Happy New Year

My children went back to school today. So I have so far done some cleaning and tidying to reclaim the house after the chaos that was this Christmas! We spent a lot of time at home this holiday; unusually for us at this time of the year because I have a rather large family, and most Christmasses going from one place to the next!

This year my husband and I managed to get a horrible dose of flu, which I passed on to my mother (she’s not overly happy about that as you can imagine!) So we spent Christmas Day and Boxing Day with family and the rest of the time at home. It was not the Christmas I had planned in any way, shape or form, but it was quite nice to have an extended time just the 4 of us.

My son, who is 5 and currently LOVES lego, lives having plenty of time to build all of his Christmas presents. He got quite a few sets for Christmas, and a large “Creator” box. He has built so very much in the last few weeks, and very happily he told me today that he loved his Christmas holiday. Life with him was very different this year, as he has always wanted us to be with him and do everything alongside him. However, this year he kept taking himself off to his bedroom to build his next lego project. It was very strange for us, but lovely to see that independence growing in him.

My daughter, who has always been more interested in just getting on with things by herself, has actually asked us to sit on the floor and play with her this holiday. She has been playing games with her character toys, she uses phrases she hears on her favourite TV programmes (which she has been able to watch more than usual this holiday with my husband and I being unwell). Her playing has changed to be more imaginative play, and less just knocking things down or bashing things.

Before Christmas our time after school was much nicer and with far fewer fights, because I had something set up for the children to do when they got back, had had their snacks and had done homework -just my son, who has reading and spellings each evening. We made a lot of presents and cards for Christmas, and it made for a much more harmonious house. It also meant that the TV got turned on much later. Previously the TV would be turned on about 30 minutes after we got back as the children, tired after a day at school, would just fight with each other. In the next few days I may do a write up of some of our projects, which have been on Instagram, if any of you follow me on there.

I am keen to keep us doing some projects after school. So I have prepared some Thank You cards for the children to make to be sent to relatives thanking them for their Christmas presents. I don’t know if they will be too tired tonight as it is the first day back, but we will see if they are interested.

The Thank You cards are very simple. I have written Thank You with a white wax crayon on the card, and have put a set of water colour paints out for them to paint over the card. Hopefully this will reveal the words and surprise them a little bit. It should be a pretty and simple card for them, and should be a nice process art activity that I can let them do whatever they want on. I shall let you know how we get on.

What New Year activities are you doing with your children this January?

It’s back- Tuff Tray Tuesday January 2019

Ok so it’s not the first week of January, but it was our first week back doing our Tuff Tray Tuesday activities.

I thought I would start off fairly simple and gave the children play dough to play with. Neither of them could wait for me to get set up. As soon as the Tuff Tray came out they jumped up and got straight onto the Tray. R tried to steal almost all of the play dough, leaving his sister only 1 colour.

I left out a number of tools that they could use with it, including craft sticks, clay/paint spreaders, clay moulding tools and an old potato masher. C was taken with the potato masher and its stamping capabilities- loves nothing better than getting excited with something she can stamp on the ground, on the table, on paper, on a Tuff Tray. However, she got bored quite quickly and then went off to amuse herself with other toys in the room. R took over. He also loved the masher, and he also tried standing it in between his feet and sticking the play dough on it to cover it up.

i tried to get Clara interested in the play dough by making a snail with it. Actually that captured R’s attention and he had a happy half hour making several snails!

Finally, possibly as a result of having watched too many surprise egg videos on YouTube, R decided to cover his PH Masks characters in play dough. Apparently the bad guys did it and he then had to wait for the rest of the heroes to come along and save him!

A lovely start to this year’s Tuff Tray exploits.

Tuff Tray Tuesday – 4 December 2018

Today’s Tuff Tray Tuesday activity was painting and glittering Christmas stars.

This was something that R was given by school to decorate for a PTA competition. Of course C wanted to join in so I made her a couple of stars out of white card as well. R states that he wanted the biggest star, and even though I told him that I had used his star as a template so they would be the same size, he measured them and announced that his was bigger.

We started by painting the stars using some paint pens that we have in our cupboard. They are relatively low mess, although my 1 year old likes to touch the brush part and my 4 year old likes to squeeze them as hard as he can, so they are not mess free. We only did one side of the stars so it could dry, so have the second side of them both to do tomorrow night. (Once finished 2 stars will fit together and stand up.)

