At home with Ali

Chicken World – an Easter craft

2012-03-01T13:37:00.000+11:00

I fell in love with little fuzzy Easter chickens when I was a kid and this love has NEVER died. I get more excited about tiny yellow chickens than I do about Easter chocolate which is saying a lot because I looooove chocolate.

As soon as they appeared in the shops I pounced on them and am now the proud owner of five boxes of chickens. I gave one box to the kids and we collectively ooohed and aaahed over their cuteness. Now what to do with them.....

A piece of cardboard that came off the corner of a new mattress was floating around – perfect to make a little world (cutting down a box to leave 2 sides and reinforcing with sticky tape would also do the trick). After raiding the bits and pieces cupboard we came away with some small boxes that Cakey wanted to stick to the back wall of Chicken World. Pva glue was going to take too long to dry so I used my hot glue gun.

Sleeping chickens with enormous styrofoam eggs!!

Once the boxes were firmly stuck to the wall Cakey filled the top two with little strips of tissue paper to make comfy nests. She wanted to use the transparent cotton buds container as a chicken playroom so we found some pom poms and turned it into a ball pit. We both thought the chickens looked very happy in their new nests and playroom.

Chickens enjoying the ball pit

Next the pva glue and sticky tape made an appearance accompanied by my lid collection. (I keep a bowl in the kitchen to throw any plastic lids into, it is amazingly handy for craft projects. The bowl of lids also keeps Boo occupied when I am trying to get dinner on the table).

The playground for the chickens featuring many round-a-bouts

Cakey created a fantastic playground for the chickens – lots of round-a-bouts and climbing equipment. She had a lovely time stacking the lids and filling them with pom poms wrapped in sticky tape. My intention was for the chickens to roam free in Chicken World so that they could be used in imaginary play but Cakey insisted that they be glued down.

Chicken World is now sitting high on a shelf. It comes down from time to time for Cakey to play with. Boo is not allowed anywhere near Chicken World – she tries to rip all the lids out and eats the styrofoam eggs.

I have more plans for our fuzzy chicken friends so stay tuned.... I can't wait for you to see our rainbow chicken houses.

Linked to It's Playtime

Accessorising a doll's house

2012-02-28T07:57:00.000+11:00

Thanks to their grandparents Cakey and Boo were the very lucky recipients of a doll's house at Christmas. This house also came with a stash of lovely pink and white furniture. I decided that I wanted to make some accessories to go with it.

Spaghetti and meatballs and sausages (looking a tad like poo) with a carrot and spinach

The first thing I tackled was some plates of food. When the kids were asleep I cut out two pieces of white card to act as plates. I then moulded my fake food from little pieces of tissue paper and glued them into place with a generous amount of pva glue. To be brutally honest, the spinach was supposed to be peas but as I stuck each 'pea' down the tissue paper unfolded itself so it ended up looking like a pile of wilted spinach. To make the spaghetti I use little pieces of wool and added meatballs made from tissue paper on top.

Once the glue was dry, I painted my little dinners to resemble actual food – spaghetti and meatballs with a tomato sauce; and sausages with a carrot and spinach.

When Cakey discovered them in the doll's house she was very excited. She wanted to make some too. I set her up with some wool, tissue paper and a couple of milk bottle lids and she made some little dinners.

Cakey's bowls of food

The next step was to create some wall hangings for the doll's house. I cut out a couple of small pieces of heavy construction paper – and Cakey painted her contemporary artworks on them. Once dry, I mounted them onto cardboard and glued on little gold cords ready for hanging.

Our little paintings

Last but not least, Chris got out the sewing machine and made a little bed covering out of an old tea towel. Now the dolls can stay nice and warm.

Warm and cosy dolls

I have a few more plans such as towels for the bathroom, some floor mats and bean bags. If you have a doll's house that needs accessorizing or want to make your own doll's house have a look at Red Ted Art's blog – there is a great post about how to make a bathroom and a very cosy bed. I also love the retro decoration of the doll's house by silly eagle books.

Linked to Kids Get Crafty

Paper rainbows and a unicorn

2012-02-23T06:38:00.002+11:00

Cakey really, really, really loves rainbows. One morning she wanted to make a rainbow... sadly I couldn't remember how many colours are in a rainbow, what they are or what order they go in. Jeez, that is not a good start. We looked them up –
red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, 7 colours in total.

Cakey drew a rainbow as I listed each colour. Cakey wanted to draw a unicorn at the end of her rainbow. She started drawing one in green and then got angry as she had wanted to draw it in pink. I encouraged her to draw another unicorn in pink and we cut it out and stuck it over the original.

I thought that would be the end of rainbow time but NO. The drawing did not take her mind off her original intention – to make a rainbow. So I cut out six strips of coloured paper (indigo and violet just became purple) and gave her six corresponding coloured paddle pop sticks. She busily sticky taped the paper to the sticks and then stuck them into plasticine to stand up. That was the easy part.

Next was the hard part – We grabbed her toy unicorn and Cakey tried to sticky tape the ends of the paper to the unicorn. The unicorn fell over, the paper got squashed, the sticky tape came off and tears started to fall.

To rectify our pending rainbow disaster I stabilized the unicorn in some plasticine and helped to sticky tape the paper to him. When we had finished, the paper did stand up in an arch... but it didn't stay that way!! Cakey could help touching it and the paper started to flop down, but it looked fabulous anyway. As a final touch Cakey placed a little figurine underneath the rainbow.

Cakey now wants a rainbow themed 4th birthday party – so look out for more rainbows coming your way. Critters and Crayons has recently written a great rainbow post with the most amazing rainbow cupcakes. Also, check out the amazing rainbow painting with a sponge from Hands on : as we grow.

Linked to It's Playtime, Kitchen Fun and Crafty Friday and Red Ted Art

Making our Own Weir

2012-02-21T07:13:00.000+11:00

Lately I have been inspired by the blog Science Sparks which is all about doing simple scientific experiments with young kids. As a result, I have been on the look out to add a bit of science into our activities... and the perfect opportunity arose.

The real weir

We were at a park the other day after some heavy rain. This particular park has a series of drainage weirs leading into wetlands. The top weir was draining into a lower pond – causing a waterfall. Cakey was very interested in this and wanted to know why and how. Her questions got me thinking about how I could demonstrate it to her rather than trying to explain.

Setting up our weir

When we got home we got to work making our own weir. I cut out a small section in the side of an ice cream container to mimic the real weir and then placed it into a big tub. We then weighted the ice cream container down with rocks. Cakey added a small amount of water to the bottom of the tub and I mixed in a few drops of blue food colouring. I then added a few drops of yellow food colouring to the ice cream container.

Adding water with a jug

We were all ready! Cakey began to pour water into the ice cream container. As the level reached the cut-out section the water started to cascade over, making a little waterfall. The yellow water from the container mixed with the blue water in the tub and turned green.

This experiment worked really well. Cakey was excited because she was creating her own waterfall and Boo was excited because there was coloured water to play with.

Adding water with the hose

We repeated this experiment over and over, using a variety of different food colouring to watch the mixing effects as the weir overflowed with a cascade of water.

Linked to The Kids Co-op, Fun Sparks, It's Playtime and Learning Laboratory

Cute little bird nests

2012-02-16T20:42:00.001+11:00

I won't lie to you: this craft was a bit hit and miss. Cakey's aunt gave us some little foam birds as part of an arts and crafts kit. I knew Cakey would be capitvated by them so I put them away for a special project.

On a day trip to the country I noticed a huge ash tree was shedding loads of little twigs.... perfect to make bird nests. This was the HIT bit – Cakey loves collecting and was very excited to pile twigs into a bag to take home for the nests. We also went on a feather hunt which was great fun.

Cakey's nest without the twigs

The next day we attempted to make our nests – this was the MISS bit. How do you get a bunch of twigs to form a nest? Do birds have access to pva glue? Cakey was not in the mood for me to do any research so we had to trudge ahead. I grabbed some round takeaway containers to use as moulds. Cakey saw the containers and forgot all about the twigs and instantly glued in three birds on a big stick.

No amount of encouragement would get her to add twigs so I sat down and made a nest myself. A little bit of pva glue in the bottom of the container, some twigs, a bit more glue, more twigs and so on. I pressed it all down and glued in a cute birdie.

Building the nests

Once Cakey caught sight of my superb nest she got on board... although I think her favourite part was squeezing out the pva glue. After a few days I tried to get the nests out of their plastic container moulds but they were firmly glued in place. Oh well... you win some, you lose some.

Our birdies in the garden

I hid the nests in the garden for Cakey and Boo to find. Eventually the birds were pulled from their nests and they are still happily involved in all sorts of outdoor play.

Linked to The Kids Co-op, Fun Stuff Fridays, It's Playtime and Family Frolics

Making a picture puzzle as a gift

2012-02-13T21:59:00.000+11:00

Cakey wanted to make a puzzle for her Grandma J's birthday. We decided the best way to do this was to paint a picture and then cut it up. I was not in the mood for dealing with the mess of acrylic paints so I got out our little watercolour paints instead.

I found a beautiful piece of A4 watercolour paper that I taped to the table. I wanted to avoid too much paper warping as Cakey uses a large amount of water. For some reason I forgot to put a messy mat underneath before I taped it... sigh! I also gave Cakey some watercolour crayons to try out (which failed to impress her), a paintbrush and a tub of water.

Cakey painted a lovely picture and particularly enjoyed tapping the brush to make 'little coloured raindrops'. This went so well she wanted to make another – this time I taped down a thick piece of pink construction paper which worked just as well.

Once Cakey's paintings were dry I unpeeled the tape and photographed them. Then we cut them up. I cut one painting up into nice regular squares. Cakey cut the other into irregular wonky shapes. I had to put a halt to her cutting as the pieces were getting smaller and smaller and any chance that Grandma J was going to be able to put it back together were getting slimmer and slimmer.

I did a test – I put them back together when Cakey was asleep. Her irregular shaped one was far easier than my regular one. Ha – the 3 year old does know best!

We packed the picture puzzles into a pink box and I stuck the photos of the complete pictures on top.... and then we posted it to Grandma J.

Linked to Kitchen Fun and Crafty Fridays, It's Playtime, Red Ted Art and Link and Learn

Heart Map on Toddler Approved

2012-02-08T09:09:00.000+11:00

Today I am guest posting over on Toddler Approved as part of the 100 Acts of Kindness Project. Cakey did a very special project – a heart map for her beloved puppy. I would love it if you had a moment to take a look.

