The summer projectSeptember 23, 2016
I have a pinterest board of quiet books. They always look so inviting as sewing projects.
This summer I tried to do my first quiet book specifically designed for my brothers wedding.
I wanted to make a book suitable for Adam’s experience of the event.
I chose to start with a pattern for the airport. Next came the special clothes, the brides bouquet, things to spot during the day, and lastly the bride and groom together.
I deviated and modified the patterns from the get go, finding them beautiful but much too time consuming for my deadline. T-shirt transfer paper saved me a lot of time on the match game. I bound the book in a complete rush without finding any bias binding and making do with ribbon and a blanket stitch. I had hoped for a more professional finish but fell in love with it’s hand-made-ness!
If I try again I’d do single not double pages and be a bit more determined to only use non-fray materials. Perhaps a bible one though patterns are surprisingly thin on the ground beyond Noah… I’d also continue to avoid the patterns that contain a whole wealth of mini loose pieces that will easily get lost.
Links to the inspirations / patterns below.
Patterns and inspirations:
Airport (didn’t use helicopter but followed otherwise)
Wedding clothes (very modified, furniture not included)
Memory game (inspiration only)
Playing with Bing Bunny- Part 1July 24, 2016
Our little one loves, loves, LOVES Bing Bunny.
Now that may sound odd as Bing is not exported to our part of the world at all, it’s an import we’ve chosen and encouraged him to foster. Like all early obsessions, after watching ad nauseum any parent could be forgiven for shuddering at the title music. So, like the good youth worker I was, I adapted.
In the episode ‘Lunchbox’ Bing is seen at Ammar’s creche playing a matching game. The word “match” is echoed again multiple times in the following story line. Matching is a great learning activity and one we’d love to foster in our little Bingster.
As he’s only just starting to to discover matching we began with some pair cards. I made up 8 character cards (Bing Bunny, Flop, Coco, Sula, Charlie, Pando, Arlo the cat and Hoppity Voosh). We played first with just 4 and slowly added in the extra sets over time.
The game we play varies
1) Mummy holding out the card to be matched.
2) Mummy calling out the name and him finding both cards.
3) All the cards are faced down and matches are found as we turn all of them over.
What we are doing is cementing the concept and word ‘match’. It’s a concept that’s central to much further learning. He loves it. Evident as he proudly runs to show his matching achievements to his daddy on the other side of the room.
We are not quite at the stage to move on yet, but when we do I hope to play the fruit and vegetable game from Bing.
In an effort to be prepared I went on the hunt for graphics. I found these free graphics from vector art box that worked a treat. Unlike the smaller 1/8 of a page pair cards, the fruit ones are a bit chunkier with four on a page, spread over 3 pages. Using the printers poster setting spread the background over 4 pages – luckily it fitted an old picture board we had laying about.
Sharing is caring so feel free to download and use the fruit and vegetable game!. (DOWNLOAD LINK)
Obviously not sharing the pair cards as I hold no rights to the graphics, but happy to share them privately via e-mail – “Kate ( at ) gfeef . co . uk”, just pop ‘Bing’ in the title.
Out of your mouth! Fine motor playMarch 23, 2016
Our little ball of exploration just wants to feed that inquisitive nature but is stuck in the oral stage. It’s frustrating because some parents seem to breeze through this rather quickly, while others are stuck there for a year or more.
Beyond the limitations, all those little pieces really help develop fine motor skills and he loves playing with anything that has lots of ‘bits’. Hence, it’s not stopped us finding favourite ‘fine motor control’ structured activities, so I thought I’d share.
1. Matchsticks. Sensory tubs are great, but in reality eating big handfuls of hard rice or dried cereal just doesn’t fit our needs. Our house isn’t all that suitable for wet play either. Brightly coloured matchsticks are big enough to easily retrieve from the ground / lips, but still fall in a beautiful way and can be threaded through card tubes or searched through.
2. The Crayon Box. More than just a chance to scribble with chunky crayons. By using a small pacifier box to store our crayons we spend as long, if not longer, manipulating the clasp, filling and emptying out. The paper must be fully taped to the table.
3. Sticky Foam Floor Piece Shapes. (catchy title I know!) This is an activity we don’t do too often but totally adore. The floor pieces give us a contained area and strong frame for the sticky back plastic. Small bits of paper, funky foam, tissue paper, string, and fabric scraps endure regular ‘turn and shake’ until everything is stuck so nothing can be eaten later!
4. Playdough. I make my own using this recipe but then we’ll only play with up to 1/4 of the dough at once. Limiting the amount not only makes it easier to manipulate but also to keep track of.
5. lolly Stick Can. Big chunky threading as well as the obligatory fill and dump are served quite well by this. The can lid has two slits and one circle hole that’s a bit easier to use.
Those are our top 5.
Did you get stuck at the oral stage? What activities did your youngsters enjoy?