Loose Parts and Sand

These last few weeks we've been playing with sea sides and pirates. L had a pirate party with her NCT besties and a very special visitor, check out my Instagram feed for pics. And we've continued this theme in our playtime and stories.

In the sensory tray I put some sand and in a basket I put a collection of lose parts.  Loose parts mean that play is really open ended, it is slow and can respond in many different ways to what and how the child wants to play. It is also really open for opportunities for talk. 

Messy Play: Rice and Salt

Messy play is great for children's development. Its a chance to explore materials, their properties and cause and affect. I am aiming to set something up every week for L this year which will be a variety of materials and allow her different opportunities for play and learning. 

Toddler Creations: Cotton Wool Ball Painting

We've had a week of farm based play, a small world, books, puzzles and we finished the week with a visit to Godstone Farm in Surry. 

When we got home we were all a bit tired and needed an activity to get us towards dinner time. A handy collection of pudding pots were the perfect size for some cotton wool ball stamps. 

Very simply cotton wool slightly teased out and then pinched in a peg. A great stamp and easy for a toddler to manipulate, hold and move. 

Discovery Basket: Birthday

This post was planned for the week L turned one with a series of other birthday blog posts to follow it. Today as it is my first Monday back blogging we shall have a this playtime blog post even if it's three months out of date for L. And look at how she has changed in three months in the photos below.

I've made a discovery basket of sorts about birthdays and birthday parties. It contains;

A selection of balloons

Birthday cards

Present bags

Soft play cake

A paper candle

Treat bags from party

Tea pot

Tea cups and spoons

Party hats

Two card number 1s

Discovery Basket: threading

A very similar basket as the circular and ring things one I put together a few months ago now has a totally new meaning and a new learning and play opportunity. 

L was recently the subject to an "on a mission dad". He wanted to teach her how to thread onto a counting frame we have had for a while and purchased from Sainsburys. He succeeded and L mastered the skill in a day and would happily sit and concentrate on her threading task. 

On a particularly snoozy and lazy day I managed to cobble together by chance an extended threading activity using avaliable toys and things from our sensory play basket. I was rather pleased with it and so was L!

Our counting tower is joined by the plastic stacking rings toy and the wooden kitchen roll holder. 

In our discovery basket we have the wooden flat beads, the rings, some bangles from my jewelry box and hair rollers from the pound shop. 

It was interesting to watch L figure out that some of the things didn't fit on particular sticks and then change the order of her threading to suit her wants. 

L spent some time putting on and taking off the rollers and bangles and changing the order of then. She watched as the larger bangle went over the holder and the rollers because it was larger. 

L used the counting frame for the rollers as well as the beads. 

L also discovered that the different sized rollers fitted into each other.

This activity is great for hand eye coordination and motor skills. It's a very precise action and the varying sizes of objects to be threaded challenge L to begin thinking of spacial awareness in its most basic and emerging levels. L also began exploring how the rollers threaded inside each other and how the shapes slotted together of the different objects. There was also lots of rich language talk, on, in, on top, inside, small, long, thin, big, fit and thread. 

I was chuffed that on a day fueled by chocolate and caffeine I actually came up with something pretty worthwhile to extend L's play and learning. Also proof that it doesn't take more than five minutes to do something different for your littles ones.  

Wooden Wonders

I love wooden toys. They feel nice, they look nice and last for future generations. 

After L's baptism she was incredibly lucky and many of our guests had been very generous with gifts. I used some of L's gift fund to purchase some new toys. 

I wanted some wooden toys to add to a growing collection of plastic toys. I am not completely anti plastic, it serves a brilliant purpose in toys and many other things but variety is the spice of life! I had seen a few Bigjigs toys via their twitter feed and went over to their website to buy direct and see the full range of toys. 

I wanted something which L could play with now as well as stay with her in the coming months and years. I chose three things including this Animal Boat Rocker.

It is a beautiful boat with threaded beads on the top making the boats mast and sails. The beads are themed to suit the boat and include an anchor and smiling sun. There is a fish track on the front of the boat which can be easily moved along by small fingers. Great for fine motor control and cause and affect as she watches the beads fall or has to push them to move.  

The boat has four animal passengers each on a different shaped and coloured base. These shapes slot neatly into awaiting holes on the boat. There is a frog, duck, mouse and either a goat or giraffe depending on who you ask. L's absolute favourite is the frog. This is a great opportunity for L to develop her fine motor control and will promote talk about shapes and hopefully some trial and error learning. She already attempts to place the animals carefully in the boat but finds it a bit tricky currently.

The boat gently rocks from side to side on the smooth edges of the boats base. Its a great toy to play with as you sing Row Row Your Boat, although I have had to try and think of different reactions to the animals on this boat and deviate from rhymes on occasion. Because the boat rocks it will be a great toy to introduce the idea of balance through, if the animals are unevenly sitting in the boat it leans to either side. A great toy to support this idea.

 

It is well made and put together making it feel sturdy and able to stand up to excitement and curiosity of a medium sized baby. The colours are bright but do not disguise the natural material the boat is made out of. It still looks appealing when alongside to our plastic toy collection.

Not only is this now a favourite toy  of L's it also looks beautiful on the bookshelves in her room, although it has been constantly played with since it arrived and isn't often left on the shelves.

