Sticky fun on a rainy day

I have always wanted to try this with Lil A, I had seen it done on various blogs and thought she would love it as it was a different way for her to be creative with different materials. And one day in my local Tescos I saw that they had reduced their sticky back plastic to 20p - 20p a roll!! So I got excited and grabbed, well lets just say I grabbed till they were gone lol (I am quite aware of how sad my life has become when I get excited over sticky back plastic!). And I'm so glad I did as Lil A loved it so much, if only for the quirky way she could make a pretty picture. She thought it was great fun as you can tell from her face...

It's probably best on a window or against a plain background and when your finished you can put another layer of sticky back plastic over the top to seal it all. Probably a good idea to do it especially as after this picture was taken a lot of glitter was added!

The finished article:

I was really quite impressed with this picture actually. I see a shooting star or a witch on a broomstick, think I have a budding artist on my hands. One day this will be worth thousands! :)

Next step with all this sticky back plastic is to find some more activities to try...

Kids who Cook

My eldest LOVES to bake cakes, I think most children do. Not just fairy cakes, Barbie ones being her favourite, but anything else I decide to make. So far we have made banana cake (mainly due to it being so easy and we always have bananas on hand), blueberry muffins, choc chip cookies and chocolate tartlets. Please excuse the random sparkly headband and various beads, typical girl loves to dress up even for the most messiest of occasions. And goodness knows why I didn't put an apron on her!? Think I was living on the wild side that day...

Cooking is a great activity to do with children and it can be quick and easy or you can use longer more complicated recipes - they just love pouring, sieving and mixing and could probably do it for hours! Even babies enjoy watching all the flour clouds and mess being produced. The best thing is to start with some pre-packaged fairy cakes as these are the most child friendly and easiest, everything is contained in the box and all you have to do is add an egg, butter and water/milk. The children get to pour the mixtures into bowls, add the eggs and butter and whisk away. They can also help spoon the mix into cases and once baked and cooled decorate to their hearts content. A great way to spend time with your child whilst also teaching them about baking.

Another fun activity you can do while the cakes are cooking is a cooking sequencing game. This is where you can print off pictures (best done the night before so may require a bit of prep work) of how to cook a cake and get your child to play a game of sequencing them in the right order. You could also print off two copies and play snap or a turn over matching game with them. This is a great way to fill the gap between the cooking and icing of the cakes and besides who's ever desperate to wash up straight away  :).

Below is an example taken from dltk-teach website which is full of great printable resources for extra learning activities. Their sequencing cards are available in colour or black and white and could be laminated for extra durability and to be used by younger siblings.

They also suggest on their website to read a book relevant to cooking and then play the sequencing card game. For example if you were cooking ginger bread men then reading 'The Gingerbread Man' would be a great way to link reading a book into your activity to help further your child's understanding of how we cook. Instead of buying new books all the time hunt down some children's story cooking books in your local charity shop or at boot sales etc or hire some from the library if you are going to plan ahead your baking activity.

Eventually as your children get older your cooking can be turned into a mini science lesson where they are able to measure out liquids and solids into measuring beakers and learn how to use measurements of weight to make correct mixtures. You could also talk to them about the compounds of the ingredients and how self raising flour works and how the heat in the oven works to cook the mixture etc. The learning never ends!

~ Happy baking ~

Were off on an adventure...outside!

For me outside play is my top activity for the girls, there is nothing better than getting outside in the elements looking for a mini adventure, following a trail to no where and foraging finds for our next craft activity. Exercise, fresh air and fun will always be top of my list - besides it gets me out of the house as I strive to calm my cabin fever!

For us it can be as simple as a walk to the post box, scooter to the shops, bike ride to the park or foraging in the woods for pretty flowers, sticks and leaves. As children my siblings and I grew up in big and small gardens, next to farmers fields (to which we would regularly slip through the fence into the field chasing mice and playing pretend farmers) and next to great parks with lots of fun apparatus. So obviously we grew up with a lot of outdoor play, making dens and had lots of mini adventures, so naturally I want the same for my girls. What better memories are there than of summer holidays filled with lots of healthy fun running around outdoors, besides it's how it's always been?

Unfortunately there seems to be a decline in children playing outside as much as our predecessors. This is probably in part because of parental fear of the unknown and horror stories in the media and a lot more families unable to afford bigger housing with gardens and being stuck in a flat unable to move because of the recession.

A article about a UK study on children playing outside has found that only 25% of children play outside on a frequent basis. View article here. For me this is a tragic statistic and I certainly don't want my children to become part of the 75% even if it means getting outside myself and encouraging imaginative play.

There has even been a study conducted to prove that time spent outside is soothing and calming for young children and allows them to settle their own disputes (I think personally children are just too distracted outside to care about arguing!). View article here.

Whatever way you look at it its clear to see playing outside is good for children, pretty common sense I would have said. To co-incide with these studies published earlier this year Persil teamed up with Bear Grylls to come up with a list of the top 10 things children should do before your 10, which is downloadable for all for free here.

Now after looking at the list myself I have to say that there are a few things on there even I didn't do as a child and as for sledging down sand - down anyone live near a desert by chance as I certainly haven't seen many sand hills. But then maybe I don't get out much? So on inspection I'm wondering how to incorporate many of these into my daughters play outside and wondering if I will struggle just to find a hill as Essex is a pretty flat place!!

1. Perfect the perfect hill roll
2. Become a hide-and-seek champion
3. Go sledging- on sand
4. Build a den- indoors or out
5. Build a rope swing
6. Nurse that sting
7. Try and count the stars
8. Make a mud pie
9. Make a compass
10. Pick your own pudding

I've done 7 1/2 out of 10, not bad in my eyes. How many I can get the girls to do before their 10 is another thing! I think for now we'll just enjoy our nature walks and foraging...

We <3 the outdoors!

Welcome :D

Hello and welcome to my blog, all about cramming in quality time with my girls for a minimum of an hour a day, and passing on ideas of activities we do throughout the week. It's not really about the time scale but taking time to sit down and really listen, interact and learn from your child and hopefully they will learn something in return. And let's face it who wants to do boring housework when we have small little excuses running around tugging at our clothes begging with their puppy dog eyes for us to be their latest victim playmate. How can any dutiful parent resist...!?

Look at the beautiful blue eyed clever little mites I'm up against:

I have no chance :(