Toilet Paper Building Blocks

 As part of Nurture Store's Simple play:: complex learning series, today I'm sharing Bubbles' favourite item to use as building blocks. Can you guess what it is?!

 Toilet paper! This was another of those wonderful child lead activities that I love so much. While I was busy in another room Bubbles discovered our new toilet paper rolls waiting in front of the hall cupboard to be put away. When I came back into the lounge room a very excited Bubbles showed me her marvelous tower, which quickly became a castle and then a train.

Toilet Paper Building Blocks-What's not to love?
I was surprised by my mother's enthusiasm when I told her of Bubbles' discovery, but she had some great reasoning:

• Toilet paper is soft; if someone accidentally gets bumped on the head by an over enthusiastic tower demolisher they're not going to be badly hurt
• Toilet paper rolls are big enough that little builders can manipulate them easily
• Toilet paper rolls are big which means you can make BIG creations 
• Toilet paper rolls can still be used for their original purpose after play; making them an economical play resource 
• Toilet paper is something the majority of us will always have in the house; making it a readily available play resource

What's your little one's favourite building 'block'?

-Victoria

Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.  You know you're infant/child best, use your own judgement-considering your infant/child's temperament, habits, behaviour and development before you play with a new play medium.

Wet Chalk Exploration

My apologies for being quiet this week but Bubbles and Squiggles have been wanting a bit more Mummy time than normal and have been having trouble getting to sleep at night, so as you can understand spending time with my girls has taken precedence over blogging about spending time with them. :)

Unfortunately, Squiggles has managed to break my camera so for the next couple of days, until I can get it fixed, I'll being sharing activities from our past. As part of Nurture Store's Simple play:: complex learning series, today I'm sharing a way we've explored and played with chalk.

This play was prompted by Bubbles-I'd provided a blackboard and chalk but she decided to add in another element-water! 

When Bubbles sprayed her board to clean it, she didn't know at the time that it would make the chalk so much more vibrant. We had great fun experimenting with drawing the chalk on the dry side of the board and then the wet side and talking about why the colours might be different, and which she liked more. 

I always like to try and include Squiggles in our activities, recognising that whilst she may be young she is still a little person of her own who is soaking up every little bit of knowledge offered to her. So, whilst Squiggles was just 5 months old when we did this I gave her a reflective tray and a piece of chalk to explore-(she had yet to begin putting everything in her mouth at this stage!) and she had great fun making the chalk roll backwards and forwards accross the tray and exploring her reflection.

How do you include your baby in your play?

-Victoria

Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.  You know you're infant/child best, use your own judgement-considering your infant/child's temperament, habits, behaviour and development before you play with a new play medium.

Fizzing Pavlova

Happy Australia Day! Today I'm excited to share with you our Fizzing Pavlova. Having shared with you earlier what a fan I am of Growing A Jeweled Rose, if you're also a fan you'll find it no suprise that we really enjoy playing with bicarb and vinegar. When I was trying to come up with ways to play coming up to Australia Day I really couldn't go past making our very own bicarb pavlova!

 This sensory activity was so much fun to create and play with. I began by asking Bubbles if she'd like to make a pretend pavlova-she very excitedly said yes. We then mixed up a 'playdough' type base with bicarb and vinegar (recipe below). We shaped the playdough into a base and left it outside in the sun for about 2hours-long enough for Bubbles to have her afternoon nap.

 After Bubbles nap we topped the bicarb pavlova with shaving cream and some plastic fruit.

 Then came the fun bit! Whilst Bubbles had slept I'd filled an old chocolate topping bottle with vinegar and a little Milo. I gave Bubbles the bottle to drizzle chocolate all over the pavlova (we don't normally do this with our real pavs but it was the way I came up with introducing the vinegar to our play).

