Let's play... with the blackboard!

In these sunny days we try to stay outside as much as possible, to enjoy the fresh air before the summer heat. 

One of the activities we often do is to draw with color chalks: 

Years ago (long before having children) I made a huge movable blackboard to take pictures of my creations for my Etsy shop. I needed something gib but also light to move it in different placesd following the best light for the pictures. Now this blackboard is very useful to make my son play, I can take it outside with just one hand while holding my daughter with the other arm, and he has lot of fun playing with color chalks. 

And this blackboard is suitable for another activity... with water! Curious?! 

The steps to make this blackboard are very easy, I'm sharing them hoping they can be useful! 

Materials: 

• big plywood panel (mine is 120x90cm)
• old newspapers
• a can of chalkboard paint
• container to pour the paint
• small paint roller

Instructions: 

• cover the floor with old newspapers
• pour the paint in a plastic container big enough to hold the paint roller
• place the plywood on the newspapers and put a thin layer of chalkboard paint using the roller, let it dry (follow instructions on the paint can) then paint more layers. I suggest no less than three layers for a good covering
• let dry and your huge blackboard is ready, very light so you can move it around the house or outside with no effort! 

After using it for the first time I noticed I had a problem: how could I clean it? Plywood surface is different from slate so I couldn't use a classic eraser since it didn't glide and left fuzz on the surface. 

Then I had the intuition: with water and the paint roller! It glides, doesn't leave fuzz and it's also a fun activity! 

My son loves to draw all over the blackboard and then clean it with water! In the last days we tried also another way to clean the blackboard: the water hose! You're sure to have a fun time!

The blackboard dries soon and it's ready to draw again! 

If this post inspired you and you want to share your result with us, visit my Facebook page www.facebook.com/RobyGiup or leave a comment below. 

And now... have fun!   
 

Let's play... fishing!

Today I'm sharing with you an activity for these sunny days. We played it several times in the last week and will probably play it during all the summer, since my son enjoyed it very much! 

I made it with recycled materials and objects that I had at home,  but the possibilities are so many that you'll surely find some materials at your home. 

Depending on your children age you can build the material with them, or make it yourself if they are really young and then present them the game ready to play.

What we used

For fishing: 

• tea strainer that we'll use as fishing net
• magnetic fishing rod (we took one from another game but you can build one with a stick, rope, a magnet and hot glue) 
• spacious basin

 

For the magnetic fishing: 

• small metal lids, I used the ones from baby food jars (we have plenty thanks to the little sister in weaning phase) but you can use also small lids from jam, honey or pesto jars
•  moosegummy leftovers
• scissors
• glue

 

For the net fishing: 

• corks
• needle and thread
• beads in several shapes and materials (glass,plastic) and sequins 
• awl or similar to pierce a hole throught the corks (I used a very big safety pin, a thin long nail would be a good alternative)
• nut shells
• moosegummy leftovers
• scissors
• glue

What we did

Magnetic fishing: I cut from the moosegummy leftovers some shapes related to the sea: shells, fishes, anchor, crab. Then together with my son we glued them inside the lids. 

Turtle: I placed half nut shell on the moosegummy to trace the outline of a turtle, then cut it and glued the shell on top. Then I drew the eyes with a black pen. 

Jellyfish: with the awl I pierced a hole through the cork from side to side to create a passage for the thread of the tentacles. I cut approximately 90cm of thread for each couple of tentacles, folded in half, put the two ends through the needle and made a knot, so that every tentacle will have four layers of thread inside, as shown in the picture below: 

I threaded the beads to create a tentacle of approx 8cm, then put the needle through the hole made in the cork, and then threaded other beads to create another 8cm tentacle. End with another knot. I made in the same way another couple of tentacles for each jellyfish. 

Wait until the glue is dry and... now we're ready to go fishing! Put some water in the basin, place the lids underwater and let the turtle and jellyfish float. Your children will enjoy catching them with the magnetic fishing rod or the tea strainer! 

The ones I described are just few ideas but possibilities are endless: if you have real shells at home you can glue them inside a lid after painting the bottom with nail polish, or you can glue rhinestones and golden studs inside the lids to create submerged treasures of coins and gemstones... there's no limit to creativity!

