Baby Room Art

 

Hehe - No, there's no baby on the way - just in case you were wondering. These are long ago pics that I was going to share - then never did. They were the art I made for Little One's Nursery - now almost five years ago. Can it be true? - he's almost five! (sigh)

To make, I painted a backdrop onto good quality card stock and fit this into my frames. 

I was lucky to find some wooden cut-outs that matched the animals embroidered onto his white cot linen at a craft shop. I then carefully painted them. Usually I don't have the patience for such finicky work, but I was very motivated to make his room special. It helped me work slowly and with a steady hand :).

Lastly, I attached the cut-outs with prestick to the glass. 

I absolutely love looking at pictures of nurseries and children's bedrooms and have lots pinned onto my Pinterest Board, Little People Decor, if you feel like browsing.

Till next time.

Bottle Top Bats

Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. Wikipedia

I love that when we do a craft like this, we always learn something new and interesting. It's really one of the simplest and most effective ways to grab your child's attention about a new topic. Recently Little One and I made these bottle top bats, but at the same time we chatted about them. Of course this Mommy was prepared and I had done my homework before the time and could tell Little One about these creatures while we were crafting.

Big One inevitably overhears what we are getting up to and so also walks away with some new knowledge.

(On Little One's cupboard)

Here are some nice sites to visit to learn more about bats:

Animal Planet
Kidzone

This idea was inspired by a craft at The Mailbox Magazine. 

PS. Sharing this at Shine on Friday and The Sunday Showcase. 

How to raise a Genius

Today I'm sharing this (fun) infographic with you.  It nicely summarizes some of the latest and key research in raising "smarter" children.

Of particular interest to me is the way in which we praise our children and how we can often over-focus on vague character traits (such as "you are so nice/smart/creative"), rather than on their specific efforts. To read an extensive article in this regard, go here.

This infographic was provided by onlinepsychologydegree.net.

Reading this summary reminds me that I have some work to do in a few departments. And you? What are your thoughts on this information? Does it change the way you are currently thinking about raising smart children? I'd love to hear your opinion.

Great reads that discuss some of this research:

NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children (by Po Bronsan and Ashley Merryman) - I absolutely loved this book, but then again it's right up my Psychologist alley :). There's a whole chapter written on the inverse power of praise, as mentioned above. 

How the Brain Learns (by David Sousa) - I couldn't put this down and I think it should be prescribed material for all educators - seriously. 

Till next time, happy reading. 

Little World Play: The Aquarium

I saw this super idea over on another Mommy blog and knew we had to try it. (As soon as I find the link, I'll add it and give proper credit). If I recall correctly, they even added  water, but after making ours, I decided not to. It certainly made less mess I think, than if water had been added to the fun. :)

A few days earlier we had spent time on the beach and collected some nice shells and rocks and pebbles for the project. Little One absolutely loved collecting all the treasures and it was probably even more fun than making the aquarium. We used aquarium stones to line the bottom of the containers and also added some fake and real greenery from the garden. 

 

So here's our mini Aquarium.

The Nemo Exhibit.

Watch out Mr Diver, that Shark is close-by!

 

Can you spot the crab?

The Aquarium Restaurant.

The jellyfish tank.

In the corner of the picture, you may spot some penguins on rocks. 

This turtle reminds me of the real one we saw when we visited the Aquarium in 2010.

Eels! 

This was a fun activity and really quite easy to do. It could be a nice way to pass the time on a rainy afternoon this coming Winter. 

Till next time, have fun.

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.)