The 100 Acts of Kindness Project is still going strong. We have been going well, lots of hearts have been given out for some lovely acts of kindness - Cakey has been helping Boo a lot and I have received many lovely drawings. I will pop a photo of our heart poster on facebook in the next day or two.

Photography for kids

2012-02-07T20:38:00.000+11:00

For the last six months or so I have been letting Cakey use my little, very old digital camera. It is not the one I use on a daily basis but hangs around to be used when I let the battery run down on my other camera. I guess what I am saying is – I let her use it, knowing there is a possibility it will get broken. If that happens we are down to one camera and we will live with it. No doubt one hour after this gets posted the camera will get smashed and I will feel like a total doofus.

When she uses the camera she has the wrist strap ON AT ALL TIMES... she doesn't fight me about this, she knows using the camera is a privilege.

So far she has had six sessions of photo taking and produced more than 400 photos. I have followed her around as she photographed all the rooms in our house and the garden. I have also given her the camera during quiet time (to try to keep her quiet) and let her photograph all her toys on her bed.

When she first started, her fingers were planted permanently over the lens. She was mystified as to why all her photos then contained finger-shaped lumps. Now she is getting better at keeping her fingers to one side. A lot of her photos are of the ground and things on the ground. Her focus is always hit and miss – some are crystal clear, others are very blurry. In fact, she has taken a number of photos where she must have been moving – they have this fabulous swooshing effect. I have included a sample of her photos in this post. I love them.

Fingers over the lense

Slightly spooky photos of dolls taken during quiet time

The garden series

A study of feet

In the aquarium

Cool blurry effects

Her feet and our pantry

Linked to Friday's Nature Table, Family Frolics, It's Playtime and Red Ted Art

Making the planets

2012-02-03T12:41:00.000+11:00

Cakey and I have been reading Martian Rock by Carol Diggory Shields. In this book a group of martians visit the planets looking for life in the solar system. It is a cute book that started a conversation.

We thought it would be fun to make some planets. I took the easy way out and bought styrofoam balls. For a split second I considered paper mache but decided that I would end up doing all the work – to ask Cakey to paper mache nine planets would be pushing it! By the way, I am including Pluto here as the ninth planet even though it has been re-classified as a planetoid.

I stuck the stryofoam balls onto wooden skewers and propped them up in playdough so that Cakey could paint all around them. I did guide Cakey towards particular colours and sizes for each planet – some she was happy to go along with and others she did what she wanted. I wouldn't call this scientific but it was fun. We based our information on some images found on the website Views of the Solar System.

from Views of the Solar System

This is what we ended up with:

Mercury, small and brown
Venus, small and pink
Earth, small and blue and green
Mars, small and red with glitter
Jupiter, big and pink with red glitter stripes
Saturn, medium and orange with a red glitter stripe (Saturn is supposed to have rings but that was all too hard)
Uranus, medium and blue (also supposed to have rings)
Neptune, medium and blue
Pluto, medium and red with glitter (it would have been more accurate if it was small and grey but that was not enticing to Cakey)
Stars, we had a couple of stars that we painted too

After we had finished painting all the planets Chris pointed out that we had forgotten the sun. Sigh! We had no stryfoam balls left so out came the paper mache. After 5 minutes of gluing on yellow, orange and red paper Cakey left me to finish it!!

Our forgotten sun... kind of important for a solar system.

A couple of days later I attached cotton to our planets with a pin for the small ones and a screw for the larger ones and then we hung them up in Cakey's room.

Linked to Ik zie, ik zie, The Play Academy and Fun Stuff Fridays

The Heart Project Fundraiser

2012-02-01T22:09:00.000+11:00

The Heart Project is here! If you don't know anything about it – the Heart Project, organised by Jamie from Hands on : as we grow, is a collaboration of 70+ bloggers to raise funds for the American Heart Association.

A wonderful book has been created that is filled with heart-inspired images. Each image relates to a craft, display or cooking project you can do with or for your kids. Cakey and I have proudly contributed two heart crafts. By making a US $5 donation to the American Heart Association you will receive the Heart Project ebook. The aim is to raise $1000 by Valentine's Day.

Here is a preview of this fantastic book:

Make a US$5 donation to the American Heart Association and receive the heart project ebook by clicking the button below.

Or you might like to purchase a soft-cover printed book for US$20. ($5 for every sale of the printed book goes to the American Heart Association)

US $20.00

Order the Printed Version

If you would like to make a donation to the American Heart Association (without purchasing a book) just click the button below.

Fundraiser Auctions:

All proceeds of each auction will go to the American Heart Association.

Melissa & Doug - 4 Trunki with Teddy Bear Auctions!

Fudoo Boards - 3 Fudoo Board Kits for Auction!

Fudoo Board Kit, ends Feb 10
Fudoo Board Kit, ends Feb 10
Fudoo Board Kit, ends Feb 10

Giveaways:
Giveaways are going to be happening every day from now until the 14th of February. There's more than one on some days, so be sure to check them all out! These giveaways are from the Heart Project Bloggers who are very generously donating their projects or something related to their heart project.

Thanks to the sponsors:
Craftprojectideas.com is contributing US $1 for every ebook sold this month! That means in addition to your US $5 donation by purchasing the The Heart eBook, Craftprojectideas.com will donate another US $1 on your behalf (up to US $500!)!

List of Participants:
hands on : as we grow / A Little Learning for Two / Among Many Blessings / Angelique Felix / At Home with Ali / Broken Treasures / Busy at Home / Busy Kids Happy Mom / Carrie Saindon’s Photo Journey / Child Central Station / Classified: Mom / Classroom Magic / Creative with Kids / Creativity My Passion / Critters and Crayons / De Tout et de Rien / Dilly-Dali Art / Dinosaurs & Octopuses / Excited 2 Learn / Hand Over the Cookies / Handprint & Footprint Art / Happy Hooligans / Heart Journey / Imagination Soup / Jamie’s Jumble / Kitchen Counter Chronicles / Kreative Resources / Let Kids Create / Little Illuminationss / Living Montessori Now / Loudness of the Lambs / Love and Lollipops / Mama, hocemo nesto da pravimo / Mama Pea Pod / Mama Smiles / MemeTales / Messy Kids / Mindful Meanderings / Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas / Mommy Labs / Mommy Perks / Mum Paints Lives / Mummy Mummy Mum / My Creative Family / NurtureStore / One Artsy Mama / Peace Love & Rainbows / Play Dr Mom / Putti Prapancha / Rainbows within Reach / Reading Confetti / Ready. Set. Read! / Red Ted Art / Sense of Wonder / Share & Remember / Stacy Molter / Sun Hats & Wellie Boots / Teach Preschool / The Artful Child / The Chocolate Muffin Tree / The Craft Barn / The Educators’ Spin on It / The Golden Gleam / The Imagination Tree / The Iowa Farmer’s Wife / The Joy of My Life / The Kids Fun Review / The Outlaw Mom Blog / The Preschool Toolbox / The Seeds Network / Toddler Approved

Garden hiding stones

2012-01-31T10:19:00.000+11:00

A while back I came across two lovely posts about making story stones from My Creative Family and Painting on the Ceiling. I really loved these posts and I wanted to make some story stones for my daughters too. I was planning on doing this when they were asleep but Cakey caught me looking at them on the computer. From over my shoulder I heard a little voice "can we make those?" I just got myself a partner!

We have lots of rounded river pebbles in our garden that were perfect, so we started straight away. My plan to draw/paint pictures that could be used to construct a story was shoved to one side as Cakey decided that she wanted to make them "pretty" to decorate the garden.

Much to my surprise she got very excited about the circular palette

Cakey got really excited about painting on the stones. I think she enjoyed the change from painting on paper. I set up a small, round palette (instead of the usual tubs) that she hadn't used before for this project. This small change also added to her excitement.

Our stones didn't turn into story stones – rather they are decorated stones, some of them have paintings of stars, moons and letters and others have patterns and blobs of colour. Cakey painted 23 stones, all in one sitting. We call them our hiding stones. We did this activity on a hot day so they dried quickly and we got to hide them in the garden and play hide and seek.

We used a number of different paints for this project. I have discovered that some of the really safe water-based paint designed specifically for young children washed off in the rain – I guess that is why it washes off clothes too! The stronger more opaque paints have lasted much better and those are the stones that we still hide in the garden to re-discover on another day.

Boo arranging our now faded stones months after they were painted

Linked to Made by Little Hands, Friday's Nature Table, It's Playtime and Red Ted Art

Art as therapy

2012-01-26T20:57:00.000+11:00

To start off I would like to point out that I am not a psychologist nor a teacher – I am a mum. BUT I have noticed something – art is good therapy. Around Christmas we had a lot of changes. Nothing bad, just lots of things going on where there was no normal routine for the kids. Cakey became cranky and uncooperative which isn't really like her. Suggestions were shot down, nothing was fun, there was lots of whinging and dragging of feet.

I set up some painting (which she loves) on a particularly cranky-pants morning. I stayed very quiet and doled out lots of paint and brushes. She painted with the brushes, then painted her hands, then her arms, then grabbed some nearby tissues and squelched them into the paper and canvas. At one point she put her whole hand into the tub of paint and scooped it out. She seemed to be enoying massaging the paint into the canvas. I stayed mute the whole time – I didn't want to risk aggravating the cranky unsettled 3 year old!

She painted like this for a long time. She only created two paintings on paper and one on canvas but there was a huge amount of paint on each (there was also a lot of paint on Cakey). None of these paintings were special to her and she paid no attention to them afterwards... but she was a lot more relaxed and a tad happier after the activity.

Watching her massage the paint into the paper and canvas made me think she was using the art process as therapy. What was odd was that she was so quiet – usually her art and craft is peppered with commentary but this was all sensation and feel. It was quite remarkable to watch.

Would you like some paper with your paint?

Linked to PreK+K Sharing, Link and Learn, The Magic Onions and The Sunday Showcase

Learning to sew with hearts and buttons

2012-01-24T12:55:00.001+11:00

Cakey has been interested in sewing for quite sometime. When she first asked to sew I was a bit stumped as I don't sew. Thankfully, I came across a sewing post from Childhood 101 that suggested using a stiff plastic mesh for young ones. I was lucky enough to come across just such a mesh as part of a cheap sewing kit in a $2 shop. The mesh came with a big plastic needle and coloured wool. I threaded the needle with wool for her and she was away. I was so surprised how quickly she picked it up and loved it.

