Chocolate Play Dough!

 

I have never much liked store bought play dough. I think it's the smell of it that mainly puts me off. But year after year I have continued to buy it, never considering making any of my own. I have always thought that there would be far too much work involved. How wrong could I be! I first tried a no-cook recipe, as I tend to avoid the stove at all costs, but it wasn't very successful. I then came across this recipe at My Montessori Journey (via Counting Coconuts). What a pleasure to make! And it's just the best playdough to play with! This, pictured here, is my second batch and as you can see I decided to be a little adventurous. I made two batches with different amounts of cocoa added (10ml and 50ml). Little One tried to eat it a few times, but a taste or two of the salty doughy mixture and he spat it out very quickly!

I recently spoke to some girlfriends of mine who have never made play dough either. This one is especially for you ladies. Have fun!

PS. To keep your dough lasting well, store in an airtight container in the fridge.

PPS. I'm linking this to  Show and Tell @ ABC and 123.

{Added at a later date:  A nicer and easier play dough recipe (in my opinion) found here.}

Christmas Sensory Box

The first advent calender surprise for my kiddos was this sensory box. It was very much inspired by the amazing sensory tubs of Mari-Ann at Counting Coconuts . I used a nice rectangular plastic container (available form the local plastic shop), coloured rice, ornaments, nicknacks from my Christmas decoration's box and some yummy Father Christmas chocolates.

To colour the rice, I simply took dry uncooked rice and slowly added red food colouring. I mixed it thoroughly and when I was happy with the colour, let it air dry in the bowl. I have read on the net about oven drying coloured rice, but this worked very nicely and I didn't have to go near the oven :). Thanks Trudie for the tip.

The baubles were carefully selected to teach some new concepts: shiny and dull (or matt), big and small, as well as silver and gold. I intentionally used different textures too...it is a sensory box after all! So there is hard and soft items and I included plastic, wood, wool, fabric and paper! The tinsel tickles (tactile), the chocolates smell (olfactory) and taste yummy (oral), the small bells ring (auditory) and the whole box provides lots of visual stimulation. The rice is, of course, also part of the sensory fun and by adding a spoon and cup, lots of scooping and pouring can happen. Having said all this, the trick is to spend some time with your child playing with the sensory box. Little One loses interest quite quickly, unless I join in on the fun. I must add that even Big One enjoyed this box.

I need to warn you, this gets messy! I am trying to teach Little One to keep the rice in the container, but it's difficult to really enjoy this activity without a bit of mess. To keep me sane, 'cause I'm a bit of a neat freak, I have a Dustbuster. Pick n Pay sell an AEG model for R189. I think this is the best money I have ever spent!

Happy playing till next time :)

PS. “Come over to play at the Childhood 101 We Play link up”

World in a Box

After our trip to the aquarium, I thought it would be a great idea to create a small sea world for Little One to play with. I took a rectangular plastic container (found at my local plastic shop), blue paper, bubble wrap (available at the post office) and sea creatures. I lay the blue paper at the bottom of the container and placed a sheet of bubble wrap over it. I then cut some bubble wrap into longish strips, which represented waves and water and I added sea creatures and some divers. And there you go...a mini sea world! What is it about something in miniature form that is so appealing?

The idea was to make something quick and easy; something that every mommy could make without too much fuss! I think I achieved that :)

I just LOVE this picture!

The inspiration for my "World in a Box" came from from two super talented ladies! The Pink and Green Mama (MaryLea) calls it Fun in a Box or Sensory Boxes, while Mari-Ann at Counting Coconuts, is just about famous (I think) in Blog World for her amazing Sensory Tubs. Be sure to pop on over and check out their wonderful creations.

As you can tell from the pic, the mini sea world was a hit. It was also great to reinforce some of the sea creatures that we had seen at the aquarium. 

I hope that I've inspired you to create some little worlds of you own. Do come back and tell me if you do.

PS. Cellophane could also be used instead of the bubble wrap. It would give the box quite a different feel.

PPS. I've linked this to Show and Tell @ ABC and 123, Tot Tuesdays @ My Delicious Ambiguity, Kids Get Crafty @ Red Ted Art's Blog and Carnival of Small World Play @ NurtureStore.

I dare you!

 Paint with your Tot!

 Garden with your Tot!

 Bake with your Tot! 

And, I dare you, let them do the dishes!

Isn't it awesome to think that you can do all these activities with a one and two year old! It always amazes me to think of how much they grow from one to two.

So I dare you...go on...be brave :)

(PS. Little One's age in these photos...just for my own records really...painting 23 months...baking 25 months...gardening and dishes 24 months)

Colour Fun #9 - Buckets of Colour

Do you know that your child will remember anything that is correctly associated, anything outstanding, and anything that is appropriately repeated. This wonderful information is from Tony Buzan's book, Brain Child, one of my all time favourite parenting books. Tony Buzan calls a baby's brain, "a gigantic association machine". Another great bit of information to know about, is that memory is enhanced by the more senses that are involved.

Now the idea behind buckets of colour, was to create a fun memory and association with each colour represented.  I prepared all the buckets ahead of time and included items such as balloons, play dough, finger paint, bubbles, whistles, threading toys, plastic animals, stickers, bean bags and sweeties. Originally the plan was to have only small things in each bucket, so that I could close the bucket and take it along anywhere if I wanted to. Truthfully though, I added bigger things, like a flute and real fruit, which obviously didn't fit into the buckets.

I must say that these buckets became so much more than just colour fun. There was counting (3 little green frogs); numeracy (cutting the play food in half); imaginative play (play dough snakes eating the play food); fine motor skills (using the stickers and threading); body parts (sticking the stickers on body parts); gross motor activities with balloon and bean bag fun; sensory play (painting, smelling play dough, eating ice cream); language enrichment ("lets decorate our bucket with the stickers"); and, identifying shapes. For the colour "green", for example, we took our green bucket outside and had a "green" picnic on the grass. We sat on our green picnic blanket, ate a green apple and played with our green toys!

 

For lots more colour activities, pop on over to My Delicious Ambiguity, a wonderful blog with lots of tot activities. Jenn has a whole collection of colour activities posted here.

PS. I'm linking this to Tot Tuesdays and Show and Tell.