Eat Play Grow

29/06/2016

One of my favourite sensory play activities when I worked at a Children's Centre was a tray filled with shredded paper! The babies & toddlers loved it! So, here I am at the end of exams with lots of paper to recycle so I thought we could create our own shredded paper box, Monnie wasn't that interested in ripping the paper but I was and I must say it was very satisfying ripping those study notes up!

27/06/2016

Any Auckland friends with toddlers? East and Bays Parent Centre (Meadowbank) is hosting a Toddler course! In this course you will learn how to help your toddler through a tantrum, about speech development, fun age-appropriate play ideas and more on toddler development - this will be held on the 27th July & 3rd August, 7:00pm at Meadowbank Community Centre. Bookings essential - please email Georgia at [email protected] for more information and to secure your spot!

04/06/2016

Wheeeee, experiencing the thrill of speed going down a big hill! Do you let your toddler take risks? It's worth thinking about as the more opportunity they have now to take risks in their play, do something out of their comfort zone or experience a little danger the more likely they will make good decisions on what risks to take as an adolescent, for example when driving a car. Taking risks in play helps to develop reaction time in detecting risk, self-esteem and of course it's lots of fun too!

02/06/2016

Green Smoothie! At 20 months I have finally been able to drop Monnie's breastfeed before her lunchtime nap so now we make a green smoothie to share before I pop her down as she prefers lunch afterwards. Today's creation is spinach, peaches and banana. As you can see it gets the smile of approval!

21/05/2016

This is quite thought-provoking, I definitely intervene and tell Monnie to say sorry if she has hurt another child or has done something that requires her to apologise but this blog makes so much sense to me that next time my reaction will be much less forced...

Pushing children to say "I'm sorry" doesn't help them to develop empathy.

01/05/2016

21/04/2016

Foam! A friend suggested this so thought I'd give it a try, making our own foam.

I popped 1/4 cup of dishwashing liquid and 1/2 cup of water into my mixer (could use a food processor) and whizzed it up until foam was created. Monnie loved watching the bubbles form!

I then transferred the foam into pans, added spoons, small toys, cup cake holders (basically what I had around me in kitchen) for Monnie to play with while exploring the foam.

She took to finger-painting with it on the dishwasher and then attempted to wipe it clean! This is a messy play winner as it also makes things clean unless you want to make it even more fun and add a drop of food colouring!

More ideas here: http://eatplaygrowdevelop.blogspot.com/

18/04/2016

I'm going to try this one, I can't wait to see how it feels and what Monnie thinks of it!

3 Ingredient Fairy Dough!

Get the recipe here -> http://laughingkidslearn.com/2015/03/fairy-playdough-recipe.html/

15/03/2016

Baking is Messy Play! Today we made Chelsea Winter's Crazy Italian Chocolate Cake. This little toddler gets so excited when her baking apron comes out, she gets to help measure the ingredients and pour them into the bowl, mix the ingredients up using both her hands and a spoon, watch the ingredients get mixed together to form a batter and the best part - lick the mixing spoon at the end! It's messier in the kitchen with a toddler in tow but so much learning is occurring (basic maths, science, cooking skills to name a few), it is worth it!

Recipe credit: http://chelseawinter.co.nz/egg-free-chocolate-cake/

More ideas here: http://eatplaygrowdevelop.blogspot.com

16/02/2016

I'm going to try this one, hope you will too, seems so easy to make paint at home!

06/02/2016

NZ Folk - The Secret Life of Babies will be shown on Tuesday 9th Feb, TV1, 8:30pm - well worth a watch if you haven't seen it before, you will learn some fascinating information about the development of babies!

Footage from "Secret Life of Babies" narrated by Martin Clunes. Broadcast on ITV1 on Tuesday June 3rd at 9pm (2014) Copyright: Oxford Scientific Films 2014 T...

02/02/2016

My 16 month old loves 'wiping', she insists the cloth must be wet and then off she goes and helps with the dusting, see chart inside this blog for more ideas for age appropriate chores!

When can kids start helping in the kitchen? Get the printable chart with a list of kitchen chores for kids by age.