Hi! Sorry, I've been terrible at keeping this updated! But we have been doing stuff!
I promise I'll get around to it soon.
In the meantime, here's a great link on children's playspaces.
http://www.threesisterstoys.com/t-playspace.aspx
Some of my favourite ideas are...
"Establish a "New & Exciting Box" - If you notice your child isn't playing with a certain toy, put it away in a box. If you child is given a gift you don't particularly want them to play with on a regular basis, put it in this box as well. Store the box in a closet. Pull it out on those days when your child has run out of play ideas, rainy days, or days you feel like you're losing your sanity! These "new and exciting" toys may do the trick!"
"Create Theme Areas - Think back to the "centers" of your own kindergarten classroom. You can also do this at home! Some examples are a housekeeping area with a play kitchen and/or ironing board, an art area with an easel, apron and paints. How about a story corner complete with a bean bag and your child's favorite books?"
Another website I just found had some good tips... http://sewliberated.typepad.com/sew_liberated/2010/11/a-different-kind-of-black-friday-low-cost-big-gifts-for-children.html
"Organize a spectacular dress-up area. Keep your eyes peeled for fun hats, shoes and outfits during thrifting excursions, or make your own. Dedicate a space for dress up in your home - set up one of those cheap wall mirrors next to a peg shelf. Add ribbon loops to all shirts and pants so they can be hung from the peg shelf, assuring that they are easily accessible to children and don't get lost in a bottomless toy chest. Place shoes and accessories in bins below the peg shelf. Remember to rotate the items on occasion to maintain the child's interest."
(that link to the spectacular dress up area also has some great ideas!)
Just some stuff to think about.... :)
Monday, December 6, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
Slip Slop Slap Cake
Again, from 350+ Free Activities for Toddlers
Named after the famous Aussie sunsmart campaign of the same name (?why), this was touted as "a cake even very young children can proudly say I made it all by myself!". Hmmmm...
I'm going to just come right out and say that this was a tremendous success as far as Biscuit was concerned.
First, we made the butter cake. It needed 4 EGGS! Is that normal? Who knows!!
It's never a good idea to lick raw cake batter containing eggs, and even less of a good idea to do so in a developing country where you're even more at risk of salmonella-ey type things. But try telling that to a 16 month old!
We smoothed it all out as a layer after this...
We couldn't be bothered with the berries. Ours is just a slop/slap cake.
Terrifying selfie.... Also, please note cake mix on my head, not large festering boil...
Uh oh!!! Only now do I realise that because we used a silicon pan rather than metal, it did not get hot enough to caramelise the pineapple. Instead we have very hot pineapple on top of a cake.
Still tastes good though!
We also gave some to our haus meri and to our security guard. The security guard was so impressed he now helps us in and out of the car and addresses me as "my sister". Woah, someone likes cake!
5 stars.
Named after the famous Aussie sunsmart campaign of the same name (?why), this was touted as "a cake even very young children can proudly say I made it all by myself!". Hmmmm...
Ingredients:
- 440g (15.5oz) can crushed pineapple
- 150g (5oz) frozen or fresh berries
- butter cake, packet mix
Method:
In a 20cm x 30cm tin, pour in the entire can of crushed pineapple, juice and all. I'm assuming this is the slop. Then slip, or possibly slap all the berries over the top in a layer. Finally, make the packet cake according to the directions on the box, and you should [insert remaining verb here] the cake mix over the pineapple and berry layer. Then, bake according to the cake directions. Mine said 45 minutes at 180C.
I'm going to just come right out and say that this was a tremendous success as far as Biscuit was concerned.
First, we made the butter cake. It needed 4 EGGS! Is that normal? Who knows!!
It's never a good idea to lick raw cake batter containing eggs, and even less of a good idea to do so in a developing country where you're even more at risk of salmonella-ey type things. But try telling that to a 16 month old!
After unintentionally trying to dismount the chair backwards and to the right, Biscuit was restabilised and set about pouring the pineapple into the bottom of the tin*.
We smoothed it all out as a layer after this...
We couldn't be bothered with the berries. Ours is just a slop/slap cake.
Terrifying selfie.... Also, please note cake mix on my head, not large festering boil...
Uh oh!!! Only now do I realise that because we used a silicon pan rather than metal, it did not get hot enough to caramelise the pineapple. Instead we have very hot pineapple on top of a cake.
Still tastes good though!
We also gave some to our haus meri and to our security guard. The security guard was so impressed he now helps us in and out of the car and addresses me as "my sister". Woah, someone likes cake!
5 stars.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Ice Cube Melts
This idea is also from 350+ Free Activities for Toddlers
I think perhaps we timed this one poorly....
You can see here, I have just placed the bags in front of her on the highchair tray, immediately after lunch.
She is immediately trying to extricate herself from the chair...
Here is my husband bowing to pressure and removing her from the highchair, icecubes entirely ignored.
