Glow sticks and balloons!

My girls are obsessed with balloons and glow sticks at the moment. 2.0 especially has been playing with balloons every day - Balloon play is fantastic for gross motor skill development (kicking, throwing, catching) and I have noticed they also helping with colour recognition. While glow sticks are fun but I haven't found any benefits developmental benefits, I did find a heap of uses for doomsday prepping though, that's a whole new blog though. Anyway, we had some friends over for a play date and decided to try putting the glow sticks inside the balloons (let me tell you, it's easier in theory than in practise!). It's safe to say the kids enjoyed themselves. and once the balloons popped, we used the glow sticks in the bubble bath.
Photographing balloons with glow stick, in the dark, is very tricky. I apologise for the poor quality photos.

Supplies needed -
Ballons
glow sticks (we used both the thin and thick ones, the thin were easier to slip in after the balloon was inflated, the thick ones were brighter though)
A dark room or night time :)

Water and ice play

Temperatures in the high 30°c range make it very unpleasant for the small people.
Before work I make some coloured water in a dinosaur mould and put in the freezer. Thinking the girls. Would love a play after school / daycare to cool down.
Lumpy loved playing with (and eating) coloured ice dinosaurs, 2.0 was not so sure! She was fine with just the water but not the added ice. After playing with the water and ice Lumpy went off to play on the swings and 2.0 played with some shaving foam.

(I just found this draft from March 2015! so will publish now!)

Baby sensory board

As you know, I am a lover of sensory play. I also believe children are never too young for sensory play. The more senses engaged in an activity the better.

I made a sensory board for 2.0 today. Lots of colours for sight, textures for touch, some of them made noises for sound (bubble wrap is crinkly and the bumpy  cardboard makes noises when touched), and the feathers were eaten (though taste wasn't a sense I had in mind for the board).

Some children and babies do not cope well with too much stimulus so adjust the amount of items on your board to suit your child.

You can use anything as the base -cardboard (strong), an old tray I used an old tile that was spare.

A hot glue gun to glue it all down

Craft supplies (Sorry Lumpy I owe you a few top ups)

****** Even though the items are glued down, there is a chance they could still come off. Close parental supervision is required

DIY light box

I have wanted a light box for Lumpy for a long, long time. The price tag always put me off. I looked up DIY so I could make a light box. However was put off by perspex and wood frame making. Fast forward a year (or 2 or 3), I revisited the DIY light box. I discovered that all I really needed was - a white or clear box, white paper, tape, foil and a light source!! We had an old small camping lantern that we took the casing off. All supplies we have at home, no need to buy anything. Other light source ideas included - christmas light strings, the battery operated tea light candles, small led lights.

I put foil all around the sides and bottom of the box, to project the light upwards. My husband put the foil over the light so it wasn't concentrated in one place and dispersed around the box to bounce off the foil and up. I did use some tape on the foil to hold it in place. Tape white paper to the lid. I used normal printer A4 paper.

A quick test shot.

I put an old sheet and some black fabric over Lumpy's play tent, set up the light box and a few items to put on the lid - water beads, buttons, some craft beads and a few marbles

Prompt to play

playing with the buttons

Marbles!

Waterbeads.

Baby play

Those who know me, know I LOVE sensory play for kids and infants. Lets confess, I love getting my hands in on shaving foam and goey messy play. After a huge Pintrest feeding session yesterday, I found a heap of cool ideas for baby sensory play!! I took some of those ideas and used what I had on hand :)

Miss 2.0 has been out of sorts and feeding a lot the last 24 or so hours, making getting stuff done hard. This morning I reallllllly needed to clean my floor, However 2.0 wasn't happy to play on the floor without me. While I am a true believer in "the dishes can wait while I show the kids the rainbow, the rainbow won't wait while I do the dishes", my floors were realllllly in need of a vacuum.
Anyway, I did see baby playing in a box. So I figured I'd find a box (Anyone who knows my husband knows we have a box or two around the house), But some soft blocks in and pop 2.0 in and moved her around the house while I did the floors. I think the picture speaks for itself!
I really, really love how determined she is at trying to grab things, The concentration on her face is priceless, and then the title "victory" noises she makes melt my heart!

We still have a lot of water beads left, so when i saw on pinterest people making sensory bags and bottles for babies, I decided to use the water beads.

You can just use a snap lock bag, I got this slightly stronger bag with purchase so used that. I reinforced the seal with clear packing tape. I did not add any gel/soap/water to the bag as the beads have quiet a good squishability and movement as is.
The water bottle I decided to not add a liquid first, purely for weight 2.0 is only 4.5 months old and I just learning to hold things, i didn't want her to drop a full/partially full bottle on herself, plus it would add weight. I will add a liquid when she is bigger so the movement of the beads is altered. Clear packing tape around the lid also.
I used clear packing tape for 2 reasons - 1) It doesn't take focus off the beads and 2) we have lots of it.

Please excuse the Brisbane Baby Uniform of a nappy and nothing else!

They were fascinating from the start!

Giving them a poke, she actually got cranky when they kept moving away from her hand.

She was fascinated in this when i was holding it and shaking it. Once she had it, it became food.

I'm already working through a few ideas for next time!

Sensory play- SLIME

So it's a wet rainy horrible day. I have some soap flakes... I dod a google search and found things I can make with soap flakes (I made my own soap flakes by grating a bar of soap to make soap crayons this morning- they need to set so that post will be in a few days time).

So I found http://www.suzy.co.nz/suzysworld/factpage.asp?factsheet=125 and decided to give it a go. It is very easy. I coloured ours green.

Lumpy loves shaving foam play so I figured this is another sensory play she may enjoy.
I was very wrong. She did not enjoy it and asked pretty quickly for "wash hands". She did however enjoy the green bubble bath it made.

Hair gel in a bag

I had seen this elsewhere (home made mumma) and thought I'd give it a go.... Lumpy was not too impressed and was more interested in the little glitter container!

We also had a lunch date with daddy! vegetarian fried rice mmmm.