Chinese New Year

We had a little celebration of the Chinese New Year yesterday.

We started with a visual re-telling of the story of how the Jade Emperor decided on the animals of the Chinese calendar. I told the story, read from a powerpoint presentation off my laptop, and acted out the story with toys and a little scene made with tin foil, a couple of chiffons, some pebbles, bits of wood and some plastic stone and tree ornaments.  The boys were engaged, but I learnt it would have been better not to have the powerpoint presentation, for some reason they were more drawn to looking at the pictures on the screen than the story I was acting out for them.

After I told the story a couple of times (again on their request)  they had a go at playing around with the toys on the river, and tried acting the story out too. 

Later we made some Chinese lanterns.  I had to give quite a lot of help with some parts of the lamp making but they were pleased with the results. 

(My example)

Biscuits effort; he mostly did the cutting and I did the rest.

Boris' effort; he had a real go at making the lantern himself, though got frustrated at times when things weren't going exactly his way. 

And for dinner, well a Chinese stir fry of course. 

I hope you all enjoyed a happy Chinese New Year!

THE WINNER

Congratulations to Fiona McCormick who has won the brilliant Lion King activity kit,

Please message on Facebook me and I will send you your prize.

If you are interested in buying one of these kits you can now order one online at a bargain price of £18.00 and for a limited time I will be selling them with FREE POSTAGE!  Check it out!

Home Preschool - Under sea cave hideaway

As part of our Seaside theme that we have been following this summer I decided to create a little under-the-sea cave hideaway for my boys to play in and explore.  

Because we have a ridiculously small house, we don't have enough space for a dedicated corner for something like this so I re-claimed that mostly dead space under the dining room table to create an under-the-sea den.

I simply pinned some grey fabric to the underside of the table (no worries about damaging the table because no one sees the underside anyway), I also pinned some strips of chiffon, some grey netting and some other spangly kind of fabric (I am sure it has a proper name but I have no idea what, it's the sort of thing that people use to make dance outfits).  

I wanted the cave to have a bit of a magical, mystical feel which I hope the chiffon and net etc gives, I chose shades of green to suggest some sort of seaweed. 

Inside I put a big piece of drift wood to start giving it a more coastal feel, I also added three baskets of objects for the boys to explore, one contains pebbles, another shells and the last contains driftwood. 

I also included a little box with a sliding lid (I wanted to use a treasure chest but don't have one) and filled it with some cheap beads and shiny buttons as treasure, I also added a greet bottle containing a treasure map that Boris and I made together in the winter (its even more tatty now so more authentic looking).

Finally I put a basket of sea themed books into the cave, the titles are:

Three by the Sea - Mini Grey,

The Boy on the Beach - Niki Daly,

Don't be Afraid Little Pip - Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman,

Milly and the Mermaids - Maudie Smith and Antonia Woodward,

Mrs Armitage and the Big Wave - Quentin Blake,

Melrose and Croc Beside the Sea - Emma Chichester Clark,

Traction Man and the Beach Odyssey,

Splash Anna Hibiscus - Atinuke and Lauren Tobia.

Give a woman and hand and click on one of my affiliate links if you are interested in any of these books!

Don't forget everyone I am still running my GIVEAWAY till Friday evening so get over to Facebook and join in the fun!!

Click HERE to take you to my Facebook page.

LION KING GIVEAWAY!!

GIVEAWAY DAY IS HERE!!

Today I am giving away this fabulous kit containing everything you need for a fun Lion King themed activity week that we did a few weeks ago.

The kit includes:

Jungle shaped playdough cutters,

Silicone bug cake/ice/jelly mould,

Six plastic bug toys, 

Six plastic jungle/safari animal toys,

One dropper pipette,

Instructions for making jungle play dough

Cotton drawstring bag to keep everything in.

This kit is worth £18.00 and I will be taking orders from anyone who wants to buy one after the giveaway is finished.

To enter you need to:

Like my facebook page,

Like the Facebook post about this giveaway,

Leave a comment on the facebook post about this giveaway. 

The giveaway closes on Friday 10th July, I will announce the winner, chosen at random, here and on my facebook page that evening. 

Here is a reminder of some of the brilliant activities you can do with this kit:

Good Luck!!

COMING MONDAY - LION KING GIVEAWAY!!!

Tune in on Monday evening for my first giveaway on this blog!!

I will be giving away this fabulous kit containing everything you need for a fun Lion King themed activity week.

The kit includes:

Jungle shaped playdough cutters,

Silicone bug cake/ice/jelly mould,

Six plastic bug toys, 

Six plastic jungle/safari animal toys,

One dropper pipette,

Instructions for making jungle play dough

Cotton bag to keep everything in.

This kit is worth £18.00 and I will be taking orders from anyone who wants to buy one after the giveaway is finished.

Details of how to enter will be shared on Monday.

Lion King Week - Day 3

Back in the summer last year Boris was mad on The Lion King film so I thought it would be fun to do a Lion King themed week for him with lots of sensory activities and fun things to do.  I didn't get round to posting about it at the time because it was a big project and I just never seemed to find the time to gather and edit all the photos. 

I have finally found the motivation to share it with you, (probably because I have been really lacking in activities for the boys recently so have nothing else activity-wise to share)  so here is it.  7 days of our activities to take you through the week.

Ah the joys of play dough, these days every themed week I do must involve play dough in some shape or form.  For our Lion King week I made some jungle/safari coloured play dough. 

