Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Bubble wrap octopus

One of Lumpy's favourite shows at the moment, is Mr Maker. We got her a DVD for her 4th birthday. In oen of the episodes he makes an octopus with a paper plate, bubble wrap, paint and a few other things. Lumpy reallllly wanted to give this a try, paper plates were on sale for 25cents so we had some of those. Pretty easy activity in the end.

Lumpy picked blue paint for the colour of the octopus. She did need my help for cutting the bubble wrap. She remembered her craft apron to attempt to keep her clothes paint free.
Painting the bubble wrap
Painting the paper plate
gluing on the goooogly eyes
Taping on the legs
Draw on the mouth (Mr Mker used cardboard for the eyes and 3 spots on the octopus head)
TADA!

Thursday, February 13, 2014

DIY restaurant!

Lumpy wanted to go to a restaurant ( it's been a big week for birthdays and eating out), I had to explain that we can not eat out every day, it's not good for the wallet or the waist. She then decided that she would like to make one instead! - we were headed to food shopping so it was pretty easy to organise.

So she decided on what we would be eating, she asked me to do up a menu and she decorated it.
She grabbed a table cloth and set the table, she helped with meal prep (I did all the cooking and oven work), she showed her 'guest' (daddy) to his seat and took his drink order! And then carried the starters to the table.
It was a pretty a good experience, she loves helping in the kitchen so was thrilled to be taking charge!
Setting the table
Rolling the corn in foil to cook in the oven. - encourages counting "how many corn wobs will we need if it's one each"
Putting out the green triangles (spinach and feta) - again encouraged counting, she decided we needed two each, which makes six, and counted out six.
Placing the cooked garlic bread on her serving tray! 
Such a fun and easy activity to promote confidence and learning (counting, food prep). I wonder how she will go with plain old meat and 3 vege tomorrow night!
Remember they can start "cooking" from an early age example here