Homemade Heart Bath Bombs

Minnie has recently discovered bath bombs! She had some as part of a pamper set for Christmas & has loved watching them fizz away in the bathwater. Sadly they've now all been used, so we thought we'd have a go at creating our own bath time fizzy treats. With only 4 basic ingredients these bath bombs are simple & also frugal to make. 

Simple Printing for Kids (using Recycled Polystyrene)

This simple printing technique is ideal for younger children to explore & produces some amazing results. I love the effect of lino printing, but even soft linoleum can be a little tough for young children to create with. This process gives a similar result but offers younger children more freedom to create independently.

12 Ideas for Valentine's Day

Looking for ideas for Valentine's Day?

Here are a few of our favourite cards, gifts & food ideas which are sure to brighten someone's day.

Snow Painting

Here's a super frugal, simple activity offering opportunities to explore movements, patterns, shapes & colour mixing!

Take a squeezy bottle (empty washing up liquid bottles are ideal for this) & fill with runny paint. For our paint we added 2 teaspoons of powder paint to the bottle & filled with water, then shook well to mix. Ready mix paint would work just as well with plenty of water added.

I handed over the bottles to Minnie & she headed off out into the snow.
Here's what happened next...

She discovered if you shake the bottles rather than squeezing them you can create dot patterns in the snow!

She also found you can make great zig-zag patterns with the paint if you squeeze the bottle while twisting your body around!

You can send your paint flying high by pointing the bottle up...

... & it travels further if you squeeze the bottle hard!

Minnie loved mixing the paints in the snow & watching the colours blend together. She followed one set of patterns with another colour of paint, & made trails for me to follow.

She created several 'patches' of colour & watched excitedly as the snow & ice melt under & around the paint.

We're refilling these again today to create some more snow art! I wonder what we'll discover today...

Snow Kitchen - Outdoor Play

The UK is bracing itself for snow in the next few days & as a result, I have one very excited little girl! She is completely captivated by the stuff! When it's fallen here in previous years she has been out like a shot, dancing & creating in it, & exploring all that this magical winter weather brings.

DIY Dramatic Play Set Up - Doctors Surgery / Hospital

For the last couple of years I've set up dramatic play areas for Minnie to explore around the home. We've had a variety of play set ups including a Shoe Shop, Ice-Cream Stand, Bakery, Post Office, Desert Island, & Tea Rooms, all of which have been a big hit! Each play area uses items gathered from around the house or collected from charity shops, & hasn't taken long to put together. We leave each area up for a couple of weeks, or longer if Minnie is still involved with them, & put them to one side of the room once she's gone to bed. (However much I love the play areas, I don't really want to be sat in the middle of one come the evening!) 

Recently she asked for a Doctors Surgery so with a little hunt around the house here's what we pulled together.

One of Our Favourite Play Posts - Magical Doors for Imaginative Play

It was so hard to choose just one post to share today, 2012 was an amazing year for us, but this activity is one we've enjoyed throughout the year. It's inspired stories, small world play, & oodles of creativity & imagination.