Rainy day walk and treasure

I am so glad I am relatively organised and can get out of the house quickly!  I had not really planned anything specific to do with Arthur today apart from a walk in the rain somewhere, when I heard about a friend going for a walk at Cothele with some friends.  An hour and a half, breakfast, porridge on the television (the food not the old tv show!!!), loading the washing machine, dressing all of us, packing the car, strapping in the kids, I managed to arrive on time! Albeit a little flustered! Phew!

We had a lovely walk up the hill to the little chapel where the kids explored and ran around, then continued up the hill, hid under giant Jurassic looking leaves sheltering from the rain, before reaching a nice view point looking over the river Tamar and Calstock.  Then it was back down the hill for a snack, whilst I hid some wrappers from chocolate coins and a bag of sweets for a treasure hunt!

It was a lovely morning, watching them all run around in the drizzle, one of my favourite sayings is "There is no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing." I really enjoyed seeing them get excited about finding the treasure.  Alyssa, bless her, had a lovely sleep! But at least she was still getting some fresh air.  Arthur seems to be a bit poorly now with an upset tummy, and is having an extended sleep, so the leaves I collected whilst walking to do leaf painting will have to wait until tomorrow, when hopefully he will be better and more like his usual self.

A walk in the woods

The lone ranger

Fabulous view

Taking it all in

Hidden away

Snack time

Found the treasure!

Farmyard Fun!

After discovering some activity sheets on the National Farmers Union website, teaching children about where food comes from, I felt inspired to create a Farm play area for Arthur's return from nursery.

I rummaged through my collection of old curtains, found some brown ones to be muddy fields for the pigs, and some nursery curtains with farm animals on the be grazing fields.  I then went through the toys and found all the farm animals and tractors.  I rummaged through the play food toys to find things that can be made from the farm and I also dug out some farm related books and puzzles, that I left out for the two of them to pick up as and when they wanted.

They both loved the set up and immediately put on their farmers hats (although Arthur's was too big, thanks to daddies big head!) and got stuck in.  Arthur picked up the eggs the chickens had laid and pretended to eat them, and wanted to feed the animals so I got some animal food (lentils!) for the pigs and told him the cows and sheep eat the grass.  I then suggested that I wanted a cup of tea, but 'Oh no, we have no milk, where does milk come from?' So then Arthur put the cow on the jug to get milk and made me a tea! He also used the tractor to "Bring in hay!" which he always says when he sees a tractor thanks to the song.  We sang 'Old Macdonald' using their musical book, and various other farm animal songs.  Alyssa mainly enjoyed looking at the books and gumming the plates as she is teething, but Arthur was off in his own little world feeding the animals and doing the puzzles. 

Definitely a great tool for imagination, language skills, puzzle solving and maths skills.

The book selection

The farm

Play food

Trying on Alyssa's hat

Fresh eggs

Feeding the cows

Alyssa the farmer

Bringing in the hay

Playing nicely

Cup of tea time

Puzzle time

Sharing a book together

Cleaning up for mummy

Ahoy shipmates!

Today we have plasterers in so we were unable to go anywhere, also the weather has been a bit up and down today with sudden heavy showers, so today was an indoor day.  After a bit of thought I decided to have a pirate themed day full of crafts, stories and games to keep Arthur and Alyssa amused, and myself too obviously!

I started off getting Arthur to paint an egg box to create a pirate treasure chest, a map and a jolly roger flag.  Whilst this was being left to dry we sang pirate related songs with a little pirate wash glove I found in a charity shop once for 50p that lives in our song sack! We sang:

Row row row your boat, which Alyssa enjoyed joining in with her big brother rowing,
The big ship sails on the ally ally oh! Lyrics
The pirate song Lyrics
A sailor went to sea, sea, sea Lyrics

And we also read a lovely little story about pirate treasure from Arthur's book 365 stories and rhymes for boys.  Lunchtime rapidly approached and I decided to keep with the theme and make a fleet of ships for tea, open ham finger rolls with pineapple flags!  His afternoon snack was Captain Snots treasure, custard with pineapple, dessicated coconut and sprinkles.

Whilst they where asleep I set up the front room and buried the treasure!  I turned the sofa around to make his ship, the two arm chairs became 'dead mans cave,' I made a 'Cardigan bay', my rubbish humour! And he loves reading a book with his granny called 'Pirates love underpants,' which has a line about 'big knickers bay', so I recreated a mini version of this too.

