Little hands big skills

This is by far one of the simplest and fun ways for working those fine motor skills.  3 different sized bowls and some dried beans.  

 I filled the largest bowl and poured it into the second bowl and Boo didn´t need any more input from me. 

A card board box

I got thinking about Croc and Boo´s favourite play things.  They are (in no particular order) cardboard boxes, sticks, small toy animals water and mud.

Pensando sobre los juguetes favoritos de Croc y Boo, llegamos a la conclusión que son los cajas de Cartón embalajes usados, Palos, animales de juguete, Agua y Barro

I recently had to pull Croc out of one of those large outdoor rubbish bins as he´d seen a cardboard box inside he wanted to paint.  Later the same day he spotted a neighbour leaving the post office with a parcel and he ran after her to ask for her box!

Hace poco hubo que sacar a Croc de un contenedor de basura donde se había colado a buscar una caja de cartón que quería pintar. Ese mismo día vió a una vecina salir de la oficina de correso con un paquete y allá que se fue a pedírselo.

Boo loves to water the plants at our allotment (more to come on this later x), she loves mostly the water and one day not being satisfied with showering herself with the watering can she just jumped inside the a bucket of water and splashed about.
A Boo le encanta regar las plantas del huerto familiar (ya publicaremos algo más), a ella le encanta el agua y un día, después de ducharse al aire libre, se metió en un cubo y se puso a tirar agua a su alrededor.
Sticks seem to be a permanent extension of Crocs arm.  It doesn´t matter what size or type, if he sees a stick he´ll have it and have created a new game in minutes.  Recently in the park he found several twigs and surprised me when he made the letter M and came bouncing over to tell me.  We carried on collecting sticks and spelt his name.
Los palos  siempre están allá donde Croc va y consguir que no entren en casa es un triunfo. Le encanta recoger palos de todos los tamaños para usarlos en el huerto . Con ellos se dedica a crear juegos y aventuras imaginarias de todo tipo. Hace poco se saco de la manga una M creada con ramitas... Continuamos recogiendo palos para lograr componer su nombre.  

What is it about these few simple things that they love?

These simple "toys" are truly educational.  They stimulate creative play and imagination, a box and stick can be made to represent anything, chocolate mud ice-cream anyone?  The sensory stimulation when playing with water and mud are great ways for children to learn.  Small animals can be used to make up whole new worlds and stories, amazing for language building.  These are just a few things they can get out of this type of play. But one of the best things is that they are child-directed so they get to choose, decide, direct, be the boss. Building their confidence and sense of self all along the way.

Qué les gusta de estas cosas tan simples?
Estos juguetes son verdaderamente educativos. Estimulan el juego creativo y la imaginación, una caja y un palo pueden representar cualquier cosa, alguién quiere helado de chocolate a base de barro??  La estimulación sensorialcuando se juega con barro y agua es una manera excelente de aprender. Los animales de juguete se pueden usar para construir mundos e historias, indispensables para ejercitar el lenguaje. Estas son algunas de las cosas que sacan de este tipo de juego, aunque creo que la más importante es que ellos dirigen estos juegos, son libres de elegir, decidir, modificar, ser los jefes. Consiguen con ello mejorar su confianza  y su sentido de si mismos, a 
If you want to read more on this:
Para leer más de estos temas: (texto en inglés)

The perfect toy - the cardboard-box. from aboutkidshealth

The central importance of play from The Imagination Tree

In the next few entries I'm going to focus On How We Play (and learn) with a cardboard box, sticks, and the other "toys"

Recycle Play- Juego Reciclando

Half way through the 30 day hands on play challenge, the 15th day is all about rubbish.  Using things from the recycle bin and up-cycling them for lots of imaginative play.

I think this has been the best one yet for us (or me at least!).  More so as I didn´t expect much from it.  When I looked in our recycling bin I found 2 yogurt pots and 2 small mushroom trays, the paper bin only had a few bits of paper and an envelope! 

I wasn´t sure what to do. . .

Jelly On a Plate- Gelatina y gusanos

Croc´s been digging for worms a lot lately so I made up a dish of red Jelly and added in some blue noodles for some wiggly slimy worm sensory tub play!!

