it's dried in the microwave on high heat and her dad did go berserk.

Being worth a 'bash' was the operative word here - those shoes banged and crashed their way round and round the tumble drier, on low heat, for at least an hour; it was NOT fun.

The Parent Hack solution is to tie the laces together and shut them in the door - the shoes are suspended but can't tumble round and round, they're drying becomes silent; marvellous.

If they don't stay put that way then tie the laces to something long that can sit, like a brace, against the machine door on the outside - if you can picture what I mean?

You can read the original hack HERE and I was quite amused by the 'you can clean cheap flip flops in the dishwasher too' comment that someone left - a good idea, although maybe only for mine, if you ever see the state of my eldest son's flip-flops then NO!

I don't know why I keep popping over to ParentHacks really; I just end up feeling 'stupid' when I come across ideas and solutions SO simple it's enough to make you cry with wonder that you didn't think of them yourself - the hack I came across today is one of those 'can't believe I didn't think of that!' solutions.

• Click HERE to read the complete Organise Electronic Chargers With Loo Roll Tubes hack over at ParentHacks

I have two iPhones (one is my 3GS from the 'old days', I don't have two new ones!), I have an iPod, the kids have mobile phones and they both have iPods.  We all have laptops and I have three digital cameras (I'm allowed, it's from my photography days) and every single one of them has its own charger and some have various additional cables and leads.

There are some which are used all the time so identifying them is easy, but there are others tucked away in drawers that don't regularly see the light of day; I'm sure it would be easier to come up with an answer to the meaning of life than quickly identify which gadget each one belongs to.

Not ONLY that, but I'm sure someone goes into the 'charger drawer' when I've gone to bed and messes them all up, because I put them away all neatly wound around. Either that or things really do come to life when you're not looking and there are gadget charger raves going on in there.

If you suffer from the same, then you'll soon be retrieving all the loo roll tubes from your cardboard recycling box (like I've just done), taking up arms with a permanent marker and rejoicing in anticipation of the 'easy identification and tidy cable drawer' loveliness that's heading your way!

Time is a strange thing and once we're practised at telling it, we forget what life was life was like before we could tell it and how difficult it was to learn how to tell it.

It's interesting how our concept of time shifts - I tend to get up around 4am so I can fit all the things I need to do each day into as many available hours as possible, but on the odd occasions that I get up later, even 6am can start to feel quite late!

When I was at school half-terms and main holidays seemed to take FOREVER to come round, now it feels as if the kids are always on some sort of school holiday or other.  When we're having fun, time flies; when we're not, or are counting down to a special event, it can really drag.

When you're little and look at the clock and have NO clue what any of it means or when you should be doing things, time is just one big mystery - ENTER the humble Post-It note (other sticky notes are available and will work just as well!).

I came across this on ParentHacks this morning and I think it's a great idea. It's elegant, it's simple and it will help your child to understand the passing of time and how to manage it.

• Click HERE to read the complete hack over at ParentHacks

Simply stick notes around the outside of an analogue clock showing your child when they should start doing something, or when they should stop; genius, at least I think so.

I don't have an iPad - I've been putting off having one ever since they were released in the futile hope that I'll be less 'must have the newest one' whenever the next gen' one comes out and the price of the previous one goes down.

So here I am, waiting for whenever the release of the iPad 3 is and kidding myself I'll be happy with a 2 when there's a newer (and probably better) version to be had!

My ex-husband has an iPad though; our youngest son very quickly to charge as its main user (this wasn't the intention!) and has loved drawing on it ever since - at least it means we got custody of our iPhones back, DoodleBuddy had a lot to answer for!

If you have an iPad and a child who loves creating works of art on it then you might want to take a look at these five iPad drawing apps - all of them are free, apart from two which are $2 each, hardly bank busting.

• Click HERE to browse through five great iPad drawing apps

Talking of DoodleBuddy, whilst it's a great little app the five listed here do a little bit more than just let you doodle and save to your camera roll.

Your pictures are brought to life and animated in one of them and a couple of the others will teach your young Monet how to draw various animals; my favourite has to be the amusingly named Butt Art app.

Happy iPad drawing! And read about some more iPad 3 rumours here on our sister site, Mobot.net.

My teenagers will tell you that I'm not very good at being a 'mummy slave'; I don't see why I should be one and I believe it's not a bad plan to teach your children some basic domestic life skills from early on.