Since our mesh experiment we have dabbled with a little bit of hand sewing here and there but generally sewing is not at the forefront of my mind. She mentioned it again recently so I made her up a sewing kit consisting of:

some spare buttons,
felt hearts,
a large needle, and
different coloured cotton doubled over so that the needle can't slip off.

I did give her a real needle, the benefits of using the real thing outweighed the potential for hurting herself... and you know what, no blood was shed in this project! When Cakey started on the first heart she found it frustrating. She wouldn't pull the cotton all the way through and would quickly get the excess cotton knotted and have to hand it over to me. By the third heart she had it figured out. I didn't worry about proper sewing technique which is why some of the edges are folded over. After she finished each heart (ie. ran out of cotton) I would tie it off for her.

Front and back

Our little felt hearts with buttons are part of the The Heart Project, a collaborative project involving more than 50 bloggers. The Heart Project is a fundraiser with all proceeds going to the American Heart Association. The Heart Project ebook will be available in February by making a $5 donation.

100 Acts of Kindness Project

2012-01-20T21:33:00.001+11:00

My family is participating in the 100 Acts of Kindness Project. I think this is a great idea, particularly so soon after the Christmas period. Christmas is a lovely time for my kids but I find that we are left with a bit of a Christmas hangover – too much stuff and attention in a very short space of time. The Kindness Project has been a great way to focus on other people.

To record our acts of kindness I created a poster on a large sheet of black construction paper. I left room to draw a banner and divided the rest of the space into 100 numbered squares. This poster is taped to the wall in our family room. I have cut up 100 hearts from old wrapping paper, discarded paintings by Cakey and anything with a nice pattern or image that I had lying around. When one of us performs an act of kindness they are awarded with a paper heart to stick onto the poster. I also record what that act was in an exercise book. Here's a sample:

Cakey helped her friend when she fell off her chair.
Daddy took the girls out so mummy could have a peaceful sleep-in.
Boo gave her friend a biscuit.
Mummy let someone go in front of her in the supermarket shopping queue.

As you can see these acts are quite small but they have been a fantastic way to start a conversation about kindness.

Crafting with two

2012-01-17T22:29:00.002+11:00

A little while back I wrote a post (Help! What can I do with the baby?) about what to do with the baby when Cakey is painting, gluing and drawing. I received some lovely comments and some great suggestions... so I thought I would write an update about my progress crafting with two.

Cakey is now 3 years and 10 months and Boo is 18 months old. A lot has changed over the last three months. Boo MUST BE INVOLVED in everything we do. If she is not included she makes her unhappiness heard across the neighbourhood.

Thankfully she has discovered that the highchair is a good place to be when Cakey is making something. She has a great vantage spot and can insist on having all the materials Cakey has too. Rainydaymum's suggestion to ditch the paper and let her paint straight onto the highchair table works a treat. I just hose the highchair down outside afterwards.

Alissa and Sassy suggested giving Boo a snack to keep her occupied during craft sessions. This works too – unfortunately it works best when the food is of the high-sugar delicious but not nutritious variety!!

Laura commented that she works on her own craft project so that her youngest can attack hers and stay away from her older kids' projects. I use this technique to great effect when we are playing with playdough and duplo.

Christie's tip of taping sticky contact to the table for her to stick and unstick things to was brilliant. The first time we tried this she was very puzzled why the table was so sticky.

Lulu suggested opening up the kitchen cupboards for her to pull out the pots and pans which gave me the idea to have special, craft-time only toys to distract her while Cakey and I make something. This technique did work but she has now reached the age where nothing will distract her from getting stuck into the art and craft.

It is getting easier to craft with two as they get older. Although frustrating at times, I am thankful that Boo likes art and craft. Interestingly, as Boo develops her own likes and dislikes, craft activities have become more of a two-way street. Cakey and I have been influenced by Boo's preferences. Boo loves playdough and her experiments with it has re-invigorated Cakey's interest in playdough too. Boo also loves to paint her hands and Cakey has followed suit. Such fun!!

To end this post I will just say I am looking forward to the end of the 'put everything in my mouth' phase. If it is paint Boo will eat it, if it is glue she will eat it, if it is playdough she will eat it, if it is healthy food she will look at it suspiciously and throw it on the floor.

Linked to Fun Stuff Fridays, Sharing Saturday, TGIF and Show and Tell

Making a puppy sculpture

2012-01-16T14:03:00.001+11:00

Cakey loves her toy puppy, it goes everywhere and is a constant source of anxiety for me... please, please let us NEVER lose puppy. Our entire house would fall apart and the world would end!!! Anyway the point I am trying to make is that Cakey loves anything and everything to do with puppies. So I found a photo of the Puppy sculpture by Jeff Koons that I saw when it was being exhibited in Sydney many years ago. The puppy is a huge sculpture of a west highland terrier made from living flowers on a steel structure. I am guessing there is some dirt in there too. It is beautiful.

Jeff Koons' sculpture Puppy

We decided to make our own puppy sculpture but on a much smaller scale. I vaguely thought about trying to create a wire mesh structure and filling it with soil and flowers but that thought got quickly relegated to the too hard basket. Instead we used playdough.

Using toy puppy as our model we constructed him together, I made one side and Cakey made the other. We found some buttons to use as eyes and a nose.

Measuring up an ear

When puppy was sculpted we popped him and two baby puppies into the oven to harden... but it didn't really work. You see we did this project before I knew anything about salt dough, which will harden in the oven. Normal playdough doesn't. The surface of our playdough puppy did dry out so I figured that would have to do.

Can you see the likeness?

We collected flowers from the garden to decorate our puppy sculpture with. We tried to sticky tape the flowers on but sticky tape doesn't stick to playdough. In the end we glued them on with pva. We learnt a lot from our failures.

Gluing on the flowers

Our flowery puppy sculpture sat on our outdoor table being admired by all, until the flowers died and we removed him to the bin. Toy puppy lives on strong!

For future I have found a recipe for salt dough – one cup water, 2 cups plain flour, 2 cups of salt. Check out the Nurturestore playdough ebook for more instructions and playdough recipes.

Linked to It's Playtime, Red Ted Art, Learning Laboratory and Link and Learn

Marine sensory play

2012-01-12T12:18:00.000+11:00

Had I heard the phrase 'sensory tub' before I started blogging I would have thought massage parlour... but now I know better. Blogging has taught me the value of sensory play and engaging all the senses of babies, toddlers and preschoolers (if you want to know more about sensory play have a look at A Handful of Fun: Why Sensory Play is Important to Preschoolers by Amanda Morgan www.notjustcute.com).

Recently I have come across two rice based sensory tubs that I think are fantastic. The first is a flowers and fairies sensory tub from The Imagination Tree and the second is a winter sensory bin by crayonfreckles. They were my inspiration to get out and make up my own rice based sensory tub for Boo and Cakey.

I bought a large packet of the cheapest rice I could find. I dyed half of the rice with blue food colouring and the other half with green. I simply poured a little of the food colouring in and mixed it through with a fork. Taking on board the advice given on The Imagination Tree I left the rice overnight to dry thoroughly.

The next day I poured the rice into a large tub and added a set of marine animals as well as sequins to make it glittery, pom poms and shells. For a bit of fun I also threw in a pig, a couple of dinosaurs and a butterfly just to see whether the kids would notice that they don't belong in the ocean... they didn't. Our marine sensory play tub kept the kids very busy. They both played with it in different ways. Boo loved to dip her hands and arms into it and transfer rice and toys from tub to bowl and back again. Cakey got out her trucks and treated the tub as a construction site. The third day in Cakey got a little over-enthused and tipped the whole thing up - unfortunately it was unsalvagable... I will have to make another one again soon.

If you are interested in some other ideas for sensory play have a look at these posts:
Everyday sensory play in preschool from Teach Preschool
Foam Plate Sensory Play from Creative with Kids

Linked to What's on the Tray Wednesday, Baby Play Friday, Sunday Showcase, It's Playtime and Red Ted Art

A miniature campsite

2012-01-10T07:09:00.000+11:00

I was recently given a box of kid's craft books. While flicking through one I came across a wonderful idea for a miniature campsite in The Sunny Day Book by Jane Bull (2004). I showed Cakey and we agreed that we had to make it NOW.

Little campsite in The Sunny Day Book

Our version

We had to improvise with what was on hand as there was no preparation time for this activity. We didn't have any sand so we took some mulch out of the garden and pressed it firmly onto a tray. Once the base was down we started gathering rocks, twigs and plant material. Playdough was our construction agent.

This was lovely activity because the whole family got involved. Boo plonked/arranged the rocks, Cakey made trees and the campfire with plants offcuts, twigs and playdough, Chris made the tent and I made the washing line and pond.

The girls loved the pond. I cut out little fish from an old sponge to add to the pond. Boo added rocks and Cakey added playdough to the pond to 'hold the fish down'. Anyway, a picture tells a thousand words...

Making the pond - we added fish cut from a sponge

Washing line - string tied to twigs with felt clothing pegged on

Tent made from twigs and a pretty piece of material

Howdy campers!!

Linked to Sharing Saturday, Friday's Nature Table, It's Playtime and Made by Little Hands

Guest post on hands on : as we grow

2012-01-07T14:18:00.000+11:00

Hi, it is a bit late in the day but naps didn't happen quite the way I wanted. I am guest posting over on hands on : as we grow today. My post is about learning to let go when it comes to messy play. Please have a look if you are interested.

I can't believe we made an oil rig

2012-01-04T21:33:00.000+11:00

An oil rig - whatever next?! It was completely unexpected and I'm still laughing that we pulled it off. Cakey the Queen of Questions spotted a tub of vaseline on the table during breakfast that I was using to sooth my sore nose from a nasty cold. "What's that?" she asked. From the deep depths of my memory I told her how vaseline was first produced as a by-product on oil rigs. The oil rig workers used the unrefined version to sooth cuts and burns. I suggested we check my story on the computer as I wasn't sure if I had made the whole thing up. It turns out that I was right... first time for everything! During the internet search we came across photos of oil rigs and Cakey wanted to make one.

