Blog 12 of lockdown fun!

Happy Monday Funky Fans! How are you doing?

Are you in England and taking advantage of some easing of the restrictions?

I am in Wales and we don’t have many restrictions lifting but we are getting through this!

We are still so lucky with all the sunny weather, long may it last!

Here are some more things we have been up to this last week. Have you done any of these ideas? I would love to see your pictures.

Chalk fire

This is a fantastic activity for warmer days. You will need some chalk, preferably orange and red but toddler G decided to add in some purple too so we had a colourful fire!

Draw flames on a wall or large piece of cardboard outside and then ask your little one to put out the fire with the hose pipe and then they can wash away the chalk with the water.

Just a hint, if you want to redraw the chalk flames make sure you wait until the wall is completely dry as I discovered drawing them on a wet wall makes them somewhat harder to wash off! Oops!

Toilet paper bug hotel

I have been reading about invitations to play recently and so I have been setting things up for toddler G to discover and then start playing ideally without too many prompts from me so he can exercise his own imagination.

This was easy to set up and looked really effective.

Toddler G and I glued together empty loo rolls and I put this on the tuff tray along with some kinetic sand and some compost.

I also had some little plastic bugs but you could use any little animals or even create your own bugs!

Toddler G really enjoyed making paths through the compost for the bugs and putting them to bed in the toilet rolls.

Construction tuff tray

Toddler G has gotten really in to trucks, diggers and tractors over the last few months and chooses them over any other toy so I made a construction invitation to play.

I used some soil, wood chips. moon sand and play dough and I popped some blocks and his digger and tractor on the tray and let him discover it.

Toddler G really enjoyed poking the wood chips in to the playdough and making tunnels and paths for the tractor.

I love these invitations to play as so far toddler G has played with them in a slightly different way each time than I expect so it’s great for his imagination and encouraging independent play.

Rainbow rice

This was so fun to make and it looks so pretty!

Toddler G and I poured rice in to bowls and then added paint and a dash of vinegar. The vinegar helps make the rice last longer.

It takes a few hours to dry and then I shaped it in to a rainbow shape on the tuff tray a long with a few scoops and bowls and let toddler G discover it himself.

He played scooping for ages and then went to find his tractors to drive through it. When he had finished, we put the rice in to a clean dry tub and we can use it any time for more play.

Digging a hole and making a mountain

This is rather dependant on having a garden so big apologies of this isn’t possible for you.

Toddler G loved this and it kept us entertained for days.

We have been meaning to dig a small hole for a frog pond for a while now and lockdown seemed as good a time as any so I got our tools out and made a start.

I used a large spade and toddler G had a trowel and we happily kept ourselves entertained for at least an hour and we went back to this a number of days as it was something he really enjoyed.

Once we had dug the hole we used Toddler G’s old baby bath and lined it.

Now we are just waiting for some rain to fill it up!

We used some tarpaulins to put the soil from the hole on and then once the hole was done we transferred the soil to a convenient spot in the garden. This also was turned in to a game as toddler G filled up his dumper truck and helped move it.

We then created a fabulous little hill which is perfect for toddler G to run his cars and trucks up and down.

Montessori the toys

This is something I have been intending to do for such a long time and I only have got around to it now. I had previously put all Toddler G’s toys in baskets but they were getting very crowded and also difficult for him to see what was in there.

The Montessori principle is only having a few toys out at any one time as this encourages them to play more and it really does work.

We bought a bookcase to put the toys in and I put most of his toys in to large crates to store and picked out just a few to go on each shelf.

I also kept one basket for his balls and kept his brio and toy kitchen around.

I was surprised at just how well this worked. Toddler G now goes to the shelves such a lot and picks a toy to play with and plays for a while before getting tired of it.

He also has got a lot more engaged with tidying up too so win win!

Well that’s it for this week, we will be busy thinking up more ideas for you for next week so keep a look out!

I hope you are taking care of yourselves funky fans and staying safe even with the new legislation. Sending you all a big hug!