Category: preschool

Posted in Brands we love, Crafts, Education, Fine motor activities, preschool

Klei klei rainbow rice … an explosion of happiness

Posted on by admin

Hamish was sent a colorful tub of Klei Klei sensory rice to try a few weeks ago.This rainbow bowl of Happiness invites you to play with it’s multitude of safely dyed, non toxic colours.We have used coloured rice quite a bit in our sensory play and he was very eager to open the container and start playing.

What is sensory play ?

Sensory play is any activity that stimulates a child’s senses.The senses of touch, smell, taste, hearing, sight.Coloured rice can be used in stimulating these various senses.For example:

  • For touch – the feel of rice on skin, hands, body and face.
  • For hearing- the sound of falling rice through a funnel or off a scoop.
  • For smell: by adding essential oils you can adjust the scent. Purple rice can be scented with lavender, brown with cinnamon, ect
  • For sight : various colours

It’s important for children to discover new sensations and learn how to regulate the sensory inputs.

What is sensory rice?

Sensory rice is simply rice that has been dyed with a food colouring or non toxic paint to use in a container or tray to aid with sensory play.

How to use sensory rice

You can use your sensory rice in:

  • A container
  • A tray
  • To scoop into baking trays
  • With small toys
  • With kitchen type toys for your child to “cook” with
  • With themes for example we used hallowen bugs in ours but you could use small items to reiterate a school theme
  • To hide letters and numbers or shapes for your child to find
  • As a writing tray for your child to draw shapes in
  • To glue onto art work for texture

The benefits of sensory rice

Rainbow rice is not just pretty but also has many benefits of play ….⭐Exploring and developing fine and gross motor skills
⭐Harnessing creative development through the sense of touch
⭐Free play means there are no boundaries and this fosters the imagination
⭐Developing communication and language skillsSensory play with an item like rice can also be a great alternative for children who do not like the texture of things like playdough or slime.For more information contact klei klei

Posted in babies, Brands we love, Family Time, Fine motor activities, Parenting, preschool, preschoolers, Toddlers

Fit and Fun Mr Ring from Chicco

Posted on by admin

Hamish was gifted this stunning Fit and Fun Mr Ring from Chicco

He absolutely loves it but it’s taken a few weeks for him to learn to throw the discs over this modern ring toss game, instead of just placing them onto the poles.

The cute hedgehog face base rotates at 2 different speeds, which challenges his attention every time and is awesome for building his hand eye co-ordination skills.

The 8 coloured rings, 2 of each colour pole, are made of lightweight plastic making it the best game for playing indoors as I know he can’t break anything.

Also great for little ones who have just started matching and grouping colours, as Hamish first used this to match the pole and discs according to their colours.

Now we play a variety of games, allowing him to learn to follow commands.

For example :

  • Throw the purple disc onto the red pole.
  • Throw 3 discs onto the blue pole.
  • Throw all the discs onto the yellow pole.
  • Throw the colour disc onto its matching pole.

You could make up any combination.

Of course he loves this version of play, as he gets to tell me what to do when I take my turn.

The poles are also removable, making it easy to store or to take with if travelling.

It plays 6 different melodies.The tunes are plesant and not overly loud, so if you had a baby sleeping your toddler could still enjoy this game without it waking baby.

This fun and funky musical game stimulates manual co-ordination and fine motor skills.

A welcome addition to any toddlers playroom.

For more information contact http://www.chicco.co.za

Posted in Crafts, Events, Family Time, Parenting, preschool, recipes

World egg day …. 4 fun family egg activities

Posted on by admin

Eggs are not just a great source of protein, they also feature quite a bit in our activities throughout the year.

I thought I’d share a few of our favourite ways to play with eggs today on World egg day.

1. Marbled eggs

Breakfast is the perfect way to introduce eggs , whether you like your eggs fried, poached, scrambled or boiled….there’s an egg for everyone.

One of my favourite ways to serve eggs to the kids, as I had some fussy eaters, was to give them dinosaur eggs.

Our dinosaur eggs are actually just boiled eggs that have been given a marble look using food colouring.

You can read how we make them here

You could also use the boiled or fried eggs to create pretty food pictures like we did with this egg-stra special breakfast

2. Egg and spoon races

When my eldest, now 27, was about 3 years old we did our first egg and spoon race. Just her and I and a dozen eggs that cracked very quickly. 🤣

There was a lot of mess, a lot of giggles, a lot of fun and the biggest lesson to a little girl that it’s ok to make a mess ….we can clean it.

Over the years we’ve had countless races with friends and families.

3.Blow eggs and paint them

Blowing eggs is a lot of fun and my boys always enjoyed the part as the egg sploshed and slithered out the little hole.

We wash the egg in soapy water, dry and paint using craft paints or undiluted food colouring.

