Name Skeleton

As part of our Doctor Doctor fun, I searched for some skeleton art and crafts and I was thrilled to find this fab idea over at Garden of Praise (via Pinterest). Can you tell that the rib section is made from a name? How cool is that? Want a tut?

Take an A4 sheet of paper and fold it in half. Write your name on the page using the fold as your line. Then cut out the name and fold it open. I hope the pics help...

I showed Big One the original post and picture and left him to his own devices. He loved the idea, grabbed a scissors and confidently started cutting. On the other hand, silly me needed to do this about three times before I figured it out.

 

Big One's final creation is a "Knight Skeleton" - he is always keen to add his own special take on any project :). 

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

Doctor's Orders

One of our Grannies has just had an operation and spent four days in hospital. So what do you do to make a sore Granny feel better? Well, you can give her a plaster people card ...take her some very special flowers from the garden...a magazine...some sweet treats...and you give her a Get Well Script of course. Not just one - a whole note pad of them! These scripts can be torn out and handed in at any time...Grandpa, be warned!

Wouldn't this be a fun addition to the mommy-made Doctor's kit.

Fingerprint Fun

                                                                                  

 I remember seeing an Ed Emberley Fingerprint Drawing Book a number of years ago and it immediately piqued my interest. I looked high and low for these locally, but couldn't find any in stores or at the library. So I was very excited to find out that Ed has a terrific website and that I could easily order his books (at great prices too) online.

In the spirit of our Doctor Doctor fun and checking out the human skeleton, I was tickled to find a cute fingerprint tutorial of  
Mr. Boney Parts on the website.

Big One's version...

Using the super Melissa and Doug Ink Pad, Big one and I spent some time creating fingerprint art. I won't tell you who made what, but I will say this -  my creations are definitely "cute", whereas Big One's are "cool".

 

Could you tell who made who?..I'm sure you could :)
 

Shape Matching Fun

Today's post is a continuation of the Doctor Doctor fun we've been up to here. I love the simplicity of the red medical cross, so today I'm sharing some shape matching fun inspired by it.

Do your children have this kind of shape sorter...or something similar? I made these discs and Little One started off by matching up the plastic shapes to the discs...easy peasy. 

We then put the plastic shapes aside and asked him to find matching discs - for example, 

find another yellow shape or find another hexagon? 

I then packed them out in rows and asked him to count each row.
He did this very nicely :).

We didn't do this, but another possibility would be to put three in a row and ask which is the odd one out or which one doesn't match the others.

After playing with the discs for awhile, I put those aside and we had some fun with the shape sorter. As we played , it struck me that this is such a versatile toy. I have always thought of it as a baby toy, perhaps because my earliest association of it is the Tupperware shape sorter ball (remember that one?). But this is really far more than a simple baby posting game, with many playful and educational possibilities. I might just do a whole post about it sometime...

 Building shape towers...and the best part...knocking them down!

Till next time, Happy playing!

PS. I was really curious about the origin and meaning of the red cross medical symbol. You can read more about it here.

Doctor's Kit

When your little one is particularly interested in a certain activity, book or even TV character, it's a great opportunity to extend that interest and add some other fun and learning activities. So while my Little One was focused on playing "Doctor Doctor", I had the chance to squeeze some learning in there too.

Without a doubt, playing this game is a great opportunity to teach and reinforce body parts (remember to include the not so common parts - ankles, soles of feet, wrists, forehead, etc.). It's also a chance to talk about being a Doctor and what they do, as well as different types of medical professionals (Paediatricians, Dentists, Nurses, Veterinarians - it's up to you how far you stretch this and of course how long you can maintain their interest). And, it's a great chance to talk about all those Doctor's tools in their medical kit!

Does your little Doctor own a medical kit? These are readily available in most toy stores, but some real-life additions to their kit is sure to be a big hit...some"ouch" powder, real syringes, a plastic scissors, old x-rays, a Nebulizer mask and tubing, real plasters (band-aids) and bandages, a small notepad and pencil for writing scripts...all add to the fun.

I added a variety of plastic containers to our kit and then filled them with some matching coloured smarties. Little One was motivated to open them all because of the sweeties inside, but opening them required some problem solving. One lid had to be pushed off/popped up, another unscrewed, another flipped open and so on. Of course this all required some good fine motor work, so little fingers get a work-out too. (PS. I have to add this little note...I only played this once with Little One, as I didn't want him to think that real medicine containers contain sweeties. Please always keep medicine containers far-far out of reach from innovative little people, who know how to pull chairs to counters and climb up to reach things!)

A super addition to some "Doctor Doctor" fun is a terrific little book - a golden book called Doctor Dan by Helen Gaspard. This has been one of Little One's favourites for a long time :).

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

The Play Academy @ NurtureStore
Show and Tell @ ABC and 123

Plaster People and other possibilities...

I saw a super band aid get well card over at Having Fun at Home and it inspired a whole lot of plaster fun!

I started off with some PLASTER PEOPLE (sounds so cute, don't you think?), but then had fun thinking up as many plaster pictures as I could...

These cute little paper books were an idea I got at a mini workshop with Renee Lighton. I found the same little book here - a nice tutorial. They are very easy to make and the possibilities are endless!

PS. Renee's workshop was really great fun, packed with lots of ideas. 
Visit her website to find out more.

PPS. I'm linking this to:
For the Kids Friday @ Sun Scholars
It's Playtime! 
Show and Tell @ ABC and 123 

Let's Play "Doctor Doctor"

"For children to 'play out' their experiences and feelings is the most natural, dynamic and self-healing process in which children can engage." Garry Landreth

Little One has spent a fair amount of time around hospitals and Doctors in the past few months, having undergone two operations in the short space of three months. He has had blood drawn, injections, hep-locks in his hand - there have been a lot of needles involved!

After our first hospital stay, the impact of these events on his play was immediately evident. Suddenly he was playing "Doctor Doctor" every chance he got and the main story line of each little scenario was needles and injections - he and I swopping the patient/doctor role countless times. 

I share this because it's such a good example of the natural healing and therapeutic value that play has. We as adults can talk about our trauma and in so doing work through feelings like fear, anxiety and powerlessness, but children don't have these words, or ability to express them. These emotional experiences that are important to a child or have significantly impacted on them, will often show up as repeated behaviour in their play (Garry Landreth: Play Therapy. The Art of the Relationship). In play therapy, we refer to these as themes.

 (It's okay little dinosaur. It's all over. - Even a T-rex deserves top class medical care :))

After reading How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon? (Jane Yolen and Mark Teague), we added dinosaurs to the game and Little One has enjoyed treating the sick dinosaurs in hospital too. Recently I have noticed a marked decrease in his request for "Mommy, you're sick and I'm the Doctor". This probably means that he has sorted out some of his feelings about these experiences and is emotionally ready to move on. The healing power of play at work! :)

Stay tuned. Some more doctor-related fun coming up.