We made a list of all the things to include on our oil rig – platform, legs for the platform, three boats, cottage for the workers, helipad and oil pump.

First we made the pump out of pipe-cleaners, paddle pop sticks and pva glue. The sticks kept falling off the pipe-cleaners so I anchored them down with bulldog clips while the glue was drying.

Paddle pop sticks held in place with clips while drying

Next we found a box to make the platform and I scrounged up four cardboard rolls for the legs. I cut some tabs into the rolls and taped them to the platform – not exactly sturdy but they did the job.

We ran around the house looking for little boats (and a toilet roll holder for the third boat) and anchored them on the side of the platform with string and tape. Luckily we had a little 'house' box that we used as our workers' cottage. My favourite part was wrapping two little people in shiny foil paper for little raincoats. Cakey added the helipad by taping a piece of cardboard to one side. Last but not least we secured our oil pump to the platform. And then we played with it.

Our little worker in her raincoat

Gardening with kids

2011-12-28T21:48:00.000+11:00

My kids and I spend a lot of time in our garden. It is a lovely place to be thanks to Chris who puts in the hard yards composting, mulching and more. Every few months we visit our local garden centre and buy a few pots of flowers – our favourites are pansies, violets, petunias, marigolds and snapdragons.

Both my girls love gardening but I actually adore working in the garden with my youngest (17 months). Boo loves to slowly dig her fingers into the dirt and splash in the water. When Cakey is involved she tends to take over with all her wonderful 3 year old enthusiasm.

Getting ready to garden – Boo is happy to use Cakey's socks as gardening gloves.

This particular planting project included all three of us. We have a special planter pot for our flowers – Cakey painted it in rainbow colours a while back. First up, we dig out the old plants that have passed their prime. Then we prepare the planter pot by adding in some new soil from our worm farm. The kids love watching the worms wriggling around in the soil. Next is Cakey's favourite bit – adding water and making 'dirt soup'.

Mixing in the new soil and making 'dirt soup'

Once all the water has soaked into the soil, we gently tap the new plants out of their containers and place them into their prepared holes in the planter pot. To finish off, we give them another drink of water mixed with worm tailings and put a little bit of mulch around the plants to keep the moisture in. The end result always looks good and the girls get a kick out of picking the flowers (which just makes them produce more and more flowers).

Giving our new flowers a drink of water and worm tailings

This time around I learnt something new. When we dug out the old plants there were little bugs crawling around – I have always called these bugs earwigs... but they are not earwigs. After our planting was complete, Cakey and I looked up earwigs on the computer and found photos of an entirely different bug. With a little bit of searching we discovered that the bugs in our planter pot are actually slaters. Silly me! According to our search, slaters aren't even insects, they are crustaceans and are related to crabs and lobsters – strange but true! We also found out that slaters feed on decaying vegetable matter and are good for the garden as they return nutrients to the soil.

A frightened slater and some wriggly worms

Shared on Outdoor Play, The Magic Onions, For the Kids Fridays and Red Ted Art

Santa sleigh imaginary play

2011-12-26T21:55:00.000+11:00

Christmas is over but Cakey won't stop talking about Santa. Santa has now made an appearance in her imaginary play and she wanted to turn a large box left over from Christmas into his sleigh. We painted the box pink, purple and yellow because she refuses to toe the line about the traditional red and green Christmas colours (check out When Christmas craft goes wrong).

Once dry, I found the largest toy animal in the house and tied a ribbon around him to make the reins. Cakey added the deer antler headband to turn our toy dog 'Dingo' into a reindeer. I cut two vertical slits in the cardboard box to hold the ribbon in place. Lots of fun was had riding around in the sleigh delivering presents. Cakey was a little disappointed that she had to make the sleigh move in her imagination only as I refused to pull them around the yard.

Linked to preschool corner, monday madness and the sunday showcase

Here's a robot we built together

2011-12-22T21:28:00.000+11:00

I have been dithering around the computer keyboard for the last couple of nights not really sure what to post. It has been a long year and I am tired, like a lot of people out there I'm sure. My procrastination paid off though, because I came across a half drafted post from October that was never published. Perfect for my tired mind, a few tweaks and here it is...

As part of lilla a's Build a Robot exhibition Cakey and I built a robot, who Cakey named Juper. To make Juper we first went on a trip to Reverse Garbage (only useful if you live in Sydney) and came back with some fabulous (and cheap) materials to build our robot... in particular some large rubber pipes (that made robot arms) and pieces of thick foam that were perfect for poking pipe-cleaners in to create our robot's electrical wires.

Using loads of pva glue we stuck on the foam, bottle tops for buttons and knobs, some aluminium foil balls for eyes (completely covered in sticky tape of course) and a homemade clock.

Adding on 'tummy' pipecleaners

Making our robot's head

and on goes the head

We did discover to our annoyance that the foam would not stick with pva glue, it kept falling off as soon as anyone slightly knocked it. So I pulled out my dusty hot glue gun which I had to buy at graphic design school to be used throughout my course, but not once in my working life.

My hot glue gun is great – it sticks just about anything. It is one dangerous little device though, as it gets seriously hot (I still have the scars to prove it). Cakey stood back (she was a little scared of the hot glue gun) while I finally got those foam pieces to stay where we wanted them to. By this point I was totally sick of this project but Cakey wanted to make more and more robots so she made 'baby robot' out of an old plant pot, pipe-cleaners and a permanent marker.

Making baby robot

And the next day Cakey painted Juper the 'mummy robot' in rainbow colours.

Painting Juper the mummy robot

The beautiful thing about a robot is that it can look like anything. This is not a project that anyone can replicate. We were lucky to have the supplies from Reverse Garbage but you could use anything really which the exhibition at lilla a proves – what a wonderful array of different robots.

Also, have a look at this fabulous post from NurtureStore about making a junk model robot.

Linked to play academy and the sunday showcase

Making a sparkly Christmas tree

2011-12-15T18:51:00.000+11:00

I specialise in taking up hobbies, buying all the equipment, doing it for a bit, losing interest and then storing it all away to collect dust. One of those hobbies was beading. Cakey wanted to make a sparkly Christmas tree for her room so I decided all the unused beads could be sacrificed.

I cut out the shape of a Christmas tree from thick cardboard (I used the back of an A3 pad) and placed it on a tray lined with baking paper. I gathered the beads into little containers and handed over the glue to Cakey. Cakey loved slathering the cardboard Christmas tree with glue and sprinkling/pouring the beads on.

Cardboard Christmas tree on a tray to contain the beads

On goes the glue

Sprinkling the beads

To cover up the lakes of pva glue I gave Cakey some small cups of pink and yellow food colouring and a dropper (my inspiration for this came from a lovely post on the fabulous blog Teach Preschool). It produced a great effect and Cakey loved watching the food colouring dye shift and change when it mixed with the glue.

Adding drops of food colouring

Food colouring mixing with the glue

When it was partly dry I peeled it off the baking paper and placed it on a clean sheet of paper. We actually did this activity on the day we left for our big trip so our tree is still sitting on the kitchen bench waiting for us to get home and pin up.

This was a fun activity, but I did have to wait until Boo was asleep - beads and babies don't mix. In hindsight, I would have made the cardboard christmas tree a bit smaller as we went through a huge amount of beads to cover it. But let's get real it's going to be a while before I ever find the time to sit down and bead again.

Coconut tea party

2011-12-10T18:29:00.000+11:00

I normally stick to art and craft posts on this blog because that is the stuff I like best. Imaginary play and I don't really get along. I do my bit and pretend to be a lion or whatever is demanded but I know I am lacking in the enthusiasm department. Since being away from home, Cakey and I have been doing a lot less craft than normal. Our craft supplies from home have all been used up and we are not set up for anything too messy. This has meant I have been forced to participate in loads of imaginary play. Our coconut tea party has been my favourite to date.

We are fortunate to have rented a holiday house with a coconut tree. This tree has heaps of coconuts on it and heaps on the ground too. The coconuts are just perfect for rolling into a circle and setting up a tea party for all of Cakey's animals. For Cakey, I think the best bit is when we cut up some oreos for all her animals to share... she always kindly helps them polish them off.

Christmas angel table lights

2011-12-08T05:20:00.000+11:00

Here is another activity we did to prepare for Christmas before we went away but be warned - this activity involves glitter. If you hate glitter and get sick of walking around all day with sparkly bits on your bottom then swap the glitter for paint or crayons.

Cakey wanted to make some Christmas angels and she specified that they should stand up. So I thought we could make some paper angels and then stick them to tall glasses. This also meant I could pop a candle in the glass and light up our angels.

To get started I drew a simple angel template (without wings) on the computer and printed them out. We then got busy decorating the angel outlines with Cakey's favorite thing - glitter. You can download the template here. If you can't be bothered making the wings separately I have also made an angel template with wings - download it here.

Once all the decorations were complete, we cut them out and glued on paddle pop sticks to make the wings. I cut out wing-like shapes from tissue paper and Cakey glued them on with vast quantities of pva glue. Due to the amount of glue used drying was a bit of an issue. I ended up delicately spreading them out on our clothes rack to stop them gluing themselves onto the table.

Cutting our angels out

Gluing on sticks to make the wings

Adding the tissue paper wings to the paddle pop stick

When our angels were dry we stuck them onto the highball glasses with sticky tape. I placed a lighted candle in each and we watched them glow. They are going to make excellent table decorations for Christmas.

Our set of angels ready for Christmas

Fun, simple and inaccurate snowflakes

2011-12-04T18:05:00.000+11:00

Hey this might sound stupid but I forgot how to make a paper snowflake. I know, I know, so easy right, well it took a little lesson on a kids television program (I have no idea what it was called, I have never seen it before) to remind me.

Cakey and I are watching a lot of television at the moment as we are stuck in the hotel (we are on hols) when Boo has her nap. It can be a bit boring so this little lesson was very timely. We made snowflake after snowflake after snowflake, so fun!

I made a diagram in case there is somebody else out there, who like me, has forgotten how to make a snowflake. Start with an A4 sheet of paper, fold to form a triangle (1) and cut off the excess so you have a square folded into a triangle (2) and then fold again (3). Now for the fun bit - cut any sort of shapes you want (4) and unfold to reveal your unique snowflake.

