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Sunflowers – Handprint Art for Kids
Sunflowers are one of my favourite flowers and each year we try to grow them. We haven’t been very successful this year but still managed these lovelies in the picture below. So using these cheerful, sunny flowers as inspiration we set about our most recent art activity – again this is quick and simple and suitable for all ages from 2.5yrs up. What we used: large sheet of paper/card poster paint paint/printing tray plate pencil paint brushes What we did: Doodles (5) placed a plate on the sheet and drew around it with a pencil to make the centre of our flower He then painted a long green stem and…
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Painting with Water Pistols – Outdoor Summer Fun!
We’ve been experiencing a heatwave here in recent days – stunning, hot, sunny weather, my favourite type except for snow!!!! We have been taking our activities outdoors and finding lots of fun and creative ways to play and learn in the sun! For our recent Water Themed Birthday party we bought several cheap and cheerful water pistols at a discount toy store and while I had presumed the kiddie guests would bring them home the end of the party, most didn’t (all brought their own to the party)and so now we have lots of water pistols to have fun with! Earlier in the week we put some of our leftover…
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What’s Inside the Ice-Cube? – Outdoor Summer Fun!
Number 81 on our 100 Days of Summer Bucket list is “Discover what’s inside the giant ice cube!”. Doodles and Oodles have been dying to try this out since I showed them a number of similar activities on other blogs and Pinterest! Doodles actually did this at nursery when he was 2 or 3 years old and has often referred to it since! So, yesterday as I was reading down through our bucket list and ticking off a few more items I spotted number 81 and decided that would be our next activity! What we used: basin water toy dinosaurs meat mallet kitchen utensils spades, spoons, plastic knives freezer!!!! What…
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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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Feet Painting or Printing- Outdoor Messy Summer Fun for Kids!
As the weather is gloriously sunny at the moment we have been doing nearly all of our activities outdoors. Over the weekend we had the opportunity to do several art projects outside, you may have seen our Miniature Garden project which was really great fun. Another little project that we had great fun with was feet painting – this also has a lovely sensory and messy quality to it so it is sure to capture your little ones’ imaginations! What we used: Long sheet of paper – we buy several rolls of “newsprint” paper from Ikea every few months – cheap and cheerful and great for big projects and everyday…
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Miniature Gardens – Outdoor Summer Fun!
This morning while lazing in bed in true Sunday morning fashion I came across a tweet from Nicola who blogs at Multicraftingmummy. She had tweeted a link to a recent post she had done for MumRx. (I love Nicola’s blog, we blog about similar things, have similar aged children and she lives along the east coast of Ireland too, so we’ve lots in common. She has tonnes of fab arts and crafts activities for younger children and well worth checking her blog out!). She had written a post about miniature gardens. As a child I loved making miniature gardens and for years I have been making them with the kids…
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5 Tips for a Fun and Stress-Free Summer!
Summer is well and truly under way here at Our Little House in the Country. The weather is stunning, the paddling pool is out and we spent the morning at the beach! Hi all, apologies for the short hiatus in posts, we have been away on holiday in the South of France for the past few weeks and while away we decided to take a total break from cyberspace! The only thing our iPads were used for were for reading several books and we even turned off our data roaming services so that emails and all other notifications couldn’t interrupt our family holiday. I must admit that I really and…