 

Discovery Basket: Spring

Spring has sprung. Daffs, blossom, lambs and at the end of this week is Easter. 

I made a small discovery basket on the theme for L to enjoy and to focus some talk on Spring. As L becomes more and more chatty with a greater range of sounds it is becoming really important to me that we have lots of chances for high quality talk during play times now. Discovery baskets provide a great chance to talk and to introduce new vocabulary to both young babies and older children. I would use similar discovery baskets as focus activities in my classroom for those children for whom talk and language was an important focus. 

 

Discovery Basket: Shiney Things

This was a really fun basket to use with L and one in which we were able to adapt and expand playtime through the week.

It started with a five minute dash around the house looking for shiney things.

Our basket contained

Discovery Basket: Biting Basket

Teething. 

I don't need to talk much more about the dramas of teething infants but I have been trying to help L by providing her with a biting basket.

Ever since L could hold a toy she has been bringing them up to her mouth to suck, lick or chew. The chewing is most constant when we also have red cheeks, ear pulling and 2am wake up calls. 

Discovery Basket: Circular and Ring Things

The discovery basket for this week has been a big hit.

Circular and ring things. This basket contains a mix of toys, like the stacking rings and counting rings, lids from jars, both metal and plastic and a few bangles from my jewellery box.

Emptying Schema

L's current obsession is with emptying baskets or boxes.

She will happily sit and empty her book basket one book at a time, sometimes stopping to flick through a title. Before moving back to the basket to continue emptying it.

Play Space Set Up

As I said in our 3-6 Toybox update we retired our playmat by four months as L took to rolling like a duck to water, she hasn't stopped moving since. 

Instead of setting up L's playmat daily I now had to set up the whole rug space in our living room, not that this has ever really worked to focus L's playing. She much prefers playing with the dirty shoes, trying to get into the kitchen or playing with the wires at our desk. 

This is an example of our daily play set up.

Music Basket

 

L's Toy Box 3-6 Months

I realised that I have not done a playtime post in a long while so I thought what better way to break the drought than a Toybox update. 

 

At three months I noticed a step up in the way L was playing, she was starting to do things to her toys rather than just respond passively to her toys. So the first thing I started to collect were musical instruments.

Baby Present Ideas Christmas 2013

Today and tomorrow are supposed to be the busiest days on the high street before Christmas. Having worked in retail I can attest to the craziness which is the last shopping Saturday before Christmas as well as the strange calm which is Christmas Eve with only men shopping. (This isn't prejudice just my own personal experience from years working in retail, I don't know what the ladies are doing but very few are Christmas shopping and the shops are actually not that full (this is not the same for food shops which are horrid elbow jabbing areas!))

I have obviously been pinning like a mad woman. You can read L's First Christmas List (which will also become her birthday list) and if you're anything like me you will get lost in the pinning madness also!

In the spirit of one thing you want, one thing you read, one thing you need, and one thing to wear my baby present categories are as follows.

Snowy Playtime

L was hostess for a recent NCT playtime and I took the opportunity to be a bit creative with a Playspace for L and her baby chums.

I wanted something with lights as it is Christmas and something snow like as we probably won't be having a white Christmas. I didn't want to spend money (SMP is pretty miniscule) and had an afternoon and evening to do it in.

I had seen a light tunnel on the home of good ideas and way to waste hours which is Pinterest but was lacking a cardboard box big enough (ironically one arrived the day before the party but it still contained our new boiler) so improvised by using our airer. It is high enough to keep the lights out of pesky mouths and also had the ability to use pegs to attach the lights from. 

I had two large Aden and Anais muslin swaddles (love these so very much, completely indulgent but so very worth it for their continued fabulous uses). They are white and starry which suited my theme quiet well. They were easily pegged over the airer as well as being long enough to pull together at one end to enclose the tunnel. Brilliant.

Baby Halloween!

I have never been a big one for Halloween. I usually spend the evening avoiding trick or treaters and maybe carving a pumpkin just for us. 

L's Toybox 0-3 months

L is starting to widen her toy choices so before we move on I thought I would look back at what she has enjoyed and how she has played with it up to now.

Lamaze Freddie, Flutterbug and Kerry

Freddie featured in the What's in Your Changing Bag feature  over on Make Do and Push and it has been chained to her pushchair since we received it as a gift when L was just two weeks old. It is brightly coloured, multi textured and has different things to play with. A mirror hidden in his wing, a squeak on another, grab rings hanging from his body and a teething thingmy which tucks into a little pocket on another wing. He also has nicely knotted legs and smaller wings on one side all with different textures. Oh and Freddie is so popular that every child in my group of NCT ladies has him on their prams.

The Passage of Time

At no other time in our lives are we so acutely aware of the passage of time. 

During pregnancy we count weeks and days. Contractions are counted in minutes. Labour is counted in hours. Once baby arrives and we count the weeks and months. 

L is 17 and a half weeks old. L is 4 months old. 

Babies Playspace Makeover Pt. 2

L's new favourite thing is tugging fabric, be it her knees her muslin or mummy's top (this last one especially so when mummy is trying to feed discretely in public!)

Mirror mirror on the playmat!

I brought a mirror for L's playmat after noticing her interest in the mirrors on other toys. And boy does she love looking in it! She also enjoys copying facial movements and chatting to mum, dad or people she meets while we are out.