Posts Tagged ‘activities’
Ten toys you don’t have to buy
Fed up with forking out for the latest piece of over-hyped plastic? Answer “What can we do now Mum?” by making and creating activities from items you already have around the house or that cost nothing at all.
1. Shops. Save all your empty grocery cartons for a week or so and you’ll soon have a shop any aspiring grocer would be proud of. Glue down the flaps to makes cereal boxes, jelly packets etc. look unopened. Clothes, shoes, and toys can all be used as “stock”. Paper bags and real or play money add to the fun.
2. Paper balls. When the kids keep arguing suggest that they throw something at each other! Paper balls are easily scrunched up from torn out magazine pages to make “ammunition”. When it’s time to tidy up, stand the waste paper basket in the middle of the room and see who can throw the most in. A rolled up magazine makes a good “bat” too.
3. Doctors/Nurses. A roll of white toilet tissue makes this game much more fun as Dads, Grans, teddies or dolls are mummified before your eyes. Plastic medicine spoons and cardboard box hospital beds for toys are extra props that make the game last longer.
4. Tubes. Cardboard tubes from kitchen roll or foil make instant telescopes for sailors or pirates, or tunnels to roll marbles through. Babies love to watch things disappear then reappear out of the bottom. Don’t leave them alone with the cardboard tube though as they will probably suck it.
5. Cardboard boxes must be about the best free toys you can get hold of. Push in the ends of large ones to make tunnels and caves to crawl through. Draw on windows and doors with felt tip pens to make a house, add a flag and portholes for a boat or paper plates and a steering wheel for a car.
6. Make a coloring book by printing free coloring pictures from the Internet. Little boys love coloring pictures of cars and trucks as well as those of favorite characters such as Bob the Builder or Pikachu. At sites like Pokemon Coloring Pages you’ll find free Pokemon coloring while at Princess Coloring Pages you can print and color many princess coloring page suitable for little girls.
7. Miniature gardens. The foil trays that pies and prepared foods arrive in make lovely containers for miniature gardens. Children can enjoy hunting around the park or garden for twigs to make trees, moss for a lawn, stones to arrange as a rockery or a waterfall. Keep twigs or stones in place with a little blue tack or plasticine. Add toy people or animals and maybe a little water if the container is watertight. This can be a very creative and enjoyable exercise if you have children of very different age groups to entertain. A variation is to use play sand (not builder’s sand – it stains everything yellow) to make a beach scene, maybe adding shells, stones and a blue paper sea.
8. Paper puppets. A picture of anything – colorful bird, clown’s face, animal or cartoon character, carefully cut out by an adult and stuck to the top of a strip of card about five inches long and one and a half inches wide becomes a very easily made puppet. These give such pleasure and are so easy to make that you will probably end up with dozens of them. Magazine pictures can be stuck on to folded card to make theatre set background and wings.
9. Potato prints. After cutting a potato in half, draw on a simple shape. A triangle, circle or star perhaps. Cut away the rest of the potato, leaving a shape to dip into paint and print on to paper.
10. Skittles. Skittles can be improvised from large plastic cola or lemonade bottles. A little sand or water in the bottom makes them more stable. A good game for learning to count.
Bouns idea : Dens. Building a den must be one of the most memorable parts of childhood as we all seem to recall the bliss of blankets draped over the airing rack in the garden or over the backs of chairs indoors. Even today’s sophisticated kids seem to find the thought much more exciting than just erecting the shop bought plastic play house. I think the secret is to give structural / engineering advice about making the thing stay upright, but let the children do as much as possible themselves. Really large boxes of the type that washing machines and fridges come in can be had for the asking from the big electrical goods retailers and are useful for rooms within dens. Indoors, one of the simplest dens can be made by throwing a large sheet or duvet over a table. Cushions, torches, biscuits and comics or books will all be needed at the housewarming.
Money for nothing and your toys for free….
Fed up with forking out for the latest piece of over-hyped plastic? Answer “What can we do now Mum?” by making and creating activities from items you already have around the house or that cost nothing at all.
1. Shops. Save all your empty grocery cartons for a week or so and you’ll soon have a shop any aspiring grocer would be proud of. Glue down the flaps to makes cereal boxes, jelly packets etc. look unopened. Clothes, shoes, and toys can all be used as “stock”. Paper bags and real or play money add to the fun.
2. Paper balls. When the kids keep arguing suggest that they throw something at each other! Paper balls are easily scrunched up from torn out magazine pages to make “ammunition”. When it’s time to tidy up, stand the waste paper basket in the middle of the room and see who can throw the most in. A rolled up magazine makes a good “bat” too.
3. Doctors/Nurses. A roll of white toilet tissue makes this game much more fun as Dads, Grans, teddies or dolls are mummified before your eyes. Plastic medicine spoons and cardboard box hospital beds for toys are extra props that make the game last longer.
