In Play and Learn you can find all kinds of activities and arts & crafts to do with the kids, as well as articles on child development and education.
What are treasure baskets, and how do they benefit our children? In my own experience, treasure baskets are one of the most valuable experiences we can offer our babies, so here is a brief explanation to help you get to grips with these ideas, and some practical tips on getting started!
Treasure baskets – simple to put together, but one of the most rewarding things you can do for your baby. Find out why and how here!
Inspired by Fun-A-Day’s ‘Rescue Han Solo Lego science experiment’, we had to include the iconic rescue scene as part of our party activities. A dozen or so little Star Wars Galactic Heroes figures were duly frozen in carbonite (baking soda and water, with a squirt or two of paint and washing-up liquid), for our intrepid freedom-fighters to thaw out.
Autumn is my favourite time of year, but even so there can be times when the days are grey and gloomy. At times like that, I often set up a pretend picnic for T-Bird and her toys that I put together from colourful finds we pick up on the school run. She loves it so much, she calls it a party!
Bring home your autumn nature-walk finds and lay out a sensory-rich invitation to play – fun with nature even on cold and rainy days!
I’m not a lover of keeping our toddler confined to her highchair during the day (though I’d absolutely LOVE it if she would last a whole night in her cot), but there are times when I need to keep our little trouble-magnet in her chair just for a short while. Meal times, for example, or when everything is going crazy and I just need ten minutes where I know she’s in a safe place while I keep stirring that risotto….
Giving our baby chalk to use while in her highchair turns it into an instant art station!
T-Bird is currently unable to resist posting things at the moment, and so it seemed only fitting that I dug out G-Man’s old, handmade and now-slightly-tatty, play postbox for her to play with.
Make a postbox out of a cardboard box for lots of pretend play fun!
As T-Bird is getting older and has now thoroughly mastered the challenges of our DIY baby toy, the Hoop Tree, I wanted to spice things up a bit by injecting some colour and adding a colour matching/sorting game element. I considered painting the hoops and branches, but that would have been far to much work. Being lazy, I went for a quick ‘n’ dirty fix instead. We already have some larger wooden rings decorated with trailing ribbons, so, to make these a little different, this time I went with washi tape
DIY colourful toy for toddlers out of a mug tree, curtain hoops and washi tape!
Toys are great. We love toys in my house and I’ll freely admit we spend far too much time and money buying far too many toys for our kids. That said, when it comes to inspiring engaging play, I’ve found the tried and tested simple play opportunities provided by everyday household objects will keep our youngest sproglet absorbed just as long as any toy, and often even longer.
Make a Hoop Tree for babies and toddlers out of a mug stand and wooden curtain rings.