Croc kept touching the surface but didn´t want to stick his finger in at first, but once he put his finger in he scooped it everywhere.   Over and over and over again.

Croc ha estado excavando en busca de gusanos mucho últimamente, así que hice un plato de gelatina de color rojo y le añadí algunos fideos de color azul para hacer juego sensorial con viscosos gusanos saltarines!

Croc mantuvo contacto con la superficie, pero no quiso meter el dedo en principio, pero una vez que lo metió la recorrió por todas partes. Una y otra y otra vez.

 

Boo´s first thought as usual was to taste it, and to her surprise it was strawberry flavoured Jelly not some salty play dough!  I think she ate most of the contents.

El primer impulso de Boo fue probarlo, y para su sorpresa era gelatina de sabor Fresa y no una plastilina salada. Creo que se comió gran parte de los contenidos.

Croc piled it on the table then back in again.  I asked him what it felt like:

"Cold"

"Red"

"Sticky"

We sang the chant Wibble wobble wibble wobble jelly on a plate.

Croc lo apilaba en la mesa de nuevo. Le pregunté cómo se sentía al tocar la gelatina:"Frío"

"Rojo"

"Pegajoso"

                         Terminamos cantando una canción dedicada la gelatina.



Water Play

I missed writing up about yesterdays  Hands On Play Challenge - Water Play.

Here´s what we got up to:

 Bath time for Little Mary Lamb.

 Thirsty work.

They had sooooo much fun.  Boo must have drank half the contents of the tubs before we finished.  We only ended as she discovered she could pick up the tub and pour out the entire contents over herself!

Croc loved the scooping and pouring.  I added two walnuts, he liked that  they floated and spent ages popping them in the funnel and trying to cause an overspill from the little container.

Giant Floor Drawing

This is the 6th day of the 30 days of hands on play challenge.  Anna @ The Imagination Tree suggested getting creative with a gaint floor doodle.

As Croc was off entertained in the living room I laid a huge roll of white parcel paper on his bedroom floor.  I asked him to come through but kept him guessing to what I´d put in his room .  He loves these little surprises! 

"Can I draw on it?" 

I asked him if I could draw round him like when we did the hand print spiders.  He liked the idea and thought it looked like a huge gingerbread man afterwards.

He and Boo then just got into doodling around the paper.  Boo kept looking over at Croc trying to copy his doodles.

She then occupied herself filling and refilling the crayon box.

Croc made stories as he drew along.  He got out his Duplo blocks and figures and my favourite moment was when Croc exclaimed: 

"The Farmer´s dropped into my giant mouth and the firemen have come to rescue her!"

Day 4 Play dough Challenge

Free style Playdough challenge.

Just give them the playdough, some things to use with it and let them at it.

This was a lucky one for us as just the night before Croc and I made up some new coloured playdough.

Whilst Croc was out I chose some things we had in the house and left them out for him to discover when he got back. 

Coffee beans, scented tea leaves, dried chilli, pebbles

We all sat round the table and had some super sensory fun with the playdough.  It was a bit sticky (we live in a humid area and it hadn´t dried out well) but croc loved it even more for that.  He got his hands right into and started making things.  

Boo seemed a bit wary at first, just sticking one finger at a time.  I passed her a pebble which got pressed into the middle.  She then squished and squashed with it, and of course ate a good few finger fulls.

"A prickly thing!"

At the end, Croc took out the things Id found for him pilled the bowl high with playdough and said it was a Birthday cake.  He asked for a candle and we all sang Happy Birthday.

Baby Play Socks Box- Cajita de Calcetines

 

Pull out, post somewhere else, thats Boo at the moment.  Ive found amongst other things oranges in the washing machine, Duplo figures in my slippers, her slippers in a shopping bag! 

 

I decorated her a little box with a hole in the top and put in some of her socks that are now too small.  Oh so simple, but yet soooo much fun.!!!

Boo está en una fase de reordenación de la casa, coge algo de aquí lo lleva un rato con cariño, lo explora y lo deja en otro lugar. Así ocurre con naranjas aparecidas en la lavadora, bloques en la impresora, piezas de duplo en las zapatillas, sus zapatillas en la bolsa de la compra.... Preciosa!

