Play and Learn Every Day

Exploring Reflections in How to Catch a Star

08:30

Tower Building Busy Bag

08:30

We are new to the world of busy bags, and I don't know why because they are a terrific way to keep the kids busy when you're out and about. I tend to let the kids fill their bags with whatever toys they want to bring with them, but that can end up a bit chaotic. I love the idea that they could pick up a busy bag to bring out with them and be engrossed in an educational activity while we're travelling or out for a meal. So for our first busy bag I've gone for a super simple tower building activity, using one of our favourite things to play with, Lego!

What you'll need:

a bag or box to keep everything in
Lego Duplo blocks (or regular Lego for older children)
2 wooden blocks
permanent markers

The only real set up that this busy bag requires is to make the dice. Of course if you have a number die and a colour die you could use those, but I wanted to make a dice with numerals instead of dots to help Ethan with his number recognition and to make a colour die so that we could use it for lots of different activities. So I coloured the wooden blocks with the permanent markers to make the two different dice for us to use.

The busy bag is very easy for kids to use and doesn't require much explanation, I simply put it in front of Ethan and told him to roll the number dice to show how many Lego blocks his tower should have, and then to roll the colour dice each time to decide which colour of block to put on his tower next.

Ethan picked it up really quickly and was having fun building towers. It's a great way to work on number recognition and multi step instructions. It can also be played with two children to work on turn taking.

To extend this busy bag activity I might add a little notebook and coloured pencils so that Ethan can draw and label his towers each time that he builds one.

This post is part of the A-Z of Busy Bags series on Teach Me Mommy, with 26 fantastic ideas you'll have a busy bag any time you need one!

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2 years old

Top Ten Easter Sensory Activities

08:30

4 years old

A Super Fun Easter Basket for Kids

09:30

It's almost Easter and I've been busy filling up Easter baskets with all sorts of fun things for Ethan and Ivy. I like to get them some new toys and games to play with, some that are educational and some just for fun. They are also getting some healthy treats, because they will get enough other chocolate for Easter anyway!

This post contains affiliate links.

I decided this year to be a bit different, so for Ethan's Easter basket I've used a big green flexible bucket instead of a basket. This way we can use the bucket afterwards for toy storage or for messy play!

The big surprise this year is that each of the children is getting a big Easter present as well as all of the little ones. Ethan is going to absolutely love this Toy Picnic Set from The Great Little Trading Company. Ethan loves picnics more than anything, as soon as it's a sunny day he asks if we can go for a picnic. And this spring doesn't seem like it's going to warm up very quickly, so this way we'll be able to have some pretend indoor picnics until we're able to bring the fun outside! This set is absolutely adorable, I love wooden toys and this wooden food inside a real basket is so authentic and lovely, it will really add something special to our play times. I also love that some of the food is stuck together with velcro, so we can work on cutting skills to separate them, learn about fractions with the segments of the food and work on sharing all at the same time!

He will also be getting The Game of Ladybirds. This is a great game for consolidating counting skills and working on subitizing (recognising or counting quickly just by seeing the number of dots) by matching up the number of dots on the dice, on the cards and on the ladybirds. We're going to have a lot of fun playing this game!

He is also going to love these WOW Eggs from WOW Toys, he will expect Mr Chirpy Chick - Chris to pop out of the egg I'm sure, but he won't be expecting My Dinky Dino - Tricksy, that will be a real surprise! Then he'll get to add them to his WOW Toys collection, and have them being carried around on vehicles in no time!

I've also put in a couple of Funny Face Egg Jump Ups from Baker Ross that are sure to entertain the kids for hours.

And for some healthy treats Ethan gets to try these new Crunchy Grapes from Kiddylicious, which sound really yummy. He's also got a box of his favourite Farm Animal Biscuits from Organix. The Easter Bunny also puts little boxes of raisins and mini oaty bites from Organix in the eggs that he hides for the kids Easter Egg hunt!

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* This is a review post and also contains affiliate links. We were sent all of the items to review and write our honest opinions about.*

2 years old

A Fun Easter Basket for Toddlers

08:30

It's almost Easter and that means that we get to fill up an Easter basket with all sorts of fun things for Ethan and Ivy. I like to get them some new toys and games for spring each year, some that are educational and some just for fun. I also like to put a few healthy treats in there for them (because they will get enough other chocolate for Easter anyway!)

This post contains affiliate links.

I decided this year to be a bit different, so for Ivy's Easter basket I've used a big yellow flexible bucket instead of a basket. This way we can use the bucket afterwards for toy storage or for messy play!

The big surprise this year is that each of the children is getting a big Easter present as well as all of the little ones. Ivy is going to go crazy for this Number Loving Oven from LeapFrog. It's going to help her to learn her numbers while she's having fun and pretending to cook things up in her oven. It comes with lots of different food items that she can cook, and it sings little songs and plays different phrases. She is going to absolutely love it! She's very musical, she's always singing and dancing, so the key to learning for her is definitely through music, so I am sure that this will help with her number skills in no time.

She will also be getting this cute Quack Quack game from Orchard Toys. This is a bit different to other games that we have from them, which is really nice. It's got all of the fun of rolling the dice, then some colour recognition in matching the spot on the dice to the spot on the card. And the most fun part of all, making animal sounds! Ivy's favourite song is Old MacDonald had a Farm, so she is excellent at animal noises and will adore this game!

She is also going to love these WOW Eggs from WOW Toys, she's going to be very surprised to open up her pink egg and discover Mr Chirpy Chick - Chrissie, who she can press down to make a little chirping sound. It's perfect for her curiosity and love of opening and closing things at this age. She also gets to discover My Dinky Dino - Bronty who will be even more of a surprise as you don't often expect a dinosaur at Easter. She does love dinosaurs though, so she'll definitely be roaring that little guy around all day!

I've also put in a couple of Funny Face Egg Jump Ups from Baker Ross that are sure to entertain Ivy for hours. The anticipation of pressing it down and not knowing when it's going to pop up. I can almost hear her little giggle already!

And for some healthy treats Ivy gets to try these new Crunchy Grapes from Kiddylicious, which sound really yummy. She's also got a box of her favourite Gingerbread Men cookies from Organix. The Easter Bunny also puts little boxes of raisins and mini oaty bites from Organix in the eggs that he hides for the kids Easter Egg hunt!

2 years old

Planting Flowers for the Bees

13:00

It's almost spring time and we are ready to start planting some flowers. The kids always love planting seeds and watching them grow, and in the past I have focused on the growth of the seeds, so I thought it might be fun this time to talk about what happens to the flowers after they've grown, specifically the job of the bees! And what better way than to make some cute little bee planters to watch our flowers grow in.

What you'll need:

yogurt pots / plant pots
yellow and black washi tape
googly eyes
glue
pipe cleaners
soil
flower seeds

First we wrapped the yellow and black tape around our yogurt pots to make the bees stripey. The kids always love playing with tape, so this was a fun part for them!

Then we added some little googly eyes to our bees with glue, and wrapped a pipe cleaner around the top and bent it over to make antennas.

Then we filled our little bee planters with soil and sowed our seeds. This is when we talked a lot about planting seeds and what they need to grow. We watered our seeds and put them in a sunny spot to help them grow, then talked about the job of the bees and how they help to spread the pollen around the flowers (and also make delicious honey!)

Then we finished off by buzzing around the garden pretending to be bees going from flower to flower. The kids can't wait to see their flowers grow and to put them outside for the bees!

This post is part of the Kindergarten blog hop, this month we're covering the Spring unit, take a look at all of these great ideas to help plan your lessons and activities.