Summer bucket list day five: G is for....

Well we have a few things for G.

First we had the GAS and Electrical service men in. Then we decided to

Go for a long walk.

Mommy got tired and had a rest in the bus stop!

Stopped on the way at Greggs.

Had his first Ginger Bread Man.

 He went for the buttons first, then the head, the the arms and legs. Daddy finished it off later.


Go shopping

Dylan is really into Bob the Builder at the momment and is so cute when he sings the theme tune. He has been doing really well potty training so when we saw the rest of Bob the Builder's crew on sale in Wilkinson's we bought them.

 So Scoop, Dizzy, Muck, Lofty and Rollie had a race down the cardboard ramp.

Then they hid in the home made buider's garage.

 Definately tired me out today, Dylan was really good walking holding onto the pushchair when we got to the shopping centre and enjoyed sight seeing in the puschair pointing out shapes, objects and noises that he recognised. We even saw Bob the Builder! (A construction site).

Good Day !

Summer bucket list day four: L is for Light

These were my ideas for the Light day.

Splitting light with a prism
Make tin can luminaries
Make a light box
Torch fun
Shadow puppets
Opaque, transparent and translucent science project
Make sun glasses
Egg carton light projector
Glow in the dark ballons in the bath
Plastic lid suncatcher
Magnifying glass fun
Torch discs
Mini shadow puppets
Cheap luminaries- colander
Make binoculars
Sensory bottles with coloured water and glitter
Mirror- reflection fun
Shadow games
Glow in the dark discovery
Make a kalidescope
Old CD mobile for the garden

We didn't get much done as the weather was really nice again and we ended up playing with water again.

I did tell him that we need to make a shaded area with a umberella and he needs to stand in the umberella's shadow. He likes chasing his and my shadow but its difficult to get a picture of this.

Alfie and Jessie (Nanny and grandad's dogs) also love water play and Dylan kept trying to give them water or splash them.

Nanny found a snail and the had a short trip on the boat.

Loves the hose pipe...

When we got too hot we went in and got the light sensory box out. The coloured transparency paper was the first activity. He enjoyed looking through and seeing everything in a variety of colours.



How light travels through different types of materials
(Toddler version of opaque, transparent and translucent invstigation.)

We also looked at other materials and such as bubble wrap, netting, foam packaging and tissue paper.

Torch play

We did this activity previously but I never blogged it. Grandad gave Dylan a torch to play with and he loves it. I just get it out and let him explore.

He uses it to look in his shoes, under the sofa on the celling.

Magnifying glass play

Again I have a selection of magnifying glasses that I get out and let him explore with them. He made magnifying glasses and used the torch and the magnifying glass to look at his dinosaur book.

Shadow and tennis racket fun

This was another activity we did earlier in the week. He used the tennis rackets to look through and make shadows.

Shadow puppets

I had to make these as he is too young. I chose to do puppets he would recognise even with my poor art skills. I used some black craft paper, cereal boxes, scissors, barbeque skewers and cellotape.

We used the tent and his torch, I had to do the show and he went behind the tent to see the shadows. He then wanted to get involved. This is a nice activity but I think it will be better when he is a little older.

Summer bucket list day three: A is for Animals

Today Dylan picked out the Z stone and I would really like to actually take him to the Zoo again so I made him pick another. He picked A so I thought the theme animals would be perfect.

Trip to a Pet Shop
We went to pick up a new filter sponge and net for splish and splash the goldfish from the local pet shop. Unfortunately they only had fish there, I thought they had more animals. Nevertheless Dylan certainly had fun looking at all the animal cages, food and toys.

He liked this fish tank and said that it was Nemo. Lots of the pictures from my phone weren't very good. :(

Animal 3D-2D match game
When we got back we played with the animal flashcards and figures. I got him to tell me what the animal was, what noise it makes and the place them on the flashcard.

 He was very enthusiastic until he had to do the dog as he then decided the dog should chase the cat and started fighting with them. This was quite funny to watch.

