Find it!!

Im so glad I managed to find this at a charity shop!!! the game find it! All the things you have to find are listed on the lid and it takes days (even months- as an adult) to find them all so its a great tool for time out or just to keep the kids entertained on a rainy day!!

or you could make your own (which is what I was about to do before I found 'Find it'!)

taken from http://meetthedubiens.blogspot.com

lots of love
Ellie xxxx

Texture boards

texture boards are dead easy to make and babies and children have a lot of fun playing with them.
For joshua I used to have a texture box, full of lots of different materials. I also made a texture glove (sorry I dont have a photo), for me to wear and put a different textured material on each finger of the glove. This was really good when he had tiny fingers!!

anyway here I have selected a few of my favourites that I have seen on the blogs I read

Pieces of cardboard with different materials stuck on
taken from http://thefeltmouse.blogspot.com/2008/12/for-kids.html



taken from http://engagingtoddleractivities.wordpress.com/2010/03/19/homemade-toys-texture-cards/



texture boards made from wood
taken from http://kreativeactivities.blogspot.com/2011/05/texture-boards.html



texture sticks
taken from http://preschoolteacher81.blogspot.com/2011/09/texture-sequencing-sticks.html



One size fits all type of board
taken from http://shareandremember.blogspot.com/p/featured.html



and how gorgeous is this?? a little texture garden plant! love it! might make one myself!
taken from http://alittlelearningfortwo.blogspot.com/2010/10/texture-garden.html

have fun

lots of love
Ellie xxxx

Toddler Lunches

After stressing every lunch time over what to give Joshua for lunch I decided to brainstorm and create a table for inspiration. Here it is. Please feel free to copy it!!

Main bit	Fruit and Veg	Calcium builder	Treat
Cheese on toast	Grapes	Egg slices	Fruit bar
Beans on toast	Clementine	Cottage cheese	Fruit pouch
Eggy bread	Kiwi	Fromage frais	Cake
Egg and soldiers	Blueberries	Yoghurt	Nuts
Egg sandwich	Banana	Drinking yoghurt	Seeds
Peanut butter on toast	Pear	Glass of milk	Rice cakes
Hummous on toast	Peach/plum	Flavoured milk	Biscuit
Fish fingers	Tinned peach	Cheese cubes	Fig roll
Breadsticks and Hummous	Tinned pineapple	Cheese strings	Muffin
Jacket potato	Dried apricots	Babybell	Popcorn
Ham roll	Raisins		Malt loaf
Toast pizza	Carrot sticks		Fruit loaf
Soft cheese on toast/grated apple or carrot	Cucumber sticks		Chocolate
Pesto pasta	Sweetcorn		Gingerbread man
Veg and ham pasta	Babycorn		Yoghurt covered raisins
Cous cous salad	Cherry tomatoes		Crisps
Tuna wrap	Pepper slices		Cheerios
	Beans		Shreddies

I just look at this for inspiration now!!
One day I will make one for his dinners, when I get the time...phew

Or alternatively you could try what this lady has done!! I love it



taken from http://twiddlerhouse.blogspot.com/2011/08/whats-for-lunch.html

I might get round to doing it myself one day!

Lots of love
Ellie xxxx

sorting trays

Sorting trays are a lovely idea and incredibly easy to make. I made this one out of an old jewellery storage box. You can use anything from cardboard boxes, to lap trays, to the plastic insert from a box of chocolates! You can also use them to sort a number of things from numbers, to colours, to shapes etc

I have used those three things so far but I intend to maybe add opposites too.

you dont need to spend money on counters etc as they are easy to make out of paper, laminated or card or use coins. (it is safest to use big coins like 2 pence pieces for children under 3)

I will post again once I have fully finished the box.

lots of love
Ellie xxxx

Story Sacks

After a visit to my local toy library and seeing one at my friends house I discovered story sacks!!! we used to have them at the schools I worked in but I didnt know what to call them then and most of the time we made our own! The ones at the toy library seem to be branded and there are a lot for sale on the internet, some for a lot of money!!!

it is dead easy to make your own though!
start by getting a bag, case, folder, take your child's favourite book, find copies of it at charity shops, or photocopy/scan pages. Cut them out, laminate, find objects around the house, make puppets, felt versions of the things in the book. Find activites on www.pinterest.com and add them to your sack.

here are two that I have done so far:

there was an old lady who swallowed a fly:

by some amazement I found the lady in a charity shop! she has an enourmous space inside her mouth that goes down to her feet so you can fit all the creatures inside her! I then looked (again in a charity shop) for some animals to put inside! It was a fluke that I found such a realistic fly and spider! the others all dont really match and are a mixture of wood, soft material and plastic toys. (this doesn't seem to matter as long as it is a representation somehow- even pictures would do)
and there you have it!!!

the second one was the hungry caterpillar:

I got several copies of the book. I cut one up and cut out all the fruit and the food and laminated it. I  took photos of the pages that had pictures on both sides so could only use one side and laminated these instead. I gathered as many fruit and food items as I could find from plastic to wood to material and added them to the sack. I also found some lovely resources on www.pinterest.com but I cant recall what blog they were from so dont want to post them on here so as not to offend!

However, these two blogs have some nice ideas about making the food though:

http://sewmamsew.com



http://yellowmums.blogspot.com

Have fun making them! I did!

lots of love

Ellie xxxx



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Colour flash cards

I found these fanastic colour matching flash cards on http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com and cut them out and laminated them! Joshua has really enjoyed matching the objects to the colours. I will get round to taking my own photos and making a set of my own one day but in the meantime these are perfect. (please only use these for personal use as they are not mine and were created by someone else for personal use and I dont want to step on any toes! thank you!)

lots of love
Ellie xxx

yet another muffin tin lunch

As the title says, here I share yet another of my successful muffin tin lunches

1. coloured yoghurt coated raisins in a trophy cup
2. water
3. Yoghurt covered in hundreds and thousands
4. Mini breadsticks
5. Toast and cheese cut to the shape of a truck
6. veg sticks

enjoy!

lots of love
Ellie xxx