Play and Learn Every Day

4 years old

We've been busy making a bird craft that can fly (well sort of!) It's another one of our after school crafting creations, and Ethan absolutely loves these challenges. I set up a collection of materials on the table for him, and then he just gets to put them together in any way that he likes to make a bird.

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Materials you'll need to make a Flying Bird Craft:

clothes peg
string
assorted paper
Bostik White Glu
lolly sticks
googly eyes
feathers
Blu Tack Micro Dots

I set things up with a string that I tied from a door handle to the back of a chair and showed Ethan how we could slide a clothes peg along the string to make it fly across (a bit like a zip line) so that he could make a bird and attach it to the clothes peg to make it fly along the string.

First we wanted to make our clothes peg look a bit more like a bird's wing, so we used some white glue to stick a feather on each side of it and then left it to dry.

That was the only input that I had, then I just left Ethan to create on his own. He used all of the materials to make a massive bird with a paper plate body decorated with a doily and feathers. The bird's head is made from crepe paper, foam shapes and googly eyes. The legs are made from lolly sticks and bits of paper that he stuck on using the micro dots. He really enjoyed playing with these as they sort of make any bit of paper into a sticker, I think that they'll be a bit part of his crafting creations now.

I was a little bit concerned that his first bird was a bit too big to fly on our zip line, so he made a smaller one as well, just in case. This bird he made by cutting up some foam sheets into a bird shape, with a foam wing and lolly sticks for legs. Both birds did actually fly quite nicely along the string and Ethan is having a lot of fun playing with them!

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* This is a review post, we were sent a box of craft supplies from Bostik in order to make this craft, all opinions are our own.*

4 years old

Nurturing Children's Minds

17:01

Wow, I've had one of those 'a-ha' moments today and I am just exploding with this information and need to share it. I went to a workshop at the kids' school this morning about Growing Healthy Minds and it just made me realise how important it is to work on helping them to manage their big emotions now, so that they have all of these tools that they can use throughout their lives to help them to succeed. Here's a few things that they covered and some ways that we already use them or that we're planning on using them in the future. (Don't worry if meditation and yoga aren't for you, keep reading because Growth Mindset might really be the thing that clicks!)

Photo by Wayne Robinson on Unsplash

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Meditation, Mindfulness and Guided Visualisations

They had these lovely Tibetan bells that they used to help the children to focus on their breathing. To listen to the bells and when they stop hearing the sound then they take deep breaths and pay attention to their bodies, bringing their minds back to their breathing if their minds wandered. It's great for calming down after a busy time, like play time. Children need some down time to calm their minds from the frenzy around them, just like we do.

We also did a guided visualisation from the book Relax Kids - Pants of Peace. We did the Bags of Kindness visualisation and I could really see how it would be helpful for children. When I was a teacher I had a few CDs with guided visualisations that I would put on for the class, I really liked the Relax Kids Fantastic Fairytales Meditation CD and the Calm for Kids Enchanted Meditations for Kids CD.

Yoga

I was happy to hear that they recommended doing some Cosmic Kids on YouTube as we are already big fans. We were lucky enough to go to take part in a Cosmic Kids Live session a couple of years ago, you may just be able to spot Ethan in this video.

We also love doing a bit of our own yoga at home using books, yoga cards and having a yoga poster up in the kids' bedrooms. I did a course with Calm for Kids when I was a teacher and loved using these Yoga Pretzels cards, the book Yoga Kids by Fearne Cotton and this great ABCs of Yoga poster which I now use at home as well.

Calming Techniques

The teacher this morning used a calm down jar to demonstrate how the brain gets flooded with emotions and can’t function, so needs to calm. It reminded me that we haven't actually made any calm down jars or sensory bottles in ages and they are such a good resource for children to focus on when they are feeling overwhelmed. (Our very first sensory bottles when Ethan was a baby were quite simple, but I then experimented with some slow moving calm down bottles for Easter a few years later.)

They also recommended the Calm Kids book which is full of calming ideas for children. As well as a meditation candle video like this one from Cosmic Kids:

Growth Mindset

Growth Mindset is the concept that blew my mind a little bit this morning, as it just makes so much sense and I have no idea how I had never heard of it before. It was developed by Dr Carol Dweck and is basically all about how we cope with challenges. If we have a growth mindset and enjoy the challenge and learn from it, or if we have a fixed mindset and challenges intimidate us because we think we can't do it. We watched this introduction video which made it really clear:

It's all about praising the process and effort (not talent or intelligence), not worrying about making mistakes because the brain is a muscle and making mistakes makes it stronger. It's also remembering to use the word yet 'I’m not very good at _____ yet!'

This couldn't have come at a better time for us as I have been talking to Ethan a lot about this recently. He is a bit of a perfectionist and always likes to get things right, getting discouraged when he makes mistakes. I've been emphasising the importance of working hard and not giving up, but I'm hopeful that the Growth Mindset principles will help me to really encourage him further.

There are also some great videos aimed at children from Class Dojo that make it more accessible at their level.

I have just ordered the Growth Mindset book by Dr Carol Dweck to learn more about it and bring it more into the activities that we do at home.

It also reminded me of a TED video that I once saw about grit, which I managed to find again (and it also inspired me to order the book by the speaker, Grit by Angela Duckworth.)

