Instead of my usual weekend links, I’m sharing just one idea with you today and asking you to make a donation to the DEC East Africa Crisis Appeal.
We spend our weeks giving our children the best start in life, filling their days with play and fun and learning, but life for so many children is so very different.
The severe drought in East Africa is putting the lives of over 10 million people under threat, with some facing the worst drought in 60 years. Thousands of children need our help.
I loved Jeanne’s comment saying the title of yesterday’s post sounded like a recipe, so continuing with that idea we today we have ‘take one child, add a dash of ribbons and swirl together with music.’
Children always have the best play ideas, don’t they? These pictures show B enjoying dancing with the streamers she made after discovering a forgotten bag of ribbons. She simply tied a one to the end of a stick and was ready to go. Both my girls love dancing but I’ve resisted sending them to an organised dance class for now, instead letting them explore their own dance style.
Babies change so much during their first year, developing in their physical, social and language skills. Think how different a new born and a one year old are. A good way to keep up with their development and make sure you’re matching your play to suit them is to borrow a practice from Early Years professional and carry out a play audit every couple of months.
Sara’s Art House’s groovy dolls’ house transformation, which is making me want to give our plain one a makeover
Strong Start’s snail garden, which combines growing, small world play and up-close observation of some mini beasts (and what do you thikn of my snail picture?)
Sand and Water Tables video clips of young scientists and engineers delighting in their water play discoveries
If you’ve been growing sunflowers with us as part of the Compton Hospice Sunflower Challenge you need to measure your sunflowers today. There are fabulous prizes on offer for the tallest bloom, so measure up and contact Compton with your vital statistics.
Our tallest is currently 1m 65cm. They got up to 2m 47cm last year, so there’s plenty more growing to be done. How tall are yours?
If you’ve been enjoying growing sunflowers (whether you’re joining in the official challenge or not) and have a sunflower-themed play idea to share with us – we would love to see them. Please add a link to the Linky at the end of this post. We’ve shared some ideas for art, science and math in our Sunflower Activities ebook, and here’s one more idea for sunflower fun.
We recognise the important value of nursery rhymes for very young children, as they pass on the sounds and rhythms of our native languages, but the value of poetry doesn’t diminish as children get older. Approached with passion, poetry can be inspiring, and how it’s shared with children makes a vital difference to their engagement with it. [Read more…]