Three Little Pigs

When Little One was in hospital recently, this became his favourite "new" book. We read it over and over!

When we were back home, I made these houses from some big juice boxes, added the finger puppets (bought at a local craft market) and we played out the story. As you can tell, it's fun being the wolf and huffing and puffing!

I really like this particular version of the traditional story and highly recommend this book, if you can get hold of it - It's part of a Walt Disney collection of story books.

Do you have a favourite book of this classic story? I'd love to hear about it.

"Who's afraid of the big bad wolf, the big bad wolf, the big bad wolf?

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?

Not I, not I, not I!"

PS.  Linking this to:

Fun For Kids Friday 
Show and Tell 

Cats {Dress-up and Sock Kitty}

 

"I like cats!", Little One announced (some time last year). I giggled! For two reasons really...one being that I was so surprised that at the tender age of two you can know with such certainty what you like, and also because we (husband and I) have always thought of ourselves more as a doggy family...should we get a pet.

Little One is still at home with me full-time this year and because he is a bright, busy little person and seeks constant stimulation (like most two-year-olds), I decided to introduce some mini themes to direct our craft and learning activities. Needless to say, when I was considering my first theme, I thought "Cats". So what follows in this and the next few posts, are all the cat-related activities that we got up to.

And while we have been playing "cats", it's been reading month in the United States and Polly from Helping Little Hands has had a fun Read-Along, where she has asked some bloggers to share a book-related activity. I have joined in the fun and am sharing this sweet sock cat, inspired by the fabulous little book, Katie the Kitten , by Alex Scheffler. We have a small box set, including four of his titles (to read about another one, see here), but Katie the Kitten has been Little One's all time favourite! 

"She loves nothing more 

    than a night on the prowl.
She doesn't get scared

 by a woof or a growl."

Do go along and check out some of the other fun reads and activities shared by other book-loving bloggers!

PS. I am also linking Katie, the sock kitten, to:

Tot Tuesdays @ My Delicious Ambiguity

Show and Tell @ ABC and 123  

High Paw @ the best toys for toddlers

For the Kids Friday @ Sun Scholars

Book Buddies

 

Do you remember Maisy? Well she inspired these :)

I made these book buddies to add to books that I gave as Christmas gifts to some special little boys in my life, my nephews! I decided to cut these out free-hand (no pattern) and it surprisingly worked out really nicely. (Perhaps a little bit of luck was involved, 'cause this type of brave cutting can go very wrong sometimes!) I then stitched the felt pieces together, filled the bodies with batting, stitched them up and then glued on the rest.

I won't say much here about The Very Hungry Caterpillar, other than it being a terrific book for a young child (aged 2-5 approx). If you would like to read another post I did about this book, click here.

I do want to tell you a little bit more about Lost and Found, by Oliver Jeffers. But before I do, I need to tell you about another Oliver Jeffer's gem. I was first introduced to this author when a colleague told me about his book How to catch a Star.(Thank you Carey!) Big One and I soon loved this simple, beautifully illustrated story of a little boy who loved stars and very proactively made all sorts of plans to catch a star to be his friend. I think it's a great story about "making a plan" and perseverance when you are faced with a problem.

Lost and Found is about the same little character, who this time tries to help a penguin, who he thinks is lost. In the end, however, he realizes that the penguin is simply lonely and wants a friend. It's another sweet story and a great icebreaker to introduce a conversation about loneliness and friendship. I think that both these books by Oliver Jeffers are great additions to a young child's library (aged 3-6 approx) and are super books to be used in Play Therapy.

Till next time, happy reading!

PS. I am linking this to:

Tot Tuesdays at My Delicious Ambiguity 

Show and Tell at ABC and 123 

Kids Get Crafty at Red Ted's Art Blog

Read.Explore.Learn at JDaniel4's Mom
Feed Me Books Friday @ Little Sprout Books

Can you spot Spot?

Inspired by Adam's Superhero Softies, I have been looking at revamping some of the soft toys in our home and have a few ideas up my sleeve!

If you are South African, you will probably recognise these very cute little labrador puppies. A few years ago you could collect them when you purchased a certain brand of toilet paper. I have kept these little pups all this time...they were just too cute to part with!  Anyway, I recently realised that they look just like the character Spot. All they needed were, well a spot or two, and that little brown tail of course! So I took some brown felt and made the necessary additions. This little one that you see photographed was given as a gift with a Spot book to a little friend.

Little One has been a huge Spot fan since about 18 months of age. I think that these are terrific books for tots, particularly for language acquisition.

I was thinking, this makes  for a lovely Birthday or Christmas gift...adding a personalised soft toy to match a book.

Till next time...

