Very simple snowman garland

We have made a very simple garland together ready for Saturday when we decorate! This is a simple idea and apologies that there are not many pictures as I did not think I was going to post this.  However, I thought that many would like this idea as it is simple to make and a nice decoration. All you need is paper plates, string. straws, orange card or felt then a black felt.

Little Boo added a nose by cutting out some orange card. We then drew on the rest of the face. When the plates were completed Little Boo cut up some straws.  These straws were then used to thread in between the plates.

This was a great idea to practice threading and cutting.  To make it easier I wrapped some sellotape around the string as it was fraying making threading challenging. After this there were no problems. Hope that you like the idea.

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Today I am posting about the three ways that we have made snow.  Hopefully everyone will be able to find one that would be suitable to use.

Cornflour and shaving cream 
To make this I just mixed cornflour and shaving cream together until I had a good consistency where it would hold together if molded.  Thank you to Growing a Jeweled rose for this fantastic activity. Out of all the snow ideas I think that this is the one that Little Boo liked the most.  It feels wonderful! I made a snowman that Little boo kept having get fun "melting" basically just squashing it!

Little Boo had great fun scooping and making snowballs 

Some footprints as she had to get her feet in! 

White sparkly play dough
Thanks for this idea from Frogs & snails & puppy dog tails I followed the recipe (apart from adding self raising flour accidently) on here and made up a tray so Little Boo could make up some snowmen!

Inside of nappies and water 

I saw this idea on About.com chemistry and thought it was a good idea to try.  However, I was at first worried as there was mention of the nappies being toxic? I did a bit of looking around on the internet and after a bit of research I was happy to continue Almost Unschoolers did this activity and there was no mention of the nappies being toxic?

All you need is the inside of a disposable nappy which you just cut out out of the nappy.   Then  add a bit of water until you get the right consistency.  The more water the more sloppy it is.  It is not recommended to use this activity with children who would be likely to eat this as it expands.

Moving the snow with the trucks

Small world play

Making Christmas trees- upcycle cardboard

I saw that they were selling cones that were like Christmas trees in our local store and thought how we could make those but better and sparklier.  The activity uses cardboard up-cycled from cereal packs (something that we have plenty of). I also saw the idea later on Pinterest!

I got the cones ready the night previous so that Little Boo just had to decorate!

The first of the trees we decorated using thin tinsel just wrapping it around the cone which had double sided tape on.  We then added some small ball balls with foam pads.

Little Boo enjoyed this but seemed to want to colour so for the next tree she coloured in, used stickers on a green piece of card then added tinsel.

The other tree used loads of pom poms.  I got a massive pack for 99p! Little Boo and me just added the pom poms onto the cone which had double sided tape on it.  I think this is my favourite tree as it is the one that Little Boo seemed to enjoy making the most.

Snowman Bottle

I am really keen to show ideas that I think younger children would be able to do so have decided to show you this Snowman.  I remember when Little Boo was younger that she loved to pack things into bags and put things into containers so this really is a great craft for this stage.

All you need is

• A bottle
• googly eyes
• cotton wool
• Pipe Cleaners
• Buttons/ stickers
• Felt or up-cycled fabric
• Double sided tape (sticks better than glue to the plastic)

We did this activity just before bedtime it is not messy which makes a change :)

To start with make sure the bottle is clean and well dried.  Fill it with Cotton wool, we counted the wool into the container which was great for learning numbers. 

Screw lid back on either you could do this or the child as this is a great way to develop fine motor skills.  After this attach the googly eyes, add  nose and smile. Little Boo cut out the scarf herself and then managed to use the scissors to snip the frayed effect.  I am so pleased with how well she uses her scissors now mind you, I always used to love cutting up. We have some buttons that Little Boo chose three that she liked then stuck them on the bottle with double sided tape. All that was left then was to add the pipe cleaner arms which she stuck on with sellotape then the hat. 

Hope that you enjoy this activity we are using ours to place in the sideboard but I am sure that it could be hung up as it is not very heavy. I have already had requests to make a daddy one and a baby one!

The start of Christmas Craftiness!- Our ball ball wreath

I have decided that it is about time that I started to share with you the Christmas crafts.  Apologies to readers who do not celebrate Christmas. I have been doing lots of cooking with Little Boo just recently so have decided to post these ideas as well alongside.  This year it is brilliant as Little Boo is capable of doing so much more than last year! Her attention span has increased, she can use scissors better and even starts to suggest what we could do.  I will make sure to add in what we did last year when I open up the decorations box.

First I am sharing with you our ball ball wreath.  I saw this posted on Pinterest and just had to have a go at making it with Little Boo.  All you need to have is

• Hot glue gun
• 80 or so ball balls (you could upcycle some that are no longer used for the tree,this is the cheaper option, we brought ours from the £1 shop 12 for £1)
• wire coat hanger/thick wire

First of all you need to secure the ball ball and hanger with hot glue.  I did this part of the activity whilst watching the Television (I was also procrastinating from writing my assignment, whoops). 

After this I got the wire coat hanger (thanks to my mother in law) and bended it into a circular shape.  Then it was just a case of getting Little Boo to thread the ball balls onto the hanger.

