Making Art for your Child's Room

It's been almost a year since we moved to Pretoria, but I wanted to share this post with you, as old as it is. Before moving out of our home last year, I did many things to fix up the house. One of those chores was to finalise a nice wall of art in Little One's room. His room was definitely one of my favourites in the house. The light in this room was beautiful and of course, who can resist children's decor?

So using the art work from free printable packs, provided by the wonderful blogs Homeschool Creations and 1+1+1=1, as well as some other ideas, I made all the art for the wall myself.

  

One very easy idea is to cut out the first letter of your child's name from black craft paper and then using Tipp-Ex or white paint, turn it into a road. Stick on some toy cars, preferably plastic ones if you can find them, with a nice strong glue. I used light plastic cars from a popular old game. I took the glass out of the frame, so that I could stick the cars directly onto the cardboard. The poster next to the "S", as well as the two yellow framed pictures, were made from the art work in the printable packs, as mentioned above.

In this picture below you can see how I created the Bus and Taxi. Adding photo faces of our family members made it fun and personal. 

I love how it turned out and Little One and I spent some great creative time sitting at that little white table.

I also love that it didn't cost lots of money to make a great wall of art. 

Do you have some personal walls of art in your home?


PS. Here's a link to all the other posts I've written about homemade wall art - Wall Art Ideas. Just in case you like the topic. :)

C is for Car

Earlier this year I kind of promised you an alphabet series. One should never promise such things. The year has raced on and Little One will be going into his last term of the school year tomorrow. The spring holidays are over, sniff, sniff. On the upside, it's count down to the Christmas holidays. 

I have shared these in the series so far:

A is for Astronaut

O is for Octopus

S is for The Very Busy Spider

I'm not very far, am I.  

Let's see if I can catch up a bit.

Little One won an awesome prize at his school carnival and this week we went down to the Zwartkops Race Track and both boys got the opportunity to race around the track with racing driver George Smallberger. It was such a cool afternoon.

Perfect timing for this post. So here I share not only our car activities, but also some pictures of our afternoon.

This cute letter "c" idea is from this post.

These are inspired by these Teddy Racing Cars. 

(I used small Bar Ones, Smarties and some icing.)

A chocolate traffic light treat, or robot, as we call them here in South Africa. 

(Kit Kat, small Bar Ones, Smarties and icing.)

Both my boys (aged 6 and 12) loved creating this car banner for the bookshelf.

If you children love drawing, creating a banner is a great boredom buster.

 

Little One in the car, all ready to go. 

  

Those little fingers make me smile. 

 Can you spot him?

Another alphabet post coming up soon. 

Till next time. 

How to make an Aircraft Carrier

 

Inspired by a picture in Little One's all time favourite book, I thought it couldn't be too hard to make an Aircraft Carrier and I knew Little One would love the idea! This little man is C.R.A.Z.Y about all forms of military transportation.

I grabbed a big cardboard box (and cut off the lid), a big juice box and some smaller boxes we've been collecting. Using the book mentioned (My Big Book of Cars, Ships and Planes) as a guideline, I cut out the top of the aircraft carrier, after marking the lines in pencil.

That little hand you see in the picture was just there to help my camera focus on my blank cardboard canvas. :) If I had a bigger piece of cardboard available, I would have cut the Carrier a bit longer in shape. 

Then we got to decorating the top of the Ship, using a black marker, some white masking  tape (painter's tape) and a yellow highlighter.

Jerry Palotta's, The Boat Alphabet Book, is another one of Little One's favourites and this inspired our tower buildings.

I used my glue gun to glue it all together. Only thing to be aware of before you glue it, is that the top piece of board must be balanced correctly on top of the juice box, as the tower buildings make it heavier on one side.

And there you have it. Have fun!

Air Show

A nice way to spend an afternoon is to have your own "Air Show".  The boys (well Big One really) made a whole fleet of aeroplanes and they put on an Air Show for me and the Dad. We then had to rate each plane, based on design, flight etc. The winner was surprisingly this strange round-shaped plane...

Want to see a real Air Show? Last year August we took a visit to the Stellenbosch Flying Club,  where we watched small aeroplanes taking off and landing in the most beautiful setting. With snow-capped mountains in the far distance, we listened to air traffic control and had a yummy meal while doing it. It was  a super way to spend an afternoon.

 

Then more recently we took our US cousins to the airport (Cape Town International) and we spent the morning watching the aeroplanes arrive and depart - exciting stuff! I can highly recommend both of these outings if you have some aeroplane fans in your home.

Cool dude Little One watching an aeroplane being refueled.

Till next time...

Make an Airport (and some aeroplanes)

I've had this idea for the longest time to make Little One an Airport. (I actually saw an amazing wooden toy one, but the price left me gasping for breath!) So with a little bit of imaginative thinking, some recycled containers and some craft paper...I got building.

