Play and Learn Every Day

Chalk Roads

07:30

There is nothing we love more than an easy summer activity that can keep the kids occupied all day long. These chalk roads are definitely just that, simple and fun!

All you need is an outdoor area with enough space to draw some roads, like your backyard patio or driveway and some sidewalk chalk. We've done this a few times now (the rain keeps washing our roads away and then we get to start all over again!) The first time that we did this Ethan and I discussed what type of roads we wanted to create, and decided that a road that went all the way around the patio in a circle would be best, with a short cut road across the middle. I did the main drawing the first time around with Ethan following behind me with his chalk filling in the gaps that I left for him.

The second time around Ethan was much more confident and drew the roads himself, with just a little bit of help from me, and this time with Ivy following us around drawing her own little centre lines. And Ethan decided that this time we also needed a car park for all of our vehicles, so he lined them all up and then drew lines to separate them so we would be able to park them back in their spots when we finished with each one.

Then it was time to choose a vehicle and drive it around our chalk roads. Both Ethan and Ivy enjoyed driving around in the Little Tikes car, the horse hopper and their scooters. Of course Ivy didn't stick to the roads, but she enjoyed following Ethan around the roads as best as she could. It was also great for both of them to improve their scooting skills, working on corners and turns for Ethan and learning to go forwards instead of backwards for Ivy.

We've also drawn in some other features along the way, like stop signs and traffic lights which Ethan is happy to follow as he drives down the road. He has also created his own petrol station where he stops to fill up his car when it's running low, before getting back on the road to drive. He adds new and exciting elements to his roads each time that he goes out there, it's great for me to see him being so creative and engaged in an activity. Bring on the rain so we can draw new roads tomorrow!

* This post contains affiliate links to products that we used for this activity.*

1 year old

Berry Picking Pretend Play

07:30

We went berry picking last weekend and the kids absolutely loved it! They loved running around the plants and searching for the most ripe berries to pick and to put into their baskets. Of course they also loved sampling all of their pickings and bringing loads of yummy berries home with them.

I decided to try to bring some of the fun of berry picking home with us, and to do our own version of searching for berries in our own backyard. We had all of the fruit baskets from our day at the berry farm, so we used them to collect different colours of play balls around the garden that represented different fruit. Ethan decided that the red balls were strawberries, the blue balls were blueberries, the orange balls were peaches and the green balls were grapes.

Ivy started picking up berries before I even got a chance to put them all around the backyard. She was so excited to start filling up her basket and found loads of berries without any direction from me at all.

Ethan's challenge was to find just a specific type of fruit to put into each basket, so that he was searching for colours of balls and focusing his attention a bit more. Of course he found it easy, but it did slow him down a bit and give Ivy a chance to pick up some balls for her basket.

Then Ethan took all of the berries, his and Ivy's, emptied out all of the baskets and sorted them each into their individual baskets, counting them as he put them in.

Ivy's final task was to pour out all of the baskets, put balls back into the baskets, then pour out the baskets and put balls back into the baskets...I think that you get the idea! She could have sat there playing with those balls and baskets for ages, it was such a great activity for encouraging her to play independently as it's something that she loves to do with her toys but now she had more purpose.

The kids both loved playing berry picking at home, it's a great activity to give them as a starting point for inventing their own games and playing on their own outdoors.

For more summer fun take a look at our Pinterest board:

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1 year old

Laundry Basket Posting

07:30

1 year old

Happy Birthday Miffy

07:30

1 year old

Rainbow Fruit and Dip

07:30

1 year old

A House to Play In - Ivy's Starry Bedroom

07:30

We have been in our new house for just over a month now, and things are really starting to come together. We made sure that the children's rooms were set up straight away, but it has taken a little while to get them fully decorated and organised with all of their toys. Here's a sneak peek of Ivy's room, I'm sure that there are more changes to come but she's having fun playing in it already.

Her new room has a lot of the same decor as Ivy's First Bedroom but it is at least double the size, so there's lots of room to play now. Some new additions are the name bunting that I picked up at a local garden centre and a few other keepsakes that we didn't have room for in her old room.

Even though Ivy is still sleeping in her cot we have bought a single bed for her room for when she's older (and for me to sleep in when she's having a bad night!) It will also be the guest bed, so we went for a trundle bed for extra sleeping space. I chose some plain purple bedding (although I did find some cute starry sheets at Asda) and got the comfiest premium pillows from Warren Evans. Whoever sleeps in this bed is going to have a great nights sleep with these fab pillows! I also put up some new lettering wall stickers and this cute hair bow holder that Ivy's Nana made for her.

The newest addition to Ivy's room is this big wardrobe from Ikea that we just put together. It's great because it fits all of her little dresses and has plenty of shelves with room for lots and lots of toys! It's so easy to just open up the door and let Ivy choose which toys she wants to play with, and there's loads of space on the floor for her to set up all of her little houses and cars to play with. She loves to stand with the door open and point to the toys that she wants me to get for her (I have to hold her back from trying to climb the shelves and get them herself!)

Ivy's also got this adorable little HelloHome StarBright Storage Unit and bookshelf from World's Apart. It's shaped like a little cloud and just goes perfectly in Ivy's room. There's room on the top for books and three little drawers that pull out for toys, perfect for all of Ivy's dolls and their accessories. She spends most of the time in her room pulling books off the shelf and sitting flipping through the pages, it's definitely her favourite piece of furniture.

It's just a start but at least we have Ivy's bedroom nearly finished, hopefully I'll be able to show you Ethan's bedroom, the main play area and the garden soon!

* This is a review post, we were given the pillows from Warren Evans and the bookshelf from World's Apart to try out and to write an honest review about, it also contains affiliate links.*

For more about our house to play in, take a look at our Pinterest board:
Follow Play & Learn Everyday's board A House to Play In on Pinterest.