Alphabet Books

I LOVED this idea when I first saw it on No Time For Flash Cards and I have finally managed to begin Alphabet Books of our own. I got a hold of some scrapbooks, drew block outline uppercase letters on the left hand pages, and the lowercase letters on the right hand pages.
For the letter 'A', we copied the idea from No Time For Flashcards - that is, the girls pasted green pieces of paper into the letter, and then added some white cardboard 'teeth' (cut with pinking shears) and some googly eyes, to create Alligator A's.

Sticky Pics

On one of our many rainy days recently, I blindly (and with no small amount of desperation) plunged my hand into a tub of craft supplies and pulled out a packet of coloured matchsticks. This sort of lucky dip is not uncommon for me, because otherwise my head spins with ideas of things to do with my kids (thank you Pinterest!) and it takes me ages to choose one! My strategy in this situation is to do a lucky dip and we then have to do some sort of activity/game/craft with whatever I pull out.
So, coloured matchsticks...
Um...
Don't you just love it when your mind, which was previously jammed full of ideas, suddenly empties out completely leaving you totally blank? What was I going to do with matchsticks?


Eden solved it for me: "Mum, let's make some sticky pictures!" (meaning pictures with sticks).
We grabbed some construction paper as it's sturdier than normal paper, some PVA glue, and a texta and got to work. I drew some simple shapes under the direction of my daughters, and they outlined the shapes with PVA. Then it was a simple matter of filling the lines in with the matchsticks.

Rainy Day Play: Kiddie Yoga

  

Unless you are blessed with an outdoor undercover area, or unlimited access to a playcentre (or the dosh to go to one a few times a week) keeping active kids ... um, active ... in wet weather can be quite a task. Normally, a few hours at the park or going for a walk with the kids is just the ticket, and a bit of drizzle is no barrier to those activities either, but a downpour? Oy vay. 

Today, I decided to try kids yoga with my girls. In theory, it should stretch their muscles and give them some physical activity in a calming way (instead of an excitable way - like trampolines, or running, etc), and be indoors-friendly. In practice, it was a success! 

Quiet Time Boxes - Friday

 

Welcome to the final instalment of our Quiet Time Boxes Series! As an added bonus, I have also dissected the contents of Ava's Quiet Time Tub for you which is geared towards toddlers (Ava is 2 years old) as opposed to the boxes which are aimed at pre-schoolers (Eden is 4 years old). Here is our final pre-schoolers kit, Friday's box...

Theme: Literacy

Quiet Time Boxes - Thursday

 

Today we were Quiet-Time-less, as we were out until late in the day. However, I had the box ready to go and ready to share with you all, but I will have to wait until next Thursday to report on how it was received by Miss Eden. For now, here is Thursday's Quiet Time Box ...

Theme: Life Skills

Quiet Time Boxes - Wednesday

 

I was not anticipating a win in the Quiet Time Box department today. I felt that I did not have enough in today's box to occupy Eden, and even took an eleventh hour trip to the local Op Shop to see if I could find anything to pad it out. I couldn't. As I said, I was not anticipating a win.
I was wrong.
Apparently, the few items that I provided amounted to "the best box ever, Mummy! Apart from the other boxes, too!" Well said Eden, as only a four-year-old could phrase it. So, what was in Wednesday's box?

Quiet Time Boxes - Tuesday

 

Mothers of little boys, rejoice! After Monday's Girlie Girl Box, todays Quiet Box has unisex appeal! Now, onto Tuesday's Box ...


Theme: Exploration Tub

Contents:

• A File folder activity centred around Baby Animals, from a free download here at 1+1+1=1 (check out the site whilst you're there, it's amazing!)
• Two 'Hunt' books: 'Wild Animal Hunt' and 'Bugs and Reptiles Hunt'. They are available from Kmart at $5 each, and have very cool pages - you stick a 'spotlight' inside a pocket of the picture pages, and it illuminates the images. Eden LOVED these! 

