At home with Ali

10 more things to do with a 2 year old

2013-05-15T21:26:00.007+10:00

I have been overwhelmed and awed by the response to my post – 10 things to do with a 2 year old at home...... so I decided to do a second instalment before Boo hits the big 3. I hope you find some ideas here to entertain your busy 2 year old... even if it only last a few minutes!!!

1. Sorting pom poms

Moving pom poms or small objects from container to container is very popular in our house. Adding a spoon or a scoop adds an extra challenge.

2. Grow something edible

We watch it grow, check for interesting bugs that often get there first and finally pick it and eat it (if bug free). You only need a tiny bit of room to get growing!

3. Thread with pipe-cleaners

Long pipe-cleaners are perfect for little fingers to thread through holes punched in paper card. My 2 year old also likes to use the hole puncher to make holey paper.

4. Play hat shop

Lay out every hat in the house. Set up a cash register... use a toy one or make your own. Our homemade cash register is an egg carton with slots cut into the lid to feed coins into. I always add a few paper bags so that Boo can package up the sold bags.

5. Make a small world on a tray

We use a playdough base and then add whatever elements are popular on the day. Our latest small world (below) is a fairy inspired world with shells, rocks, fairy figurines, unicorns, sticks and a light sprinkle of glitter.

6. Go exploring with homemade binoculars

These binoculars are easy to make and great to take on an adventure. Cover the ends of two cardboard rolls with cellophane and tape them together. You can also add a string so they can be easily carried.

7. Make some sponge decorations

This is always popular in our house. I cut shapes from cheap soft sponges. Boo paints the sponge shapes with pva glue and dips them in glitter. Sometimes we turn the glittery sponges into puppets by gluing on a wooden skewer.

8. Do some print making

This is very simple print making. My trusty plastic tray with a raised edge is perfect for this sort of art activity.... I place a couple of dollops of watercolour paint on the tray, add some water and then let Boo mix it all together. Lay a sheet of paper over the paint and lift it off to see your creation. It is all about the reveal!!!

9. Make a bead oyster

Tape two paper plates together. Add a pool of pva glue inside the paper plates and let your little one add the treasure. We use beads and buttons, but of course these are a choking hazard so I have to supervise very carefully. If you are worried, substitute beads for small pieces of paper. Once the glue is dry, you can close them up so that the oyster's treasure is hidden.

10. Try a little science

We have done this many times and it is always fun. Add bicarbonate of soda to a container/jar containing a mix of white vingear and food colouring. Stir and watch it fizz..... supervision is needed of course. You can play around with varying quantities to see the reactions.

I would love to hear your ideas for keeping 2 year olds happy and entertained. It can be a tough job sometimes!

And now for some useful links:

A newly discovered blog for me that has tonnes of ideas for play is Fun at home with kids. I particularly like this water transfer challenge post.
For reggio inspired art activities for toddlers visit An Everyday Story.
If your child likes sensory play check out this post by Small Potatoes.
The places on Pinterest to visit for tonnes of ideas are For the littlies, Sensory Play is so much fun and Playdough magic.

If this is your first visit to At home with Ali – welcome. If you like it, you can follow along via email, RSS, google+ or facebook. You can also find me on Pinterest and Instagram. Cheers Ali

A Castle Cake for a Princess Party

2013-04-30T22:28:00.000+10:00

Cakey wanted a princess theme for her 5th birthday party. With her agreement we changed it to a castle theme to make it a little more open-ended and boy-friendly. I really had no idea what to do for the cake until my mother pulled out her old copy of the Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book. Inside was a castle cake that I thought that I could make.

I am not that great in the kitchen. Normally for birthdays, I bake a round cake and decorate it with sweets. This castle cake was going to be my very first fancy cake. I used my usual kid party cake recipe from Donna Hay, this recipe makes a solid cake which is easy to ice and decorate.

Recipe for one basic vanilla cake:
2.5 cups of plain flour, sifted
1.5 teaspoons of baking powder, sifted
1.25 cups of caster sugar (Donna's recipe actually calls for 1.75 cups of sugar but it is way too sweet)
250g butter, melted
4 eggs
1.25 cups of milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat all ingredients until smooth. The mixture is quite runny. Pour the mixture into a lined and greased cake tin. Bake at 160 degrees C (320F) for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. I made two of these cakes in a 22cm square tin. I made each cake from scratch because after many baking failures I have finally learned not to double a recipe.

Bake two square cakes

I made a large quantity of fluffy butter cream icing in a pale pink. (I also had extra icing ingredients in the pantry in case I needed to make more.)

Butter cream icing
250g butter, softened
2 cups of icing sugar mixture, sifted
2 tablespoons of milk
Beat the butter with an electric beater until very pale and creamy. Beat in the icing sugar, milk and food colouring.

Now the construction... I chose the flattest cake for the castle's base. I covered it with a thin layer of icing. I squared off the second cake and cut out four, mostly equal, squares for the castle towers. I placed the cake squares (towers) on each corner, the icing acted like a glue.

Cut out four equal, flat squares for the castle towers

At this point Chris took the kids to the park so they wouldn't hear my swearing as I tried to ice the castle cake. I found the joints between the base and the square towers very difficult to ice. In the end I disguised my messy icing with strategically placed liquorice all-sorts, smarties and freckles.

Ice the cake and use ice cream comes for the turrets

Next the turrets... using tall ice cream cones. I placed the cones on top of the iced cake towers. According to the photo in the Women's Weekly the ice cream cones are completely covered in icing. I could NOT get the icing to cover the cones. In the end I only iced the bases of the cones and left the rest of the cones/turrets plain.

We needed some little flags to finish off the turrets. I cut four flag shapes from a piece of folded over paper. I glued the paper flags onto toothpicks and carefully poked the sharp end of each toothpick into the top of each turret. I added candles and I was done. Yay! For her 6th birthday Cakey will be getting a round cake decorated with sweets.....

