Beach bottle

This is a great idea for when you go on holiday.  Make your own beach bottle.  There are so many things to talk about inside this bottle which can be ammended depending on what you find and include.

• Sand
• Colour
• shapes
• size
• counting
• Memories of where they were found and who with 
• Where the holiday was

A lovely activity to create some lovely memories.

Pictorial shopping list

We all have to go shopping for food on a weekly basis.  Personally I try to avoid the manic times when its busier as it makes me feel like screaming with everyone pushing past and frantically rushing around.

SO....if I feel like that I often wonder how children feel when they are having to go at these times?

We have so much to fit into each day that we have to go when its convenient.  

However if you get a chance to go when its quieter with your child here's a simple idea to make it fun....

A home made pictorial shopping list:

Using supermarket flyers, sit with your little one and talk about the foods you buy and eat as well as other items in the home such as toothpaste, loo roll etc.

Find matching pictures from the flyers, cut them out together, glue to a sheet of paper and hey presto you have your pictorial list ready.

When it's quieter your little one can be encouraged to look for the items in the relevant isles.

This is a great activity to develop:

• Language skills
• Matching skills
• Cutting skills

as well handling real money if you let them pay for a few items.  This is really important as most of us these days pat for our shopping with a plastic card.

Out and about community cards

These home made community cards are a good idea for families to use as a  talking point about the community they live in with their children.  

The photographs all based on places visited by your child offer lots of opportunities for talk. They are then designed to be followed on with a visit around your community visiting the different places for your child to have the experience of each.

You may well be thinking ...well we do that anyway...BUT is it usually when we are really busy and trying to get so many things done, e.g. shopping, school run etc.  This is designed as a separate activity when we have more time and all the venues don't have to visited in one day.

They are also a great way to support the safety of your child, e.g. knowing where and how to cross roads correctly.  Safe places of people who help us - Police station etc.  A short bus trip if they usually travel by car and let them pay for the tickets.

Make sure the photographs are real to the community you live.  So many different every day learning experiences are on offer for our children just by leaving your front door.

Three in a row game

This week I have been sewing a home made three in a row game which will be going to a special place very soon.  You don't have to be able to sew to make to make something similar.  Felt is such a fab fabric that can be cut so easily into any shape.

Use a larger piece for the game board.  Use can use some fabric glue and ribbon to mark out the squares ready for play and away you go.  You can personalise to your child's interests whether its butterflies, flowers, dinosaurs or pirates.  The opportunities are endless.  

Great for developing:

• Language skills through play
• Social skills
• Develops coordination / fine motor skills

Here are some more ideas I have come across on Pinterest:

How fantastic is this Ladybird and Bumblebee set using painted stones and a log?

I love this simple idea using sticks to make the board, easy and cheap too!

Another easy one to put together using buttons.  If you haven't any spare buttons, you can buy some amazing shaped ones in your nearest fabric store these days in all shapes, sizes and colours.

This idea is one of the best cheap ideas to make a background game board using a cheap canvas, ribbon and cut out felt shapes.  Most of which, if not all of these can be purchased in the pound shop!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear story box

I love making and using story boxes.  They are really simple to make and a great opportunity to get everyone involved in putting one together.  This one is based on one of my favourite stories, Brown Bear, Brown Bear.  

Shoe boxes are the perfect size for this make.  I popped on over to the Sparklebox size to see what characters they might have that I could use and found all the ones used for this make including the printout for the top of the box as shown below.

My lovely friend helped to complete this one.  She added some blue, white and yellow paper to make the sky scene.  Again Sparklebox was used for the small world play scenery along the inside of the box.  A small amount of artificial grass was placed at the bottom of the box. 

A printout of a brown bear mask was laminated and a lollipop stick added to encourage role play.

The following characters which were found on Sparklebox from the story were printed out and laminated and made into a matching game which has been added to the box.  A home made dice has also been made using pictures of the characters to encourage children to not only match the animals but to tell the story in their own way using the matching characters.

Some knitted characters have also been added to give the box another dimension and encourage role play, imaginative and creative play as well as developing early language skills through play.

Story boxes can be made for any favourite story book that your child loves.

Home made baby buggy book

Here is a simple idea for a home made textured baby buggy book that can be used time and time again.  

Items I used:

• Funky foam sheets (otherwise known as neoprene)
• Scissors 
• Various pieces of textured fabric
• Glue gun
• The top of a pringles crisp tube or similar
• Ribbon
• Hole punch

Cut out the shapes for the pages that you require.  As you can see I have used a simple flower shape for this book.

Cut out circles from the various textured fabric pieces for the middle of the flower pages and glue down in the centre of each page.

Make a hole using the hole punch in each of the pages and thread the ribbon through.

Choose the fabric of your choice for the centre of the pringles lid and glue securely before gluing the lid to the centre of the top page of the book.

And there you have it!  An easy and cheap to make book.

Home made CD pocket book

This simple idea came from my husband who works in IT.  I was looking for some new ways of making books when he came up with this idea.  'What about using these he said' ? CD pockets.  

What a fab, simple idea! Especially when you can buy a box of 50 of them for a £1.  I threaded a few of them together using ribbon and then popped some printed laminated cards in to the pockets.  

Here I have used simple colour recognition picture cards.  You could use anything at all including magazine pictures stuck on cardboard of animals, transport, mini beasts, flowers, even photographs of family members.  The really good thing about this book is that you only have to change the contents and not the book.   The opportunities are endless!