7/52

7/52 - Portrait Challenge - A photo of my children, once a week, ever week for a year

J  - So keen, you set up a game of Monopoly before school and made certain that we played together as soon as we got home (of course, you beat me...a strategist already) 

M - You found a rainbow in the bathroom and loved making it go all over your hands and face

Joining in with Jodi @ Che & Fidel 

xx

my creative space...{hop, skip, jump}

My son has a love affair with numbers.  It sometimes appears that he eats, breathes and sleeps numbers and has acquired a real passion for anything relating to numbers.   He knows our friends house numbers by rote, knows the ages of all the special people in his life, a trip to the shops are all about isle numbers, prices and how many of things.

He loves to count up by 2's, 5's, 10's and and 11's and knows any number up to a billion.  When it's time to draw or paint at Kinder, I'm collecting piles of paper with numbers diligently drawn all over...

He has a little collection of three calculators and his quiet time activity will be to "do numbers" on his calculator.  He gives me sums and then works them out on his calculator to see if I'm right or wrong (mostly I'm wrong!  - maths was never my strength!).  He loves working out what age he will be when I am older... (although thinks that he'll still be at Kinder when he's 47!)

So when I saw this cute hopscotch pattern in Cool Spaces for Kids Book (by Sam Scarborough) I knew he would love it.  I showed him the picture and he was very very excited.  He helped me make it by picking out the fabric for each number and then patiently watching me sew it together...

 He takes a little bean bag and throws it on a number and then hops, and jumps his way through the sequence....

It's not the best sewing job I've done (what with two big blue eyes watching over me "are you finished yet??), but he loves it....it's portable, so we can fold it up and put it in a bag and take it away with us.

Now - cast your virtual bean bag and hop and jump to all these lovely places!

my creative space...

I love making something simple for my wee little ones especially when hours of play come about because of it....

So with a bit of scrap fabric cut into rectangles and some more scraps of calico for more rectangles I made some happy sacks....  I filled the calico rectangles with rice (not too much) and put it inside a coloured fabric one sewing it shut.

Little bean bags for fun, throwing balancing, catching, sliding along the floorboards, knocking down skittles and general play!  And a bag with ribbon handles to carry and store them in.

I made my daughters first and when it came to making some for my son, I searched through a box in the shed and used some of his old clothes!   Although, his bag is not yet finished I have a great old checked shirt of his that will do the job fine!

For more creative types head over here....

Also I'm a guest blogger over at Buttons by Lou Lou so stop by if you get a chance!

at my house..... {cause and effect}

It's a daily challenge being a mumma to two kids (adorable as they are) when it comes to keeping them amused, stimulated, happy and matching games and toys to their developmental capabilities and also their interest.  The weekend was pretty gloomy and I thought of an idea that would interest my son, but wondered if he would like it, but I was wrapped when we was so taken by it, he played for hours, and has asked to play again when he comes home from kinder....


so what is it I hear you say??

Something so simple, most of you will have these items in your kitchen....


What you will need...

 - some clear drink bottles (remove the label by soaking in some hot water)
 - another clear container with a larger opening
 - food dye (yellow, blue and red) in primary colours.

Fill the three bottles with water and add 1-2 drops of food dye in each bottle so you have a red, yellow and blue water.

Then get your child to pour one colour in the larger container and mix with another colour and watch what happens.  My son was so enthralled by the changes of colour....

So I've promised him we can play this game some more this afternoon!

(if you have smaller children, they too are excited by the changes of colour and you can always punch a hole in the lid of the water bottles to reduce the flow of the water if you think pouring will be an issue! )

What are you up to today??  Join Lou to let us know...