Family Tree: Our Land-mark

A Real Family Tree in the Outdoors

 

Dimples has decorated a few of the rainbow trees with his handprints. There is one blank tree that will be Purple very soon.

 

Once again, we have been in the outdoors painting trees on our property.

This time we did a family tree.  Something a little more meaningful and fun.

Painting the tree

 

Last year some time we Painted this tree, you can see it here: adventuresathomewithmum painting-tree it lasted the weather, lasted through Summer and didn't fade. It wasn't until autumn that the tree started to shed its top layer of bark and most of the painting came off with the bark.

 

Its tough work, we used exterior paint left over from our Backyard Balance stumps and we only needed one coat.

Here we are again, painting big trees, Beautiful rainbow trees.  This time with something more meaningful and bright.  Ofcourse it wont last but for a year or so it will make the property look bright and be a family reminder of the fun things we do together.  

 

Once it was dry we put Black handprints on it and I named and dated them. It didnt take long to dry in the sun.

We have even done a foot print Family tree.
 

Dimples has a funny very vocal cow 'cackle' who had to come see what we were doing (and lick the paint) 

 

Happy Outdoor Adventures  :)

If your after more outdoor activities, click on my outdoor tab under my header at the top of the page.

Balance Stumps - Outdoor Play Decor

Our Out-Door Play Area is slowly growing, its beginning to take over the yard. I love it! I am a strong believer that outdoor Play is essential and one of the fundamental ways kids learn. Particularly gross motor skills, but outdoor play also builds a kids physical confidence; it encourages safe risk taking, children get to test their ability and know their boundaries. Through this they learn what they are capable of and when they should stop. Have you seen Dimples tree house & water wall??? Click here.

These bright balance tree stumps are such as easy way to spruce up an outdoor play area.  They look fun and add a colourful addition to a play area, they could be adapted into any area or even used as a garden border. All you need is a fallen tree (or you could get a post from the hardware shop) we are lucky enough to live in the country and had a fallen tree that was in perfect condition. Adventures Dad cut it up into different lengths and Dimples had a ball painting them with me.

I used Exterior Paint, half a litre of paint in each colour did about 3 coats on each stump, the paint was fade proof and didn't require any under coat or protector. However, if your timber was still wet it may absorb the paint so you could end up needing more paint as it dries out. The other thing I was weary of was the colours, I went for bright rich colours instead of light ones, again if you picked light colours or pastels you would require much more paint or under coats to seal the stumps first.

The stumps were dug and packed into the ground using mud about 15-10 cm deep, ideally you would cement them in but a good strong pack has done good for us and they can steadily hold my weight with out any movement what so ever so I trust they are safe for Dimples.
Just to add another element to the task I placed them around in a S shape so that Dimples has to shift balance and direction, they are also at different heights.

There are many benefits of outdoor play, this type of activity helps develop a child's body strength, Imaginative play, happiness being outdoors & being active, Perseverance, Testing their own limits, Balance, Attention & focus, body coordination, Stretching, Learning what they are capable of doing, connecting them to natures, & helping them to rely on their own instincts.

Dimples has already formed a game where he is surrounded by snapping crocodiles below and he mustn't fall into the swamp below. He has learnt to have his arms out by his sides as he balances and he tends to go right foot first as he steps down, but left foot first as he goes up a step.
The colours are also fun. Dimples and his good friend Miss K chanted the colours for each other as they stepped on them and it brightens up his whole play area making it look so much more appealing.

Happy Outdoor Adventures :-)

Monster Slime Mess



Gelatin Play is a new play material we have been experimenting with lately. This messy play was put together the night before by simply mixing gelatine powder, hot water and food colour. I used a star-fish snack tray and filled it up with some small plastic animals and put it in the fridge to set.

 

I put it on the glass table, set it out with some utensils and let Dimples go for it. Lets see where it lead us. As usual I love his imagination, today is was monster Slime. For a while it was Alien Poo but he kept coming back to monster slime.

He squished it through his fingers, and crushed and crushed and crushed it until the rubbery mass turned into a slippery slime. It made some pretty awesome sounds as he squeezed it in the palm of his hand and pushed it into the circular part of the tray. These 'fart' sounds were quite humorous to him, he was in hysterics making all sorts of sounds. Monster Farts he would exclaim in giggling fits of laughter.

With a knife and fork he cut some up, of course it was easy to cut but this task required lots of concentration and control. Hand eye co-ordination as he sliced it, holding the knife upright and then practising using a big spoon, scooping it all up and pouring it back into the dish.

