Friday Fun Facts - Art

We have just returned from our art class which we now go to on a Friday and while the girls are soundly napping I will take the opportunity to put together this week's Friday Fun Facts on Art.

How creative of me especially since just returning from an art class :-) but in fairness I have been getting ready to participate in a group garage sale this weekend and after finishing at midnight last night putting everything together the girls decided to do something very unusual and wake up every 30 minutes until 6am just as my head touched the pillow. So my mind is not quite creative today lol

Without further ado... here are our fun facts!

• There is an actual brainwave pattern that has been seen with people that are creative.
• Do you think your a perfectionist? How about Leonardo Da Vinci who took 12 years to paint the lips of Mona Lisa - I have simply no words...
• When was the first illustrated children's book published? In 1658 and where was it published? Germany
• Michelangelo was left handed.
• Those ready made mixed paints we all know and love today were not created until 1880. 

We hope you enjoyed these facts and wish you and your families a lovely weekend.

Happy Play Times :-)

Green Light Red Light Playtime Fun

A fun game to play with your older toddler or pre schooler is the traffic light game.

My girls are a little young to understand the concept fully but we did this the other week at one of our playgroups and they understood the older children moved and stopped so if you have younger ones it can still work if they have an example to follow.

Essentially the concept is you stand at a point in a room where your children have space to move so a lounge room, hallway or entrance is probably good - or better yet get them outside to play it!

You call green light they move forward, when you say red light they must freeze in the spot, then again call green light etc... until they reach you and then you chase them back to the beginning and start all over again.

It is a great energy burner and a fun way to help listening skills and learn instructions.

We hope you have fun with this one.

Happy Play Times :-)

Weekend Watching - Water Safety

With summer time and water fun upon the northern hemisphere we thought we should share this video on water safety featuring the 'Despicable Me' characters to help get some tips on keeping your little ones safe this summer.

Happy Play Times :-)

Friday Fun Facts - Water

Annabelle & Scarlett LOVE the water!! I have in fact just put two very tired girls down to bed after taking them to a water spray park at a local mall.

So it made me think about what to write for this week's fun facts and what came to mind? Water especially with summer just around the corner in the northern hemisphere! And our fun filled water day.

So here are some fun, random facts about water for you to share and enjoy with your family!

• Want to know where you use the most water in the home? 63% of it is from the kitchen and toilet.
• Is it hot? or cold? where you are right now? Did you know either way it is water that regulates the Earth's temperature!
• 90% of the worlds fresh water supply is located in Antarctica.
• Pure water has no smell or taste.
• Liquid, solid and gas are the three types of water states. 
• That cotton short your little one wears - has 25 liters of water embedded into it.

Well there you have it hope you found something of use or fun in amongst those facts.

Wishing you all a happy Friday and wonderful weekend.

Happy Play Times :-)

Playing "ROCKS"

We play outside a lot in our household!! I believe outdoor play is essential in a healthy active lifestyle that I want the girls to have.

I will be posting a lot about the types of activities we are participating in at the moment outside which will be great in time for Summer in the northern hemisphere.

But today I just wanted to post this picture of my daughter Scarlett enjoying her rock garden - like mother like daughter apparently I was obsessed with a rock garden I had as a child, that my parents even got me a garden gnome so I had company :-)

(Scarlett Loves to Play & Explore with Rocks)

Playing with rocks is great for exploring different sizes and textures and it is a fun way to develop fine motor skills as the children tend to pick up and move the rocks around into an intricate toddler pattern. I also teach them cleaning up skills as we use the broom to sweep the rocks back into the garden.

Happy Play Times :-)

Our Favorite Old MacDonald Clip

So we are currently in the throws of loving animals, learning their sounds and imitating them.

I searched through You Tube trying to find an appropriate Old MacDonald clip but they were either to cartoony, to boring and the kids wouldn't be interested.

Then I cam across the Fox Pail version and it has everything you could want, cartoons, but real life animals on the farm and realistic sounds they also love Jack the dog who makes an appearance.

They are giggling, clapping and mimicking along with it and I feel it has helped their understanding and development in addition to the other animal activities we do.

We have embedded it here if you want to check it out and show your little ones.

Happy Play Times :-)

Friday Fun Facts - Weekend Edition

Our fun facts were delayed this week due to my little bunny Scarlett having her first ever knock her down illness (which we are very lucky has taken 18 months) in the form of tonsillitis and an ear infection. Here the poor poppet is below :-(

She is thankfully on the mend now though and both the girls have gone to the store with Daddy so I can get caught up on things.

So I thought we would do our Fun Facts on those little critters called tonsils!

• For 30 minutes after tonsils are removed they actually can bounce high like a little rubber ball - now how cool is that I wonder of doctors do that :-)
• Tonsils are shaped like half moons.
• Infected tonsils make you snore (yes this was true for Scarlett we could actually here her!)
• A baby has small tonsils that grow then between ages 3-7 they are large and from 7 onwards shrink.
• 1 in every 10,000 children have their tonsils removed.

I hope you learnt something new in amongst those facts. I did and I bet your children will think the bouncing tonsil ball fact to be pretty cool.

Happy Play Times :-)