We like it because: 

• we play with water, and that alone would be enough!
• it's great to cool down in hot days if you don't have a paddling pool
• beads and rhinestones create wonderful glares in the water
• we learn about sea animals
• we sharpen ability and logic trying to catch our treasures with different tools
• for the elder kids we can create a competition by assigning different points to the treasures and vie to see who gets more points

And now... have fun! 

Let's play... explorers!

Today my son and I played explorers! 

We are often inspired by our books when we play, imagining we are our favorite characters: I love reading and luckily my son loves books too. This morning I decided to make a small craft with him and then use it to play, in this way we contextualize our creation and make the play even more fun! 

First I proposed him to make binoculars together: it's a very easy craft made with recycled materials, it's suitable for toddlers but can be made more complex for elder kids. 

What we used:

• two empty toilet paper rolls
• colored paper
• scissors
• ruler
• hole puncher (but you can make holes with scissors if you don't have one. But be careful!)
• glue stick and/or transparent duct tape
• duble-sided tape
• cord

What we did:

• we attached the two paper rolls using duble-sided tape

•  I drew 3cm stripes on the colored paper, choosing the colors we liked most, and I cut them

•  we glued one stripe on one end of the binoculars, using glue stick and a bit of transparent duct tape

• we glued another stripe on the other end. Then we punched two holes on the sides of the binoculars, then we cut a piece of cord long enough to fit my son's head and we tied it through the holes. 

And now... let's play explorers! I placed several animal-shaped objects around the house: you don't need them to be particularly realistic or in the same size: through children's imagination they will all become fantastic animals to discover! I used:

• manta-ray plush (that we received by Emirates on my son's first flight, it contains a pile blanket)
• Dumbo plush
• old keyrings: a cow and a dog
• little sister's rattles: an owl and a snail
• wooden shapes from a puzzle toy
• animals we made in the past days when making crafts suggested by our preschool teachers (the fish in the first picture and also two butterflies)
• a pair of socks from lil sister shaped as hippos
• the plushes they sleep with (my son's is a tiger, the sister's a giraffe)
• adhesive decorations that we have on their bedroom walls: a hedgehog, a fox, a raccoon and two owls. Obviously we couldn't move them but all the same they became new animals to discover! 

You see, you don't need dozens of plushes to play explorers, you'll find many objects that you can use around the house. And if you don't have any, you can still make them yourself: lots of new crafts! 

We like it because: 

• we used the binoculars we made together, so it's not only a craft that ends in itself, but it is contextuaòlized and becomes a source of fun! 
• we travelled with our imagination! In this days when we are always at home we miss our journeys and trips (expecially us grown-ups...) but in this way we brought the world inside our house! 
• we talked about animals: where do they live, what do their calls sound like, thus learning new things in a funny way
• we went round and round and round the house to find all the animals I placed: it's a sort of treasure hunt but also a way to move and keep active!

If this post inspired you and you want to share your result with us, visit my Facebook page www.facebook.com/RobyGiup

And now... have fun! 

Everything will be alright - Polka dots rainbow

Here's one of the first crafts we made at the beginning of the quarantine. In Italy people started to hang signs on balconies with rainbows and the words "andrà tutto bene" (everything will be alright) so I decided to realize a rainbow with my son: he's not yet three years old and has no patience enough to paint a big rainbow to be displayed at the balcony, so I opted for a smaller one. 

What we used: 

• white cardboard
• coloured sheets in the colors of the rainbow (for some colors we used pages from an old magazine)
• markers in the colors of the rainbow
• hole-puncher (our is very small, cuts just one hole at a time, so my son can use it all by himself without my help)
• glue stick

What we did: 

• I drew with markers the outlines of a rainbow on the white cardboard (I drew two lines with purple, to have 8 lines and 7 spaces between them)

• my son cut several holes on the coloured paper with the hole-puncher: we worked for one color at a time to avoid mixing them  

•  he put the glue between the red and orange lines and started to glue the red paper dots. Since it was a bit difficult to pick up those small circles I taught him a "trick": if you dampen the tip of your finger then the dots stick to it and it's easier to put them on the glue! If you're using paper from an old magazine, like we did, they probably have different colors on the two sides: take care to glue them on the right one! 

• we repeated the same steps for the remaining colors and I added the words "andrà tutto bene"with markers using one colors of the rainbow for each letter. 

Easy-peasy!  

