There was a time where I brought magazine after magazine – my monthly magazines included a food, a home, a lifestyle/fashion and a gardening magazine let alone the specialist teaching publications that I received at work. I would read the magazine’s flicking through them and then tear out articles that I wanted to keep, copy recipes into a binder and then head off online to find cheaper versions of the latest fashion to add to my work wardrobe. Seriously when we moved I had a binder full of clippings for ideas on what we were going to do with our new home and garden – with dividers for each room (yes I’m one of those).

Then in 2011 my bank balance breathed a sigh of relief I discovered Pinterest – this was back when you had to be invited to join and luckily I knew someone that was already in and I got an invite – I started pinning – I had my kids craft board, my in my kitchen and then my home board. I pinned what I loved and what I liked and have come back time and time again to ideas that I have pinned – just last weekend I searched through my gardening board and discovered the pin I had pinned almost a year and a half ago on how to make a 3 sister’s bed in the garden.

I’ve used it to store ideas for things I would like to buy for the kids and when Pinterest introduced secret boards back before Christmas, I could have kissed them I could now pin ideas to make, bake and buy for my family and friends that are on pinterest as well. Now I use it for all of those things but also to collate ideas to do with the kids and share with you my readers.

My favourite board to gather ideas from and use is one that I set up more recently – Learn and Play the Natural Way – it’s full of ideas for outdoor play and learning about the natural world for kids. One of my promises at the beginning of the year to J and T is that we would spend at least 15 minutes outside everyday and we are and have done since 1st January this is now my favourite board for finding ideas and inspiration of things to do.

If you aren’t on Pinterest now is a great time to join, the summer is on it’s way where it’s great to find activities for kids to do on those long summer days our Learn and Play the Natural Way are perfect ideas for outdoor play this summer and what’s more you follow along and I’ll be pinning ideas for autumn, winter, spring and next summer ideas as well.

I’m not the only blogger addicted to Pinterest as part of the #pinitforwardUK campaign many of us are joining together to share why we LOVE pinterest –  tomorrow Rachel from The Little Pip is sharing her favourite board – I’m really inspired by Rachel’s 30 days challenge as currently I wear the same 7 outfits week in and week out mixing them up slightly yet have wardrobes over flowing with clothes and this is going to be my challenge coming June.

If you are already on Pinterest I would love to connect with you please leave your URL in the comments below if not the once you have signed up leave your pinterest user name in the URL and I will discover you can’t wait to see what you are sharing.

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After a busy Friday last week sharing our “Virtual Book Club for Kids Summer Camp” we’re back with 7 Days and this weeks 7 Days is 7 Days of Science fun at home brought to you by Chelsey from Buggy and Buddy – a regular of Tuesday Tots and one that I have been following for a while. So without further ado I’m handing over to Chelsey to share 7 Days of Science Fun for you and your kids.

Hi, I’m Chelsey from Buggy and Buddy, and I am thrilled to take part in Rainy Day Mum’s 7 Days Series! My motto is “learning and creating with love.” I firmly believe that a child with high self-esteem will develop into a confident life-long learner. On Buggy and Buddy I share fun crafts and learning activities that children will be successful with and enjoy in order to build a positive sense of self. I would love for you to stop by!

One of my true loves is science! Children are naturally curious, and through science, not only can you develop a child’s critical thinking skills and curiosity, but you can also foster growth in literacy and math. In hopes of passing along some love for science to you, I’m sharing 7 of my favorite science invitations!

1.     Dancing Raisins: One of my favorite things about this invitation is its simplicity. You most likely have all you need to do this in your kitchen right now. The kids were simply mesmerized watching the raisins move up and down. Their curiosity led to more and more questions and experimenting!

2.     Chromatography Butterflies: This invitation was one of my favorites~ the true combination of science becoming art. We separated colors in markers and used the results to create beautiful butterflies that are still hanging in our playroom.

3.     Homemade Kazoos: I came up with this idea from a childhood memory. When I was a child I made kazoos from old toilet paper or paper towel rolls and knew my kids would love it too! It was a great introduction to the exploration of sound, and we were left with a product that was fun to play with!

4.     Paperclips & Water: The kids are always shocked by the result of this simple experiment~ seeing how many paperclips will fit in a full glass of water. I love how this also allows for practice of math skills.

5.     Baggie & Pencil Magic: Here’s another experiment that has shocking results. It’s very easy to set up, and the kids always want to do it over and over!

6.     Bean Dissection: The inspiration for this science invitation came from my teaching days. We would open up bean seeds and discover what was inside. My daughter loved discovering the parts of a bean seed.

7.     Growing Bulbs: This is a fabulous way for kids to observe the growth of roots! We planted bulbs in clear plastic cups and recorded our weekly observations. Our bulb is actually still growing and is 26 inches tall. It’s the experiment that keeps on giving!