Getting creative with kids

2013-04-14T21:05:00.002+10:00

I often find that I set up art and craft for the kids, get them started and then quietly disappear to do something super-exciting like washing the dishes. I like to draw and paint too... why do they get to have all the fun!!! After all, I desperately want to find the time to draw and create. If I wait until the kids are tucked into bed I am just too tired to do much of anything.

So lately I have been setting up projects that I want to do and amazingly enough the kids love it. This is one of those projects. I felt the need for some simple watercolour painting. Out came the brushes, paint and paper. Out came two small children eager to see what I was doing.

Unlike my children my imagination is old and tired. Visions of unicorns, rainbows and fairies don't come easily to me, I need a little bit of inspiration to get me started. For this project I raided the fruit bowl for some unsuspecting fruit for a still life.

Cakey's banana, capscium and potato

Boo's fruit and veg

Cakey's strawberries and eggplant

The three of us sat very happily painting fruit. It wasn't long before their imaginations let loose, painting fruits and vegetables that we did not have (ie. strawberries and eggplant) and then moving to rainbow rain and beyond. I stuck with the fruit. When they got hungry little bite marks started appearing in the still life!

I have done this many times now and the kids always want to join in. Sometimes they want to do exactly what I am doing and sometimes they use the materials in their own way. So I say 'let those dishes pile up'.

Visit Tinkerlab and the Artful Genius if you would like some motivation to get a little bit creative every day. Visit the House that Lars built and Geninne's Art blog if you would like some inspiration.

If this is your first visit to At home with Ali – welcome. If you like it, you can follow along via email, RSS, google+ or facebook. You can also find me on Pinterest and Instagram. Cheers Ali

Outdoor play kitchen

2013-04-03T22:11:00.000+11:00

Many months ago we found an old cabinet on the side of the road. It was in pretty bad shape – peeling paint, dirty orange contact covering the wooden shelves and a weird asymmetry to the legs. We brought it home, set it up on our patio and pondered what to do with it. I decided to turn it into a play kitchen for Boo. I thought it would be a fun project for us to do together.

The BEFORE picture

Boo and her playgroup friend helped me wash the cabinet. They had great fun dousing it with sudsy water. It did occur to me that I should strip off the old paint and then sand the cabinet but I am way too impatient for that sort of thing. I did however strip off the old orange contact from the shelves.

How did I miss the right leg????

Boo and I took a trip to the hardware store where she chose the paint colour. We also went on a little trip to our local material shop so Boo could pick out some material for the curtain I wanted installed. She chose the first material she saw and would not be swayed.

I painted the cabinet during nap-time. I was super fast, so fast that I missed an entire leg of the cabinet.... which I only noticed when I downloaded these photos. Whoops!

The curtain was attached using plastic tubing and cable pins

Chris made some curtains for the bottom shelf. We attached the curtain by threading a piece of plastic tubing through a sewn loop. The plastic tubing was then nailed into place using cable pins (one on each side and one in the middle). When it was finished the kids and I loaded in all our play kitchen equipment.... and the girls set about preparing a pretend feast.

In the future, I would like to paint one side of the cabinet with blackboard paint so the kids can write/draw up their menu. I would also like to add a rail on the other side to hang tea towels.

There are lots of ways to turn old or unused furniture into pretend play kitchen pieces, here are two of my favourites:

DIY Modern Play Kitchen from small + friendly, this is an amazing kitchen, way better than our simple cabinet and way better than any of the commercial play kitchens I have seen.
Play Oven from A Little Learning of Two, another amazing example of upcycling.

Another Chicken World

2013-03-20T21:45:00.001+11:00

"I just laid an egg!"

We haven't done any little world play in ages. The lovely Megan from Coffee Cups and Crayons reminded me of all our little world play and I got inspired to set something up for Boo.

As it is Easter I got out all the ingredients for a Chicken World.... a shoebox lid, a batch of light green playdough (recipe at the end of the post), a box of little Easter chicks, a handful of bottletops, matchsticks, beads and little pieces of tissue paper for chicken food.

We started off filling the shoebox lid with playdough. Boo pushed all the matchsticks into the playdough creating fences to keep the chickens in. She gave them little beds (bottle tops) and put them to bed.... and then the chickens got hungry. We fed them beads and tissue paper from a small bowl – so delicious for fuzzy chicks.

Chickens in bed

The packaging on the box of chickens had pictures of eggs and flowers. We cut them out and popped them into the little world. Both Cakey and Boo loved playing with this little world. It is still on the dining room table. The playdough has gone a little crusty but the chicks are happy – they are well fed and loved.

The farmer is checking on the chickens

Playdough recipe: 2 cups of plain flour, half cup of table salt (not cooking salt, it will make the playdough grainy), 2 tablespoons of cream of tartar, 2 tablespoons of oil. Mix the ingredients with 1 and a 1/3 cups of boiling water coloured with food colouring. Knead with a little extra flour.

If your kids like little world play they might like these activities:

Arctic Ice Play from Pre-school Play
Little Frog World from The Imagination Tree
Mermaid's Lagoon from Small Potatoes
Little Worlds and Miniatures Pinterest Board

Linked to The Sunday Showcase, It's Playtime and Kids Get Crafty

Easter glitter eggs

2013-03-13T22:40:00.000+11:00

Glitter eggs - we have made them before and we will make them again because they are FUN. I first saw this idea on sew and the city, her glitter eggs are perfectly smooth and gorgeous. Ours are not quite so gorgeous but we love them :)

To make glitter Easter eggs with kids, you will need:

Styrofoam eggs
Glitter
Pva glue
Wooden skewers

I skewered each styrofoam egg onto a wooden skewer. I also provided a tub of pva glue and a tub of glitter. The girls used a paintbrush to cover the styrofoam eggs with glue. They then dipped and twirled them in the tub of glitter. This method does not give a smooth and all-over glitter effect.... but it is achievable and fun for the kids. (For a perfect finish you need to pour glitter over your rotating egg after applying a thin layer of glue.)

