Golf Ball Printing

We have a new favourite activity! Yesterday at Landcare we found a golfball amongst the rubbish washed up by recent floods. That little ball will now be treasured as a valuable art tool in our house. Golf ball printing is a reasonably clean way to make some stunning artwork. You could try it with any kind of ball really but I love the bumpy effect we got today.

All we needed was a sheet of paper cut to fit a baking tray, a ball and some paint.

We coated the ball in paint and placed it on the sheet of paper. 

Priya was keen to lean how to tilt the tray herself and move the ball over the paper to create some lovely patterns.  

We added another colour and then did three more paintings. By the end Priya was failing the temptation to pick up the ball. It is very hard to convince a child not to touch a ball when it is covered in paint.

What a delightful outcome for an activity that took virtually no time to set up. Like I said, a new favourite for both of us.

Volunteering as a Family

Volunteer work is great for kids. It promotes a healthy lifestyle while helping others and is something which we hope will become a lifelong habit for our daughter. So, recently my husband and I put our gloves on and joined the local Landcare group.  

So far we have undertaken an awful lot of weeding, a big clean up after some flash flooding and this week we got to plant some ground coverings which was really exciting! It is lovely watching Priya enjoy and care for the local environment.

We have all thoroughly enjoyed gaining new skills and spending time together as a family in the process. 

Cooking Muesli Bars

Daddy's favourite snack has now become daughter's favourite snack.  This recipe is so easy that I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to do some mother-daughter cooking.

Shaving Foam Printing

We tried shaving foam printing this morning and had a lot of fun in the process. Priya enjoyed this tactile activity and has already indicated that she would like to do it again.

To prepare for printing, spray shaving foam over tray, mat or tabletop. Have a piece of paper close by.

Drop food colouring onto foam.

Encourage your child to draw with their fingers and manipulate the shaving cream to make pictures or patterns.

When they have finished gently place a sheet of paper over the top of your child's work and take a print.

Water and Plastic Bottle 'Hour Glasses'

We go through litres and litres of milk every week so it's really time we made better use of the empty bottles.  I saw similar hourglasses made out of soft dink bottles and sand at a play-group once. We will try the sand in the future but for now we are having fun discovering how water 'behaves'. Priya also loves playing with these because she enjoys manipulating an object that is fairly large and weighty in comparison to her little body. Other benefits of this activity are developing hand-eye coordination and gaining a better understanding of cause and effect.

To make these plastic bottle hourglasses I started by removing the milk bottle lids and washing them thoroughly. We peeled the labels off after soaking in hot soapy water. I filled one bottle just over halfway with water and a few drops of food colouring. Using super glue, I attached an empty bottle upside down to the rim of the liquid filled bottle. Once it dried I used electrical tape to reinforce the seal.

Priya helped me tie ribbons around the middle as decoration. You could even make themed bottles for holidays with glittery water, cellophane and other bits and pieces.

These do work better with soft drink bottles because milk bottles have quite a large rim so the liquid drains from one bottle to the other faster than it should. But we don't drink soft drink in this house and I'm not game to rummage through my neighbors recycling.

We had so much fun with this and will definitely be getting them out again tomorrow. 

Fun With Colours

We have been learning about colours lately so I thought sorting some of our craft bits and pieces by colour would kill two birds with one stone. Now we just have to think up a colourful art project to make use of all our hard work.

Lets Make Sight Word Flash Cards!

Last week we discovered that my 22 month-old can recognise her own name and the letter 'P' for 'Priya'. If she is picking these things up on her own I thought she might enjoy an extra challenge, and I was right.

She has been entertained by this game all afternoon and wants to play over and over again.

Motivate Me

In recent months I have found my illustration blog 'My Picture Garden' to be a wonderful way to keep myself motivated and busy, so I thought why not extend blogging to other areas of my life where I feel I need a little extra motivation. I'm committed to creating daily learning experiences for my daughter through art and play. Currently I plan to add a new activity to my repertoire and blog about it each week. Any tips or ideas you might share with me are entirely welcome.