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Go Play! Showcase: Mama Smiles

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mama smiles

We’re starting this year’s Go Play! Showcase off with the wonderful Mama Smiles.

Tell us about yourself

Hi! I’m MaryAnne, the mama behind Mama Smiles! I am thrilled to spend my days playing and learning alongside my three children: Emma (4), Johnny (3), and Lily (1). My fantastic husband Mike does a lot of playing and learning, too! =)

Prior to having children I studied and taught courses in Music, French, Spanish, Education, Sociology, and Public Health. My daughter Emma was born as I was completing my PhD in Medicine; she even attended the celebratory dinner when I passed my defense! I’m the fourth of ten children, and childhood memories as well as conversations with my mother and siblings provide guidance and inspiration in my daily life with three little ones.

What’s your play philosophy?

Play is one of the most important things in the world! Play provides a safe place to explore new ideas, discover emotions, and learn about boundaries. It’s also a tremendous source of happiness and camaraderie. I select toys for my children that foster creative, open-ended play, and that encourage cooperative play with siblings and friends. And I believe that some of the best toys in the world are free, found in the recycling bin and (even better) the great outdoors!

Inspire us!

Doing What We Do – A “behind the scenes” look into my daily life


Play Dough and Pattern Blocks – A recent favorite toy combination


Fashion Bear – My daughter Emma’s styling of her homemade felt dress-up bear (you can download templates from my blog).

Mary Anne’s blog is full of inspiration for fun things to do with your children – do stop by Mama Smiles and take a look.

Are you passionate about children’s play and crafts? Would you like to have your blog or website featured here? E-mail me to say hi and tell me about your site: Cathy (at) nurturestore (dot) co (dot) uk for more details

Go play! Showcase: Artful Adventures

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artful adventures

This week’s Go Play! Showcase features the wonderful, creative ideas from Jude of Artful Adventures

Tell us about yourself

I am an artist and mum to two small boys. As long as I can remember, I have always loved drawing and making things. I studied Fine Art at university and have spent most of my career since then working in museums, galleries and historic houses, before giving it all up to look after my family. I am now trying to re-establish my artistic roots, and grow my business Artful Kids, which aims to create unique personalised wall-art by presenting children’s own artwork at it’s very best. My blog, Artful Adventures, started off life originally as a business blog, but has since developed something of an independent life of it’s own. It is dedicated to children’s art and includes creative projects, features, reviews and anything else which I think my readers might be interested in.

What’s your play philosophy?

When it comes to creative play especially, (though I suppose most play might be described as being creative) I believe that you should never impose or interfere too much. Even though I love creative activities, if my 2 boys don’t want to take part I don’t push them to do so, though I do make sure I provide them with plenty of opportunities.

I believe that children should be encouraged to have their own ideas, to explore and experiment. Children should be allowed to take the lead as far as possible – adults are there to help, encourage and facilitate. In art especially there is no right or wrong, and everyone needs to find their own approach. It can be very tempting sometimes to interfere if a child is not doing something quite as you planned it, but it is an impulse that I think it’s important to resist. I also think it’s important not to be too afraid of mess. Messy play is good – just try and control it as much as possible for your own sanity.

Inspire us!

Box Lid Art

This is a simple way of displaying children’s artwork, cheaply and effectively – it also means you can recycle some old boxes.

Valuing and Using Kids’ Artwork

Easy ways of re-using some of the piles of children’s artwork that you collect if, like me, you find it difficult to throw away!

A post which looks into some of the research behind the interpretation of children’s drawings, and what they can reveal about your child’s personality.
Are you passionate about children’s play and crafts? Would you like to have your blog or website featured here? E-mail me to say hi and tell me about your site: Cathy (at) nurturestore (dot) co (dot) uk for more details

Simple Play planning chart

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Join NurtureStore for a special month of play-based learning: packed full of kids ideas!

See all the posts in the Simple Play :: complex learning  series

Remember to keep it simple!

You don’t have to plan the whole month in advance.

You don’t need to plan something for every single day.

You don’t need to cover every type of play activity, every month of the year.

Focus on your child, and your circumstances.

Make a commitment to play more, follow your child’s interests, and take it from there.

Happy playtimes!

Cathy @ NurtureStore

play-planning-chart fix.

How to download the printable

Christmas beetle drive

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Christmas beetle drive Do you know how to play beetle? It’s a simple children’s game using a dice, great for practising turn taking, following instructions and fair play, and for number recognition too. Here’s a Christmas version: perfect for cold snowy days when you’re stuck inside or for those days between Christmas and New Year when you need a quick idea to have some fun.

You need just one dice, and a piece of paper and a pencil for each player.

How to play beetle The object of the game is to take turns rolling the dice and get the numbers you need to complete a picture of Father Christmas. Each number of the dice corresponds to a different part of Father Christmas’s face:

1 means you can draw his face

2 means you can draw his hat

3 means you can draw his eyes

4 means you can draw his beard

5 means you can draw his nose

6 means you can draw his mouth

However you have to start off with his face, so each player has to wait until they roll a 1 before they can start drawing their picture.

If you roll a number you’ve already used in your picture, you have to miss a go.

If you’re playing with pre-schoolers you can make it bit easier by pre-drawing and cutting out the pieces of the face they will need. Older children can simply draw their own Father Christmas using their paper and pencil.

The winner is the first person to complete Santa. I’m sure you can think of a good prize!

A variation to make it harder

You can make things a little harder, and play a longer game, if you use a reindeer as your picture.

1 means you can draw a body

2 means you can draw a head

3 means you can draw an antler (so you need to throw 3 twice to get both antlers)

4 means you can draw a leg (se you need to throw 4 four times to get all the legs)

5 means you can draw a tail

6 means you can draw a red nose

You have to have a body to start and you need a head before you can draw antlers or a nose.

Have you got any other Christmas versions of easy games? Please feel free to add a link in the comments.

happily shared with We Play

NurtureStore