Colour swatch ombre wrapping

 Colour swatches are AMAZING in so many ways! Beautiful to the eye, useful for so many activities and did i mention FREE!!

We picked these ones up at our local Bunnings and used our butterfly hole punch to make a stack of tiny coloured butterflies. Tara sorted the colours as best she could from lightest to darkest and glued them to a brown paper package for her cousin.

The latest OMBRE trend can even become a part of learning! Tara also discovered the remains of the colour swatches made great butterfly stencils to keep for a rainy day!



Silky Smooth Dough

Sometimes plain playdough can get boring....mix it up a bit!!! This recipe is for silky smooth playdough

Mix 3/4 cup of conditioner to 1 and 1/2 cups of cornflour and mix with a spoon until blended. take into your hands and knead until smooth adding more conditioner or cornflour as needed-will depend on the room temperature.

The right consistency will be smooth yet break in half if pulled apart. Add food colouring last if required. Just a few drops in the center of dough and knead till evenly tinted.

Upcycle toy chest to dino world

Our toy chest was great for storing blankets when the kids were small but lets face it, all those stuffed toys are just dust collectors so we handed down our teds and i placed a custom sized peice of astroturf (fake grass) on the lid with Mason's dinsoaurs, trees and rocks on it. Inside the chest are other toys that are suited for play on top of the chest like Tara's my little pony collection, some horses and farm animals. These can be swapped by whoever is playing at the chest. I left a small chair next to the chest to make it easier to play although cushions would do nicely too!

Coloured cloud dough

                                                          Coloured Cloud Dough!

This dough is fluffy and light and lots of fun. I had made it with Tara a few years ago but this time we added colour!

Recipe is: 4 cups of flour

1/2 cup of baby oil

finely grated chalk pastels

We used a kitchen grater on the finer side to firstly shave our chalk into separate containers first. Then we made a big batch of the flour/oil mix and added the colours after just mixing with a spoon till combined.

Consistency should be crumbly but hold when compacted.

Please be aware baby oil is toxic if eaten so this activity must be supervised at all times.Sandpit moulds, bento moulds and ice cream scoops work well with this dough



Pink Strawberry Scented Rice Tub

We have used coloured rice for many activities during the years and i had some pink leftover in storage so with Valentines day this month we made a sensory play tub up with some hearts, pink silicone cupcake holders and some spoons and jugs to pour with.
The special thing about this coloured rice was that i added a few drops of strawberry essence to the coloured rice and let dry on a baking tray overnight.
It smelt wonderful! The smell of sweet strawberries wafted the room while Tara poured, filled,sprinkled and created

Even little Mason had a turn and enjoyed sprinkling the rice and making it fall. I would suggest doing this outdoors if your children are younger as the rice also makes lovely confetti! :)

Waterbeads in Water

Our beautiful waterbeads had shrunk into tiny beads and needed to be soaked again to restore that glossy bouncy waterbead goodness that know so may homeschoolers love but someone couldn't wait the 5 hours to let them expand and stuck his hand in early but what a great surprise!
Soaking waterbeads also have a therapeutic sense to them and feel very gentle on little hands. i urge anyone with waterbeads to let the kids play with them while they are soaking as its an amazing experience

Almond meal tub ideas

Our almond meal was reused in many other activities. Here Tara made her own desert habitat with seeds and Anamalz.
Not only are these sensory tubs/animal habitats fun to explore they also bring up so many opportunities for language skills. We may never have been to a real desert but we spoke about dunes, made our own in the almond meal and what animals may be there.
Mason also had a go at the desert tub. All the fun and not having to worry if he ate a fist full or two!

This tub was our beach scene. Some paper umbrellas,wooden people and some cool water-made with blue jelly. Talking about swimming in between the flags, keeping out of the sun, digging in the sand to find water, and sea creatures were all topics we spoke about while role playing in our beach!

Rainbow fruit snack

We were having some guests over for a play date so decided to make a healthy snack to enjoy. Tara cut up all the fruit herself, peeled some mandarins and added some mini marshmellow treats to make....
A stunning fruit rainbow! Great for St Patrick's day or a rainbow party. For a healthier option exchange the marshmellow "pot of gold" for dipping yogurt.

Juice Bar

The purpose of the exercise was to distinguish different flavours, expand vocab and create a juice that our would delight our taste buds!
I used our juicer to juice up different fruit and vegetables. Each small glass had a separate fruit or vegetable flavour that Tara had a guess at.
As a Montessori principle, when laying out work always encourage starting from left to right. This strategy can lay the pathways for early reading.

