#heuristic play

[enthusiasticmother-blog]

Sand Castles And Ice Lollies

Sand Castles And Ice Lollies

  The sand castle we all attempt to make but fail miserably Since we have been blessed this year with Mediterranean weather my son has chomped his way through lots of orange ice lollies and built castles in his sandpit. We decided to buy Alistair a sand pit because every time I picked him up from after school club he would be knee-deep in the sand pit.  In fact whenever there was an opportunity…

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[sensory-play]

Baby + Child Sensory Treasure Basket Handmade Heuristic Play Christening Gift 

[migrantmotherhood]

Flying with babies and toddlers - a tried and tested guide

Going abroad for the first time with your  baby or toddler can be a daunting prospect especially when that trip involves air travel. Make your summer simpler and pack prepared. Here's our definitive list of must pack items for traveling with small children without clogging up your hand luggage.

1. Pack snacks 2. Take a teething ring 3. Take a sling- over and above the pushchair. So much easier than teetering up the stairs of an air plane with an excited wriggly small person in tow 4. Buy some cheap second hand story books- content not important. After all anything new is interesting. 5. Finger puppets- under rated in early years play but  something about them is super engaging. 6. Teething granules-  chamomilla 6c is the key component  in this  homeopathic treatment, and is used for its calming and soothing effect.  They can be given every 30 minutes too, unlike conventional pain killers. 7. Reusable wet wipes- can become teething rings, easily laundered bibs,  part of play, to clean a mucky lap tray as well as standard use.  We like cheeky wipes the best. 8. Buy bottled water at the duty free store before boarding, as you can't take liquids in through airport security.

9. Hand held percussion instruments- test volume before hand

10. Make a peg doll- why not theme it on your destination

11. Take some small heuristic play items- feathers,  pegs,  shells, wool fleece, off cuts of fabric, a handful of blocks, ribbon and a teaspoon.

12. Crayons- just the primary colours.  Give those complementary newspapers a make over.

13. Pack all of these in a bag or a box that's easy for your child to open and close,  so they can empty and fill to their hearts content.

14.  Nappy change in the departure lounge. Obviously you can't plan or time things perfectly but it will be much easier than doing limbo with a ninja in the sky. 

15. Finally- Try to feed or soothe via dummy during take off and landing it relieves pressure in little ears.

What do you think?  Have we missed any of your top tips or must pack items? I'd love to hear yours - so please leave a comment. 

[migrantmotherhood]

Allotments with young children

Dreaming of signing up for your own allotment but daunted by the thought of taking it on in tandem with parenting a young child? So were we, but since getting our plot we haven't looked back.  Apparently getting started is the hardest part. New allotments (like ours) are often a bit of a jungle, which could be daunting to a novice. Here's 10 steps we found made getting our allotment going easier.

Sow your own -

Seeds cost a fraction of the cost of plug plants and most need a month or two in a greenhouse or a window sill to become hardy enough to plant out. Many councils have shorter allotment waiting lists now. I put trays in the greenhouse just in case when we applied for our allotment. We got ours within two weeks, so it was really handy to have a good choice of plants to put into the beds. Much cheaper than buying veg trays

Don't take on too much - 

At first we were disappointed to have been only allocated a half plot. But two weeks on we're greatful we aren't clearing double. Set small goals everytime you head up to your plot, remember it takes years to make a plot look like those swish examples some of your neighbours will have.

Plan your crops wisely -

Unless you are going to go to your allotment everyday, chose plants that the pests seem to avoid- we seem to do well  with root veg, marrows, squashes and onion

Waste not, want not

You may be suprised what you inherit. We were welcomed by asparagus. raspberry canes, rhubarb and a gooseberry bush. Worth 4 years allotment rent. They were well buried under weeds. So take your time clearing to appreciate what might be already growing.

Clear it one bed at a time 

Not only will you feel more accomplished if you have a veg bed clear and planted. It will give you a chance to learn about your plot and how it responds to the weather. 

Take baby entertainment 

Our activity table got the boot when we found heuristic play. But its handy at the allotment as a place to plonk froggy when the heavy tools are out. Its making a good bird scarer too. Sensory play is so easy too. Simply take one of your smaller baskets to the plot and add to its contents with things you find along the way.  Take photos. Lots of them.   You won't believe the before and afters. It can bring you around when you are struggling to get motivated.

 Plant your crops in batches

Nobody wants to be faced with a couple of hundred carrots at once.  Plant a few weeks at a time to avoid a glut at harvest  time.

Talk to other allotmenteers

We've found the allotment to be a really social environment with neighbouring allotmenteers offering lots of advice and use of their tools,  compost and manure. Some have even offered free plants. 

Enjoy it and create a space for relaxing. 

Sometimes I have to stop to feed froggy. It's frustrating when you want to keep going.  By creating a relaxing spot  to chill out  we've been able to be at the allotment longer. Snacks and water are a must to.  

[migrantmotherhood]

Making play dough

I know there are a million and one play doh posts out there.  This is one of them. It's an updated version of a post from my early days of blogging when frog was 4 months old, able to sit in his high chair, but not much else. I was pulling my hair out and needed something to entertain him. 

