A quick children's craft - design your own room

This craft is something that I remember doing with my Mum when I was little. She used to receive a mail order catalogue and when the new one came we could have the old one to cut up. I used to like choosing my favourite items to glue on to a cardboard house. You just need a thick catalogue with plenty of pictures of furniture, homeware, toys and so on. Ours was a Tesco one, and the Argos one would work well too.

I'm working with Harry on his scissor skills at the moment, and he's doing pretty well at it. We went through the catalogue and I got him to cut out pictures of things that he'd like in his bedroom, then we stuck them all down on to some coloured paper to make his dream room. This is it:

This craft provides a very interesting and often amusing insight into your child's mind. Harry chose a bed with the same bedding that he has at home anyway, but then chose some very pink, girly accessories including a dresser. I was pleased to see that storage was important to him, less pleased to see that he considered a large television essential. He also picked out some smart bookshelves and he really wanted to include a display cabinet, which isn't something that we have in our house. I asked him what he was going to put on display and he said "my stuff".

The good thing about this activity was that it kept Mia entertained as well with her own little pot of glue and the off cuts of paper. A really quick, easy and cheap activity and lots of fun!

How messy play actually keeps my house clean

I've started getting a bit more into messy play recently. I used to say that Harry could do enough of that at nursery, but now that he has moved to a new pre-school they don't seem to do it as much, and Mia hasn't been much to nursery yet so I don't want her to miss out. I've also discovered that it's one of the few activities that they can both do together. They each play in their own way - Harry has proper role-play going on and Mia is content just to tip things in and out of containers - yet they are both using the same materials and in the same place. It also keeps them both busy for ages, as does the subsequent bath.

Many people are put off messy play because of just that - it's messy. But I've found that thanks to our new found interest my house is actually cleaner!

I use a shower curtain on the floor in the kitchen, which is good for dry things but although it absorbs water it is not entirely waterproof. Water is usually involved in our play, so the floor is nice and wet when we've finished. I can wipe it up quickly with a few old towels, which gives the floor a good clean too.

I'm also getting the hoover out a lot more, to clean up the trails of mess created from the real kitchen to the play kitchen (to grab more things to make messy) and up to the bathroom. While the hoover is out I tend to do a quick whip round the rest of the downstairs too, so I'm also getting more hoovering done.

I'm even finding that the washing machine is going on more reguarly too, as the shower curtain needs a wash afterwards as do the clothes that they've been wearing. It means that I'm keeping well on top of the laundry!

So don't be put off trying messy play, it has its benefits!

Some brilliant summer crafts from Red Ted Art

Today I am delighted to welcome a guest post from Maggy at Red Ted Art with some fantastic crafty ideas. Enjoy!

HELLO! I am Maggy from Red Ted Art and I am so pleased to be here today, sharing some our favourite crafts! Thank you so much for having me and share some of crafty favourites!

Excuse the crazy photo - I made it a while back for my+ account and I can't resist using it! Anyway, I digress. Our favourite thing over at Red Ted Art is KIDS CRAFTS! We are craft crazy and we love making things as often as we can! (We do also like doing other things, btw, like cooking and gardening, but you will have to read about that over at Life At The Zoo and Theatre, Books and Movies!!!). And whilst Jennifer is have a break, we thought we would share some of our Summer favourites!



Bottle Top Stamps We love these bottle top stamps - as they are soooo simple to make. Most households have these materials to hand (or at least substitutes for these materials), the variations are endless AND once you have made them you can have a great arty crafty session. So almost a "two in one" if you wish. We have used our stamps, for creating pictures, for simply stamping and for making wrapping paper. Perfect. Check out this post for more bottle top craft ideas.

 

Saltdough (Hearts) Next up our easy salt dough recipe - in this case we made hearts to decorate Christmas and Valentine's with. But really you can make anything - use cookie cutters to make shapes and ornaments or mold it like playdough. We have added colours to our salt dough in the past, so you don't necessarily have to paint them afterwards. Find more salt dough crafts here.

