Sensory Board

I'm on a development toys spree presently and most of these toys are made by H! It is like all those ideas that I was holding onto for so long are now coming out and taking shape with H's woodworking skills. I came across this really smart sensory board at fun at home with kids. We basically just added a few doors on the board and behind each door is a picture, one of them has a mirror. Also I didn't want to add textured fabrics on this board as that is a separate activity that I have planned for E. 

 The paint marks on one of the doors were made by E when she went straight to the board during our finger painting session. With so much to capture her attention, it is hard for E to stay at one place for a long time.

 It was quite interesting to put together this board as a parent, we discussed whether it is workable, for every object we bought. The doors with pictures inside was a hit with E as she loves books and some of the characters she could recognise such as Peter Rabbit. As with every new activity E did get frustrated when she couldn't work something out but the next day she came back to the board and tried again more calmly. 

The touch light works better in dark and once we move the board indoors I think that would be a hit too. E likes the colourful chunky chains too and tries to pull them out of the board.

Sensory board is simple to put together and a provides great food for young minds!

Peppa Pig on a cake!

Peppa pig is a really much loved girl. No matter how much you want to run away from licensed figures, kids just love them as they are the TV stars! This cake is for one of my favourite girl, she looks adorable and is a very fine talker. It only feels like yesterday that Ananya was born, now she is three years old and wanted a Peppa pig birthday cake with cheese! Peppa pig as a character is really cute and I love the way she talks, the simplicity of design of this character is definitely the reason for it's popularity amongst children.

 The cake itself was a chocolate cake wit dark chocolate ganache and I tried to give it a very bright sunny day out and about with Peppa sort of a look. The house is generally where the story starts and it makes it's way out to the garden eventually in every episode. The fun bit was when the children couldn't keep their hands off the cake as soon as A put the knife through it.

It was a great birthday party and I really enjoyed making this cake for a pretty princess xx

5 Simple DIY Activities for Toddlers

I have not been able to write much lately as I have been busy making something or the other to entertain my 18 month old. It is a bit more than just feeding changing and sleeping when your baby is completely mobile. They are no longer babies but not exactly a child well they are learning so fast that they will soon become the one teaching you how to do things rather than being taught! I love it when E wakes up in the morning and the very first thing she wants to do is say "please toys" "cum on now" it makes me feel happy and content, my child enjoys playing and especially when it is the activity I have set up for her.Thanks to many blogger mums it has been very easy to set up some very simple activities for E and here are my versions of some that you may have already come across on the web.

Like any other child colours and paints fascinate E the most. She loves painting and drawing. I only recently introduced non toxic paints to E before that I would make some paints at home with food colouring and flour and give it to E to explore. This one is my favourite as she does a Jackson Pollock with these paints. I mixed food colour, cornflour and a pinch of salt with boiling hot water(make a thick consistency). E tried using her paintbrush with these at first but then H showed her how to pinch up the paint with her fingers and then let it drip on the paper. E loved the texture and how easily the solid paint drip down from her finger like water. Most of the times I make an activity but H really shows E how to play with it, he is very good at inducing exploration and ideas.

Inserting objects into one another is another favourite activity for E. E has quite a few toys where she can insert or "put" objects in a box and then take them out again. Cover a tubular container with some paper or fabric, I used Cat in a Hat print fabric. Make a slit in the lid of the tube and make some cardboard or paper coins to insert in the box. E can put them in and take them out by simply opening the lid. She loves the cat in the hat prints as well as she has a few books so she can relate to the characters.

Feed the fish. I have come across quite a few blogs showing pom pom drop activities with their toddlers and I though of making it a bit more fancy. So I rolled a sheet of paper and made it look somewhat like a fish (that was the word E was learning then) and made some pompoms which she could feed the fish. E loves it and she interprets the game as she wants. Sometime E would put all the pom poms in together and other times she would feed the fish some crayons! It is the sort of activity that she would do whenever she passes in front of it so maybe a few minutes at a time.

Blocks were never E's favourites until now. The soft blocks I bought her when she was only little did not quite work for stacking more so for gnawing on them. Then the wooden blocks again she didn't quite feel that the towers went high enough! So I painted some cardboard boxes in solid colours and set them up in the backyard, there you go E would stack anything and everything now. Big and tall seems to work just perfect for my little darling.

Covering some cardboard tubes with solid coloured paper helps introduce colour play and they are so easy to make. I don't quite like the idea of using toilet paper tubes so I use the paper towel tubes instead, hence the uneven lengths of these tubes. I used them to match the bugs (E loves her plastic bugs, they go everywhere) colour with the tube colour. E likes to use them as bowling pins as well.

If you like these then you might also like my older posts Sensory Boxes and Water wall. Being an adult who can think is a great gift and using it to help your child learn and play is the greatest gift your child can ever get. Get creative!

Water Wall for Little Geniuses!

All children are naturally fascinated with water and E loves it too. She loves to take a dip in it or soak in bubbles but best of all she loves to just play with it straight out of a bucket! I remember running through the garden hose with my little brother as a child during summer. Every evening mum would ask the gardener to hose the driveway, a very natural way to cool down the heat and we kids would get a chance to jump in muddy puddles (well sort of muddy puddles!). It wasn't so much because we felt hot but more so that we can play with water and make as much a mess as we could as we were outside the house.

I have been trying to set up different water activities for E during this really hot summer but I was looking at making a more organised play space for her where she can just play and explore water and enjoy what she is doing. This board was one that H put together for me all I did was just ask. We thought of making a really simple activity to begin with as E just turned 18 months. We do plan to keep updating and making it a more complexed activity as she grows.

We just arranged some plastic bottles, glass and bamboo along with a pipe and funnel on a board such that E can pour water through three openings and water will cascade its way down to a metal container with holes all over. E fills up her watering can from the bucket and pours the water (mainly in the red container) and watches how it makes its way down.

Sometimes she just pours the water out through the watering can and watches it sprinkle and other times it is just a plastic glass no watering can that she uses to pour out the water!

 I tried to make it as colourful as I could so that E is more attracted towards it but I'm sure if it wasn't so colourful E would still love it as much as she does now. There are many similar water activities on the web by other bloggers which are very fascinating and inspiring to look at and this one is my favourite as it's really simple for anyone to put together.