Advent Calendar 2013

It was the eve of Advent - literally the evening of 30th November - and up until that point I hadn't felt particularly inspired to do anything special to celebrate the season.  I had pinned various ideas to my Pinterest board and I had purchased a few Christmas-themed craft supplies, but I was still waiting for inspiration (or motivation) to strike. Thankfully it struck that evening before advent and I wrote out these activity cards to put in the advent calendar for Wugs to pull out each day.

In order to build some flexibility into our days I didn't number the cards.  This meant I could swap the activities around if I needed to and use them for future advent calendars.

As Dooey was only 7 months old and therefore too young to enjoy most of these activities, I made some nativity craft stick puppets for him using a template from this site.

Coral Reef Small World Play

My little family has fallen sick today.  Dooey is congested and Wugs is out of sorts, so I thought we would take our small world play out on to the balcony and soak up some vitamin D.

I set up the coral reef scene by placing some small mats (a mini version of our bath mats) on the base of our plastic tub.  These have small suckers on the bottom and were a good alternative to glass nuggets which I can't find in Singapore.  I built the rest of the scene on top of the mats and placed a bowl of additional figurines and a bowl of pasta shells for Wugs to dunk in the water.

What we used:
Aqua-coloured plastic place mats
Shells and precious stones
Pasta shells (I used these simply because I didn't have many real shells, but it would have worked better with the real ones as the pasta shells made the water cloudy)
Coral reef/underwater-themed figurines
Stones
Scoops

Ocean Squishy Bag

We have been following an ocean theme at the moment with our coral reef small world play and bath play.  To extend the theme a little further and to take advantage of all that light pouring through our balcony doors, I wanted to see how Wugs would respond to an ocean squishy bag.

I emptied a tube of hair gel into a clear file pocket and added blue food colouring, squishing it about until the blue colouring had evenly dyed the hair gel. Then I added some coral reef/underwater figurines, sealed the top of the file and fixed it to the balcony doors with strong tape.  It looked like a mini aquarium on our balcony doors and Wugs enjoyed prodding and poking it and pointing out the fish.

What we used:
Coral reef and underwater figurines
Hair gel
Blue food colouring
Clear file pocket

(Note: I washed out the file pocket before I made my squishy bag to see if the file pocket leaked.  In retrospect, this was a bad idea as the pocket appeared to retain some of the water which broke up the hair gel at the top and corner of the file.  It probably would have been better to use a Ziploc bag inside a Ziploc bag (for double protection) rather than a clear file pocket).

DIY Light Box

For a while now I've been enviously reading posts about all the fun children are having with light boxes.  We managed to find one in Art Friend the other week, but it's not exactly toddler-proof, so I wanted to create one that was a little more robust and portable.

What we used:
Large plastic, shallow and transparent box with a lid that fastens down securely
Battery-operated white lights (Christmas tree lights would also work)
Tin foil
Grease-proof paper
Sellotape

It was only when I embarked upon this project that I realised just how difficult it is to get hold of a shallow, wide, transparent box with a lid that fastens down.  Thankfully the box came to me!  We were having a belated celebration for my husband's birthday and had ordered some catering and guess what the chicken rice came in?  I had my eye on that box all the way through dinner, making sure nobody took it home with the leftovers!

I made our light box by fixing two sheets of tin foil across the inside and up the sides with sellotape.  Then I added some battery-operated white lights which I fixed to the sides. I sellotaped a sheet of grease-proof paper across the inside of the lid which had the effect of spreading the light around without giving off a glare.  I sealed the box by fastening down the lid and we were ready to use it.

Garden Small World Play

Wugs is fascinated with flowers at the moment.  Thankfully we live in an area that is plentiful with them. Lining the path from our condo to the local supermarket is a hedge full of little orange and yellow flowers. Every time we come back from our walks, Wugs insists on picking an orange flower from the hedge and taking it back home with him.

I decided to have some fun and experiment with a small world  play based on his love of flowers and incorporating a couple of sensory materials.  I added a little edible treat to the small world play in the form of milo chocolate cereal balls which surprisingly took him a while to discover.  He played with this for a full hour and was so careful with the scene that when he finished, we were able to fasten down the lid and play with it the next day.

What we used:
Large shallow container
Green play dough (following this recipe)
Rolled oats
Artificial flowers
Small plastic flowers
Small plastic bird figurines
Toilet roll
Milo chocolate cereal
Scoops
Dishes

Expanding Vocabulary Using Old Greetings Cards

I'm in decluttering mode at the moment.  It's a therapeutic activity I turn to whenever I feel there is just too much stuff in the house and things are spinning out of control.  I found myself in the spare room this afternoon sorting through an old box of stationery that I brought across from England. I discovered some beautiful old greetings cards and art postcards there that I have held onto for years.  I didn't really want to throw them out, but I couldn't find a use for them as it's been a few years since I wrote a letter by hand.  Just then a little head popped up...Elijah gathered up the cards and started pointing out the different things he could see.  It occurred to me that this would be a wonderful way for him to expand his vocabulary and an interesting (and cheaper) alternative to using flash cards.

Play Dough Gift Tubs

It was Wugs' birthday party today and I was in a rush to complete my play dough gift tubs which I added to the party bags for the children to take away.  They were a fairly inexpensive gift to make.  I made a couple of batches of play dough using the recipe from this site and dyed it blue, green and red and filled the tubs to two-thirds.  The remaining play dough I dyed yellow (which came out a darker yellow than I anticipated).  I added some gold glitter to the yellow play dough and filled the tubs to the top separating it from the first batch of play dough with wax paper.  Finally I inserted a cookie cutter and they were ready to go.

What we used:
Playdough:
Flour
Salt
Vegetable oil
Cream of tartar
Food colouring
Glitter

Cookie cutter
Small tubs