3 ways to play: Cotton Balls & Muffin Tin

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I recently baked some cotton balls like we did here, which makes them hard on the outside and soft in the centre, perfect for some muffin tin fun.  We played with them in a couple of different ways suitable for the boys different capabilities.

DIY Busy Board & Gift blog hop

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I've loved the couple of busy boards that I've found on Pinterest like Lilla A and Gmglimmerglass so when it was Little Dude's first birthday a couple of months ago I thought I'd have a go and make one.  So I did and I was pretty pleased with the results, but never got round to blogging about it.

 

Then I discovered week four of Counting down to Christmas was homemade gifts I thought it'd be the perfect time to share!

 

 

 

Now I'm no DIY-er, in fact I had to borrow a hand drill to make this, but it was very simple to make.  I bought a chopping board, raided my Dad's garage and bought a few bits and bobs and here we have my busy board!

 

 

To attach each item I drilled holes with the hand drill then screwed them on.  The only error I made was initially buying screws that were too long, but otherwise it was very easy.  The lights came with sticky backing so were easily stuck down, but as they were quite bright I covered them with tissue paper and contact paper.  I also covered the hinges with felt as these were a little sharp.

 

And here it is in action....

 

... and again with big brother using it (before covering the lights which were too bright).

I hope you like the busy board, if you want to make one yourself and have any questions please leave me a comment and I'll try to reply.

 

Making any homemade gifts yourself for Christmas?  Then why not join me and my co-hosts in linking up your gifts?  Still looking for ideas?  Then why not check out what my co-hosts have made?

 

Rainy Day Mum, Life at the zoo and Here Come the Girls

If you're only just getting Christmassy then why not check out the previous weeks link ups?  Every week's blog hop is staying open until Christmas day so there's lots of time to join in.

Week one - Advent
Week two - Christmas cards
Week three - Tree decorations

 

Things to do with left over pumpkin and kids

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Welcome!  Given the huge number of pumpkin crafts there's been in the blogging world lately I'm guessing that I'm not the only one who has a pumpkin that needs using up!  We'd done plenty of pumpkin cooking, so I figured it was time for some fun......

1 - Hammering
I've seen this a few places (I think I first saw it on Time for Play) and mostly other people have used golf tees, I couldn't find ours so we used cocktail sticks instead.  It made it less suitable for little Dude who's only one so he had to mostly watch, but Champ always loves the opportunity to bash things!

2 - Scooping and seed collecting

If you carved your pumpkin you've probably already done this, but we scooped out the seeds with an ice cream scoop and the boys had a good old feel of the inside.  We have also dried our seeds hoping to plant them

3 - Small world play

I added some water to the flesh we'd scooped out and we added some dinosaurs for a bit of fun, making the perfect pre-historic swamp. 

Champ's pre-school had done this the day before, but with a large water table and the pumpkin floated making it really swamp like!



4 - Baby Play

Little Dude is only 13mths, but this was a great sensory material for him and he loved scooping up pumpkin, transferring it to a bowl, tipping it back and starting all over again!

5 - Cutting

Champ loves knives and loves to chop things up, so under supervision he chopped up pumpkin.

6 - Mashing

Inspired by Childhood Beckons we got out the masher and Champ got stuck in.

7 - Pumpkin Oobleck

Once nicely mashed we added cornflour for some pumpkin gloop having spotted this idea on Inspiration Laboratories.  Not quite the full gloop liquid vs solid experience you get with regular gloop, but still good fun

8 - Shaving Cream Pumpkin

To a separate batch we then squirted some shaving cream which made it lighter and fluffier, but still pretty slimy!



9 - Concoction Making

All three boys love Roald Dahl and their current favourite is 'George's Marvellous Medicine' so they love every opportunity to make a potion.  We mixed the gloop and the shaving foam pumpkin together then added flour, oats and food colouring at Champs request.

10 - Make 'cakes'

We got the muffin cases out and made birthday cakes as the mixture was thickening up now and then we spread it out on the baking tray. 

What are you going to do with your pumpkins?

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Things to do with odd socks and kids

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Who has a sock fairy in their house?  I have one or maybe a whole gardens worth of fairies!  They sneak in and magic the socks away so that I'm left with handfuls of odd socks - it drives me potty!  We moved house recently and I vainly hoped I'd discover loads of socks behind the washing machine, but NO they've disappeared forever!

So, what to do with odd socks??  How about trying out some of these ideas with your kids?

