Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Petal Play

A lovely guest recently bought me some white roses, and when they had died and I was about to bin them, inspiration struck! I plucked the (not dead) petals, and put them in a tub in an inch of water with a dash of rosewater to heighten the scent...


For a bit of interest, I added a few drops of food colouring: a bit of yellow, blue and red. Eden thought it was pretty amazing to see the coloured water swirl around and make new colours (a bit of colour mixing learning added to sensory play never hurt anyone!), but in the end it was a big ol' tub of brownish-purpley water. 

Friday, January 27, 2012

Happy Australia Day!

To my fellow Aussies:
Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!
[Oi! Oi! Oi!]
... Just one of the gems I taught my daughter today. Others include "how's the serenity" (although she says "how senity" - just remember, she's three!), "bonza" and "maaaaaaate"! Couldn't help myself.

To my non-Aussie friends:


Today was Australia day, a national holiday celebrating what it means to be Australian and how fortunate we are to live in our amazing country. Now that we're on the same page, here's how we incorporated a bit of Aus into Eden's day (Ava's a tad small to appreciate Australia Day, she's 9 months old)....

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Molly's Jolly Brolly: Activity

Our first week of participating in the 5-a-day-books challenge gave us plenty of play-time fodder. I've already posted here about our 'Mrs. Honey's Hat' activity, and I've got a few more to come. For instance, 'Molly's Jolly Brolly' by Erica-Jane Waters led us to a great activity!
Initially, I thought I'd make a cardboard cut-out of an umbrella which Eden could paint and decorate with stickers and patty pans, and she could stick blue/clear cellophane strips under the brim (to simulate rain), but I thought this was a little bit 'meh', so instead Eden wrote her own story based on the format of 'Molly's Jolly Brolly'.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Moon Sand - Attempt #1

As you may have guessed from the title of this post, our first batch of Moon Sand did not quite turn out as intended. Nevertheless, it was still loads of fun to play with , so I ended up renaming our particular version 'Moon Crumble' (because, as my mum pointed out, it felt more like apple crumble than wet sand). Moon Sand is, of course, meant to feel like wet sand, but it is much more user friendly for those of us who live an hour or so from the beach (like moi!) or those of us who don't otherwise have easy access to sand.

Sorting - Baby Style

I stumbled across this idea a while ago on The Imagination Tree, and thought I'd give it a go now that little Miss Ava is 9 months old, in the hope that she would not just put everything straight into her mouth.
The activity is to cut up a cardboard cylinder into chunky pieces, lay out a muffin tray, and let your littlie go to town filling and emptying the tray with the cylinders.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

One for the Girls

Yesterday, I did the unthinkable. I let my toddler do my make up. Alarming, I know. However, I was exhausted (having only three hours of sleep can do that to you, I'm told) and desperate for something to occupy Eden which required minimal effort on my part (either set up or clean up), which we could do together, and importantly, which she would enjoy.
Enter, make up.
Eden loves all things girly. I mean, my child will rough and tumble and get muddy and rambunctious with the best of them, but give her make up/jewellery/shoes/bags and she is in mini-princess heaven. So, when I said the magic words "Mummy's make-up" she beat me to my bathroom and had my make up out before I was even in the room! No exaggeration!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Mrs Honey's Hat: Activity

Since embarking on our 5-a-day-books challenge, I've been wanting to do some sort of game/activity/art that can make a connection with one of the books we've been reading. As always, I have loads of ideas, but have been short on time.
When we actually wrangled some time at home, Eden and I decided to make our own version of Mrs. Honey's Hat, based on the book of the same name by Pam Adams. In the book, Mrs Honey has a new hat with lots of pretty things on it. Each day of the week, she goes somewhere different (the park, a cat show, the beach) and an animal/bug takes one thing off the hat and leaves something else behind (e.g. a hermit crab takes the shell and leaves some seaweed behind). 


Tuesday, January 17, 2012

A Place of Her Own (in the Kitchen)

Like many parents, we have had our fair share of food-battles with our toddler. She eats certain foods (mostly healthy: apple, yoghurt, cheese, spag. bol, mac. cheese, toast, rice cakes, etc) but will not try others. She just. Will. Not.
So, we've been implementing new strategies to get her to eat a wider variety of foods (most of which seem to be working), and one of them was to create a shelf for her in the pantry where she can prepare her own snacks. I based my version on this one I saw at How We Montessori.


Magnifying Money



Eden is sooooo my daughter. I found my old collection of foreign currency recently and thought Eden may be interested in checking it out. So, on a busy (for me) day, I took a handful of interesting coins, brought out the kiddies magnifying glass and watched in awe as Eden examined each and every coin in minuter detail. Every. Single. One. Honestly, she was absorbed for almost an hour.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

5 a Day Books - Week 1

5 a day books

My daughters, like myself, would read books all the live-long day if I let them. Sadly for them, Mummy thinks it's also important to get outside, play with other kids, eat.... So when I found this brilliant 5-A-Day-Books challenge at The Imagination Tree, I could not resist. The challenge is to read the same 5 books to your tot every day for a week. Doing so allows your kids to 'read' the books (ie: they remember the words and can make the association between the spoken words and the ones typed on the page) at an early age, and exposes them to a variety of text types, and language structures, etc. Click here for the full post at The Imagination Tree.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Pipecleaner 'Sewing'

I nabbed this little plastic 'canvas' at Riot Art N' Craft the other day, knowing that it's one of those items which will play a myriad of different roles in our art box. The first (and simplest) activity I could think of was 'sewing' with pipecleaners. It's actually as simple as it sounds.


Pipecleaners + Plastic Canvas = Happy Eden


Small World Play

I've been dying to do this for ages, but never seemed to remember until too late in the day. Introducing (drumroll please).... SMALL WORLD PLAY!


Take one tray of sand...

Lay out a tray with miscellaneous bits and bobs on it...
L to R, from top: shells, glow-in-the-dark bangles, pebbles, string of beads, leather scraps, wool scraps, ratten ball, fake greenery, coloured matchsticks, a shallow container filled with coloured rice, part of an egg carton, a lid from a pringles container, some bells, some icy-pole sticks

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Giveaway



Hello lovely people, I thought it was time to give you all a taste of the giveaway I've got brewing. When this blog has 100 followers, I'll be giving away a pack of my fave things to one lucky follower! You will only go into the draw to win this pack if you are an Australian resident and a member of the blog (via Google Friend Connect, you'll be under the 'followers' section if you are); Facebook followers are not in the running - unless of course, they have also joined via GFC.


Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Jelly Jelly Jelly!



If you're anything like me, finding something to keep your baby stimulated can present quite a challenge. I get tired of offering toys to my Ava (8 months), and there are so many things her big sister Eden (3 years) gets to do because she's older, which Ava cannot (choking hazards, motor skills required which she has not yet developed, etc). This is especially true when your baby is in the I-think-I-will-put-everything-into-my-mouth phase, with sensory exploration becoming trickier still!
So, I'm always on the look out for new, safe sensory experiences for my baby girl, preferably ones she can enjoy in her highchair whilst I cook dinner! We've done water play and fingerpainting, so this time I took my cue from her passion for her finger foods and made a batch of jelly, with Eden's help of course.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Hello 2012!

Hello and welcome back, lovely people! I trust that you all had a safe and happy Christmas and New Year's? We did, but my, have we been busy since! My eldest daughter, Eden just celebrated her third birthday, and we held a little party for her at home.
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