Sprinkler Fun (& Outdoor Play Party)

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Welcome to another Outdoor Play Party!  I've finally got internet up and running after our house move just in time for the latest Party, phew!  If you've been playing outdoors with your kids this week then why not link below?  In one of the rare outbreaks of sunshine this week we broke out the sprinkler for some water fun.  This is how we got on......

Why we love mud

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Mud, mud, glorious mud!  It's taken me a while to get over my couch potato ways, but slowly and surely I've come to love outdoor play and especially muddy play.  Crazy, huh?  What about the washing, the muddy carpets, the grubby fingernails, well I think the benefits outweigh the extra washing powder and clean up, here's why........

1 - It's Outside

Getting outside is great, the fresh air, exercise and being out in nature and let's face it unless you really, really love the mud you're going to keep it outside.  And, 'yes' there is plenty of other ways to play outside so why else do we love mud?

2 - Fewer boundaries means less rule breaking

Once outside, there's no precious ornaments to break, no walls to mark there's just space - to run, play, have fun.  Once we're outside I find there's only two rules left 1) staying in certain areas (away from roads, open water etc) and 2) not getting dirty.  If you rule out the not getting dirty then there's very few rules to break, less rule breaking means I can relax more, engage with the kids then the fun really starts.

3 - Mud encourages 'yes' parenting

If I can say 'yes' to mud and dirt, could I say yes to some shaving foam painting, some indoor water play, how about we put our feet in some jelly or make some gloop?  Maybe we could have dinner in the dark, or have a picnic in the snow?  Saying 'yes' can open up a whole new world of play and adventures.

4 - Exploring kids equals confident kids

If kids have the ability to explore with fewer boundaries, because they know it's OK to try stuff out like jumping in muddy puddles or rolling down hills then hopefully this will encourage their natural confidence and risk taking.  Not an expert opinion by any means, but something I've seen in my kids.

5 - Mud feeds the imagination

With no toys, just yourselves and the great outdoors mud (and sticks, trees, leaves etc) feeds the imagination.  We've eaten mud pies, lived in mud houses and met mud monsters!  The added bonus for me is that this imaginative play makes for kids that can entertain themselves indoors and out.

I hope you've enjoyed today's post and you too enjoy mud play!

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Kids Aboriginal Art

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If you read this blog regularly you'll know that we paint a lot, but that most of our painting is (ahem) process rather than product led - also know as we have a lot of pictures of brown blobs and not a lot of pretty stuff!!  Well inspired by Red Ted Art's Kids Get Arty series I thought I'd share with the boys what 'real' art looks like.

I wanted to choose something that the boys would connect with and so choose Aboriginal Hand Stencils.  This art work was produced by Australian Aboriginal people on cave walls, placing a hand on the wall then blowing out the paint from their mouths (read more here).  These paintings are incredibly old and amazing to think that these are people's hands printed on the landscape for generations and generations to come - wow!

                                Source

This also works for the boys on three levels 1) The boys know about cave painting from Ice Age (a fave film!) so they can give it a tiny bit of context, 2) we have relatives in Australia and, 3) spitting paint is pretty cool!

We checked out where Australia is on our world map and looked through some pictures of Aboriginal hand stencils on the iPad.

To try and recreate the blowing of paint we put our hands on paper and blew watered down paint through straws....

.....but, the boys moved their hands a lot so whilst I think this might have worked it would have taken a lot of blowing.  So we tried another method.

Next up we tried putting the paint in a spray bottle and spraying our hands.  This looked like it was going to work great, but.....

.... the paint was so runny when you lifted up your hand you ended up with a hand print rather than a hand stencil!

By then though the boys were just enjoying spraying and blowing watery paint around!

Next, we tried another method - flicking the paint from the brush.  This did work, but it took ages and would have involved a lot of flicking which the boys found tricky and they were losing interest by this point!

So in the end we just tried painting round a hand....

.... and got a reasonable stencil, although this does look more like the hand of a four fingered alien than my husband!  

Things then turned into a bit of a painting session, including Little Dudes first go with a paintbrush, up till now he's just done finger painting!

Then I left the room for five minutes and things had once again descended into chaos and someone (with their Dad's help) had painted their face, and boy does he look pleased!  So off to the bathroom for all the boys!

I really enjoyed connecting our play to real life art and the learning through this type of play felt very tangible, yet was still incredibly fun.  We still didn't produce anything pretty, but a girl can live in hope!

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Linking up with Kids Get Arty

Things to do with spaghetti and kids

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So next up in our series of posts on 'Things to do with...' is spaghetti!  These are all easy to do activities for you and your kids with stuff you'll likely have around the house.  First up......

1 - Spaghetti Structures

The original idea for this came from Pinterest, but the link was spam and so I don't know the original source (apologies), but the idea is that you get dried spaghetti and playdough and make 3D structures from it.  This is how I set it up for Champ, he was not impressed and the results turned out much more like......

