Today was Ireland ?? We watched a short video on Irish dancing (the girls were mesmerised). Did some dot painting for the rainbow. Cut and paste pot of gold. The girls then wanted to try bake an Irish Apple Cake! Thankfully we had the ingredients. We took a short tour of some tourist places to visit and the girls have now Ireland on their bucket list ? Especially Ashford Castle ? (Hogwarts)
Leah found some pipe cleaners and created a few dinosaur friends. I was planning on using these pipe cleaners to make wire people but I think this is a much better use. Also it’s now used in a lot of imaginative play this morning.
We also made glue and salt pictures. I transferred wood glue into these little bottles with spouts for easier drawing. You can also use a paintbrush and paint the glue pic too whichever you have available. We then covered the glue pictures with salt. After that we mixed up some water colour (you could use food colour) and gently drop watercolour onto the salt. Allow to dry? such a cool effect and something different to just painting a picture ?
We got a great idea to draw with chalk outside from our dear friend Julie and combined it with another idea from our area Facebook group to draw rainbows for the kids walking around the neighbourhood to spot.
So off Scarlett went and drew some rainbows on our front door and pavement in front of our house, just a little something for the kids to spot while doing the daily neighbourhood walks ?
The fun then continued with more chalk drawing in our cul de sac, a game of hopscotch and a spot of car washing too! All in a days work!
These two activities such a hit! Last night I made food colouring ice cubes with match sticks to help with cold fingers. It didn’t work quite as planned, the girls still got cold and stained fingers but the artworks created was worth it! Next up corn flour, water and herbs and spices to the rescue. Been over 20 mins and they still playing (outside). I love corn flour more than flour because it creates a kind of resistance when you try mixing it, the girls found this super cool. My sister in law did something similar with her son in Belgium and I knew I had to do it my girls too!
The aftermath of messy play, even Luna got into the fun! Then it was messy play clean up! Scarlett loves washing dishes!
We made play dough this morning. Recipe found here ? https://theimaginationtree.com/best-ever-no-cook-play-dough-recipe/ ? A really easy and quick recipe. I added some essential oils but that’s optional.
I am also including a pic of the girls playing with play dough yesterday that a friend gifted them. The play dough came with the most awesome bits and bobs to create and play with. The company is called Squiggle. Check out their website, so many awesome products for indoor imaginative play https://squiggle-craftingmadeeasysa.myshopify.com/?fbclid=IwAR1WqbBg2aYu78bGg2WnWW2Wo1iq5joGsoK4pfWKwhWkEo885lcZ7_AJ4TE
We made a quick spinner from a cereal box. Tried at first using floss but it didn’t work as well, so ended up using string that we had. Making it took longer than the enjoyment of it though.?
We started this weekend self isolating as far as possible and today we kept the girls home in an effort to flatten the curve. Keeping away from everyone is as much important for our health as to others especially the elderly and immunocompromised. In an effort to give inspiration and “help” to those searching for ideas on what activities can be done at home with what is generally found at home I will be sharing some of the activities we do on a daily basis over the next few weeks. Parents at my children’s school have even volunteered to read books for an hour a day over some form of online viewing to help parents get a bit of a breather (some parents still needing to work remotely while having to keep children entertained is difficult). But I digress, today we painted ( we have paints but you could probably use food colouring). It was a good 30 mins down time for me? the aim was to create an animal peeking through a jungle type scenery. Scarlett did the tiger, Leah did the snake. We used a National Geographic Kids magazine we had as inspiration.
