NurtureStore - kids activities, art and craft, play dough recipes and more

Lego math games

By Cathy James, on May 21st, 2013

Do your kids love Lego? Just manipulating the pieces, snapping them together and pulling them apart is a great work out for fingers, helping to develop fine-motor skills, but Lego is a classic open-ended toy that can be used in so many different ways by creative kids. My girls most often use their Lego to build imaginary buildings or enclosures for their toy animals but recently L has been using them in lot of math games.

$Fantastic ideas for lego maths games - fun learning!$

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Have your say about the Play Planner!

By Cathy James, on May 19th, 2013

Play Planner and a quick survey

Would you be so kind as to help me out this week and give me some feedback about NurtureStore and the Play Planner?

This week’s Play Planner includes are 10 {super} quick questions. Could you please fill them in and let me know who you are and what you like about the Play Planner. All feedback is very welcome and I hope to use it to make NurtureStore an even better resource for you.

Thank you! Cathy

Please click through here to see this week’s Play Planner activities and have your say in the survey.

Sand pit fairy garden :: small worlds play

By Cathy James, on May 17th, 2013

Do your children like to create and play with small worlds? My girls always have one or two landscapes on the go at any one time. Today B made a fairy garden in the sand pit which she declared ‘the sweetest thing I’ve ever made’ – so I had to show it to you. It’s lovely, and also a good reminder that the simplest of ‘loose parts’ and a child’s imagination can combine to create great things.

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10 rules to maximise small family gardens

By Cathy James, on May 16th, 2013

I’ve had lots of people asking me how to combine gardening, play and relaxation spaces in small family gardens like ours, so I thought I’d give you a tour and share some tips.

We have a truly tiny garden, in a Victorian terraced house on the edge of a city in the UK. It has no lawn, is surrounded by a brick wall but we still manage to grow (are you ready for this…) apples, basil, bay, beetroot, borlotti beans, broad beans, chives, cress, cucumber, courgette, fennel, garlic, green beans, lavender, leek, lettuce, nasturtiums, onions, oregano, parsley, peas, pears, peppers, potatoes, raspberries, radish, rocket, sage, spinach, spring onions, strawberries, sunflowers, thyme, tomatoes as well as a variety of pretty flowers and shrubs. We also have areas for play and space for the adults to sit and relax or eat outside.