They, of course, will disagree, but they can both sort, wash, dry and iron their own clothes; they can both clean, tidy and vacuum the house (in record time if there's something else they really want to be doing) and both have a pretty impressive repertoire of recipes they can rustle up in the kitchen.  Not bad for a 16 and 17-year-old, if you tune your ears out to the moaning that generally accompanies the performance of these activities.

If you would like your youngster to stop believing in the Laundry fairy and have them sort their own clothes ready for washing, then this very simple ParentHack I stumbled across is for you:

The laundry in my house is divided into four piles: colours, darks, whites and sheets (oh and towel; five piles)

Depending on how you divide your clothes will determine the permanent marker pens you need, but for my laundry I'd need: red and black.

Then I'd simply put a big red spot on the label of all my children's clothes that belong in the colours pile, and a black spot on the labels for dark pile things.  If you do hot and cold loads, you could use red for hot and blue for cold.

Whichever colour system you use doesn't matter, what's important is that it's simple to understand.

I think this is super clever and you can read the original hack HERE.

I've decided you can market just about anything; this PeePee TeePee is what's lead me to that conclusion this morning!

I have two boys and one girl. My eldest son was born in the winter and I, very quickly, lost count as to how many times he peed on me when he was small.

It must have had something to do with the change of air temperature seconds after I took his nappies off and the cold air hit, he would start peeing.  This is not so difficult to avoid and contain if it's day time, but when you're changing baby boys in the dead of a chilly winter's night and have kept the lights down low it's a different fountain of pee dodging game altogether.

My youngest son did the same too, he was born in the summer and his free-peeing events were somewhat less than his winter born brother.

I can only imagine the inventor(s) of the PeePee TeePee is/are the parents of a boy and I'd love to have been a fly on the wall when they came up with the idea, created a prototype, tested it and decided it was going to make their fortune out on the baby market.

For £10.95 you get five little reusable soft cotton cones in their own miniature laundry bag, to keep them all together; at nappy changing time you pop a cone over the end of the ever-threatening-to-sprinkle male appendage and save yourself the worry of getting wet!

This is another one of those 'genius or junk' things I can't make up my mind about - what do you think?  One thing I do know - they are pretty cute.

• Click HERE to see the PeePee TeePee

By the way, if you've ever used them or buy some to try - please share your experiences!

I'm well and truly stuck on the fence when it comes to the Boon Squirt Spoon - I can't decide whether it's genius or junk!

• Click HERE to take a look at the Boon Squirt Spoon

So, the Boon Squirt Spoon - it's a spoon with a a squeezy reservoir (Boon call it a 'bulb') on the end, which holds 85g of baby food and squirts the right amount onto the spoon bit when you squeeze it.

Apparently, this will make one-handed feeding much easier for parents and saves you having to remember to take a spoon AND container of food with you when you go out.  They come in various funky colours and cost £8.95 each.

My baby weaning days are well and truly over (thank goodness) and I managed to get by perfectly well with a bowl and a little flat plastic spoon.  So on this side of the fence I'd say that the Boon Squirt Spoon is just a seriously overpriced piece of unnecessary baby 'stuff'.  

Not only that, but you'll need to faff around with filling it up, then taking it apart and making sure it's super clean inside ready  for the next time.

But then I remembered all those time when little hands found their way into the food bowls which led to one, some, or all of three outcomes:

1. More food ended up on their faces and in their hair than in their mouths
2. My clothes ended up covered in their food
3. The entire bowl was upended and invariably found its way to the floor

If I'd had a Boon Squirt Spoon then these things wouldn't have happened and I wouldn't have gone out with clothes covered in dried baby food (why do you never notice before you leave the house!?).  So on this side of the fence I'd say it's genius; £8.95 well spent and why on earth did it take someone so long to come up with it?!

So what say you?  The Boon Squirt Spoon - genius or junk?

This week PlayPennies loves Tales from the Village.

If, like most of the country, you woke up to snow this morning and have had enough of snowman building and snowball throwing, then might I suggest you defrost with a warm cup of something and take a mooch through Rachel's blog - Tales from the Village.

Rachel's 2011 turned into a bit of a roller coaster ride and saw some unexpected changes; she moved house with her four children, their dog, their car and some tropical fish just before Christmas, is starting a new life and has invited 'us all' to keep her company whilst she does; I will, there's strength in numbers and good company.

If you like looking at photographs, there are some stunning images to please your photographic soul and if you like 'Dear So and So...' posts - which I do, a LOT - then you'll find some peppered through Tales from the Village.