 

Butterfly Cards Going to a birthday party and need a card in a hurry? What to write a thank you note to the children's teacher? Make these sweet and bright butterfly cards and you are all sorted. I share a little template over on Red Ted Art to make it easier for you too!

   

Snowglobes Yes! Another childhood "classic" of ours. Every child NEEDS to have made a DIY snowglobe at some point. A great opportunity to recycle some old jars (I particularly like using small jars e.g. from baby food) as well as some of that "plastic tat" kids get in party bags or kinder surprises.

 
Great Artists for Kids

Or how about getting Arty? I have a series of "Art with Kids" posts - some looking at Great Artists, like here Andy Warhol and creating art in the style of these artists and the others are open ended activities that promote creativity - easy to set up and do!    

Well, I do hope that that keeps you going! Some ideas to have lots of fun with. If you liked what you saw and fancy a lovely Craft Book for your kids, I have just brought out Red Ted Art, Cute and Easy Crafts for Kids! It is packed with crafty ideas to keep you busy for a long long time. This makes for a fantastic gift too, so please do check it out. Read the reviews and see how many people enjoy it already! Thank you Jennifer, for having me!

My love for Pinterest and the #PinItForwardUK campaign

If you are a regular reader, you will know just how much I love Pinterest. I joined Pinterest almost two years ago, and I've been using it regularly ever since.

If you're not familiar with Pinterest, it's best described as a collection of visual, online pinboards of the things that you love. You can create new boards on any subject that you like, and then as you spot things on your travels around the internet you can pin an image to the board which links back to the page where it comes from. People use it for all sorts of things. I tend to use it to collect together ideas for activities that I'd like to do with the children, inspiration for crafts that I'd like to try and recipes that I want to have a go at. I have the mobile app too, so for example I can access my pinned recipes when I'm in the supermarket shopping for ingredients or the kitchen baking.

In addition, because so many people use it, Pinterest also contains a wealth of ideas and inspiration. To get the full experience you need to follow other like-minded people, see what they are pinning, and then you can re-pin all the things you see that interest and inspire you.

I have discovered so many different crafts and activities since I started using Pinterest. For example, as I wrote the other week, Pinterest introduced me to washi tape. I also try most months to take part in the PinAddicts challenge, because Pinterest can become so addictive that you end up pinning lots of things that you never actually get around to doing!

There is a brilliant social side to Pinterest too - you can comment on pins to let others know what you think and share further ideas and inspiration. One of my favourite boards is my Craft Inspiration board. It's packed full of gorgeous things that I've spotted online, mainly re-pinned from within Pinterest, that I would love to have a go at one day.


If you already use Pinterest then don't forget to follow me, you can find all my Pinterest boards here.
If this has inspired you, and you'd like to join Pinterest, you can do so easily using this registration link. I'd love to see you over there!

This blog post is a part of the #PinItForwardUK campaign. Passionate bloggers from across the UK have been selected to showcase their personal tastes, talents and inspirations. The bloggers write about a range of subjects, all representing popular categories found on Pinterest.

We will all be posting one after the other, and I would like to introduce Islay who will be posting about the campaign tomorrow. Islay writes the gorgeous beauty and style blog islaay.com - do pop by and visit!

 

Sensory play with Dinosaur Island

I've had the idea of making a Dinosaur Island small world play scene for a long time, ever since I saw this Dinosaur Island post over on the wonderful Filth Wizardry. I only just looked it up again when I was writing this post and I was surprised to see how many elements I'd included in my own Dinosaur Island - it was obviously all stuck there in my head somewhere!



Dinosaur Island sensory tray

For the base I used the lid from our sand and water tray. Something like a tuff spot would also have worked really well, although there would have been a lot more space to fill.

