Egg Wobbly Heads

Do you have some plastic eggs lying around after the weekend? Here's a simple and fun activity to get up to with them. I saw this idea over at Parents magazine and Crafting in the Rain. 

Take some play dough and put it in the bottom of the more rounded part of the egg. With a permanent marker draw a funny face on it. Push it over and watch it wobble.

Happy playing :)

Easter {Egg} Boxes

I have been so quiet this year on this blog, but this week I'm making a nuisance of myself. Hope that's okay. :)

Inspired by a lovely Easter gift at Sugar Lander, I used egg cartons to put together some Easter gift boxes. I love the simplicity of this egg carton (I like the pretty hen design), but I think adding the Humpty Dumpty finger puppets made it more fun.

I wanted to make a few extra gift boxes to give to some strangers, but we didn't make enough Humptys, so I needed a sweet and simple alternative. These lovely free bunny and chick templates from willowday were perfect and I decorated a few more boxes. Some ribbon may have been a nice touch, but I didn't have any extra and I think a good motto is to do the best you can with what you have! 

If I don't post again this weekend, I wish you a very blessed and special Easter time with your family.  

PS. Sharing at Shine on Friday.

Egg Puzzles

 

I remember seeing a super idea for making egg puzzles, but I cannot remember where? My apologies for not giving the proper credit. 

I added to the idea and created a quick counting activity. It was easy enough to create and Little One liked it. Match up the number of dots to the correct numeral and of course this is aided by the fact that each egg is a puzzle.

The template for the eggs, I found here.

The best was when Little One had packed them out and started counting them. When he got to four he said with great delight and surprise "Only one more to go, then I'm five!" Only one more Little One. Only one more. :)

PS. Sharing at Show-and-Share Saturday at I can teach my child

Fun with Humpty Dumpty

There are a lot of eggs around at the moment - have you noticed ;) - which got me thinking, who's the coolest EGG around? 

Humpty Dumpty of course. 

With that in mind we have been having some Humpty Dumpty fun over here...

 A bottle top Humpty.

Build a wall by matching the number to the dots. 

Little One loved this activity.

Our favourite Book about the famous Egg. 

All the King's horses and all the King's men...

(Peg craft inspired by the amazingly creative lilla a)

Shortbread Soldiers.

(Plain biscuits from Woolworths)

Capital H activity from Making Learning Fun.

Finger Puppet Humptys.

I have plans for these - you will have to wait and see. :)

More Easter fun to come. Till next time.

Dragonfly craft

Many, many of you who read or pop in here at Love and Lollipops, live way across the world in the Northern Hemisphere and for you today, I bring a "Happy Spring Time" craft.

Using three ice cream tub sticks (bought these at a craft shop),a popsicle stick, googly eyes and glue, I made these dragonflies. I do hope the picture "explains" it all.

I really love the natural wooden look of these and would have left them be, but Little One wanted to paint them and he really wanted to put glitter onto them. That was definitely his favourite part of the project.

Wouldn't these be fun to add to a nature sensory box?

And me - I'm over-the-moon happy that it's Autumn over here - my favourite season for sure :) 

Till next time. 

PS. Shared at sugar and dots and polkadots on parade. 

Goodnight Thoughts

Awhile back, Big One was really struggling to fall asleep at night, so I made him a little book with ideas and words that encourage happy thoughts. Thoughts that are nice for him and that require some imaginative thinking. Thoughts that would entice him to focus on them, rather than on focusing on not-falling-asleep, which tends to make it worse.

This is not a fancy therapy technique - it was simply the way I got myself to fall asleep "happily" when I was a little girl. I can remember looking forward to these playful imaginative journeys, after I had said goodnight prayers.

The cards say things like...

toboggan  (imagine yourself swishing down the toboggan track)

my dream room (one of my favourite fantasies as a little girl)
ten wrapped presents

meeting my hero   

being famous

plan a great day 

a red door...open it

trampoline

a happy place filled with my favourite things

running on the beach

...and so on.

Do you have any goodnight strategies that work for your children? I'd love to hear about them. 

Till next time, sweet dreams. 

(Added later on 13 March 2013 - For those of you with little ones who can't sleep due to anxiety, a nice idea is to create the book together. Involve them in the process and draw some pictures of things that they like to do or places they like to go - anything that makes them happy.  This is a nice visual reminder of happy thoughts to look at and chat about at bedtime. Remember, they will need some extra help visualising the thought, so your words will help them to imagine it.  Hope this all makes sense.) 

Esteem Theme of the Week: Unique

 

Here's our first (self) esteem theme of the week. 

The idea -  to focus on a chosen theme word for the week - any word relating to "character".

I add a Bible verse, which we memorise, and we talk about the meaning of the chosen word. We also add a fun activity or activities to help us remember the word (and the verse).

This not only teaches my boys a great new word, but hopefully makes them realise how important it is to be aware of it in their own lives. In that sense, it becomes an esteem builder. And of course, by memorising Bible verses, we put God's word into our hearts and we make it part of who we are. I want that for my boys.  

Our word this week: Unique

(one of a kind; different to everyone/everything  else)

Our verse: Psalm: 139.14

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, 

I know that full well."

Now what do aliens have to do with an esteem theme? Well, it is a fun way to drive home the concept. Little One has certainly remembered the word and loved the idea of "Unique Aliens" :) 

It's a very easy craft: 
You need polystyrene cups (from the Supermarket); balls (found at PNA); pom poms; pipe cleaners; and googly eyes.  We used toothpicks to attach the balls to the cups and then added the embellishments. And most importantly,  each one had to be unique, of course.

As we progress, I'll share more themes and activities. Let me know if you like the idea. I always love hearing from you.

Till next time...

PS. Shared at For The Kids Friday and The Sunday Showcase. 

Happy "I love you" Day

Valentine's day has come and gone and as much as I wanted to post this yesterday  - on the actual day -  real life often gets in the way of blogging :).

Many times I have great intentions that don't materialise - you too? - like sending Valentine's cards or giving Valentine's favours to our loved ones. Yesterday I sent some flowers and a Valentine's card to two important ladies in Little One's life...his teacher and the class assistant. It was such a good feeling to GIVE and to say THANK YOU. I lay in bed last night thinking, that if I had done that for every important lady in his life (excluding me) I would have had to buy a whole lot more flowers and we would have had to make many more cards. Isn't it such a blessing to have people around us that help us to love and to raise our children. I am grateful! 

Anyday can be "I love you" day ...who might you spoil today?

PS. Card via the super Allison from No Time For Flash Cards

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...

2013 - Here we go!

Happy New year to all my readers! Belated I know, but January must be one of the busiest months of the year in my home - yours too? New Year and school holiday activities, then preparation for Back to School, followed by Big One's birthday (on the first day of School!), and Back to Work for me. So as you can tell, it's been pretty darn hair-raising over here :). To add to all that, Little One started at a new School this year. So that's my catch-up news and now onto a new year of Love and Lollipops. I hope you'll stay reading and join me on this happy ride.

To start the year off...remember Adam's Art Spot? I haven't posted one of these for awhile, so here's one of Adam's (a.k.a. Big One) holiday activities. Created and thought out by him.

Instructions:

Take some recycled cardboard and stick white paper to it. Draw some fun men or characters onto the paper and cut them out. Then take a paper clip and stick it to the back of the pictures. You then need attach some string to something high, like a curtain rail or a lamp on a shelf, and attach the other end to a lower item, like a toy basket, creating a zip-line. Now place your paper-clipped character onto the string and watch him zip all the way down.

 

Have fun! 

PS. Linking this to For the Kids Friday @ Sun Scholars