Counting Flowers and Petals

When I'm dreaming up activities to do with the boys, I have a tendency to over-think things.  I was looking for some more counters to use with Wugs besides the stone counters he already has.  On our way to the condo playground this afternoon, we passed a Frangipani tree.  The flowers from the tree had recently fallen to the ground and Wugs was collecting them together in his hand and pointing out the different colours to me.  Then he laid them out on the bench by the slide and started to count the petals. I thought what a lovely way to teach children to count and to understand units (ie one flower equals 5 petals) .

Resurrection Garden Small World Play

Happy Easter everyone!  Easter is my favourite celebration of the year.  In the UK, Easter usually marks the end of the long, cold winter and the first daffodils start to bloom.  Moving to a climate that only has the wet and dry season, I don't experience Easter with the same sense of relief, but the Easter message of redemption is just the same.

Ideally I wanted to create a resurrection garden after seeing this inspirational post, but after a disastrous experience with plants last year, I thought I'd better stick to a small world play.

This was probably the hardest small world play I've done so far.  Should the angel be fancy or plain?  Should the angel have a face?  Should the cross feature at all seeing as we are celebrating the fact that he has risen? What colour should the cross be?  I didn't want to trivialise the Easter message and hopefully I haven't.

Wugs enjoyed it.  The tomb ended up being a home to all the animals and the tree was showered in rolled oats and the angel (that I had given so much thought to) was completely abandoned!

What we used:
Fake flowers
Stones
Brown and green playdough
Animal figurines
Craft sticks
Rolled Oats
Wooden Peg Doll
Feathers
Silver Acrylic paint
Silver glitter pen
Scoops

Valentine's Day Soup

The arrival of "Nanna" from England last May to look after Wugs while I gave birth to Dooey, involved another very special gift in the form of a water table.  Although Wugs doesn't enjoy all textures (jelly, finger paints etc) he loves water and it is something that Dooey (almost 9 months) can enjoy too.

As it is Valentine's day, I collected some small Valentine's-themed items that could go together to make a Valentine's Day soup. I added water and pink food colouring to the water table and let both children splash and mix together their little concoction until their hearts were content (being careful that the 9 month old didn't eat any of it)!

What we used:
Foam hearts
Heart confetti
Fabric petals
Pot pourri

Matching Tubs and Lids

I'm on a mission to declutter after reading a fantastic book called Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne.  I thought I'd cross an easy one off my list by making a start on the Tupperware cupboard.  Wugs has loved rooting through this cupboard ever since he learned to open cupboards.  In fact his daily routine of emptying out the Tupperware all over the kitchen floor became so tiring (for me) that I bought a child lock to prevent him from going in it every day.  The idea of sorting it out with him there seemed impossible.  To keep him entertained, I decided to make a tub and lid matching game.  I put to one side some of the Tupperware  we would definitely be keeping and separated the lids from the tubs.  Wugs soon got the idea and started to match them up while I sorted out the rest of the cupboard peacefully in the kitchen.

Pasta Sensory Play

I have been eager to try out some sensory activities on Dooey now that he has reached 8 months.  As he is still exploring everything with his mouth, some things are too dangerous for him unless they are safe to eat.  Unlike Wugs, Dooey doesn’t seem put off by certain textures so I wondered how he would respond to something like Tagiatelle or spaghetti.   I had some Tagliatelle in the cupboard that I had planned to use in meals, but it had somehow got pushed to the back of the cupboard and as I hadn’t used it in the last six months, I suppose I'm unlikely to do so in the next six months.  Rather than see it go to waste, I cooked it up and let it cool before letting the little one go wild. He played happily in that bath for an hour and a half and (surprisingly), even his elder brother joined in the fun.

What we used:

A baby bath (putting this in the actual bath with both children would have also worked well)

Tagliatelle pasta (perhaps add a little cooking oil to avoid clumping)

Chinese New Year Small World Play

One of the joys of belonging to a mixed race family is you get to celebrate everything!  Chinese New Year is a welcomed festivity in our home.  It's celebrated about a month after Christmas, during what I used to call "the depressing months of winter" when I lived in the UK.  At this time of year, the shopping malls are decked in reds, pinks and golds and little red "angpow" packets (of money) are distributed to the younger members of the family.

This year I wanted to introduce Wugs to the story behind the celebration.  It seems there are many variations of it, so I went with the one that I could get my hands on in picture-book format.  "The Great Race, The Story of the Chinese Zodiac", by Dawn Casey tells the story of the Jade Emperor using a race across a river to determine the order and names of the calendar months. The book (like all Barefoot Books) is well-written with beautiful vibrant illustrations.  After reading this book almost every night for the last two weeks, I created a Chinese New Year small world play.

Part of the small world play involved a number-matching game which I made using stickers with numbers 1-12 written on them and I placed them on the base of each animal according to the order in which they came in the race.  Then I created some foam circles and placed them on the opposite side of the river for Wugs to match the animals with.  (He could check underneath the animals if he couldn't remember from the story).

Outside the tub I added a treat which I placed in the red angpow packet.  The treat was 3 crispy almond wafers, called "Love Letters" which are rolled in the shape of a scroll.  They are delicious and very popular at this time of year.

What we used:
Green and brown playdough
Dyed blue rice
Wooden peg doll (for the Jade Emperor)
Green, red and black felt (for the Jade Emperor's clothing)
Black thread
Coloured felt-tip pens
White foam paper
Black marker pen
Small plastic animal figurines (Safari Ltd)
Plastic flowers
Angpow packet
"Love Letters"
Scoops

Counting Stones

I'm always amazed at how the simplest of things appeal to little children.  I was searching for counters for Wugs to use while learning his numbers and I found these in a home interiors store.  I would love to say we found them in the garden or in the grounds of our condo, washed them off and used them for this activity, but we don't have a garden and I'm pretty sure taking them from the condo gardens would be classed as theft, so I went ahead and bought them.  I added the numbers using a permanent black marker and left the rest to his imagination.  The stones have been laid in a line, bundled under the seat of a ride-on car and carted around in various bags (his latest obsession).

What we used:
Stones
Black permanent marker