Play and Learn Every Day

What the Ladybird Heard Story Sack

7:30 AM

We are loving that it is spring time and we can play outside as much as possible, but sometimes we do need to play inside so it's nice to bring a little of that spring fun into the house. Today we brought some lovely things together to create our Spring Discovery Basket! When Ethan was small we had our first Heuristic Play Treasure Basket and have been playing with it ever since, so many of the bits from there were our starting point today.

I added a few springtime bits such as the metal bucket, wooden worm toy, windmill toy, wooden duck toy, pieces of flowery fabric and a wooden frog toy. The other objects were a variety of wooden and metal pieces that I thought Ivy would find intriguing and would work well with the other materials.

Ivy delved in straight away, picking things up and having a look at them. She plays in a very unique way, in that she likes to pick something up and walk around the house with it. So the first item that she liked was a string of wooden beads, which she held in her hand, put in her mouth and then put around her wrist and walked all around the kitchen with.

When she returned to the basket she then started picking up items and trying to combine them and use them together. There was a particular wooden egg and metal strainer that she was determined to use and did eventually manage to balance and lift up the two together. The pride on her face was fantastic and gave her the confidence to explore the other items further and put them together in different ways.

These types of treasure baskets are very popular in our house, Ivy can sit for ages playing with all of the different items as she goes through them one by one. Even Ethan still finds them interesting, often coming to sit with Ivy for a little while and play with her. He plays in a more structured way now, making up little scenarios and stories by using the different props. It's lovely to watch them playing side by side.

Linked up to Tot School Gathering Place :)

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Imaginative Play is Better with Cake

7:30 AM

Spring has arrived and we've had a lovely time over the Easter holidays spending as much time as possible outside running around, as well as playing all sorts of games at home. Then when we were asked to try these yummy Mr Kipling cakes and write about how 'Life is better with cake' we just couldn't resist. After all, there isn't really much that isn't 'better with cake' as far as I'm concerned, so it would be a fun challenge to come up with a creative answer!

As it turned out the kiddies have ended up with a terrible cold and we have had to spend some days at home, and that meant getting creative with activities to keep them busy. But thankfully I had some ideas for play, and a few boxes of cakes! So, if we couldn't get out to a cafe, we would just have to settle for playing cafe at home. I made myself a tea, Ethan a hot chocolate and Ivy a babyccino and put out a plate of yummy Mr Kipling cakes (we have cherry bakewells - Ethan's favourite, Viennese whirls and French fancies!) We sat down at the table and Ethan "ordered" what he wanted to have from the cafe and pretended to pay for his cake and drink. Then I had to order from him, and we had fun making up different prices and silly names for the cakes based on what they looked like (since Ethan couldn't remember what any of them were actually called!)

Then it was time to eat our cakes and chat, just like we do when we go to a real cafe. Ethan loved his cherry bakewell, made a mess of crumbs everywhere and even offered to share with Ivy and I, which was really sweet. I even let Ivy have a little taste of cake, a real treat for a 14 month old!

Because Ethan enjoyed playing cafe so much, what better next step than to play shop with our boxes of Mr Kipling cakes? So I emptied out the boxes (saving a few cakes in a safe place for when the kids are napping!) then taped the boxes shut. I made some price tags for each box (because Ethan is just 3 1/2 years old, I made each box £1, but for older children it could be made trickier.) I also made some £1 notes using green card. Then I asked Ethan to collect some other food items from our play food collection.

Then it was time to play! We took turns being shopkeeper and customer, a great opportunity for Ethan to count out the money for the different items that he was buying. Of course his first choice was to buy a box of cakes! He picked up the cakes and knew right away that he had to give me £1 for it. Then we made things trickier, I bought all 3 boxes of cakes from him (why not?) and asked him how much money I had to give him, and he was able to count out 3 pounds for me. I made the other items cost different amounts of money, and Ethan got really good at counting out the money.

It was a really easy activity to leave out on the table, and Ethan came back to it later, even trying to get Ivy involved in buying cakes from his shop! He loved that these were the same cakes that we had eaten for our 'cafe' snack and told Ivy all about the different cakes just like I had to him earlier, it was really sweet! Our imaginative play activities on a day stuck at home were definitely made better with cake!

* This post is an entry for the #betterwithcake Linky challenge (http://www.britmums.com/2015/03/the-easter-school-holidays-are-betterwithcake/) sponsored by Mr Kipling. Learn more at https://www.facebook.com/mrkiplingcakes *