Honesty, an easy read and a glimpse into Rachel's life, musings, ambitions and hopes for the future is what you'll get if you pay her a visit.  Oh, she's also in the process of publishing a book, has a second one in mind and is creating the cast for the third - if you're a wannabe writer but have been too scared to start, perhaps you'll find some inspiration in Rachel.

I've loved reading through the pages and posts of Tales from the Village, I think you will too.

Are you the owner of the blog above? Click HERE for our resource page for “PlayPennies loves” badges and banners.

When I was pregnant with my youngest I kept a little journal for him about how far along I was, what he was doing on the inside (he went through a three-day phase of tumbling over and over - it felt as though I had a load of washing going round in my stomach and it made me feel quite queasy!), what was happening in the world and my general thoughts about him and what life might have in store.

I read through it occasionally and it's amazing how many of the little things you forget unless you write them down somewhere.  I love building memory boxes too - I have one for each of the children and it has their birth paper work in it (you know, the forms that midwives fill in and has the Apgar score on etc), their weight measurement cards, locks of first hair and lots of other sentimental things.

I've just come across this Memory Jar idea and I love it!

It's very simple and will be amazing to keep and open up every now and again.  You simply get a big jar and every time something happens that you want to remember, or someone says something funny, or something interesting happens that you want to record - write it down on a piece of paper (I'd date it too) and then put it in the jar.

The original idea (found over on ParentHacks and found from somewhere else - I love that place!) suggests reading all the notes as a family at the end of the year, which I think is a lovely idea.  You could have memory jars for all sorts of things - holidays or pregnancy being a couple of events that spring to mind.

My eldest son leaves home to take up his post in the British Army in a few weeks time and I think I'm going to create a memory jar for his remaining time at home.

I think it's a stunning idea; simple and cheap and will produce something priceless to keep forever.

• Click HERE to read the original post over on ParentHacks

I tend to do the majority of the household laundry at the weekends - it just makes sense as this is when kids' school uniforms are done with for the week.

The rule is that washing needs to be in the utility room on a Friday evening or very early Saturday morning, things brought down on a Sunday afternoon will be turned away and no amount of teenage sulking or begging will persuade me to wash 'just one last thing'.

So, the washing machine is invariably working like a trooper, if it's sunny there will be things billowing on the line otherwise they'll be in the tumble drier or hanging over radiators.  When one washing load is done it will be in the basket waiting to be swapped for clean, dry things.

What to do with the dry bits and pieces that require hanging up, rather than folding, has often been cause for 'muttering' - my tumble drier is in the garage and if I get to the things inside just as they finish I can, sometimes, get away with not ironing too much and THAT can only be a good thing.

However, folding (even lightly) can ruin this crease-free happiness - so I'm rather thrilled by this parent hack (and it's a funny read too) that I've come across and am going to try it!  For things that require instant hanging...PUT THEM ON when you take them out of the tumble drier.

Genius! Sure you're going to look a bit daft (have a look at the pictures in posted by Bewildered Mother - she's the one who came up with the hack - and you'll see what I mean) but if it means less ironing then I don't CARE!

• Click HERE to go over to The Diary of a Bewildered Mother to read her hack and post in full.

Years and years ago I remember when stockings and suspenders were considered to be the height of sexiness - maybe they still are, I've just grown out of that particular stereotype.

Sock suspenders for men, always cause plenty of giggling as they are anything but sexy; however, you can't deny their usefulness if you have socks that keep falling down.

Even less sexy, but even MORE practical and useful than men's sock suspenders, are these Bottoms Up trouser suspenders for preggy mums!   Ohhhh how I could have used these when I was pregnant with my children -  they cost $19.75 and are stretchy bands of fabric that attach to the sides of your bra and skirt/shorts/trousers etc keeping them in place and your modesty intact!

• Click HERE to read more about the Bottoms Up trouser suspenders

Back in the early 90s leggings were the maternity wear of choice - the wonderfulness that is the Isabella Oliver maternity range didn't exist - and towards the end it was tough to keep those things from staying put when you bent over or sat down.

And just before my youngest arrived I was wearing pairs of maternity jeans that, whilst were comfy, just didn't stay up unless their adjustable bands were made so tight they became painful within half an hour.

Unless you know someone in the United States who can order these for you, you're going to have to see if you can make your own version because there's no option for international delivery.

That said, you can set up a virtual USA mailing address which allows you to order items that only dispatch within the US and then have them mailed here, I have one and it's VERY useful when it comes to buying things that are half the price they are in the UK - just Google 'set up USA virtual postal address' and you'll have lots of companies offering this service to choose from.