Thank you Chelsey for sharing 7 Days of Science Fun here – if you would like to contribute to the series sharing 7 Days of ideas for making everyday fun for families then please contact me at info {at} rainydaymum {dot} co {dot} uk 

Chelsey Marashian

Chelsey is a former elementary teacher, and now enjoys being home and creating with her son and daughter. She is a firm believer that children learn best when they are confident and have a high self-esteem, and tries to instill this daily in her children. She shares her experiences with crafting, learning, and playing at her blog, Buggy and Buddy. You can also follow Buggy and Buddy on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.

   

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Summer is really in the air – we’ve started on our summer bucket list for this year (Coming soon) and a lot of it will be outdoor fun so I thought I would share with you my top tips for outdoor play this summer brought to you by Lands End.

• Hats on – whether you are in the North of England or in Texas it’s your head that will be exposed to the sun directly and without a hat your kids can rapidly feel dehydrated

• Provide a play area in the shade – if you are at the beach take an umbrella to provide shade, in the park find a big tree to sit under, in your back garden put out some blankets and books to encourage your kids to take breaks in the shade.
• Keep Hydrated – water, diluted juice, ice pops keep the kids hydrated – think how bad you feel when you don’t have enough to drink – now add that to your toddlers normal behaviour and how bad it could get.

• Cover up – shoulders burn (and don’t I remember it from my childhood) so now my kids wear t-shirts or sun suits when were out and about. I love these bright rash shirts from Lands End and their boy’s t-shirts very trendy and perfect for covering up and avoiding burning check them out here.
• Check out our 20 ideas to keep cool without using loads of water on Nature and Play – although I love playing with the hose and the kids love running through it water can be it’s not great for the environment these ideas will all keep you cool but use a lot less water.
• Use sun cream – I’m loving the SunSense products that we were recently sent to review and have stocked up for our holiday with them. I don’t though apply the sun cream right at the beginning of the day (unless J is off to preschool) instead we have a few hours of sun on our skin producing vitamin D and then the sun cream goes on.
• Avoid the hours 11 to 3 in direct sun – this is when our shaded play area comes into it’s own – we sit and draw, read, eat, play and still enjoy the outside but without being in direct sun

• Take nap time/quiet time inside and then after dinner go outside – the kids will love the extra time outside after dinner to run around and you never know they may sleep well as well (well we would hope so anyhow).

I’m really looking forward to this summer – it’s our last before J goes to school properly and for 2 and a half days he’s at home with us during the week so those days I’m planning on filling with summer fun next year he will be in school all week and I know that T and I will both miss him during that time.

Top tips for outdooor play is brought to you with Lands End

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Welcome back to another week of Tuesday Tots.

Last week 145 posts for under 5′s were linked up – it was wonderful to see so many different ideas coming together and being shared.

I’m going to feature some of my favourites later this week in the mean time please come and link up your new, old and fantastic posts for the under 5′s.

If you do link up a short text link or grabbing the badge above (can be found in the sidebar on the Tuesday Tots page) is really appreciated but not required to join in.

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This months Virtual Book club for kids author is Leo Lionni and we’ve chosen 2 books first I’m sharing our exploration of colour with the book Little Blue and Little Yellow (this is an affiliate link).

I have never read any Leo Lionni books and as colours is something that I am working with T on I thought it sounded a great book to read with them both. In the end J got the most out of it. The story is about Little Blue and Little Yellow and the fun that they have being friends – but underlying it is some colour mixing theory – Blue and Yellow = Green.

Using a plate I drew around it to form a circle and then divided it up into 6 segments. Within 3 of the segments I wrote the words of the primary colours – Red, Blue and Yellow (as they have different letters to start with J who doesn’t read yet but does recognise the letters that words start with was able to identify which colour to use for each segment).

When you set this up for your child remember that unless they are good about washing brushes between colours then provide 3 brushes for your child one for each colour – I try and get the washing brushes between colours but with this is was more important that the colours are made.

We’re using paper plates for art palettes at the moment which are very effective and provide lots of space for colour mixing although J chose to do the colour mixing on the paper. He splodged each of the colours in the empty segments and then mixed them together. To form the secondary colours – Orange, Purple and Green (although our Green isn’t great – for some reason one of our blue’s isn’t very pure and when we make green it always ends up muddy looking!).

We’ve added it to our art wall now above the crafting table and for a while I will be only using primary colours in our painting and the colours that J wants to make he will have to mix himself but can refer back to the colour wheel to do so.

With T later I will be exploring colour names with Little Blue and Little Yellow and will share some further ideas for colour work with toddlers in the near future.

This months Virtual Book Club is co-hosted by

Please do pop by and find out how they are exploring, learning, playing and crafting with Leo Lionni books this month. If you would like to join in we would love for you to share your ideas either in the linky below or over on our facebook page.

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Summer is on it’s way and I know some of your will be breaking up very soon for the summer vacation so I’ve put together some fantastic fun summer activities for Toddlers to enjoy and keep those hot long days fun. So here goes our Summer Activities for Toddler round-up.

Summer play for Toddlers

Keep cool with some Instant Pudding and Ice sensory play this summer

Pirate Party Small World Play get the water table set up and start the pirate play off keeping cool as the waves hit the sides as you go

When it gets too hot outside move inside for some Ocean Small World Play and for those little ones that put everything in their mouth it’s edible as well.

