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.)