I made some playdough (using this simple recipe from The Imagination Tree) with plenty of black food dye for a volcano centerpiece. I used some red and yellow shredded paper left over from Easter baskets for the lava. Then I placed a shallow plate filled with water for a lake, and the rest of the island was built around that.

To fill the rest of the tray I used some black dyed rice around the volcano which was leftover from our firework sensory tub. That meant that it did have stars and glitter in it, but that didn't matter! Then I made a beach with some cheap mashed potato mix, and added porridge oats and shredded wheat to make some different areas on the tray. I put some stones at one end and some green shredded paper for vegetation. I had also bought some value noodles, so I cooked up a few and put them in a shallow bowl to one side.

The scene was finished with all our plastic dinosaurs, some of which were mine when I was little!

Dinosaur Island sensory tray

Harry played with Dinosaur Island for a long time. He was surprisingly tidy, which was nice after all my hard work. He told me that he was 'making up stories', and I eavesdropped on a few which was wonderful. His favourite part was the volcano, and he liked how he could make dinosaur footprints in the playdough.

While Harry was playing with it I occupied Mia on the floor with some of the dry materials and some pots to pour things in and out of. I didn't want to let her anywhere near it! But after a few days when Harry was finished with it I let Mia at it. She enjoyed playing with it too although the dinosaur significance was lost on her, she just enjoyed grabbing handfuls of everything, filling up the volcano and throwing it all about.

If you are interested in making sensory tubs or small world sensory play then you might like this post that I wrote on my other blog which is all about sensory tubs for toddlers and has links to lots of resources.

Easter Egg hunting

I have very fond memories of the Easter Egg hunts organised for us when we were little (and not so little) by my parents, and so it is definitely something that I'll be doing each year for my children.

I have decided that I won't be starting an Easter Bunny tradition; he seems to have morphed into something akin to Father Christmas, bringing not just chocolate eggs but also baskets full of presents. Instead I took the children to Asda and let Harry choose his own Easter Egg, so he is very clear where it has come from!

Because of the differences in age and ability between Harry (4) and Mia (22 months), this year I organised two Easter Egg hunts. The first was aimed more at Harry. I took all the Easter Eggs that I had for them, both from us and other family members, and made them the grand prize. Then I put together a series of clues which I hid around the house in plastic Easter Eggs leading to the eggs. Last year I drew a picture of where to find the next clue, this year I stepped it up a bit and wrote out a proper clue, things like "Is it morning yet?" which led to his Groclock, or "Socks on!" which is one of Mia's favourite phrases at the moment and led to her sock drawer. He caught on pretty quickly and loved looking for the clues.

For the second Easter Egg hunt Harry and I hid tiny chocolate eggs around his bedroom and they used small baskets which we made at toddler group to collect the eggs in. Harry was really keen to help Mia find the eggs, and he helped me to make some arrows on pieces of paper to point to where the eggs were. Of course she didn't pay much attention to the arrows, but once she realised what she was looking for she was charging about grabbing eggs, including ones from Harry's basket to his dismay!

Finally, this year I decided that there was no point sitting around and waiting in vain for someone to buy me an Easter Egg, so on our trip to Asda I treated myself to one just for me. The first time I have had my own proper Easter Egg in ages!

Did you do an Easter Egg hunt yesterday?

Crafting with the toddler that eats everything - a follow-up post

So the other day I posted about my crafting problems. I was having terrible trouble doing any of the crafty activities that we love with Mia, because she just kept eating everything that we were using. Thanks to the comments I was glad to see that I wasn't alone, and so I've come up with some alternatives that I've been trying out, to tide us over until she has learned that craft materials are not for eating!

Glue

Bek suggested that we could make our own glue from flour and water. I have fond memories of my parents making this for us, when we visited our Grandma who wasn't as well stocked with craft materials as we were at home. I looked about online and made up a recipe based on several different versions that I found.

