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Messy play – spaghetti paint.

Time for some messy play again! This time, I have mixed cooked spaghetti with fingerpaint for some squishy, slimey, squoozy fun.

(If you’d like a printout of the fingerpaint recipe, you can download it along with recipes for cooked and uncooked playdough.)

Spaghetti paint is great because it doesn’t cost much and uses ingredients most people usually have in their pantry. It is an excellent activity for sensory exploration. Children can enjoy the smell, the slimy feeling, talk about if it is warm or cold and how wet it is.

It encourages much social and language interaction between children and adults alike. Children can experiment with the paint by either handling it on its own or smearing it around on a piece of paper.

Don’t worry if the paper gets holes in it, always remember that children care about and need the process, not the product.

You can see in the photo above how a child could find out what the paint looks like if they lift the spaghetti off the paper – beautiful swirls!

Mr 4 isn’t a huge fan of messy play, but he liked watching this activity, which is a big improvement. Missy 2, however was willing to have a try. If only Missy 10 were home to really get up to her armpits in this mess. In fact, I think I’ll have to let her when she gets home from school.

(Note: if you are considering using this in a preschool or a daycare setting, please be sensitive to the fact that food play is offensive to some cultures. When in doubt, check first.)

What messy things have your children been up to lately?





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Learn by doing – laundry

Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.

- Ancient proverb

Following on from my recent post about initiative, I involved Mr 4 and Missy 2 in washing some clothes. I had lots of laundry to catch up on and hang out to dry. So I set up a plastic tub with warm water and Ecostore laundry powder (nice and gentle for little hands) and some laundry that had minimal soiling. Being a water activity, of course it’s important to always supervise young children.

Doing household chores together is a great learning opportunity for kids. They learnt/talked about:

- the different names of clothing: ‘what type of clothing is this?’ Eg, shirt, dress, undies, etc.

- the concept of people having a place in the family, and their own possessions: ‘who’s shirt is this?’

- colours: ‘what colour is this shirt?’

- cause and effect: ‘why is the water becoming so brown?’

- the sequence of events: first the children used soapy water, then scrubbed the clothing, then we rinsed with clear water, squeezed the excess liquid out and finally we hung them out to dry.

- how to play together. Missy 2 and Mr 4 had a few disagreements during this activity. This gave us a chance to talk about their feelings and listen to each other.

- sensory awareness: children can learn about concepts such as wet/dry, warm/cold, etc.

The children also got a huge amount of exercise for their little muscles! Picking up wet clothing can be heavy work…

It also puts their fine motor skills through their paces as they squeeze… squeeeze… squeeeeeeeeze! the water out of the clothes.

You can also let them help with pegging the clothes out to dry on a small, child-height clothesline. I didn’t, only because we had two puppies with very dirty feet hanging around! But at least this kept my kids busy whilst I hung out all the wet clothes.

What household chores do your children like to help with?





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Flower play

I was outside picking more lavender for drying, only to discover that the daisies growing next to the lavender were growing out of control. It seemed such a waste to just leave them there, so I picked lots of daisies and brought them inside to put in vases, and do some fun things with the kids.

Missy 10 was keen to try my idea of giving the daisies a coloured water ‘drink’. We recycled the water from the spray paint we made, as you can see in the photo above.

Missy 2 saw the goings-on, and wanted to imitate what we were doing. So, I found a disposable plastic cup from Missy 10′s birthday party and taped it to the table. I then gave her a glut of daisies to put into the cup, then take them out, then put them in. Much like posting. She was in heaven and this kept her busy for at least an hour.

She had a ball walking around with her bouquet and showing everybody in the house what she’d been doing.

Once the novelty of that wore off, I made some daisy chains for her to wear on her head. Weekend play at its best.

This is how Missy 10′s daisies look now:

If the colour gets any deeper, I’ll show how they turn out.

What have you been doing this lovely weekend?





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Lavender

It’s been beautiful Spring weather here lately. Mr 4 and I ventured outside to pick loads of lavender that has popped out all over the place. We also set about untying and pulling the petals off the dried lavender that has been hanging all this time.

Mr 4 and I compared two very different flowers: a dried lavender flower, and a fresh one. We talked about the differences in colour, texture and smell. He had a ball hanging out in the old shop, having a nice old poke around.

First we sorted through our big wicker basket chock-ful of flowers. Mr 4 and I had to turn them all around so that each bud was facing the same way, then tie them in bunches and lastly, hang them up to dry. I told him about how the air circulates all through the leaves, petals and stems, helping to dry out the flowers so we can preserve them for later use.

It certainly kept him very busy! ‘This is hard work, Mum!’ he kept telling me.

But there was more to do… It was then time to un-tie the dried lavender that Missy 9 had helped me with, and crumble the petals away from the stalks to be stored.

You should have smelt that shop! Oh my…

We’ve also been having some adorable visitors that have been keeping the children amused…

Meet Little Frog. If you remember me telling you briefly about our flooding situation, then I don’t need to explain to you why the carpet has been ripped out and you’re staring at the concrete floor of our currently defunct playroom. It seems Little Frog has made himself right at home amid all the damp.

And have you met Big Toad?

This picture really doesn’t do this beautiful creature justice. Blame it on the neurotic woman behind the camera! This overblown toad was found outside whilst I was outside at the bins. I rushed inside to find a container and a cloth to put over the top.

