Monday 23 April 2012

From Cubby House to Pizza Shop

This weekend I brought out the cubbyhouse that we made last week (see cubbyhouse ideas post) . It was easy to uncollapse and stick back together with sticky tape.

JJ stuck a pizza restaurant menu onto the front door, and that's when the inspiration hit, we decided to turn the cubbyhouse into a PIZZA SHOP!

I cut out some cardboard pizza bases, some red tomatoes/salami from a real estate magazine, and made shredded cheese from yellow craft paper. It worked a treat, and so fun to make!

How to make a pretend pizza! Put on the shredded cheese.

Add tomatoes (which can also double as salami!)

The boys then put the pizzas into the Pizza Shop oven to bake.

The pizza in the oven
I also taught JJ to take orders, he can almost write the word 'pizza'!

Jae's attempt at writing '1 Pizza' pretty good!! (plus cute picture)
Then, inevitably, SamSam forgot to take his pizza out of the oven for a very long time. We put a pizza in the oven, then had a nap and forgot to take it out.

We had a make believe fire in the shop. Which meant, naturally, that we had to have a fire engine and rescue crew. Cue a cardboard box, red Christmas wrapping paper, paper cutout lights and wheels, and some braces...and voila, a Fire Engine!!!

The smile on SamSam's face shows how much fun they were having.
Fires were breaking out left, right and centre, and every few minutes.  When they got tired of putting out fires, they'd go back to making pizzas. The boys had a great time :)

Thursday 19 April 2012

Teaching Maths and Writing to Children

I had a brainwave this morning, and cut out some little cloud shapes out of colourful paper, and wrote numbers on them from 1 to 10. I got the boys to choose from the clouds I held in my hand, and they put them down on the rug. I gave them some assorted buttons, and their task was to count out the buttons and put the correct amount on top of the clouds.

It's a good game to get them to practise counting.
JJ counting out buttons
It was pretty easy for JJ, and SamSam wasn't concentrating - but they were very enthused by this new game. Next time I will have higher numbers for JJ to count out, and I will more closely supervise SamSam!

I keep all my activities and paper that I can reuse in a folder with plastic sheets. It helps to be a bit organised!


Spelling and Writing for Kids
JJ has progressed with leaps and bounds in his writing ability. Since he can now write the majority of the alphabet, I am venturing out to create more advanced worksheets.

The worksheet I made up today has words with missing letters at the beginning, along with a picture of the word. JJ (3.5 years old) got a crayon, and SamSam (2.5 years old) got stickers with the missing letters written on them.

JJ writing in the missing letters
 
SamSam having a go at sticking in the letters

Monday 16 April 2012

Cubby house ideas

Last weekend we made a fantastic cubbyhouse. Aunty Tiffany came to visit and so we had extra creativity and extra help to make it!

The boys have loved playing in it, and we loved making it too!

JJ about to open the front door. He said the door number was number 2 because he saw it on a box! Notice the flower egg carton holder, and pretty blue curtains!

cubby house ideas
More of an aerial view of the cubbyhouse. It is built of two tall boxes, split open down a long side, and stuck together with stickytape. I later added an extra panel for more space- see orange cardboard! JJ referred to the house as the 'apple and mango house' because of the writing on this box!

In the above photo, on the right of JJ, you'll see two letterboxes stuck on the cardboard. This was a great addition to the cubby, - the boys had a great time drawing on paper and posting them 'letters' to themselves!

Inside the cubby there is a stove, sink, cupboard, shelf, and computer desk complete with keyboard and monitor.

I also printed out a clock to stick on the wall. Here is a better shot of the sink with flower vase and plastic play food!

The boys also drew some pictures which we 'framed' and put up on the wall. They had a great time bringing in their spongebed and pretending to sleep, cook and work in their little home.

They prefer playing under a 'roof' which is a simple white sheet draped over the top. At night we turn on a tall lamp that shines outside the cubbyhouse onto the roof which illuminates it beautifully without it being too bright :)

I'll be packing it up tonight and bringing out once a week for them to play in. I'm looking forward to some great times with this little house!

Thursday 12 April 2012

JJ's First Purchase

After six weeks of hard work (see kids pocket money post) JJ saved about $6.00 towards a train - Patchwork Hiro. Feeling like he needed to see some hard results, we dug into some gift money he'd been given when he was born, and took him to Myer where he made his first transaction!!

He was extremely, extremely happy as evidenced by the broad grin on his face that he carried from the time we left the shops to the time we came home. He ran in the door and shouted to his Daddy that he'd bought Patchwork Hiro! He was so proud!!!

(SamSam hadn't saved very much unfortunately, but we chipped in some money so he could get some trains from the Thomas the Tank Engine vending machine.)

The happy boy with the reward from his hard work

Thursday 5 April 2012

Fairfield Boathouse

Yesterday the weather was too beautiful to stay inside. I packed our reading activity in a backpack along with a snack and some books. We were going down to the river to learn instead!

