Stick Patterns

I'm working on developing Master 3's mathematical vocabulary at the moment and finding he is loving it. Maths activities are so much fun with little one's as they are all hands-on and quick and easy to put together. This week we have been looking at making two-coloured patterns.

You can use just about anything around the house to do this little activity, I love colored match sticks. You can pick these up from any discount store.

Master 3 happily made three different patterns using his sticks. Get your little one to say their pattern out loud as this helps them to understand the repeating factor involved.

Then I gave him a piece of black card and some PVA glue and he happily made these stick patterns.

A Pirate's Adventure

Master 5 really enjoys the opportunity to construct things using boxes, containers and pretty much anything else he can source from the house (or his Nan's). Today we have had a Pirate Day at home and along with Master 3 have been busy doing lots of Pirate crafts. While Master 3 had is daytime nap today, Master 5 asked if he could have the empty milk container sitting on the sink to make a pirate ship. He likes time on his own to work on these little projects without any interruptions from his younger brother.

We cut the plastic milk bottle down to look like a ship and then I left him to it ......

Here's master 5 busy putting some Pirate play figures into his ship with blu-tac.

This is a little box that he wrapped in baking paper and decorated with gems from the craft box.

Love the tiny telescope at the rear of the ship! He has rolled a tiny piece of baking paper and used sticky tape to attach it.

Every Pirate Ship needs a plank and a sail!

He has decorated the sides by sticking on mosaic pieces left over from another craft activity and cutting out pictures of pirates from some cheap cards we had.

I love this. Here Master 5 has scrunched up some baking paper to make an island and stuck a plastic palm on it. He told me this is where the treasure is hiding! Ahoy!

Polly Want A Cracker?

Last week Master 3 picked up this library book on our weekly visit and asked me to read it to him this morning. It is a lovely book, and gave us the chance to talk about the many different types of birds we know and see on a regular basis. There has been the ongoing topic of swooping magpies in our house since being attacked while out riding a couple of weeks ago. The boys and I had a good look at pictures of parrots on the Internet. I like to use the Internet with them occasionally, particularly for a simple task like searching Google Images for a particular picture.

We decided to look through the craft box and see if we still had a collection of coloured feathers and make a parrot.

This is a very simple yet effective craft activity that both the boys really enjoyed. All you need is some paint, PVA glu and coloured feathers from the discount store.

The boys painted a parrot. I left Master 5 to paint his own, however did draw a rough outline for Master  3 to guide him.

Then I gave them both some coloured feathers and PVA glue and left them to decorate the parrot.

Pop goes the cake!

These cute Cake Pops are so much fun to make with little ones and a yummy treat! We made some to take to a BBQ yesterday and they were a hit!

You need a packet of Arnott's Tim Tams and a small tub of Cream Cheese. You can vary the type of  pops you make by using different flavoured Tim Tams.

Break the Tim Tams in half and crush them in your blender or food processor. if you don't have one, the good old fashioned way will do - place them in a plastic bag and use a rolling pin to crush them up!

Then add half of the tub of cream cheese to the crushed biscuits. I looked at many different tutorials on You Tube and many suggested to use chocolate frosting if you don't want to use the cream cheese.

Then mix the crushed biscuits in with the cream cheese.

Then roll the mixture into ball and place a small kebab stick in the middle. You can buy proper lollie pop sticks but these work fine. Just make sure to cut the sharp end off before you push it in. Put them in the fridge to set. I usually leave mine for a couple of hours before decorating.

Melt some choc (milk/white/dark) in a bowl in the microwave. I stop every 30 seconds to check and stir until I get the correct consistency.

It's very simple to apply the chocolate as you can see. Master 5 is twirling the stick in the melted chocolate and then using a spoon to cover and bits he missed.

You can really use anything to decorate your pops. I popped a selection of sprinkles and coloured choc chips in these small containers for the boys to choose from. Have a piece of polystyrene ready to push them in to.

Pop them in the fridge to set for about 10 minutes and then they should be ready to enjoy!

There are so many variations of Tim Tams and decorative things you can use. These are very simple and easy for you to make with a young child.

Treasure Hunt

With International Pirate Day coming up on the 19th September we are embracing all things PIRATES in our house until then. We started our Pirate Adventure last weekend when the boys went to a friend's 5th Pirate Party. Their enthusiasm for all things Pirates has been lots of fun and I plan on sharing all of our activities with you over the next couple of weeks.

I don't always buy costumes for the boys, however we seem to have a number of Pirate parties coming up so for $12 from K Mart I purchased these. Generally, the boys use their imaginations and put together costumes from our dress-up box.

Even something as simple as these off cuts of material from spotlight are great to put on as bandannas for Pirate role-play.

Pirate stickers are available from most discount stores and are great to use for craft activities.

All pirates need a telescope! I covered two empty paper towel rolls with colored paper. The boys then happily decorated them with marker pens and stickers. Mmmm what else does a pirate need?? Treasure of course, but where is that treasure? Well let's make a treasure map.....

To stain our treasure map we put some coffee in a bowl and added a small amount of water.

Use some cotton wool and wash over the paper with the coffee.

** I burnt the edges of the paper using a lighter to give the treasure map look. I did this when the boys were not around as I didn't want them to see me lighting the paper.

Often it's hard to set up activities for children of different ages and stages of development. This activity was perfect as both Master 3 and Master 5 were able to work independently on their map. We have been reading a number of our favourite Pirate books and looking at Pirate maps so the boys were very keen to draw their own maps and add the stickers.

Ahoy Me Hearties I'm off to find some treasure!

A telescope in hand, a piece of material on their head as a bandanna and a detailed treasure map in hand the hunt began!


Below are some of our favourite Pirate Stories .....