Celebrate Mud Day – 29th June

An email arrived from Muddyfaces with resources to download to help celebrate Mud Day on 29th June (case studies, A-Z of muddy ideas, mud kitchens book).  Luath loves muddy puddles but so far isn’t quite so keen on getting her hands muddy.  I am hoping she will enjoy mud soon as I have great memories of mud pies and get muddy as a child.  This year we will celebrate with pretend mud.

Mud playdough

Recipes:

Colour with food colouring, chocolate I can teach my child, coffee kids activities blog.  My nearest and dearest added ingredients to make it more earth like – dried herbs, rosemary, oatmeal
Ways to use:

Small world play (construction site), mud pie cooking, gardening, dinosaur excavating, making animal/car tracks, a Gruffalo (mud hut mama), make chocolates
(Luath is 29 months)

Jelly Playdough – fun play and a sensory bin

Luath is slowly finding it easier to sleep without me next to her, she still tends to be a late bedder if she has had a daytime nap and for a few months has been taking about an hour to settle to sleep.  So what did I do when Luath fell asleep at 8pm, very quickly and so soundly that I could leave her, and daddy was out?

Inspired by this weeks playdough pledge \(link up here with lots of ideas) by The Nurture Store, The Imagination Tree and Sunhats and wellieboots, I cooked up a big pot of jelly playdough.

Jelly Playdough

I used a bag of flour (which I measured in cups to make it easier to work out the amount I needed for the other ingredients.  I didn’t have quite enough salt.)

The basic recipe:

2 cups plain flour

1 cup salt

2 tablespoon cream of tartar

2 tablespoons oil
2 cups water

I just put it all in a pan on a slow heat, stir until formed into almost a ball. 

I then tip it onto a pastry mat, wait for it to cool slightly, then knead like bread for a few minutes.

Since jelly was fresh in my mind after last week's jelly fun,  I added 2 packets of strawberry flavoured jelly crystals to the mix.The dough turned a light pink colour and does have a strawberry aroma.  I only had two sachets of strawberry and for the amount of dough I made I would think six packets would have been best. I just and no more managed to squeeze the dough into a box and placed it in the fridge overnight.

Playdough fun

Next morning I (quickly )gathered up some items that fit with our week’s theme (exercise/movement with music).

Some sport cookie cutters
A jingle bracelet, with some loose jingle bells
A ribbon
A referee whistle (ssh don’t tell daddy)
Some golf tees
Luath added a bird cookie cutter.
  

I took some of the dough off the big block and placed it on a second tray.  I flatted a couple of pieces.  I placed both trays on the floor and let Luath explore while I washed the breakfast dishes.  Luath is still putting things in her mouth so she was very closely watched.

 

After Luath touched most of the objects she picked up one of the bells and was planning to leave the kitchen.  I showed her pushing a golf tee into some dough and that took her interest.  It was a bit hard for her to push the tee in far, but she enjoyed pressing the tee against the dough.  She also attempted to place the tee in a hole made previously – you need fine motor control for that.

I showed Luath a few other things, wrapping a bell in the dough, using the cookie cutters, using the ribbon, but she wasn’t that interested.  So we covered up the dough and went out to fly a kite and walk the dog instead.

Sensory bin

Before lunch I rolled up the playdough into balls  Luath watched and then went to find her soft dog and a book. We lost one ball to the real dog, she must have liked the taste as she spent the rest of the afternoon eyeing them up.

After lunch I put the balls into a shallow plastic tub and added the objects from the morning’s tray.

Luath was more interested now. whether it was the time or presentation.  She even tested the bin with her feet.

A few weeks ago I had picked up a bag of playdough utensils in a charity shop, I added some to the bin.

 

Luath loved one that had a removable disc, she played for a long time, putting the disc in and letting it fall out.

While she did this I made a gingerbread man.  Luath did join me in making him run around the tray and say “run run”

 

I put the lid on the box and have left it put to use another day this week.  Luath was keen for me to open the box in the evening until she discovered that climbing on and off the box was a great game.
What a fun time we had, I am so glad I spent a little time making the playdough.

see what else Tuesday Tots have been up to
(Luath is 16 months)

Blue playdough and blueberries

We started blue day with some porridge mixed with blueberries.  There is something about blueberries that just makes me smile.  Luath has never eaten blueberries before.

She tried them but she can't have taken to them, she ate some porridge but decided to do some fingerpainting with most of it.  Oh well I loved them.

 

The blueberries were frozen and I noticed that the bowl they had been defrosting in had some lovely coloured water.  I had planned to make some playdough and thought I would try using the blueberry juice to dye it.

It is the first time I have made playdough and I genuinely was surprised at just how quick and easy it was.  I used a cooking method.:
Mix 1/2 cup flour, 1/4 cup salt, 1 tablespoon cream of tartar and 1 tablespoon vegetable oil.
Add 1/2 cup cold water (and colouring) into mixture and stir. Then add another 1/2 cup cold water.
Heat over a low heat, stirring until thicken and almost into a ball.
Tip out, let cool slightly.  Knead for 2 minutes.

The blueberry juice turned the dough a pretty light violet colour.  If I had more I am sure it would be even better.  As I am still wary of Luath eating the playdough I wanted it to be as none food coloured as possible, so I added some food paste to the mixture and turned it into a bright blue colour.

I looked out some blue kitchen items.  Luath wasn't too sure initially.  She prodded it with her fingers.  I took the knife and cut some of the dough.  She loved this and cut into the dough.  We used a cookie cutter, rolled, squeezed, pressed the dough. Luath's favourite thing was pulling the dough apart. She went to try to eat the dough once, I said "It's for playing with", which resulted in quite a few tears (she is such a sensitive soul), which stopped when I showed her the cookie cutter. She kept all the dough on the mat which really made the clear up quick.  More playdough sessions soon.

(Luath is 15 months)