Water play

Hello again and welcome to new followers in New Zealand and the Netherlands!

This week we are playing with water, paddling, splashing and generally keeping cool in our mini heat wave.
No summer holiday is complete without it so we are having that river or seaside moment at home in the back garden. Water play is a really helpful part of childrens learning. It forms part of their early exploring of their environment. It's basically science lessons without the boring physics teacher and the blackboard!

So let's find a way to make a mini water park for the day. Be aware of safety...always watch over water play with little ones, especially if it's a paddling pool big enough to get into. Be careful of surfaces that become slippery when wet and if you live in a flat watch out that your little one isn't pouring water over the balcony onto Mrs Jones below.  Also watch out for little ones getting suddenly cold when they're sopping wet and run out of energy.

Having said that, this is the most clean fun anyone can have and on a hot day the grown ups love to dip their feet too.

This is what we're aiming for....

You will need....

A bucket or box. My mum uses an old baby bath for the grandchildren very successfully.
Half a box of water.(Warm if you've got tiny children or big softies!)
A towel on standby.
Some bath toys.

You may also like to use......

Little boats, or make paper boats.

Empty squeezy bottles for squirting water.

Plant pots for draining water through.

Things that float and things that sink. 

Bubble mixture.

Spray bottles.

Food colouring

Glitter

Pots and cups for pouring and filling......and so on.

Don't go buying things, just scout around the house and collect things up.

Enjoy !

You can make your water play even more exciting by adding a few drops of food colouring or a dash of glitter to make the water shiny. Bubble bath is also fun but only add a splash or your child will disappear into a cloud of foam.

There are a couple of things that I have found useful. I have the luxury of a garden so we paddle outside but that means my kitchen floor gets flooded by little wet feet going in and out, so I lay old towels on the floor to soak it up. I also put a box of water by the kitchen door to use as a foot wash before the kids come in which reduces the amount of wet grass clippings walked through the house.  In fairness to the kids I should mention that Daddy is the biggest paddler here and leaves the biggest wet footprints in the world!

Don't forget sun cream and hats if your'e splashing in the sunshine.

Once we've got the water play going it tends to be around all summer. 

The children love it and it's great for entertaining their various friends too. 

So whether its a box on the balcony or a bath in the garden have a lovely splash.

See you soon.

Heli  x

Camping at Home !

Camping at Home.

Here in the UK the school summer holidays have begun.  Hoorah!
After the world wide credit crunch lots of people are not going on holiday this summer, so we have a few ideas for "holidays at home" over the next few weeks.
This week we are having a camping holiday at home.  We often do this, even in the winter.  It takes a bit of imagination but the kids have always loved it.  Sometimes the children sleep in sleeping bags on their own beds and sometimes they go the whole hog and sleep out in the back garden in tents.
Depends on the temperature.  However, the absolute best thing is building our own tents.

This is what we're aiming for.....

 This is what you'll need for starters.....

  

Blankets.

Old curtains.

Old sheets.

Clothes pegs...as many as you can find.

You may also use.......

Chairs, sticks, string, clothes airers, cushions.....anything that comes to hand and lots of imagination.

Here's what to do....

1.   Indoors or outdoors, find a space or gap to build a camp in.  Find a place where it can be left up for a while and won't be in the way.

2.   Lay down a blanket or mat to be a floor.

3.   Spread a cloth or curtain over the nearby chairs or clothes rack to make a roof.  Use the pegs to secure the cloth. Now my kids are older they use drawing pins too but I would not recommend them for little kids.

4.   Use lots of imagination to customise your camp.  Add teddies and toys, treasures and books.

5.   Play all day!

Didn't take long for the cat to move in!

Camp in a gap in the living room.

Palatial camp built by son.

All's done and well done!

Tents are so much fun, whether it's under the laundry rack or built together outside, the fun lasts for days.

The children like to have their supper in their tents or for you to squeeze in with them.  However tiny the interior of the tent is, the kids are great at giving guided tours to the adults and cats who come to visit. 

Little children often then love to fill their camps with everything they can find.  Entire bedrooms have been known to disappear into their tents, with the children sitting outside because they've run out of space for humans!
Go with the flow...it's good clean fun and it can all get put back tomorrow.

  

This is so good for their imaginations and, if you enter into the swing off it, your tent will be
for a jungle explorer today and for having tea with the queen tomorrow!

Have fun, see you next week,

Heli  x

Hello and Welcome

Hello and welcome to more new countries. I love this part of blogging. I was a geographer in my murky past and I love tracking the countries on the blogger map as they come up. Is that a bit sad?... probably, but I like it !
Hello to Thailand and Kuwait!