He played for a good 40 minutes just experimenting with the texture, squishing it around and burying his hand under it. The only rule he had was to keep it on the table (he almost succeeded in this) it was quite a mess so be warned, but he done well and enjoyed the mess for much longer than I had expected.

I grabbed out a paper towel roll tube and gave it to him without instructions or any ideas and he did exactly as I expected. Used it as a tunnel and poured the slime through it.
Dimples experimented with gravity for a while, filling it up while it was level and then tipping it up and watching it all pour through.  He did get a little wild for a moment, as I was in the kitchen I turned around to see him doing a helicopter motion above his head with the tube and a trail or goo flying out. After I reminded him of the rules he didn't do it again and continued playing

More squishy sounds, more giggles and more imaginative stories. Alien slime, monster slime, an Aliens toilet, this dropped out of their space ship- Aliens must eat sharks and ocean creatures for dinner! The things he comes up with when he gets on a roll amuses me.

 

 Mixing, stirring, pouring, scooping, squishing and slicing up the slime. It went on for another 20 minutes as he used his utensils and by that time the slime had turned into more of a liquid. Then he made what he told me was a clock, a circular pattern in the slime by twisting the tube around. Dimples played around drawing through the liquid slime and making patterns through it on the glass table. Thankfully after he was done, he happily helped me clean it all up. Give him some clothes and a spray bottle and he will clean up just about anything, but this required a mummy clean and a good bath as he had it plopped all over the front of him, on his face and all over the place.
Dont let this put you off though, it was one of the most enjoyable activities he has done in a long while and he kept with it for longer than usual. The food colour doesnt stain and it is really easy to clean up as it doesnt dry on any surface.

Happy Adventures :)

Glowing dragon Eggs by the Hulk

The story of the Glowing Magical Baby Dragon Eggs made by my Baby Hulk.

As you may have noticed I have been doing a bit of experimenting with glowing play for Dimples to explore. We started with glow baths and bath paint made from shaving cream and highlighter ink. We have made Glowing playdoh, substituting the water with glow water, and I made some glow spaghetti yesterday. This time we made some glowing water beads.

Through this experimenting I have found that yellow and green Neon highlighters work the best.

We made the water beads by using hydrated ones and soaking them for 18 hours in glow water (highlighter ink & water). It has been done before in the blogging world, but for us it was new & it was a success. We did Clear beads in yellow ink, green beads in green ink and some Orange in orange highlighter ink (the ones that aren't as vibrant are the orange ones).

We put them in a tray and used a bit of the glow water mixed in a zip lock bag with some shaving cream.  Dimples then poured this in over the beads and mixed it into a big glowing mass of fun.

Using some clear containers with lids he filled them up and shook them round so the entire container was a glowing tube. He experimented with site perception, shaking it quickly and watching the blurred trail in the dark. (We had an almost pitch black room).

He discovered after a while that he was also glowing, his hands and finger nails were glowing under the black light. He told me this meant he had turned into a monster!  The green Hulk Monster.

Hulk Alert, Dimples has turned into a glowing Hulk :) 

Or is he radioactive?

The radioactive glowing Dimples did some pretend cooking. He Made me some magic berries but then suddenly they were magic baby dragon eggs.  So he went with this for a while, helping to "hatch" baby dragons out of the magic glowing eggs, telling me what colour each one was. I love his imagination!

He had lots of fun filling up jars and cups then shaking them around and holding them towards the light, then hiding them so they weren't glowing but mostly he enjoyed crushing them into oblivion and making a huge slushy mess.

If you have missed our glowing Adventures, click on the Glowing Fun Tab under my header for more ideas.

If you have never tried using black light play, start here glowing-bath-play where you will find a link for how to make & use it :)

First you will need a Black light globe that you can get from your local hardward or lighting store. You can purchase fandango ones online that are enclosed but they are costly, we got our Black light globe for $13 and use it in a lamp with the ahde taken off. While in the Bath, I replace the globe on the ceiling light and it works just as good :)

Happy Adventures

Glowing Spaghetti

Glowing Spaghetti Messy Play in the Dark Fun Under the Black light.

I have been wondering whether spaghetti would work if I attempted to make it glow, Just as we do with glow water (Highlighter Ink & Water), Glow Paint (UV/Neon Paint) & Bath glow Foam (shaving cream & highlighter Ink).

So I thought, theres nothing to lose, I will attempt it & if it fails.... Well its just a bit of spaghetti.

I combined 2 methods: I cooked the Spaghetti in glow water, as I thought most of the water retention would be in this process. Then I put the cooked spaghetti in a zip lock bag, with a bad of neon green paint, a little more glow water and a drop of oil. I left it soak for a hour or so and...........

IT WORKED. Success!