Most importantly, I wanted an Air Traffic Control Tower. To make, I used a Lipton tea box...cut off the hinged lid and turned it upside-down.  I then glued a polystyrene rectangular dish (also upside-down) to the top of the upside-down tea box - you got that right?  And then I balanced a clear plastic container on top of the polystyrene container (also upside-down). I specifically didn't glue this part, so that Little One can remove the container and play with the men inside. I'm sure this picture will help make sense of my tutorial :).

The lego blocks that you can see inside the tower are the fancy computors and equipment that are used to bring aeroplanes home safely.

To make a hangar or two, I also cut off the hinged lid of a tea box and put it on it's side this time. Our smart passenger jet is parked inside one in this picture.

A nice tallish box makes for an Airport terminal...

The landing strip is a big piece of white cardboard and some coloured strips for the runway. I used the same road map for my Seussville Town.

The craft stick aeroplanes (can you spot them?) were also very easy to make. I painted the wings and added some star stickers.

I showed the boys some You Tube videos of Air Traffic Control Towers in action, as well as aeroplanes taking off and landing. It gave them a nice idea of what an Airport is like. Little One has never actually been to the Airport - that's still on our to do list .

All that's left to do is...PLAY!

 

Sharing this at:

Kid's Co-op 

Show and Tell @ ABC and 123 

The sweetest smelling Garbage Truck

At Christmas my hubby and I received some Lindt chocolate...mmm, don't you just love Lindt? I thought the papers were too pretty to throw away and they smell so good too.

If you have a little guy in your house, I'm willing to bet he loves the garbage truck. Ours comes on a Tuesday and I always say a small prayer that it will arrive before Little One has to go off to school. So when I suggested that we make a garbage truck, he was really keen. 

I cut out the truck beforehand and with the craft glue in hand and a little help on my part, Little One glued the pieces down to make the truck. Then the really fun part began - smelling and rolling the chocolate papers into balls and sticking them into the truck. All in all he enjoyed the activity and our sweet smelling garbage truck has claimed a spot on the fridge. :)

Till next time.

Sharing at: Show and Tell @ ABC and 123

Teacher Gift {Little Yellow Bus}

School's Out! 

We have six wonderful weeks of Summer holidays ahead of us!

The rest of this month's posts are sure to be dedicated to Christmas, so I thought I must slip this one in quickly, before it's forgotten.

Little One started play school in July this year and he has been blessed with two amazing teachers. For end of year gifts, I bought some big Cadbury slabs and wrapped and decorated them to create these American style yellow school buses. Cute hey?

 

Inspiration from here (Katherine Marie).

Christmas Crafts coming up...stay posted :). 

PS. Shared at:
For the Kids Friday @ Sun Scholars
Show and Tell @ ABC and 123 

Make a Colouring Book

Have you ever made your child a colouring book? I recently made one for Little One and he loved it. In fact, when he was done colouring, he said, "That was so much fun." I smiled from ear to ear. For this book, I printed only pictures of
"Things that Go".

I found nice pages at these websites:

DLTK

Printable Colouring Pages

COLORING PAGES FOR KIDS

Kids Color Pages

These very nice chubby triangular crayons were given to me a few years ago by an occupational therapist. I have never seen them to purchase anywhere, but they are wonderful for little hands. It got me thinking about the best first writing tools for toddlers. In my search for more information, I found a wonderful website called The Motor Story. There is a great article on drawing here, where it is recommended that large markers are used as first writing tools. The reason given, is that the markers glide easily over paper and the thumb moves away from the palm of the hand, thereby enhancing the thumb strengthening process. In comparison, crayons write with more resistance. If you do give your toddler crayons though, preferably give them the chunky larger size. I would love to here any comments on this subject.

Till next time...

Let's Build it! {Little World Play}

 

Earlier this year I decided to introduce some mini themes to direct our craft and learning activities. In my perfect world, I would have a new theme with related activities every two to three weeks...sigh ... but, in reality it is very different and this little theme has been running for awhile now :)! So, what you see in the next few posts are activities spread over the past few months. I must add though, that my little guy LOVES everything to do with construction vehicles and workshop tools, so it was easy to get a bit stuck on this one!

I have to admit that I couldn't wait to share this Little World/Sensory Box with you and it's definitely the most successful Mommy Made Toy I've created for Little One. It was a huge hit from the day I introduced it to him and he still plays with it constantly. When planning this mini world, I had decided to use these orange-coloured lentils (called Red Split Lentils), because I thought it would be visually appealing  and I also associate orange and yellow with construction vehicles. What I didn't realize, was that these particular lentils have a wonderful silky feel. I tried to swop them for green lentils at one point, but Little One wouldn't hear of it! Even I love sifting  my fingers through them!

To recreate this, you need a nicely sized container. This rectangular one is about 30 by 45 cm and I purchased it at our local Plastics shop. I use between one and two packets of the lentils (purchased at Pick n Pay). One packet is really sufficient though. And then of course you need some construction vehicles. The little CAT vehicles (that you see above) can be purchased from Game stores. If you are an international reader and would like to purchase something similar, I recently visited the MEGA BLOKS website and they have a terrific selection of construction vehicles in their range.

