Low Energy Play: Gloop

This month's low energy play seems like a very messy play on the outside. Stick with it though, as looks can be deceiving.

Low Energy Play: Foam Rainbow

This month's low energy play comes from a pin from Fun At Home With Kids. This one seemed like it be more work than I was looking for, but actually turned out to be pretty simple. All you need is washing up liquid, a whisk (preferably electric) and food colouring.

Low Energy Playtime: Cardboard Roll Cars

Last month I began writing about some low energy play ideas I am putting together for those struggling with tiredness, starting off with foam stickers. This month we have tried a completely new idea that was so easy to set up but so much fun - cardboard roll cars!

Low Energy Playtime - Foam Stickers

Having being recently diagnosed with CFS/ME, I have found the messy playtimes we used to enjoy a huge challenge. So I have been researching play that doesn't take too much energy, but gets the children exploring different ways to play and learn.

Messy Play For Matilda Mae

As we are currently away on a little break I have not had time to write this week's messy play post, however I wanted to put together a little one to share the fun we had. Ths week's theme set by Edspire was Pink & Purple.

I put together our water table and froze some pink & purple ice cubes with some little peaks inside. I added these to the water and gave them children some cups, spoons and a sieve for fishing and off they went.

They are quite familiar with water play now, in fact it's all I can do to stop Baby J jumping in before it's all set up! Although it did also see him standing on his own for a few seconds - a proud mummy moment!

I added some pink & purple food colouring to some shaving foam and gave them paintbrushes, just to add another element to the play. Here are a few photos from our fun.

Dino Land

Over the bank holiday we took the opportunity to include Mr H in some messy play. A while ago I bought some rubber dinosaurs and have been meaning to give some small world play a try. So I brought in the Tuff Spot and set it all up.

Sea Creatures

I seem to have had water beads sat on my worktop for weeks now! They have so many uses and I have been reluctant to throw them away. However I think Mr H has got sick of seeing them, so as one last playtime I picked out all the water colours (which took ages!) and created a little ocean scene for H.

I added her sea creatures to the beads, along with some shaving foam for effect and away she went.

H is still at an age where she needs showing to play sometimes, so I got into it myself and we made a story where the baby seal had gone missing and mummy seal tried to find it, encountering sharks and such along the way. She thought this was great fun and once I had taken my turn she was quite happy to reenact the story herself, with different animals.

She wasn't so keen on the shaving foam at first and wanted her hands wiping, but once I showed her that it didn't matter if her hands got a little messy she seemed to forget about it and got carried away in her play.

This was a very quick playtime to set up and kept her entertained for quite a while. It was also fun for mummy to join in!

 

Today Ghostwritermummy is hosting Messy Play for Matilda Mae, so head over there and give her some love!

Oatso Fun

The other day my friend came by with her little girl, so I decided to use our Tuff Spot to set up some playtime fun. I had bought a bag of value porridge oats a while ago so I dragged it from the back of the cupboard and opened the packet out onto the Tuff Spot. And it was that simple - I added a few cups, spoons and trains to interact with and left them to it.

Lullaby

Have you heard of SIDS? Silent Infant Death Syndrome takes the lives of 290 babies every year and whilst it is most common in babies under twelve months, it can affect older children too. FSID's is the charity who support parents who have lost children to this tragic illness and fund research into further prevention. Their over-arching aim is to reduce the number of unexplained cot deaths to below 200 by 2015 and to halve it to 150 by 2020.

Today marks the next chapter in FSID's campaign - they have decided in order to encourage more families to seek the help they offer that they will now be known at The Lullaby Trust. They hope the new name will be a gentler name that will help families feel more able to access the information and services that they provide.

In honour of this event, several bloggers have written posts on the theme of lullabies (click the image above to view the other posts).

Rainbow Spaghetti Play

Since I found my inspiration via The Imagination Tree, I have been meaning to give this one a shot for quite a while and had high hopes as its looks so fab.

Water Bead Play

A few weeks ago I came across the fantastic site, How To Train Up A Child. Filled with tons of play ideas for little ones, it is now my go-to guide for inspiration!

When I saw a post on water beads, lights and eggs, I had to give it a try so I jumped on eBay and ordered away. They arrived quickly but it took me a few days to decide how many water beads  I needed for a good play, so first we tried the eggs and lights out. Today it was the beads' turn!

