Art activities are a fantastic way to stimulate creativity, develop fine motor skills, and bond with your child. Whether your child is a budding artist or just loves to explore new things, incorporating different art activities into your routine can be both fun and educational. Here are five different art activities to explore with your … Read more
As promised, I have included all of our tuff tray ideas in one blog post for quick at a glance play inspiration. We love tuff trays because the benefits of open ended play do wonders for child development. You can start with a simple set up and begin with sensory ideas for babies such as … Read more
Did you know Birmingham has more canals than Venice? Itās true!! Thereās some lovely places to explore in and around our city via the canal system and Arlo is obsessed with the idea of opening a canal lock. One other thing this four year old is constantly engaged with is play – and water is … Read more
Parents are naturally inclined to do things on their childās behalf, whether that be to save time or simply to make life easier for the youngster. However, when parents take over, they are inadvertently sending a message that they donāt have faith in their childās abilities, which will unfortunately have long-lasting side effects. Your child will … Read more
Lots of children (and adults alike) rely on screens as a source of entertainment and communication, but this isnāt always the best option for their overall health and well-being. Children need to engage in a variety of different stimulating activities so that they can develop key skills and remain active. So, if youāre wondering how to … Read more
With autumn rolling in we have the odd sunny day where itĆ¢ā¬ā¢s great to get outdoors and enjoy a brisk walk amongst the falling leaves, but most of the time in the U.K. itĆ¢ā¬ā¢s rainy, miserable and cold. ItĆ¢ā¬ā¢s really easy to pop on a movie and snuggle up, but very quickly this becomes boring … Read more
Arlo is getting to the stage now where he’s interested in games and competition. He’s always claiming he’s the winner, it’s always a race to brush your teeth the fastest or climb up to top of a hill first, and so I began to introduce games to him at Christmas. One of our absolute favourites … Read more
This is a sponsored blog post I am extremely passionate about learning through play. I share all sorts of activities we do at home and most of the time it looks like complete chaos, but there’s method behind the madness. I try to incorporate opportunities to learn in to everything we do, in such a … Read more
This is a really fun project for budding scientists – when you mix baking soda and vinegar a chemical reaction occurs which creates bubbles. This is fun all on its own but when you involve colours things take on a new direction. I’ve previously written about how Arlo’s schema penchant is for transformation and so … Read more
This was an interesting play set up, I’m so used to having to pretend that shaving foam ice creams are delicious – I wanted to put Arlo’s mixology skills to the test for real. I’ve been reading about schemas recently and figuring out that Arlo seems to have a penchant for transforming things and so … Read more
I often use rice and chick peas for indoor play activities. They provide the sensory fun element of play but as dry ingredients the clean up process isn’t as daunting as it is with slime. Here is how to dye chick peas for messy play. You will need: My process for dying the peas is … Read more
Arlo absolutely loves painting, and playing with colours. He hasn’t stopped talking about the snow painting activity we did and every morning he looks out of the window checking for snow. We do of course get our messy play materials out indoors but there’s nothing better than having a giant canvas outdoors. Unfortunately the snow … Read more
I’ve never seen Arlo have quite as much fun as we did today. We’ve been lucky enough to have lots of snow recently and last night it was coming down thick and fast so I decided to put together this activity for the morning. You will need: Water based poster paint Water Condiment bottles All … Read more
We had snow last night and I knew Arlo would want to play outdoors and so I rummaged around the house trying to think about what we could do – and an ice cream station seemed like the best plan. You will need: Cups / tubs Spoons Scoops Slime/foam for ice cream Water beads for … Read more
Continuing on with our Antarctic and winter themed play activities today I decided to make Arlo up a messy sensory bin of icebergs…. but instead of using a tuff tray outdoors I used a storage container which has a depth of about 20cm which is enough to contain the mess for indoor play. You will … Read more
Continuing on with our winter themed activities I have made a batch of snow dough, Thai is slightly different to our usual play dough recipe and has a texture which is a bit like kinetic sand. I added glitter and provided Arlo with a tinker tray and invited him to build snowmen with me. You … Read more
This is another really simple ice tray play and one which requires very little set up – inspired by our trip to Warwick Castle where we saw a real life ice rink! You will need: A flat baking tray An ice cube tray Water Small plastic animals Gellibaff slime A large play tray Overnight I … Read more
If you’ve been following our adventures for a while you will know we love colour – holi powder is one of our favourite things to play with. Last year we had an “over the rainbow” party for Arlo’s birthday at the end of the first lockdown and it went down a storm and so what … Read more
Kicking the first Monday in January off with an icy themed tray play. A really low prep activity using resources we already have and adding a twist. You will need: A flat tray Water Freezer space Tin foil Paint Brushes Animals Loose parts Paper plate So it’s as simple as adding water to a tray … Read more
How to add content to your first creative tonie Once you have set your tonie box up itās time for you to create and upload your own content to a creative Tonie and make the experience even more wonderful. This is the simple guide to using a creative Tonie. This process is nowhere near as … Read more