Once I got the hang of this, we tried making small snowflakes too. I did all the folding and Cakey cut out most of the shapes and patterns. Using her glue stick she then created snowflake pictures by laying snowflake upon snowflake.

These snowflakes would make great Christmas decorations particularly if you use silver or blue paper rather than the fluorescent paper that we had on hand.

NOTE: Ha ha I am having a good laugh at myself because my mother in law has just emailed to say that all snowflakes have six sides so I actually needed to fold my paper one more time. Whoops! Anyway as she rightly pointed out, little fingers would not be able to cut through the paper folded three times - it would be too thick.

When Christmas craft goes wrong

2011-11-30T09:25:00.001+11:00

My Christmas flag

I mention in my profile that some of the art and craft projects that I do with my eldest daughter don't go well and this is one of those. It bombed big time!!

Cakey and I had a wonderful time making pretty pink market stall flags a little while ago so I thought she would enjoy making some Christmas flag decorations... I was completely wrong. I spent a fair bit of money buying Christmas fabric, ribbon, gold braid and jingle bells. I then spent a couple of evenings cutting up the fabric and tying the jingle bells onto gold string. Cakey spent a total of 5 minutes making one Christmas flag. Arghhhhh

Cakey's Christmas flag

With a little hindsight I think this is what went wrong...

Much to my distress I think the biggest problem was that there was no pink and purple involved. Cakey is really rebelling against the traditional Christmas colours - she refuses to accept that Christmas colours are mainly red and green and tells me repeatedly that HER Christmas colours are pink and purple. This is annoying and I hope the pink and purple phase (at the exclusion of all other colours) ends soon.
I interrupted an episode of Diego to do this activity. What was I thinking?
When she was in the mood to do this activity I wasn't ready and when I was ready she wasn't in the mood.
I really wanted this activity to go well as I had spent time and money. I don't know why but these highly planned and prepared activities are often failures.
When she showed little interest in making the flags I pushed rather than just packing it away and trying again another day.

Oh well, I had fun making my Christmas flag and I think my little niece might like to make use of our Christmas flag supplies because her favourite colour is red.

Paper flower gift for grandma

2011-11-26T15:52:00.000+11:00

I am away from home at the moment struggling with a significantly reduced craft kit... I might post about this in a bit but for now here is a post about something we did before we left home...

Cakey has reached the age/stage/phase where she wants to make gifts. Before this, she was happy to receive gifts but did not want to part with anything she had made. I used to hassle her to make, or at least draw in, cards for family members but gave up after one too many disinterested scribbles were produced. If she doesn't want to, why force it? And now gift giving has evolved naturally.

It was her grandma's birthday recently and Cakey wanted to make some paper flowers for her. We didn't have a lot of time so we used the simple method of poking coloured paper patty pans onto wooden skewers. I have seen this done with straws which are safer for little fingers but I didn't have any. It turned out that Cakey really liked the sensation of poking the paper patty pan onto the skewer. She only pricked her finger once and then figured out how to avoid doing it again.

Go, that wooden skewer! And then into the playdough filled vase.

While she was making the flowers I found a plastic cup to use as a vase. I weighted it down with a couple of rocks and covered them with a blob of playdough. Cakey then pushed the skewers into the playdough. All of her pretty paper flowers were decorated with a glitter glue pen - don't you just love glitter glue pens?

Ahhh, glitter pens - glitter without the mess.

The funniest thing was while I was getting ready to go to grandma's, Cakey packed up her paper flowers by dismantling all of them and crushing them into her tiny bag. I tried not to show my disappointment as she was pleased with her packing effort. We re-created the paper flowers when we arrived at grandma's house. They were a little worse for wear but grandma loved them anyway.

Pretty paper flowers before they got dismantled.

For other paper flower ideas check out these fabulous posts by Hands on : as we grow and Paint on the Ceiling.

Travelling with kids

2011-11-18T11:57:00.000+11:00

We are off on our first big trip as a family very soon. I have never flown overseas with children before and I am nervous – 10 hours on a plane with a 3.5 year old (Cakey) and a 16 month old (Boo)... I pity the people doomed to sit near us.

I have been looking around the shops to buy some little toys for Boo that might keep her occupied but everything was either too expensive or too bulky. So I have made her a miniature posting toy because she loves putting things in containers and then taking them out again.

Miniature post box

To make this, I found some colourful postcards and glued them onto cardboard with pva. When they were dry I cut them into little squares. I then found a little box and cut a hole in the lid so she could post them. I let her test it out to see whether this was going to be a successful toy – it was a winner, she played with it for ages. Now I have it hidden in my suitcase hoping it hasn't lost it's novelty value. The beauty about this is that if pieces get lost under the airplane seats it doesn't matter.

I glued postcards onto cardboard and then cut them into squares

I let Boo have a test go to see whether she liked it – she did.

Cakey loves mail too – she is constantly asking if any of our letters are for her... "nope, just bills" always comes the reply. Anyway, I have put together a little mail kit for her too. This is very simple but I think (hope) she will enjoy it. I collected some interesting promotional postcards you find in cafes. I teamed each postcard with a small white card and a mini highlighter pen and sealed them all in an envelope. I plan to hand these out one at a time on the flight.

Cakey's mail kit

These two ideas are obviously not going to cut it for a 10 hour flight so I have also been stockpiling ideas thanks to some fantastic bloggers who have hit the sky and/or road with kids in tow and lived to tell the tale. So if like me, you are planning on getting away over the coming holidays I am sure you will find something your kids will love in one of these posts:

Toddler Approved has a whole bundle of ideas for flying – all gathered from experience!! I particularly like the letter hunt game using the inflight magazine and the barf bag puppets.
My creative family has outdone herself with ideas for mess-free travel activity bags designed to occupy kids while driving long distance with a child to adult ratio of 2:1.
Sun Hats and Wellie Boots has enough ideas to occupy kids for an entire camping trip. I love the individualized activ ity packs – each designed to make something different. Any kid would be enchanted.
Let Kids Create has ideas for a long car trip such as taking baking trays to use for magnet boards and creating backseat pipecleaner creations.
Hands on: as we grow has a neat 3 year old friendly version of I spy.
Kitchen counter chronicles making use of the humble clip board on long car journeys, and the art of the secret toy.
Dinosaurs and Octopuses shows you how to make a geoboard – they aren't going to let you take it on a plane but it would be great for a car journey or on a camping trip.

Linked to Made with Love

Peg babies put to bed

2011-11-13T21:35:00.000+11:00

We were really scratching our heads today for something to do. All the games I suggested got shot down in flames. Just before despair hit, Cakey found two dome-shaped lids that had come off takeaway milkshake cups. I was keeping them because I thought they would make good robot eyes. Instead we turned them into little cots – filling them with scraps of coloured material to make them comfy.

Cakey stuck little round faces on a couple of pegs and then wrapped them in material – making very cute peg babies. She gave one a crying face and one a smiling face.

Cakey put her little peg babies to bed covering each of them with a little blanket and that was that!

Linked to Thrifty Thursday

Unicorn garden

2011-11-10T15:02:00.000+11:00

Here's our second post in the 'Little Worlds' category – the unicorn garden. Cakey loves flowers, rainbows and unicorns and this project included them all – 3 year old heaven.

One morning we were unpacking the shopping and Cakey found some boxes that our cat food came in. She declared that we should make something with them – and that something should be a unicorn garden (influenced by another 'Dora the Explorer' book).

Luckily, I had recently read a beautiful post by Christie at Childhood 101 about her daughter creating a fairy scene using pebbles and flowers – just gorgeous, please have a look. Using Christie's post for inspiration I shuffled us both outside to collect pebbles and flowers for her unicorn garden scene.

First up, Cakey decorated the inside of both boxes by gluing down some brightly coloured paper and adding some paint. We slotted one box into the other to make a little garden scene. Cakey added some aluminium foil for a pond and some pebbles which were then painted. I helped her make little trees by gluing ivy leaves onto paddle pop sticks and standing them up with the help of playdough. Cakey always gets glue on her fingers so the leaves preferred to stick to her fingers rather than the sticks – maximum frustration for her. I keep a damp facecloth handy so she can wipe the glue off her fingers when this happens. Last but not least, Cakey arranged some fresh flowers in the garden.

our little ivy tree

The unicorn garden was missing something – the unicorn. Cakey drew a unicorn on purple paper and we propped it up in the garden... but apparently that wasn't good enough. Cakey wanted a toy unicorn to put in her garden. She caught me on the hop, we had created this garden for a unicorn but we didn't have a unicorn. So I agreed to go to the toy shop. Cakey found the only unicorn in the shop, I forked out the cash and she chuffed happliy out of the stop with her gleaming new unicorn..... now that is crafty!!

Oh no! She doesn't want to draw

2011-11-09T12:45:00.002+11:00

Cakey used to draw all the time but in the last few months she seems to have lost interest. She went through a similar phase when she was 2 (she is now 3.5). All of a sudden she went from happily drawing to just sitting at her drawing table asking me to draw a 'car', 'boat, 'cat' etc. When I asked her to try drawing a 'car' or any other object she would refuse to try.

We got over this hump when I stopped drawing actual objects and started to draw at her level which at that time was a lot of coloured patches, various scribbles, the occasional circle and lots of lines. It only took a short while before she couldn't resist joining in and she was away again in the drawing department. I am not a teacher so I have no idea whether this was a clever tactic or totally stupid.... but it seemed to work.

To get over our latest drawing roadblock I needed another sort of intervention – and it was handed to me on a plate! Cakey spends her life asking questions, one of these questions was about the dolphin logo on a plumber's van. The conversation went something like this:

C: Why is that dolphin there?
Me: It is a logo for a plumber.
C: What's a logo?
Me: A logo is a drawing that people use to identify their businesses.
C: Do I have a logo?
Me: No.
C: Why?
Me: Um well, you don't have a business to advertise.
C: I want a dolphin logo.
Me: Oh ok.
C: How do we make one?
Me: Well we have to draw lots of different dolphins and then you can pick your favourite one to be your logo.
C: Can we do that?
Me: Absolutely.

As soon as we got home, I found some small pieces of paper and we each drew some dolphins. We used one of her toy dolphins as a model. We talked about how to draw each part of the dolphin's body. Once we had a little pile of dolphin drawings, we laid them out and talked about which drawings we liked best and why. I, of course, picked one of Cakey's drawings and she picked one of mine. We then added some extra details to the dolphin logos. Cakey drew on mine and vice versa – we were a creative team re-working and improving our logos!