2 - Spaghetti and playdough creations

This was something we got up to last year and yep, you've guessed it it's spaghetti in playdough you can check out the post here

3 - Cooked Spaghetti Sensory Play

This is a great activity as it's cooked spaghetti it's completely edible and so baby friendly.  There's heaps of similar posts around, but if you're looking for something different try this flavoured version from The Imagination Tree or this coloured version from Creatively Blooming.

I gave the boys tongs and pots and a few small lids that I hid under the spaghetti.

It soon got messy, they pulled off their socks and wriggled their toes in it, then poured it on their heads.  I stopped things soon after as they were starting to descend into chaos, but it didn't take long to tidy as it was all on a tarpaulin. 

And yes, they did eat it too!

4 - Threading on spaghetti

The idea for this is based on threading Cheerios onto a strand of dried spaghetti like the ones I found on Sugar and Spice, but when I went to the cupboard I realised we'd run out of Cheerios!  So instead we threaded rainbow puffs onto dried spaghetti.  This was tricky so Hubby made holes in the puffs first.

5 - Spaghetti Painting

Possibly my favourite post of 2012 and also possibly one of the messiest!  The boys loved spaghetti painting and I did too!  You can read how we painted with spaghetti here.

6 - Spaghetti and Sausages

Now I don't normally encourage the boys to play with their food, but this was great fun.  I found this on Plum Pudding, it's super simple, you get hot dogs (we used mini ones) and you thread the spaghetti through it.

Even Little Dude gave this a go, whilst Bud made some crazy creations!

And, the boys enjoyed tucking in!

I hope you enjoyed this post!  If you liked this you might like to check out some of our other Things to do with..... How about foil, wrapping paper, pumpkin, pinecones, plastic bags, chestnuts, more chestnuts, acorns, more acorns, carrots and odd socks.

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Truffles - Easy no bake kids recipe

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I cook with the boys quite regularly, but don't often post about it.  Two reasons - how often do you really want to see my kids make cupcakes?  And, normally when cooking with little ones photos are very far from my mind!  But, this recipe is so kid friendly and so easy I thought it was worth sharing!

A friend shared this recipe with me after doing it with lots of kids at a camp, but I also found a similar recipe on Best Recipes.

First you crush 250g of biscuits (we used digestives).  I gave half a packet to each boys, put it in a zip lock and let them bash away with a rolling pin.

Then when the biscuits are like breadcrumbs I stirred in a couple of tablespoons of cocoa powder.  Then you pour in a tin of sweetened condensed milk (395g) and mix.  

The original recipe also mixed in desiccated coconut I skipped this as the boys don't really like it, but it does mean its worth adding a little less condensed milk than the whole tin else the truffles will be too sticky.

Then take a heaped teaspoonful of the mixture roll it into a ball then roll in more cocoa powder.  The cocoa was a bit too bitter for the boys so next time I'd swap this for icing sugar.

Here's the finished product, I put them into mini cake cases and cooled them in the fridge.  The boys who normally happily stick their hands in mud and goo found the mixture too messy and I ended up making most of the truffles!

But, they happily ate them!

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Top 10 Posts of 2012

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Making Boys Men began in April 2012 with my very first post Fun with Jelly.  Nearly 100 posts later and it's 2013!  I have thoroughly enjoyed sharing with you the fun that the boys and I get up to so here's a reminder of our most popular posts in 2012 in reverse order.....

 

 

 

10 - Things to do with acorns and kids.  Some very cute and colourful ideas in this post and lots of glitter!

 

9 - Magnetic advent Christmas tree.  A lot of cutting in front of the TV to make this magnetic advent tree for the kids, but I had fun!

 

8 - Things to do with pinecones and kids.  A little bit of craft, a bit of learning, quite a bit of outdoors and a bit nature - that's quite a lot for a few pinecones!

 

7 - Spaghetti painting.  A personal fave, but very messy and the reason this posts has a three splat rating - be warned!!

 

6 - Using Kids Art for Christmas Cards.  I venture into the adult world of craft and manage to find a use for all those splatty paintings that only a mother can love!

 

5 - Outdoor number hunt.  A great get outside activity and a way to learn your numbers at the same time.

 

4 - 3 Craft stick busy bags.  Oh how we love busy bags!  I just cleared some out today so expect some new ideas in 2013.

 

3 - Things to do with foil and kids.  Obviously I'm biased, but there's 11 things to do with foil in this post, which I think means there's something for every kid whatever their interests!

 

2 - 3 busy bags with clothes pegs (pins).  Some fun learning ones in this set of busy bag ideas.

 

And finally the post that out runs them all thanks to A LOT of repins on Pinterest...... Bashing baked cotton balls!

 

 

 

I hope you've enjoyed reading Making Boys Men in 2012 and are looking forward to more fun in 2013, expect lots more crafts, outdoor play, busy bags and more 'things to do with' ideas! 

 

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Happy New Year!