Inspiration for rainy days … and sunshiny ones too
The local Waldorf Steiner school was having an open day today so I went along with Mister E. It’s a beautiful school setting, the grounds are set in bushland surrounded with native bushflowers. I mostly wanted to have a look at the craft. I have a few books about creative play based on the Steiner philosophy. I love the use of raw natural materials like wood and felt.
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We’ve had a bit of a craft drought here in the last few months. I won’t moan about all the reasons why, but I was feeling sad that I’ve been too busy to do fun things with the kids.
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Feeling a little under the weather today, picked up a flu bug and don’t want to do anything but lay on the couch under my doona. The boys have other ideas. I needed something to keep E occupied while baby D slept, so I could at least pretend to rest. I asked my good friend Google and this is what she gave me;
Little man’s Omi and Opi made a treasure box (with a few gold coins inside) and they had the great idea to make a treasure hunt. I buried the box in the garden and made a treasure map for E to find.
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Do you do Valentines day? Generally it’s a non event in our house, it’s a bit superficial and all that. I do love any excuse to do a bit of craft though and Valentine’s day is a good a reason as any. E and I made these heart stamped cards using an empty toilet paper roll! They turned out so nice, don’t you think? I am going to make sheets of heart print wrapping paper for wrapping wedding presents.
When the thermometer is pushing 40º outside it’s hard to think about doing anything constructive, besides tearing the paper off icy-poles. We did manage one crafty activity which helped cool us down a little – ice painting. We tried it a while ago and it was fun then too, so we’ll do it more often.
You have to be a little organised for this one and make the coloured ice blocks the night before. That’s half the fun for toddlers, watching all the food colouring mix with the water. Little man had a great time swirling all the colours together and it makes very pretty wrapping paper when it’s all dry. We made big blocks of ice this time and there was lots left over. I think i’ll just throw them into the bath tub next time he’s in there so he can swish the colours around in there. Though I wonder if it will dye his skin blue? We’ll see!
We’ve just had our fifth day of a brutally hot week, averaging around 39 degrees. Last week when I saw the forecast for the week ahead, I imagine I wasn’t alone when I immediately thought, ‘how am I going to keep us all sane with a housebound toddler and baby?’ We played outside as best we could but by 10am it was too hot even to sit in the paddle pool. So we devised a couple of things to keep us busy indoors (alongside watching more TV than is good for us).
We made a road all over the living room (also known as the room with the air-conditioner). We made it with a few rolls of cheap masking tape and some things we found around the house to make tunnels, hills and ramps. It bought me more than an hour of independent play time. Which was brilliant because my baby has been unwell all weekend and I needed something to keep my big boy occupied. Those 50 cent rolls of tape were a wise investment, I think we’ll be doing it again.
If you have any ideas for keeping your little people entertained for hours indoors, please share them.
Looking forward to a cool change tomorrow, only 34 degrees, outdoors here we come!
I so wish I had one of these when I was little. A cubby house to hide away and read books, or in the case of my boys to play cars. A few sheets of fabric and a couple of hours sewing and an ordinary table becomes a fort, or a little shop, or a cave or whatever!
I saw the idea a while ago over here at the artful parent blog. I tucked it in the back of my mind. Then the other night it was on Better Homes and Gardens and had a burst of enthusiasm to make one today. You can see the video of how to make it.
Driving to the markets this morning I passed a pile of flat-packed moving boxes on someones verge. Thank you kind stranger! You can’t underestimate the potential of a large cardboard box. I grabbed a few of them and today we used one to make a very quick and dirty cardboard kitchen for little man to play with.
He loved it and spent a good hour making and baking sand cupcakes, which is a helluva long time for a toddler to be focused on one thing I’d say!
I did it on the fly and it took me all of ten minutes. It’s very dodgy and if I were to do it again I’d spend more time on it. Then again, my boy insisted on using real water on it, so perhaps it’s a good thing I didn’t spend hours constructing it, I may have been a little disappointed to see it get wet!
I have seen some magnificent cardboard kitchens like this one here and here.
Tomorrow is a new day and a new box, maybe we’ll make an airplane like this incredible one.
Inspired by the painted pebbles below, I have made a set of alphabet pebbles for my little guy. I love the painted set of ABC pebbles but I want to spell words with them and it’s a bit limiting to have only one of each letter. So I have painted my pebbles with chalkbaord paint. That way I can use chalk to write the letters and can have as many O’s or L’s that I need, very handy if I every want spell out Woolloomooloo in pebbles!
1. painted alphabet rocks by momtastic
2. pebble puzzle by strasilo
3. painted owl rocks by Lorrie-Lee Thomas
4. pebble puzzle by zelnice