You can also draw on them with markers. One of the easiest ways to work with your egg as you try decorate it is to place it on an empty toilet tube. You can also leave it on here to dry.

We once attended a holiday camp where the eggs were painted with icing sugar coloured in food colouring.

4. Egg rolling

For this you give each child an egg outside and let them roll it to an end point without breaking it.

We once gave the kids wooden spoons and fly sweaters to see which worked better when moving the eggs with gentle taps to the end.

( it’s a good idea to keep extra eggs for tuse little hands that may be a bit too excited)

How ever you choose to celebrate eggs today we hope you enjoy an Excellent day

Posted in Crafts, preschool, recipes

Chai seed slime

Posted on by admin

This recipe makes a generous amount of slime and has a very grainy consistency because of the chai seeds.

YOU NEED:

1/4 cup of chia seeds
1 3/4 cup of water
Food coloring
3-4 cups of corn flour (mazina)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Mix the chia seeds, water and food coloring together.Cover and refrigerate overnight.Uncover and add the corn flour a little bit at a time. Mix until you achieve the desired consistency. It should feel slimy but can easily be taken off your hands.Store covered in the refrigerator. You will need to add a little bit of water each time you take it out to use it. The water will reactive the slime.

Posted in babies, Crafts, preschool, preschoolers, recipes, Toddlers

How to dye pasta

Posted on by admin

Coloured pasta is very versatile. You can use it in sensory tubs or to do a vatiety of crafts.

Here is how to dye pasta

YOU NEED:

Dry pasta

Vinegar

Food coloring

Parchment paper / wax wrap

Baking tray

Instructions

For every cup of dry pasta in a bowl, pour 1 tbsp of vinegar.

Add a few drops of food coloring

Mix together until all the pasta pieces are fully coloured

Place a sheet of parchment paper/ wax wrap on the baking tray and pour the coloured pasta on top.

Lay out the pasta in an even layer and let out to dry for a few hours in the sun.

Tip – Try to not have any of the pasta pieces touching when you spread them out to dry.

Posted in babies, Life with my bears, preschool, preschoolers, recipes, Toddlers

How to make Pirate bananas

Posted on by admin

Each year on the 19 September we celebrate International talk like a pirate day.

To celebrate this year Hamish dressed up in his pirate mask and ran around shouting “Arrrr! Me matey!” as he pretended to be Jake from the Neverland Pirates before we settled down to a breakfast of Pirate bananas.

Pirate bananas

I hear you asking what a pirate banana is….

It is simply a banana with pirate face drawn onto it. I saw one online somewhere and it has stuck with me.

Hamish loves them.

To make your own

To make your own you will need :

Bananas

A piece of cloth or serviette as a bandana ( I used Johnson & Johnson baby wipes)

A black permanent marker

To make up

Draw your pirates face onto the top half of the banana.

Fold your material to form a triangle and tie on.

These make a really cute lunch box suprise or party favour.

Hamish, being just short of 3 years old decided of course, that I wasn’t allowed to break the face when opening the banana.

Have to love a preschooler 🤦‍♀️

Posted in babies, Crafts, Family Life, Fine motor activities, preschool, preschoolers, recipes, Toddlers

School Holiday challenge Day 2 – Homemade bath paint recipes

Posted on by admin

Most children love messy play as it stimulates their senses and allows them the freedom to explore and play.

Today’s challenge is fabulous for bath time but you can also use any of the recipes to let your child paint on glass doors, windows, tiles or a large plastic tray.

It washes off easily with hot soapy water.

I’ve included 3 recipes to make bath paints. I use the first one as I find it has a better consistency and can be made a few hours before and stored in the fridge.

RECIPES

1.Shaving cream bath paint

To make the shaving cream bath paints you will need:

🎨 A container to mix paints into ( cake baking tins work best, but you can use anything non breakable)

🎨 Shaving cream

🎨 food colouring

🎨 paint brush

To mix your paints together spray a generous amount of shaving cream into each container, add one or two drops of food colouring and mix well.

Note: The food colouring does not stain your child or the bath because it’s used in such small drops.

2. Yoghurt bath paint

This is a great paint to use with little children whom you think may try eat the paint.

The consistancy is a lot more runny, you could add some corn flour to thicken it if you feel it is too runny.

To make the yoghurt bath paints you will need:

🎨 A container to mix paints in. (I like to use a 6 pack yoghurt and use the little pots themselves as my paint pots.)

🎨 Yoghurt

🎨 food colouring

🎨 paint brush

To mix your paint, divide your yoghurt into little containers and add one or two drops of food colouring to your yoghurt.

The colours will be more pastel looking.

3. Bath tub finger paint.

This is a nice alternative to the shaving cream paint but also more runny and better for sensitive skin, as you can use your favourite baby wash or shampoo.