To be honest it was harder to do with the 2 children than many of the other projects we have done. I think because it was a project set by school, R wanted to do his nicely, and he was attempting a design where he used a different color for each of the points of the star and another one for the middle. Meanwhile C was just splodging some paint on her star and having a great time. Then she wanted to have a go with R’s. Then she wanted to just roll the pens around on the tuff tray, including all over his star. So it all became a little tricky.

Eventually I resorted to putting Peppa Pig on the TV to distract C from what R was up to, which worked until we got the glitter out.

Both children thoroughly enjoyed putting glitter on their stars. Some with their hands, some poured straight from the tube. They did not care. The world is much better with glitter as far as they are concerned and you cannot put too much on. The star was more glitter and glue than paint by the end! And I then spent the rest of the evening clearing it up. Well most of it. The rest I will find all over the house for weeks! And we get to do it all over again with the second side tomorrow night!

Tuff Tray Tuesday – 20 November 2018

A rather lovely and easy to set up and clean up Tuff Tray Tuesday activity this week – making Christmas decorations from air drying clay.

We used DAS air drying clay, cookie cutters and a rolling pin. We also used an old chopstick for the ribbon hole.

We cut out a large circle from the clay and then used a smaller cookie cutter inside the large circle. I then poked a hole at the top of the clay for a ribbon to hang it from the tree.

The clay takes at least 24 hours to dry out, so we are waiting for the ornaments to dry out before painting them.

It was definitely a much better activity for my eldest, who is nearly 4.5 that my 18 month old. But she liked it for about 5 minutes. She did manage to have a go with the rolling pin, rolling the clay out and helping me press down on the cookie cutter to make a small ornament.

R used the whole packet of air drying clay, and wanted to do more. He asked me to get some more as soon as we finished making the decorations. I think I can quite safely say that this was a hit with him.

Tuff Tray Tuesday – 13 November 2018

We did a lovely #tufftraytuesdayactivity this evening. We made our own wrapping paper ready for Christmas.

I bought a few sheets of brown wrapping paper for this activity; and this morning spent a little time making some stamps for the children to play with. I wrapped some polystyrene cubes with yarn and stuck foam stickers onto an empty sticky tape roll. (In hindsight, the polystyrene cube and yarn was an error, the cube needed to be harder as did the yarn to make the sort of patterns I was hoping would be made- thick twine on something would have worked better.) I also found some polystyrene vegetable shapes in our cupboard and thought they would make good stamps too. These were set out with the paper, and 3 different colour paints for the children to explore.

I showed the children how to use the stamps with the paint, but then left them to it. I have done painting with C before and she enjoyed it for a few minutes before getting bored and moving on. I suspected, like last week’s activity, that watching her brother get involved, C would participate for longer. I was quite correct. C loved the stamps. She is in quite a bashy, I want to chuck stuff around, phase at the moment anyway so this was right up her street. Whatever her brother did she had a go with it as well but soon went back to stamping on the paper.

R liked trying out all of the stamps. As mentioned above, though, the cubes with yarn wrapped around didn’t quite work the way I hoped they would, so R just used them as a thick paintbrush! He decided to paint his hand and make handprints, and then rubbed his hands all over the paper. He had a whale of a time and his clothes were almost as covered in paint as the paper!

The finished result wasn’t quite as pretty as I had envisaged. There were no lovely repeating patterns, but I quite like them and their abstract nature. Even the one part of C’s sheet that looks a bit like it may be depicting a massacre or something. I will use them for Christmas presents.

Tuff Tray Tuesday – 16 October

We did this activity yesterday and I did start to write it up in the evening, but then C woke up. Several times. So I didn’t manage to finish and post it. She is going through YET ANOTHER bout of bad sleeping, and while I do know that it will end one day because I have an older child who was also dreadful at sleeping, it currently feels like she will never ever sleep through the night!