1 - Hunt them down with a matching pairs game

Unpaired socks get put in a box in our house in case their partner is in the next load.  So, I got out our sock box to see if we could find out if we had any pairs - Champ enjoyed this matching pairs game (little did he know he was doing my housework!).  Anything left over I decided was officially an odd sock and fair game to craft with!!

2 - Bubble Snakes

When we made bubble snakes this summer we used a flannel, but you could just as easily use an old sock.  Check out the original post for more details.

3 - Play dressing up!

Turns out Champ considers dressing up in Daddy's old socks great fun.  Apparently these turned him into some kind of Kung Foo fighter and he pranced round the room in them for ages.

4 - Chop them up and dress up some more!

I chopped off the toes and told Champ they were superhero cuffs, cue some more dressing up play.  If you were proper crafty I reckon a few stars or lightning bursts would make these a permanent dressing up box feature.

5 - Make sock butterflies

I found this idea at Love and Lollipops where there is a full tutorial.  You take an odd sock, stuff it with cotton balls, tie off sections with rubber bands, use the pipe cleaner for antennae, felt for wings and give it some googly eyes and I sewed on a smile!

Ta da, pretty cute right!  I wish I could take better pictures as they are really quite awesome (even if I say so myself!).

And, the boys certainly enjoyed playing with them!

6 - Make play food donuts

I found the tutorial for these at Bugaboo, mini, mr & me, again a lot more detailed than mine (have you guessed tutorials aren't my thing!).  But, basically you snip off the toes, put one sock inside the other, roll them up, I sewed up the ends, then add a felt topping and some sewn on sprinkles.  Then play!  I made a couple and they've been a fun addition to our plastic play food.

7 - Make a sock tower

I saw the idea for this ages ago, but I can't remember where.  These make great stacking blocks for babies as obviously they're soft.

Want more ideas?  I have a whole Pinterest board about odd socks so check it out if you're looking to outsmart those darn sock fairies!! 

If you liked this why not check out some of my other 'Things to do with' posts.  So far we've had carrots, chestnuts (part one and two), acorns (part one and two) and pinecones, and don't forget to check out our facebook page too!

Oats: Sensory Play for Babies and Pre-schoolers

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Little Dude has just turned one (I seriously can't believe it!) and is getting more into the other boys toys and more adventurous play.  With Bud now at school I just have two boys to keep busy during the bulk of the day, but need play for both a baby and a pre-schooler, so he's some sensory play that's just a little different for the two boys.....

 

Here is the set up for Champ I put some oats in a tray and buried some coins for him to find adding spoons and pots so he could do a bit of scooping and pouring.

 

He really enjoyed the treasure hunt and then buried the coins and played all over again.

 

For Little Dude I put him in his highchair and gave him spoons and plastic pots as well then added a few handfuls of oats to the table which he enjoyed picking up, pouring etc.

 

A LOT of oats went on the floor (hence the two splat rating) and I added more handfuls as needed.  He really enjoyed himself although I did have to empty his pockets (and nappy) of oats later!  It did make a mess, but it was dry and swept up really easily, so one to do again!

 

I hope you enjoyed this post you can check out more baby play posts here, or why not check out my baby play Pinterest board or hook up with Facebook or G+

More Baby Play!

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We have far too many toys in our house, but still sometimes we get stuck for play ideas.  Here are two quick ideas for baby play.

Yes, it's a golden oldie..... drums!  Bring out the mixing bowls, the saucepans, the wooden spoons and you have your own little drummer!  In fact this is such a classic I'm sure I can remember doing this on the kitchen floor when I was a tot!

 

Noisy, but it kept Little Dude busy for ages!

 

Next up.... blocks in a box!  I popped some plastic blocks into an empty tissue box.  As the opening is a little smaller it meant Little Dude had to work a bit harder to get some of the blocks out.

 

Lots of concentration going on here....

 

... but, a lot of satisfaction here!

 

How about some more baby ideas you could try making a tissue pull box, a treasure box or try playing with playdough.

 

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Playdough - Baby Play

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Little Dude is now 9 months old and loves to play with everything his brothers have.  So, a little while ago inspired by this post from Rainy Day Mum, when the older boys were playing with playdough I let him try it out too, and he loved it!

I supervised him the whole time as he is totally at the putting everything in his mouth stage and the play didn't last long.

But, he really enjoyed giving the playdough a good old squidge.  Plus it's inspired me to start trying out some more sensory and messy play with him.  If you're not sure how to make playdough check out my post here.  Or, if you want a few more baby play ideas check out my baby play pinboard.