I put two tablespoons of flour and one teaspoon of sugar into a saucepan, then added water gradually over a low heat, whisking continually. It thickened very quickly and became very lumpy, but by adding a bit more water I managed to make a paste. I gave it to the children with our usual glue spreaders, and to my surprise it worked really well. It stuck nicely, and would be particularly good for large scale gluing projects like papier mâché. It went lumpy as it cooled so you'd need to make it fresh each time, but it was definitely a success.

Yes, Mia did eat quite a bit of it, but I tried a little bit myself and it was actually quite tasty so I don't blame her!

Playdough

Bek also reminded me about homemade playdough. A little while back I found a great non-cook playdough recipe from The Imagination Tree for chocolate playdough, which was easy to make and very successful. It's still quite salty, so I wouldn't want Mia to eat lots of it, but it must be better for her than the commercial alternative. You can find everything you could possibly need to know about making homemade playdough here.

Paint and edible messy play

I found these sachets of custard powder and flavoured dessert mix in Asda, they were no more than 14p per sachet. Sainsbury's also do similar versions.

I made up the custard powder with hot water as per the instructions and the dessert mix with cold water (rather than the milk that you would use if you were actually going to eat it for dessert), and I put out a selection of different things to play with it.

It didn't stay this tidy for long!

Among other things we used bits and pieces from the toy kitchen, cars, ice cube trays and paintbrushes. It kept them both entertained for a very long time, and after that they both went straight into the bath, making this a fantastic activity which kept them happily occupied for an entire morning. It was a resounding success, and an activity that we have repeated several times over the last week!

So if you are experiencing the same problem that I am, I hope that you have found something here to inspire you while you wait for this phase to pass!

PinAddicts challenge for March - Banana Muffins

We're on a bit of a health kick in this househould. Both me and my husband have been dieting for a couple of months and we're both doing really well. I'm pretty much at my goal weight now (although a couple more lbs wouldn't hurt) and I've really missed baking, so I'm looking for some healthy treats that I can make that don't have too many calories.

Image source My Darlings and Me, used with permission

I spotted these banana muffins from My Darlings and Me a few weeks ago and pinned them to try next time we had some bananas that were looking a little past their best. It's also a cake recipe that doesn't contain eggs, which is handy as don't always have any around.

Here is my effort, they were very easy to make, and they tasted delicious! I priced them up as around 150 calories each, which isn't too bad for a cake.

My banana muffin

I'm linking up to the PinAddicts challenge, which is a great way to motivate yourself to actually try out some of the loveliness that you've been pinning. Even better, last month I was a runner-up in the giveaway and I won some gorgeous bits of fabric from Abakhan, which I am hoping will feature in the challenge for next month!

You can see the other entries this month and take part here.

Just a little reminder about those BiB Awards. I would love you to consider nominating me for Crafts or Travel. 

Trying out Postcrossing

Postcrossing is something that I had never heard of until I started compiling my Day Zero Project list. While hunting through other lists for inspiration I found it mentioned a number of times, and a visit to the website fuelled my interest. I’m very keen to teach Harry about geography, and I thought that receiving postcards from different countries would provide a good starting point, as well as perhaps introducing us to some countries that I didn’t know much about.

Postcrossing is basically an organised way to exchange postcards with other people across the globe. You set up an account, then as a new member you can initially send up to five postcards. When you choose to send a postcard you are given a random person to post to. I chose my first five straight away and was given the addresses for members in Russia, the US, Spain, Germany and Belarus.

I have quite a collection of postcards, some are free ones that I have picked up at the cinema but I also have plenty that I’ve bought in the past that just sit in a box and could be put to good use. When you choose to send a card you can view the recipient’s profile and see the sorts of postcards that they like to receive. I was able to find a card for each that I hoped would fit in with their interests.

At the Post Office I found out that it currently costs 87p to send a postcard anywhere in the world outside the UK. I didn’t think that was particularly cheap, but I thought I would give it a go and so off they went. Then we waited to see what we would receive in return.

