Cloud Dough

I've seen around the net that this is called "Cloud Dough", but I actually think that this is closer to the real store-bought Moon Sand than the recipe I shared here.  Either way, you can't go wrong. It's a whole lot of fun.

This "dough" isn't really doughy at all. It's fluffy and light and mold-able. Little One enjoys playing with it with spoons and small containers. It does make quite a mess, so I prefer that we only play with this outdoors.

So the recipe is simple:

8 cups of flour

1 cup of oil (baby oil or vegetable oil)
Please note: Baby oil shouldn't be eaten, so supervise if you use the baby oil option :)

Mix it all up and P L A Y !

I cannot recall where I saw this super recipe for the first time, but there's a nice post with some extra links to what other Mommy's have done with Cloud Dough at Learn with Play at home.com.

Till next time...

Lego catalogue ideas {and a Giveaway winner}

Lego catalogues... they are loved in my home. They are read and re-read until they completely fall apart, but you dare not throw them away.

Big One has always loved lego.  Little One has been playing with the bigger lego blocks since he was very young, but it was about a month before his fourth birthday that the "mini lego switch" went on in his brain. He now plays with the mini-figurines day in and day out. I have felt quite sorry for the cars and construction vehicles that have been so loved up until now. It reminds me to enjoy every stage and phase - it doesn't last forever.

So seeing all these poor falling apart lego catalogues, I decided to give myself a whole lot of work and make longer lasting lego books. To make, I used nice A4 sized coloured cardboard and Flip Files. I cut down the double lego pages and pasted it onto the card and popped it into the book. Now hopefully these special catalogues can last for a bit longer.

After I had made these, I realised the wonderful opportunity that this book provides for language enrichment. Any lego-loving child, who struggles with language, would enjoy looking at these action-packed pages, and it then provides a nice tool for speech therapists to use to engage a child and talk about the picture. You can also use the different scenes to "find things" on the pages. 

And one more idea... I have also converted some of the pictures into puzzles. 

I wonder what else I could do with a lego catalogue?

One last exciting thing before I leave you - I recently had a giveaway and I do have a winner for you! Thank you to my international readers who try as they might couldn't access the Little People's Products Facebook page. I gave you the extra entry for your effort. And the winner...Briana Richardson :). Congrats Briana...I'll be in touch with you shortly. 

Till next time...have fun.

A felt mat and an unexpected geography lesson

Who knew that making a felt play mat would lead me deeply into the world of the Artic, Antartica and the animals that live there? 

Let me share some facts.

The Artic is a sea, surrounded by pieces of land and it is in the Northern hemisphere. Antartica in contrast, is a piece of land, surrounded by sea in the Southern hemisphere. Animals found in the Artic include the polar bear, the Artic fox, seals, walrusses, the very interesting narwal whale, the snowy owl and reindeer (caribou). Penguins are found in Antartica... here in South Africa too :)... but they are not naturally found in the Northern hemisphere.  

So with this in mind, can you tell what's wrong with that top picture? Polar bears and penguins together are a no-no!

As for those orcas (killer whales), they are found in the southern and northern seas. What I actually had in mind, putting them so close to the shore line, were the orcas of Peninsula Valdes, on the coast of Argentina. These particular orcas almost beach themselves to catch seals on the shore line and it's the only place in the world where orcas hunt in this way. If you want to see more, some amazing footage is available on You Tube.

Anyway, back to my mat. As you can now tell, I have not only mixed up the 'Artics', I went and threw in some (non-icy) Argentinian coast line too. (I write this smiling sheepishly) Geography in high school? No, I did History. Having said that, this is a great example of how one learns by making mistakes. (Well, that's my positive spin on it anyway). I also shared all my mistakes with the kiddos, so hopefully they will remember some of these rather important details.

Now onto the how-tos: To make the mat, cut two biggish pieces of felt, white and blue, and either sew or glue them together. I used my good friend the glue gun - the glue dries instantly, which is the best part for me  - I'm impatient that way. 

I added a picture to show you how I cut and glued the caves. I first glued the sides of the cave and then folded and glued the back part of it. 

