Misc Archives - Page 22 of 26

Save the Children in Bangladesh

30/08/2010 by Cathy James 8 Comments

Sunday 29th August 2010

Two girls, not a care in the world, playing in the garden and enjoying the sunshine.

Sand, flower pots, matchsticks, shells.

On the same day three mummy bloggers, Sian, Josie and Eva flew to Bangladesh with Save the Children to see what life is like for children living there. Please take a moment to visit the Save the Children site and find out about the campaign.

Makes me think what childhood my girls would be having had they by chance been born somewhere else.

This post is shared with the Gallery at Sticky Fingers which this week is taking a snapshot of life on August 29th 2010

Children’s favourite un toys

28/08/2010 by Cathy James 9 Comments

This week’s #goplay Twitter Tips are all about un – toys : the favourite things to play with which you won’t find in the toy shops, the alternative to plastic, battery-operated toys.

#goplay Twitter Tip #1 Consider what makes a great toy: fun, stimulating, open-ended, multi-use, still interesting as the child grows

#goplay Twitter Tip #2 What’s an un-toy? Natural materials & everyday objects: an alternative to plastic, battery-operated, one-purpose toys

#goplay Twitter Tip #3 I find children play longer & with more concentration with un-toys: they’re versatile & offer more play opportunities

#goplay Twitter Tip #4 Some un-toys we love: sticks, boxes, shells, pots & pans, wooden spoons, bottle tops, button, fircones, food packets

#goplay Twitter Tip #5 There’s no ‘right way’ to play with un-toys: let your child’s imagination decide & watch each child play differently

#goplay Twitter Tip #6 Did you know the stick and the cardboard box have both been inducted into the Toy Hall Of Fame? https://www.museumofplay.org/nthof/toys/index.php?toy=cardboard_box

#goplay Twitter Tip #7 A cardboard box can become a train , a story tent or a house

#goplay Twitter Tip #8 How about collecting some pebbles this weekend and making a set of story stones?

#goplay Twitter Tip #9 How about providing some un-toys for dressing up? fabric, scarves, ribbons so children can create their own costumes?

#goplay Twitter Tip #10 Why not try some un-toys & see what your child thinks: have fun, #goplay, go green, be creative, use your imagination!

*These #goplayTwitter Tips are tweeted each Friday at 8.30pm – follow @nurturestore or the #goplay hashtag to share

View the Twitter Tips on playdough, water play, travelling with kids junk modeling and encouraging reading and writing

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Play Academy #3

20/08/2010 by Cathy James Leave a Comment

Welcome to the Play Academy.

Please come and share your play and learning ideas.

Thank you so much to those of you who linked up last week. It was great to see your ideas and to discover some blogs which were new to me.

Inspired by last week how about painting in the bath with this idea from The Wonder Days?

To join the Play Academy:

1. Add your post to the Linky below. Remember to link to the individual post rather than your homepage. If you are not a blogger please visit the NurtureStore Facebook page and share your photo there.

2. Go and visit some of the other blogs on the Linky. Leave a comment and say hi. Get ideas. Tell them you’re visiting from the Play Academy.

3. Add a link back from your own post to this Play Academy – your readers can then come and get ideas too. You can use the Play Academy badge if you like.(Grab the code from the column on the left.)

4. Come back next Friday and swap some more play ideas. The next Play Academy linky will be Friday 27th August.

Thank you for joining the Play Academy – I can’t wait to see what you’ve been playing this week.

Art galleries for children

11/08/2010 by Cathy James Leave a Comment

Child-friendly art galleries are fantastic places to visit with young children. We were invited to the Wolverhampton Art Gallery last weekend for a bloggers’ tea party and to try out the gallery and activities it offers. The crucial thing we look for in a gallery or museum is that there are lots of hands-on things for the children to do – and the Wolverhampton Art Gallery was fantastic.

B loved to art room where there was a table full of junk modelling supplies and she got stuck in to make a secret door treasure chest. There were staff on hand to help locate sticky tape and scissors but the children were free to stay as long as they liked and use as many of the resources as they wanted to. B loved the sensory room upstairs where you are positively encouraged to touch all the exhibits – lots of textures to explore, drawers to open with smelly and touchy-feely contents, and materials to make something of your own. There is a ‘Stories‘ exhibition running there until 4th September which offers a place to read and play, whilst relaxing on turtle and toadstool cushions, surrounded by beautiful art works. There’s also some dressing up fun to be had too – you can see B loved that!

The Wolverhampton Art Gallery has a full programme of events for children including a regular pre-school group and entrance to the gallery is free. We loved our visit and I’m hoping to visit the Bilston Craft Gallery soon, which is their sister site.

If Wolverhampton isn’t local to you there are lots of other galleries which welcome children with all sorts of hands-on events. Including:

Family Tour and Draw at the National Portrait Gallery, London

Big Art for Little Artists at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool

Family Activities at the Tate in Cornwall, London and Liverpool

So why not take the kids to a gallery this summer and let them get inspired to create some art of their own? If you have a great kid-friendly gallery to recommend, please let us know in the comments.

Recipes for all the family

16/07/2010 by Cathy James 2 Comments

For a quick tea after school, an easy meal at the weekend, or to mix-and-match a bit to suit kids with assorted fussiness, you can’t go far wrong with:

Quesadillas : Cheese Tortillas

Quick photo grabbed before the kids started eating!

You will need:

A pack of tortilla wraps (8 wraps makes enough for a family of 4, or for 6 kids)

A mound of grated cheese

A selection of flavours: we like finely chopped onion, peppers, sweetcorn, coriander

You need to:

Place a tortilla wrap in a frying pan (no oil needed).

Pop some cheese on top.

Let the kids choose which extras they want to customise their quesadilla and pop them on top of the cheese.

Add another tortilla wrap on top to make a sandwich.

Dry fry for a couple of minutes, then flip with a spatula and dry fry the other side for a couple of minutes.

Slice like a pizza & it’s ready to eat.

We like to serve them with soured cream and guacamole.

This is a nice recipe to use if you fancy trying some new ‘international’ food with your kids and links in very well with the book Come and Eat with Us (Discovery Flaps) which was created with Oxfam and shows families in different countries shopping for food, cooking and eating. It introduces the idea of there being many similarities and differences around the world and gives lots to talk about.

Outdoor messy play

10/07/2010 by Cathy James 13 Comments

Warm, sunny weather gives a great opportunity to take your play outside. How about some outdoor painting? Even if you’re usually reluctant to let the kids do messy play indoors, when you’re outside you can relax a little and let them get creative.

We used a wipe-able tablecloth to give the floor some protection and used washable paint. It was too hot to get wrapped up in coveralls so we wore old clothes. The plant pots did a great job holding our big roll of parcel paper in place. We had a washing up bowl full of water and a tea towel handy – good for washing off our feet!

We experimented with big brushes, washing-up scrubbers and the rake from the sandpit.

This was an ‘open-ended’ craft session where the kids had the opportunity to use the paint their way, rather than us making anything in particular. Little especially enjoyed using her hands and feet to paint with and Big experimented with some splatter painting.

Why not try this with your children and see what they create?

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