Sensory Play - Rainbow Pasta

For today's activity the ButterBalls got to play with spaghetti...rainbow colored spaghetti!!!

'We get to play with our food???  Yeeeeaahh!!!'

Coloured spaghetti is pretty simple to make:

Boil pasta as normal and when cooked, divide the pasta equally into 4 (or 100) ziploc bags - depends on how many different colors of pasta you want.

Add a few drops of food colouring to each bag and mix well by shaking the bag

(perfect, no stained fingertips!!) Adding a few drops of oil prevents the pasta from sticking together.

Serve rainbow pasta in a deep bowl/bin/container (its bound to get messy!!).

Also try to do this activity outside (easier to clean up)

I gave the ButterBalls a few kitchen utensils...tongs, spoons etc ... then stood back and watched the pasta fly!!!

At first the ButterBalls refused to use their hands, they preferred to work with their 'tools'.

Ethan trying to figure out how to use the tongs!

Lots of fine Motor Skill practice going on here.

The ButterBalls eventually succumbed to the temptation of slimy pasta squishing!

Their descriptions were priceless, ranging from : sticky, yucky, cold and floppy to... 'Ewwww! it feels like slugs!!' (this from Tamlyn of course!)

Lots of messy fun...

Now, what do you do with smooshed left-over rainbow pasta?

Ice Monster - Sensory Play

I saw this amazing activity on howtogrowajeweledrose and simply had to try it.

Its the perfect opportunity to :

•  use up the leftover rainbow spaghetti.
• engage in more sensory play.
• cool off!!! It's midsummer in Durban.

All you do is fill an assortment of containers with water. Toss in the rainbow pasta and float a few googly eyes on the surface of the water. Pop the containers into the freezer and in a few hours you will have icy, scary, MONSTERS!!!!

The colouring from the rainbow pasta coloured the water creating realistic Ice Monsters - the ButterBalls loved it!!!

Frozen past feels totally different and undergoes various texture changes as it thaws out.

The ButterBalls had fun cracking the ice to 'rescue' the pasta.

Creating their own Mega-Monster!!!

The ButterBalls messed around for a while, returning to play with the Ice Monsters every so often. Surprisingly, the Ice Monsters lasted about 2 hours despite the heat, leaving me with a large puddle, twenty cold fingers and two very broad grins!!!

Bath Play - Puffy Shaving Foam Bath Paint

The week-end is finally here!!! 
Time to relax and have some fun with my favorite ButterBalls!!

In our home, bath time=splash time!

The ButterBalls LOVE a good splash (with most of the water ending up around the tub instead of inside it!)

Today we decided to do a painting activity in the tub (less time spent on clean-up duty) so we needed a recipe for clean messy fun!

I scanned through my resource file (where I save any awesome ideas I stumble across on the Net) and I found just the thing!

A super-easy recipe for Puffy Shaving Foam Bath Paint! 

The only ingredients you require are: shaving foam and food colouring.

When it comes to sensory play, BIC shaving foam is the most cost efficient (Dads shaving gel is only used as a last resort ;)

I found that gel food colour works better than the liquid because :

• You use less food colouring.
• Adding extra liquid to the shaving foam makes it lose its puffiness.

It took about 5 minutes to mix 6 different colours. I spooned them into the ButterBalls paint palettes, filled up the tub and let them at it!

They wasted no time getting started.

My little perfectionist ditched the paintbrush cos it made her pictures 'ugly'.

Ethan on the other hand preferred the paintbrush and didn't use his hands at all. He stopped a while to enjoy the flowery scent of the shaving foam before deciding to chase a stray blob of paint using his paintbrush as a net.

Tamlyn's love of pink and purple was clearly evident!

Ethan just wanted to mess around.

Guess which palette is Ethan's!

Once all the paint had been used up, Ethan entertained himself by playing pouring and stacking games. 

Tamlyn just splashed in the 'pretty water'.

Even clean-up time was fun. 

Definitely doing this again ...maybe on the windows next time ;) 
Great start to the weekend!!

Back to school

What a crazy week!!