I think I have to give this 2 stars. I'm sure it would have been a better activity, but timing was definitely off in this case!
I enjoyed playing with them, anyway.
Basically, you make ice cubes in 3 colours: red, blue and yellow, using food colouring in 3 separate bowls of water. Then you grab 3 resealable plastic bags, and put
- 1 red and 1 blue in one bag
- 1 red and 1 yellow in one bag
- 1 yellow and 1 blue in one bag
I think perhaps we timed this one poorly....
You can see here, I have just placed the bags in front of her on the highchair tray, immediately after lunch.
She is immediately trying to extricate herself from the chair...
Here is my husband bowing to pressure and removing her from the highchair, icecubes entirely ignored.
I think I have to give this 2 stars. I'm sure it would have been a better activity, but timing was definitely off in this case!
I enjoyed playing with them, anyway.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Slime!!
Feeling brave, I decided to try an activity that I saw a friend's son having fun with on facebook.
Then gave it to my toddler on a highchair tray (Maybe on a plastic tablecloth on the floor could also work?) and watched the fun begin!
Waiting for the fun to start....
In hindsight, I really should have fully unfolded the tablecloth. I think the best way to protect the kitchen would've been plastic sheeting stapled to the walls....
Yumm! (Yes, she does have a black eye! An adverse combination of a sleeping bag, slippery couch and a glass coffee table resulted in one sore and unhappy Biscuit last night.)
Wooooooah.....
Ingredients:
- cornflour
- sugar
- food colouring (2 or more colours - I used blue and yellow)
I didn't measure this or anything. I just whacked some cornflour into a bowl, added a spoon of sugar and some water, realised the sugar somehow changed the composition of the slime, added more cornflour until eventually I had a slimy paste. Then I divided the mixture into 2 bowls, and dyed them different colours.
Then gave it to my toddler on a highchair tray (Maybe on a plastic tablecloth on the floor could also work?) and watched the fun begin!
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Yumm! (Yes, she does have a black eye! An adverse combination of a sleeping bag, slippery couch and a glass coffee table resulted in one sore and unhappy Biscuit last night.)
"Mummy! Up!"
(hmmm... not right now, thanks)
This was a really great fun activity. One of the (? few) perks of living in PNG is that if your child makes a mess at 9am, the lovely housekeeper will be along at around 11 to clean things up for you. Score!
(I am so untidy, this is what I've been waiting for my entire adult life)
Still, we decided to help out just a bit....
Biscuit and I give this activity 4 stars!
Felt Faces
This activity is also from 350+ Free Activities for Toddlers.
This activity can then be placed into a resealable bag and then used to take out and about in your "busy bag".
I think I made the mistake of trying to do the cutting out while Biscuit was with me. At one point I turned my back and found her with the very sharp scissors wide open and resting against her chin! Anyway, once the pieces were done, we had to go out, so we only really got to play with them today.
Mixed results...
I mean, there's really only so many times you can pile all the features simultaneously onto the face before you get sick of it!
Maybe she's just a wee bit young for this one? I'm going to give it 3 stars, but I can see that maybe in a year's time this has the potential to be a 4 star activity!
You'll need:
- Pieces of felt - different colours
- scissors
- cardboard
- glue (gluestick worked well)
Cut out a piece of cardboard in the shape of a face. Trace around this shape onto a piece of felt. Cut out the felt and glue it onto the cardboard. Then cut out a variety of different facial features (eyes, eyebrows, lips, nose etc) from different coloured pieces of felt.
This activity can then be placed into a resealable bag and then used to take out and about in your "busy bag".
I think I made the mistake of trying to do the cutting out while Biscuit was with me. At one point I turned my back and found her with the very sharp scissors wide open and resting against her chin! Anyway, once the pieces were done, we had to go out, so we only really got to play with them today.
Mixed results...
I mean, there's really only so many times you can pile all the features simultaneously onto the face before you get sick of it!
Maybe she's just a wee bit young for this one? I'm going to give it 3 stars, but I can see that maybe in a year's time this has the potential to be a 4 star activity!
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Clothes Peg Poke
This idea is from 350+ Free Activities For Toddlers.
This one I decided to do late in the afternoon, after finishing reading the book, as it required little preparation. I thought it might be something to keep Biscuit occupied until dinner was ready.
We set her up on her little table with the carton and the pegs. I was surprised that she did actually have quite a bit of fun putting the pegs in and out of the holes.
Hilariously, she also found some limbs from our playdough "Mr Potato Head" kit, and decided to stick them into the holes too.
She was sooooo excited for some reason!
To me it looks like a fresh batch of zombies punching their way out of the ground! Haha ha!
Quite a good timewaster for such a small amount of effort. And it was still interesting enough the next morning. I give it 3.5 stars!