As each egg was finished they were popped into a sturdy glass jug to dry. The kids applied a fairly thick layer of glue to some of the eggs – the glue and glitter did start to run down the eggs leaving a streaky effect.

The eggs drying

The glue and glitter started to run down the egg as it dried... making an interesting effect

Once the eggs were completely dry I sprayed them with hair spray so that glitter wouldn't float all over the house!

If you are interested in more Easter craft have a look at our Rainbow chicken house. And if you want some egg decoration inspiration check out all the ideas over at Alisa Burke.

Linked to Tuesday Tots and It's Playtime

Art tips over at Tinkerlab

2013-03-05T22:38:00.000+11:00

I am guest posting over at Tinkerlab as part of Rachelle's Art Tips series. Pop over to see how I keep the kids stocked with interesting and varied art supplies without breaking the bank.

Tinkerlab is one of my favourite blogs. Rachelle has so many great ideas for being creative with kids.... here's just a sample of Tinkerlab posts:
Snowflake Collage Activity
How to Invent a Recipe with kids
Explore Modern Artists: Painting with Edward Hopper

If this is your first visit to At home with Ali – welcome. If you like it, you can follow along via email, RSS, google+ or facebook. You can also find me on Pinterest and Instagram. Cheers Ali

Invitation to Craft – Easter

2013-02-26T20:03:00.001+11:00

Easter is my favourite holiday.... chocolate, shiny foil, bunnies and little fluffy chicks... what a fabulous combination! I have been collecting easter-themed bits and pieces for a few weeks – some little chickens, bunny toothpicks and easter themed patty pans. The one thing that has been lacking is the inspiration for what to do with all this Easter cuteness. My brain feels tired, overwhelmed and out of ideas at the moment.

I decided that I would set it all up as an Invitation to craft (I love the invitation to play set-ups over at The Imagination Tree and Learn with Play@home). I laid out all the materials on our outdoor table, this is what I included:

Patterned paper
Scissors
String
Pipecleaners
Container of pva glue with some pink paint added and a paintbrush
2 sets of easter chicks
Easter-themed patty pans
Bunny toothpicks
Gluesticks
Milk bottle tops

Way too much stuff really.... sometimes I go overboard. Not everything got used. The most popular items were the coloured pva glue, bottle tops, little chicks and bunny toothpicks. Boo asked for some pink playdough to go with it so we whipped up a batch together (based on this recipe, except I added vanilla oil instead of peppermint).

The kids created – combining bits and pieces together, dipping the string in the glue, making little seats for the chicks. It didn't really matter what they ended up making it was more important just to have fun and experiment.

Oh yeah... and this happened!!

For a great run-down on setting up Invitations to Play/Craft have a look at this post from Invitation to Play Tutorial from Teach Preschool. If you love Easter inspired craft have a look at Chicken World and don't miss my Easter Pinterest board.

If this is your first visit to At home with Ali – welcome. If you like it, you can follow along via email, RSS, google+ or facebook. You can also find me on Pinterest and Instagram. Cheers Ali

Linked to Kids Get Crafty and Tuesday Tots

Because #playmatters – Instagram fun

2013-02-18T13:33:00.001+11:00

Hello, I am hoping you would like to have a little fun with me on Instagram. I have got together with a fabulous group of bloggers who all believe that play matters. We are building an Instagram community to celebrate all the varied ways that children play. It is also a record of those playful moments in our childrens' lives. After all, there is nothing more wonderful than watching your children immerse themselves in the wonderful world of play. Play matters.... whether it consists of running in the long grass, jumping in puddles, building a castle, watching the clouds, making mud pies or laughing with little friends.... play matters.

We would love for you to join our community. All you have to do is:

Sign up for Instagram if you are not there already
Take a photo of your child/ren playing
Upload the photo to Instagram (play with the fliters if that is your thing)
Tag the photo with #playmatters so we can find you
While you are there you might like to browse through the #playmatters photos by seraching for the #playmatters tag (this is a great place to get a few play ideas if you are running low on inspiration)
I would love it if you would come say hello to me, my Instagram user name is @athomewithali
Upload as few or as many photos as you like with the tag #playmatters
Everyone is welcome

Be part of the #playmatters cmmmunity and join us today. If you are not in Instagram feel free to upload a photo to my facebook page. We would love to see what you and your kids get up to in play. We also have a #playmatters pinterest board full of playful ideas.

Kicking off this initiative are:

Adventures at home with Mum

Learn with Play at Home

Learning to Play and Playing to Learn

Lessons Learnt Journal

Playing and Learning Begins at Home

Triple T Mum

Wildlife Fun 4 Kids

Leaf and Surface Rubbings

2013-02-13T21:46:00.000+11:00

Did you make leaf rubbings as a kid? Yes of course you did... it is a classic. There is something about the whole discovery aspect that makes rubbings so much fun. I keep a small batch of cheap, waxy crayons just for rubbings, these crayons are useless for drawing but are perfect for rubbings. Oil pastels (my favourite type of crayon) do not make very good rubbings. I don't know why.

Rainbow leaf rubbings – ferns work really well

After a morning of ripping leaves out of the garden for rubbings I then encouraged the kids to roam the house with paper and crayon in hand. I sent them on a hunt for interesting textures. It surprised me how much they liked this. They took rubbings of the textured glass in the doors, the tiles in the fireplace, the speakers on the tv, the nail holes in the floor boards, the bottom of a plastic tub, the top of a stool and the tiles in the bathroom. It kept them very busy and happy on a rainy afternoon.

My next plan is to venture down the street with paper and crayons and see what textures we can find in the neighbourhood.

