Art, Crafts and Fun
Wild Pom-pom animals
These are so cute and so easy!
You will need
Card, scissors, Sticky-tack
Wool, Crayons, Glue
Saucer*, Egg Cup*
* depending on size of pop-pomp required
1. Draw 2 circles, one in the middle of the other on a piece of card. Place the piece of card on another the same. Cut round the outer circle.
2. Stick the sticky-tack on a hard surface; place the two pieces of card one on top of the other and push a pencil through the very middle. You may need a grown-up helper.
3. Carefully cut out the middle circle, it should look like a do-nut.
4. Take a length of wool and start winding it round the do-nut shape, keep going until it’s full.
5. When the do-nut is full carefully cut alone the outside edge in between the 2 cardboard circles.
6. Carefully tie a piece or wool round the middle as tight as you can, this is a grown-up helper job. If you leave a longer string you can hang them up, this is good for flying things.Tear off the cardboard and fluff up.
7. with your card and crayons, draw eyes, nose, mouth, wings, whatever else you fancy and glue them on.
8. Try joining several together to make caterpillar or bigger animal.
My favourites are butterflies, bumble bees, cats, bats and cute monsters, but you can make people, fish, birds, whatever takes you’re fancy.
Are we nearly there yet?
We've all heard variations of that one, until the complete boredom of a car journey hits home and our Little Angels go to sleep. Sleeping is good for mum and dad but if it causes problems at bedtime, maybe should be avoided if possible...
I have trick bag in the car, you can make one quickly and easily too. Think about the things your child can do and make a stress free trick bag. This may include:-
finger puppets, neon finger monsters
little people, farm animals
coloured cubes or other one piece puzzles
sliding number/picture puzzles
small picture books, comics, straws
small sponge, cartoon flannel
small cuddly toys
paper and crayons (depends on child)
And loads of other SMALL stuff, that you don't mind hitting the windows or other back seat passengers. Make a rule that nothing is to be thrown or it is lost.
You can get fantastic car tidies that hang from the back of the front seats, these can be a small miracle on a long journey. Change the contents of these or your trick bag regularly.
The thought of any waiting room is enough to make grown men quake. However with a tincy bit of planning it may be eased for our Little Angels, it really will never be looked forward to but the worst tantrums can be avoided, with a few little props from your trick bag or different ones popped in a pocket just in case...
Dice - tiny and fun, helps with counting. Take 2 dice and roll them giving points according for the highest number, total, difference, pairs or whatever your little one can deal with. Roll more dice to increase difficulty. Your child can add up the scores as you go along. You can get dice with pictures and guessing the next picture is fun too.
Squares - Draw a series of dots to make a square with lines of dots between like this:
* * * *
* * * *
* * * *
Take it in turns to join 2 dots together. Be careful not to leave 3 lines for the opponent to make a square. If you get a square put your initial in it and have another turn (even different coloured blobs will do).
The person with the most squares wins - yippee!
Remember even the back of an old receipt will pass a dull moment anywhere at all. You can do triangles to make it harder.
A comic of favourite book to read together soon passes time.
How about playing Sleeping Lions - lie or sit still with eyes closed, last to move wins.
Making up stories about other people waiting can be fun as long as it's kept really secret, you don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable, the old lady at the other side of the room , is a disgused fairy making sure the Dr is being good today , or is the Tooth Fairy undercover; the sillier the better but remember to be very quiet, probably better for older children - amuses me anyway.
Visualisations are brilliant if you can get your Little Angels to sit still with you. Tell them what to imagine and watch them relax and sit quietly, going to the woods or the beach can be filled with lots of detail that will keep them amused.
Remember you are bored so they are too, if they get ratty try to remember you were little once too and find a way to entertain them, even if it is looking at the ceiling for cobwebs or I spy - anything that helps avoid a meltdown is well worth the effort!
Look what's that out of the window - a giant caterpillar - come and see!
Distraction works!
magic
***
Beautiful Bubbles!
Simple quick fun
This is a really easy, cheap way to entertain your tots. I use a pot of party bubble sized bubble blow, as there is less to spill, and try to keep it outside as it can make tiled or laminate floors slippery!
In my treat box there are always several bubble blows. These can be earned as a reward for good behaviour on outdoor play days. One of the best bits is that if you half full the bubble pot with washing up liquid and top up with water, you have renewable fun. My youngest was 3 before he could blow gently enough to get lots of bubbles, but he was always so excited to get even one bubble or pop mine that it was still a good reward.
Things to play with bubbles:
You blow them and the kids run around popping them - instant exercise. Sound excited and be prepared to run about a bit or if you are doing the blowing make sure you move away from the bubbles, the little ones will move about a lot more.
Who can blow more bubbles, bigger/smaller bubbles, higher bubbles, prettier bubbles; you get the idea.
Who can catch bubbles back on the bubble stick.
Say how many bubbles blown if there is only a few.
Try saying a word as you blow your bubbles and see if it comes out when the bubbles pop.
HOMEMADE BUBBLES
Bubbles
Another good tip is to swap the soap in these recipes for baby wash or shampoo to help avoid tears.
Best Bubbles (like Nanny made)
1 Cup water
2 tablespoons glycerine
4 tablespoons of washing up liquid or baby wash
Mix together for fun, fun, fun!
Coloured bubbles
Like above but add a few spots of food colouring, green’s good.
Coloured bubbles for pictures
1 cup soap powder
2 cups warm water
Liquid food colouring
Plastic straws
Big bowl
Dissolve soap I warm water and add colouring. Blow big bubbles with straws hold in the bottom of the bowl and pop a piece of paper over the top to make a bubble print, allow prints to dry and draw over, lovely and messy.
Fancy Bubbles
1 cup water
2 tablespoon wash-up liquid
1 tablespoon glycerine
1 teaspoon sugar
Mix together until sugar dissolves.
Fun, fun, fun!
Giant Bubble Wands
2 straws
Wool or string
Thread the wool through the straws and knot to make a rectangle.
Pop into a big bowl of bubble blow and wave around
Whee!
Buzzy buddies
I’ve found this to be invaluable at busy times. Buzzy buddies get things done!
When you get a colouring book or as I prefer a simple workbook that starts with draw a circle round the picture, draw a line under the word, follow the path with patterns etc. Do not let them have the book, photocopy the same page twice or as many times as you need and give them one each, explaining to the smallest what needs to be done. Then you can go and cook tea or do a chore quickly. Some how they both manage to do the task.
This is good for the little one as he will try to keep up and good handwriting and confidence building for the older one. When you have fussed over the results them and draw on the other side of the sheet.
This avoids arguments over the book and allows the same page to be reused another time.
Reading time is good to use as you do chores too. My oldest will happily read to his younger brother rather than me and they sit together talking about the story and the pictures and imagining the story after wards quite happily without much input from me. My 3 ear old now “reads” me some of his favourite stories really well, although it is mainly remembering it’s a start.
Sticking and gluing, play dough, jigsaws etc can all be used in this way as long as you set them up to avoid excess mess. I personally do not do paints without constant supervision and only do play dough in small amounts and never on carpeted areas.
All these are ways of allowing sot of free play, organising them to avoid fall outs and keep them out of the kitchen at cooking times. Far less stress all round.
Why not share your fantastic Fairy Make and Doos with all our other Fairy Friends, or see if theirs are fun? Any really good ideas go on the page!
http://www.halosandrainbows.com/fairychat.htm