Reading it again brought back such vivid memories of a time when my baby was still so small and on the cusp of a new skills explosion.  Reading it made me realise how much this little chap has learnt do in only few months. 

Play doh, is still a rainy day activity of choice. Since writting this post we've made glitter dough ( which is an awesome to keep a toddler and baby busy.) and both ideas are inspired by a fabulous post from the imagination tree on the a-z of play doh.

My son  was going through that stage of development where he was drawn to really vibrant colours. His favourite colour to reach for (was) pink. 

This no fuss recipe is an easy way to turn a stir crazy rainy day into a fabulous fun day.

Ingredients - for each tub of doh

One cup flour

One cup water

One Tbsp of salt 

Two Tbsp oil

Food colouring 

1 tsp Cream of tartar

 A recycled tub for storage

Add all of the above Ingredients to a small saucepan and heat until it's dough like consistency

 Then dish up and let the fun begin.

Play dough is a great companion to the heuristic toy basket.  Some of our favourite household objects that make great play dough tools are

Recycled jam jar lids

Teaspoon

Ice cube tray

Stones and shells

Cookie cutters

Honey dipper

I found my play dough lasts better when stored in a nice cool place.Warning- I found both froggy and the dog tried to eat the pink doh. Froggy was put off by saltiness, but my dog was not. Whilst home made play dough is non toxic is obviously not the best idea for babies or puppies to consume, so it's worth being diligent. 

[migrantmotherhood]

Heuristic play ideas- treasure basket printing

Steiner early years educators often talk about avoiding finger painting, that painting is best saved for when children appreciate the mechanism and the control neaded to appreciate brushstrokes. I'm not sure if I agree with this principle for all children, but have found in my experience with frog, that this may be the case. He really doesn't enjoy finger painting,  hand or foot printing. Which is fine,  I'm up for following his lead with play, but I do get a little sad that this means no artwork for me. He does really like his sensory basket though, so we set up the basket next to the paints this morning.

I pulled put some paintbrushes and sponges for him to explore (chew on) and made a circle of paint for us to roll and dip sensory play things in. 

I started first with a homemade bees wax candle,   then raffia, and then a toy chicken.  I'll admit he still was more interested in his basket then the painting. But he did give it a go. 

I'm quite pleased with that after all he is only 8 months old,  and we've come a long way from the baby who screamed when his foot touched paint at Christmas. 

I can see older (more artistically inclined) babies enjoying this adaption of their sensory play baskets. 

Like this post?  I write about heuristic play regularly and sell treasure basket kits on eBay. 

[migrantmotherhood]

The best sensory play of all?

Many blogs posts on sensory play involve wonderfully creative activities designed to feed imagination and imitate real world experiences. This is great, but I believe just involving your child in every day activities is often a better experience for them. 

My son is now 8 months old, crawling, starting to cruise and into everything. I have three coping strategies as a parent.  Reserved for when I'm fed up of pulling my son away from electrical points and sharp edges.

The first is back caring in my mai tai.

The second is water play.

The third is baking.

I strap him in the highchair and let him explore a bit of all the ingredients.  Each and everyone gets inspected by my little  assistant.

I tip flour, raisins and sugar on the table.  He gets passed spoons and pots whilst I make the biscuit dough. He bashes, traces, tastes, chomps and flings. The mess is beautiful.  Because he is learning and loving the experience.

When we have guests (other babies) its such a great, go to activity. We plonk them on our large kitchen table to 'help' us roll out and cut the cookies.

I love watching how much they love this play activity. I also love that it results in yummy mummy fuel (biscuits).

Adding food colouring drop by drop and watching the colour change, rolling and shaping.  Banging the rolling pin. Using tin cans and cutters to shape cookies.

This has to be the ultimate sensory play?

[migrantmotherhood]

Heuristic play with the half yearling- 6-9 months

With a change in seasons comes a change in our play space set up. 

Now froggy can crawl and sit up  independently the name of the game is less is more.  I've curated his toys down to three small boxes on his quilt in the living room floor. 

This helps prevent anything going missing (update gnomey has now been found safe and well ) and  makes it possible to present all in an easy to access format to encourage independent play. 

As you can see its a small amount of stuff.  I tend to switch it around as much as possible to keep the baby on the mat and out of trouble. 

So what keeps the curious half yearling happy?

There's a few "real toys" we keep one bear, frog enjoys holding him and chomping his paws.

The other wood toys are pretty simple.  There's a handful of Farm animals and a wooden peg puzzle of fruit. These reinforce regular concepts into our day to day vocabulary. 

These are mixed in the small boxes with a mix of heuristic bits. I write about heuristic play a fair amount so check out the tab for more ideas.  At the moment froggy has raffia a crochet rabbit, ribbon, a cotton spool, tissue paper,  lanyard and plasic container. 

Still featuring in the play space and still very popular with froggy is his music basket filled with his hand percussion instruments and some homemade extras- a pasta and split pea rainmaker, and a threaded jingle bells.