Weekly Co-Op #1 (for HLM) and Climbing Critters

YAY! I am so excited to be a part of the Weekly Co-Op Link Party for the very first time! Each week you're invited to contribute your fave ideas, and they will be visible on all participating hosting blogs (at the moment, there are over 20)!

No long list of rules, just link up any family friendly, child centred activity from your blog, and don't forget to stop by some of the other blogs and spread some comment lovin'! I have never come across a blogger who doesn't love to find comments on their blog, so why not brighten up someone's day?

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Here's what I am linking up this week:

Last week, I finally got to tick another activity off my seemingly endless list of 'Things I Want To Do With My Kids'... making climbing critters! The aim of this craft is to make cardboard animals that use friction to move up and down some yarn pulleys (for want of a better word). I started to explain the 'craft' to Eden, I told her that at the end we would see if our cardboard animals could climb. Without missing a beat, she said "Of course they'll climb Mum, I'll teach them how". Naturally.
We began with some basic animal shapes which I drew onto paper at Eden's instruction which she coloured in. We then stuck our animals to thin cardboard (from a biscuit box), and cut out the outlines. Of course, you could always do yours directly onto cardboard, but make sure to use a fairly lightweight thickness.

Our animals were laid face-down and Eden cut and taped two segments of straw to the back of each animal. The two segments should be placed vertically on either side of your shape, and should be proportional to your animal (ie: big shape, big straw segments). We learnt this the hard way, as ours were only just sufficient, but it would have worked better if they were a tad longer. Also, make sure that your tot doesn't tape over the straw's openings (like mine wanted to!).

Next, take a bit of yarn/wool - we used about 1.5 metres - and thread upwards through one straw piece, and back downwards through the other. Tightly tape the ends of the yarn/wool to look just like shoelaces to make it easier for little hands to control when threading, especially if your straw segment is long. Bear in mind that your critter will need to hang from something (a hook, a doorknob, a handle) and so the yarn/wool you use will have to be long enough for your child to be able to hold on to the ends easily.

Once the ends are threaded through the straws, attach hair beads or macaroni to the ends of the yarn/wool to prevent it from slipping through the straws again. Tape a small coin to the back of your critter at the bottom, in the centre. The added weight will help it 'climb' better.
Hang your critter up, and away you go! Tug on the yarn/wool ends alternately to make your critter climb, and slacken the tension on the yarn/wool to watch it fall. If your child is interested, you could explain about how friction works to make the animal move, and demonstrate by experimenting with them. Play around with what works best to make your critter move fastest - alternating the yarn, pulling it apart quickly, etc. What happens if you only pull on one end of yarn? Do critters with/without the coin on the back move faster?

I knew Eden would be pretty engrossed in the Climbing Critters once they were made, but it is an interest which has lasted for days. Same critters, same spot. Days of enjoyment. That gets a big tick in my book!

Thanks for reading! ~ L.

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And now, on to the Link Party...

Leafy Business

Autumn has arrived in Australia (nearly two months ago, but let's not nitpick) and the trees have shed their leaves and transformed our local parks into bronze and gold wonderlands. If I sound a bit whimsical, I LOVE AUTUMN! True, I say that about every season, but for now, I LOVE AUTUMN!

On a recent stroll through the park, Eden collected a tidy pile of leaves, sticks, bark and gumnuts which she later deposited on our dining table with a proud "There you go, Mummy! It's for our art time!" Naturally, I had to find some sort of activity that would utilise the art provisions to her satisfaction.
Rummaging through my supplies, I stumbled upon some wax paper, and it was decided. We were going to make our own wrapping paper!

Easter Time, Folks!

EasEaster, Easter, Easter!

So many ideas, so little time. We have managed to squeeze in a few Easter-themed ideas, and here they are...

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). 

Wreaths Mania, Part 2!

It's wreath time again! (To see the part 1 of our wreath-ing adventures, click here.)
This time around, Eden made a felt wreath with offcuts of felt that I had lying around...

Wreath Mania!

I love Christmas! Always have, always will. Now that I have children of my own, I may tend to sometimes, perhaps, possibly go a tad overboard. I don't mean by buying lots of pressies for my girls or anything, I mean *drumroll, please* CHRISTMAS CRAFTS!!!!!

So far, I have reined in my enthusiasm and limited our Mum/Daughter Chrissy crafting to the making of hanging ornaments, Christmas handprint trees, and now, these wreaths...

Handprint Keepsakes

Initially I was going to make Christmas ornaments with my girl's handprints on them, but as we made them I realised that I wanted to see these keepsakes every day, so they now have a permanent spot in our bedroom. They would make a nice gift for grandparents too, if  you're so inclined.
I simply made up a batch of cornstarch clay with Eden's help (see here for the recipe), divided the clay into portions, and rolled it out nice and evenly. Eden and Ava 'smushed' (E's words, not mine) their hands into the clay to leave an imprint. Once they were in bed, I went back and smoothed the imprints out a little - Ava had dug her fingers in, so hers actually had holes in it! I filled it in and smoothed it out, but retained the shape of her hand. I also tidied up the edges of the shapes - Eden's is on a circle, Ava's is on a square with rounded edges - and poked a hole in the top of each shape using a straw (this is for threading some ribbon through later, so you can hang it up).

Before baking...

Pretty Chrissy Ornaments

To make these pretty hanging decorations, I cut out two circles of clear contact paper, one slightly larger than the other, and taped the smaller circle to the table, sticky side up. I also had a little bowl with some tissue paper squares, shiny wrapping paper, bits of ribbon, Christmas stickers, and pictures cut from old Chrissy cards in it.