  

I really love observing my children's interests and passions and find myself caught up in their enthusiasm. In the past few months I have pulled off to the side of the road a number of times, so that Little One can watch construction vehicles busy working at a building site. I have  also deliberately followed a Backhoe Loader, when I could have taken a much shorter and faster route home! Being only 2, do you think he'll remember his Mommy's efforts? I hope so! Or I might have to make him read my blog some day. :)

Have you ever done anything a little unusual to feed your child's interests? I'd love to hear all about it.

Oh yes, I almost forgot to say, it can get messy Mommy! But, the lentils are very easy to vacuum up, so don't fear! I don't really mind putting up with a bit of mess, especially when I see the joy it gives my little guy.

Happy Playing.

PS. I'm linking this to:
It's Playtime!
For the Kids Fridays
Fun for Kids Friday 

Car Painting

Little One had fun one afternoon painting with some of his cars. 

The paint can be tricky to clean off the wheels, so if your little guy wants to paint with his favourite car, you may need to prepare him for multicoloured tyres after the art. :)

Have fun!

(PS. This is not an original idea and I like to give credit where it is due, but unfortunately I cannot recall where I saw this for the first time. If it's your idea - please let me know.)

Felt Car Play Mat

So one day I was surfing and I found this! It's an amazing car mat from Kimbo at her blog called A girl and a glue gun. Don't you just love the name of her blog? I do, 'cause I'm also crazy about my glue gun. After seeing Kimbo's mat, I was very inspired to make my own version for Little One. Mine is not nearly as elaborate as hers, but I was happy with the way it turned out.

Now you would think that I have a very happy little boy who loves playing with his car mat... well, not really. Every time I put it out to play, he crumples it up within minutes. I quickly realised that he doesn't like that the felt sometimes moves when he drives his cars on it. I have played with it too and found it to be fine, but I suppose when you are only 2 years old, these things can be a bit more frustrating :). If you have any good suggestions for keeping the mat flat and steady, please feel free to comment.

On another topic for a moment...can you spot some very cool toys on our mat. There are a variety of brands being played with here, but some of them are from the "WOW" range of toys and have been loved and played with by both my boys. If you don't know the range, they have an awesome website that you can visit here. They are really great quality and tough toys that can take a beating.

For more amazing play mat inspiration be sure to visit these blogs too:

Arctic and Jungle mats at Shady Tree Diary

Dinosaur play mat at Serving Pink Lemonade

Bob the Builder and Thomas the Train mats at My Delicious Ambiguity

Car and Animal play mats at lovely little sweetpeas

Happy playing.

PS. I'm linking this to:
Get Your Craft On @ TODAY'S creative Blog 

MADE BY LITTLE HANDS MONDAY @ delicate CONSTRUCTION

We Play @ childhood101  
Making the World Cuter Monday  
HIGH PAW @ the best toys for toddlers 

Colour Fun #5 - A Colour Car Play Mat

Little One loves playing with cars and so I thought this would be a fun and novel way to teach colours and to match-up colours. I made the play mat out of cardboard (a big cereal box) and covered it with a piece of black cardboard and then covered that with colour squares. Simple! 

I plan on leaving it out next to his cars and occasionally modelling  the cars parking in the correctly matched parking spaces. If you do make this for your little one, please come back and tell me how it was received.

PS. I am linking this to It's Playtime, Tot Tuesdays @ My Delicious Ambiguity and ABC and 123 Show and Tell.

Colour Fun #2 - "Red Car, Red Car, What Do You See?"

I love to share good things and the website that I'm sharing with you today is GREAT! Shelley at childcareland.com has created wonderful learning activities for early childhood educators and the best of all is that she has lots of free printables here.

To continue with our colour fun this week, I want to share a free printable that I downloaded from Shelley's site. Now in my previous post on Colour Fun (which you can read here), I told you about the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?". This printable is based on the book, but instead of animals, there are different colour cars. The little rhyme becomes "Red car, red car, what do you see? I see a ____ car looking at me."

Here is the link for you to make your own set.

Red Car, Red Car, What do you see?

If you have a little girl and don't want to make a car set, there is a bird set available too.

Pink Bird, Pink Bird, What do you see?

I printed these out, stuck them onto cardboard (recycled boxes) and then covered them with clear sticky plastic. You could also laminate them. My first intention was to turn this into a felt board game for Little One, so I stuck sandpaper on the back of the cards to make it stick to the felt. Little One showed no interest in this, so I added magnetic strips to the back and converted them to fridge magnets. That definitely got more of his attention. I must tell you that he ruined a few of them very quickly. I only turned my back for a minute or so and some had been bent rather badly. The best part is I can simply remake them.

Some colour fishy fun coming up in the next post.