Heli x

Me trees

Hello everyone.

Wow , what a week!

We've had sports days , netball matches, school plays, leavers assemblies, gifts for teachers, lockers to clear , school trips and my 42nd birthday. My youngest has just completed his junior school, so it's new school uniform and excitement about senior school.  It's also been the soggiest week of July ever known!
Being a mum is such a scramble but it's such fun. You all arrive in a breathless heap on the floor on the first day of the holidays but it soon turns into games and painting, friends and playing. I love having them back in the holidays, during term time every thing is so rushed. They grow up so fast and we want to enjoy every minute. (Until they argue and then all bets are off!)


So here we go. My kids made "me trees" or "me flowers" at nursery school and loved them. It's a combination of self portraits and body prints to make a plant. The stalk is simply a piece of string measured to the child's height.  Kids love having their height measured and comparing it with each other or you. There always seems to be a competition to be the tallest.

It will be a bit messy so I suggest you pop down some old news papers or a paint proof cloth before you begin.  Have that bowl of warm washing up water standing by and start early enough to get all cleaned up before tea time is due.   Never let children near paint when they're tired or hungry....it doubles the cleaning up!


This is what we're aiming for....

You will need....

String for the stalk and  an extra bit to hang the plant up with.
Paper.
Paints in a range of colours.
Paint brush and water pot.
Supervised scissors.
Paper plate or a large flat, washable plate/tray.
Plain card from a cereal box.....we used a cheerio box this week!
Sticky tape.
Hands and feet.

Here's what to do....

1.   Cut a circle from the cereal packet. It's easiest to draw round a small plate. This will be the face.

2.   Paint your own face on the circle and leave it to dry. This is a good chance to chat about all the different features on a face. Use a mirror.  I have freckles to they've been painted on too.

3.   Mix up some brightly coloured paint on the paper plate or a washable dish. Dip in hands and make hand prints on the plain paper. These will be the petals an the flower. Make lots, we did 9. Leave to dry.

4.   Mix some green or brown paint and do the same with footprints. These will be the leaves. Yep, this is the messy bit. Have that warm water standing by! Leave to dry. The point of the paper plate is to throw it away afterwards and reduce the cleaning up.

5.   Cut the piece of string to the same height as your child. Measuring is always fun.

6.   Sticky tape the end of the string onto the back of the dry face.

7.   Stick the hand prints to the back of the face. Do this round the face so that when you look at the front, the petals frame the face.

8.   Use sticky tape to fasten the foot leaves to the string. Spread them out to look like a beanstalk.

9.  Finally, hang the flower up at the same height as your child. In a row if you have several, and admire!

All's done and well done!

There we are then. In our house Daddy is the tallest and it's fun measuring his height by standing on stools and chairs.  Believe it or not .... this is very early practical maths, so encourage your little ones to go round the house measuring everything.  Measure with string or play bricks, even lego.  

Have a contest to find the tallest teddy!

Something less painty next week!

See you soon

Heli x

 

Welcome !

How exciting.....the blog has now reached Ireland, Uganda and South Korea . Hello and welcome!
This week will be making "Me Trees". Nice and messy, so I'm waiting for the kids to come home from school to help me with this one. Standby with string , paint, paper and a paper plate if you've got one. (don't worry if not).
All will be revealed......
regards Heli x

Paper Cup Castles

Hello everyone,
This week we'll do a really simple make. These cup castles are cheap and easy and don't require too much adult supervision. Except with the scissors of course.

First of all, a word about scissors.
This is a tricky one and as an infant teacher I have been all around the houses about this.
Most scissors that are designed for small children don't cut properly. The manufacturers, in their wisdom, have decided that the only safe scissor is a non-cutting scissor !  Actually, I have seen children hurt their hands by struggling with the tiny handles against whatever their trying to cut.
It's better to have slightly more grown-up scissors but supervise them more closely. I never allow scissors in bedrooms or in a room without an adult popping in and out.
Blunt-nosed or rounded ends scissors are good for little ones but make sure there is room for them to get their fingers in the handles. They should be sharp enough to cut paper easily and card carefully.  It is safer to have properly working scissors than allow children to become cross at frustratingly blunt ones. My kids and my pupils have always used well supervised junior scissors not infant ones.
Many parents won't allow little ones to use scissors and you'd be amazed how may children come into their first class at school unable to cut.
It drives the kids mad.....better to train them to use them safely.
Don't  forget that nowadays you can buy "left handed" scissors and even "either hand" scissors. It is also possible to get  scissors with special handles for children who need extra help gripping things.(These are more specialized but you can get them online.)
Shop around to get good ones... it's worth it. And at the end of the day, put the scissors away, out of reach !