So anyway, Tuff Tray Tuesday:

This week’s Tuff Tray Tuesday is one of the simplest. It takes very little time to prepare, but it does take a little time to clear up. This week C and I did some painting together. For this activity I gave her:

• Paint – this week green, purple and orange as it is close to Halloween- we used this paint Scola Artmix
• Small plastic mixing bowls- we used these
• A selection of different size and shape paintbrushes – we used some of these
• A selection of utensils from the children’s play kitchen
• A small polystyrene pumpkin for stamping
• Sponge shapes

C got stuck in straight away even before I added the paint using the utensils to stir in the bowls, and transferring the sponge shapes into the bowls.

I added the paint and different coloured pieces of paper and let her explore. I think it is safe to say she enjoyed herself. Especially when I showed her how to use the pumpkin as a stamp. She had a ball.

However, while she clearly enjoyed painting it lasted for just 10 minutes and then took me about 20 minutes to clear up. Entirely worth I do think, but you do have to be prepared for the clear up! C is still only 17 months old, so she will do this sort of thing for longer when she is older, but for now this is a short lived activity.

What We Have Played With This Week-end March 2018

It is the last full week of term. The weather has got a bit better and Easter is approaching. My daughter is now 11 months old and is into absolutely everything! I am so glad we got the playpen for her as she will quite happily play in there while I pop out of the room. I can even put tea on. I come back in the room every 2 mins and only cook things that take a max of 10 mins to prepare at the moment, so my application for Masterchef will have to wait for a while!

My daughter is very good at just getting on with playing by herself. She potters about having a go with her toys and can do this on her own for a while. I don’t know if this is a girl thing or a second child thing because my son only really started playing by himself just over a year ago he always wanted us to join in with him with whatever he was doing. I tell you the games he played knocking trains over on the tracks, setting them up and knocking them over again felt like they went on forever!

Imaginative play and rediscovering an old favourite

My son has been at school all week. But last Sunday night we got his Octonauts toys out of the loft. He was obsessed with Octonauts for a while leading up to the birth of our daughter and then dinosaurs took over. He has recently got back into the Octonauts after a half term trip to Sealife Centre with his Grandma. He has been so excited about the Octonauts toys and has wanted to ply with them as soon as he wakes in the morning and as soon as he has got home from school. He now makes up little stories with them and chats away to them. Yesterday I don’t think he stopped talking to the Octonauts or about them for about 4 hours! His sister has also got in on the Octonauts act!

Music toys and games -Fisher Price Classic Music Box

C was given this record player for Christmas and initially she like trying to eat the records. Now she likes to “dance” when we put the records on, take them out of their compartment at the back, try to put hem on the turntable, and grab the arm. It was a great present for her because she loves music and musical toys and games.

Construction play

I love the children playing with construction toys. It gets them using their fine motor skills as well as their imagination. Of course C’s skills with Megabloks are somewhat limited at the moment, largely to just deconstructing whatever I have put together, but she thinks it’s a great game! She is having a go at putting the blocks on top of each other every now and then though.

Rummaging- Fine motor skills

C’s favourite drawer in our playroom is the one with all of our son’s cars and trains in. She loves a good rummage around and this drawer gives her the best opportunity for rummaging. With her selecting and picking up whichever small vehicle she wants from the drawer it gives her great fine motor skill practice, but is not something I let her do unless I am very close by as the vehicles are all very small with small parts that could come off easily and be swallowed -everything still goes in her mouth. Part of the appeal of this drawer is opening and closing the drawer itself. She is getting g lots of practice at not trapping her fingers. Something she doesn’t always manage.

Using stamps and pattern making

I have mentioned before on this blog that my son loves drawing. He has always loved using this super scribbler to draw on. We have a small, cheap version that he can use in the car too as this one is a bit too big, we have tried. He has recently started using the stampers with this ELC super scribbler to make simple patterns. At the moment just a series of shapes, but he likes to talk through what he is doing as he goes along. It’s quite fascinating to watch.

Introduction to sewing

A few weeks ago we watched some episodes of Creative Galaxy on Netflix and R particularly enjoyed an episode where they made their own soft toys. When I have the chance I like making soft toys with yarn so like the idea of eventually teachers g the children how to do this too. I thought it would be good to take advantage of his interest in the programme and bought this Woodland Creatures Sew and Play bumper box to give him an introduction to sewing. It cones with everything you need to make the creature. The kit has pre-stamped holes to put the plastic needle through to teach simple running stitch. The creature’s features are either pre-printed or stuck on. R quite enjoyed it, but he was on the young side of who the kit is aimed towards and got a bit bored with the sewing. So I finished the sewing off for him. He told me he enjoyed stuffing the hedgehog though. The animals can be bought singly or in a bumper pack of 6.