Our final re-worked logos

I don't know whether this activity sounds a bit odd but logos are everywhere and kids ask questions about everything so I figured I might as well explain what logos are. Even more importantly though, it got her drawing again.

If you want to know more about kid's drawing development have a look at this post Children's Drawing Stages – 6 Things to Look For on the Planning with kids blog.

No-sew market stall flags

2011-11-06T19:55:00.000+11:00

Our market stall

Cakey loves going to our local markets. And when we get home we always have to set up our own market stall and pretend to buy stuff. One weekend we decided to make some market stall flags to decorate our stall. This project could not have gone better. Cakey and I both made our own flags, she loved it and so did I. The end result actually looked good which surprised me as I try to be all about process not product.

There was a little bit of preparation – cutting up different scraps of material. I used the kid's old clothes that weren't in any state to hand down. I also cut out the flag bases (rectangles and triangles) from some lovely thick pink material.

Using generous amounts of pva glue and a paintbrush we stuck down all the different shaped and coloured scraps of material on our own flags. This project actually spread out over two days – rectangular flags on Saturday, triangular flags on Sunday. The result – beautiful flags without a stitch of sewing.

Once they were dried we hung the flags on the coffee table (with sticky tape of course) and played market stalls to our heart's content.

The following week I asked Cakey's dad to sew the flags onto ribbon to make them easier to hang. Now they get taken out and used for all sorts of games and imaginary play.

Ok maybe a little bit of sewing... but not by me!

Yes I am hanging my head sheepishly – Cakey's dad can sew and I can't. In fact he won't let me use his sewing machine as it quivers in fear when it sees me approaching. I would like to learn how to sew but if I do then I guess he will make me take up my own jeans!!

Note: As this was so fun I tried making some more with Cakey in a Christmas theme – it didn't go so well, you can read about it here.

My first printable

2011-11-05T20:39:00.000+11:00

I find colouring-in sheets useful waiting for a doctor's appointment, on long car journeys and on plane trips. We have a long plane trip looming so I have designed a colouring-in sheet for Cakey, which was loads of fun for me to do too. It is called 'flowers at the end of the rainbow' and if you like it you can download it here.

The inspiration came from a fabulous piece of 1970s curtain material that I picked up at a garage sale. I am planning on turning the material into a quilt – I just need to learn how to sew!!

The colouring-in sheet has been tested by Cakey and it got the thumbs up – I really hope that the kids in your life like it too.

Cakey's version

my coloured in version, yes I cheated and used a computer

Linked to Monday Madness
Linked to Just Something I Whipped Up

Help! What can I do with the baby?

2011-11-03T10:14:00.000+11:00

I was reading Alissa's blog Creative with kids the other day and came across her post 10 ways to guarantee you will hate doing kids crafts... and I laughed and laughed. I have made every single mistake on her list but I am a repeat offender on number 6 "don't plan anything for the baby". I am constantly under-prepared for Boo, always assuming she can just noodle around on the floor playing with her toys while Cakey is gluing, painting, drawing etc. Not surprisingly, Boo is not on board with this plan so I spend the whole time trying to stop Boo from grabbing the scissors, ripping apart whatever Cakey has created, eating glue or paint or playdough or paper or pipe-cleaners or googly eyes etc. End result: Cakey is unhappy, Boo is unhappy, I am unhappy.

So my strategy is to wait to do craft when Boo is asleep. This has the major disadvantage of sacrificing Cakey's rest time to do craft so I never get my peace and quiet either. End result: Cakey is very happy, Boo is asleep, I am very unhappy.

Alissa's post has spurred me on to get a better strategy, so first off, I have created a Boo craft kit with the following:

Scissors that she can't easily stab herself with
Old textas that have long dried up so she can pull the lids off and on
An empty glue stick with lid (she loves those lids)
Some chunky chalk to draw with on dark paper
I did have crayons in the kit but she kept eating them

Of course this kit only keeps her entertained for so long, so I have had to try some other things as well:

When we are painting, I have tried putting Boo in her highchair and giving her paint and paper. So far, this hasn't been hugely successful. She hates being confined and makes a massive mess in a very short amount of time.
Doing a few more crafts where Boo can get involved. We recently went back to the good old paddle pop sticks in playdough activity. Boo really liked this and didn't try to attack Cakey's creation. I added some poms poms into the mix and Cakey spent most of her time trying to make single sided tape into double sided tape donuts (just like her Grandma Jo showed her) so she was satisfied too.

So I have made some improvements but I am still struggling – any suggestions for doing craft with more than one kid, particularly if they are different ages, are very welcome.

Note: Boo is 15 months old – can I still call her a baby?

Linked to Monday Madness

Just in time for Halloween

2011-10-30T15:44:00.000+11:00

Down here in the southern hemisphere Halloween is a bit hit and miss. Some people get into it, others don't even realise it has come and gone. Each neighbourhood has it's own unspoken Halloween rules – where we live we have to hang something Halloweeny on our front fence to let kids know it is ok to trick or treat. My big plan was to hang some black and orange balloons but frankly after looking at so many fabulous Halloween craft ideas from the blogosphere balloons seem a tad lame. (If you are interested, here are the links to a couple of my favourite Halloween ideas – pumpkin drip paintings from the Imagination Tree, Incy Wincy spider from NurtureStore and screaming banana ghosts from Creative with kids).

Cakey and I decided to make some spiders to hang out the front of our house. Not having much energy this week thanks to the 15 month old who won't sleep I decided to keep it simple. We had some styrofoam balls on hand which Cakey turned into spiders by poking in pipecleaners for legs and gluing on some googly eyes....and that's pretty much it. At one stage I was trying to get Cakey to put in eight legs so her spiders were anatomically correct. I soon gave up – some have more than eight, some have less – she loves them all equally.

Linked to The Sunday Showcase
Linked to Living Life Intentionally

Is it an active volcano?

2011-10-27T13:07:00.002+11:00

They might look like fancy hats but they are actually submarine volcanoes

Cakey had her first sleepover when her lovely 5 year old friend came to stay. We decided to do a craft project that stretched over the two days. On the afternoon of arrival, the girls sat down at the coffee table with a big box of textas and an A1 size piece of blue card (210gsm) each. I asked them whether they would like to make submarine volcanoes. The answer was 'yes'. I suggested that first they should draw their underwater scenes – fish, plants, squid, sharks etc. (Note: the reason we made underwater volcanoes was because I only had blue card).

The following morning we turned their underwater pictures into submarine volcanoes.

I twisted each piece of card into a cone shape and used a stapler and some sticky tape to hold them in place. I then trimmed the bottom so that they would stand up unassisted. Next we did some research on the computer ie. looking up images of volcanoes. We discussed the difference between active, dormant and extinct volcanoes. Both girls decided that they wanted to make active volcanoes as they liked the pictures of volcanoes spewing lava. We ripped up some pink tissue paper and cut up some strips of red florist paper to make the lava. Using pva they glued the lava onto their volcanoes obscuring all their wonderful drawings.

Although the girls did enjoy this activity they only got super-excited when we were looking up volcanoes on the computer. Now every time we go past a small hill, Cakey will ask 'is that an extinct volcano mummy?'. The next time we do a volcano activity I think I might need to find out how we can make it actually erupt, which will be far more exciting.

UPDATE – Thanks to Julie who provided this information on how to make an erupting volcano: "Vinegar and bicarbonate of soda will create a good eruption, you can also add food colouring to it for a different effect. Put the bi carb in a film canister or something similar make the volcano around it to disguise and then add a little vinegar. Beware, it does make a mess!!"

Linked to The Play Academy
Linked to The Sunday Showcase
Linked to Red Ted's Art blog

The Turtle House

2011-10-23T20:15:00.001+11:00

I started a new category called Little Worlds because Cakey loves to create them. This turtle house is the first one to be posted. Cakey made this turtle house back in June and it was the project that motivated me to start this blog. Annoyingly I don't have a photo of the finished turtle house – there was a deleting before downloading incident... ahhh!

I loved this project because it perfectly captures what I try to do with Cakey in terms of creativity. I want her to take the lead. I don't want to dictate or feed her judgements about what is good, bad, pretty or ugly.

One day Cakey went to the zoo and came home with a toy turtle which began the fascination with all things turtle. We looked up turtles on the computer. She wanted me to print out the turtles. I couldn't keep up with her printing requests so I screen-grabbed the small pictures that came up in the internet search and printed them. This gave us lots of little turtle pictures and one happy 3 year old. I have used this method for printing pictures many times since.

Next Cakey told me which turtles she wanted cut out (I was on scissor duty) and she got stuck into gluing them down with pva. She alternated betwen gluing and running into the garden to find stones and flowers for the turtles. Cakey wanted some water for her thirsty turtles so I dug out some blue tissue paper. (Side note: I never throw out tissue paper, it is so useful – you can scrunch it up, stretch it out, it glues down fabulously and just feels nice.) In went the tissue paper and then she added a little bit of paint. The whole turtle house was then given a roof of pink tissue paper.

This project was directed by Cakey, my role was purely support only – supplying the materials to fulfill what she wanted to achieve. She was really proud of her turtle house and it stayed in her room, imprisioning all the turtles for weeks and weeks. And it gave me the idea to start this blog.

Linked to The Sunday Showcase
Linked to Red Ted Art's Blog
Linked to Living Life Intentionally
Linked to Sweet Little Gals

Mister Maker splat bugs take 2

2011-10-19T09:31:00.000+11:00

My Mister Maker splat bugs post is one of my most popular posts which surprises me as I don't really think it deserves to be. So... as I have always been meaning to make more splat bugs with Cakey I thought I would post a better, second version of this fun activity. This time we invited a friend – Miss Z.

With help from the lovely Suzie (Miss Z's mum) we made a short video of the girls making their splat bugs, please be kind – after all we are not filmmakers!

If you decide to try making these splat bugs please listen to this word of warning: do this activity outside, glitter goes everywhere.

Step 1 – Place a generous dollop of pva glue in the middle of a piece of baking paper. I used a ceramic plate underneath the baking paper. Mister Maker suggested an old baking tray but I find that the pva glue rusts the tray.

