Farm Play

The girls are interested in farm animals.  

The twins are beginning to sign cow and say 'moo'.

 I made a felt mat for the floor to encourage that language.

It was simple to make with just felt and a glue gun.

I did use blue drawer liner for the pond.

 A problem that we encountered was that it's slippery.

When the twins crawled on top of it, it would scrunch up.

We laid a blanket underneath and it helped a bit.

 Here are the cousins looking at a cow and the big cousin is signing it.

 The barns are made from cardboard boxes that I painted then covered with modge podge so the paint wouldn't come off on their hands.

The animals I found at the dollar store.

They are from wooden inlay puzzles.

 The twins soon flipped the boxes over and put the animals inside.

Then dumped them out and did it again.

The older one thought it made a great blanket.

The Twins Christmas Tree

For my younger grand daughters (they just turned 1) I made a tree from a cardboard box.

I found these amazing screws, for cardboard, at a store in Vancouver.

They work like a charm and hold the cardboard pieces together so simply and firmly.

I cut one hole in each side and finished off the edges with tape.

I gave the girls a basket each full of balls.

 Some balls were smooth, ruff, prickly, small, big, rubber, plastic and some have lights inside that shine when they are hit or dropped.

After they spent time checking out all the balls I showed them how the balls can disappear into the tree.

The balls that light up are great motivators for the little ones to look through the holes.

 It didn't take them long to figure out to drop the ball through the hole

but getting it out again was a challenge.

 These two are quite physical so it wasn't a surprise to see the tree tipped on to it's side.

 Which seemed like a perfect invitation to go inside.

If one tries it then the other often does too.

I think they like all the balls the best.

A couple of days later I visited again to see they were trying to get the ball out through the hole.  I noticed that she tried with both arms.

When that didn't work she went around to the open end.

It may be a proud Nana talking but I think they are clever.

Gingerbread Peg Dolls

Happy Holidays!

The Little One and her parents have been going for walks in the evening checking out the lights.

My grand daughter loves it.

I decided to combine her interest in lights with a gingerbread theme play box.

I painted new peg dolls to look like gingerbread.

There is a mom, dad, sister and baby.

They are set up in a card board box that I have painted the inside.

Lights are hung from the ceiling of the box.

I also painted a wooden house with brown chalkboard paint.

She can use chalk to decorate it like a gingerbread house.

Even inside we drew some beds.

I added a couple of books and we've read them several times already.

I was a little slow getting a picture of her reading a book herself.

She was excited to show Dad when he got home from work.

The lights are poked through the top of the box and she is fascinated with them.

We've been retelling the story in different ways, drawing, video, oral.

It's one of my favourites.

I love catching moments like this when her parents get down and play with her.

Twist Off, Twist On

A simple, new, homemade toy that helps build her eye to hand coordination and fine motor abilities.

I cut out the top of puree food bags and stuck them through a cardboard box.

It sticks through enough to put the screw top back on.

Unfortunately it doesn't go through enough to screw it all the way on.

Some of the lids just sit on the posts.

We practice our colours too.

She loves puzzles like this.