Ruth le hizo una cajita con un agujero en el que poner algunos de sus calcetines. Tan simple pero también tan divertido!

 

 

 She spent quite a while pushing them in and then took them all out in a flurry and spread them all around her.
Tras un rato de apretarlos y tocarlos, los saco todos y se dedicó a expandirlos por la habitación.

 

 

After a while she took the box in a fit of giggles and rolled around with it!

 

This is very similar to a shape sorter toy (only in this case its not sorting shapes).  Its easy to make at home, so very cost effective and a baby will get so much from this simple fun activity,

• Sensory:- Feeling different materials
• Fine Motor Skills-using their hands and fingers to push/pull the socks from the box
• Dexterity and building on hand eye coordination.

Después riéndose  cogió la cajita y se dió unas vueltas con ella!

La caja es un juego similar a las cajitas en que hay que meter formas, sin formas claro. Es facil de hacer en casa con cualquier caja de cartón forrada con papel bonito. Es barato y el bebé puede sacar mucho de esta actividad:

•  
• Sensorialmente: tocando diferentes materiales.
• Desarrollar las habilidades motrices finas: usando sus deditos para meter y sacar los calcetines...
• Coordinación óculo-manual.
• Diversión!

Painting Leaves- Pintar hojas

Its Autumn.

Leaves are everywhere, so today we went to the playground to decorate a few of them.

Llega el Otoño, las hojas están cayendo por todos lados, así que nos pareció una buena idea salir al parque a pintar hojas.


One of the good things about not sending the kids to nursery is that we can go to the parks and playgrounds when its quiet (during school hours) and use them for ourselves.  Painting in the playground would be impossible at 4 pm when all the children are coming out of school, so we went down early sat in the lovely autumn sun and picked some leaves.

Una de las ventajas de no llevar a los niños al pre-escolar es que podemos ir a los parques cuando no hay “casi” nadie más. Pintar hojas a las 5 de la tarde sería imposible cuando los nenes salen de clase y tienen todas las ganas del mundo de llenar el parque y jugar. Así que bajamos al  parque por la mañana, sentándonos a que el sol otoñal nos caliente y recogimos hojas de diferentes árboles.


Last night I made up a batch of non-toxic baby friendly paint. I have a reciepe for homemade paint in a Montessori at Home book but it includes detergent, so when I saw this paint at the very wonderful  The Imagination Tree I just had to have a go at making it (follow link for reciepe).  I changed it slightly in that I used natural colouring instead of food colouring.  Natural colours tend to give a very soft colour but also add smell to the whole experience.  I used Paprika, coffee and tomato ketchup.


Anoche  Ruth hizo pintura no-tóxica adecuada para bebes (por que la decidirán probar). LA receta salió de otro blogg estupendo The Imagination Tree. Utilizando esta receta (seguid el link si os interesa) Ruth le añadió colorantes naturales en lugar de colorantes alimentarios. Los colorantes naturales dan un color muy suave, añadiendo la experiencia olfativa al proceso. Usó pimentón dulce, café y kétchup (que rico).

Croc  painted really carefully and concentrated in painting all the leaf without going out.  This is something he has recently developed himself naturally, when we get the colours out at home I just leave him to it.  We talk about what he´s drawing and he shows themes for things, his most recent being maps.  This is the first time he´s "coloured in" something he´d previously just paint over without following the form.

Croc se metió muy bien en la actividad, concentrándose a tope en pintar con cuidado la hoja sin salirse. Esto es algo que ha empezado a desarrollar últimamente por su cuenta, cuando saca las pinturas en casa dejamos que haga lo que quiera en la hoja (pared, muñecos y muebles también le parecen dignos de su arte). Cuando hablamos de lo que hace suele seguir temas: familiares, animales, mapas… Esta es la primera ocasión en que ha coloreado el interior de una forma tratando de no salirse.

Little Boo kept looking over at her bro and copied him putting in the brush, mixing it around, and painting it.  She loved it when it splashed on the floor and kept flicking out the paint so it made bubble like patterns on the path.

La pequeña miraba e imitaba a su hermanito: metiendo el cepillo, dando vueltas, pintando un poco. Luego tiró la pintura y se divirtió revolviéndola para crear burbujitas. Desde luego que la probó y parece que el pimentón era de su gusto.