There was no specific order or anything just go for it! It really made me realise how much she has developed her fine motor skills. It was nice as we were chatting as we were doing the activity about Christmas and Santa then about the colours that we were using.  It was funny as Little Boo still has a Mommy and a Daddy one for everything! so many of the ball balls were placed on in that way one Mommy then a Daddy then the baby ones. Anyway after this, I just (well my husband actually, I am weak) twisted the coat hanger back together.

We added a ribbon at the top and there you go a wonderful wreath for your house.  Many people who make these use ball balls that have been in the family for a long time as a way of showing them off in a nicer way than putting them on the tree.  Anyway I love ours even if the ball balls were only cheap, it would also make a fantastic gift for someone at Christmas.

Top Ten posts

It is hard to believe that I have been posting now for nine months! I am really enjoying the process of writing which is great for someone who used to hate anyone reading what I had wrote! I have decided today to look back and write about my top ten most viewed posts.


Toddler Olympics 

Herman the German friendship cake 

No more odd socks

Sharing a book- Shirely Hughes dogger

Sharing a book -A squash and a squeeze

Making your own toy for threading

Making a Geoboard

Glove painting

Toddler Olympics

Making spongy sponge cakes

 

A guest post by Little Boo's Aunty

When you’ve got such a fabulous mom, being a cool aunty is a pretty tall order.  Little Boo has started coming for a sleep over and the pressure was on to find things to do together that she would enjoy.  We both enjoy cooking (in our matching aprons) and making crafts (I think this runs in the family!).

The first time boo had a sleepover, we made our tea together.  We made some pizza, and little boo chose her own toppings and sprinkled them on. 

Aunty Wendy’s pizza! (no cheese version!)

After tea, we made some crunchy granola for mommy.  First we greased some baking trays using melted coconut butter.

I prepared all of the ingredients, and little boo helped to weigh them out.  Then came the fun part – blending it all up in the blender!  Little boo was a bit scared of the noise at first, but it really appealed to her love of mixing things up! 

She loved it so much, we had to make a banana smoothie later on, just so we could use the blender again!  We baked the granola, and whilst it was in the oven, little boo decorated a tub for it to go in.

 

For this I used a large lidded tub that my porridge comes in (I believe these tubs feature quite often on this blog!) – If you are trying to find one, it is Asda’s own porridge.  We looked through newspapers and magazines to try and find pictures of the ingredients to go on the tub.  Boo found some pictures of apples, and raisins, and nuts.  She cut them out carefully and stuck them on.  All in all, we had a lovely night together, finished off by a bath and about 4 bedtime stories.

On the next sleepover, we made some cheerio cakes, with a recipe I got off Pinterest. 

http://www.marthastewart.com/313888/cranberry-oat-cereal-bars?czone=home/back-to-school-cnt/back-school-recipes-snacks&czone=home/back-to-school-cnt/

These were very simple to do, and made loads!  Boo helped to weigh out the butter, and chopped it up using her own knife to go into the pan.  I watched her carefully, but she kept reminding me that she was being careful, bless.  Boo then put the marshmallows into the pan (and one in her mouth), and I put them on the hob to melt down. 

Little boo then greased the pan, I put some melted coconut butter in a little pot and gave her my pastry brush, so she could paint the pan. We measured out the cheerios into a bowl, counting 6 cups, and added the packet of cranberries.  Little boo asked if they were red raisins.  We tried one to see if they were the same as raisins. Once the marshmallows were melted, we stirred them into the cheerios and then put the mixture into the greased pan, and into the fridge.  You need to cut them up with a sharp knife after about 30 mins in the fridge.  We all enjoyed eating these at the fireworks night the next day!  Boo was very impressed with them, but didn’t want to eat one as they made her fingers sticky.

I hope that you have enjoyed my sisters post.  I am really grateful that she wanted to write for the blog. Please feel free to check out her blog over at Never-rest she blogs about all her training for long distance events.  

Making a marble run with toilet rolls

As you know I am always trying to find ways to reuse items around the house. For today's idea I decided to reuse toilet rolls (as we always have them!) to make a marble run. I have wanted to make one of these for ages but have had to wait till Little Boo was old enough to have marbles and know not to put them in her mouth. I still sat with her the whole time we did the activity just in case.

Little Boo helped to make the marble run she loved it, as at the moment she loves sellotape.  I had a funnel from the scrapstore which was good fun to add in as the marble would spin around.  I cut most the toilet rolls in half then attached them with sellotape to a piece of mount card.  This was a trial and error process as we had to keep checking the angles were right in order to make the marbles go to the right place.

 Little Boo loved the idea and put marbles down and waterbeads and anything she could find.  It was good for her to see that some things would not roll down such as an elastic band!  The waterbeads were great fun to use as they bounce when they come off the marble run.  Little Boo loved chasing after them.

We started to count the Marbles as we put them down the marble run and would see which colour marble came first, second and third.  Therefore, the activity incorporated maths as well as fine motor skills to be able to pick up the marbles.

I have started Pinterest boards on crafts to make with cardboard boxes and toilet rolls I thought people would find this helpful.  There are ideas from us and from others so enjoy.