From the category archives:

Toddlers

Shadow puppets

October 5, 2012 Activities

I‘ve had a soft spot for shadow puppets ever since the big girl was a baby and would get hysterical in the car at night. A little torch shining at her feet or the toys dangling over her and she would stop screaming and happily watch the dancing shadows. I was very disappointed to discover [...]

Wordless Wednesday – Sand and Water

August 29, 2012 Babies

I don’t think the attraction ever fades. Playing in dirt – the original open-ended multi-age game.

Take 2 marbles, …

August 17, 2012 Activities

Some spoons, boxes, lids and other small bits and pieces. Clear a hallway or space on the floor. Let the kids go, while they make up weird and bizarre rules about where the marbles have to go and how they have to get there. Science? Well, I suppose you could count the gravity weight comparisons [...]

Wordless Wednesday – More Weird Bathroom Light

August 8, 2012 Energy and Change

Obviously this is reflecting off something round, but we can’t work out what. I thought it was the metal corner strip, but we tried covering it up and the pattern was still there. In fact we seem to have tried covering pretty much everything reflective in the bathroom and we still get these starbursts all [...]

Ice Lanterns

June 21, 2012 Activities

For the southern hemisphere today is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. Most of the winter solstice traditions come from the northern hemisphere where it is very dark and snowy, so they often involve candles and bonfires to make light. I wanted to use candles, but I also wanted some way to [...]

Tossing Pegs

June 14, 2012 Activities

It sounds wrong, but balls are not really the best things to throw. Not unless you want them to bounce, and then they are awesome. But if you are tired of chasing things that hit an angle and head off in a different random direction just as you are about to grab them, balls are [...]

Wordless Wednesday – 7 Super Shots

June 13, 2012 Earth and Beyond

A couple of weeks ago Penny from Wildlife Fun 4 Kids tagged me in 7 Super Shots. I’m not much of a meme girl, but I do like using photos and they’re different prompts to my normal. Plus it was fun going through my thousands of photos, the difficulty was in whittling it down to [...]

Wordless Wednesday – Diggers

May 30, 2012 Energy and Change

The real name of this post should be levers, but then only people who are confused would look.

Cold and Flu Season

May 25, 2012 Babies

What I have right now is not the flu. I’m just miserable with a snotty nose, sore throat and cough. Plus not sleeping. I had the flu once, I remember crawling to the bathroom because I couldn’t walk and shivering at the bottom of a scalding shower. But in Australia at the moment, ’tis the season [...]

The Saga of the Stained Glass Jelly

May 24, 2012 Activities

This is one of those great ideas that turned into … something. Part painting, part experiment, part playing with food, part mess making, part problem solving, part colour mixing – that’s a lot of parts. It all started when I saw some kids at school fingerpainting with jelly. That would make great stained glass, I thought. [...]