Animal Dominoes
Then we played with the new animal dominoes that I got from the trip to the Birmingham Nature centre.

 He hasn't quite taken to this game yet and I think 5/6 is the maximum we have managed to do. Maybe after a few more times of if there is more than me and him playing.

Animal Hide and Seek

An extention of the matching game earlier we took the figures and flashcards outside and I made Dylan close his eyes and scattered the animal figures.

I was planning of asking him to find them one by one as I gave him a flashcard to look for them. But he was so excited and just picked up any that he saw and bought them over to me and placed them on the flashcards.

Bath tub animals

Bath time arrived and I got all the usual animals that go in the tub. We counted how many ducks, fish, frogs, turtles and starfish there were.

Then we played with the wind up toys. The duck is broken and Dylan explained it was because the batteries were gone. Bless him.



Another great day! Thanks Dylan x

Summer Bucklet list day two: N is for ...

I was originally going to do Nature but then I realised it was my sister Nicole's birthday. So we decided to have the day devoted to that.

It didn't turn out to plan as Nicole's plane was delayed  and she didn't return from her holiday as early as expected but we did go out for dinner and had fun playing at nanny and grandads.

We made a card,
played with the water,
played bowls ,
golf,
went on the quad bike,
had a kick of the ball,
played with mega blocks,
did a jig-saw puzzle,
read some books,

Dylan now knows the words to happy birthday and can sing them, he has been doing this since my birthday on July 13th, so Nicole was greeted with this when she finally got back home.

Happy Birthday Nicole!

Bucket list Day One: W is for ... weather!

As the last few days has been the start and maybe the last of our 'nice' British summer weather I thought we should try and do something outside and as it was quite warm some water play would be refreshing and fun for Dylan.

So ...

It was my birthday last week and I had some flowers that are 'on their last legs' shall we say, so in preparation for a flower painting activity that I saw on http://www.teachpreschool.org/2011/05/painting-with-a-bouquet-of-flowers-in-preschool/
I trimmed the flowers down and sorted them ready to do some flower activities.













The link to weather is a bit weak but the fact that flowers need water and when it rains we get water was the best idea.

Flower sorting- we sorted some of the heads into the muffin tin. I put a couple in each and then asked Dylan where I should put the next one. He is a bit grumpy and under the weather today (pardon the pun) so He had his dummy and bear to start with and I had to do most of the work.

He soon got involved and told me what to do.

Flower construction site- Dylan is into Bob the Builder at the moment and wanted to use the construction vehicles to sort the flowers and squash them with the bulldozer.

Painting with flowers- with the rest of the flowers and his finger paints we started flower painting or stamping as it turned out to be.

 I asked him the colours as we were going along and we sang songs about the rain and colours of the rainbow. (Rain, rain go away and its raining its pouring)

We decided the final picture looks like a Rainbow raindrops

Petal counting- Dylan then sat on my lap and we pulled the petals off some of the other flowers counting as we pulled. Didn't do this for very long as he was getting restless and tired.

Water play - Finally got to use the water table again. Dylan enjoyed transfering the water from the table to the bucket and then to the paddling pool. He wasn't very impressed with the froggy rain coat.

Had a rainbow lollipop in the tent. He definately liked this activity and enjoyed pointing out the colours and we talked about the colours missing from the rainbow.

Rainbow finger paints- Dylan enjoyed taking the foam stamps off, identifying the shapes and then sticking them on himself, on his painting and then back on the pots. This was an activity guided by Dylan.

Made a fan- After the postman came a delivered some junk mail I showed Dylan how to make a fan and played a fanning game. We talked about making wind, being hot and cooling down.

 He decided to fan Fireman sam and crew to cool them down.




Doodle pad shape weather pictures- Easy activity was to get out the doodle sketch pad and use it to draw weather pictures.

Sunshine- a large circle and smaller triangles around the side.

Rain clouds using the circle stamp and the pen.

 Umberellas using the triangular stamp and the pen.

 We had a lovely weather day, with the weather to match.