An apple a day

We bought Bubble and Squeak a 'new' second hand Mac today to give them their first starting block for using computers. Squeak is still a bit too young to do anything much more than sit on our laps and click the mouse, but Bubble has already learnt to open her iTunes playlist and select her own songs to play. We hope to upgrade the software over the next few weeks and set up some simple learning based computer games for her as well.

Stick Raft

I saw this raft on one of my favourite blogs Childhood Magic and just fell in love with it - how adorable is it! Unfortunately I didnt have any bamboo or canvas around, so our version is a lot less pretty but still worked out ok. We used small sticks collected from our local park and pipecleaners to join it all together since knots were a bit tricky for Bubble's three year old fingers, and since it wasn't going to be a 'keeper' toy we just made the sail from scrapbook paper. Bubble chose the paper she wanted and I cut a large triangle shape with a hole in the centre top and centre bottom big enough to slip over the 'mast'.

WE USED:

* sticks or bamboo cut into lengths
* pipecleaners or string
* thick paper (scrapbook, construction etc...)
* scissors
* some water to float your raft in

Other ideas: try making a few and having a race, or personalise the sail with your childs artwork. We were able to float small passengers on our raft which made playing with it even more fun. Expand on the game by incorporating 'sink' and 'float', see how many objects you can find that sink to the bottom or float like the raft does.

Our not very pretty but still sturdy raft :-)

To make the sail I just jammed a stick between two of the sticks making up the raft and slipped the paper sail over it. You could secure the sail with tape or glue if it wont stay in place.

Bubble enjoyed blowing her raft across the water.

Our first passenger :-)

Squeak couldn't blow the raft around like her big sister, but worked out how to splash the water to make it move instead.

Sticker balloons

My kids love balloons and stickers and this simple activity combines both.

WE USED:
* balloons
* stickers

Other ideas:
*use large plastic fly swats to hit the balloons and play balloon tennis.
* throw or hit the balloon back and forth, each putting on a new sticker on it every time before throwing it back.
* use picture stickers and play 'eye spy' with your balloon.
* throw the balloon to each other and when you catch it say the name of the sticker that comes up on top. Bubble has a slight speech delay and we play this game a lot to build her vocabulary, we cover a balloon in picture stickers from an activity book (the DK books you find in places like BigW are great) and she names the picture on top and we elaborate (what colour is it, does it make a noise, where does it live etc...).

Puddles

It's been very wet here lately but that hasn't stopped us heading outside. The minute it starts pouring Bubble goes and digs out her gumboots ready to go puddle hunting. We often take paper with us and make little boats to float in the bigger puddles we find at the oval, or just use leaves and sticks.It's so nice to be outside when everything feels so clean and fresh again after the rain!

Magazine collages

Every month Bubble heads to the newsagent with her Dad and buys the latest issue of The Wiggles magazine. We read it together and make the craft activities inside, and then we go through and cut out all the pictures we can find to use later in collages.

WE USED:
* pictures cut from magazines or catalogues.
* child safe glue (like Clag or a homemade paste of flour and water)
* paper or card

Other ideas: find pictures that suit a category, like animals, clothes or food, and play sorting and sticking games. Discuss the names/sounds/colours etc... as you go. Try colouring glue in a small bowl with food colouring to make the activity even more fun and interactive. For older children you can make small labels to go with the collage pictures that your child can read and then match to the right one.

Reinvented

When my girls have grown out of a toy I like to either recycle or reuse it. Toys that can be donated we drop off at charity bins or stores, and ones that aren't really suitable for passing on we try to use for other things. One such unsuitable for donating item was this teething ring, so instead I cut one side of the band and it became a threading activity instead. I added them to Bubble's collection of threading beads and spools and she has been busy making 'jewels' with them ever since.

Rice Play

We love rice in this house. We love it in sushi and we love it for playing with as well. Rice creates such a sensory play experience for children and can be reused over and over again for different games and activities, and can be as messy or contained as you like. Today we used a huge cooking pot to hold some rice while we experimented with funnels and tongs, and used containers and cups to practice pouring and explore volume. We also pulled out the box of recycling things and used empty toilet rolls to pour the rice down and counted how many scoops it took to fill different jars to the top.

WE USED:
* a large cooking pot, bowl, box or similar.
* rice - as much as you like
* things to use for rice play - funnels, animal toys, jars, cups, bowls, spoons etc...
* a mat or sheet to play on is a good idea for making clean up easy, like a bedsheet or a large plastic table cloth.

Other ideas: you can colour rice by mixing it well with a small amount of food colouring and leaving it spread out on newspaper to dry before using. Use coloured rice to make layers in jars or mix it up to make rainbow rice. Fill clean dry empty bottles or jars to make shakers, and experiment with measuring cups and spoons. You can also hide small toys and objects amongst the rice for children to dig out with shovels or discover using large holed sieves.