To make the bath finger paint you will need:

🎨 a container to mix your paint

🎨 About 4 to 6 tablespoons of your favourite baby wash or shampoo for each colour.

🎨 food colouring

🎨 1 teaspoon of corn flour per colour

🎨 paintbrush

To make your paint into each container add 4 to 6 tablespoons of your baby wash or shampoo.

Add a drop of food colouring per container.

Mix into each colour, a teaspoon of corn flour.

Mixing colours

Here’s a handy chart to mix your colours.

Happy bubbles mammas ❤

Posted in Education, Fine motor activities, preschool, preschoolers, Toddlers

Fine motor activities- Save the dinosaur

Posted on by admin

Developing the strength in the little muscles in the hands and fingers is important for your child to learn to write, feed themselves and get dressed by buttoning, doing up zips, ect.

There are many fun activities to develop these skills. Save the dinosaur is one of them.  This game takes 5 minutes to set up and is fantastic for quiet time or traveling.




YOU WILL NEED :


🦕Toy dinosaur ( or other favourite animal)
🦕Elastic bands


How to play


Wrap the elastic bands around the toy and ask your child to remove them.

You can adjust the difficulty by adding more elastics or twisting them to make it harder to remove.


Note
Always supervise play with elastic bands.

Posted in Education, preschool

The kindness stone

Posted on by admin

I’m a large advocate for teaching children gratitude, tolerance, kindness and positivity as I believe that these character traits will take them far in their lives.

As an educator I’m also aware that some children may not be hearing these lessons daily.

As a parent I know that what I teach my children in their formative years will stay with them long into adulthood.


The challenge


Three years ago I had a very challenging class of 4 to 5 year olds. They were busy, loud and many of the children acted out with each other.

Every day was a new battle to try and get them to be nice to each other, to share, to be kind, and I found myself disciplining much of the time just to keep the classroom in order.

After a particularly stressful day I remember coming home wondering how I could change the negative patterns in my classroom and I remembered a time my own 6 children were not in sync with each other and I’d started introducing a morning circle to our homeschool lessons where each of them needed to  take a turn to list one thing they were grateful for and one thing they liked about each other.

This had worked at home and I decided to give it a try.

That evening I went outside, grabbed a stone from the yard, added some glitter glue to it and put it in my bag.


The kindness stone


The next morning after our afternoon nap I sat the children in a circle and introduced the magic kindness rock to them.

I explained I’d been given the rock by the kindness fairy and we were going to use it to say something that we enjoyed about the day.

The children were super excited and couldn’t wait to share. Each one holding onto the little painted stone as if it really was magic.

We would change the topic for discussion daily.

*what makes you happy
*say something nice about the friend sitting next to you
* what made you smile today
*what did teacher Judy do today that made you glad
*why do you like sunshine
*what is your favourite thing to do at school
*what made you sad today
*who made you happy today and why


Over the next few weeks I learnt more about my pupils hearts and they learnt important lessons.

They learnt ….

*to take turns talking.
*that someone cares enough to listen
*they are important
*how to express emotion
*to be greatful
*that not everybody likes the same things
*to say nice things about each other
*that kindness is important
*to listen yo others
*that school is fun

It was just a simple garden stone but it opened up a whole new way for my class to express themselves, and improved the overall behaviour of my classroom.

Posted in Education, Parenting, preschool, preschoolers

Dear teacher of the toddler class

Posted on by admin

Dear teacher of the preschool class

Firstly, thank you for being the ” mommy” my little boy needs while I work.

Thank you for thinking for him, anticipating his needs, guiding him and teaching him a numerous amount of skills all day.

Your job is so much more than just another day at the office.

As a preschool teacher I know the patience you need to sit through the new child who cried for 4 solid hours. I know how much creativity it takes to get the busy child to sit still and the shy child to stop hiding in the corner.

I know the energy you need to sing morning songs and play playground games.

I know how gentle you need to be but also that sometimes you need to be a little more strict.

I know how many noses you wipe, bums you clean, boo boos you kiss and just how many times you’ve stopped the bitter, the hitter and the hair puller.

You spend hours putting on shoes and taking them off. Opening lunches and cleaning a mess.

But

This is the profession you have been called to.

May you never forget the huge responsibility that you are given each morning when a parent leaves their precious child in your care.

Never underestimate that level of trust or how quickly you can destroy that.

Never take for granted that you are loved by your student. They go home and sing songs about you, draw you pictures and talk about the new things you’ve taught them.

Just as a mother sets the tone for her home through her attitude towards life, so do you from the minute you enter the school.

So, if you finding it hard today start the morning with a children’s cd, sing , clap and dance.

Encourage play between you and your class. Get down to their level and talk to them …toddler’s are some pretty smart creatures.

And even though your hours are long, your pay is bad and your patience is tested….

Know that every day you’ve deposited a memory into a young life !

Signed

The mom of a toddler