If this is your first visit to At home with Ali – welcome. If you like it, you can follow along via email, RSS, google+ or facebook. You can also find me on Pinterest and Instagram. Cheers Ali

Linked to Tuesday Tots and Kids Get Crafty

Valentines stick dolly gifts

2013-01-29T22:00:00.000+11:00

I finally got my act together and set up some Valentines craft for the girls. I was inspired by these gorgeous wooden stick dollies created by teawagontales. She made them with decorative washi tape and markers. I wanted to make some with the girls. They would make lovely Valentines gifts for friends and family.

I have no idea where to get washi tape in Australia (shop owners look at me strangely when I ask for it). I substituted the washi tape with patterned scrapbooking paper and a gluestick, which was suggested by Christen, one of my lovely facebook followers.

What you need:

large wooden sticks (as wide as possible)
patterned or coloured paper strips
markers
gluestick
heart hole punch for a Valentines feel

I cut the paper strips. The girls chose their dolly's outfits and glued them on the sticks They added details with the markers. Cakey gave one dolly a little baby – my favourite of the set.

I made lots of these dollies with the girls. It was fun coming up with funky dolly ensembles. We added hearts cut from a heart-shaped hole punch to our dollies for a Valentines feel. Boo was (and still is) obsessed with the heart hole punch. On the back of each stick we wrote the name of the person who will receive the dolly on Valentines Day.

For more Valentines inspiration have a look at my Valentines Pinterest Board.

If this is your first visit to At home with Ali – welcome. If you like it, you can follow along via email, RSS, google+ or facebook. You can also find me on Pinterest and Instagram. Cheers Ali

Linked to Kids Get Crafty, It's Playtime, Tuesday Tots and The Kids Co-op

Fairy Apartment Block

2013-01-23T23:03:00.000+11:00

I love arty projects that you can do over a few days. This was one of those projects..... a fairy apartment block. Now for the fairy purists out there – I know that fairy houses are supposed to be made from all natural materials rather than man-made materials. We have a copy of the book Fairy Houses by Tracy Kane which is a great resource for natural fairy house building. BUT we live in the city and our fairies are quite urbane, so we thought they needed a luxury high-rise apartment block.

Day 1
We found an old wooden CD rack at the side of the road. We dragged it home and gave it a good wash with sudsy water. Then we let it dry.

Day 2
The three of us had a chat about the apartment block colour scheme. We started painting. Cakey painted a lovely picture of flowers on the outside. Boo and I painted and splashed paint on the inside of the apartment block. Then we let it dry.

Day 3
We took our dry and colourful fairy apartment block down to laneway garden and set it up for the fairies. We decorated the rooms with flowers and small boxes filled with playdough and little animal friends. The fairies visited their apartment block and played.

We do make natural fairy houses too. Cakey loves to build little fairy tents from sticks. Boo is good at collecting seed pods and flower petals. I was going to write a post about this as it keeps the kids very busy in our local park but all the photos look like this......

It is hard to photograph a pile of sticks

If this is your first visit to At home with Ali – welcome. If you like it, you can follow along via email, RSS or facebook. You can also find me on Pinterest and Instagram. Cheers Ali

Linked to Kids Get Crafty, It's Playtime and The Kids Co-op

Herb and Flower Tea Party

2013-01-15T21:23:00.000+11:00

I have written about making pretend tea and coffee in the garden before... and I am writing about it again because my kids love it. Our ceramic tea set bought from a charity shop is still going strong! I always set up their 'cafe area' on the grass to avoid breakages. The kids have been making lots of herb and flower tea. I simply supply a tub of water, some spoons and bowls of loose leaf tea. They do the rest scavenging the garden for herbs and flowers to add to their 'herbal tea'.

Cakey enjoys the imaginary aspect of this game and I get to 'taste' tonnes of herb tea. Yum! Boo just loves the chance to stir and pour. This is a fabulous summer-time water play activity. We play this in the winter too.... I use warm water in an attempt to offset the cold.

For more outdoor activities check out my Pinterest board Outdoor Fun for Kids

If this is your first visit to At home with Ali – welcome. If you like it, you can follow along via email, RSS or facebook. You can also find me on Pinterest and Instagram. Cheers Ali

Linked to Tuesday Tots, Monday Kid Corner, It's Playtime and The Kids Co-op

Holiday activities for kids

2013-01-08T20:55:00.000+11:00

How do you feel about colouring sheets? I would prefer my kids to draw than colour in pre-drawn scenes. I provide lots of opportunities and materials so that drawing is part of our everyday life. But you know what, I liked colouring sheets as a kid and my kids like them too. We don't use them regularly and I am not a fan of highly detailed colouring books. Thankfully there are many free printables available that give a little prod but don't do all the work. When my kids are a bit lack lustre about drawing, an inspirational colouring or activity sheet can do the trick.... and they are perfect for travel.

A couple of months ago we went on a holiday to the Gold Coast. We had lots of activities planned but I knew that there would also be plenty of time spent in our apartment. I remembered reading about a friend's Big Book of Crafty Goodness where she bound together a stack of kid-friendly printables as gifts. Brilliant idea.... I got to work and made two printable packs for my kids. These were loose leaf packs held together with paper clips and this is what they contained:

Town colouring sheet by Lessons Learnt Journal. This printable is made up of stacked rectangles and triangles with lots of scope to add in your own detail.
Printable Drawing Shapes by Picklebums. A whole variety of open-ended circle based printable sheets.
Monsters by Picklebums. Cute monster shapes to cut out and play with on a vacation.
Sample pages from Susan Striker's Anti-Coloring book. These are fabulous drawing prompts.
Alphabet colouring pages by Mr Printables. I included the letters of my kids' names just for fun.
Printable mazes. Cakey is just beginning to enjoy the challenge of a maze.
A couple of abstract swirly doodles which you can download here and here.
My fish printable. A simple fish outline perfect for kids to add fishy detail.
My flowers and rainbows colouring sheet.
I also included some coloured paper with random holes and shapes cut out of them, this was inspired by a post by The Artful Parent.
Had I seen this post before the holiday I also would have included this awesome googly eye drawing prompt.