She was so excited to see the pavlova fizz and bubble up over the place and onto the ground. Once she'd used the vinegar up she asked for more-it seems no matter how much vinegar I give her when we play with bicarb and vinegar I can never give her enough-we used 2 litres doing this little experiment. :) We were able to drain the vinegar off the bicarb pavlova and reuse it 4 more times before it completely disintegrated. 

It was a fantastic day of play. Squiggles sat in her swing whilst we were playing and whilst she did join in towards the end but that was a mistake on my part as she immediately tried to eat the shaving cream!

Bicarb Pavlova Recipe:
Ingredients
500g bicarbonate of soda
Approx. 7tbs water

Method:
Place your bicarb in a medium bowl. Add water, 1tbs at a time, mixing well until a soft mouldable dough is formed.
Shape dough into a pavlova shape and leave in warm, dry place until hard.
Top with shaving cream and plastic/wooden/foam fruit.
Simple!

How are you and your family celebrating Australia Day?

-Victoria

Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.  You know you're infant/child best, use your own judgement-considering your infant/child's temperament, habits, behaviour and development before you play with a new play medium.

Australia Day Sensory Fun

It's sensory tub day today if you're following along with Nurture Store's Simple play:: complex learning series, and I went overboard. I completely forgot about the 'simple' part of this fantastic learning series.

It all began late last night when I was trying to think of an Australian themed sensory tub that I hadn't seen done before and that we had the materials to make. Whilst I was looking for inspiration I spotted our Aussie Flag that Numnut bought to put on the car until he got home and realised how big it was, too big for the car it might have been, but it fit our table perfectly. I lay it on the table thinking I'd use it to set the scene but then the wheels started turning in my head-what if I made the whole table the sensory 'tub'? Then I went crazy. I used the flag as a stencil and lay salt over the stars and white lines in the Union Jack, then I used some old red pasta we had for the red lines in the Union Jack. I almost left it there but decided to cover the whole table, so I covered the blue of the flag in blue shaving cream. To be honest, I was pretty pleased with the outcome, maybe even a little proud-but was it necessary? No. Was it simple? Absolutely not.

I sat down and started thinking. What could I have done differently? We didn't have a lot. How could I have made a simple Aussie sensory tub? This got me thinking about how, even though I love creating sensory tubs for the girls, I really don't think they're necessary. I started thinking about all the amazing sensory experiences they gain simply from playing outside. Then I couldn't help but say 'duh' out loud. I grabbed a bag of dirt from our sensory materials shelf, went outside and collected the leaves and gumnuts we used last week in our Koala Pool, some bark I'd been saving to paint with and placed them all in a tub. Job done! Now why couldn't I have done that in the beginning?

If you're wondering which was more popular with the girls, there wasn't actually a clear favourite, they played with both pretty equally. The flag became a see for their boat for a little bit and then Bubbles used the shaving cream to paint with on her easel. At quiet time Bubbles took the simple tub into her room and made a stable for her ponies. Squiggles, well she had fun squishing all the sensory materials and attempting to eat them all. :)

Next time though I'm going to try and not stress about making something amazingly wonderful and focus more on what experiences I want the girls to have.

Are you following along with Nurture Store's series? What kind of sensory tub did your tot play in today?

-Victoria

Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.  You know you're infant/child best, use your own judgement-considering your infant/child's temperament, habits, behaviour and development before you play with a new play medium.

Invitation to Play Dress Ups

It was so hot today that we spent it playing outside in the paddling pool, with our water wall and with the water table in an effort to keep cool rather than following today's #simpleplay prompt of role play. Instead I'd like to share with you a past invitation to play I set up for Bubbles.

As well as making an invitation to play dress ups for Bubbles I was also trying to see how I could arrange our backyard for a tea party that Bubbles is having soon.

To transform our backyard I:

• Moved the paddling pool into the garage and replace it with our bathroom mirror.
• Dumped the girls dress ups into a pirate chest. 
• Placed a bedrunner over the the rocks to discourage Squiggles from eating them
• Added matching cushions. 
• Laid out a big minkee blanket and covered the rest of the stones in pillows as a nice crawl area. (I did this as I was thinking of our teaparty in mind and we'll have 3 babies.)