From Threadings to Mobile

This is what we ended up making with Eden’s threading: a mobile. I got a plastic hanger and tied the threadings to it, then I got Eden to wrap masking tape around the knots to secure them. Voila! So easy to do. At the moment this is hanging in her bedroom on her cupboard door, but I’m hoping to do a few more of them with her and extend the mobile a bit more, to hang above Ava’s change table.

Coloured Rice

So simple to make, so easy to use and it provides you with so many play options! I made a few batches of coloured rice yesterday (see the recipe if you want to try it, cinch!) and set up a 'pouring and transferring' table for Eden. I just laid a sheet on the floor, put some mixed coloured rice into a roasting tray and gave her a broad serving spoon (to use as a shovel), a funnel and a cup. Then I put some rice into containers by colour, so she could mix it up herself. As you can see in the photos, she really enjoyed it, and it occupied her in some quiet, solo play for over an hour (woo-hoo)!
          

For a different experience, I set it up again this afternoon with bits from her tea set and some of her play pots, pans and utensils. She had a ball serving rice tea and pouring it from the teapot into the cups (see below).

          

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At nearly six months old, Ava is obviously to young to play with rice in the same way as Eden, so I put some rice into a medium sized ziplock bag and put a few little objects in it (see photo below) and sealed the bag up with masking tape. She mushes it around with her hands (and her feet) to find the objects hidden by the rice. It's actually a very tactile activity for her, even though she's feeling the objects through the plastic, but obviously requires supervision, just in case the bag breaks.

          

Other coloured rice activities which I intend to try include:

• Pouring some into plastic bottles to form shakers.
• Pouring some into a cardboard cylinder and sealing up the ends, getting your tot to decorate the cylinder with stickers or oil-based crayons to make some more shakers!
• Drawing a basic picture (or a letter/number) onto stiff cardboard with a thick marker, covering the picture with PVC and letting your littlie sprinkle rice over it. Leave to set for a few minutes, then shake off the excess.
• Using the rice to make some beanbags (ok, ricebags) from felt. You'd obviously have to do the sewing yourself, but your toddler could 'paint' a picture on the bags with fabric paint, or they could superglue sequins or lace onto it. 

I'm sure there are heaps of other ideas out there, feel free to post ideas you have in the comments section! ~ L.

This post has been linked to Baby Play Friday at Sense of Wonder.

Makings of a Mobile

  

Threading is a great activity to develop hand-eye co-ordination as well as fine motor skills and, in this case, creativity and can be introduced as soon as your child has the requisite motor skills. This version is definitely, an activity for older tots though.
I was impressed at how well my daughter threaded these items together! I sat with her and did a strand myself, as I find my involvement, or at least my presence, always helps her stick to an activity for longer. She really enjoyed the different textures and choosing which pieces to use and she took it very seriously, her little face intense with concentration. She also enjoyed having her grandparents watch what she was doing, but they weren't allowed to touch! We are going to do a few strands, and then tie them to a hanger to create a mobile, which we'll hang above my baby daughter's change table.
All you need is to provide a safe needle (I offered two types, a blunt wool-needle and a piece of pipecleaner shaped like a needle - she chose the wool-needle), wool or yarn, and some threading materials. In my containers were:

• large buttons with big holes
• cheerios and nutrigrain (cereal)
• penne pasta
• mini patty pans with holes punched into them
• colourful cardboard shapes, squares, circles, etc, with holes punched in them
• bits of cut up lace
• hair beads
• paper clips

Next time (which will probably be tomorrow) I'll try and make some strips of paper into beads by rolling them around a pencil and glueing the end down. It adds another creative step to our threading. I'm also going to cut up some small-ish squares of thick cardboard (from nappy boxes) and punch holes in them. You could use this activity to create jewellery (swap the wool/yarn for some clothing elastic to create rings and bracelets), mobiles, streamers, and I'm sure a lot more things that I haven't thought of. 

One tip if you're going to try this activity: take one piece of the largest, sturdiest item (in our case, penne pasta) and tie the end of your thread around the item. It saves you from trying to create a giant knot to stop it all falling off the end. Have fun! ~ L.

Sensory Cards

Another one for the bambinos, but young toddlers (1yr-18months) will enjoy it too. It's a lot of work to set up even though it's extremely simple, but mine took about 2 hours to do. All you have to do is stick items with different textures onto some sturdy card stock. That's it.
You can staple it together into a book (don't forget to put duct tape over the spine to protect baby's hands from the staples), join it with binder rings, or use a bulldog clip to hold them together so you can take them apart and rearrange the order of the cards, or take a few out at a time (that's what I did).
These are the cards I made for Ava:
 


On my cards I had satin ribbon, ice-cream sticks, netting (from cheese bags), foil, buttons, pipe cleaners, scrunched up paper, foam which I cut into underwater shapes, felt pieces, bubble wrap, lace, pom poms, and leather pieces. You could also use shells, fake flowers, raffia, wool pieces, fabric scraps, feathers, corrugated cardboard, paper clips, leaves ... whatever you can find!
Ava LOVES this book! She's quite rough with it, as she's still learning to control her little hands, so I lay her down for tummy time and lay a few cards in front of her. Eden and I talk to Ava about what's on the cards (what colours we see, the shapes, how it feels - rough, smooth, strethy, soft, etc). If you wanted to, you could also hot glue your textures onto cork coasters, or into a scrapbook, or onto the sides and lid of a box. Babies love to explore through touch, and this provides a nice sampling for them. Good luck!