Smartie Maths

Ive been trying to find some more cool things for Jared to do.. something that is fun but also stretches that awesome brain of his. He tends to wander, the girls are totally content with a set of blocks or mobilo, Jared seems to need a bit more direction.

So I created this cool early maths page for him to do and he loved it. Of course Little Miss wanted one too but hers was more about just eating the Smarties rather than the maths behind it.

Basically, he had to start with counting how many he had, then sorting them into colours and working out how many was in each colour, then showing what colours he had by colouring a small section.

He actually got really into it, asking me to stop helping him so he could work it out.

Once he was done, he also thoroughly enjoyed eating them.

And again, asking me not to help him ;)

No blog tomorrow as I racing to sydney and back. Back on wednesday to show you what happened with Amahlis invites....

Marshmallow sculptures

Today was the first day of school holidays :) Something feels so very right about having all three of my kids here with me.

I started the day with a very cool surprise, a trip to the movies to see The Smurfs. It was a fun morning and all three f them gushed over how fantastically "smurfy" I am. ( think that expression is going to last a few more days but for now it's worth it )
This afternoon, I set up a really fun activity that would not only continue my awesome mum status but is also secret learny stuff too!!

I had all three sitting up watching as soon as I pulled out the huge packet of mashmellows. We talked about how we were cutting the marshmellows into halves and then quarters. We then split it into three portions and added long skewers and short toothpicks to it and we began to create our sculptures.

I was totally surprised that no one wanted to eat them straight away, but they all began to thread to marshmallow pieces onto sticks. Admittedly, Amahli was working pretty quickly to get them onto the sticks.

Jared wasn't overly keen on touching them too much as they were quite sticky but he still used them to create "Daddy".

Jumeirah happily created a Teddy bear and then just as happily ate him :)

But nothing was more funny than watching the shock on their faces when I lit a candle and proceeded to melt my own marshmellow pieces into delicious gooey goodness. No one wanted to try it, which suited me just fine :)

Yum :) All in the name of learning :)

Taking Time

"In a minute!" "Hang on a sec!" "Just a moment more..... "

How many times do your kids hear these words?? Mine?? All the time :) Mostly, they have no concept of time, they know that if I say "in a minute", its usually longer than " just a sec". And thats about as far as it goes.

Today, I wanted them to see time "move" so to speak. And so I gathered the things I would need to make a sand timer.

To begin with, Amahli and I had to sift the sand to rid it of the big lumps.

Jared then helped the thump holes in two lids, making them match over each other.

We filled one jar with sand and sealed the lids to the jars. We added glue gun to seal. (NOTE: THIS IS NOT A PERMANENT SOLUTION. Dont ask me how I know. Just trust me. You need a really stong gorilla grip glue to hold these jars together)



We then wrapped them in ribbon (Also should have been a more secure twine maybe)
I then let him turn it over... and we watched the sand trickle through the glass.

They thought this was so cool! We talked about how long it took to all pass through the holes, the patterns the sand made, that we couldnt really speed it up, that it flowed at the same pace every time.

I then used it to time things around the house... it takes Jared 6 laps of the backyard for one sand cycle. It takes Amahli two sand cycles to go to the toilet and get dressed ( it would have taken one cycle but she panicked at being timed and thus chucked a wobbly mid cycle which lasted half a sand cycle).

But mostly, they just enjoyed watching time pass :)

sorting money

Money seems to be a big thing in our house at the moment... at any one time the sound of clinking coins can be heard from any number of pockets or falling through the holes in the car seats. And Im always having my wallet raided for coins, it seems that 5c pieces wont do either. It has to be " a big one Mum!" or " A gold one for pirates!" which I would love to oblige but I barely ever have two to clink together myself!!

So, to encourage this love of coins, I created Jared in particular (but all can use it) a page of coin matching.

It was pretty easy, find the coin pictures on the computer, print them off.


The hard part was finding enough coins :)

I did it so it became a counting game too, not all coins had the same amount.

He spent quite a lot of time on this, first getting it wrong as he was rushing but once he took the time to look at the coins and discover the symbols and numbers on them he was able to match it easy.

He did it again this afternoon and did it first go :)

These type of activities can be adjusted for so many ages. Younger kids can just match one coin of varying amounts, older children ( 5-10) can begin to add the lines of coins together to work out how much it adds up to.Its got so many ways to be extended.

Going to set Amahli up with it tomorrow and see how she goes :)

pattern following

Yet another resolution to do more things with Jazzy whilst Amahli is asleep.. its such a tricky time of day for both of us... he likes to chill and so do I but I feel time is slipping away from me. Being the middle kid, he wont get time on his own with me whilst the others are at school ( Jumeirah got 2 years before the others came and Amahli will get a year to herself when he goes to preschool and then school..) and I really want to spend more time with him helping him develop those skills he needs without him really knowing hes learning ;) He really is such a cruisy kid though and really he'd reather be snuggled up but I compromised with him today to do a little bit of fun stuff before we flaked out on the lounge.

I set up a simple pattern copying activity. ( Yes the skewers are stuck in a toilet roll. It proved to be the perfect way to keep them still!) ( Im very creative that way ;) )

I made a pattern and asked if he could copy it. With only a little bit of encouragement, he was quite able to do this. Its tricky to do, work out the pattern from the bottom up, then use really little fingers to carefully thread the bead on. I made one a bit harder which is started but didnt want to finish. I was impressed I had him for that long :)

Its something thats easy to pull out and set up and can be used for not only threading and patterns but counting and sorting as well!

Im going to set it up for Amahli tomorrow for some threading fun :)

simple uses for bottle tops

Have you got a friend you've never actually met? Someone you've met maybe online? Through a blog? Someone who lives a million miles away, and quite possibly the stars wont ever align for you to ever met them, And yet you cant imagine it never happening???
I have :) Kim is amazing. I started reading her blog and she started reading mine. I feel like I know her and her family. I read whats happening in her life through her blog ( and now facebook) and I am thankful for her never ending encouragement and comments ( they mean the world to me... hint hint)on this little blog.
I have known for a little while that she was collecting some bits and pieces to send here ( I love cool things from America!! especially Kool Aid)

( We are secretly squirreling away Australian treasures to send back once I get my butt into gear)

Exciting day for us yesterday... I recieved a huge box FULL of goodies for my little cherubs from my gorgeous friend.
I waited until Jumeirah got home from school to open it and seriously, my kids thought it was Christmas :)

My favourite was these cool foam in a can stuff ( yet to be opened, I am rationing out the awesomeness), but their favourite was these punch ball balloons. Now, I have seen them in Australia somewhere but we've never had them and my kids thought they were the best things EVER. Very hard to get photos of :)


It got me thinking.... maybe its time for another card swap?? I know we did a postcard one which was heaps of fun, is anyone keen to do another one? Or something different?? Maybe a sew along to make and then send on? Hmmm.. Im kinda keen really :) Let me know in the comments if you'd be interested and I will see what I can come up with... ( Im thinking sew along with something simple.... but am happy with card swap if no one else is THAT keen)

For the last few weeks I have been collecting plastic bottle tops. I have a whole heap of ideas on how to use them for different activities, but today we used them for a counting game. I set out the cool numbers I have ( they are filled with liquid and glitter... I LOVE them) and gave Jared and Amahli the bottle tops. I asked them to pick a number and then count out the bottle tops to match it. Really simple, but its really fun!!

Jared did a whole heap of them, he counted out each lot of numbers and lined them up with the right number.

Amahli is slowly getting to learn each number but had a great time sorting out the colours of the tops. ( another activity for another day, shes ahead of me again)

Easy simple learning made fun :)