To make the igloo, I used a plastic ball (those that you find in ball ponds) and firstly cut the top third of the ball off with a cutting knife (be extra careful when doing this). I then cut out the door with a strong pair of scissors (a kitchen one). To finish off, paint it white and glue on some felt squares. Sweet hey? I must just add that I also painted the inside white, but only after this photograph was taken.

We have quite a nice collection of realistic looking plastic animals, but unfortunately didn't have any polar bears. I really wanted some to add to this mat, so I purchased some black bears (from a local plastic shop), painted them with white acrylic paint and then added the eyes and nose details with a permanent black marker. I thought they turned out quite nicely.

And lastly to add some extra interest to the mat, I covered some white polystyrene pieces with white felt too. These pieces were cut from a nice deep dish that some strawberries had come in. You really don't have to cover them; you could just use as is. By stacking them, it provides some extra places for the animals to walk under or over.

I do hope that you like my (not the Artic/not the Antartic) icy felt mat. Have you ever made a felt mat? Let me know, I'd love to come and see. Till next time, happy playing.

PS. This mat was inspired by the awesome mats at Shady Tree Diary.  

PPS. Shared at It's Playtime.

A mini ice rink

It's been a really cold Winter...brrrrr. One of the coldest in a few years here in South Africa. It has snowed in places that don't see snow very often. And, on our distant mountains there have been snow covered peaks almost everyday.

Having said that - we never actually got to play in any snow. Little One has yet to experience it up close and personal. Hopefully next year we will head off to those mountains and go and play.

So with all this really chilly weather, wintery activities have been on my mind. I do realize that Spring has officially sprung, but I'm going to (quickly) share some of our Winter fun in the next few posts, before the cold weather is gone for good :).

So first up is a mini ice rink, with little ice skaters as you can see. This was inspired by a similar rink at the amazing Play Create Explore blog. 

To make the rink, I used a cookie tray, added water and let it set overnight in the deep freeze. To make the ski poles, I added some masking tape to toothpicks, so that they would fit into the little men's hands. Popsicle sticks cut in half became the skis and I attached them to the men with Prestick. I must add though, that as soon as the popsicle sticks got wet, the Prestick came off. But it was fun while it lasted. 

Both boys really enjoyed this activity and Little One was fascinated by the ice and asked me to immediately go and make some more. It made me think that we definitely need to do more "ice play" - perhaps that can be on our agenda for the long hot summer that is probably on its way :). 

PS. Sharing this at It's Playtime and For the Kids Friday @ Sun Scholars. 

Orange and Blue Vintage Truck and Tractor Party

Little One recently turned four and as promised here are some pictures of his birthday celebration that we held at home.  We invited three little friends and truthfully, after years of "bigger" parties, I can now really vouch for keeping the numbers small. The children played, the Mommies chatted...it was a whole day affair.

I had so much fun making the celebration special with lots of personal touches.

The details:   

The theme evolved as I worked on the details of the party, but the colours were very much inspired by a wonderful orange and blue party I saw at On to Baby.

The cake, a red velvet cake, was kindly baked by a friend of mine (thank you Julia!) and I made the bunting. It was made from paper (a printable I found at a lovely blog called Allsorts), glued onto some white string and then attached to skewer sticks. The marshmallow treats were also very easy to make. I melted chocolate and dipped marshmallows into it and then into sprinkles. Big One loved helping me make these.

I was very lucky to find the blue Chevy truck a few weeks before the party. I had wanted to put it on the cake but decided on the simplicity of the bunting and candles. All the wooden blocks were part of our collection and I simply repainted them blue and orange. I also stamped the letters of little one's name onto them with dark blue paint. This idea was inspired by some blocks I saw at a party at The Dorsey Life.

I made a traditional pin the tail on the donkey game, which I downloaded (for free) and printed from Family Games Treasurehouse.  I was really thrilled to find this and all the children, the older ones too, enjoyed the game. 

The very cool tractor - we hired it from Kiddie Rides, who are based in Cape Town. Little One has already placed an order for a vintage motor bike for next year :).  

In the very last picture you may have spotted bigger bunting hanging on my cabinet. That was thanks to a really nice tutorial at Odessa May Society. I think smaller pegs would have looked nicer, but I used what I had.