Tara tasted each flavour and told me if it was sweet or sour and what she thought it may be

We had Rockmelon, Kale, Pineapple and Carrot

Step 2 of the activity was to tip a little of the flavours in a larger cup and taste test until you get the exact quantities you like for your own juice but Tara insisted she loved them all and mixed them all in.

Juicilious!!!!

Perfume Water

I have fond memories of making perfume when i was a little girl so when Tara was choosing Roses to cut i jumped at the chance to show her how to make her own.
After cutting her roses off the bush, we sat down and pulled each petal off the stem and ripped them up to release all the sweet smells.
I filled a glass jar up half way with HOT water. Tara gently placed the all petals into the water and replaced the lid. We let the jar steam for half a day or until the water is cool.
Take off the lid and use a strainer to strain out the rose petals and you are left with sweet rose perfume water

Dab on your wrists and behind your ears to keep you smelling as sweet as a rose!

Glow bottle

Tara was kind enough to involve her little brother in her Halloween activities by making him his own glow bottle.
With an empty plastic drink bottle, she filled it with some of her glow water, not too full, so then it would make a lovely swishing sound when moved.
Then she searched for some things to put inside it....some green fruit netting off our apples, some coloured balls for rattling and some coloured match sticks

Now Mason can enjoy the fun of Halloween while exploring his own glow bottle

Halloween slime

Want to give your trick or treaters a healthy and fun alternative this year? why not make a batch of spooky Halloween slime and add some crazy critters. Arrange them in a small container and they are ready to hand out.
Our slime recipe is found at http://superpants.net/slime.html

Fruit Pulp Sensory

We make our fresh juice with our juicer from home so we are left with this soft, gooey, squishy pulp which i knew would be just perfect for a sensory tub seeing as Mason now 9 months seems to be mouthing everything, i knew it would be safe for him to join in too!
For around 2 months, each time i made juice i gathered the pulp and kept it in a snap lock bag in the freezer and just added to it each time until i had a container full
I added some scooping utensils, play people pegs and let the kids explore it. Please note, this is a non toxic sensory tub but beware of any little scratches or cuts on children's hands as the acid will sting

Tara made some pulp castles and added some sticks to decorate

Then we made some mud pulp pies

Lastly a little pulp chick! Cheap, easy and so much fun!

Ice Sensory Tub

We have been exploring many different sensory tubs this month and i guess its because both children can get involved and it interests them both even with the 3 year age gap!
I made up some star shaped ice cubes and also froze a few of Tara's toy ocean creatures in containers so they were frozen in.
We were a little impatient waiting for the ice to melt and reveal the hidden ocean creature so we found our own chisel and hammer and got to work digging up the fossil.

Finally we found it was a shark

Later in the day we took it outside and let it melt and spoke about ice burgs and did some role playing with the sea creatures and ships.

Magnetic sensory tub

I had been searching for magnetic wands forever, as i wanted to do a magnetic sensory tub but was sick of using the fishing magnetic rods so when i found CELFkids supplied them i was very excited and for only $4 a wand-Bargain!
http://www.celfkids.com/default.html
We used bird seed as our sensory material, its so relaxing digging your hands into seeds and although it does make a big mess its fine for young children as its harmless to eat.
I gathered a collection of items from around the house, some magnetic and some not then buried them all into the seed.

I wrote on two pieces of paper "magnetic" and "not magnetic" and the kids used their new magnetic wands to search for the buried treasure and categorise them.

Mason enjoying the soothing seeds. Both kids ended up in the tub feet and all and seeds were everywhere but it was a great activity-maybe outside next time!

Waterbead Sensory

If you have never experienced water beads, we can tell you they are AMAZING!
We bought ours at Parklea Markets and they are 100% non toxic which is very important when using with children as i hear some brands can be dangerous. Anyone searching for waterbeads, my supplier is happy to send worldwide just email him erkan_syd@hotmail.com and he will send you 3 packets for $12 or 6 packets for $20. Originally they are used as decoration to add to your vases so they are very squishy and they make great sensory additions to a tub.
To make water beads you simply add the beads to 2 ltrs of water and wait...
The beads absorb the water and grow bigger, this is after 4 hours

This is after 8 hours, ready to drain and explore!

They feel smooth and jelly like but will bounce as high as a bouncy ball so beware!

Tara did some transferring practice with her tongs

Her chopsticks proved a little more challenging

But the spoon was perfect! For the cost of waterbeads (we paid $4 a pack and they last for 4 years), They are a great addition to any learning area being non toxic and will grab any childs attention.We look forward to working with them later with more numeracy work.