letter matching/ small world play: lizards

I had a funny ( not funny haha, funny hmmm :( ... ) moment today.... I still feel strange and really its something I know I need to let go of but its kinda hard, ya know??

All weekend, Jumeirah hasn't been well.... moaning about, not eating, complaining that she had a sort throat, a heart ache, a headache... nothing really huge and major, just not well. I told her she didn't have to go to school this morning as she still hasn't eaten much. She was happy with this and went to play with the "lizard land" small world I had set up this morning, so I went on with my normal start to the day... cleaning the kitchen, dishwasher, load of washing, vacuum... and then at 10 am told them I was ready to do something crafty. She turned to me, jumped off the lounge and announced "I'm ready to go to school now." WHAT?! No, you're not. But she raced off to find her uniform and got upset with me when I told her I thought it would be better for to stay home.
But I took her to school. She has no temperature or anything, she looks well, and told me she was ok. But it feels really strange that she wanted to go so bad. I'm happy that we are in that place, of her actually enjoying school, but sad she didn't want to stay with me and my awesome craft stuff... oh well school holidays are coming up :)

Small world play: Lizard Play... I set this up in a small tub thinking it would be enough for one child...



But all three wanted to get in so I transferred it into a large one :)



This week I am really focusing on some learny learny stuff for Jared. I looked through some photos of Jumeirahs over the weekend and realised I did alot more number and letter things with her, rather than free play that I do with Jared. Thought for this week I would tip the balance and see how it goes :)
So last night I prepared all I need for a week of fun crafty learny things, along with writing up a weekly plan so I know what I am doing.
Today was matching the letters in his name to the balloon letters I had cut out.





He actually did really well at this, he doesn't know the letter names but he recognized them to match them from the name I had written. He wanted to add strings to his balloons so I cut some wool and he stuck them on.
Of course Little Miss wanted a go too and luckily everything I have cut out for him this week, I have also cut out for her :)
She had a great time and with encouragement she was able to complete her name too. Plus add the strings :)

craft for little people: noodle threading

Day two of this crappy fever rubbish.. she woke up a gazillion times, in a pool of sweat and today shes either in the middle of a dose of Nurofen and shes bouncing off the walls, or shes slumped in a pile somewhere... its really awful and hoping for a better day tomorrow!!

In the midst of a "good" moment with her, I gave her and Jared a new activity. ( oh its so time for some new stuff!! I have an order on hold but have to wait till I earn a million to buy it....

This activity was so cheap and easy to do but provided such a great time for both of them.


Its noodle threading.. cut up a pool noodle ( about $2.50 from Target) with a sharp knife into small rings. Attach a piece of wool or thick thread to one noodle to stop the rest from sliding right off and VOILA! you have beginners threading!!

Such a great fine motor activity, but also the beginning of creating patterns, counting, colour recognition, and really, just generally, FUN!

Both loved this and went on the play a stacking game with the rings too.

The other thing I quickly set up as a distraction from feeling so lousy was the space set I got in my lovely surprise package last week. Now these little set are hidden everywhere... I found an awesome dog set for $2 at Coles the other day, and a sea one in Woolworths. KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN! You'll spy an awesome bargain soon enough!

It isnt quite how I wanted it. I really wanted large flat sided marbles for this but they needed something and so it was the beloved stones that worked today. They both really enjoyed this new play scene, Jared with the rockets, Amahli with the space chimp :)
What bargain things have you found and been proud of lately??

Trains/ simple small world play

Whilst we still have Ma here, I made the most of having an extra pair of arms and decided to take a trip to see the steam trains. This doesnt happen often, but they were advertising steam train rides up the coast and having a son who is just obsessed with trains I couldnt really NOT go!

And so we took off, despite the bleak weather, to join the masses and have their first steam train ride.

Hot Fire! Was amazing to feel the amount of heat that comes out of this!

We watched it come into the station, it was very busy with lots of people and incredibly LOUD. Man do those things make the most incredible sound! Well, all three kids freaked out, but we pressed on and found seats and waited. We were right at the front of the train which I thought would be a good thing, but turned out the be the loudest point of the train. Oopps.

Jumeirah does a quick dash to see if its coming...

Amahli and Jumeirah settled pretty quick and started to enjoy the ride. Jared, on the other hand, was terrified and absolutely HATED it. ( sorry kiddo, I had to take this photo of you, you looks so very cute and worried).

On arriving in Telegraph Point, the train stopped. The engine had to detach and makes it way to the other end for the return trip. Once this noisy part made its way down the other end, Jared took his fingernails out of my skin and began to move around the cabin. Within minutes he was pointing things out to other passengers ( COWS! HORSES! and and other fun country stuff) and began to enjoy himself. He hung out the window for most of the trip back :)

I tried to take as many photos as I could, trouble is, that big black noisy engine spurts out a heck of a lot of grit and soot and I ended up with it up my nose, in my eyes and covered in it, so I took what I could but enjoyed watching without the use of a lens for most of the trip :)

"I cannot see, Mum!"

Happy at last :)

Well worth it really, it was such a different thing to do. And by the end, all three had really enjoyed it :)

We came home and read all the train books we own and talked about what we had seen.

In the afternoon, I got out a few new sea animals I found on special in Coles the other day. And, not wanting to make too much of a mess with sand and water inside, I set up three individual mini play worlds with my three.

Amahli ended up with all her animals in a huge pile, but she enjoyed counting them as they got piled up on each other.Jared, of course, didnt want the sand as it looked messy with Amahli in it, so he used his animals for sorting and then they had a play together.

Jumeirah set hers up to be a land vs sea play, all the jellyfish went into the water, starfish baked on land.

Then she took them all out to give the penguins some play time :)

I ended up giving Amahli a larger tub and she had a great time transfering them for one bowl to another.




Even though these worlds were so much smaller to play in, all three kids really enjoyed them. I thought it might restrict their play but it didnt much at all!

What do you use for small world play?