Step 2 – With a paintbrush, spread out your pva glue to make the arms and legs of your splat bug. Try and make the glue as even as possible – not too thick (because it will take forever to dry) and not too thin (as it will flake when you try to peel it off the baking paper). As a guide, aim for a thickness of approx 1mm. An even glue surface is generally impossible when the spreading is being done by a preschooler so you may want to consider making the splat bug on some thick paper or card and not bothering with peeling it off later.

step 2 – spread out the pva glue to make the arms and legs of your bug

Step 3 – Sprinkle glitter onto the glue. You can also add sequins, googly eyes and paper noses or tongues (or whatever you like) onto your splat bug to give him some personality.

step 3 – sprinkle glitter on and add decorations

Step 4 – Shake off the excess glitter, you can reuse this glitter on more splat bugs. Both Cakey and Miss Z liked pouring way too much glitter onto the glue, we had to help them gently shake the excess glitter off onto their plates. I then transferred this excess glitter into bowls for them to reuse on more splat bugs.

step 4 – gently shake off excess glitter and reuse for more splat bugs

Step 5 – Allow to dry overnight. Drying time will actually depend on how thick your glue is. Our very first splat bug took a few days to dry as we had the glue way too thick.

Step 6 – Once dry, peel the splat bug off the baking paper and stick it where you want it. You may want to skip this part and just leave the splat bugs on whatever surface you originally made them. Out of the six splat bugs Cakey made only two were able to be successfully peeled off. The others had middles of really thick glue and legs so thin that they started to fall apart when I tried to peel them off... so instead, I roughly cut around them and stuck them on the wall with sticky tape.

step 6 – stick your splat bugs on the window or where ever you want them

I hope these instructions make sense. If you try this I would love it if you would leave me a comment.

Linked to Red Ted's Art blog
Linked to It's Playtime

Paper penguin wall art

2011-10-13T20:46:00.000+11:00

Cakey loves penguins – hey what's not to love? We were halfway through her favourite penguin book ('365 Penguins' by Jean-Luc Fromental and Joelle Jolivet) when she decided she wanted to make some penguins. Before we started though we looked them up on the internet and talked about what penguins look like, what they eat and where they live.

After our penguin chat I pulled out some black, white and coloured paper. We both cut shapes out for the body (sort of oval), beak (sort of triangular), flippers (sort of long ellipse shapes) and feet (sort of triangular or square or whatever...we weren't too fussy). Using sticky tape Cakey stuck all the variously shaped body bits together and created a whole colony of penguins. I kept the book handy to remind us of all the 'bits' that make up a penguin. Once all the penguins were made, we stuck them together 'holding flippers' and taped them to the hall wall. Cakey then ran up and down the hall 'racing' the penguins.

our first colony of paper penguins

our paper penguins racing down the hall wall

This project was loads of fun and really easy too. It is fantastic for preschoolers learning about shapes and practicing using scissors. We actually made these penguins months ago (I just haven't got around to posting it until now) and they still have pride of place stuck up on Cakey's bedroom wall. But the most unexpected part was how much she recalls about penguins after 'making' them.

Linked to The Sunday Showcase
Linked to Made by Little Hands Mondays
Linked to Best of October

Chalk and water – a winning combo!

2011-10-10T21:21:00.000+11:00

Cakey's chalk duck

We bought a new batch of chalk the other day – the thick, chunky stuff in loads of colours. It really invigorated the whole chalk drawing on the pavement thing which had been waning. The whole family got down on the ground drawing all sorts of strange looking animals and squiggles. And then we added a bit of water... using a spray bottle and Boo's discarded water bottle. Cakey loved turning the colours darker and swirling her hands in the chalky water. It kept her entertained right up until bath-time. It was a perfect evening!

Spring meadow

2011-10-06T14:46:00.000+11:00

This activity is not particularly unique, different or inventive. But it was a lovely way to spend a beautiful spring morning with two energetic 3 year olds.

I had two large pieces of green paper perfect for making spring meadow pictures. I showed Cakey and Miss Z a picture of 'Herrick's blossoms' by one of my favourite artists, Charles Conder. I asked if they would like to make a spring meadow picture, both nodded enthusiastically. Then I asked, 'do you know what a meadow is?' They shook their heads vigorously. So I explained what a meadow is and then suggested that they might like to collect grass, leaves and flowers to glue onto their meadow pictures... which they did.

'Herrick's blossoms' by Charles Conder

While they were busy gluing (with pva) on their garden finds I set up some bright paint in takeaway containers. I also brought out some sponge shapes – both girls loved the sponges! Flowers and glue were instantly forgotten which I thought was a shame as I had imagined a beautiful mix of fresh flowers with painted ones but Cakey and Miss Z were much more interested in the paint and sponges.

Gluing was forgotten in the excitement for the sponges and paint

The following day I badgered Cakey to return to her spring meadow picture and add some more flowers from the garden. As I caught myself gluing on some flowers that I had picked, I repeated in my head 'process not product'. After all my aim is to let Cakey go with the flow and create what she wants, not what I think is nice or pretty. But sometimes, just sometimes, I can't help myself!!

Linked to All Year Round Blog Carnival: Spring and Red Ted Art's Blog

Simple colour mixing

2011-10-02T14:06:00.001+11:00

No matter what paint colours are laid out, Cakey turns them all brown. I keep saying 'don't mix all the paint colours together, you will get brown'. She always replies 'I like brown'. Well ok, but maybe we can mix some other colours...

I had some tubes of the primary colours – blue (specifically, cerulean blue), red (vermillion) and yellow (cadmium yellow). On three takeaway container lids I put splodges of:

blue/red (to make purple),
red/yellow (to make orange),
yellow/blue (to make green).

I added an extra takeaway lid and put a splodge of red and white so Cakey could mix pink.

we made a great green and orange...

Cakey got mixing and was very impressed at the wonderful orange, green and pink that she made. However, it bombed for purple. It seems that when you mix vermillion red and cerulean blue you get grey, much to Cakey's disappointment. (My artist mother has since told me that this happened because both cerulean blue and vermillion are on the 'yellow side'). Anyway, to the paint cupboard we went... we found a darker blue (more like ultramarine) and a brighter red (more like crimson) – these produced a beautiful purple and saved the day.

aha we finally mixed that purple

Cakey had a lovely time painting with her mixed colours. And in the end, they all got turned brown!

Turn a doll into a mermaid

2011-09-28T14:33:00.001+10:00

Cakey's favourite book at the moment is 'Dora saves Mermaid Kingdom' (sigh!). Because of this book Cakey wanted to make a mermaid. I decided the easiest way to do that was to turn one of her dolls into a mermaid. I am terrible at sewing, in fact sewing machines cry out in fear as they see me approaching.... my sewing skills are limited to pinning and tacking. Anything more complicated gets handed over to the collective grandmothers.

Anyway out came the sewing kit which is a completely disorganised fishing tackle box full of the things 3 year olds love – buttons, ribbon and a measuring tape. I found an old pair of Boo's baby leggings to use for the tail. We stuffed the doll's legs down one side and then pinned (with safety pins) the empty leg behind her. To stop the tail falling off, I tightly tied a scrap of rainbow material around the doll's waist. To make her tail fins I cut off the wings of an old fairy t-shirt and pinned them to the bottom of the tail with safety pins. Any colourful material cut in a triangular shape for the tail fins will do though.

step 1 – stuff legs down one side

step 2 – pin empty leg behind with safety pins

step 3 and 4 – add tight waistband and pin on the tail fins

Cakey wanted her new mermaid to have a crown, luckily for me this doll came with a headband we could use (try making one with some ribbon). We had some decorative plastic silver beading that Boo had recently ripped off another doll so we sewed it onto the headband to make it 'sparkly'. Cakey had a go at threading the needle in and out of the headband fabric and was very pleased that she didn't prick her finger with the needle. Last but not least, we used up the leftover sparkly silver bits and bobs to make bracelets – very simply sticky taped on (have I told you how much I love sticky tape!!).

step 5 – make a crown

step 6 – sticky tape on some jewelry

Now we have one mermaid that has a permanent place on Cakey's bed. Let's hope my dodgy sewing holds!

Linked to For the Kids Fridays

Bubble wrap crocodile

2011-09-23T13:28:00.001+10:00

In case you can't tell this pic shows two crocodiles in their watery croc home

I received an ebay package the other day which came with loads of bubble wrap. Do all kids love bubble wrap? Mine do. Once the bubbles had been popped we decided we should make something with it. Cakey suggested a crocodile. Armed with sticky tape we each made a crocodile, rolling various bits up to make the body, arms, legs and head. I cut two triangular tails, one for my croc and the other for Cakey.

Our crocs pre-paint

Cakey painted both the crocodiles. Bubble wrap is excellent to paint because it has such a great texture (watch out: the paint does flake off after a week or so and makes a mess). Next Cakey wanted to make them a nice watery home so she painted some bubble wrap blue and stuck them down in an opened box. We were both quite chuffed with how it turned out.

If your child hates crocodiles try making their favourite animal. Remember kids are really forgiving – it only has to vaguely resemble what you say it is. I like to choose two main features of an animal to focus on – for the crocodile it was the tail and head. I find that those two features are usually enough to satisfy a preschooler.

Mini mountain

2011-09-18T20:40:00.000+10:00

...weirder than a David Lynch film

I am a little bit embarrassed to post this project and I actually had no plan to post it until a friend of mine encouraged me to. This activity really showcases the importance of 'process not product'. The 'product' is a strange looking thing but the 'process' was loads of fun.

It all started when my partner was pruning our cypress tree and we all thought that the cut branches smelled like the mountains. Cakey then wanted to make a mountain. We had an old party hat lying around so out came the sticky tape and Cakey happily stuck the cypress leaves on it. Next came a conversation about what animals live in the mountains....goats, kangaroos, snakes....so the animal box was raided and on they were stuck. This activity kept Cakey busy for a good half hour and triggered a long conversation about mountains and how they are formed.

This activity also proves you don't have to be into crafts to do crafty things with your kids. Sometimes the simplest things work the best. And really you could create any type of mountain you wanted – a snowy mountain with packing peanuts, a magic mountain with party streamers, a mountain with hikers and flags and so on and so on.