The walk to the river is about 1km which the boys can walk easily. As we walked we passed many flowers in front gardens and we looked at their pretty colours. We noticed one flower had curly petals like ringlets! I'd never seen them before. It was the first time I remember using the word 'dead' in reference to the dead flowers fallen on the floor.

The boys got to watch a crane and digger in operation on a worksite (what a treat!) and we stood and watched for a few minutes. It's great how there's so much to talk about and learn even when you go for a simple walk with children!

While the weather was beautifully warm, we're actually a good way into Autumn. I asked the boys to tell me the colour of the leaves on the trees. Some were still green, but many were yellow and red. We talked about how leaves turned colour when it was Autumn, and that they fall to the ground.

We made our way down the steep path to the river, and the boys were so excited they wanted to run!

It's a really beautiful spot down at Fairfield Boathouse. The river makes a bend among pretty parkland and trees, and on the banks of the river in front of the old Boathouse are beautiful wooden rowboats tied up along the jetty.

It's a pretty spot for a picnic or lunch, and this was where we settled down at a table and bench to do our morning work.

The night before I recreated the story of 'The Three Little Pigs' in a Word document using some free pictures I found on the internet. I typed up the story alongside the pictures, and purposely omitted words from each paragraph. I wrote the missing words on stickers and put them in a little resealable bag for the boys to take from.

Three Little Pigs activity
SamSam was too distracted by being outdoors, and after a very good effort on the first page, went and did his own thing. JJ however was very keen to complete the task, and went through the whole book without stopping. They both love the story of 'The Three Little Pigs'.
SamSam sticking words onto his book

JJ getting into the task

SamSam soaking up the views
Satisfied that our morning learning was done, we had cupcakes as a treat then went down by the river bank to feed the ducks. The boys enjoyed this immensely!

 We went for a lovely walk over the bridge and before I knew it, it was almost lunchtime!

Fairfield Boathouse bridge
Boys running over the bridge
Talking about the signs along the walking track
I decided we should have a treat, and eat lunch at the boathouse. We'd had some really sad news the day before - I had miscarried my unborn baby at 8 weeks. So it was really lovely to be outside in such glorious weather with my precious boys. I wanted to make the most of the time we had together.

We got a fantastic spot right on the water with brilliant views. While we waited for lunch we read our books, and the boys made quick work of a strawberry milkshake (first ever non-homemade milkshake).

Fairfield Boathouse
Making quick work of the strawberry shake at Fairfield Boathouse
Reading in the sun
Lunch over, the boys rode on the coin operated horse and we then we made our way home. A very satisfying and happy day that I will cherish for a long time.

Fairfield Boathorse coin horse: Giddyup!

Tuesday 3 April 2012

Maths Worksheets For Kids

Recently the boys have been doing maths worksheets about counting that I have made myself. They are so easy to make in Word.

maths worksheets for kids
The worksheets have rows of things they have to count eg. giraffes, monkeys etc. Since they can't write numbers yet, I write the numbers for them on blank stickers. All they have to do is peel off the correct number and stick on the worksheet. The sticker system works so well, and the boys really enjoy the worksheets.

The nice thing is because I make them myself I can choose to cut and paste things to count that most interest them :)



After they complete the worksheets, I like to have them watch as I go through and check all their answers. I use a red pen and put a big tick next to each answer and say "correct!!".

After that I give them a special sticker to put on the top of their worksheet. It makes them feel proud of their work :)

Sunday 1 April 2012

Home Made Jigsaw Puzzle

Every year when it's time to change your wall calendar to a new year's calendar, don't throw the old one out! You can make it into a home made jigsaw puzzle for your kids!

Our calendar last year was of wild animals, which made it a perfect subject for jigsaws! 

Method
- Ask your children to choose which picture they want to turn into a jigsaw puzzle. JJ liked the bears and SamSam the lions.
- Cut out the picture into a rectangle or square
- Find some thickish cardboard from a box
- If you don't mind the mess, allow your children to paste the glue onto the picture and stick it onto the cardboard. For this exercise I used the liquid, clear glue that comes in a plastic bottle and has a brush underneath the lid. You could also use stick glue, but you'll need to put quite a good layer so that it can hold to the cardboard.

JJ with pictures glued onto cardboard box panels. The piece of paper to the right has lyrics to the song 'If I Were a Butterfly' - a great animal song that I sang with the kids after they chose their pictures.

- Let it the picture dry up. (I put the boys down for an afternoon nap with the promise of cutting up the jigsaw pieces when they woke up - worked a treat).
- Once dry, use some sturdy scissors to cut out jigsaw shapes out of the picture. If you want you could draw with pencil and then cut that out.
- Voila!  The great thing about calendars - you have 12 potential home made jigsaw puzzles!