Then all I had to do was wait for the girls to wake from their afternoon naps.

It was a simple transformation but both Bubbles and Squiggles had a ball-we even had tea in the backyard at Bubbles' request as she didn't want to go back inside.

We've since used similar set ups to have a teddy bears' picnic and play pirates.

How did you and your little ones play today?

-Victoria

Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.  You know you're infant/child best, use your own judgement-considering your infant/child's temperament, habits, behaviour and development before you play with a new play medium.

Outdoor Book-Inspired Invitation to Play

Following along with  Nurture Store's Simple play:: complex learning series and keeping in mind that Australia Day is just around the corner, today we read Daniel the Devil by Marion and Steve Isham. 

 

Let me preface this by saying, today was not a fun day. Since she's turned three, Bubbles has been getting to be more and more of a handful, as she pushes boundaries and develops her own little personality and attitude. Today I think she pushed every single boundary that there was and then some! I really wanted to just send her to her room for the entire afternoon but instead, I decided to take some books outside-it never ceases to amaze me how, just being outside can completely calm me and in turn the kids. I'm not saying Bubbles all of a sudden changed into a new kid but simply going outside enabled me to get my emotions back in check and be able to deal with Bubbles with the love and patience she deserves. It was a timely reminder that even mummies need a time out sometimes!

 

Daniel the Devil was a present from my sister to the girls and I have to say I love it! Whilst I don't really love the ending, the story is good, and what I really like the best is that on each page, as well as the beautiful story illustrations, there are 28 other Tasmanian Animals to find-listed in the back of the book. Along with this added, find the animal game, there are also 16 riddles to solve through out the book. Bubbles and Squiggles both like it too.

We sat outside on the deck and read the book, once we had finished reading it I asked Bubbles if she'd like to build her little stuffed Tassie Devil a burrow like the one Daniel and his family lived in. She loved the idea and immediately asked to use the firewood-I got the wood for her as I was a little worried about what might be hiding in amongst the wood, but then she spent a good 15minutes quite happily building her den. It was a blissful 15 minutes for me as Squiggles was loving being outside and exploring the bark chips and leaves-I've never really thought to let the girls play on the front garden as it's just mulch and I thought they'd find it uncomfortable but it's something we'll be doing more often now I know how much they like it.

What's your favourite Australiana book?

-Victoria

Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.  You know you're infant/child best, use your own judgement-considering your infant/child's temperament, habits, behaviour and development before you play with a new play medium.

 

 

Simple Sock Puppets

Following along with Nurture Store's Simple play:: complex learning series today we made some very simple sock puppets and had lots of playing with them all day in a makeshift puppet theatre.

 

 When I said we made some simple sock puppets, I meant simple. To make our sock puppets all we used was some odd socks, a pair of baby mittens (for Squiggles), a hot glue gun and some googly eyes. I placed dollops of hot glue on the socks as directed by Bubbles and she (with me supervising very closely!) placed the googly eyes on. That was it, our puppets were ready to be played with!

 To begin with I gave Bubbles an Ikea finger puppet theatre to play with but it kept falling down so instead we transformed an old drawer unit into a theatre with the aide of a scarf and bed runner. Bubbles had so much fun getting her puppets to sing and perform-and demanding that I clap them. :) I have a feeling that our puppet theatre is going to become a permanent fixture in the play space.

A little side note: I did make a pair of puppets for Squiggles which she really enjoyed however I was very aware that she may pull an eye off with her teeth so she only had them on whilst I could give her my  full attention. The puppets actually held up alot better than I expected. I expected I'd have to take them off her almost immediately however she didn't manage to pull anything off at all-not for want of trying mind you!
What's your little one's favourite activity at the moment?

-Victoria

Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.  You know you're infant/child best, use your own judgement-considering your infant/child's temperament, habits, behaviour and development before you play with a new play medium.