PLAY TIME ~ DEC 12th - 18th

This week, play with STICKY TAPE.

At some point this week, try a game or activity with your little one that you've never played before, which involves sticky tape.
Once again, I think we'll all have a bit of this lying around in the lead up to Christmas. For a baby, you might wad some tape up into a ball out of sticky tape for them to play with (and watch their little faces as they explore the 'stickiness' of the ball) . For a toddler, you may teach them how to wrap pressies using some newspaper/catalogues and a few boxes, or you could get them to put bits of tape on you as you call out the names of various body parts (eg: "can you find my nose/mouth/toes/elbows?") - good for younger toddlers.
Please post your game in the comments attached to this post, so we can inspire other parents with our ideas!

PLAY TIME ~ DEC 5th-11th

This week, play with WRAPPING PAPER.

At some point this week, try a game or activity with your little one that you've never played before, which involves wrapping paper. I figure that around Christmas time, we'll all have some of that floating around the house.
For a baby, this may be wrapping a box (from your recyclables stash) in some scraps of paper, and then letting them tear the paper off and have a good play with it. For a toddler, this may be teaching them how to wrap presents, or adding their own decorative touches to existing wrapping paper (with a potato stamp? Some glitter paint? Christmas stickers?), or making a crown - like the ones the wise men wear in the nativity scene - with leftover bits of paper and some cardboard. Please post your game in the comments attached to this post, so we can inspire other parents with our ideas!

Ice Treasures!

For my Ice: Play Time Challenge, I decided to put little 'treasures' into a silicone muffin tray, cover with water and freeze. In the morning, they were my ice treasures! I had some shells, a rubber ball and some coins for Eden's money box inside, and it was her task to find a way to get the treasures out.

Christmas Hand Trees

For our Christmas-related activity this week (see here for the Play Time challenge), we made a Christmas tree! First, we traced Eden and Ava's hands onto coloured paper...

PLAY TIME ~ NOV 28th - OCT 4th

This week, make something Christmas-related.

At some point this week, try a game, a craft or an activity with your little one whch you've never done before with a Christmas theme.
Please post your game in the comments attached to this post, so we can inspire other parents with our ideas!

PLAY TIME ~ NOV 21st - 27th

This week, play with OOBLECK.

Trust me ... you'll love it.
See here for the recipe.
Have fun!

PLAY TIME ~ Nov. 14th -20th

This week, play with ICE.

At some point this week, try a game or activity with your little one that you've never played before, which involves ice. Putting ice in your child's drink doesn't count. Sorry.
For a baby, this may be putting crushed ice into a ziplock bag and letting them bash it with a plastic hammer (that's what we'll be doing!)
For a toddler, it may be ice-cube painting: simply add some food colouring to the water when you fill up the ice trays. When frozen, lay out some paper (maybe with a towel under it) and let your tot slide the coloured ice around on it. It will paint as it melts.
Please post your game in the comments attached to this post, so we can inspire other parents with our ideas!

PLAY TIME ~ NOV 1st - NOV 7th

This week, play with WOOL/YARN.

At some point this week, try a game or activity with your little one that you've never played before, which involves wool or yarn.

For a baby, this may be gluing lengths of different coloured wool to some stiff cardboard as a sensory touch board, or making a large pom pom for them to play with. For a toddler, you might do some wool painting (dip short lengths of wool in paint and get them to slide them around some paper for a spaghetti-like effect) or leaving a yarn treasure-hunt trail around the house (they have to follow the yarn around to find things - I used some marbles, crayons and bits of paper cut into shapes for pasting, as our 'treasure').
Please post your game either in the comments attached to this post or on our Facebook page (where you can include photos if you like), so we can inspire other parents with our ideas! 

Thanks for reading! ~ L.

PLAY TIME ~ OCT 24th - 31st

This week, play with an EGG CARTON.

At some point this week, try a game or activity with your little one that you've never played before, which involves an egg carton.
For a baby, this may be putting a favourite small toy inside the carton, closing it and then opening it again, to teach the concept of object permanence. For a toddler, you might use the cups for sorting (thanks Kim for that idea!) or make a caterpillar out of it.
Please post your game either in the comments attached to this post or on our Facebook page (where you can include photos if you like), so we can inspire other parents with our ideas! Also, a big thank you to Nicki and Andrea who have shared their ideas from Play Time from the past two weeks!

PLAY TIME ~ OCT 17th - 23rd

This week, play with COLOURED RICE.

At some point this week, try a game or activity with your child/children which you've never done before, which features coloured rice.
Coloured rice is so easy to make, click here for the recipe, or here for our experiments with it.
For a baby, you may make a feely bag or some shakers. For a toddler, you could set up a pouring station or a pretend stovetop (a nappy box with circles drawn on some paper and stuck to the top, makes a great stove) and let your child 'cook' with it.
Please post your game/activity in the comments section below this post so that we can inspire each other with our ideas! Have fun!

PLAY TIME ~ OCT. 10th-16th

This week, play with BUBBLES.

At some point this week, try a game or activity with your little one that you've never played before, which involves bubbles.
For a baby, this may be blowing bubbles on their tummy. For a toddler, you may do bubble paintings, or bubble experiments, or teach them how to blow bubbles in a cup of water.
Please post your game in the comments attached to this post, so we can inspire other parents with our ideas!