Dimples had a ball with his mini tractors and dump trucks digging around in the glowing spaghetti under the black light. He mushed it around, made piles, scooped it up into the trucks and made tracks through it. He even put his hands in and buried them under the "glowing worms".

Through our experiments with glow water, I have found that Neon Green and Yellow highlighters always work best. This may look green, because I added some fluro neon paint but the glow water I used was ink from a yellow highlighter.
Dimples loved this type of play and was very inquisitive with the spaghetti, threading it through his fingers and exploring it by holding it up to the black light, then hiding it behind the box so it stopped glowing.

If you have missed our glowing Adventures, click on the Glowing Fun Tab under my header for my ideas.

If you have never tried using black light play, start here glowing-bath-play where you will find a link for how to make & use it :)

First you will need a Black light globe that you can get from your local hardward or lighting store. You can purchase fandango ones online that are enclosed but they are costly, we got our Black light globe for $13 and use it in a lamp with the ahde taken off. While in the Bath, I replace the globe on the ceiling light and it works just as good :)

Rainbow Spaghetti & Bug Cooking

Play Invitation:

 Cooked Spaghetti in Rainbow colours with some plastic insects and bugs,

set out with Cooking gear & a play kitchen...

Rainbow coloured spaghetti: Cook your spaghetti, then put it in zip lock bags with a drop of oil (so it doesn't stick) & add your food colouring to dye. Soak for a while - Or ask your little one to squish it around, I did this with Dimples & he enjoyed watching the colours soak through and get vibrantly bright.

With some utensils Dimples prepared a scrumptious looking dish for our dog. Rainbow Spag, shaving cream & bugs. Demon, the dog, actually ate some spaghetti that was thrown in his bowl while Dimples went on stirring the cream through, using tongs to pick up the slippery spaghetti & "cooking" it in the pot & play oven.

Pretend cooking in his play kitchen, Dimples role played Head cook, setting the timer, stirring & mixing, putting his handle to the side, using a towl to get the "hot" food out of the oven, letting it cool before serving it.  My little Master Chef.

You can click HERE to check out my post  "The Benefits of Pretend Play" that was featured on Postiveparentingconnection.net  - This type of pretend play fits well into this post, its fun-messy-imaginative Play...

Sensory Stepping Stones

SQUISHY, SPONGY, SPIKY, LUMPY, SCRATCHY, CRACKLING, SOFT

On some circular paper, aka Stepping stones to Dimples, I gathered some different textured & unusual feeling materials and Dimples glued them onto the stepping stones to make different feeling sensory mats.

A scourer cut in pieces, a Sponge cut in pieces, a different thicker lumpy sponge, some Bubble wrap layered, some Styrofoam & pom poms, some bristles of an old paint brush, and a gel filled zip lock bag.  All with way too much glue as usual so it took a long time for them to dry!
They were pretty successful none-the-less!

Dimples took off his socks and tip-toed over the sensory stepping stones. The look on his face said it all, he thought they were awesome.

With uhmmms, arhhhs, Ewwwws, giggles and funny faces he trotted over them pulling some pretty unusual facial expressions.  I asked him what they felt like?  " This is squishy & cold in my toes ",  "this ones a tiny bit spiky, it looks like hair?"  "this ones bumpy" "this one sounds funny, Ill pop it?"  "this one scratches my toes".  As he went through I expanded on what he was saying, bumpy, lumpy, uneven, squishy, scratchy, spiky, prickly, ticklish? and so forth as he chuckled to himself and had a good time jumping around....

He mixed them all up and tried again!
He closed his eyes and tried to identify them just through touch
He laid them apart and tried to do big slow steps, moved them close and did little fast steps.
He put them in a circle & went around & around until he fell down.
Then he felt them all on his hands and knees using his fingers to touch around the edges.
He threw them about like Frisbee's
Then his imagination kicked in, he told me he was jumping over a pond of crocodiles & that he cant fall off because he would splash in the water and get eaten as their lunch.

It was lots of fun and it was pretty fun for me as well, just to listen to his giggles and watch the expressions on his face...

Cutting the Snotty Gak

Gak, Goo, Obleck, slime, silly putty what ever you have known it as, we've never made it before......

So here goes -
You can find a good detailed recipe here : homemade-kids-gooey-gak
But it is so simple & easy to make, I let Dimples do it all on his own.

Using white craft glue, he poured the whole container into a bowl & mixed it with 1 1/2 cups of warm water. Our first attempt we added blue food colour & it turned out so vibrant, then we tried one with black (the texture was much better but it looked like snot)

while Dimples was mixing through the water, glue & colour, I boiled the jug & dissolved a teaspoon of borax in about half a cup of hot water, then i put it in for him.
Its really quite science like, as soon as it swirls through your mix you can see it separate then as you mix it it gets gooey.

