Pinterest

Why I Love Pinterest (Pin It Forward)

May 30, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 7 Comments

I'm a visual learner (technically a visual-kinaesthetic learner), which basically means that I learn and remember things better once I see them, especially if it involves pictures. As a result, the 'bookmarks' function on most browsers doesn't do it for me as I forget that I've put something there.

That's why I love Pinterest.

Pinterest is a web-based facility which allows users to create virtual 'boards' with items or ideas on it that they like (grouped into categories if they are that organised). For example I am busy browsing the web at the moment for ideas for The Boy's pirate birthday party, I've got a 'pin it' button on my browser and I click that when I see something I like. It saves on the 'Pirate' board I have and allows me to browse the ideas quickly, and then (because it saves the original site's URL in the picture) I can revisit it easily for more details. Far easier to use than 'Bookmarks'!

The other great thing about Pinterest is that other people can 'repin' your ideas onto their own boards, and as a blogger who often writes about craft or play ideas, then it's a great way to share my ideas around the 'Pin-o-sphere'.

Finally, I really enjoy the collaborative boards that can be created on Pinterest. I'm a member of several craft boards, but also run a few boards myself which help promote fun food for children, family days out or outdoor play. My favourite board at the moment is my 'Natural Childhood' board which has over twenty bloggers sharing ideas and prompts for outdoor play.

This month sees the Pinterest campaign 'Pin It Forward' kick off, involving 300 bloggers from a cross-section of interests. The campaign is designed to be the official launch of Pinterest in the UK, although I've been using it for around eighteen months now and have fifty-six boards as a result. As a part of the campaign, I have the honour of introducing another 'Pinner' to my readers, and it really is a pleasure to introduce Christine from Thinly Spread, and her Family Gardening collaborative board.

Thinly Spread was one of the first blogs that I started reading back in 2010, and Chris is a little bit of a blog-crush of mine, especially with her idyllic life with her Ransome-esque family in Somerset. Nip over and check out her wonderful boards full of country goodness for that wonderful feel-good inner glow.

Nip over to Pinterest now, and see what all the fuss is about!

'Fun Food For Children' Pinterest Collaborative Board

February 27, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 11 Comments

A little over a year ago I sent a desperate plea out on twitter for some assistance in trying to get The Boy to eat his food. He was messing around at mealtimes and doing as much as possible to avoid eating. I soon discovered that it was a control issue as well as partly boredom. Time to start getting creative with his meals!

Since then I've had to use this technique every so often to engage him in his meals and get him eating properly. It helps and if I'm honest it's quite fun trying to come up with new ideas.

However as I'm not very inventive with 'food art', I've started a collaborative Pinterest board where members can 'pin' fun and engaging presentational ideas to entice our children to eat.

If you'd like to follow the Pinterest board, you can find the link here. If you'd like to join the board and help create a catalogue of presentational ideas on 'Fun Food for Children', let me know in the comments below and I'll add you. The ideas don't need to come from your own blog, they can be pins from other sites or repins internally.

Let's get those children eating!