Mmm, Paprika Paint!

Baby play - Bottle Tops

Boo´s just turned one and recieved loads of lovely new toys, but she is as half as interested in them as things like putting the tops on jars and bottles.  Whenever we´re out and I take a bottle of water she opens her arms and squaks (loudly) until we´ve drank all the water so she can play with the bottle. 

I decided to put her in bottle top heaven today and sat her on the rug and placed two (empty!) water bottles and a jam jar down in front of her.

She was off...

Mixing the lids, trying each one on all the bottles.

She left the bottles for a while and wandered off to see what her rother was up to but was soon back on the mat playing with the lids.

I think I´ll try and round up some diffrent style bottles and see how she likes those.  Its all good stuff for those fine motor skills and hand eye co-ordination.

Safari Animal Sensory Play - Mundo animal

I had planned to do some simple playdough stuff this afternoon, so made up a new batch whilst everyone was taking their afternoon nap.  However as I made the playdough with green and silver colouring I started to imagine trees and rocks and slowly formed an imagine of a safari animal sensory world. 

Había planeado hacer algo con plastilina esta tarde, así que preparé plastilina casera mientras los nenes estaban echando su siesta. Sin embargo, como estaba haciendo la plastilina con colores verde y plata empecé a ver árboles y rocas formando la imagen de un mundo sensorial con animales formando un safari.

I found some green plastic wrapping paper, yellow tissue paper, brown parcel paper and blue card which I put down on the floor.  I used the playdough to make trees and rocks to decorate, added some wooden blocks and then the animals.

Utilicé  papel de regalo de color verde, servilletas amarillas, papel marrón de embalar y cartulina azul para hacer los suelos. Usé la plastilina para hacer árboles y rocas, añadí bloques de madera y por fin los animales para  poblar esta selva .

Boo was the first to wake from her afternoon nap and came crawling straight into the room.  She sat and just looked at the scene for a while and then like something from the Land of the Giants just crawled straight through the middle knocking stuff over and grabing, touching, tasting all the different things.  She seemed most interested in the playdough trees and spent ages picking them up and putting them back.  She also tried to re-build some of the blocks she´d knocked over.

La pequeña Boo fue la primera en levantarse de su siesta y vino gateando directamente a la habitación de juegos .Se sentó  y miró un rato a la escena con interés. Cuando lo vio claro,  como si fuera el ataque de la mujer de 19 pies, procedió a gatear por medio de la escena, cogiendo, tirando cosas, tocando y probando las diferentes figuras. Estaba muy interesada en los árboles de plastilina y paso mucho tiempo experimentando con ellos, cogiéndolos y volviéndolos a situar en su lugar. También intentó volver a reconstruir algunas construcciones que había tirado previamente.  

Not long after Croc joined us, he went straight for the playdough and sat in another corner of the mat and started his own play ignoring all the rest of the stuff Id put out. 

Un poco después Croc se unió, cogió plastilina y se situó en otra esquina de la alfombra, jugando como si estuviera solo en la habitación.

Things were peaceful for a while as Boo entertained herself with the different paper, making it rustle and hiding under it.  She soon moved on from that though and turned her attention back to the playdough.

El juego siguió siendo tranquilo mientras Boo se entretenía con los papeles de diferentes colores, haciéndolos crujir y escondiéndose con ellos. Pronto dejó el papel y volvió su atención a la plastilina.  Aquí se produjeron unos cuantos empujones y alaridos de Boo, para acabar decidiendo una partición de la plastilina, quedándose el mayor con la mayoría y cediendo un poco a Boo.

There were a few shoves and pushes over the playdough, but they finally worked it out for themslves.  Boo got some to play with the lions share going to Croc.

This is the second sensory world we´ve played with and like the water one both Croc and Boo have played together with the same things, even if there is a bit of pushing and shoving over who´s got the most playdough!

Croc has now got quite a few toy animals now and they currently live in the back of a big red lorry.  But when his uncle gave him two new ones this weekend the lorry is getting somewhat overcrowded.  We need to think of a new home for them, maybe something we could make together??  Any ideas?