Started the week in bed....the kids and I were down with the gastric flu (yuck!!!)

Thank God, Calvin didn't succumb to the virus. 

He really is a Super Dad!!  I don't know how I would have coped without him. (Love You Babes!)

Monday was my first day back at work/school. The kids got to school on Wednesday.

So totally loving my class of Grade 4 darlings. They are  super sweet!! 

I do miss my 'old' Grade 4 class though. Can't believe how grown up they look after the holidays (and especially in comparison to my current class)

So with all the settling-in and goings on, the meetings and planning, I feel as though I haven't had time to breathe!

Roll on the week-end already!!

Thankfully, my Butterballs only start school on 1 February.

 It will be Ethan's first year at Chesham Pre-primary (can't believe it!!!).

 He will be in Grade 000 and Tamlyn will be in Grade 00.

The pile of Math Books on my table is not getting any smaller :(

So its off to mark I go...

Wish me luck!

To an awesome husband...

On this day 6 years ago, I married my best friend, my other half. 

I am so truly blessed to have you in my life!

We have lived, laughed, loved, cried and even fought TOGETHER 

and I know that no matter what the future may hold,

 TOGETHER we can conquer anything!!

Here's to many, many more days like this one!!!

LOVE YOU!!

Learning Play - colour sorting

Like most kids, the Butterballs like all things bright and colorful.

Tamlyn can identify colors.

Ethan... well, we are working on it.

Which brings me to today's activity:

Color sorting.

The Butterballs were given a bowl full of coloured deco-pebbles (beads, buttons, bottle-caps etc would work just fine!)

They had to sort them by color, placing them into the correct compartment of my lazy-susan.

They happily sorted the pebbles with Tamlyn shouting out the color and Ethan repeating her -an older sister is such a help...except when she's bossing you around ;)

This color sorting soon lead to a counting game. 

They enjoyed counting how many pebbles there were in each compartment,

giving me a good forty-five minutes of peace until...

Ethan decided to spin the lazy-susan,showering the floor with pebbles!

'Look Mama, a rainbow carpet'

He promptly dives down and begins rolling about, much to the delight of Tamlyn, who quickly joins in on the action.

So much for color sorting...

Pretend Play - Mommy me!

Besides being loads of fun, pretend play has many hidden benefits! 

• It encourages imagination and thinking skills- kids can be anyone and do anything in their make-believe world.
• When playing with other kids, they practise social skills like turn-taking, sharing and negotiating.
• Pretend play also encourages creative problem solving as there is always the matter of deciding what happens next. 
• Kids also develop language skills.

With a few fun, creative materials, the sky's the limit!!! So let the fort building, submarine-sinking, rocket-launching fun begin!!

Tamlyn LOVES playing mommy! She also manages to coerce Ethan into playing along.

This Christmas, Tamlyn received a baby doll play set (thanks Aunty Debs!)

From the moment she laid eyes on it, she stepped into mommy-mode over-drive!

After having to step over baby doll clothes and pick up doll-related toys for about a week - I finally had had enough!

I decided that the best solution to this baby invasion would be to set up a mommy corner in the playroom.

We placed Tamlyn's old bed next to the kitchen, set up her beloved toy feeding chair and parked the stroller alongside. We pulled up the play-table (which makes a perfect changing station) and laid out a few essentials.

An old facecloth proved to be just the right size for a changing mat.

I set out an empty powder bottle and lotion bottle. Ethan brought out a packet of wet-wipes and Tamlyn found some of her old baby socks and bibs which she added to her dolls dress-up box. 

After finding a bowl and spoon in the tea-set box and digging up a few baby blankets, our mommy corner was ready for some serious action.

Totally in character, Mommy Tamlyn changed baby Bella's diaper and

put on a fresh set of clothes.

She then took Bella for a walk to the 'shopping center' to buy baby food.

Once back home, Mommy Tamlyn  put on Bella's bib and fed her a delicious meal of butternut puree. 

After a bottle of milk and a quick burp, Mommy Tamlyn sang Bella to sleep.

Ethan also decided to join in with one of Tamlyn's other dolls!

Ahhh...sweet!