You'll Need:
- empty egg carton
- pegs
Directions:
Turn the egg carton upside down and poke small holes in the bottom of each section (just big enough to fit a clothes peg in). Show your toddler how to poke the pegs into the holes, and they can have fun taking them out and putting them back in again.
This one I decided to do late in the afternoon, after finishing reading the book, as it required little preparation. I thought it might be something to keep Biscuit occupied until dinner was ready.
We set her up on her little table with the carton and the pegs. I was surprised that she did actually have quite a bit of fun putting the pegs in and out of the holes.
Hilariously, she also found some limbs from our playdough "Mr Potato Head" kit, and decided to stick them into the holes too.
She was sooooo excited for some reason!
To me it looks like a fresh batch of zombies punching their way out of the ground! Haha ha!
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| "Kru bilong het!" (that's Tok Pisin for "brains!!") |
Quite a good timewaster for such a small amount of effort. And it was still interesting enough the next morning. I give it 3.5 stars!
Hello!
Hi Everyone!
For the first post I just wanted to say hi and let everyone know what I'm trying to do with this blog.
Since we moved to Pt Moresby almost 2 months ago, life has changed for us adults! But life has also changed for our 16 month old daughter, aka Biscuit. All of a sudden, we can't go and play outside our compound - it just isn't safe. Regardless of security issues, there aren't that many places to go anyway!
We still try and get "out and about" at least once per day, and there are a couple of secure playgrounds, but we are fairly housebound a lot of the time. Even our array of toys has gotten old quite quickly.
After a recent spate of illnesses and some bad weather, I have realised that I'm becoming over-reliant on DVDs as entertainment. Biscuit is also becoming quite demanding regarding DVD time. She'll park herelf on the couch and yell "Singa! Singa! Singa!" (which is the name of her favourite DVD, "I Like To Sing"). It's not that I think TV is inherently bad, but as a few parenting books have pointed out, the problem is more what toddlers are not doing while they're watching TV. They're not reading, developing motor skills, using imaginative play etc etc.
I decided that we need to be doing more organised activities - things that will keep her entertained but also hopefully be good for her development in some way. This week I've found 2 great resources.
Firstly, this excellent book, which I've had for some time now:
I think when I read it previously, Biscuit was just a wee bit too young for any of the activities. Now, on re-reading it, I have found page after page of solid gold.
Also, this blog, which I stumbled across accidentally:
http://tvfreetoddlertime.blogspot.com/
So now I'm armed with ideas! Thanks to 2 recent visits from Grandmas from Australia, I also have a fully stocked craft cupboard.
The only thing I'm going to have to work on is planning!
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the blog, and of course if you'd like feel free to try out some of the activities yourself!
I'm installing a rating system at the bottom of each post. If you tried an activity and liked it or hated it.... more to the point if your toddler loved it or not, please rate away! I'd love to hear your comments too.
I'd also love to hear your top toddler tips! Please send them in and we can try them out.
Cheers! :)
For the first post I just wanted to say hi and let everyone know what I'm trying to do with this blog.
Since we moved to Pt Moresby almost 2 months ago, life has changed for us adults! But life has also changed for our 16 month old daughter, aka Biscuit. All of a sudden, we can't go and play outside our compound - it just isn't safe. Regardless of security issues, there aren't that many places to go anyway!
We still try and get "out and about" at least once per day, and there are a couple of secure playgrounds, but we are fairly housebound a lot of the time. Even our array of toys has gotten old quite quickly.
After a recent spate of illnesses and some bad weather, I have realised that I'm becoming over-reliant on DVDs as entertainment. Biscuit is also becoming quite demanding regarding DVD time. She'll park herelf on the couch and yell "Singa! Singa! Singa!" (which is the name of her favourite DVD, "I Like To Sing"). It's not that I think TV is inherently bad, but as a few parenting books have pointed out, the problem is more what toddlers are not doing while they're watching TV. They're not reading, developing motor skills, using imaginative play etc etc.
I decided that we need to be doing more organised activities - things that will keep her entertained but also hopefully be good for her development in some way. This week I've found 2 great resources.
Firstly, this excellent book, which I've had for some time now:
I think when I read it previously, Biscuit was just a wee bit too young for any of the activities. Now, on re-reading it, I have found page after page of solid gold.
Also, this blog, which I stumbled across accidentally:
http://tvfreetoddlertime.blogspot.com/
So now I'm armed with ideas! Thanks to 2 recent visits from Grandmas from Australia, I also have a fully stocked craft cupboard.
The only thing I'm going to have to work on is planning!
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the blog, and of course if you'd like feel free to try out some of the activities yourself!
I'm installing a rating system at the bottom of each post. If you tried an activity and liked it or hated it.... more to the point if your toddler loved it or not, please rate away! I'd love to hear your comments too.
I'd also love to hear your top toddler tips! Please send them in and we can try them out.
Cheers! :)
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