Newspaper Cubby

We love cubby houses but sometimes i just need my dining room table for dinner not for bedsheets!
This cubby can be left up to play with for as long as they need!
We saved newspapers for weeks for this!
Lay out your newspaper stack, gather 10 sheets and from one corner use a pencil to help you tightly roll them into tubes using sticky tape to hold. Repeat this 25 times. Use 3 tubes to make a triangle by stapling corners, make 5 triangles all up then make a star with the remanding 5 tubes.
While all this needs to be done by an adult there are plenty of jobs a little helper can do. Ask your child how you would make a triangle with 3 tubes and ask them to count out making sure you have 25 tubes

You may need help joining them all together but in the end it will look like this.. we used masking tape over the staples to give it more stability

Throw a bed sheet over the top and enjoy your cubby however you like

Tara had a lovely afternoon tea party with her friends

Gobbi Mobile

We don't have much free space in our house but i find it important to use what we have to benefit my children and this area was set aside for Mason in his newborn years to enrich his sensitive learning period of movement and language. I started with a mattress, soft but firm enough to support covered by a clean fitted sheet. A mirror that he can use to see his reflection during tummy time. Eeboo alphabet cards,some black/white books and a basket of sensory items that include silk,metal,wood,wool,plastic,bells,pine cone,feather and a ball. The highlight of this infant environment is the Gobbi Mobile.
While the Gobbi Mobile isn't actually a mobile it does however serve to engage a baby's vision as a mobile does.
Made of polystyrene balls wrapt in gradations of colour it invites an awareness of subtlety.Each sphere is lightweight enough to offer feedback to even the lightest touch or swing of an infants arms or legs while also the right diameter to fit in the palm of a baby's developing grasp

Our Gobbi mobile was handmade with love from the wonderful April from Nashville, U.S.A-check out her store for more Montessori materials
http://www.etsy.com/shop/goosedesigns

From which ever angle Mason loves his Gobbi!

Check out youtube to see a Gobbi in action!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgffB-st6Jg&NR=1

Toothbrush painting

After a visit to the dentist we swapped our toothbrushes for new ones and decided to use our old toothbrushes for some fun flicking painting.
Using different colours, Tara dabbed the toothbrush into the paint and the used her finger to flick the paint onto the paper. She told me it looked like the night sky-i agree!

Making Crayons

To make your own crayon designs you start by taking all the paper or labels off your crayons which took very fine motor skills and concentration to do-fabulous activity for busy toddlers!
Cut crayons into "pea" sized bits and place in your favourite moulds. Cheaper crayons work well for this don't waste your washable type crayolas as they seem to leave a oily film layer on top.

Fill them up to 3/4 way to the top and place in oven on 75 degrees Celsius for approx 15 mins or until melted

After they are melted leave them on the bench to cool then put them in the freezer for a few hours. Pop them out of the moulds and you have your own unique crayons, great size for toddlers and fabulous party favours!

Size sequencing fishing

Did you know pipe cleaners are magnetic? We made this fishing game of all different sized fish that were made by twisting pipe cleaners into a fish shape. Using a magnet rod from a puzzle we had, Tara caught a fish...
Then arranged the fish she caught in order of smallest to biggest

Moon Sand

We spent a fortune on "moon dough" at Christmas for Tara and was pretty disappointed so when i saw a recipe of moon SAND i thought maybe this will work better so we gave it a go!
Moon sand recipe is
6 cups of sand mixed with 3 cups of cornflour then add 1 and 1/2 cups of water slowly until you get a consistency that is manageable. We added blue colouring to the water as well.
Moon sand is basically soft like sand but wet enough to mould and stay. Great for mud pies and sandcastles!

If it dries out over a few days just top up with water to get it smooth again

Colour-Tak modeling

Blu-Tack have a great pack that has different colours in it. This was to be used for sticking up art on the wall until i noticed it says its recommended for use as modeling so we gave it a go!
I set up the "colour-tak" and some gems/pom poms/beads and faces and we got to work using our imaginations Tara made a sparkly snake and i made a caterpillar and butterfly. Best thing was i took the beads and sparkles out and it is ready to use when i need to stick up some artwork.

Straw-water transferring

Water transferring is always a welcomed activity in our house. This time i set up two glasses. One full of coloured water and a drinking draw cut to about 10cm long. I showed Tara how i put the straw into the liquid then placed my finger on the hole at the top, transferred it into the empty glass and let my finger off the hole to release the liquid without spilling a drop. This required concentration and effort to finish the whole activity but it was so interesting she wanted more!

Slow cooked Playdough

This day was a lovely sunny day so we were busy outside but i really wanted to make a batch of play dough to keep for a play date coming up. I figured we would try and cook in the slow cooker so i wouldn't have to watch over it constantly. We used this recipe
2.5 cups of water
1 1/4 cups of salt
1 1/2 tbl cream of tartar
5 tbl of vegetable oil
2.5 cups of flour

I took the insert out of the slow cooker and let Tara do the mixing which in the end looked like this...

Put the lid on a cooked on low for 2 hours stirring once half way through and we got this fluffy consistency. You will know its cooked when it springs back when you touch it.

Divided it up and added our favourite food colourings to them and we were ready to play!

We have started using "play dough mats" which are fantastic. Print them off then put them into a plastic sleeve and you have a rainy day activity to add to your play dough.There are plenty of free ones to download on google. This set got us to make

1 sausage in a pan

2 ice creams on a cone

3 spots on a ladybug

4 petals on a flower

5 balls juggling by a clown

6 apples on the tree

7 fish under the sea

8 legs on an octopus

9 frogs in the pond

10 candles on the cake

Photo stick puzzle

This puzzle is made up on tongue decompresses found at your chemist though for older children paddle pop sticks would also work. I marked out the thickness of the sticks on the back of a favourite photo of Tara's she picked out then cut them out and glued them onto the sticks. Few minutes later i mixed them up and gave them to her to figure out. It really got her brain ticking! She got a bit confused so i encouraged her to name her features from her forehead down to her chin and she mastered it!