When he woke up we dressed up in our pirate outfits and searched for the treasure, Alyssa was 'Baby Face Jones', Arthur was 'Captain Snot nose' and I was the 'Evil Captain Orange Tash'!  We all had a great time running around, crawling through caves, jumping rivers and blasting each other with ball pool cannon balls, but I wasn't impressed when Snot nose didn't save me when Baby face had me by the nose!!

Painting the treasure chest

Pirate Pete and Alyssa

The finished piece

The treasure

Boats??

Snots treasure

Baby face Jones

Captain Snot nose

Evil Captain Orange tash

Cardigan bay

Wide view in Pirate Pete's rock

Big Knickers bay

The ship

Playing with the treasure

Alyssa meets the locals

All tired out!

A great day of imagination, creativity, and counting the steps on the map!  Will have to remember all this for International Talk like a pirate day! Yes there really is one!! 19th September!

No mess fun with paint!

Today I wanted a simple activity that didn't involve much setting up or cleaning up after, and I know Arthur loves playing with paint, but he does tend to get very very messy!  I tried once when he was younger placing paint under some taped down cling film, but he soon tore the cling film away and got messy again!  So I thought this time I would seal some paint into a resealable sandwich bag, and for some added sensory stimulation I taped the bag to the window so the light would come through it. 

I worked out to be a lovely way of getting Athur to practice pre-writing shapes, like zig zags and wavy lines, as well as teaching him shapes and colours.  He still wanted to do his favourite thing, handprints, so I showed him he could and that made him happy!  In the end it turned into a sort of wipe clean drawing pad, with squishy sensory extras.  And other pluses included Alyssa enjoying giving it a good scrunch and a squeeze, and taste which was quickly removed for fear of her new tooth ripping the bag! And the best bit, when finished just pop it in the bin, simple!

Ready to go!

Giving it a go

Pushing paint around

Making lines

Scrunching

Mummies shapes

More finger lines

Mummies handprint

Arthur doing handprints

Alyssa squishing

Housework made easy, aka make the kids do it!

With all this lovely weather my housekeeping has falling behind a bit, my excuse being it's been too hot to clean!  Well tonight we have visitors coming over, so today has been all about getting the place clean and tidy and suitable for guests.  With the two Aj's to entertain as well, ok just Arthur as Alyssa was happy in her bouncer, I thought I would combine the two.  Children love to imitate what adults do in role paying, and many people forget this.  We spend money on toy kitchens and toy cleaning sets etc, why don't we just let them do things for real within reason?

Arthur has always enjoyed loading and unloading the washing machine with me, and always tries to hoover if I get it out, he has also been known to imitate me dusting with a wet wipe!  I started of by asking if he wanted to help me clean, to which he excitedly answered yes, I then gave him his own special cleaning cloth and told him "Mummy is too big to clean things down low, so she needs your help! Mummy will clean up high where you can't reach!"  Of course you may need to secretly wipe up behind them, but the sense of achievement they get when you tell them they are doing so well and being so helpful is wonderful.

After dusting came hoovering, using a mini dust buster type hoover so it is easier for them, although Arthur does like the big hoover also.  Obviously don't expect them to do the whole room, once he was asleep I quickly finished up where he had missed.  Next came the fun job of plumping up the sofa cushions in both the traditional way, and Arthur's unique more fun way!  I don't really do this but thought it would be fun for him.

Then I took him downstairs to the kitchen, where I had taped a square on to the floor and told him to try and sweep any mess into the square, then use the dustpan and brush to pick it up.  I then put the rubbish into the bin, next thing I know Arthur is sweeping bits off the floor and taking them to the bin himself, we finished off the kitchen by mopping the floor taking it in turns to use the mop so it could be done properly.  By the time we were done my house was a bit cleaner, Arthur felt he had done something good and wanted to do more, and he also had practice in motor skills controlling everything we used, and taking turns and sharing responsibility.  It also made the housework a bit more interesting for me, although I don't recommend it if your in a rush, but with enough practice, when they are older they will be able to do it themselves and hopefully enjoy it!

Don't tell daddy he touched it!

Cleaning the windowsils

Hoovering

Plumping cushions

More fun this way

Sweeping

Almost done

In the bin

Mop time!