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National Doodle Day

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national doodle day
Tomorrow Friday 11th February 2011 is National Doodle Day so go for it – get doodling! Can you create a doodle-friendly environment today? How about placing some paper, pencils, notepads, coloured pens and post-it notes around your play space and seeing what the children come up with. Sneak some into the tent, put some under the climbing frame, lay some out between the knives and forks at lunch time and see what your children doodle. When you sit down for story time today, have a clipboard and pencil on hand to capture any daydreamy doodles that might be inspired by the story.

National Doodle Day is run each year in the UK to raise funds for Epilepsy Action and if you’d like to support them you can enter their competition, where they’re giving prizes for the best doodle by individuals, nurseries and schools . Their site also has some tips on how you can interpret your doodles to find their hidden meanings.

Doodling is great for kids any day of the year of course. Having the opportunity to free-style lets children practise their pencil grip and try out different strokes, without any pressure to ‘do it the right way’. It lets them use their imagination and can also be a great calm-down activity or something to keep them occupied when you’re out and about. A magnetic scribble pad is perfect for taking in the buggy or car.

So – let’s get doodling! I’d love you take take a photo of your doodles and send me a picture. You can tweet me @nurturestore or add your photo to NurtureStore’s Facebook page.

Activities with conkers

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If your children are anything like mine, come autumn and the house begins to fill with conkers. But what to do with them? The girls enjoy using them in their play, however their imaginations take them: this week L’s had a class of conkers which she’s been bossing around and reading stories too!

If you’d like to give the kids a blast from our childhoods, how about reminding them of the rules of playing conkers? My article over at Ready for Ten has some tips on how to pick a winning conker.

conker weaving1

And how about trying some conker weaving. Hannah at Home Baked shared a photo of some beautiful conker webs she’d made this week. We were inspired to try some ourselves and even had a go at making conker baskets. A little fiddly for my 4 year old, but my 7 year old sat for over an hour tonight making and making and making them. Hop on over to my other blog, homemademummy if you’d like to see how ours turned out.

happily shared with Kids Get Crafty – where you’ll find lots more craft inspiration

Fine motor skills

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fine motor skills
This week we’ve got ***10 tips for developing fine motor skills: ideas to help children strengthen their grip and improve the flexibilty of their fingers. These are important things for young children to be working on so they can enjoy being more independent, fastening their own buttons and zips. Fine motor skills are needed for writing and drawing too and there are lots of fun ways you can encourage your pre-schooler.

Tip #1 Encouraging your child’s fine motor skills gets them ready for lots of things from tying shoe laces to holding a pencil.

Tip #2 If your child’s not interested in pencils try using chalkboards and sticks in sand instead. Use water and a paint brush too.

Tip #3 Fastening buttons and zips are great fine motor practice so try to allow extra time to let your child fasten up their own coat.

Tip #4 Baking helps children’s fine motor skills: as they knead dough and rub butter into flour they strengthen their fingers.

Tip #5 From around the age of three you can try using scissors: try making these paper lanterns which are great cutting practise.

Tip #6 Choose good scissors & try thin card not paper at first. Try these cutting skills ideas from TeachPreschool.

Tip #7 Lacing is great practice too.  It’s easy to make your own lacing games: try this lacing apple from No Time For Flash Cards.

Tip #8 Peeling stickers is perfect for little fingers. Buy some with your favourite characters on and get sticking.

Tip #9 How about clothespegs for building finger strength? Hang up the washing or make a number line .

Tip #10 Thread a pasta necklace, fill pots using tongs, have a go with tweezers: all great ways to develop little fingers.

Does your child find buttons and zips easy to fasten? How do you help them practise?

Check out our archive for lots more fine motor skills ideas

Air drying clay models

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Have you ever used air drying clay? My girls love it – it’s maleable, not too sticky, and you can poke embellishments into the clay to create wonderful effects. And as the name suggests, when you’ve made your model you can simply leave it to dry instead of having to bake it. You can paint the dried model, or leave the clay in its natural state. As it’s long-lasting its a good material to use for gifts and decorations too.

So, what did we make today? Well, I don’t you know if you’ve seen The Gallery over at Sticky Fingers, where Tara posts a prompt each week to inspire readers to take photographs of a particular topic, but this week the theme is ‘Creatures‘. So that’s what we made. Do you like them?

Why don’t you try some air drying clay with your children and see what they can make?

And if you’d like to see how everyone else interpreted the theme ‘Creatures’ why not pop over to Sticky Fingers and see?

Tissue paper suncatchers

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I love the way these tissue paper suncatchers look so vibrant in the sunshine. They’re very easy to make and even toddlers can make their own masterpiece. You’ll need a laminator to make this version, which you can buy: Cathedral A4 Laminator with Jam Release or your local print shops may offer the service.  Alternatively you could use sticky-backed plastic to hold the tissue paper in place.

Choose your favourite colours and create your design on the laminator pouch

Put your finished design through the laminator

You might like a Matisse inspired square design

Or you can add texture by scrunching the tissue paper

A heart shape would make a lovely present.

To make the heart shaped suncatcher, we arranged the tissue paper in the heart design on the pouch and then cut round the outline after it had been through the laminator machine.

Ever inventive, the girls have taken the suncatchers and turned them into stained glass windows in their story tent.

And if you’re enjoying creating with tissue paper, you might also like this flower craft.

happily shared with the Virtual Valentine’s Day Party

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