We pulled out H's sand table and along with the plastic eggs, cups and a couple of spoons, set to play. Unfortunately due to J's tendency to chew anything and everything he had to watch on, much to his frustration.

H loved touching the beads and the first thing she did was start squishing them under her hands.

She then set to work transferring them into plastic cups with the different spoons...

...and then between hands.

However she had the most fun throwing them on the floor, watching them bounce and roll!

Fortunately this isn't a messy activity and can be easily cleared away once they've had enough.

I would definitely recommend this for your toddler, it was great fun, in fact I ordered a load more beads today, ready for some Easter fun!

Glow Eggs

As it is coming up to Easter I gave been gradually collecting a few items together to put together a fun sensory box. Amongst these items were some plastic eggs. A few days ago I came across a fun post on Pinterest via Train Up A Child and decided I HAD to give it a try! It involved water beads, submersible tea lights and said plastic eggs. Unfortunately when the moment arose to have a go I hadn't put the beads in water long enough so we couldn't give them a try quite yet, so I'm saving them for another day.

I dragged H's water table from the garden. It has been sat there unused all winter and after seeing other bloggers use them for indoor play I decided it should go to waste no more. After a quick clean down I filled it with water, then threw in the eggs with the lights inside. I pulled down the blind and let the kids go wild.

They loved it and spent a good hour exploring the lights, splashing around and transferring them from one side of the table to the other. I added some sponges, cups and spoons and they had a great time. I love it now J is old enough to join in these activities and he has so much fun! My kitchen was soaked and so were the children but they absolutely loved it and that's what matters.

 

 

PS Apologies for the grainy images, iPhones don't do well in the dark!

Wiggly Worms!

Last week we were forced to stay inside waiting for a delivery, so had to find entertainment for a stir-crazy toddler! Whilst I was in Wilkinsons a few days before I had picked up some pipecleaners (for a £1 may I add!) with this activity in mind, and this was the perfect opportunity.

Whilst Baby J was napping (I didn't think the sharp wire in the pipecleaners was suitable for him to be trying to chew on) I pulled out an old colander and said pipecleaners and showed Little H how to thread them through the holes. It only took a couple of attempts before she was doing it herself, although of course mummy had to play too!

H loved pulling them out at the end and throwing them all over, pronouncing them wiggly worms!

Mummy had the most fun making pipecleaners animals, though. Can you guess what it is yet??

Our Sensory Bath

The other afternoon I was at a loss as to what to do. We have been stuck inside a lot lately with the weather and it was still very cold outside. With H coming down with a cold herself I didn't want to risk it getting worse so we had to remain indoors. It was bath night that night so I wondered if there was something fun we could do there.

It didn't take me long to find lots of sensory fun you could have whilst having a splash! I stumbled across Multiple Mummy's blog and found she had written a post about fun with her children in the bath, inspired by a blog I have not previously read, Growing a Jeweled Rose. I'm not quite sure why I haven't seen this blog before as it has an endless supply of messy play activities and there were several bath ideas.

I decided to go with coloured water and some painting with coloured shaving foam. I dashed upstairs to run the bath and quickly made up the shaving foam. Mr H only had blue shaving gel in the cupboard so unfortunately the colours didn't come out quite as well as intended (many were a bit of a murky orange/brown), and my red food colouring was a bit rubbish so the water was orange rather than red, but never mind. I added some colour-themed toys and we were ready!

Baby J loves his baths so any kind of water-related activity is fine by him. H ought the idea of painting on the tiles and not getting into trouble was fantastic and happily 'painted' away on some palettes I'd made out of coloured paper and stuck to the wall. Baby J meanwhile enjoyed sucking on the painting sponges and splashing about next to her!

 

I'd also filled an old shampoo bottle with blue water and, once I'd washed Baby J, I handed this to H to keep her occupied whilst I got him dry.

I showed her how to squeeze the bottle and she had fun watching the water change colour (the orange water then turned green instead of the intended purple so my gathered colour-related toys went out of the window!

Little H really enjoyed this bath time especially that she could paint so freely (I'm rather a particular mummy so messy paint has not been attempted yet). She keeps asking for the paintbrushes every time she has a bath now!

So there we have it - a boring afternoon turned into a colourful water world of activity!