I went with a brown, orange, yellow and a lovely bright green.  I followed a no-cook recipe and left out the cream or tartar because I didn't have any.  The dough was lovely and soft, but didn't keep. 

He had lots of fun squishing the dough in his hands, rolling it and using the cutters, lots of scope for fine motor skill development, imagination and stimulation of the senses.

It's also important not the forget the boost in confidence a toddler can get from a simple action like rolling dough and using a cutter to create an animal shape.  He was very proud. 

Of course the dough ended up in one big lump, but that was fine by me. 

Join me again for another Lion King themes activity tomorrow evening. Don't forget you can subscribe by email to my posts (on the right had side) and you can like my facebook page to keep up to date with posts.

Lion King Week - Day 1

Back in the summer last year Boris was mad on The Lion King film so I thought it would be fun to do a Lion King themed week for him with lots of sensory activities and fun things to do.  I didn't get round to posting about it at the time because it was a big project and I just never seemed to find the time to gather and edit all the photos. 

I have finally found the motivation to share it with you, (probably because I have been really lacking in activities for the boys recently so have nothing else activity-wise to share)  so here is it.  7 days of our activities to take you through the week.

I started the week by laying out all of Boris' jungle/safari related toys and a lion costume that my mum bought especially for him from Amazon.  

As they came into the room  had my Lion King CD playing the first song from the film, it felt very theatrical and exciting. 

They explored some jungle/safari themes books that I had and some I borrowed from the library.  We read the books together throughout the week. 

And then they ate a Lion King themed breakfast I prepared for them.  Zebra stripe toast made with Marmite and marshmallow fluff, and a coconut shell filled with fruit. 

Our first activity of the week was an invitation to play which I created with a large under-bed storage box filled with different natural materials and plastic jungle/safari animals.  I used sand, wood chips, soil, water and some leaves.

Boris had a little look at the scene but didn't fully engage (I think because he was a bit young at the time) but I had fun setting it up and it did get a bit of a look in later in the week. Definitely something I should try again now he is a bit older. 

I hope you can join me tomorrow for another Lion King themed activity, don't forget you can subscribe by email to my posts (on the right had side) and you can like my facebook page to keep up to date with posts.

Home Preschool themes - Dinosaurs part 1

So I have a pre-schooler!!  When did that happen?  Boris is three now and is absorbing information from all around him, he is learning so much; how to think, how to make decisions, how to use materials, how to move, how to make, I could go on and on, it's amazing the things he picks up and remembers, (his memory is much better than mine!)

So as a three year old Boris could be taking advantage of his 15 free childcare hours.  Although we haven't actually made a decision not to send him to preschool, we kind of just haven't.  I am not sure what the point would be, we are planning on home educating the boys so there is no need to prepare them for school as such (how to stand in line, put his hand up to ask to go to the loo, follow instructions without question that sort of thing - only joking...or am I?).  He has plenty of opportunities to socialise with children of his age with friends and at toddler groups, and with children of all ages at home education groups that we have joined.

So with the fact of him being preschool age in mind I have been feeling like I should start making a bit more effort to facilitate his learning. Of course he is learning in everything we do every day, on the walk to toddler group, as we bake in the kitchen, through reading stories, playing in the garden etc, but it is nice for him to be exposed to as many new ideas as possible. We have done a few themes already over the last year or so and have enjoyed this approach so for now, because it seems to work well for us and we enjoy it, that's how we are approaching "home preschool" (as I am going to call it).

This last couple of weeks we have been loosely exploring the theme of Dinosaurs.  It began with Boris and his Dad watching the Dinosaur Zoo Live show which was on in the Hexagon Theatre in Reading, it sounded really great, highly recommended (though I am not sure it is on anymore)  according to my husband Boris wasn't sure what to make of it all, I don't think he realised the dinosaurs were puppets, and he was afraid of the very big dinosaur at the end, and it was also very noisy which unsettled him, but it sounded very exciting.

The first week was off to a slow start because we were very busy with our usual activities, but I managed to pick up a few books from the library and found this cool dinosaur sand mold set in ASDA, (there were legs, arms, ribs and a tail too.) so we had a bit of fun with that in the garden enjoying the glorious weather we have been having recently.

Playdough is always a win in our house so I rustled up a batch in dino colours and we played with it with some dinosaur cutters that I picked up at the Natural History Museum in London when we visited there a few weeks ago.

The playdough is: 2 cups plain flour,

                              2 tbsp glycerin,

                              1/2 cup salt,

                              2 tbsp cream of tartar,

                              1 1/2 cups boiling water.

I cooked the dough in a pan, then kneaded in food colouring and poster paint to achieve the required tones.  I think I cooked it a bit much, or else used a bit too much flour because the dough was quite dry, but it did give a nice wrinkly texture which I felt added a life like element to the dough.

We also stomped dinosaur footprints into the playdough with some model dinosaurs we already had.

And finally of course I had to have a go at making a little model of a dinosaur.  I call this one a imperfectlynaturalosaurus.

We also took a visit to Wellington Country Park, which is a really fun place to spend the day with lots of playgrounds and a little farm and things, but more importantly has a dinosaur trail!!  Here I am hamming it up with a T Rex. (Boris took this photo, hence the slightly dodgy angle) I actually hurt myself on one of those teeth. 

I have more dinosaur activities to share with you in the next few days so stay tuned.  Please share, pin, tweet and like and visit again soon x