Felt boards are great for children to explore imaginative play. You can use them to tell stories, create art and pictures etc. Even better they are clean and quiet.
I have just put a few things into begin with and hope to add to it over time.
I have started with some basic pieces such as shapes body cut outs and clothing. You can basically add anything you want
All you need is some felt pieces and imagination (I also bough a firm felt board from the craft shop for about $1 but you can create one of your own by gluing felt to cardboard.
This is crazy simple idea but amazingly effective and I have to give full credit to Nana. My mum looked after my son 2 days a week whilst I am at work and bought over this packet of magnifying classes (plastic ones) a few months ago and they have been an endless source of entertainment.
We have used them for many things including
- exploring outdoors
- reading books
- finding things on the floor
- looking at pictures in books
- finding hidden things.
One more than one occasion I have sent him outside and asked him to find me a caterpillar or ant or similar, he usually gets distracted and plays with something else but it keeps him busy which is the goal.
This is great for sensory play for children 2 and up. You don't want to give it to children when they are still putting things in their mouth.
Rice play is used a lot in Montessori education. It be a great tactile and calming play experience for children and teaches them early science skills.
To make the rice.
- Add one cup of rice to a plastic bag
- Mix your choice of food colouring to 1 tablespoon of vinegar
- Optional - also add 1 drop of essential oil to the mix, this just makes it smell nice and takes away the vinegar smell
- Pour the vinegar mixture over the rice and rub into the rice until it is all coated.
- Pour the rice onto a tray an leave it to dry (about an hour).
Ideas for use.
- Put it in a large plastic tray with Scoops, cups, funnels, bottles, water wheel.
- Put it in shaker bottles.
- Put with plastic tweezers and get older children to separate the colours (takes a child with an eye for detail and lots of focus to enjoy this).
- Add animals, dinosours etc.
- With some scales and get they to try and balance the weight.
- Ask children how they could use it, children are far more inventive than adults.
Keep it in a zip locked bag and it should last for months. Be wary this can be a very messy play experience.
So my son was loving using the toy kitchen at a friends house recently and is really into helping in the kitchen. I really wanted to encourage this interest in cooking but I didn't want another huge piece of children's equipment taking up space and not sure how long the interest would last. Luckily we had just purchased some bookshelves and I had the large boxes left over so I decided to make him his own stove/oven. It only took me an hour and I figured that I could just pop in the recycling bin when we were finished with it. He has been using it for months now and still loves it, after about 2 months the oven door is a bit wonky but other than that it has stood the test of time.
I purchased some mini cooking equipment - tongs, spatula, whisk, pots and pans - from Kmart for $1-$2 each to the whole thing cost me about $10.
Hi All,
My blog has been neglected for quite a while. Returning to work and parenting seem to have taken up every moment of my day. Just to add to the business we are expecting a second child any day now. I have been busy creating lots of toys still and am hoping over the next couple of months to update you on what we have been doing. I have been putting together some "busy boxes" of things to keep the 2 year old occupied while I am tending to the new bub so will add them to the blog.
Stay tuned more to come very soon.
Thanks for sticking with me
Caroline