Once your postcard has been received it is logged into the website. Once your first postcard has arrived you become eligible to receive a postcard of your own. You are notified that your postcard has been logged, and the recipient can send you a short message to say thank you.

We received our first postcard a couple of weeks later and over the next three weeks or so we received all five. I was really pleased with the postcards that we were sent. In my profile I asked for ones with a flavour of the country that they were being sent from, and they all obliged, along with some further information about their country, personal messages and even some cool stamps. We received postcards from Siberia, Belarus, Chicago, Taiwan and Finland.

When I sent the original postcards I purchased enough stamps to send five more, and having seen the lovely postcards that we received back I’ll definitely be sending some more out. I’m not sure how far I’ll take it after that, as it doesn’t work out as the cheapest of hobbies, but I’d definitely recommend giving it a go if you are looking to spark an interest in geography with your children!

You can visit the Postcrossing website here



Our first five postcards from Postcrossing

A Spring sensory tub

I woke up this morning to sunshine (actually that's not quite correct, I was woken by a wakeful toddler in darkness, but by the time I opened the curtains there was sunshine) and a slight warmth in the air. In the hope that Spring might finally be on the way, I put together this Spring sensory tub to keep the little ones occupied for a few minutes.

The base of the tub is dyed rice, left over from my previous beach sensory tub and my dyed rice rangoli. I added a few glass pebbles and some shredded green paper. Then I put in a couple of small flower pots and spoons, some baby animals from the farm set and some cut out flower shapes. I also added a few small pieces of green card and some flower foam stickers.

I have an old tablecloth that I keep for this sort of play, in the vain hope that it might not all end up on the carpet. Sensory tubs are good because they can both play with them together, as long as I make sure that I have two of everything. They hold Harry's attention for much longer.

Harry asked me what he was supposed to do with it, so I told him that it was up to him what he did. It was fascinating to see where he went with it. First he filled up one of the flower pots with rice, then he planted the 'seeds' (the glass pebbles) before sticking the card flowers in the top of the pot.  Then he buried the flowers in the rice and talked about how it was Winter, then dug them up for the Spring.

His imagination then took a different turn as the flowers became dinosaur bones, and he dug them up, naming each dinosaur and type of bone as he did so (I see potential for another game here). Finally he sprinkled the rice through his fingers as rain and made a flood.

I always thought that sensory tubs were aimed at younger children, but having watched my two, Harry (4) played with this for a lot longer, and I could really see his imagination at work. I'll definitely be getting it out again over the next few weeks!

The "Lunchtime" blog tour

You may remember that a few months back I reviewed Lunchtime by Rebecca Cobb. We loved the book, and so I was delighted to be asked to take part in a blog tour to celebrate the release of Lunchtime in paperback. The book tells the story of a little girl who doesn't want to eat her lunch and is helped out by a friendly crocodile, bear and wolf.

The crocodile is covered in a gorgeous pattern of circles which is repeated on the end papers of the book. When we first read the book, Harry and I did some circle painting based on this, and so I decided to make Harry and Mia a special circle lunch also inspired by the book.

I collected together circular plates and bowls (raiding the toy kitchen) and prepared some circular food - round sandwiches, cucumber, crackers and a few treats. To make it more special I took out the 'party cloth' (a patchwork duvet cover made for me by my Mum) and laid it all out on the floor so that they could reach easily.

I even found them a muffin tin each with circular holes to act as a plate. They loved it, and ate more than they usually do (of course I kept the treats back until they'd had a good go at the sandwiches!)

The Lunchtime book tour has taken in a number of blogs. The schedule is below, so do make sure that you visit some of the other blogs that have taken part! I'd really recommend this book, it really is a lovely story to read and enjoy with your children.

 

 

Finally, just a quick reminder to my readers, if you enjoy reading my blog I would love you to consider nominating me for a MAD Blog Award, perhaps in Family Fun, Family Life or Craft. Thank you!

I've not received anything in return for this post, I just love the book.

I love going to soft play!

