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Ever since Cakes played with the light table at the State Library of Queensland we have both wanted one of our own. With these things costing hundreds of dollars buying one was not an option. Making one however an option cost and time still came into it. I searched high and low for a small box with a flat lid that was see through for some time, until it occurred to me the acrylic on the real ones are slightly hazy and finally spent a whole $2.50 on a container at the Sams Wearhouse. I rushed home to try this with the christmas lights as I had already spent so much money I didn't want to spend any more (haha). Though this was extremely unsuccessful as the string holding it all together was too long and took up so much room there was nowhere for the light to reflect. So back off to the cheap shop we headed, in The Reject shop we found a set of three push lights (which I thought would be good for button games when Cakes is a little older) for $3.50 though I didn't like that they took AAA batteries so we travelled to the other two cheap shops in our shopping centre, Target and Kmart and nothing suited. Back home we went and left it again for another day. While at Soccer class (funded by the shopping centre) the following day back to The Reject shop we went.
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With our tape shapes still on the floor from last month Cakes and Daddy started to have a shape stomp race. Cakes started firstly with "get the circle Daddy" and then Daddy would say a shape. After a while of this I felt left out and decided to be the caller. With only having the 5 basic shapes there was lots of opportunity for repetition of each shape and the odd colour to mix it up. Every know and then Daddy would have a momentary brain freeze and take a little longer to get to the shape. Cakes thought it was hilarious when he was "too slow Daddy". Cakes has started to count so I might attempt playing this game calling the shape with x amount of sides (she might be too young to get it but there is nothing wrong with a little exposure). I think this game will become a new favourite in our house over the next couple of weeks. I hope both Cakes and Daddy cope okay when I pull the tape shapes up off of the floor.
Other posts you might like -With Cakes's obsession with colour at the moment we had some paint samples from the hardware she had collected during our last visit sitting on a shelf in her room. I have been collecting ideas for busy boxes for any possible teaching jobs I may get next year and thought the paint samples would be great for a matching game. While Cakes was having one of her very rare day time sleeps I cut up one side of the paint sample into small pieces and glued them onto some pegs. This took me less than 10 minutes to make. Initially cakes spread out the colour paper and laid the pegs on top, once shown she sent out to peg the colours. This was and still is a little difficult for her. She can open the peg though struggles to get it in the best position to peg it onto the paper. With practise she will develop the hand eye coordination needed to peg the peg onto the colour. To store the pegs and colours I simply place all of the colours together and peg the pegs around the edge. This allows cake to practise opening the pegs to take them off before she commences playing with them.
Other posts you might like -Cakes is a bit of an all rounder, she loves to play quietly inside and read a book however loves being outside and can be rather noisy. To encourage some creativity outside we thought a music wall would be a way she could express herself, be noisy and be outside all at once. Our inspiration came from the many music walls pinned on Pinterest and Cakes's interest in kitchen items. My Mum is an avid op shopper (usually with no particular item in mind) so we we used her local knowledge to travel to thirteen different op shops in search of pots pans and kitchen items. This wasn't as successful as I had thought it would be as we only got two saucepan lids, a pan and a wine rack looking thing. Out of our own cupboard we had a strainer, wooden spoon, whisk metal ladle and a plastic ladle. As my tradie skills are not the best we invested in a small amount of Grandad's time, tools and materials. Grandad strung up the chain with screws and we attached the various kitchen items to the fence (yet to find and attach a pot). Cakes immediately started to make music and invited Grandad to join her. She has now had this for quite some time and doesn't use it everyday but often if outside long enough there will be music heard with a clang clang clang and a bang bang. She has just started to create patterns with the instruments and sings along.
Our supermarket had small shopping trollies for the littlies for a while (they had been removed however I believe they are due to return). Cakes took a delight in going shopping and kept all her own items in her trolley. We would tell her what was on our shopping list that she was needing as we came near an item. She chose the flavour, type or amount of each item she was to buy. Though her trolley was much smaller it was often as full as ours. At the checkout she helps with paying by pushing the green button on the EFTPOS machine and always gives the checkout person her shopping card (the flybys card). The most improtant part of any shopping mission for Ckaes is getting the receipt (if it comes with money that is quickly returned to us as the piece of paper is much more important. She has understood that you must pay for an item before you can open it or leave the shop for a long time now which is very helpful in preventing tantrums for the much wanted Scooby lolly.