I also took away a set of pencils and markers as well as our watercolour tray. The kids chose to paint most of the printable sheets. When we returned I bound together the painted sheets as a holiday journal. On the back of each page I wrote a few notes to remind us of all the things we did on our family holiday.

Best activities for kids from 2012

2013-01-01T22:33:00.002+11:00

I spent some time looking over my posts from 2012 to choose my favourite activity... and I decided on our oil rig because it makes me laugh. I still can't believe we made an oil rig!!! This was a wonderful project because I was able to take Cakey's curiosity and help her turn it into something. This was my second post of 2012 – it has been buried deep in the archives so it is nice to give it a little airing. I do hope you enjoy our oil rig, it wasn't my most popular post (which was 10 things to do with a 2 year old) but it is a personal favourite.

And to get the creative juices flowing for 2013 many wonderful bloggers have also chosen their favorite posts for 2013 – they are all linked up below. If you are a blogger you are welcome to link your most popular or favourite post for 2012.

If this is your first visit to At home with Ali – welcome. If you like it, you can follow along via email, RSS or facebook. You can also find me on Pinterest and Instagram. Cheers Ali

52 Brand New ~ Adventures in Mommydom ~ angeliquefelix.com - The Magic Of Play ~ At home with Ali ~ B-Inspired Mama ~ Blog Me Mom ~Boy Mama Teacher Mama ~ Busy Kids = Happy Mom ~ Carrots Are Orange ~ Caution! Twins at Play ~ Coffee Cups and Crayons ~ Confessions of a Montessori Mom ~ Craft To Art ~ Creative Family Fun ~ Creative Kid Snacks ~ Creative Learning Fun ~ Creative Playhouse ~ Creative with Kids ~ Cute and Peculiar ~ De tout et de rien: Activités pour le Préscolaire ~ Dirt And Boogers ~ Edventures with Kids ~ Enchanted Homeschooling Mom ~ The Good Long Road ~ Frogs and snails and puppy dog tails ~ Glittering Muffins ~ Go Kid Yourself ~ Growing A Jeweled Rose ~ hands on : as we grow ~ Here Come the Girls ~ Home Learning Journey ~ Housing A Forest ~ Mama Smiles ~ In Lieu of Preschool ~ Inspiration Laboratories ~ Inspired by Family ~ It's A Long Story ~ JDaniel4's Mom ~ Kids Creative Chaos ~ Kid World Citizen ~ Kindergarten & Preschool for Parents & Teachers ~ Kitchen Counter Chronicles ~ Laughing Kids Learn ~ Learn with Play at home ~ Lessons Learnt Journal ~ Life At The Zoo ~ Little Artists ~ Living Life Intentionally ~ Living Montessori Now ~ Love, Play, Learn ~ Loving My Nest ~ Mama Pea Pod ~ mama miss ~ Mamas Like Me ~ Mess For Less ~ Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas ~ Momma's Fun World ~ Montessori Tidbits ~ My Buddies and I ~ My Little Bookcase ~ My Nearest and Dearest ~ No Twiddle Twaddle ~ Nurturestore ~ Octavia and Vicky ~ One Perfect Day ~ ourfeminist{play}school ~ Picklebums ~ Play Activities ~ Playdough to Plato ~ PlayDrMom ~ playful learners ~ playing with words 365 ~ PragmaticMom ~ Putti'sWorld ~ RainbowsWithinReach ~ Rainy Day Mum ~ Raising Playful Tots ~ Reading Confetti ~ Red Ted Art ~ Royal Baloo ~ Science Sparks ~ Scribble Doodle and Draw ~ Small Potatoes ~ Smiling like Sunshine ~ Sun Hats & Wellie Boots ~ Sun Scholars ~ Teach Preschool ~ The Educators' Spin On It ~ The Fairy and The Frog ~ The Freckled Homeschooler ~ The Golden Gleam ~ The Imagination Tree ~ The Iowa Farmer's Wife ~ The Outlaw Mom Blog ~ The Pleasantest Thing ~ This Reading Mama ~ Toddler Approved ~ Train Up a Child ~ True Aim ~ Two Big Two Little ~ What Do We Do All Day? ~ Connecting Family and Seoul

Peppermint Playdough

2012-12-20T11:05:00.001+11:00

I wanted to give something to the kids from our mothers group. I am so grateful to still be meeting up with this wonderful group of mums and kids after 4 and a half years. As I enjoy making playdough and the kids love playing with playdough I decided to make some Christmas peppermint playdough. (I am also grateful to all you readers out there – I wish I could give you all some peppermint playdough)

I make a no-cook playdough based from a recipe by The Imagination Tree. Here is my version:

Playdough Recipe

2 cups of plain flour
1/2 cup of salt
2 tablespoons of cream of tartar
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
1 and a quarter cups of boiling water mixed with your food colouring of choice
6 drops of peppermint oil

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the vegetable oil and peppermint oil. Add the food colouring to the boiling water and then add it to the flour mixture, stir with a spoon. Once the mixture has cooled enough to touch, knead the dough on a floured surface. If the mixture is too soft add more flour, if it is too firm add more water.

I made three batches of playdough (red, light green and white) to make six gift packs. For the white I replaced the plain flour with corn flour. This makes a really white white. When I use corn flour I reduce the amount of water to one cup.

I divided each batch of playdough into six portions and individually wrapped them in cling wrap. Each gift pack contained a portion of red, green and white playdough with a few accessories – red and white patty pans, pom poms and two candy canes. The whole lot was wrapped in clear cellophane and tied up with a pipecleaner.

Playdough makes such a nice gift. If you want more playdough ideas have a look at my Playdough Magic Pinterest board. And you can find all of our Christmas craft right here.