That's right, in contrast to lots of parents, I love taking the children to soft play. This is why:

• The children love it.

• Because they love it, it can be used for bribery purposes ("Harry, if you stay in bed tomorrow until the sun comes up on your Groclock, then we will go to soft play").

• The children burn off so much energy that an afternoon nap for Mia is a given and there's a good chance that Harry will be happy to sit quietly on the sofa in front of the television for a bit too.

• It's indoors so not weather dependent.

• If you arrive as soon as it opens then you have a good hour and a half before it gets too busy, and that's usually plenty of time for us anyway.

• I can drive right up to it and park easily outside.

• At our local one, if you buy a monthly pass and use it then the cost isn't too bad.

• It's good exercise for the adults too (I actually quite enjoy climbing about myself!).

We go soon after breakfast and take snacks for the journey home, so we don't stay long enough to need any food (which admittedly doesn't look particularly appealing), and our local one always seems clean enough to me, perhaps because we tend to visit in the morning.

Do you like taking the children to soft play?

Day Zero Project - Bake gingerbread men from scratch

I've been meaning to make gingerbread men from scratch for a long time, which is why I added it to my Day Zero Project list. I blogged about making gingerbread men from ready made dough, and also about icing ready made gingerbread men. I did make a gingerbread house from scratch so perhaps that counts, but I really wanted to just make a batch of gingerbread men. I used a recipe which my Mum gave me. It's a good recipe because it is very simple, but the gingerbread men do also spread quite a lot when you cook them (somewhat resembling gingerbread clouds) so it wouldn't be a good recipe for anything that needs to hold its shape, like a gingerbread house.

Simple Gingerbread Men Recipe:

8oz plain flour
4oz sugar
4oz margarine
3 tablespoons of golden syrup
1 tablespoon of ground ginger
1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

Mix the ingredients together, then cut into shapes and place on greaseproof paper on a baking tray. Make sure to leave some space between the biscuits. Bake at about 180C for about 7 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

We iced them with some royal icing and some sweets found inside the Christmas selection boxes. It made about 16 gingerbread men.

I find it quite difficult at the moment to come up with activities that I can do with both children. Mia still has such a short attention span, and will generally destroy anything that I'm trying to do with Harry. I gave her a bit of dough and a small board and rolling pin, and she just ate the dough really before getting bored and wandering off. Harry on the other hand worked really nicely and cut out all the shapes.

When they had cooled we decorated them. Mia was more interested in eating the biscuits, I iced the details and Harry placed the buttons. I'm very proud of them!

PinAddicts challenge - Pizza cookie with sweets

It's time for another PinAddicts challenge, and I have another foodie one! Pizza is a favourite meal in this household, and cookies are a favourite treat. This recipe for a giant pizza cookie combines the two!

My original inspiration came from A little bit of heaven on a plate - Chocolate pizza recipe. I wanted to make more of a biscuit base though, so I used the recipe from another pin - A Mothers Ramblings - As big as your head cookies. I didn't add any sweets to the actual cookie recipe, I kept it plain as I was going to be using sweets on top.

Ingredients:

Base:
125g brown sugar
75g caster sugar
125g butter (softened)
2tsp vanilla essence
1 egg
1tsp baking powder
150g plain flour

Topping:
Icing sugar
Red food colouring
Water
100g bar white chocolate
Sweets

Method:

Cream the sugar and butter together, easier if the butter is softened first. Then add the vanilla essence and the egg, then finally the flour and baking powder. The mixture will have the texture of a thick paste. I lined a pizza tray with greaseproof paper and then spread the dough out evenly on top with a knife. It will spread a little when cooking so leave a small gap around the edges. Mine spread out really nicely leaving a good crust.



Ready to go in the oven

Bake in the oven at 180C (slightly lower for fan assisted ovens) for about twenty minutes. It is ready when it has started to brown on top, but it will still appear quite soft. It needs to cool for a little while, and then it will harden up.