Crazy about Maisy

Little One is just crazy about Maisy! Now I must admit that I have definitely encouraged this craze, because I too am a big fan. I discovered Maisy a number of years ago, when Big One was my only little one :)  My first introduction was not a book, but one of the delightful Maisy Dvds. What I love about the Dvds is the beautiful, clear, well-spoken English, narrated by Neil Morrissey (also the voice of Bob the Builder), as well as the simplicity of the pictures and of course the fun, playful way that Maisy goes about everyday activities. On the Maisy website, she is described as "a colourful, lovable mouse, with a nose for adventure". A perfect description I think.

Little One really started to enjoy the Maisy books at about 18 months of age and what I love to do when I read them to him, is to leave out some words and wait...as he becomes familiar with the story, he fills in the missing words.

Now I have never ever seen a Maisy toy of any sort here in our shops and so I thought it would be ever so cute to make a Maisy doll out of felt. You may recall me saying that I just don't sew, well I decided to give it a bash and am surprised to say that I actually enjoyed  it! Here is a little tutorial:

I traced Maisy's body from the book, "Maisy Big, Maisy Small", directly onto the white felt. I then pinned two pieces of white felt together and cut out the body. This is not a great photo, but this project was done at night.

I then traced the clothing onto paper, attached it to my felt with pins and repeated the cutting out, each time pinning two pieces of felt together. (I wanted Maisy to have a back and a front). I stitched the body together by hand (filled it with batting) and then glued all the remaining pieces to Maisy on both sides. 

My only regret is that I didn't sew the clothes on too, as I used quite a bit of glue and am uncomfortable with the glue smell, especially as I am aware of the toxins that glue can release. Other than that, I thought she turned nicely.

If you are not familiar with Maisy, be sure to check out her lovely website, called the Maisy's Fun Club. It has awesome colouring pictures, games and best of all, a few of her books that can be read online! To read "Maisy Makes Lemonade" , click here.

PS. I've linked this to

 StART 

Show and Tell @ ABC and 123 

Tot Tuesdays @ My Delicious Ambiguity 

Kids Get Crafty @ Red Ted Art's Blog 

The Imagination Tree 

Adam's Art Spot : Glove Puppets

Adam's Art Spot is Big One's space to share his wonderful art and craft ideas. This idea was inspired by Eric Carle's book, "Little Cloud" and by some wonderful Beleduc puppets that he saw at a toy exhibition we attended. 

After reading the book, Big One suggested that we make a cloud puppet using a hand glove and some cotton wool. So I purchased blue gloves (I was very pleased to find blue ones) and cotton balls. He then stuck the balls onto the glove using craft glue and allowed it to dry. As you can see, it made a very sweet cloud puppet, which he modeled so nicely. I then decided to make a little one for little brother, using a blue baby sock. Unfortunately he would not oblige by modeling his.

This idea has inspired some more hand puppets in our house, which I'll share with you in an up-and-coming post.

PS. I have linked this to StArt @ A Mommy's Adventures.

No-Sew Caterpillar and Butterfly

As you may know I am a great fan of Memetales, an online e-book resource. 

Ditto The Butterfly

See more at memetales

Ditto The Butterfly is the sweetest story about a little butterfly who learns that it is important to drink from different flowers to become a beautiful multicoloured butterfly. The story aims to encourage children to have a well-balanced diet and to try out different foods.

I have been  inspired to do caterpillar crafts lately and did a post on The Very Hungry Caterpillar a little while ago. So when Big One and I read  this story about Ditto, I thought it would lend itself beautifully to this craft that we had been working on. I don't sew (except for buttons), so I needed to make this without a needle or cotton in sight. I was very pleased with the result and have put together a little tutorial for you.

You need socks (little ones), batting, elastic bands, plastic eyes and pipe cleaners. Simply take a piece of batting about the size of a golf ball and push it into the toe part of the sock. Shape it into a nice ball and when you are happy with the size, seal it off with an elastic band. I used elastic bands in colours that matched the colour of the socks. Continue until you get to the end of the sock. There will probably be a little bit of sock left at the end. Then attach the pipe cleaner, by inserting it through the top elastic band at the caterpillar's head and bend it to make two antennae. Attach some eyes and there you go...a no-sew caterpillar!

To turn your caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly, cut out some wings from felt and glue onto the body of the caterpillar. You can then decorate your wings with some more coloured felt.

We, however, wanted to make a craft that we could pair with this sweet story of Ditto, so we made a garden and attached some felt flowers with velcro. We then also added velcro to our butterfly's wings, so that when she goes to drink from a flower, you can remove the flower from the garden and add it to her wings. So as she drinks from the different coloured flowers, her wings become multicoloured, just as in the story!

You could add the velcro to either side of the butterfly's wings. I think it would look nice either way.  You could also add a mouth. We thought that the sock's seam looked like a gentle smile, so we didn't add anything extra.

PS. I linked this to:

Making the World Cuter Monday 

Show and Tell @ ABC and 123 

A Story and Art @ A Mommy's Adventures