A few more playdough ideas:
Minty Candy Cane Scented playdough Christmas ornaments from Learning 4 kids
A gift of homemade lemon sparkle playdough from An Everyday Story
Woody playscene with pine scented playdough from Small Potatoes
Gingerbread playdough by The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle

If this is your first visit to At home with Ali – welcome. If you like it, you can follow along via email, RSS or facebook. You can also find me on Pinterest and Instagram. Cheers Ali

Linked to It's Playtime and Link and Learn

Beads and Buttons – Christmas ornaments

2012-12-15T23:00:00.003+11:00

After the success of combining beads and glue last year I thought we might do it again.... but this time on a smaller scale. We turned our bottle top collection into Christmas ornaments. I poured pva glue into each bottle top... some overflowed causing a gluey mess which irritated me and delighted them. The kids decorated them with beads, buttons and glitter. The heavier beads sunk to the bottom of their white pva ponds.

The kids filled many, many bottle tops. Boo overfilled hers with the larger buttons and beads and Cakey went glitter mad.

Now the bad news, I did have to do a little pre-prep. I wanted to be able to hang these decorated bottle tops on the Christmas tree. I could have just taped a string to the back of them but I wanted something more secure.

I poked a hole in each bottle top (milk lids are fairly soft so this was easy, juice bottle lids are rigid so they went back into the bowl) with my pointy cake tester. I thread some thin beading wire through the hole and twisted it so it would hold. Once the glue was poured the twisted wire knot was hidden from view. And now, our decorated bottle top ornaments are looking lovely on our Christmas tree. You can find all our Christmas craft ideas here.

For more bottle top crafts have a look at:

Love and Lollipops – Bottle Top Animals
Learning 4 kids – A huge list of Fun Activities with Bottle Tops

Paper Plate Christmas Wreaths

2012-12-10T23:40:00.000+11:00

Our paper plate Christmas wreaths were so much fun to make. Both kids loved them and made them their own..... and they spent ages at the craft table, which always makes me happy. The girls were so excited about this wreath craft that they insisted their Dad join them and make one too – he normally stays well away from the glue and sparkles.

There is nothing terribly complicated about this craft. I did do some preparation when the kids were asleep but it didn't take long. I cut the middle out of a stack of paper plates to use as the base of our wreaths. I also cut up Christmas scrapbooking paper into strips... and that was it for the pre-prep.

When the kids were ready to craft I handed over my stack of pre-cut bits, added some tubs of pva glue and paintbrushes and found some Christmassy sparkles. Then I let the kids go for it while I sat down and made my own wreath.... I wasn't going to miss out on all the fun!!

This craft suited both girls, they made their wreaths to suit their age and level. Boo (2.5) glued a little bit of decoration onto a lot of paper plate wreaths. Cakey (4.5) spent more time gluing a lot of decoration onto a few wreaths.

Clockwise: Cakey's wreath, Chris' wreath, my wreath and Boo's wreath

While we waited for the glue to dry, Cakey and I threaded bells onto gold cord. We wanted the bell to dangle in the middle so we punched a hole at the top and taped the cord in place on the back of each wreath. I have displayed them on our mantle piece so Santa can get a good look at them on his way down the chimney.

For more wreath ideas have a look at Easy Toddlers Christmas Wreaths by Mummy Musings and Mayhem.

If this is your first visit to At home with Ali – welcome. If you like it, you can follow along via email, RSS or facebook. You can also find me on Pinterest and Instagram. Cheers Ali

Linked to Kids Get Crafty and Tuesday Tots

Big and Little – Santa's Village

2012-12-05T22:23:00.000+11:00

Well all good things must come to an end... this is the last post in our Big and Little Pretend Play series. But not to worry, Jill and I have some exciting, new ideas we are working on – stay tuned in 2013.

NOW get your toothbrush ready and have a look at our edible little Santa's village. Pop over to A Mom with a Lesson Plan to see her Big Pretend Play Santa's village... it is so gorgeous.

I have seen lots of beautiful gingerbread houses on Pinterest but making my own gingerbread is way beyond my kitchen skills. I also have no idea where you can buy gingerbread house kits in Australia, in fact maybe you can't. So we did the next best thing, we decorated cardboard! I saw this idea in Jane Bull's book The Christmas Book. The kids and I went shopping to buy all the ingredients.

For the cottages:

2 small cardboard milk containers (which I emptied and cleaned)
1 packet of chocolate finger biscuits (cookies), I used Cadbury
Chocolate freckles
Jelly beans
Plain Sao crackers

For Santa's sleigh:

1 packet of plain sweet biscuits (cookies), I used Arnotts milk coffee
1 packet of chocolate finger biscuits (cookies), I used Cadbury
1 packet of round chocolate wheaten biscuits (cookies), these are similar to chocolate covered digestive biscuits
Chocolate marshmallow logs
Candy canes
Foil covered chocolates to fill the sleigh

I made a big batch of icing to act as the glue. I mixed icing sugar (powdered sugar) and water to a nice thick consistency (for a strong gingerbread glue have a look at this recipe). Each kid had their own Santa's cottage decorating station on a large baking tray.

Getting started on their cottages

Trying to get those chocolate biscuits to stick

Cakey was determined to cover her cottage with chocolate biscuits, the biscuits worked much better placed horizontally. Boo was not interested in the milk container but she enjoyed decorating the Sao crackers with icing and lollies. Cakey and I happily decorated Boo's cottage for her. Once the cottages were finished we rushed them to the fridge so that the icing would set.

I made Santa's sleigh. It was easier than the cottages because we didn't have to deal with gravity. Starting with a piece of cardboard, I glued down four biscuits (cookies) with icing. I then layered chocolate finger biscuits on top to make the floor of the sleigh. I placed two marshmallow logs at one end to make a comfy seat for Santa. A round chocolate wheaten biscuit was stuck on either side of the marshmallow logs to complete the seat. Two candy cane runners were glued (with icing) directly onto the cardboard along the side of the biscuit layers. And finally, another marshmallow log was stuck to the front of the sleigh to hold all the goodies in. The sleigh followed the cottages into the fridge.

