Hello Autumn!

I found myself with lots of Autumn materials left over from a wedding at work where their colour scheme was orange and brown to tie in with their Autumn wedding. Together with the pine cones and conkers we had found I created a baby sensory box in an old food crate which I thought adding a bit of rustic charm to it. It reminded me of harvest time and apple picking :)

I thought the colours looked beautiful together and I added some orange ribbons I had to add extra texture as well as real flowers left over from the wedding, especially as lil E loves flowers at the moment. This discovery sensory box provided lil E with lots of different textures and opportunities for further discovery and play. For example, one of her favourite games in to put items from one box into another.

This box was very quick and basic as I happened to find myself with lots of things I didn't quite know what to do with but lil E had lots of fun and it was a nice way to introduce her and involve her in the fun of the changing seasons, even if she is too young to take much notice of nature changing around her.

And who doesn't love the changing seasons and seeing all these beautiful colours together!?

Goodbye Summer

Just a reminder of my favourite summertime activity this year and a way to see off Summer and to get settled into Autumn which is well and truly here!

This summer I bought Big A a butterfly kit which I had got from Sainburys although you can buy them just as easily on the Internet.

With this kit you had to send off for the caterpillars and they arrived alive in a special container, it was amazing. We set it all up like the instructions said, waited patiently, or as patiently as a 5 year old can, and before we knew it we had butterflies hatching! It was amazing to see the whole process from start to finish, even for me, and I think it was our favourite activity of the summer. Big A even got to hold the butterflies when she released them, she loved it.

I also printed off some activity sheets about the butterfly life cycle where Big A could learn all the steps and how the caterpillar turned into a butterfly. This she was very keen to do as she had experienced it first hand and felt confident enough to draw each stage for herself. She had so much fun with this butterfly activity, we will definitely be doing this again next Summer. Maybe one year we will be able to find some frog spawn!

Walking Art

This is one of lil A's favourite things to do, although she adores doing anything arty or especially messy art and games. It's so simple and so much fun, but just make sure your little ones don't suddenly disappear into a carpeted room!

It was a very simple method of taping down a roll of paper and using a paint pat purchased from ELC. The sponge pad helps to put a thin layer of paint on the hands and feet so you don't end up using too much and instead of getting hand and footprints you would just get big blobs of paint everywhere. For an even cheaper version you could use large sponges and squeeze paint onto them as this would work just as well.

Even lil E got involved and she loved it, although she looked a bit perplexed as to why she was allowed to make mess and get away with it! Still, it was a good sensory experience for her, she liked it on her hands but was a little less inclined to get her feet messy, probably because she had never felt paint squidging between her toes before and thought it felt strange hehe.

I on the other hand love seeing their little footprints all over the paper and wish I could record every little hand and footprint they ever make xx