Esta es la segunda occasion en que hacemos un” mundo sensorial” y como en la ocasión en que hicimos el de agua, los nenes han jugado bastante bien juntos, aceptando algunas disputas como ineludibles para aprender a negociar.

Croc va coleccionando un buen número de animales, que de momento viven en la parte de atrás de su camión rojo. Pero como no paran de llegar (el último par se lo trajo su tío) el camión no da a basto. Tenemos que pensar un nuevo hogar para ellos, igual algo que podamos hacer  juntos.

¿Alguién tiene una buena idea?

Baby Play - Paper, Bebe jugando con Papel

I lovingly spent 15 minutes a very long time lining a small shoe box to house some of Boo´s toys and trinkets.  She however had other ideas and promptly chucked everything out and spent ages (much longer than I had putting it on) ripping it out and the tearing it into tiny pieces.  She loved it, developing those oh-so important fine motor skills.  Just think of all things she´ll need them for later:

• Holding a pen properly
• drawing/writing
• doing puzzles
• getting dressed: fastening buckles/clips/belts/buttons and tying shoe laces
• cutting
• turning pages properly
• holding small objects such as coins, dice etc
• playing musical instruments (isolating finger movements)
• and so much more (basically all the things you do with your hands and fingers)

Ruth se paso un buen rato forrando el interior de una caja de zapatos para poner algunos juguetes y cositas apropiadas para Boo. Sin embargo, ella tenía otras ideas y pronto sacó todo y se pasó mucho tiempo rompiendo el papel y haciéndolo trocitos pequeñitos. Ella lo disfrutó a tope, usando u desarrollado las tan importantísias habilidades motrices finas. Las usará para tantas cosas en el futuro:

Sujetar un lapicero
Dibujar/escribir
Hacer puzzles
Cortar, doblar, pegar
Vestirse: abotonar, ajustar el cinto, los clips o atarse los cordones 
Coger objetos pequeños, como monedas o dados
Pasar páginas
Tocar instrumentos (aislando los movimientos de los dedos)
Y un largo etcétera, básicamente, todas las cosas que hacemos con las manos y los dedos.

I didnt have the camera handy that particular day, so yesterday I put some different coloured paper in a basket and sat her down to work.
No tenía la cámara a mano, así que otro día Ruth le puso papeles de diferentes colores en una canastilla y le dejó ponerse manos a la obra:

First she just took all the bits out, looking at and feeling them.

Primero sacó todos los trocityos, mirándolos y tocándolos con sus deditos.

 She set about spreading them round

Después se dedicó a esaparcirlos alrededor con gracia.

Then down to the fun bit - ripping!!!

Y por fin,  hizo lo más divertido: romperlos en trocitos bien pequeños!!

Baby painting

Around dinner time the table usually ends up looking something like this...
Esta es una imagen típica de como acaba la mesa después de nuestras comidas familires.

 I dont like the idea of her painting with real paint just yet (you should see her on the beach, half of it ends up in her mouth!!), but as I was watching her playing with the remainders of the yogurt I starting to think that this could be the perfect solution to starting some baby art.

Como es lógico, aún no se le puede dar pintura de verdad (tiende a comerse las cosas que no conoce, para explorarlas..), sin embargo ella gusta de jugar con los restos de vegetales, cereales o yogur. Así que el yogur es una buena idea para empezar a hacer algo de arte ifantil sin correr el riesgo de intoxicación.

I tried to be a bit more organised and covered the table with some white construction paper and then covered that with cling film.  I sat Boo in her high chair and spooned out some yogurt for her to get going.

Cubriendo lamesa con papel blanco y film de cocina para darle una base a la obra. Boo sentadita en su trona puede disfrutar así de manipular y experimentar la textura, el sabor y color del material.

I then added in some chocolate paste for colour, she loved running it through her hands, tasting it and swirling it around.

Luego un poco de cacao para añadirle otro color, desde luego que le necanto tratarlo con las manos, hacer dibujitos, probarlo todo y embadurnarse bien.

Then she started to smack her hand down on the table and the yogurt chocolate mix went flying everywhere, she loved this and spent ages doing it.

Por fin, empezó a dar palmetazos sobre la mezcla, haciendo que todo salpicara y llegara a todos los rincones de la cocina. Le encantó y se tiró un buen rato haciendo esto.