Big Toad was much heavier than I anticipated, and lurched all around in this temporary home. I was not game to take more than a bird’s eye shot. But I will say this toad is much, much bigger than it looks in this photo. Its tummy was so chubby, it nearly didn’t fit into my container! We all enjoyed looking at its colourful stripes and it’s bubbly neck. Then, of course I let it go. I think it was a very pregnant girl frog…

I don’t think I’ve ever seen as many toads as I have since moving here. And certainly none so colourful! Does anyone know what type of toad it is?





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10 Speech and Language Activities for Children Under Five

1. Reading books.

2. Naming objects with your child.

3. Encourage your child to talk to other children and adults.

4. Give them opportunities to listen. A great example is listening to a recorded story.

5. Dramatic play – eg, dressing up, puppet play, etc.

6. Talk about feelings. This can make it easier for your child to put sad or angry feelings into words as they arise.

7. Encourage your child to draw and talk about what they are doing.

8. Go sightseeing. Your child will be full of questions! It’s also a great way for children to name the things they see.

9. Sing and dance to music. Talk about your movements: shaking, twisting, wobbling, going faster, going slow, stop, go! Talk about the music: is it quiet or loud? Happy, sad, angry music? You get the idea.

10. Sing simple finger play songs together.





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The origins of food

So yeah, it was my birthday a few days ago… Been having a wonderful time, despite having to stay home waiting for a plumber to come around. My birthday strangely was celebrated more heavily yesterday than the actual birthday the day before. So, after a solid case of cabin fever we realised we were beyond overdue to shop for our groceries. With Missy 9 at school, we took Mr 4 and Missy 2 shopping with us.

We like to teach them how to shop and get them as involved in the process as possible, bringing items from the shelves to the trolley, and packing the groceries away when we get home. These jobs, they do with relish. They’re learning excellent self-help skills that will serve them well in grown-up life.

…But today when we went shopping, they learnt that food doesn’t just come from the supermarket. In fact, now it’s Spring, everything looks different when we drive to the supermarket. And it was that drive that taught more about where food truly comes from than anything we could ever teach them at the shops.

Because this is what they saw out of our car’s window today. Fields and fields of bright yellow canola. They didn’t know what canola was, of course, so we explained to them about margarine and canola oil as foods, and they looked confused. Mr 4 asked, ‘so do we eat the flowers?’ Which led to a conversation about how the oil needs to be pressed out of the plants and made into margarine, or just sold as the oil itself. I could see him thinking it over. To give you some idea of what the hills we drove through looked like, we had splashes of bright yellow and vivid emerald green to look at for most of the drive.

We also talked to the kids about that deep green in the fields. It’s also food we buy at each grocery trip. Wheat. So our kids learnt about how the wheat grains get crushed to make flour for our bread and pasta, etc.

I don’t have a photo, but my fiance stopped the car to let the kids out to talk to some calves, and yes, that became another supermarket topic too! Missy 2 ended that convo with an enthusiastic, ‘bye moo!’

Aww…

(I must make a special thank you to my lovely fiance who gave me the phone/camera these photos were taken on, for my birthday. Love you!)

Other reading:

Picking our mushrooms

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New toy from Mattel – Peek a Boo clock

Sponsored by Nuffnang
It’s time for another Mattel review! Last time it was the adorable Flip Phone, and this time we were lucky enough to receive the Peek a Boo clock in the post. You can imagine how excited my little ones were. In case you can’t imagine, you can watch Missy Two’s reaction below.

The Peek a Boo clock is so cute! It has so many surprises for children to enjoy. This toy is aimed at children aged six months to three years old. You can press the green button on the top of the clock to see a little bird pop out of the door (just like a cuckoo clock) and light up brightly. Each time it pops out, it makes a different sound. Some of the sounds are:
Peek a boo! I see you!
Cuckoo!

Hello! Then when the door closes again, good bye!

It also plays a variety of songs when the bird pops out. My daughter also likes to pull the door open to make the bird pop out, and this is easy to do, as it has an indent for little fingers.

Little kids can turn the handles on the clock, and in the centre of the handles, is a little light-up button. This also plays a huge number of songs, Mr Three’s favourites being the alphabet song and the counting one. He enjoyed reading the alphabet displayed along the top of the toy, and counting the numbers on the clock.

There is a little disc on the side at the top, that displays a sun and a moon as you turn it, to represent day and night. Of course, this cool clock takes it one further, and actually says ‘day’ and ‘night’ at the right times! There is a little spot on the other side with little sliding shapes for the younger babies to play with; my two year old still enjoyed looking at those, too. On the other side is a key that makes a rewarding clicking noise when the child turns it.

I found even Missy Nine really thought it was cute and enjoyed playing with it, too. Her and Mr Three took turns at holding it facing each other and saying, ‘now I’m going to put on a show with the clock, who wants to watch?’ In this household, the more kids who enjoy one toy, the better. Because there’s a large age gap between Missy Nine and the younger two, it’s nice when no one feels left out. Plus, I always feel if all the children get some enjoyment out of our toys, then we’re getting good value.

I was so impressed with this clock. I love the fact that the volume can be adjusted, and that it explores the concept of cause and effect with my children. The most important thing to me is that my kids like it, and if you watch my little video below, you will see how much Missy Two loved it, and hear her squeals of delight.





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