Glowing Egg Hunt!

Another Easter post just in time! Unfortunately I've been slowed down by my health this week so didn't get to put this up this sooner. However, this is really something that's fun for any time of year and particularly now we're heading into shorter days (here in the southern hemisphere) there's more opportunities for little ones to play after dark!

I got the idea for this alternative egg hunt from this post over at Play At Home Mom, and i'd been waiting a year for Bean to be old enough to try it! It's a fantastic alternative to a chocolate egg hunt for those concerned about the Easter sugar overload, and it's also great sensory play for little ones.

All it requires is:

• Plastic eggs (Available at dollar stores and supermarkets this time of year)
• LED lights (Available on ebay here and at Big W)
• A bucket or basket (From the sandpit!)

They don't look all that exciting before the lights go on but then....

...TAADAAAA! :-D So beautiful.

And the LED lights are super easy to do, you just take one out of the packet, twist to turn it on, and pop it into an egg...

...easy! Now to hide the eggs...

I chose to confine the hunt to one room so that i would have the time to set it up without being interrupted!

And since Bean is still very little and it was pretty late, I chose easy spots to hide the eggs...

Turn out the lights and let the hunt begin!

I didn't get many photos as it was so dark and I really just wanted to focus on guiding Bean through it, but I can tell you it was definitely worth the wait!

Happy Playing!

B xx

Butterfly Puppets

This was one of those activities that wasn't intended to start or end in us "making" anything in particular. It simply began with my desire to try out salad spinner painting with Bean, which is something i'd been familiar with for a while but had been saving for when she had the dexterity to work the spinner alone. For those of you who haven't tried it yet, it's both incredibly simple and super fun to do (two prerequisites for all activities at our house!). All you need is:

• Salad spinner (I got ours at a dollar store)
• Poster paint
• Paper cut into a size that will fit into the bottom of the spinner

I cut the paper into butterflies and diamonds, simply because they were the first shapes that came to mind when i was folding the paper in half!

Place a paper shape in the bottom of the spinner and then add a few colors of paint...

...This was our first attempt and we placed each colour separately, which after being spun turned out like this...

...I was disappointed that the colours hadn't mixed at all during the spinning, so then we tried adding the paint in swirls one colour on top of another, which turned out like this...

...and this...

...Much more what I had in mind! ;-)

The finished batch looked really beautiful and was put to dry overnight. This brings me to another important point about the paint addition...don't add too much! Otherwise it will sit on the surface after spinning, soak through the paper and/or take FOREVER to dry.

I was really happy with the way they turned out, and Bean had a great time using the salad spinner, but I didn't really want the process to end there. Then came a flash of inspiration! (don't you love it when that happens??)

Puppets! We would make the butterflies into puppets! So I gathered some supplies from the craft boxes - drinking straws for the bodies, pipe cleaners for the antenna, and sellotape to secure.

Bean LOVED it. She helped select which bodies and antenna went with which wings...

...and spent ages putting the pipe cleaners in and out of the straws (great threading and co-ordination practice!) which required some extreme concentration...

I twisted the two pipe cleaners together to fit into the straw and then taped the straw to the wings leaving more straw length at the bottom so that it could be held as a puppet.

The wings flapped beautifully, and Bean proceeded to do a butterfly dance...

"Flutter Flutter!" "Flap Flap!"

This activity evolved into something completely unexpected, and so much better than my original plan. Sometimes all we need is an open heart and a little inspiration to find our wings and fly...

Happy Playing!

Bxx

Creating A Small World - Under The Sea

It was probably 8 months ago when I was reading this post written by a friend of mine on play sets. Now, this was the first time I'd ever heard of them but I was immediately inspired by the creativity and imagination involved in putting them together. For those of you who are new to play sets too, the basic idea to create a scene or 'small world' to facilitate imaginative play and story telling. Sets range vastly from amazingly elaborate to small and minimalist, some use all natural materials like felt and wood, others are put together from found items around the home, whilst some use a mixture of natural and man made products. I went online and drooled over some of the ones for sale on Facebook and Etsy, I even splurged on one (very prematurely!) for Bean's second birthday - which is still up in the closet patiently awaiting its grand debut! But i'm artistic by nature, and so I was also motivated by the challenge of creating something myself. Of course back then Bean was still a little young for the whole idea, so I squirreled the plan away in my mind for a time when she was more ready for this type of imaginative play. And about 3 weeks ago I realized the time had come! :-D

I'm very excited, and also quite proud, to unveil my first play set making attempt - " Under The Sea"

I was surprised at how quick it was to put together, the part that took the most time was sourcing the various components.