Until recently Daddy has been doing the dishes. They were always done and always clean. Recently I have been doing the dishes. This has meant they are often not done and if they are, there are the odd few items that may not be as clean as they should be. I find it difficult to get all the dishes completed in the time away from Cakes in-between activities and play. When I can continue it is often with a small sidekick standing on a small wooden chair dunking her hands in the hot water and throwing the clean dishes back in with a beautiful big smile and a "here you go Mum". In an attempt to get all the dishes done and done well, I collected Cakes's dishes from her kitchen and set them up on a towel with a big tub of warm soapy water (being a cold winters morning and knowing she would get soaked I left her in her pyjamas until she was finished). Cakes also requested she wear her apron she got from her Aunty Louise while she washed the dishes, I do not wear aprons so I was pleased she knows this item is for wearing in the kitchen. This was a huge success (apart from the massive puddle on the floor and Cakes wet from head to toe). I was able to get all the dishes clean and play washing the dishes with Cakes for sometime. This activity captured her attention for about an hour, needless to say her toys (and the cat) will be eating off of the cleanest dishes around. When she had finished she insisted on dishes drying on the bench with the real dishes.
With age warnings on nearly every toy these days and most being for children over the age of 3 years it can be hard to find simple toys to play with. It is no secret to friends and family that I can be slightly toy obsessed and that though Cakes has enjoyed her fair share of simple and home made toys, commercial toys are not scarce in our house. However the educator within me is very passionate about children creating their own play which many commercial toys do not allow children to do. Here is such a simple toy (that has a not for children under 3 warning) that Cakes and Big Cousin H had tons of fun with. It was $2 from a cheap shop and is essentially a large thunder stick (or long plastic tube bag). It was simply blown up with air and tied at both ends. Cakes hit it, scrunched it, and tried to eat it. Big Cousin H also hit it, scrunched though he drove cars on it rather than trying to eat it (that could be the age difference coming through there). Even the cat enjoyed a few swipes at it until it bounced down at her. As this is not suggested for children under the age of 3 it was a toy that was used only under supervision however remained in the lounge room for weeks as Cakes and Big Cousin H (and the cat) continued to play with it on and off.
While I was pregnant with Cakes I was working for a chemical free childcare service. I thought if centres can do it so can I and had gotten rid of all our cleaning products and stocked up on bi carbonate soda, vinegar and detergent. As I don't clean very often we still have an ample supply some 2 and a bit years later. I had seen some bi carb and vinegar art on Pinterest (and for the life of me cannot find it now) and thought this would be a great way for Cakes to continue her obssession with colours and experience some extra fun along the way. I spread a layer of bi carb across a small baking tray (that really doesn't get used for baking), just about half the depth. I made up three pots of primary coloured vinegar. As I did not have any eye droppers we used medicine plungers. These were a little harder for her to use though as she had to use to hands to pull the plunger out and two hands to push it back in. She mastered it, well eventually. She occasionally pushed into the pot and tried pulling in the bi carb but overall she worked it out. Cakes excitedly called out the name of each colour as she plunged it onto the bi card and laughed at the fizzle. Once most of the tray was covered she continued to drop colours on top and exclaimed the new colour made. After a few goes of this she predicted what colours she would make. She improved at naming which primary colours make which secondary colours in the short time she completed the activity. Once the bi carb was saturated and it no longer fizzled Cakes decided to roll the bi carb into balls. She did this for almost as long as she did the painting. We left the bi carb balls on the try to dry and decided we would find a use for them later in the day. As there was a bit of a mess left over when we had finished Cakes went and got a cloth and proceeded to clean the floor. This was a long and tedious process as the bi carb when spread initially made more of a mess. Once she was calm and could see she was making progress she continued to clean and left the area cleaner than it was before we started. After months of collecting paper tubes from foil and paper towels we were looking for an activity that we could do with some of them. After seeing them used as tunnels for pom poms on another blog we thought we would give it a go. After some cutting, sticking, rearranging and trial and error they were ready to go. Cakes enjoyed helping set the tubes up and requested the different colours on each tube. While sticking up some of the last few tubes she had worked out that the holes in the tubes needed to line up to allow the pom poms through. Almost an hour was spent sending the pom poms through the tubes the first time she played with it. This activity was visited many times over the next few days before the tape gave way and the tubes started to fall (electrical tape was not the best option, masking tape may have been better). Every one that visited in the few days was politely dragged over to see Cakes's new "tunnel, balls" as she seemed to be excited about it still. This activity would be a great follow from peek-a-boo for babies of about 6 months old to develop their understanding of object permanency. By using just one tube facing straight down they would be able to figure out it goes in the top and comes out the bottom, such a tricky thing for a little person to learn on their own.
Every parent and even people without children play peek-a-boo with babies. This is usually due to knowing it will get a positive reaction. Peek-a-boo is such a great and simple game that can be played any where at anytime and should be played often. This simple game is much more than simply fun for young children, in fact it helps them develop important skills such as object permanency and the visual simulation helps develop brain cells and create connections. Once your child understands the 'rules' of peek-a-boo they will take over the role of hiding and then they will be able to practise turn taking.
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