Indoor Play – A worldwide safari

Luath loves play that involves trips in her (banana box) car.  As we have recently been to a wildlife park I set up a safari for Luath.  I laid out different zones – savannah, jungle, farm, forest, sea, ice and snow.  Most of the areas were just coloured material.  We then took some animals and placed them in their correct location.  Luath needed a little help for some of the animals.  The dinosaurs, which Luath wanted to see on her trip, shared the jungle with a monkey and a tiger.

Luath then set off on a worldwide safari.  Stopping to play along the way.
 
I quickly found some books that fitted into each area as Luath often enjoys reading while we play.
   
It was a fun way to begin learning about varying types of landscapes, climate and where different animals live. 
(Luath is 30 months)
shared with tuesday tots via rainy day mum

Indoor Play – Banana Box Trip

A supermarket nearby leaves banana boxes at the end of the checkouts.  They are really sturdy and we have used them often in play.  It takes a lot for them to break and when they finally do they work well in the vegetable plots.  A much loved game of Luath’s is when we attached a dog lead to the box and pull her around the house. The box has been every vehicle and we have gone on many different trips.  It is a great game that you can play on/off all morning.

Usually we have a few different locations to travel to – petrol station (just an area of the room), school (the easel), library (where we put some books), roundabout (a stool), doctors/vets (Luath’s doctor’s kit) etc 

The length of time spent at each location varies, it might be a quick visit or we may stay there and pretend play for a long time.  The library and the doctors are popular places to linger.
  
(Luath is 27 months)

Indoor Play – Who is it?

We were reading Chocolate Mousse For Greedy Goose by Julia Donaldson and were on possibly the third read through.  It is a great book but to lengthen the story slightly I pointed to the illustrations in the book.  On the edge of each double page there is a glimpse of who is coming next in the story.
   
I would ask Luath, who is this?  We then progressed to placing one of Luath’s guys (soft toys) behind the book and having a little of them pop out.  Luath would then tell me who it was.  She immediately knew them all no matter how little I showed.
 
“It was me” as Luath says

A few weeks later on a very sunny morning we played a similar game.  This time I had Luath look at the wall and I would hold up a toy and she had to guess who it was from the shadow.  Luath found it a bit difficult not to peep while I was picking up a toy, but she had fun.

(Luath is 26 months)
Shared with Tuesday tots via Rainy Day mum
and with Read.Explore.Learn at JDaniel4’s Mom

Indoor Play – Hot Pink Bath Painting

While looking for gelatine for a planned craft I spied some hot pink food colouring and had to have it.  I decided to use some of it to make some bath paint.  Very easy, pour some baby bath/wash into container, mix in some cornflour to thicken, then add food colouring until intensity required.


Luath doesn’t tend to have an afternoon nap now and this was a perfect mid afternoon activity – engaging but relaxing for us both.  Once the bath was filled I added some paint to the water which turned it a diluted hot pink.  Luath started off painting with just the brushes and no paint.  She then took turns in using an old toothbrush or paintbrush (or both together) to decorate the bath tub sides, under the water or onto some containers I placed in the bath.  She didn’t like the idea of painting her body and was quick to wipe away any paint that landed on herself.
 

I had placed some bubble wrap in the bath and Luath tried painting on that.
 

I drew some hearts around the bath sides.


(Luath is 24 months)

Indoor Play - Going on holiday with no toys

Last year we were packing for a trip, a few days break in a self catering chalet, then on to my parents.   My parents have plenty of books and toys , so as there is not much space in the car once we, the dog and our essentials are in, we only took a few favourite books, Minnie mouse and a few small toys for the car journey.

We were quite busy with swimming, walks, squirrel watching and more

that there was only one afternoon when Luath needed something to occupy her mind predinner.

The kitchen cupboards had enough to entertain.  These were her favourites:

A basin with some water and washing up liquid.  Using a hand whisk – I did most of the turning as it was too difficult for Luath, but she helped.  Trying out a variety of utensils, the potato masher being the most fun.
 

Sticking teaspoons into an upturned colander

(Luath was 20 months)

Indoor Play – Moon Sand

Moon sand/Cloud Dough is something I read about a while ago and there are lots of great ideas online on how it can be used.  It is very simple to make, mix 8 parts flour to 1 part oil (vegetable/baby).  I used 4 cups of flour to 1/2 cup vegetable oil.

I put the sand into a small sand/water table and placed a box of small sand play items and some kitchen objects nearby.


Luath grabbed a spade and rake and started scooping the sand from one side to the other.  Moving the sand was her favourite activity and she tried it with various sized objects.


We made some castles with small buckets and scoops.  Luath loved knocking the castles over as soon as they were built.

After a while I added two camels.  We built some sand dunes for them to climb and also to get buried in.
      

Luath’s interested continued for the 45 minutes until lunchtime and was very keen that we would play with the sand later.

It took a few minutes to tidy up.  I did have our crafting mat under the table but the sand had escaped it’s perimeter, mainly as the sand gets on your clothes, especially socks.  However it vacuumed up easily.
I would highly recommend this activity – cheap, quick, simple, engaging, extendable, variable, fun.

(Luath is 24 months)

Indoor Play - Tins for our play shop

When we were doing the 5 currant bun theme week I made Luath a play shop.  It was a high speed what can I find in the cupboards and recycling bin.  The easiest items were products that come in boxes.  I also wanted to give her some tins.  I struck upon the idea of using some inner tubes from kitchen and toilet roll that I have been saving for crafts.  I took the labels off some tins and wrapped these around the tubes. 

Very easy, safe to use and can be recycled once they have served their use.  Luath has enjoyed these tins the most out of all her shop products.