Sleigh base

The next day, shortly before friends were due to arrive, we set up our little Santa's village as a table display. The kids sprinkled icing sugar over it to make it white and snowy. We included some little Santa sacks that we had filled with sweets for the visiting kids. The girls loved showing their friends Santa's village and their friends loved taste-testing the village.

Red Santa sacks

Christmas salt dough ornaments

2012-11-27T21:47:00.001+11:00

We have been making a lot of our own Christmas decorations lately... mainly because it is something fun to do. I actually went out to the Christmas shops to buy some new decorations but they were all a bit cheap and nasty. In the end I didn't bother, I think we will just stick to making them.

Speaking of making Christmas decorations we have made some fabulous salt dough ornaments. I have found a new recipe for salt dough and I like it. It is based on a recipe I found at Mum in the Madhouse, but I have adapted it a little.

Salt Dough Recipe
2 cups of table salt (I find cooking salt too coarse)
1 cup of water
1 teaspoon of oil
1 cup of plain flour
1 cup of corn flour
Approximately half to one cup of cold water (during the kneading process)

Instructions: Combine the salt and one cup of water in a saucepan. Bring to the boil, let the salty mixture bubble for a few minutes while stirring. I thought this process might dissolve the salt completely but it didn't. After a few minutes take the saucepan off heat and add flours and oil. Stir vigorously. This is when I looked at my mixture dubiously – it was not a dough. I poured the whole lot on to the kitchen bench. When it had cooled the kids helped me with the kneading. I slowly added cold water to the mix until we had a good dough consistency. Once you have turned your dough into shapes or sculptures bake in the oven at low heat (150ºC or 300ºF) for 3 to 4 hours. Keep an eye on it so the dough does not burn.

The mixture after cooking the salt and adding in the flour

Let's knead

Once the dough looked like a dough I divided it in half. I rolled out a portion for each kid and they cut out their Christmas shapes. Cakey poked a hole in each shape with a straw so we can string them up on the Christmas tree. I carefully laid each shape on a lined baking tray and we baked the dough in the oven for 4 hours at a low temperature. If your kids won't wait for hours to get their hands on their salt dough try Rainy Day Mum's quick microwave salt dough.

Making the shapes, I dusted some flour on the bench to stop the dough sticking

Our salt dough shapes after baking in the oven for 4 hours

We didn't get to paint our salt dough until the next day. Every single piece was painted and glitter was added too. I have stored the ornaments away in an air tight container ready for the Christmas tree. These salt dough ornaments are going to look fantastic! (Note: if you have issues with humidity you might want to seal with with a varnish as recommended by Learning 4 kids).

You can find all our Christmas craft ideas here.

If this is your first visit to At home with Ali – welcome. If you like it, you can follow along via email, RSS or facebook. You can also find me on Pinterest and Instagram. Cheers Ali

Linked to The Kids Co-op, Kids Get Crafty, It's Playtime and Tuesday Tots

Christmas cards with paper snowflakes

2012-11-20T09:48:00.000+11:00

I was born and raised in Australia – where it is regularly over 35˚C (95˚F) on Christmas day. Hot Christmases are completely normal for me... and yet, I love the winter wonderland theme at Christmas time. I guess I am not the only one – our shopping centres display fake snow at Christmas even though all the shoppers are wearing thongs and shorts!

With Christmas approaching I was inspired to make paper snowflakes with the kids. I followed the instructions from Bon Temps Beignet. She does a brilliant job of explaining how to get the folds right so I am not going to do that here. My advice is to spend 5-10 minutes of non-kid time to get the first snowflake right. Once you have mastered one, it is easy and you will blow your kids' minds with your snowflake prowess!

This is how our paper snowflake craft session unfolded:

I fold the paper, I cut the paper, I hand the paper over to the first child to unfold, child unfolds the paper to reveal a stunning paper snowflake, mouths drop open, eyes go wide, second child yells "I want one, I want one".... repeat.

I did have a roll of sticky tape nearby to fix any tears that were inflicted on the paper snowflakes during the 'unfolding'.

Eventually Cakey wanted to make them herself. I had a stack of very thin, green paper which I folded for her. She was able to cut out the patterns herself which meant Boo could monopolise my snowflake output. (Last year we made a simpler and technically inaccurate version of a snowflake).

Cakey's snowflakes

After the snowflake craft was abandoned I was left with a bowl full of paper snowflakes. They were so pretty I tucked away my favourites and waited for inspiration. A few days later, a large roll of thick watercolour paper conked me on the head as it fell from a high shelf... it really did, honest. It gave me an idea – combine the snowflakes with the watercolour paper to make Christmas cards.

Adding layers – snowflakes glued on and then stencilled with stamp pads

That evening I glued the snowflakes onto the watercolour paper and left it to dry. I had watched a video clip of Julie Balzer make a lovely layered stencilled design so I thought we could attempt something similar. Cakey and I sat side by side and we stencilled patterns onto the paper with stamp pads and coloured ink. Cakey also added a few stamps of her own. They were blotchy and imperfect which suited us just fine.

Watercolour wash over the top

I was pretty darn excited with how this was turning out. Once the kids were in bed I borrowed their watercolour paints and added some colour washes over the top.

I spent an afternoon cutting up the large decorative piece of watercolour paper. I turned it into Christmas cards and lots of different sized present tags. Cakey sat beside me and rounded the corners with our new corner cutter. Unfortunately we lost a few good ones... Boo is currently going through a "let's cut up everything with my new scissor skills" phase so a few of the tags were chopped up into tiny pieces before I noticed.

Painting with shapes

2012-11-14T21:19:00.000+11:00

My sister and I have always loved Sonia Delaunay. Her abstract and colourful compositions are gorgeous. We have a book full of Sonia Delaunay's abstract lithographs – the kids have looked at it many times, picking out the colours and different shapes.

