Sand Play Segment

My sand play segment went to air on "9am with David and Kim" today. We had so much fun filming it. The kids (Em, Ed, Nic and Matty) were fabulous as they made the most of all the activities I set up. The camera man even got his hands in some of them when we weren't filming. Glad they showed me putting on my dinosaur voices too!!

The dinosaur activity is a really great quiet activity for one child. They can really get their hands into it and feel free to make funny voices and create their own make-believe dinosaur world. It's a real favourite at our house. We've re-created the scene with playdough too, as you can see below


The sand trays by themselves is a great one to do with a couple of children working side by side. The key is to put two of everything into a basket in the middle to stop fights! I use anything i can find in the kitchen and recycling that is good to dig, scoop, pour or stir with. Our favourites are:

• empty yoghurt and jelly containers
• small plastic teaspoons (from the picnic aisle at the supermarket for just a couple of dollars)
• scoops from powdered laundry detergent boxes
• funnels
• small jugs of water
• chopsticks
• toilet rolls

The cooking activity is probably the most fun and is best for 1-2 children. We use mixing bowls and wooden spoons, silver pie trays, spatulas, baking trays and the kid's toy oven. The recipe book makes a nice addition helps to move the dramatic play along. The kids even write down their own recipes sometimes and make their own books.

Lots of sandy learning and fun!!

Sticker Pictures

My kids love stickers (like most!) and the act of peeling them off the sheet and carefully placing them onto a fresh piece of paper definitely helps to work on concentration, co-ordination and fine motor skills. It always troubles me, though, that the act of peeling off and sticking on is a little mindless and not terribly creative.

I've decided to put an end to that and each time the kids have got the stickers out this week, I've got the textas out for them as well to make sticker pictures. This has worked really well. Em is getting terribly good at creating play scenes for her mermaid and princess stickers and she is drawing quite elaborate garden pictures for her butterflies and flowers. And Ed, my two year old car-crazy boy, has gotten in on the act as well, drawing very simple roads for his cars to drive along.

They've been doing these pictures all week now and it has meant that more stickers are ending up on paper than on walls and doors. Which is a really good thing!