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Beach Themed Invitation to Play – Small World Play and Sensory Play
A Beach Themed sensory play activity was on our 100 Days of Summer Bucket List and this week we had we had the opportunity to cross it off our list and have a whole lot of fun doing it! So, what is an invitation to play (you may have seen this term used on this blog and elsewhere before)? Simply, it is arranging an activity in an attractive manner that will encourage a child’s curiosity, allow opportunities for exploration, independent play and participation in a meaningful, purpose and sensory way. It should invite the child to want to play and use their imagination. Of course it should also be age…
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How to Make a Fairy Tale Castle – Outdoor Summer Fun for Kids!
I don’t know about you, but when I was a child I absolutely loved to build houses, tents, dens, castles, clubhouses etc. My two monkeys are exactly the same and when our chickens and their coop arrived last Sunday (more about that later!) they were far more excited about the two huge cardboard boxes the flat pack chicken coop came in than their 3 new feathered friends! Honestly, so was I! I immediately started to conjure up all sorts of ideas for what we could create with the cardboard – I probably should have been more interested in Mr G as he expertly constructed the chicken coop – good job…
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Summer Butterfly Collages: An Invitation to Create – using materials as a stimulus
I love to wander around “Euro” or “Pound” shops looking out for bits and pieces to use in art projects or play activities. On one such trip recently I found these card butterfly cut outs. I’m not a huge fan of using templates and cut outs but I find if they are used in the right way they can be very useful for creative process art projects. Often I use some sort of a stimulus for our art activities – a book, an item, a picture, or even a piece of music. I also use the actual art materials as a stimulus, which is what I did for this…
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Messy Play Madness – A Spur of the Moment Messy Play/Sensory Activitiy
At lunchtime today Doodles and Oodles asked me if they could make Gloop. I agreed immediately and started to get out the cornflour and paint etc. (see here for our gloop recipe). They then began shouting out other things that they would like to add to it. So today we are sharing our spur of the moment messy play fun. It was their little experiment to see what types of textures they could make using a variety of materials. What we used: Cornflour/cornstarch Plain flour Olive oil Paint Glitter PVA glue Mini pasta shells Shredded dry noodles Water Animal toys Smurfs Wooden spoons, balloon whisk What we did: I’m…
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Our Big Blue Activity Box, aka “The What To Do When I’m Bored Box” – 15 activity ideas
Today, I have decided to share the contents of our “Big Blue Activity Box”. Back in early January I found that both of my children were grouchy and irritable and weren’t playing with toys or anything for that matter. They would not play independently and I was completely worn out plus we were battling colds and sore throats etc. I think they were “hung-over” after the festivities of the Christmas season – toys, gifts, sweets, lots of time with both Mr G and I. At the time I felt that I was spending my days separating the two of them, listening to howls and whinging, dealing with silly behaviour. Off…
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Our Top 5 Messy Play Ideas from Pinterest
When it comes to play in this house, the messier the better! I am constantly for new, fun and MESSY ideas for Doodles and Oodles to try. These are 5 of our favourite most recent finds from Pinterest! Check out my group board – Outdoor Fun and Messy Play ideas on Pinterest, follow it and I’ll send you an invite to pin on it if you want! Baking Soda and Vinegar Eruptions – this is a real favourite with Doodles. He never tires of creating these mini volcanic-like eruptions, great fun, easy to do, requires very little preparation. We got this idea from Live, Play, Imagine, a really brilliant…
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(Kids) Rainy Day Survival Plan (and a little moan!)
Just when I thought Spring was well and truly under way, the storms returned. It is dark and dreary, very wet and windy outside! We got soaked running from the house to the car and car to school on the school run this morning! Doodles and Oodles were delighted as they got to use their Mickey Mouse and Peppa Pig umbrellas! I am dreading going out again shortly to take O to her “Mummy and Me” music class, but she loves it and I know that I’ll enjoy it too once we get there. To top it all off, I’m tired, very, very tired this week. All my plans to…
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(Books for Children) Our Top 5 “Story” Board Books for Toddlers
Board books are such an amazing way to introduce little ones to books. We have lots of them, I keep them in little baskets in each room for easy access as well as displaying some on our kitchen book rack and the book rack made from an old cot side in O’s room. Board books are so much easier for little hands to manipulate, allowing toddlers to turn pages with ease. Of course they are also so much more durable!!!! There is such a huge variety of board books available that I wasn’t sure which type to begin with. I decided to take a look at story books this week. …
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(Kids) Green Gloop Messy Play – St Patrick’s Day Fun
Messy Play Alert! Sticking with our St. Patrick’s Day theme we decided to enjoy some outdoor messy play with Green Gloop today! Spring has finally arrived after months of horrendous storms and we have been making the most of the good weather and getting out as much as possible. We even managed a trip to the beach yesterday. It was a gloriously sunny Spring day – cold(approx. 7 degrees Celcius) but calm and clear. Doodles (4 ½) and Oodles(2) had so much fun all wrapped up building sandcastles! So, today I decided that it was a perfect afternoon for some messy play. I cleaned out the sand and water tray…
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(Kids) Gloriously green play dough fun- St Patrick’s Day Festivities
St Patrick’s Day is Monday, 17th March. It’s our national day here in Ireland. It’s a weekend of fun and frolics and a celebration of all things Irish. It also means a day off school and work! In preparation for the weekend ahead we’ve been having a little fun with some St Patrick’s Day themed activities. Today’s fun included exploring with green home-made play dough and very messy outdoor antics with gloop! First thing on the agenda was to make the play dough. Usually I let the children make it themselves but we were a little short on time today as we had a trip to the library scheduled, so…