A little bit about Sonia Delaunay: She was born in the Ukraine in 1885, grew up in St Petersburg, Russia, moved to Paris as an adult and stayed there until she died in 1979. Delaunay co-founded the French avant-garde movement Orphism. She was also the first living female artist to have a retrospective art exhibition at the Lourvre. Quite an achievement! She was an artist and designer ahead of her time, she started mixing art with fashion and designed the most wonderful geometric patterned fabrics. I often see contemporary fabric designs that are strikingingly reminscent of her work created back in the 1920s.

Delaunay's work l-r: Petit rythme couleur 1972, Swimsuit design 1929, Affreux jojo 1969

The latest Kids Get Arty presented the perfect opportunity to have a Sonia Delaunay inspired painting session.... and it was all about shapes. I pulled out as many foam shapes as I could find, we already had circles, rectangles, stars, flowers and some foam rollers. For a few extra shapes I cut up cheap sponges to make arches and semi-circles. Generous dollops of bright paint were applied to plastic takeaway lids which made great surfaces for the foam sponges to soak up the paint.

I did not supply any paint brushes and the kids didn't miss them. They really enjoyed painting with the sponges and I was impressed with the choice of colour and shapes.... but most importantly it was a fun afternoon creating for the sake of creating.

Sonia Delaunay inspired foam shape painting

Cakey, Boo and I love participating in Kids Get Arty, we have also been inspired by Kandinsky, Magritte and Australian artist Margaret Preston. For tonnes of arty ideas you might be interested in my Arty Kids Pinterest board.

If this is your first visit to At home with Ali – welcome. If you like it, you can follow along via email, RSS or facebook. You can also find me on Pinterest and Instagram. Cheers Ali

Linked to Mom's Library and Kids Get Arty

Homemade Toffee Apples

2012-11-12T19:35:00.000+11:00

Today I am guest posting about our homemade toffee apples over at Picklebums. I would love you to take a look and while you are there you might want to check out Kate's fab blog – it is packed full of fun!

If this is your first visit to At home with Ali – welcome. If you like it, you can follow along via email, RSS or facebook. You can also find me on Pinterest and Instagram. Cheers Ali

Playing with salt

2012-11-08T20:33:00.001+11:00

Each year Cakey's preschool puts on a wonderful art show. One of the many creative, kid-made, exhibits on show this year were tall plastic glasses filled with layers of coloured salt. They looked very pretty – Cakey wanted to make more and I wanted to try it too.

A few days after the art show I collected together all the supplies. I had no idea what the preschoolers had used for the colouring agent and Cakey couldn't remember. I resorted to liquid food colouring. We took our bowls, spoons, table salt and food colouring outside.

We poured salt into two bowls and used a tray for the third colour. I added the tiniest amount of liquid food colouring to the salt. The kids and I thoroughly mixed in the colour with a spoon and our fingers. It was a lovely sensory experience and so much fun.

When the colour was evenly dispersed through the salt we spooned it into clean, dry jars. We layered each colour to create pretty patterns in the jars. Just as we were sealing the jars tight Cakey said "actually mummy we used chalk to colour the salt". Ahhhh grated chalk would be awesome, way better than food colouring. You learn something new everyday.

And talking of salt... I wrote a guest post over at the amazing Learning 4 kids all about our salt dough boats.

Christmas Advent Calendar mini envelopes

2012-11-06T19:15:00.000+11:00

My kids are super excited about Christmas, I am rarely excited by Christmas. I let to-do lists get in the way of enjoying the Christmas lead up. Last year on the 14th of December I bought a cheap chocolate filled advent calendar. Cakey loved it, probably because she got to eat 14 days worth of chocolate in one go. This year I thought I would make more of an effort!

I love paper craft so I decided to make my own Christmas advent calendar consisting of 24 mini envelopes (x 2) filled with chocolate coins, stickers and special notes from Santa's elves. I devised a design that is hugely labour intensive... meaning that I am likely to do this only once. Having said that, it is very cute and I am happy with the way it has turned out.

The supplies (you can download the envelope template below)

I designed a printable template for mini envelopes (which you are free to download) that I printed on Christmas scrapbooking paper. Here are the steps to make them:

Cut scrapbook paper to fit printer.
Print mini envelope template on the white side of the scrapbook paper (2 envelopes to a page).
(optional) Score the folds with a bone folder, this makes it easier to fold the flaps later.
Cut around the envelope template using a scalpel or stanley knife and ruler.
Fold all the flaps and glue together with a gluestick.
Wipe up any excess glue and place the envelopes between the pages of a thick book so that they dry flat.
Apply the date to the front of the envelopes – I used number stamps that I found in the scrapbooking section of Kmart but you could simply write the number on in gold ink.
(optional) Cut rounded corners on the envelope flap using a corner cutter (I dropped my 10 year old corner cutter during this project, it smashed and I wimpered, goodbye corner cutter I will miss you).
Fill your mini envelopes with skinny things – I chose coins, chocolate money, stickers and little notes from Santa's elves (you can download the notes too).
On November 30th arrange your little envelopes for your kids to find in the morning. I am going to peg them to a little fake Chirstmas tree.

Want the template for the mini envelopes – click here
Want the little notes from Santa's elves – click here
Like the idea but think I am mad to spend my evenings cutting out mini envelopes.... yes well, my smart mother in law suggested buying those lovely bright red envelopes from Chinatown – same concept but a lot less work!

If you are in the mood to get a bit Christmassy have a look at my Christmas Pinterest Board. Stay tuned for more Christmas ideas in December – I have a few things planned. For more Christmas Advent Calendar ideas check out this post from Rainy Day Mum.

If this is your first visit to At home with Ali – welcome. If you like it, you can follow along via email, RSS or facebook. You can also find me on Pinterest and Instagram. Cheers Ali

Linked to Holiday Fun, festive friday, tip-toe tuesday and Countdown to Christmas