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. 

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)....

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'.

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.

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!

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).