Grape construction

We had tried marshmallow construction a few months back but after our fruit cake we had a few grapes left over that we thought we would see how constructing towers of toothpicks and grapes would work out! Tara really enjoyed it,Mason was a little to young to get the hang of it but it was yet another activity that provided language opportunities about shapes and height.

Mathematical bottletops

Our collection of bottle tops seem to grow at the same rate as used toilet rolls! Fast! To reduce,reuse,recycle...we decided to make a mathematical problem solving game. I marked out the bottle tops with numbers 1-12 as well as the + - and = signs. I made up an equation and Tara had to choose her bottle top answer. Then she made one for me and so forth. Its a great little activity that can grow with your child. leaving out a part of the middle of the equation or adding times by or percentages.

"Fruit" cake

Recently one of Tara's preschool friends had her last day at school so we decided to make her a little going away cake that was allergy friendly,yummy and healthy!

This tower of fruit is a watermelon, rockmelon and pineapple carved out of its skin and held together with one wooden skewer. I also used cookie cutters(and some play dough cutters!) to create shapes to "stick" to the tower.These stay in place well as the juices help it stick together. Tara practiced her sequencing by threading the grapes in order of red and green onto wooden skewers then Mason added a strawberry at the end. I then stuck these into the watermelon base. Lastly i cut up some leftover fruit and placed it around the base.

This idea is great for first birthday parties or those tricky parties with children allergic to wheat/dairy/egg etc.

Garden bed rock labels

We have been in the garden planting our spring vegetables. Most of them were from seed so to help us remember what we planted and where the children made these rock labels. We collected some smooth rocks that we found around the property then Mason painted the whole rock  in one colour.We dried them in the sun and then Tara used a permanent marker to draw the picture that corresponded to the word i wrote on the rock. She then painted her drawing in and we finished them with a spray of glitter spray to protect them from the elements.

Shaving cream x2

I have been revisiting my older posts to remember some of the activities Tara enjoyed at Mason's age and the shaving cream caught my eye. We "borrowed" some of daddy's shaving cream and added some blue and red food colouring to capture Mason's interest with the sensory component and Tara with the colour mixing component. This photo captures the essence of the play...Tara thrilled to be exploring and loving the wonder of it all while Mason very unsure and hesitant. It reminds me of how different each little being can be!

Lego maze

Lego is such a versatile activity. We have days where Tara will create houses and play with her "Lego Friends" for hours while Mason will find the closest Lego motorbike and zoom it around the house. There are many educational Lego ideas out there but after a trip to Rouse hill Regional Park and an afternoon spent exploring the maze they have there, i made up a Lego maze on the Lego table and Tara used her "Lego Friends" to work their way to the end.

Your maze can be made easier or harder by how narrow you make the path and use any Lego man, or as Mason did a motorbike to find your way through the maze!

Snail races

YaY! For Spring time. We are spending most of our weekends outside enjoying this amazing Sydney weather and while digging up our old veggie patch to make room for a bigger one plus a kids sensory and pizza garden,and a free form sandpit and a rock garden and oh the list goes on with ideas for outdoor play!-anyway, Tara came across the first snails we have seen here. Thank goodness we don't see many because my strawberries are just starting to bloom and i know they have a sweet tooth like me!

So both the children enjoyed watching, touching and eventually playing with the new friends we found. I have great memories of snail races from my childhood and so when Tara got out her chalk and made her own snail race track it bought a smile to my face!