Australia Day Beach Pool

In 2014 I shared with you two Australia Day inspired swimming pools. Today I'm sharing with you another.

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.

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.

 

 

Lamington Men

Following along with Nurture Store's Simple play:: complex learning series and keeping in mind that Australia Day is this Sunday, we're sharing our Lamington Men Recipe with you today. 

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Two Pools to Celebrate Australia Day

Crystal Underwood from Growing a Jeweled Rose is one of my all time favourite bloggers. I first discovered her when she and Rebekah from The Golden Gleam were doing their Messy Play in the Bath and Sink series. Golden Gleam's Bugs and Dirt in the Sink and Growing a Jeweled Rose's Jello Ocean were the very first messy play activities I did with Bubbles and that series is what opened the door to messy play in our house, it allowed me to let go of my dislike of getting dirty and really encourage Bubbles to explore with all her senses. Since then I've branched out to all types of messy play and will quite happily sit back and watch as Bubbles splashes in muddy puddles, so thank-you for that Crystal and Rebekah.

 Whilst following along with the Messy Play in the Bath and Sink series I discovered Crystal's amazing baths and bathtime has never quite been the same at our place since. I began by copying or at least modifying Crystal's ideas but eventually branched out with baths of our own and recently I realised that most if not all of those bath ideas can also be used to brighten up a paddling pool too. So after that massive introduction, I'd like to share with you two pools we've had this week as part of our lead up to Australia Day, an Aboriginal Flag pool and a Koala pool.

Originally I tried to do an Australian flag pool but I just couldn't quite get it right so I opted for an Aborignal Flag instead. To make this pool I filled the paddling pool with water and added about 6 drops of red food dye on one side and 6 drops of black food dye on the other. Once the colours had drifted accross the pool (a process which had bothe Bubbles and Squiggles transfixed) I placed a yellow frisbee in the centre. The pool only stayed two colours for a very short period of time before it mixed to a dark red but it was a great way to open up dialogue with Bubbles about the first people of Australia. The girls then played in the pool as they normally would-splashing each other and tipping water into cups and through funnels.

Over the last week or so Bubbles has been collecting gumnuts each time we walk to the park, this has resulted in rather a large collection of gumnuts just lying around at our place. I was trying to come up with ways to play with them and as it was yet another scorcher of a day, I thought why not use them in the pool? Bubbles and I talked about it and decided to make a Koala Pool, we added a few drops of black food  dye to try and make the pool a grey colour although it looked more blue than anything else and then we added the gumnuts and a few leaves from a tree in our front yard (not a gum tree but Bubbles didn't mind). Rather than play with her normal pool toys Bubbles decided to get her fishing net and catch all of the gumnuts-she had lots of fun catching them all, throwing them back in the water and then catching them again. Squiggles thought it was hilarious when the gumnuts were thrown in the water and had lots of fun throwing them in herself.

How are you planning on celebrating Australia Day this year?

-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.

A Nature Walk at the Beach

When I saw today's play prompt from Nurture Store's Simple play:: complex learning series was a nature walk I immediately thought of the waterfall walk we went on as a family during our holiday.

With the heat at the moment I'll admit I didn't really want to go on a bushwalk. I wanted to go to the beach.