The items included in this set are:

Blue satin fabric (Which I already had from my sewing days)
A large rock (From the garden)
Some smaller rocks (From the local park)
Pebbles (Already had from the dollar store)
Glass pebbles (Already had from the dollar store)
Shells (From my vast collection from various beaches)
Plastic sea animals (Ebay)
Aquarium Plants (Ebay)

Because I already had most of the items around the house or in storage the total cost was very low, less than $20.

Needless to say - Bean LOVES it! Waking up most mornings saying "Sea! Sea!"

Happy girl, happy mama ;-)

I'll definitely be making more of these!

B xx

Christmas Cards

I was excited to get into another little seasonal creative activity with Bean a few days ago...making Christmas cards! Simple and fun, as well as being a creative alternative to getting something necessary done ;-)

The invitation looked like this:

And it consisted of:

• Blank pre-cut cards
• Christmas themed stickers
• Christmas self-inking stamp
• Dot art bottles
• Markers
• Crayons

When Bean woke up from her nap she went straight for the cards and stickers (her current obsession!), and relocated them to the floor... 

...She kept busy sticking and stamping, and I handed her fresh cards as they got filled up...

...She didn't take the slightest interest in any of the other art supplies I put out, and I wanted to let her create the way she wanted...

...She thought the Santa stickers were especially fascinating, and so I used it as an opportunity to introduce the concept of Santa and Christmas (which involved repeating 'HO HO HO!' over and over to Bean's giggles of delight! :-)...)

The finished cards were really cute and colourful...now I had better get them mailed out! (bit behind this year!!!)

B xx

Stained Glass Christmas Tree

This is a really simple adaptation of our sticky pictures using the light panel, but could also be done using a low window or glass door on a sunny day.

This time I drew the outline of a Christmas tree onto contact paper with a marker, then laid it sticky side up on top of the light panel using masking tape to secure. One evening last week I cut out lots of bits of the coloured lighting gels I had left over from another light panel project (purchased on eBay), and we used those to stick onto the tree outline...

 

It was beautiful to see all the colours with the light coming through...

When we'd finished sticking I cut another piece of contact paper the same size and stuck it down to seal the picture...

...and that's it! So simple and looks really beautiful in the window...our first Christmas decoration in the house this year :-)

B xx

Discovery Box - Threading Practise For Little Hands

Lately I've been getting into the concept of 'Discovery Boxes', which is something I first did for Bean when she was about 6 months old and recently I was re-inspired by a post I saw over at The Imagination Tree, a blog i've only just discovered that is FULL of amazing play ideas!

The basic notion of the Discovery Box is a box that you fill with a selection of household, craft or natural objects that can be used in open ended play. The idea is that you let the child explore the box and its items in whatever way they chose, interfering as little as possible and allowing them to discover things for themselves, only offering suggestions or help if they struggle or run out of ideas. These boxes can be a great activity for a rainy day, or to occupy a busy baby or toddler for some time whilst you get something done.

This weeks box was something to extend Bean's current fascination with putting things 'In and Out' and 'Through'. Its perfect for practicing hand eye co-odination skills, without being too difficult for little hands to achieve success and satisfaction.

Here are the contents:

• Colander
• Large funnel
• Grater
• Strainer
• Plastic cup with holes cut in sides
• Plastic cup with foam stuck over top and holes cut in foam
• Cardboard squares with holes cut out
• Straws
• Lollipop sticks
• Pipe cleaners

When Bean woke up from her nap she toddled over to the box, which i had laid on the floor in the dining room. First she asked me to hold some of the cardboard squares whilst she threaded the pipe cleaners...

 
 Then she proceeded to try it herself with straws...

Then she got out the cup covered in foam...

And pretended to drink from the cup using the pipe cleaner as a straw (totally un-prompted)...

Then the colander took her interest, she liked to listen to the sound the pipe cleaners made as they went through the holes...

With the funnel she liked to see the straws disappear through the bottom and then look underneath to see where they'd gone...

She enjoyed putting the lollipop sticks through the cup with the holes in the sides...

I left the box out over the next few days and it was revisited several times. I noticed that it was a good way for Bean to self-regulate when she got over-excited or a bit manic towards the end of the day, doing a focused quiet activity like this really seems to help calm and center her...and it's so easy (and inexpensive) to do!

More discovery boxes to come soon....

B xx