The pirate ship challenge

2011-09-11T16:57:00.000+10:00

A friend of mine recently asked me if I had any ideas about how she and her son could make a pirate ship. Apparently there is a Mister Maker episode floating around where he builds a pirate ship, I haven't seen it but I am sure it is spectacular...anyway here is my much, much simpler version.

Cakey and I worked on this project together, I did the construction and she did the decoration. In an ideal world we would all have a large (free) appliance delivered to our house each week so that our kids can play in the huge box – the biggest box I had on hand was a nappy box. Using a kitchen knife (I can hear all those home chefs shuddering) I cut one of the long sides so that it opened up completely. I told Cakey this was the deck of the ship. While she was busy painting her pirate ship I made the steering wheel. I cut off the two short flaps of the nappy box and taped them into a cross shape, then I stabbed a hole through them in the middle. I threaded a pipecleaner through a big bead and then poked both ends of the pipecleaner through a hole in the last remaining flap on the box so both ends were sticking up. The wheel was then threaded onto both ends of the pipecleaner. Fold each end of the pipecleaner over in opposite directions and secure with sticky tape. This gives you a turning wheel.

Constructing the wheel

On the outside of the box we glued some blue paper to mimic water and I covered up the front with a piece of white paper so Cakey could draw a picture on it and cover it with stickers. As a final touch we found a stick in the garden and made a pirate flag which we secured in place with sticky tape. Both kids, as well as Cakey's friends really liked playing in the ship.

I was going to add a cardboard anchor and rope that they could throw overboard but before I had the chance I accidentally left it outside overnight and the neighbour's cat peed on it...gross! So when Cakey wasn't looking I threw it in the bin. Ah, it was fun while it lasted.

Lollipops – sweet and simple

2011-09-05T14:20:00.000+10:00

Yes I know the sign is upside down but it was too early to argue.

Another early morning activity! Cakey gets up full of beans and wants to make something immediately. I on the other hand am desperately trying to pry my eyes open and ingest as much coffee as I can.

Anyway, we went to the markets the other day and now she is obsessed with playing 'market stalls'. She wanted to make lollipops to sell on our pretend market stall. So she drew around a cup to make the (almost) circles and we both cut them out. I had some old colourful wrapping paper that Cakey cut up and then glued down with a glue stick. She then stuck the lollipops onto paddle pop sticks with sticky tape. We used playdough to anchor them into a display for the market stall. It was easy and kept her busy while I got breakfast. The beauty of this project is that you can embellish it anyway you want – stickers, glitter, different shapes and sizes etc.

Once Cakey's lollipops hit the market stall it took about 30 seconds for Boo to rip them all down and eat the playdough. And now Cakey wants to make real lollipops – I found a lovely idea for making lollipops with marshmallows on the Planning with Kids blog that we will definitely try.

Sticky tape rocks!

2011-08-30T13:40:00.000+10:00

I should clarify that – some sticky tape rocks and some sticky tape dispensers rock, others DO NOT. I don't write this blog to promote products but finding the right sticky tape is absolutely essential (unless you like doling each piece of tape out yourself). We are now on our fourth sticky tape dispenser and it totally rocks. My 15 year old beloved (pre-kid) tape dispenser bit the dust as it was dropped one too many times. Not thinking that much about it I gave Cakey one of those disposable dispensers.....cue screaming tantrum when she couldn't break the tape off. So I went out and bought a brand new funky looking dispenser – it survived 2 hours before I threw it in the bin. The metal cutting bit just wasn't sharp enough for 3yo fingers to use and I couldn't stand the whinging any longer. Next I went to one of the big office supply places and bought the most expensive dispenser I could find coupled with the most expensive tape (if you are interested it is a 3M product bought at Officeworks).

I have since experimented with medium priced tape and it works too in this dispenser. I don't go anywhere near the really cheap stuff. It drives me bananas when the tape end gets lost and I have to laboriously try to get it to come off in one piece again.

I don't know why but I used to think that sticky tape was a bit of a cop out and that kids should have glue. For lots of projects sticky tape is so much better than glue – there is less mess and it sticks immediately. Cakey loves the stuff and will sticky tape just about anything. Granted I give her total free range and as a result we go through a lot of sticky tape. It took a little while for Cakey to become competent with the dispenser but it was well worth the patience.

Floating fish

2011-08-25T10:37:00.000+10:00

This had so much potential but fell a bit flat. Cakey wanted to do a project that involved fish so I thought she could make some out of balloons. I blew up three small balloons and placed them in takeaway containers so they wouldn't fly off the table constantly. I also laid out some plastic fin and tail pieces that I (very poorly) cut out of an old orange filing envelope. I cut up some little squares of silvery paper from a foil biscuit wrapper that I thought could be fish scales. To top it off I also included some googly eyes and a black permanent marker. Now I just needed the kid...

Cakey was excited and quickly started sticky taping various bits onto the first balloon. She instantly decided that my silvery pieces were teeth and she also thought that my takeaway containers were boats for the fish and also needed to be decorated – whatever, I was busy trying to make soup for dinner. After a short time she moved onto the second balloon which she half-heartedly jabbed with the marker....and then I made a mistake.

I hadn't even finished cutting up the vegies for the soup when I stupidly uttered these words 'when you have finished we can let your fish swim in the bath'. Her eyes lit up as she instantly replied 'I've finished' and jumped down and ran to the bathroom. I did my best to cajole her into making more of the project but I could tell she had moved on. So there was nothing for it – we ran the bath and Cakey and Boo poked the balloon fish around the bath with wooden spoons.

This activity took more time to set up than Cakey spent doing it which was a bit disappointing. I still think it could have been a winner. Oh and I did eventually get the soup made which was also pointless because I was the only one who ate it!

Stick it down!

2011-08-19T15:02:00.000+10:00

Cakey's grandma introduced us to this idea and we have used it over and over again. All you need is a piece of sticky contact and an open invitation to pillage and plunder the garden. It doesn't take much encouragement to get Cakey to pick leaves and flowers from our garden. My sneaky trick is to encourage them to do it one piece at a time rather than collect first and stick second. That way it takes longer and with all the running back and forth it tires them out – win win!

Cakey's other granny uses the rainy day version to great effect. She can seemingly pull out a never-ending supply of old buttons and quilt pieces to stick on the contact but you can use anything. Once finished lay an extra piece of contact over the top to hold it all together. They actually look lovely stuck on a window with the light shining through.

A word of warning though – if you are doing this outside make sure you weigh down the contact first. I learnt this the hard way – a slight breeze, sticky contact flying into a pile of dirt, screaming toddler, not pretty!

Linked to playopedia

Mister Maker splat bugs

2011-08-14T14:40:00.000+10:00

Cakey loves Mister Maker, she can watch the episodes over and over again. She doesn't often ask to make whatever it is Mister Maker is making...but she did today. She was captivated by the glittery gloopy glue splat bugs that she watched on abc iview (series 3 episode 7 if you are interested). Basically you put a dollop of pva glue on a baking tray (I used some baking paper because I didn't want to ruin my baking tray) and then fan out some of the glue with a paintbrush to make arms/legs. The glue doesn't need to be thick, we made ours way too thick and it took forever to dry. And then decorate...we used glitter, some googly eyes and a paper tongue. It didn't take very long but I did have to hover over this one to avoid a glitter disaster. When it is finished leave it to dry overnight. Once dry you can peel it off and stick it on something.

For more detailed step by step instructions have a look at my second go at this activity Mister Maker splat bugs take 2.

I like Mister Maker and we do use it as inspiration sometimes. I generally have to simplify the projects down and I rarely have all the materials which can be a bit annoying. I do like the segment 'make it in a minute' – if Mister Maker can make it in a minute then presumably we can make it in half an hour. How do you feel about Mister Maker?

On a side note you may want to check out the Mister Maker website. It has a cute gallery of projects that kids have made with links to the relevant segment of the show.

Mobile creations

2011-08-04T20:54:00.000+10:00

I have tried to make a hanging mobile with Cakey a number of times. I think tying bits and pieces to sticks and wires sounds like fun but she doesn't. These activities always end up with her wandering off saying 'you do it mummy'. Anyway she was busy ripping and trying to cut up bits of purple paper. Aha here is my chance... I said 'let's make a mobile'. 'Yes mummy, I want to make a mobile'. I whipped out my wool and stick and started to tie her purple paper shapes to it. 'No mummy not a mobile, a mobile phone' she said. Silly me!

Luckily, I have a small cupboard where I throw in useful looking boxes and various bits and pieces. I ratted through the cupboard quickly and found the lid off a ferrero rocher chocolate box – bingo! Cakey was pleased, she decided it was a video phone so we found a photo of Boo which I cut up and she stuck down. She also enjoyed sticky taping down her pieces of purple paper and drawing buttons on the flap I attached to the lid for her. The coolest thing about this activity was that she carried this phone around with her for the next 2 days, pulling it out and taking calls. She actually has my old mobile phone but it has never seen that kind of action.

Making stop signs

2011-07-31T14:44:00.000+10:00

After a long car journey with endless questions from Cakey about traffic rules and street signs I decided she might like to make some stop signs. We sat together with some white and red paper, I cut the shapes, she drew on them and stuck pipe cleaners on them with sticky tape. This was a really simple activity with very little mess and it filled in a good half hour very pleasantly. If I had thought of it at the time I would have added some yellow triangles for giveway signs and some strips of black and white paper for zebra crossings... maybe next time.

Painting without influence

2011-06-23T16:05:00.000+10:00

I recently watched a clip of Aelita Andre, 4 year old Melbourne based artist. I absolutely loved the footage at the end of Aelita brushing and dribbling paint onto her canvasses. She looked so focused. I was also inspired by the statement her mother made "I am scared to influence her". Wow! My painting experiments with Cakey have been very controlled – "choose 3 paints, here are the brushes, now paint ON THE PAPER". These sessions generally leave us both frustrated. So I thought I would take a deep breath and lighten up.

I gave Cakey six whole tubes of primary colours, a handful of different size brushes, a few different things to paint on (black and white card, small canvas, paper etc) and a bunch of plastic lids and containers to mix paint on and then told her to go for it. I had to bite my tongue not 'to influence'. She was busy painting black paint onto black cardboard and I was itching to point out that wouldn't work when she picked up the cardboard, flipped it over and pressed it onto white paper, producing a lovely texture. One hour later, she had produced 9 paintings, had used all the paint and was beaming. The whole experience was well worth the effort and I plan to do it again.