What we have played with this week

This week has been the last week of this half term for my boy. He was in school for 4 days, stayed overnight at his Grandma’s one night and went to a friend’s birthday party today. He has been learning to write letters for a while now, but this week it seems like something has clicked for him and his writing has come on no end. He is loving drawing as well. Not colouring in, he’s not too interested in that, but drawing. I was so impressed with the pictures he drew at his Grandma’s house!

My daughter this week has been pulling herself up on anything in sight and is getting more and more confident with standing. She can hold on with just one hand for longer periods and she even stood entirely unassisted for a second yesterday. She still loves a good rummage, and has recently taken to holding things up to show us what she has got. This includes both food and toys. She has started “dancing” too which is very cute to watch.

So, on to more specific things we have played with. R spent some time this afternoon playing with some play clay he got in his party bag. He has only recently started to enjoy actually shaping and moulding things like play clay and play dough himself. Previously we would get play dough put, but he would want to watch us and direct us as to what to make for him. Now he is doing it all for himself. Today he used thin strips of playclay to make a Mr Skinny, and then put some of the strips together to make a model of Mr Strong.

We have played quite a bit with the playpen this week. Both children seem to love it

For Christmas I bought C a wooden activity cube, the link to the one I bought made by Lewo is Here It does say that it is unsuitable for under 3s, but I thought what 3 year old would want to play with this? It turns out that my boy is the sort of 3 year old! There are lacing beads and shape sorting activities as well as xylophone on this activity cube. My daughter does love it but it is a bit too old for her as she has nearly trapped her ha d in it a few times! She sticks the xylophone beater in her mouth and I am not confident to leave her alone with it. I think she will be fine with it in about 6 months or so but for now she can only play with it if we are there with her. And her brother hasn’t got hold of it first.

I mentioned the pulling herself up on anything and everything? Well here she is having pulled herself up to have a look at the train set a little boy was playing with in our local branch of Foyles. I love this Foyles. It’s always clean and bright and, while it is not a big shop when we go in during the week there is always plenty of space to have a look around. They have had this Brio train set out for children to play with since opening a few years ago. I used to go in all the time when my son was at home and obsessed with trains. I must admit that we didn’t always buy something when we went in, but I have bought more books from Foyles than I otherwise would have done just because we were there with him and books caught my eye.

Valentine’s sun catchers

On Sunday R and I got a bit crafty making Valentine’s themed sun catchers.

To make the sun catchers you need:

• contact paper
• tissue paper (we used tissue paper circles from Flying Tiger)
• glitter (again ours was from Flying Tiger, and it was left over from Christmas)
• safety scissors

First we cut out squares of contact paper, taking the backing off one piece of contact paper each and laying it on the floor sticky side up. Then we put tissue paper circles all over the contact paper square. R went for a rather scattered approach whereas I was a little more careful with the placing of my circles.

 

A square of contact paper was stuck over the top of the tissue circles so that they were held in place. We folded the squares in half and I drew half of a heart shape on the one half of the square (I am simply not good at drawing a consistently shaped heart freehand!) and R used the safety scissors to cut around the heart outline.

I placed more contact paper, sticky side up, on the floor and R stuck the hearts down on the new contact paper square. He then thoroughly enjoyed tipping glitter all over the heart (and I mean tipping, there was absolutely no glitter left in the tube and I will be vacuuming it up for days!)before another square of contact paper was placed over the top to seal in the glitter. As before I drew a heart for R to cut out using his safety scissors.

We now just have to make a little hole in the heart and string them up in the front room window, the lightest room in the house, and admire our handiwork.

 

This was a nice, easy to set up activity that R really liked. Clear up afterwards was quite quick as well, but I must admit it would have been a lot worse if I hadn’t put a sheet down to work on. R did keep pulling more and more tissue circles out of the bag and if I hadn’t caught him at it he probably would have dumped the whole of the bag out on the floor which would have taken ages to clean up.