I hope you enjoyed sharing these memories of a special day. Take care, till next time.

Nature Colour Match

We were very lucky to go away for a few days during these past winter school holidays and I prepared this activity before we left. I first saw this super idea for an outdoor colour match at the wonderful Inner Child Fun. I collected paint-chips in a variety of colours and then using a square punch I created the cards. One lovely sunny morning , I sent the children on a colour hunt. I think these photos tell the story nicely.

(mmm...just checking...orange or yellow...or a bit of both?)

 

Till next time...

Mommy Made Moon Sand

A long while back, I raved about how much we like the real Moon Sand. What I haven't shared, is that we have made several home made batches since then and it is a HUGE hit with Little One. I have tried a few variations, but this is the recipe I use most often:

4-and-a-half cups of sandbox sand 

1-and-a-half cups of cornflour

1 cup of water (add more if necessary)

It does dry out, so you need to add water every time you play with it.
 

 If the consistency is right, you can easily mold it. I am able to use a small brick mold  and make little bricks using this sand.

We keep ours in a large plastic container in the kitchen and Little One requests this regularly. I try to keep it uncovered, otherwise it does get a little smelly. If uncovered, it lasts for quite some time - I've kept ours going for a month or two. And, because it cleans up quite easily, I allow the children to play with this indoors too. 

 

Have fun!

PS. Recipes found at: irresistable ideas for play based learning and Skip to my Lou

PPS. My apologies to my email readers. For some reason, you all received a re-post of my Bottle Top Play Dough Cakes today. Blogger must have a few gremlins, as I never republished the post. This is not the first time this has happened - I'm not sure what's up?

Shaving Cream Fun

If you are following, you will know that we are busy with a Robots theme at the moment, but today I'm breaking away from that to share some shaving cream fun. It's holidays almost everywhere and I thought this to be such a great holiday activity. It certainly kept my little guy busy for quite awhile.

So today I squirted some shaving cream over a few of Little One's cars that I had placed on his table. He was intrigued :). I then left him to play and he quickly added a whole lot of his vehicles, as you can see in the pics.

After a nice play, Little One deserted the scene, so I moved the table outside and asked him if he wanted his spray bottle to clean the cars. "Yes, like a car wash!", was his response. 

 

That entertained him for quite a bit longer, because after the cars were all washed down, he roamed into the garden, spray bottle in hand. YAY for me - I could get a few things done :)

This idea was inspired by posts at  The Herkert House and A Childhood List. Isn't blogging great!

PS. Linking to The Sunday Showcase

Robot Fun in the Bath

I love craft foam almost as much as I love felt. And I'm sure you know that craft foam can make for a lovely bath toy. 

Our robot theme lends itself to craft foam fun and I literally sat cutting shapes at the side of the bath, while my boys called for more and more. 

I love observing their creativity. Big One made lots of small interesting robots and Little One, as you can see here below, made one loooong robot. "Even bigger than me", as he put it. I just loved watching his focus on the task and all the little details he added.

Have fun...till next time :)

PS. Linking to It's Playtime

Robot Fun {Felt Robots}

Time for another mini theme - Oh how I do love a theme!

My boys have been enjoying the movie Robots and a favourite new book from the library, called Wendel's Workshop, so I thought it perfect timing to have some robot fun.

Felt robots are the easiest to make. No sewing required and you don't even need a felt board, simply a nice big piece of felt for the children to make their designs on. Little One wasn't keen on the activity, but Big One made some amazing robots - so much better than mine.

Mine's the middle orange one. I love the detail in Big One's designs. Yes, even a pirate and exploding robot - so cool.

This last one is a birthday card that I made for a little friend. I stuck a piece of felt to card stock and added this sweet girly robot. I didn't glue the robot pieces on and I also made some extra pieces so that she can make another robot if she wants to. This is a modified version of an awesome felt card I saw here at The Mucky Macbook.

Some more Robot Fun coming up. Stay tuned.

PS. A felt robot set makes for a great gift, don't you think?

Sharing this at:
Show and Tell @ ABC and 123 
For the Kids Friday @ Sun Scholars