Beach Fun, Driftwood & A Dinosaur Small World.

While Nanny was up staying with us we decided to check out another small local beach. I really love that on a small quite beach like this Joseph(5) and Daniel (3.5) are now old enough to explore a bit on their own.  We had lots of fun finding sea glass, interesting rocks and driftwood. There was still quite a bit of water draining off the land so there were a few streams under the rocks. Daniel found one that went between some larger rocks that he was using to sail some driftwood.

Shells - Rock Pool Small World

I decided to swap around our sensory box the week before half term, we decided that a beach theme would be good, but as I'd just cleaned I didn't want anything as messy as our last beach small world! So we got out all of our shells. Most of our shells we have collected during various beach trips. But I bought the big 2 at a car boot sale a few weeks back for 50p! Then we used a blue ice cream tub filled with some water to make a rock pool. We decided that our Playmobil people, that came with the swimming pool that Joseph got from Santa for Christmas, would be perfect as they have their costumes on ready for paddling!

Seaside Messy Play

I have finally got around to writing up the last of our summer messy play sessions. The theme was the seaside, to cover the beach & the sea - as I couldn't choose! We had lots of fun making our CD fish click here for full details.

On another table I set up all our scissors (straight & curvy etc.) & our punches, along with some old magazines. The kids had great fun cutting out interesting pictures & then sticking them on to some paper to make collages.

I managed to get this great roll of blue & yellow paper from our scrap store & it is just perfect for a beach painting.. I love the concentration Daniel(3) has here, he often sticks his tongue out!

In one of our pools I put a bag of play sand along with lots of sand toys. I'm not a major fan of sand & prefer it when its at the beach (& stays there) so it was a treat for the boys. I even let them keep it in the garden (covered) for a couple of weeks.

The other pool was set up as a rock pool, with lots of green & blue strips (thanks scrap store), some rocks & plastic sea life.

In a sensory box we had some water beads & sea life sand moulds for scooping. It was the first time that the other children & parents had experienced them & they kept going back to explore! 

In the second box we had our collection of boats, sea life figures, our shell collection and water with some blue food colouring. Water play is always popular I've noticed that on the weeks without water play that many kids end up playing in the hand washing bowl.

We also had out some blue play dough & our play-doh octopus & several relevant cutters.

We had so much fun all summer (& lots of hard work), its really great to let the boys explore several creative or sensory stations & move at their own pace. We often do things like this at home but only ever one at a time & we also have other distractions. I cant wait for our Halloween special messy play.

x Jo x

CD Fish Craft

I've been so wrapped up in Autumn & Halloween I've forgotten to share the details of the last of my summer messy play sessions. Our theme was the seaside to include the beach & under the sea. I have been wanting to make CD fish with the boys for a while so it seamed like the perfect craft for this theme.

Daniel (3)

Once I had collected enough old Cd's (thank goodness our local scrap store had some), I cut out lots of fins, tails & hearts for lips, form various colours of stiff paper (card or craft foam would also work well). You could glue these on, but would need to wait for them to dry before decorating the front. So we used sellotape to attach them on to the back of our Cd's.

We then flipped them over stuck on a googly eye & then the kids got creative with a selection of decorations to glue on.

My example fish, I love having an excuse to create!

Here are a few of our fab fish..

These would be great to make any time, but would be great if you are working on an under the sea theme or the letter F. Check back soon for the rest of the details of our seaside messy play...

 

x Jo x

Our Family Holiday - At Butlins

 

The day after Daniels birthday party, we all packed up & headed off to Butlins - Minehead. Crazy going the day after the party, but it meant that Nanny was already up from Devon to look after the cats, rats & fish. She also manages to make my home look all sparkly & new, thanks Mum!

The first 2 days we had glorious sunshine, however the English weather returned to the status quo of could & (some) rain! It didn't spoil the holiday though as there is so much to do inside, however the early evening we spent in the pub garden whilst the boys played in the park was nice.

Whilst we were away it was Daniels actual Birthday, he had a great day swimming & enjoying the rides & shows. In the evening we ordered the party package so or dinner table was decorated, he had a card from Billy Bear & a cake. This really made the day special & was worth the £14.99.

There was so many great things on resort, that we didn't get around to going on the beach until after the weather had turned. We did however find a dry (if a little windy) morning to visit the beach. Joseph (4.5) really loves everything to do with the beach so was in his element.

The same day the 2 (much older) girls who were in the apartment opposite us had also been on the beach & had collected rocks, shells, old coins, a toy solider & they had even caught 3 crabs (2 were tiny). They invited the boys to take a look before they took them back to the sea. They were in a washing up bowl & it was like a sea sensory box. Both boys loved this & enjoyed holding & watching the crabs, it was hard to tear them away.

They also enjoyed watching the Skyline Gang shows & were really thrilled to be able to meet some of them after the show. Daniel was to shy to go up to Candy (pink one), possibly because she was a girl!

Being on the go everyday really tired he boys out & even though they were in bed by 7/8 each night & slept well, its going to take them some time to recover. It was a really great family holiday & we are already thinking about booking again.

x Jo x

P.s. If you would like a more detailed review of Minehead Butlins why not check out Mummy Mishaps recent post.

Our first small world box

Until I came accross some pins on Pintrest of small world boxes, I hadn't come across the idea. Other than the standard Fisher Price or Happyland sets, and it reminded me of the miniature gardens I made for a local flower show as a child.

I was inspired by some posts on a couple of  my favourite blogs:
The Imagination Tree
Growing A Jeweled Rose

So i went out & bought a 32L under bed storage box from a local shop, it makes a great box for this project as its big enough for both boys to use & the lid means it can easily be put away for another day.

We used some shiny blue wrapping paper stuck to the base for the sea & some cloud dough for the sand, I was going to use yellow food colouring but i could only get the gel kind locally which I didn't think would work so i ended up using a teaspoon of turmeric, which worked really well & you cant smell it over the baby oil!

I love the look of concentration on Josephs face here

We then added some fish, an old plastic aquarium plant as seaweed, a couple of boats, shells, stones, windmills, cocktail umbrellas, some people (duplo) & a dog.

The boys helped me assemble the box which is why I don't have a pic of it looking tidy. They both enjoyed playing with the box, we did get the usual squabbles about who was playing with what etc. we have since had it out when the boys have been on there own & its been lovely to watch how they use there imagination with out interruption. It also highlighted to me that even though Daniel is 18 months younger he still has a much longer attention span for this type of play than his brother.

I'm not a huge fan of sand & like it to stay at the beech, I seam to find it weeks later even if it was just a visit to a park with a sand pit! Cloud dough makes a very good sand replacement, the boys did get some on the floor but was easy to sweep up, it made more of a mess on the boys clothes but brushing them down & a change of socks was all it took.

I'm currently torn between keeping the beach theme box & changing it out for something new as I have lots of other ideas pinned!

x Jo x