 

 

Then for the fun part - the decorating! Originally I was going to use jam for the tomato sauce, but my son suggested using icing and I think that worked better. I just used icing sugar, with lots of red food colouring to make it nice and dark, and water. I'm afraid I can't give exact quantities as I always guess my icing! We spread it out over the base, and then sprinkled the grated chocolate on top before scattering with sweets. I didn't choose particularly realistic ones as I just used what we had, but you could try and choose sweets that look like the different ingredients that you like on a pizza!

I think it looked pretty good when it was finished (and it tasted delicious too!).

 

 

Make sure that you stop by the PinAddicts Challenge website so see what everyone else has been making this month!

Firework sensory tub

Since I created my first sensory tub, I can't stop thinking of ideas for new ones. I don't think that Harry would have had the patience for them as a toddler, but now that he is a bit older he has really enjoyed playing with the couple that I have made. Mia loves joining in too, although she does have a habit of splashing her hands up and down in the rice, then losing interest and wandering off, scattering rice about the house as she goes.

This sensory tub has a firework theme, to tie in with Bonfire Night on the 5th November. Bonfire Night, also known in the UK as Guy Fawkes Night, is an annual event which commemmorates the arrest of Guy Fawkes in 1605 as he guarded explosives placed in the House of Lords by members of the Gunpowder Plot aiming to assassinate King James I of England and VI of Scotland. Most of the conspirators fled, some were killed, and eight of the survivors were hung, drawn and quartered. Today Bonfire Night is celebrated with bonfires, fireworks and parades.

I didn't really fancy giving Harry matches and firewood in the sensory tub, nor did I really want to touch on the gruesome history associated with Guy Fawkes night just yet (you can read more about Guy Fawkes night here if you are interested), so I decided to concentrate on the firework aspect, as he will be going to several firework displays over the next few days.

The basis for the sensory tub is rice, which I dyed black. I just buy the cheapest value rice, tip a good amount into a bowl, add a fair bit of food colouring (at least half a teaspoonful) and mix it all about. If I have some, I add a squirt of anti-bacterial hand gel in, as this helps it to dry. I find that it dries quite quickly by itself if it's spread out on a tray. I also had some sunflower seeds around from the garden so I added them in for some variety, I like how the stripes look like clouds in the sky.

Then I added some glitter, sequins and a few pom poms. Harry needs an activity to do with the rice, so I found some star shaped cake cases and chocolate moulds which I bought in the sales last January and he hadn't seen yet. Along with a couple of teaspoons, they were ready to make some firework cakes.

I put the sensory tub out on an old table cloth to try and contain some of the mess, then let them at it. Mia dug in and found a shiny star straightaway - bursting into a rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Harry spent ages filling up the various cake cases and passing them to me. I was really surprised how long this sensory tub kept them busy for.

If you are looking for some more sensory tub ideas then there are some fantastic tubs over at Counting Coconuts, which is where I first encountered them.

Homemade Diwali cards craft

In 2012, Diwali will be celebrated from the 13th November until the 17th November. Also known as the Festival of Lights, Diwali (also known as Divali or Deepavali) is one of the largest and most important festivals of the year for Hindus. Lamps are lit to celebrate the triumph of good over evil, and families exchange gifts and cards. If you would like to learn more about Diwali you might like this page of Diwali crafts, activities and resources.

This year we made some simple Diwali cards to send to family. First we looked at some commercial cards, and talked about the images and how they relate to the Diwali story.

A selection of Diwali cards

Then I found some printable Diwali colouring cards with a selection of lovely images. I let Harry choose his favourite and we printed it off to colour. We decorated with glitter glue and sequins, then mounted the picture onto some brightly coloured card.

 

This is the first year that I've started teaching Harry about Diwali, as I think that he's old enough now to learn a little bit about his culture and heritage. I'll let you know how we get on!