This is where it gets fun, I asked Dimples to then mix it with his hands, with no hesitation he squeezed, kneaded and squished it around until it was no longer liquid at all.  It was gak!  Snotty looking Gak.

He loved the stuff, I gave him a pair of scissors & the cut so well through the gak, I think practising with scissors is made more fun using the gak but it seems to work better as well.

Dimples used his scissors to slice a long stringy piece of gak, it was easier for him to hold as he was working on his fine-motor cutting skills, trying to manipulate the scissors in the right direction to cut the "worm" into "baby worms" -
When the scissors cut he can see clearly the slice, it goes through easily whether the scissors are plastic or blunt or safety ones, where as sometimes the kiddy scissors struggle with paper.
And of course there is the sensory aspect of it, it feels soft and squishy & cool on the fingers.
The science of it, the way it moves blends, breaks, the way it mixed, the way it sinks & flattens.
To sum it up, we think its lots of fun & is an interesting thing to play with.

Dimples used it like play doh with his play doh toys, he cut through it for a long time, he used his knife & fork & pretended it was a slimy dinner and he just played about stretching & hanging it around watching it grow

Scented Sensory Discovery Bottles

How to Make & Play with Scented Sensory Discovery Bottles.

These are awesome if I may say so my self! 
I often find myself sniffing away at one of them as Dimples plays quietly.
Lately we have been experimenting with smells, different smelling flowers and plants, making the best sensory-cinnamon-playdoh that is still smelling great and getting used.

Dimples first smelt the perfume one & stuck his nose right in, taking a huge whiff! It was quiet funny to see his face & i got it on camera too. It didn't deter him though, he kept going back for more & insisted on taking them to show family & friends to see their facial reactions.

This activity was great to do and the scent bottles are still laying around getting smelled-

What you would need to make them:  Baby bottles without the teats with screw on lids, stocking/pantyhose, your contents (coffee beans, essential oils, small objects, fake flowers, material leaves, pretend flower petals, coloured rice or what ever tickles your fancy).

Im sure you have heard of discovery bottles before?  You can use them for anything & everything, but this is the first time I have tried scented ones.
Discovery bottles are great for developing attention span and they have a relaxing quality to them!
Use your imagination -
All you need to do is have your little one get in & help, use a funnel and let them pour in the ingredients, then pop in the small objects. We all know toddlers and preschoolers love shoving small objects into things, you know...... in ears, noses, pockets, nappies, lounge cushions.  Put all your things is & a few drops of essential oil or whatever scent you are using.
Then place your stocking over the top of the bottle & screw the lid on tight. You could go one step further if you intend to leave them for free play & use a glue gun to stick the stocking & the lid on!
The scent comes up through the stocking BUT they are also great for exploration and making sound, twisting turning & shaking them around to move the objects out into sight.  Also great for igniting all your senses, and sharing them with others to see what their reaction will be.  Dimples had great fun with them.

Here's what we did;
Dinosaur Coffee Beans-
One of the favourites, I don't even drink that much coffee but the smell of coffee beans is addictive.
This simple one has coffee beans, a small toy dinosaur, and some small tufts of pretend grass that we found in Dimples toy soldier box.

Eucalyptus Snake-
Another favourite, this one has material leaves, a plastic snake, some green dyed rice, and eucalyptus oil with a drop of tea tree & lemon oil.
I think this one would be a good one to make up if Dimples got a cold. It smells great!

Lavender dragonfly-
Fake Lavender flowers & petals. I got a bunch of these at the bargain shop for $1, the leaves got used in the previous one & the petals in this one. Add some Purple dyed rice and a plastic dragonfly (of a contrasting colour) with a few drops of Lavender oil.

Garlic Eye Ball-
Garlic cloves some skinned & squashed,  some still whole, a couple of white material petals, & a creepy eyeball.

Pretties in Perfume-

Using some old jewelry, rice, fake flower petals and perfume.

Easy & very smelly.

What you should do when encouraging your child to play with them is set an example by smelling them, pull some weird funny facials and have a laugh together, then teach them how to move them around to get the objects to position the way you want, twist, turn, gently rattle & shake.

You can also play by smell only. Have your child blindfolded and ask them to identify the smells, purely by smell. This is also great for labelling things and exploring them, for instance Lavender is purple, it is a flower, it is used in cleaning products and in sprays, it helps you relax and is good for sleep.  Eucalyptus, is great for when your sick to help unblock stuffy noses, it grows on trees, koalas like to eat it and so on.