Faces theme Archives - NurtureStore

How to make a child’s hat

By Cathy James on February 22nd, 2012%

How to make a child’s hat couldn’t be simpler but with a creative kid involved the results are super fun and oh so stylish!
This idea is inspired by one of our favourite books: Millie’s Marvellous Hat by Satoshi Kitamura. The book is about a little girl who longs for a beautiful hat but has no money to buy one. It’s a tale of imagination, positivity and overcoming problems. It also features the most wonderful illustrations of fabulous hats. We couldn’t read it without creating our own marvellous hat!

How to make a child’s hat Read more »

Tree Gargoyles from the Just So Festival

By Cathy James on August 31st, 2011%

An exciting thing about the Just So Festival was there was always something fabulous waiting around the next turn of the forest path. There were lots of large scale events such as a beach and a Mad Hatter’s tea party, but if you kept your eyes peeled there were lots of little secrets to discover too. Read more »

Make a hide and seek baby jigsaw

By Cathy James on May 24th, 2011%

Transform an ordinary jigsaw into a special puzzle just for your baby with this idea for a hide and seek personalised jigsaw puzzle featuring some of your baby’s favourite people.

Wooden jigsaw puzzles are great for babies:

They help your baby develop their pincer grip as they pull out the pieces using the peg handles
They develop fine motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination as your baby turns the pieces around and passes them from one hand to the other
They’re good for learning about size and shape and orientation
They give you and your baby lots to chat about as you look at the pictures

To make a jigsaw even more fun try this idea for a personalised jigsaw for your baby:

1. Choose a jigsaw puzzle with large pieces and peg handles.

2. Print out some photographs of your baby’s favourite people.

3. Match up each piece of the puzzle with one of your photographs and use the puzzle piece as a template to cut your photographs to the right size.

4. Glue each photograph into one of the holes in the puzzle and you’re ready to play hide and seek.

Our SUPERbaby play series focuses on simple, playful ideas you can use with the youngest of children to have fun and encourage them to develop important early learning skills.
The emphasis is on ideas you can easily fit into a busy week, using materials you’ll have around your home. View all our SUPERbaby ideas here.

Lift the flap love book

By Cathy James on February 7th, 2011%

It’s so beneficial to get your baby hooked on books, as all the chatting you do as you read together boosts their language and listening skills. Just right for a Valentine’s gift then is this idea for a Lift-the-Flap Love Book.

1. Gather together some pictures of the people, pets and things your baby knows and loves.

2. Stick them on some colourful card to make pages for your book.

3. Make some flaps from coloured card a little bigger than each of your pictures, using contrasting colours to the pages so they catch your babies eye.

4. Make a fold at the top of each flap and use this edge to stick each flap over one of the pictures. You might like to use a strong glue and some tape over the top to make them extra sturdy and able to withstand some handling by little fingers.

5. Fasten all the pages of your book together with treasury tags.

6. Share the book with your baby. You can play peek-a-boo with the flaps, or guess who’s hiding underneath. Encourage your baby to try and lift the flaps themselves and say who they see underneath.

Our SUPERbaby play series focuses on simple, playful ideas you can use with the youngest of children to have fun and encourage them to develop important early learning skills. The emphasis is on ideas you can easily fit into a busy week, using materials you’ll have around your home. View all our SUPERbaby ideas here.

happily shared with Craft Schooling Sunday and Preschool Corner and Friday Craft Day and Tot School and ABCand123 and Tot Tuesday