Spending time by the pool this summer then grab some pool noodles and have some Pool Noddle Play withGrowing a Jeweled Rose

Water Sensory Bin from The Iowa’s Farmer Wife on Toddler Approved where even the youngest toddlers can join in and keep cool.

Summer crafts for Toddlers

Summer means butterflies and butterflies mean caterpillars so get craft with some Caterpillar Making

Shell Imprints in Salt Dough from The Imagination Tree are the perfect thing to do with all of those beach finds that you bring home.

Get crafty with the symbol that makes the summer fun with this Sandpaper Summer Sun from No Time for Flash Cards

20 Classic Crafts for Summer from Red Ted Art with some of these perfect for your little toddlers to enjoy with you as well.

You can’t beat some Sidewalk Painting from The Educators’ Spin On It

Summer evenings mean one thing some fireflies and Toddler Approved creates some fantastic Crayon Relief Fireflies

Summer learning for Toddlers

Summer doesn’t mean that reading has to stop so why not host your own Picture book Picnic

Making Ice Cream Soup is the perfect things to do this summer – especially if like J your child doesn’t like cold ice-cream

Only one thing to do go Bug Hunting and discover what lives in your back yard

Discover what lives below the waves with Shrimp Netting at the beach

Make your summer reading transpotable then create an Outdoor literacy Sack with Connecting Family and Seoul on Toddler Approved

This is one of my all time favourite activities Hunting for Sharks Teeth from The Educators’ Spin on it we know some great beaches to go and take the kids to for some guaranteed finds.

Summer Recipes for Toddlers

4th of July is so close now you can almost smell the fireworks in the air these Patriotic Cupcakes are perfect to make with your toddlers to celebrate.

Shake your own Ice Cream making in a Bag from Cheerios and Lattes what a fantastic way to make some summer treats and keep cool at the same time.

Summer means 1 thing ice pops and these Fruity Strawberry Banana Creamsicles from Mama Pea Pod look delicious.

Don’t forget that you can sign up for our 5 week long FREE Virtual Book Club Summer Camp starting on the 24th June and suitable for Toddlers up.

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One of the first artists that many children are exposed to are children’s book illustrators – by far my favourite illustrator/artists is Eric Carle so when J posed the questions “How does he make his pictures?” we decided to explore Eric Carle as an artists as opposed to an Author.

Our first stop of was looking at the pictures and working out what makes his work stand out – J decided it was the colours used and the way it looked it was different to the illustrations by Alex Scheffler in the Gruffalo. We looked at the books that we had in our collection and noticed that Eric Carle’s illustrations were similar to the illustrations on It’s Mine by Leo Lionni in that they are both made of bits (collages) but something about Eric Carle’s were different.

With a prompt we looked at the colours – J is very into tones and shades of a colour at the moment pointing out how he’s got a light green or a dark green t-shirt on and how bright blue the sky is so when looking at the colours he started to notice that there wasn’t just light green or dark green like the cover of Mine Mine Mine instead it was a mix of colours in each part of the collages.

I have had bookmarked for a long time The Official Eric Carle site and the document on how Eric Carle creates his art as well as the slide show showing his process and J, T and I watched the slide show and talked about how the paper that he used in the collages is made and then how he goes about creating the illustrations for the books.

Working with Toddlers and Preschoolers I knew that following the process exactly wasn’t going to be possible – tissue paper is too fine for them to work with easily especially when wet so with some modifications we went about creating some Eric Carle inspired art.

What you need to create some Eric Carle inspired Art work

Plain Paper
Poster (ready-mixed) paints
Water
Paint Brushes
Pencil
Scissors
Glue

How to create some Eric Carle inspired Art Work

We started of by mixing up some very watered down paint – T and I squeezed some paint into our paint pots and added water and then mixed and mixed until we had dilute paint to use. We then set about painting the paper – she’s just 2 and loves painting but doesn’t have the patience to wait for colours to dry to apply more so we simplified the process by applying 1 coat of paint and adding in some different colours and blending them in as well – this way we got an effect of having more than one shade of colour and also could see the brush strokes in the art work.

Once dry we then set about creating our collage pieces – as summer is on the way we decided that a sunflower would make a good piece of art work and we could draw and trace pieces to make the collage easily. So with a bowl J drew around the outside to create the centre of the sunflower.

To form the leaves J and T drew on the paper leaf shapes which we could then cut out and our petals we traced around their hands and cut them out. J has been working on cutting skills and he used the scissors to cut out the stems. Once all pieces were assembled then J and T set about gluing the pieces in place on their paper.

With everything in place the Sunflowers inspired by Eric Carle’s process of making the illustrations for his books and for others were left to dry and tomorrow we will add them to our art wall.

We’ve been exploring other artists check out some of them below

Mondrian Inspired Stained glass windows

Monet’s Water Lillies

Exploring Michelangelo

Pop Art

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