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Un-toys for babies #2

11/04/2011 by Cathy James 22 Comments

Our last SUPERbaby post was about all the wonderful play items you can find around the home and use to make a treasure basket for your baby to explore. As you can see from these picture our SUPERbaby poster girl has discovered something else which makes a fabulous, frugal and fun toy for little ones: shoe boxes!

Sturdy enough for some baby-handling, they make great discovery boxes. Take some of your treasures and hide them inside for your baby to find.

Pop the lids on and let your baby begin to understand the concept of object permanence – that even if they can’t see teddy, he is still in the box. Once your baby has played with this idea for a while you could sneak teddy out and watch their surprise when they discover he’s relocated behind your back.

Offer your baby a pile of goodies and let them put things in and take things out to their heart’s content.

How about stacking the boxes to make a tower? As you baby begins to shuffle or crawl you can place the tower a little out of reach to entice them over to know it down.

And as your baby grows, shoes boxes can transform into trains or cots or houses.

More activities for babies and toddlers

Zero to Two: The Book of Play is full of fun activities for babies and toddlers. Download you copy here!

Roller painting with cars

10/04/2011 by Cathy James 12 Comments

We had fun this week roller-painting with cars. We started off with paint on some plates and we dipped the cars’ wheels in before we took them for a drive on the paper. Then B decided we should put some splodges of paint directly on the paper and let the cars roll through.

The children loved the process and there was lots of chat about traffic jams and short cuts – and the finished result was beautiful too.

With sunny weather forecast for the coming week I’m thinking this would be a great activity for outside messy play. How about a long roll of paper laid down the slide or a ramp, with the cars rolling down?

Have you ever tried painting with cars with your children?

Spring craft ebook

07/04/2011 by Cathy James 10 Comments

Here’s a spring gift to all of you – a fabulous Spring crafts and activities ebook!

The book is full of wonderful ideas for children of all ages: egg crafts, rainy days ideas, things to try in the garden and lots more. It has been compiled by Mandi from Life…Your Way and Allie from No Time For Flashcards. It features ideas from fifteen bloggers from around the world – including me! Take a look at their ideas and click though to their blogs to find lots more inspiration.

The Spring craft ebook is free to download – please help yourself and I hope you have fun trying out the ideas in it!

Click here to download your free Spring Craft eBook

happily shared with Tot Tuesday and Inspire Me Monday and Making Monday Marvelous and Tot school and Craft Schooling Sunday and arty crafty party Friday’s Nature Table and the Resource Centre and Preschool Corner and Something for the Weekend and Frugal Friday and For the Kids Friday

Junk model snake

04/04/2011 by Cathy James 7 Comments

After big sister’s guide on how to make a dinosaur world yesterday, today little sister is taking over the blogging reigns with her design for how to make a junk model snake.

To make a snake like L’s you will need: toilet roll tubes, scissors, paint, a long ribbon, stapler

Start by cutting each toilet roll tube into three. Paint them in your favourite colours adding extra stripes and spots to make them fancy. Mix some colours together to try out some new shades too. Our favourite was purple.

Once the paint is dry, choose one hoop to be your snake’s head. Thread the ribbon through and staple it in place. Cut the end of the ribbon to make it look like a snake’s tongue.

Thread all the other hoops on to the ribbon to make your long snake.

To fasten the last one in place and stop your snake falling to pieces, loop the ribbon round the last hoop and fasten it with a knot.

Add some nostrils and some eyes and your snake is ready to go a-slithering.

Make a dinosaur land

03/04/2011 by Cathy James 21 Comments

How to make a junk model dinosaur world by our resident paleontologist Miss B.

I love it when B heads off with the making box and reappears an hour later with a creation. This week she made a dinosaur land, with lots of added details I would never have thought of – but then she is the chief dinosaur keeper round here. If you’ve got any dinos living in your house in need of a new enclosure, you might like to include some of B’s tips for making your dinosaur happy.

The first tip from our dino ranger is to make your enclosure nice and big with lots of interesting features for your pets to explore.

Include lots of vegetation for your dinosaurs to snack on.

Add a feeding panel which you can open from the outside with a handle – so you can feed your dinosaurs without becoming a meal yourself.

A viewing panel lets you observe your dinosaurs to check they are happy and healthy.

Have you got a big cardboard box you could make something with this week?

happily shared with Upcycled Awesome and Works for me Wednesday and Kids Get Crafty ABCand123 and Tot Tuesday We Play and Science Sunday

Everyday maths ideas

31/03/2011 by Cathy James 5 Comments

There’s maths to be found in all sorts of places. If you’re mindful of the opportunities you can weave some practical maths games into your everyday routines and play – giving your children the counting, sorting and matching practise that forms the foundation of later maths (and literacy) skills, without sitting down for formal lessons or loosing a playful approach.

Toddlers and pre-schoolers usually love to help with the household chores so here are three ideas to mix in some maths.

When you hang out the washing together ask your helper if they can match the clothes pegs into colour pairs and pass you them two at a time to peg up each piece of clothing.
At a mealtime have your child work out how many people are going to be eating. Ask them to pick out the rigth number of cutlery and sort them into knives, forks and spoons.
At laundry time, matching pairs of socks is tailor made for toddlers!

These activities let young children see how maths is important in the real world and help them practise their skills in context, which is a more valuable learning experience than using a set of flashcards. They also let you mix in some maths whilst still getting on with all the chores you need to do.

happily shared with Tot School and preschool corner