 

• A Baby Animals picture book and sticker pack, which was given as a gift

Quiet Time Boxes - Monday

 

Confession: I am one of those mums who needs a bit of 'free time' each day. And by 'free time' I mean time to clean up after the kids activities, do a load of washing, and maybe sneak in a cuppa if I'm lucky. Therefore, when Eden stopped napping a year ago, I mourned. I love my children like mad (don't we all?!) but I know that my patience level is higher and my attitude is much more positive when I get that little break in the day. 

To try and preserve my daily break, I gave Eden Quiet Time instead, in which she would still have a drink of milk, I'd read her some books, and then she would remain in her room and play quietly with toys that Ava couldn't play with, such as Lego or my old-school Polly Pockets (both have teensy weensy parts that Ava thought looked tasty). 

Everyday Play

 

When the weather gets bleak and your tots venture outdoors less regularly, it can become quite a task to keep the days interesting without reverting to activities which eat into your purse; playcentres, shopping centres, movies, cafes... I'm talking to y'all! So to spread some thrifty fun, here are a few things we did last week to keep cabin fever at bay.

Rainy Day Play Series: Pumpkin Exploration

            

Winter is well and truly upon us here in the Land Down Under! Which, roughly translated for our outside-of-Aus friends, means that when it rains, it rains constantly. Con-stant-ly.

For those of us with young kids, this can potentially spell disaster. Unless you have pumpkins. Naturally.

Extra Special Announcement

Drumroll please .....

In February, my husband and I welcomed our third child into the world ... a beautiful little boy, Zachariah!!

One week old

Three months old

He is an absolute joy, and is thoroughly adored by his two big sisters and his besotted parents! :D

Can You Kazoo?

Hands up if your Munchkin hates to make noise. No hands? Didn't think so.
Nothing screams kids like ... well ... kids! One of my daughters favourite things to do is play with their many percussion instruments, guitars and keyboards (yes, keyboardS as in plural; portable, on a stand with a mic and even one of those giant ones you walk on!) and when those aren't sufficient they improvise. Usually all over the furniture.
Enter kazoos. Easy to make, easy to play and lots of fun into the bargain!
All you need is a toilet paper roll, wax paper or baking paper, a rubber band, and bits and bobs to decorate with.

 

Snowmen in Australia? It's Possible!

Is there any play material better than playdough? NOPE! Playdough is the BEST!!!
It's easy to whip up, cheap to make, fun to play with and the themes and varieties are endless.

Around Christmas (yes, it has been that long since I was posting), we made a batch of 'snow playdough'. Translation: it was white. You could just leave your playdough uncoloured, but I think that shade of white is quite watery in appearance. So instead, I made a batch of our regular playdough using this recipe, but substituted cornstarch for flour to make the dough whiter.

The girls experimented with rolling the dough into balls, and I showed them how to stack them to make snowmen. Ava preferred hers laying flat on the table.

    

                                           

It was a hit! They thought it was hilarious (no idea why, but laughter's always good!), and once they had made a few snowman bodies, they dipped into the stash of supplies to decorate them.

Coloured Sand Pictures

Unsure of how to use your new Coloured Sand (see this post for the how-to)? 
We persevered with our planned glitter art, using the coloured sand instead. Eden and I sat down together with Hubby and Ava to make some lovely sandy cards for our family. All you need to do the same is cardstock, a pencil, white glue, a large flat container and your coloured sand.

From DIY Glitter Fail to Coloured Sand

One of my pet peeves when it comes to doing certain crafts with my kiddies is the cost of some of the craft supplies. This does not appear to be as much of a problem for the fortunate folks in America who pick up fabulous deals for a couple of bucks, but here... some things are nearly impossible to get your hands on (wooden blank discs, freezer paper, Lakeshore Learning products, etc), and some are just expensive.
Glitter is one of the latter.
Shopping at The Reject Shop or Sam's Warehouse may cut craft costs in a lot of other ways, but even there two little vials of fine glitter (the size of your thumb) will set you back $3. Considering how much glitter kids like to use, I'd need to buy about half a dozen vials for a single project... that's $9 worth of glitter! You've got to be kidding me!
So, when I saw a post on Pinterest about DIY glitter, I got so excited!!