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.

Baby Play: Pouring Station

Coming up with creative play prompts for your baby or young toddler can be challenging at times. You have to be mindful of what they're likely to put in their mouths, make sure it is stimulating but not so challenging that they lose interest, and at that age they develop so fast that it can be tricky for play opportunities to keep pace.
With that in mind, I thought a sensory tub centred on pouring would be appropriate for my little Ava. She enjoys pouring and drizzling water when she is in the bath (that is, the water left in the tub that miraculously didn't end up on the blinds, the floor or me), and I thought this new interest may translate well into her playtime.
I was wrong; she had a better idea.
I had pulled out an underbed storage container, and supplied coloured rice (see here for the how-to), pearl barley and chickpeas to pour, and play teapots and cups, eggcups, a plastic jug, a sieve, a play saucepan, a coffee pot and funnels to pour with.

Nature Collages

We're loving the beautiful Autumnal weather around here! Where we live, there are lots of Oaks, Maples and Elm trees shedding their glorious golden leaves and we can't help but bring some home.
On a recent picnic with my girls to a local park...

... Miss Eden collected various bits and pieces: leaves, of course, but also clovers, flowers, tree bark, gumnuts and twigs. What to do with them? We made a collage!

Playdough Sweet Shoppe

I was recently invited to a local church (shout out to Kaliedescope!) to do something special for the little ones in the18 months - 4 year age bracket. As anyone with kids knows, there's a broad range of abilities in that age group, so my challenge was to come up with something that the older kids would still enjoy that the little ones could do as well. 

In the end, I made a few batches of scented and coloured playdough (strawberry, vanilla and choccy) and raided my craft box and kitchen pantry for supplies to make....(brrrrrrrrr - that's a drumroll. There's no good way to spell it, trust me)... a Playdough Sweet Shoppe!

Spaghetti Sensory Tub

Having seen this great idea crop up in a few spots around the web (I first spotted it at The Imagination Tree), I decided to whip up a batch of sensory spaghetti to entertain my little 3 year old on a bad day.

It was a cinch to prepare: cook spaghetti as per usual, divide into bowls, add some drops of food dye and cooking oil to each bowl (so it doesn't become one big solid-but-mushy-clump), and mix through.

Valentines Day Playdough Treats

Ah, playdough, is there anything you can't do? As Valentine's Day is just around the corner, I thought that a batch of Valentine's Day playdough was in order (see here for Nurture Store's recipe). To the basic dough mix, we added some rosewater and some silver glitter for that extra special something, and pretty much as soon as the playdough was cool enough to handle, Eden was into it!

Just While I Cook Dinner....

How often do you wish that your precious child could keep themselves busy just so you can cook dinner in peace? My daughter (3yrs) can play by herself quite happily for decent stretches of time, but for some reason that ability seems to evaporate whenever I begin to cook. Whenever I can, I involve her in the cooking/food preparation, but this is not always an option and I often find myself trying to scrounge up an interesting activity whilst at the same time trying to keep dinner from becoming charcoal.

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. 

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.

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.

Sensory Tub: Christmas Style!

You may have already gathered, but I LOVE Christmas, and I've been incorporating it into as many of our activities as I can without my daughter getting sick of it. 

Shell Treasure Box for Babies

Inspired by big sister Eden's recent play time with shells (see here), I put the biggest shells in our collection into a sturdy shoebox and set my little Ava baby up in front of it. She was so excited, lots of foot wiggling and hand waving!
Naturally, the shells went straight into the mouth for some dribbly fun...

Scrubbing Shells

Such a simple activity! Eden loves to clean. I mean, this girl LOVES to clean. So, I set her up with a shallow tub with some water in it, a pouring cup, an old toothbrush (for scrubbing), a face washer (for drying) and a container with shaving cream in it ('cause let's face it, shaving cream is fun to play with!), and laid a towel on the floor to mop up any spills.

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.

Water Play - Baby Version

I wish I had thought of this earlier! On a warm day recently, I put a bit of water into a shallow container, popped baby Ava into her highchair and added some bits and pieces for her to play with: plastic toy food, a rubber sieve, measuring spoons, wooden spoon and a spatula. Then, I stood back and let the splashing begin! 

River Stones

At the moment, I'm really trying to attune Eden to her sense of touch.

I'm not against TV in general, but really, it's just a whole lotta visual information. I feel it's important to give your children the opportunity to develop their other senses too, and it's so simple to do.

You could incorporate it into your day in a thousand different ways. For example, next time you're at the park, ask your tot to close their eyes and you begin talking to them about all the things you can smell; the flowers, the grass, the soil after the rain, the bark of the play equipment, etc. Use descriptive language, talk about whether the scent is pleasant or not. Then ask them what they can smell, and prompt them of they seem to be struggling to find the right words. So simple!

Feely Bag

If you've only got ten minutes to spend doing something with your child and you're looking for an activity that's easy to set up, this is it! I got four items of different textures in a little platter: a flower hair clip, a foam block, a glass perfume bottle and a wooden train. I showed them to Eden and gave the items to her to feel, one at a time. We talked about different words that could describe that item beyond just describing its appearance. For example, the perfume bottle was cold, hard, had straight bits and round bits and smelled 'pretty'. This will give your littlie more words to add to their ever-expanding vocabulary, helps them to think about other properties of an item (beyond only using visual cues) and primes them for the next part of the game.