OK, I'm done...you may have noticed.... scissors are touchy subject !!

So, Paper cup castles. They're very quick and easy so you can makes lots of them. They're great to use with little toy people, lego men, plastic animals, toy soldiers and so on.

This is what we're aiming for ....

This is what you'll need ....

Paper cups.   Not plastic because the glue and the felt tips won't work so well. Plain paper cups are best, but you can use recycled paper cups after you've been out for a coffee !
Supervised scissors
Glue or sticky tape
lollipop sticks
Felt tip pens or crayons or pencils
Scraps of coloured paper or sticky coloured shapes. Maybe little stickers.

Here's what to do ....

1.   Prepare your paper cup.....rinse out the coffee (or black tea in my case), cover it in plain paper if you want to hide any logos or pictures. If you don't have cups, it can be done with cardboard tubes, cut into a range of lengths.


2.   Supervise the scissors to cut a door or two. Measure the height of the door against your toy people. Cut up one side and across the top to leave a door flap.

3.      Decorate the castle with felt tips or pencils.

4.   You can cut shapes out of coloured paper to stick on as flowers or simply as pretty colours.

5.   Make a small cut in the top of the castle (base of the cup) and shove a lollipop stick through to become a flagpole.

6.   Wrap the ends of a strip of paper around the top of the stick to make a flag.

7.   Add some more castles and small toys to make a whole village to play with.

All's done and well done !!

The children can then decorate as many cups as you can give them. This is a lovely activity to do with other little friends and they can be made as fancy as you like. You can add ribbons to the flag pole and add shiny stickers for princess castles or draw on dragons to battle with knights ! You can get cardboard trays from supermarmarkets (trays for catfood tins or coffee jars etc) just ask customer services. By putting the cups inside tray it becomes castle walls or village fences . Note the doghouse ! Decorate madly !

When the castles have been played with they can be easily stacked up and kept for to next time without taking up too much storage space.....which always helps.

Great fun ! See you next week.
Regards
Heli x

Rock Buns!

Hello again

Nearly all technical difficulties have been overcome. I downloaded a great new photo handling program but it's taken me a short while to get to grips with it. It's great to learn new skills!

So, Straight to business!

I love making things with the children that we can all eat.  We often had these with a teddy or two at our picnics. It's lovely to wrap a couple of warm rock buns in a cloth, grab a bottle of drink and nip down to the park for an impromptu picnic. You could picnic in your own garden, on your balcony or even in your front room on a blanket with your home made flowers and bugs. The buns are a simple cheap recipe and your little ones can do almost all of it with a little help....and they can get their hands gooey !
Message to the world-  Edible mess is the best possible mess!!

First of all- hand washing.  A little bit of health and safety, and it makes the buns more edible afterwards!
Preheat the oven  190C, 374 F or gas mark 5- grown-ups only

This is what we're aiming for....

Here's what you will need....

8oz, 225g  flour
4oz, 112g  butter or margarine
3oz, 85g sugar (brown if you have it)
1 large eating apple
Grated rind of 1 orange
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
Greased baking tray
Bowl
Cup
Tablespoon


Here's how to do it....

1.   Grease the baking tray with a little bit of the margarine.  The children can do this with their fingers.

2.   Mix the flour, sugar and the margarine in the bowl.  Rub the margarine into the flour to make it in breadcrumbs- use finger tips to get the best results.

3.   Chop the apple and put it with the orange rind and the sugar in the bowl with the flour mixture

4.   In a cup briskly mix the egg and milk together

5.   Pour the egg/milk into the mixture and mix it with your clean hands to make a dough

6.   Drop small handfuls of the dough onto the baking sheets in little mountains.  If the mountains are too big, the middle won't cook properly.

7.   Sprinkle with sugar and bake for about 15 minutes.

All done and well done !

ALLOW TO COOL- the apple gets very hot

You can make these with any other dry fruits such as glace cherries or raisins. It's best with self raising flour but I have been known to do it with plain flour and the buns were still pretty edible !
These little buns can be popped in the freezer for up to three months

Serve for tea with teddies or keep in a box for tomorrow. I tell you what, why not go mad and have an adventure..... Pop a couple of buns in a bag and hop on a bus to a different park. We love pop and hop adventures. When children are little bus rides are a very big deal.  Strangely it's the kids who travel everywhere by car who find it the most exciting.  You don't need to go anywhere special but they'll love it and it gets you out of the house too.  And every stay at home parent or grandparent needs that as much as the little ones.  So, pop and hop !

See you next week for paper cup castles.....invented by Grandad !
Heli x