The Learning Pit

Another concept that they covered this morning was The Learning Pit developed by James Nottingham (he has a book called The Learning Challenge) . It emphasises that the hardest part is taking that first jump off the cliff into the pit, things will get difficult and you may hit a brick wall but once you push through it you get that eureka moment and succeed. We watched this video which really showed the importance of not giving up and being resilient:

Positivity

Finally we ended on a positive note, and they mentioned something that we are actually doing already (I thought that I had invented it!) Each night at bedtime I ask the children to to tell me three happy things about their days. This way we end on a positive thought, I get to hear more about the fun that they're having and it has helped with sleep issues as well (less anxious thoughts keeping them awake or causing bad dreams.)

Our mornings are always very hectic and busy (brush your teeth! put on your shoes!) but we do try to start the days with some positivity too. Often while we're putting on our coats and shoes and just getting ready to leave I'll play the song Get Back Up Again from the Trolls Soundtrack to give us a little boost and start thinking about how strong we are and that we can get through anything today. It's our special morning song and it always puts everyone in a good mood!

I am feeling really inspired from all of this today and hoping to put it all into action with our family straight away. Please let me know if you do any of this already in your families and how it has impacted your lives.

Further Resources:

Mind Up curriculum for schools
Calm kids online course
Calm for Kids Yoga Teacher training (this is the course I did)

4 years old

Getting Cosy with our Snuggle Sac from Room to Grow

12:35

If there is one thing that both of my children love, it is camping...and we've never even been! They just love the idea of camping and of travelling and it's something that they play all the time. So when Room to Grow offered us something to review from their online shop (which is just full of gorgeous things!) I couldn't help but choose the Flower Fairy Snuggle Sac for Ivy so that she could have her own fantastic sleeping bag to cosy up in.

Ivy was very excited when her Flower Fairy Snuggle Sac arrived, and even just opening up the Snuggle Sac was fun. It comes in a great tote bag that makes it easy to carry around and keep clean between uses.

Ivy unrolled it and put it out on the floor ready to cosy up in straight away. It's such a brilliant sleeping bag, it's really soft and fluffy and the top part is actually a pillow case, so it really is a whole bed all in one. Ivy couldn't wait to climb inside!

We then set it up for some imaginative play camping with a little tent that we already had (just had a quick peek on Room to Grow and they've got some fantastic Wigwams and Teepees, definitely adding those to our wish list!)

Ivy loved the set up of the Snuggle Sac in her tent, we pretended to camp and talked about all of the things that we would do if we were camping (roast marshmallows!!!) Then we did all of the things that we would normally do at bedtime, and discovered that laying in her Snuggle Sac in the tent made a great place to read together.

Then came the most exciting part, I set up another tent and sleeping bag for Ethan and it was time for them to have a cosy sleepover at home! They played together first and talked about how much fun it would be, then giggled together for ages when it was bedtime!

Finally they fell asleep, happy and cosy together for their first proper sleepover in their Snuggle Sac sleeping bags.

Thank you Room to Grow, we're looking forward to many more sleepovers (and hopefully a real camping trip!) with Ivy's Snuggle Sac in the future.

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* This is a review post, we were sent the Snuggle Sac from Room to Grow in order to use it and write our honest opinions about it.*

6 years old

The Highway Rat Costume for World Book Day

22:39

4 years old

Simple Mog Costume for World Book Day

22:17

4 years old

Look and Find Number Jigsaw

11:26

We were just sent this Look and Find Number Jigsaw from Orchard Toys to review, and we are loving it already! It couldn't have come at a better time for Ivy as she is starting school in September and somewhat reluctant to learn in conventional ways (so we're doing lots of learning through play!)

The box contains two different puzzles, so the first step is to take out all of the pieces and turn them over so that you can sort them into piles. Ivy took all of the red pieces and Ethan took all of the blue pieces.

Then they turned their pieces over and started to build their puzzles. Ethan had the picture puzzle, so he just had to find the pieces that fit together.

Ivy had the number puzzle, so as well as seeing which pieces fit together she was able to identify the numerals and use that to help her find where each piece went.

When they had finished building their puzzles, we put them beside each other. This is when the children noticed that the number puzzle is like an instruction sheet for the picture puzzle. They had to find the items beside each number. So Ethan went first, finding one tractor, then Ivy had to find 2 giraffes and so on.

The children really enjoyed finding the items in the picture. Many are easy to find like the stack of oranges, some are trickier like the snails which are hidden throughout the picture.

Once they had finished finding all of the items they immediately took the puzzles apart and swapped! They each built the puzzle that they hadn't the first time, and then switched which items they looked for in the finished puzzles as well.

Since doing this puzzle for the first time with Ethan after school one day, Ivy has asked to do it again with me every single day. She absolutely loves it, and I love that we are reinforcing her knowledge of the numerals to ten, encouraging her finding and counting skills. It's a fantastic puzzle, we love it!
For more fun, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest and sign up to receive our newsletter for regular updates!

Follow Play & Learn Everyday's board Play & Learn Everyday - Crafts and Activities from the Blog on Pinterest.

* This is a review post, we were sent this jigsaw puzzle from Orchard Toys in order to review it and write our honest opinions.*

Pages

Button Flowers Craft

Flying Bird Craft

Nurturing Children's Minds

Meditation, Mindfulness and Guided Visualisations

I was happy to hear that they recommended doing some Cosmic Kids on YouTube as we are already big fans. We were lucky enough to go to take part in a Cosmic Kids Live session a couple of years ago, you may just be able to spot Ethan in this video.

Calming Techniques

Growth Mindset

Getting Cosy with our Snuggle Sac from Room to Grow

The Highway Rat Costume for World Book Day

Simple Mog Costume for World Book Day

Look and Find Number Jigsaw

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