We like it because: 

• we use the hole-puncher, a brand new instrument that my son used by himself: I saw him intent on observing it to understand from where the paper circle will hop out! 
• we use several colors, that make us happy
• we learn the colors of the rainbow
• we work with small paper dots that require concentration and help to develop manual skills and precision
• we learn "tricks" like the one to dampen a finger to pick up small objects

If you make this craft and want to share your result with us, visit my Facebook page www.facebook.com/RobyGiup

And now... have fun! 

Princess Letizia's soup

[Italian version here: https://robygiup.blogspot.com/2020/03/la-zuppa-della-principessa-letizia.html]

One of our favourite books contains, among others, a story about a Princess named Letizia who goes to the garden to harvest some vegetables for a soup:

"carrots, onions, potatoes, zucchini, peas, beans, cauliflower, parsley and basil"

My son loves this story and knows this list by heart! So when I found around the house an old catalogue of a garden center with many beautiful pictures of vegetables I decided to make some cards to play and cook Princess Letizia's soup.

What we used: 

• a catalogue of a garden center, but you can find suitable pictures also in a leaflet of a supermarket

• cardboard, we reused an old box and the outer envelope of tuna tins

• scissors suitable for the child age (if they are all plastic, or if the cardboard is sturdy, you'll need also a pair of "grown-up" scissors) 

• glue stick

What we did: 

• we browsed through the catalogue looking for the pictures of the vegetables of the soup, choosing the pictures we liked most

• my son cut them out, you don't need much precision in this step 

• we glued them on the printed side of the cardboard, so that the back of our cards will be plain and we'll write whatever we want

• we cut them out, this time I helped with the "grown-up" scissors to have a tidier result and also because the cardboard was thick

Easy-peasy, right?! 

Why we like this activity: 

• we use scissors and glue, that we love! 

• we play with colorful pictures, a sort of "treasure hunt" to find the most beautiful

• we can use these cards in many ways: we use them to cook Princess Letizia's soup but they are great also to pretend to go grocery-shopping (here Santa Claus brought a wooden cash register and shopping cart so sometimes we play grocery shopping) maybe using a supermarket leaflet so we can create cards with several types of food, or you can create two cards for each vegetable and cut all cards in the same shape to create a memory game! 

• we become familiar with vegetables (but also fruits) that are the foudation of a healthy nutrition

If you make these cards and want to share your result with us, visit my Facebook page www.facebook.com/RobyGiup

And now... have fun! 

Where we were...

[Versione italiana qui: https://robygiup.blogspot.com/2020/03/dove-eravamo-rimasti.html ] 

How long since I wrote on this blog!

It was November 2017, when I was still at home in maternity leave for our baby boy. Few weeks later I went back to work, that's why I didn't have time to write on this blog,: being a commuter with long time between home and work I had very little energies left for our baby at the end of the day and still less time, so I didn't have any left for my passion for sewing. 

Then I got pregnant again and our baby girl was born in a hot July night in 2019. Now we are a family of four, and life is really animated! Our boy is nearly three years old, he's growing and learning so many things, and we're amazed and amused by his imagination and his reasonings. Sometimes he digs his heels to affirm his ideas, it's a phase of growth and I know it's important for him and it won't last forever, but sometimes it requires so much patience... Our girl has always been a little angel at day, even if sometimes she keeps us awake at night... Now she's crawling and goes all over the house, often following her brother which she adores, and sometimes he also enjoys playing with her! They're so cute when they play together! 

And now? In this troublesome time I'm still at home, using my last months of maternity leave to look after our children while my husband works from home, and I have to find always new ways of entertain the boy and keep him away from his father's laptop "Papà can I watch you working?" "Papà can I touch?" "Papà can I write?" "Papà what happens if I press this button" ... you know what I mean... 

As a child I loved making crafts, I remember a book "100 e 100 lavoretti per bambini" ("100 and 100 crafts for kids") that I loved and often used to make new crafts or to dream over those for "big" kids which I was still not allowed to do, like the ones with oven or flatiron. So now I really enjoy creating new crafts for my child, even if I have to adapt my ideas to his abilities: when we make crafts with kids it's important that the activities are adequate to their abilities to avoid the risk of loosing their enthusiasm! 

Since many moms are now spending a lot of time with their children I thought it can be useful to share my crafts here on the blog with simple tutorials, and maybe also share some of our favourite books for children and for parents. 

See you soon!