I plan on making more so we can use them for sorting into groups, same and different.

Shared with Tuesday Tots.

A Pirate Adventure in the Bath, featuring Jelly

                  

This week’s theme is the sea, I had thought up this activity last week as a boat trip featuring Pirates, Mermaids, Sailors and whatever other sea related things we had been doing this week. I was aiming to sway our week and the bath adventure towards mermaids as I had seen a fantastic competition by Taming the Goblin to win a mermaid waldorf doll she had made.  However the Pirate theme has lasted longer than expected  (I have posted about our pirate lunch and walking the plank),so today became a Pirate adventure, in particular based around Luath's favourite book of the week "Tim, Ted and the Pirates".  A story about a boy and his Ted who drift off into their own adventure while the teacher reads a story. 

I thought it would be fun to combine our love of jelly (we’ve done a couple jelly based things lately, jelly playdough and jelly play in the bath, with a previous imaginary boat trip.    I  came up with a few different ways I could set up a sea themed boat ride in the bath. Realistically I have a daughter who is awake most of the hours I am, sleeps best if I am very nearby and wakens frequently at night, so most things are done with Luath by my side or at high speed and quietly!

Last night I made up a big tub of jelly.  I had wanted to fill it with treasure but they kept floating to the top.  I left some letter cutters floating at the top..  This morning once the jelly was set I pushed some more cookie cutters into the jelly.  I had also filled some ice cube moulds with jelly (yet again I couldn’t get the jelly out). 

A few nights ago I drew an underwater scene on some lining paper. I did this on the floor and with crayons so it is no work of art, but I was guessing it might not last long.  I attached this to the wall opposite the bath. (The drawings didn’t photograph well, but I have included them anyway and will upload a better photo once they are in Luath’s room)


some seaweed, a fish and a seahorse



a mermaid, a shoal of fish



jellyfish, treasure chest, a crab


I also drew a sea level scene, Luath helped me colour it in.  Well I coloured, she had  a few scribbles but mainly enjoyed walking along the picture.

  I attached this to the wall next to the bath.

Nessie, buoys with a cormorant drying it's wings

a diver, a boat

a canoeist, a lighthouse, rocks, seals, birds, a crab

I put some blue/sea life towels over the side of the bath and attached some undersea pictures we had drawn earlier in the week.  I placed a towel with fish over the undersea level of the toilet.  I hung up a duvet cover (that I specifically bought second-hand as a play mat) over the window and down to cover the bath taps and the toilet to sea level.  This wasn’t as effect as I hoped as it let in too much light.  I covered the radiator with a play mat, the floors with a bathmat, a throw and towels.

I then placed Luath’s bath in the bathtub, as this was to be her boat. I filled the bathtub with cold water coloured by some green jelly and food blue colouring to well below the rim of Luath’s bath.

I placed some towels over the sink to act as rocks.  I put our mermaid - this is actually a dress up doll that Luath got handed down from a cousin, for our previous boat trip adventure I had given the doll a mermaids tail (which I had made for Luath when she was a few months old for a party), we both liked the mermaid so she has stayed..  I covered the mirror with another seashore towel (we seem to have so many sea themed towels, this one is very old and is now a dog towel!)  I attached a parrot to a picture hook.

I added some sea creatures to the bath and the surroundings.  I had contemplated taking some dried seaweed from above the tide line, but changed my mind.  I cooked up some noodles and used that instead.  I had thought about some stones and shells, but the big shells around here tend to still have live seaweed attached and Luath has plenty interaction with stones everyday (this week she even picked a stone up to give it a cuddle).  I also added a treasure chest, filled with gold (sweet wrappers I have been saving for ages to use for art) and milk bottle tops.  I had used all the food colouring from the bottle so that went into the bath as a perfect message in a bottle.

I did this all quite quickly, Luath helped me, but still each time she came into the bathroom she said “wow” (she knows just what to say!)

Then the most important addition – Luath.  She was decked in her Pirate AIO nappy and  a vest, just what all the toddler pirates like to don.    . 

Luath had another look around and then I placed her in her bath.  She seemed happy for the first few minutes and then she wanted out and was quite upset.  I took her out and thought “oh well, we can try later”, but she actually wanted to go into the bathtub with everything and not be in her bath boat.  I added some hot water to make it more pleasant, stripped her (naked Pirates are all the rage) and in she went. 

The noodle seaweed was the first thing she grabbed.  I am sure she knew it was noodles but she went along with mummy and called it seaweed.  Next the jelly treasure tub.  This took a lot of exploring.  Taking our the cookie cutters, delving in to find more, adding other creatures to the mix, squeezing the jelly.  I told her she could eat it, but she wasn’t sure.  I showed her me trying some, again she wasn’t convinced, so she stuck her hand in and offered it to me.  After a little while she did try some, she had a few tastes, but not sure she liked it that much, or just found it more fun to play with than eat.

I read her “Tim, Ted and The Pirates”, and acted out the parts we could.  I used a teddy cake mould as Ted.  Once the story was over we opened the treasure chest, which gave Luath some more items to add to her Jelly.

Luath had enough by then, so our adventure was over.  I left some of the bathroom decorated so daddy could see it when he came home.  The pictures were undamaged.  I am going to draw round the outlines of each object in them so you can make out the picture a bit more clearly and then put them up in Luath’s room.  There is plenty space to add more images to both pictures.

We (and I do mean we) had lots of fun.  I am sad that the photos didn't come out as I would like to have a good visual memory (other than in my head) of activities like this.

(Luath is 17mths)

linked Tuesday Tots, see what other tots are up to,
read learn explore at JDaniel4's Mom, see what other activities have been inspired by children's books

taming the goblins mermaid project