Now Summer has officially arrived it’s lovely to see our crafts being inspired by nature and our garden. We love to attract the birds to our garden so made some easy bird feeders after school today. It’s a quick and easy craft but a great way to improve those fine motor skills. Easy pipe cleaner bird feeders We used: pipe cleaners Honey Loops breakfast cereal I poured some of the Honey Loops into a smaller container and sat my children down with an assortment of pipe cleaners. They threaded the cereal onto the pipe cleaners, one by one. It was…
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The letter this week for the A-Z Play at Home series was F. I tried to think of an every day item around the house and came up with feathers! Father dusters are great but we also had a plentiful supply in our craft cupboard. We used them to make a fun feather crown, perfect for play at home. You will need only two basic things, cardboard and feathers, to make simple feather crowns. Roughly measure your child’s head and cut a thick band of cardboard accordingly. We placed our feathers at the front of the crown so used a scalpel…
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Did you know that tomorrow (Wednesday December 21st) at 10.44 GMT is the Winter Solstice. The winter solstice is an astronomical phenomenon marking the shortest day and the longest night of the year. It happens when the Sun reaches its most southerly declination of -23.5 degrees. To celebrate the Winter Solstice and the shortest day of the year we made a Winter Solstice ice lamp. I’ve wanted to make one for a few years, the kids always enjoy a little science at home, and finally got round to making it with the children. We used: a plastic tub water red…
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As we were coming back from the theatre last night my 4 year old spotted a poster for the new Swallows and Amazons film which is out today. You may remember we were lucky to attend the preview last month and the film obviously made a big impression on her as she wants to see it again. I couldn’t resist looking for Swallows and Amazons crafts. We’ve already made a few ourselves but here are 10 Swallows and Amazons inspired crafts for fans of the book or film – make sure you try and see it! 10 Swallows and Amazons…
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More of this beautiful weather please. With the children beginning their summer holidays I am on the lookout for how best to keep them both active and creative. I’m delighted to announce I will be working with BEAR Nibbles over the coming months, as BEAR really understands how to make being healthy a little bit easier and a whole lot tastier. BEAR believes in going the extra mile to ensure kids are both healthy and happy and has recently launched its Little Paws Outdoors Campaign, in partnership with The Wildlife Trusts, to make it a little bit easier and a…
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Our homemade mud kitchen has been getting a lot of use this year. To mix it up a little I thought I would set up an invitation to play for my children, using some of the treasure we brought back from the beach earlier this year. Every year we try to have a holiday by the sea and this year we brought back a lot of it with us. As we were packing up the car the children were still slipping sea glass and shaped pebbles into their bags, desperate to bring a little of their holiday back to London…
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Do your children enjoy Puffin Rock? It’s narrated by Chris O’Dowd and stars 12 year old Kate McCafferty from Derry as the voice of Oona. Puffin Rock follows the funny adventures of a family of puffins who live on a beautiful Irish island. Oona, is a smart young puffling, eager to learn and explore. She shares her escapades on Puffin Rock, with her sweet little brother, Baba, and all their friends. The show is a charming mix of natural history facts, pre-school learnings, relationship dynamics and humour. My 4 year old loves Puffin Rock so I’m really pleased the new series launched…
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We’re lucky to live in a really family-friendly neighbourhood and the last couple of years the children have dressed up to go trick or treating. We know all our neighbours and they always have a few sweets for them when the children visit. I wanted to make some special treat bags with them and thought it would be fun to print out own using apples. Equipment needed to make a homemade Halloween treat bag: Craft paper box with twine handle from The Works Apple Orange acrylic paint and brush How to make a homemade Halloween treat bag: Apples make the…
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We seem to be experiencing a mini-heatwave in the UK today which meant we have spent most of the day outdoors. My 3 year old loves playing fairies so we thought we would add to our fairy garden. So far we’ve built a fairy house in the garden, made a painted stone fairy door for a fairy house and painted pebble animals to live in the fairy garden. Today we had some messy sensory fun, making proper mud cakes for the fairies, in our tuff spot mud kitchen. Setting up a tuff spot mud kitchen It was really easy to…