If you are looking for some more Diwali crafts, then you might like these pages:

Diwali crafts round-up
How to make a salt dough diwa
How to make Rangoli using dyed rice

You might also enjoy these books to help introduce Diwali to young children:



Diwali (Bright Baby Touch and Feel)- A wonderful very first Diwali book for babies with bright colours, textures to touch and simple Diwali images.

Lighting a Lamp: A Divali Story (Festival Time)- A first introduction to Diwali for very young children, following a family as they prepare for and celebrate Diwali.

Diwali (Holidays and Festivals (Heinemann Paperback)) - A more informative book about the Diwali festival, with more educational resources.

Diwali (Celebrations)Aimed at slightly older children, lots of photographs and ideas for Diwali activities.

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Easy Malteser (or just about any other sweet) cookies

Ever since I discovered a recipe for Smartie Biscuits at Living it Little I have been addicted to making these cookies. They are so easy to make and so versatile, you can make them with whatever type of sweet or chocolate bar you have around the house. I received a big box of Maltesers for my birthday last week, and so after a morning which started with a rather major meltdown (from the pre-schooler, not the toddler) I made a batch of Malteser cookies for some comfort food.


Easy Malteser cookies

To make your own, here's all you need:

4oz softened butter (I put it in the microwave for a bit)
4oz light muscovado sugar
1 tbsp syrup
6oz self-raising flour

Sweets - Living it Little used two tubes of smarties, for Malteser cookies I used two (large) handfuls, bashed up a bit with a rolling pin. I've also used two double Twixes or two Crunchies cut up into small pieces.

Then you just cream the butter and sugar together and mix in all the other ingredients, probably using hands at the end to make a nice sticky dough. Make little balls on the baking tray (I find it makes about 20, depending on how much of the raw dough I have eaten) and cook at 180c for about ten minutes. When you take them out they will be a bit puffy, but when they have cooled they will sink down to nice flat, chewy cookies. Yum!

Easy Malteser cookies

And if you love Maltesers as much as I do, here are some more Malteser recipes!


My first sensory tub - beach and underwater theme

I have long been in awe of sensory tubs. I first saw them over at Counting Coconuts, and have recently discovered that The Imagination Tree has some brilliant ideas too. Basically a large tub filled with sensory materials - often with a base of rice or beans, then different objects, either for general play like spoons and cups, or themed around a particular topic.

I thought that they seemed like quite a lot of work to put together, and would create a lot of mess. I also wasn't exactly sure how Harry would play with them. But we had some dried rice left over from making our Diwali rangoli the other day. I'd let him dig about with his toy diggers, and I decided it was time to give him a bit more structure. I cannot fully describe my pride when, in just a few minutes, I produced this:

My first sensory tub - I'm so proud!

It's made inside an old, shallow biscuit tin. I used the coloured rice that I already had for the beach, then I dyed some more blue for the sea. I sprinkled glitter into the sea, and made some waves around the beach with shredded paper. I added shells, some beaded bracelets, and a few bits of pirate Playmobil that Harry hadn't seen before. Then I found a couple of little dolls - we even had a mermaid - and a plastic dolphin. There are some random pom poms in there too for a different texture. It was quite a wrench giving it to Harry to play with.

Which bit shall I destroy first?

Can you see that gleam in his eyes? He was so excited, he's never seen anything like this before.

Digging right in, to really mess it up

He was most fascinated by the treasure chest, and he just wanted to bury it in the sea so that the lady on the beach couldn't see it. There was a little spade in there to help with the digging. He played with this for a lot longer than I expected, and he particularly loved it when I joined in and made up little stories with the dollies, which he then copied. In the end it didn't create nearly as much mess as I thought it would, and I loved putting it together. Harry played with it for quite some time too, and I've popped the lid on to keep it for another day. I suppose it could have come off worse! I'm definitely going to have to come up with some more ideas, preferably ones that involve mixed up dyed rice.

 

 

I'm sharing this post with Tuesday Tots at Rainy Day Mum.