4. Tubes. Cardboard tubes from kitchen roll or foil make instant telescopes for sailors or pirates, or tunnels to roll marbles through. Babies love to watch things disappear then reappear out of the bottom. Don’t leave them alone with the cardboard tube though as they will probably suck it.
5. Cardboard boxes must be about the best free toys you can get hold of. Push in the ends of large ones to make tunnels and caves to crawl through. Draw on windows and doors with felt tip pens to make a house, add a flag and portholes for a boat or paper plates and a steering wheel for a car.
6. Make a coloring book by printing free coloring pictures from the Internet. Little boys love coloring pictures of cars and trucks as well as those of favorite characters such as Bob the Builder or Pikachu. At sites like Pokemon Coloring Pages you’ll find free Pokemon coloring while at Princess Coloring Pages you can print and color many coloring book pages suitable for little girls.
7. Miniature gardens. The foil trays that pies and prepared foods arrive in make lovely containers for miniature gardens. Children can enjoy hunting around the park or garden for twigs to make trees, moss for a lawn, stones to arrange as a rockery or a waterfall. Keep twigs or stones in place with a little blue tack or plasticine. Add toy people or animals and maybe a little water if the container is watertight. This can be a very creative and enjoyable exercise if you have children of very different age groups to entertain. A variation is to use play sand (not builder’s sand – it stains everything yellow) to make a beach scene, maybe adding shells, stones and a blue paper sea.
8. Paper puppets. A picture of anything – colorful bird, clown’s face, animal or cartoon character, carefully cut out by an adult and stuck to the top of a strip of card about five inches long and one and a half inches wide becomes a very easily made puppet. These give such pleasure and are so easy to make that you will probably end up with dozens of them. Magazine pictures can be stuck on to folded card to make theatre set background and wings.
9. Potato prints. After cutting a potato in half, draw on a simple shape. A triangle, circle or star perhaps. Cut away the rest of the potato, leaving a shape to dip into paint and print on to paper.
10. Skittles. Skittles can be improvised from large plastic cola or lemonade bottles. A little sand or water in the bottom makes them more stable. A good game for learning to count.
Bouns idea : Dens. Building a den must be one of the most memorable parts of childhood as we all seem to recall the bliss of blankets draped over the airing rack in the garden or over the backs of chairs indoors. Even today’s sophisticated kids seem to find the thought much more exciting than just erecting the shop bought plastic play house. I think the secret is to give structural / engineering advice about making the thing stay upright, but let the children do as much as possible themselves. Really large boxes of the type that washing machines and fridges come in can be had for the asking from the big electrical goods retailers and are useful for rooms within dens. Indoors, one of the simplest dens can be made by throwing a large sheet or duvet over a table. Cushions, torches, biscuits and comics or books will all be needed at the housewarming.
School holidays – crafty recipes to keep ‘em busy!
Here are a dozen play-time ‘recipes’ to help keep your children entertained this summer. Learn how to make homespun goop, papier mâché, cinnamon ornaments, soap crayons and much more. Pull out this article and stick it to your fridge – it will be one of your best weapons against the ‘boredom’ gremlins!
Washable window paints
A selection of tempera paints (powdered or premixed)
Clear dishwashing liquid
Mix powdered paints with dishwashing liquid until they resemble house paint. Line the window sashes with masking tape and spread newspaper under the window area to protect flooring. To erase paint or touch up mistakes just wipe paint away with a dry paper towel.
Home-made coloring books
Go online and download a dozen or so coloring book pages and collate them into a coloring book. Put this aside for rainy days or for long car/train/plane journeys. Little boys love images of motorbikes, cars and trucks while little girls prefer coloring book pictures of fairytales and princesses. At sites like Princess Coloring Pages you’ll find many princess colouring pages
Cinnamon ornaments
3/4-1 cup applesauce
1 (4.12-oz.) bottle of ground cinnamon
Mix applesauce with cinnamon to form a stiff dough. Roll out to 5mm thickness. Cut out a shape with the cookie cutter and make a hole for the ribbon using the end of a drinking straw. Carefully put aside to dry for several days – turning occasionally. This recipe makes 12 sweet smelling ornaments/drawer scenters.
Goop
2 packets of cornflour
2 cups of water
Several drops of food colouring
Place newspaper or plastic sheets on your work surface. Mix the ingredients in a large bowl. Children love goop’s squishy consistency. You can also use coloured or black paper to make goop paintings if you wish. To remove goop from carpets, allow it to dry, then brush vigorously or vacuum. The great thing about goop is that it may be re-used after it has dried out. Crumble it to a powder then restore it to the original consistency by adding water a tablespoonful at a time.
Funny putty
2 tablespoons of white glue
1 tablespoon of liquid starch
Food colouring
Mix glue together with the desired food colour. Pour starch over top. Swish so that all the glue is covered. Let set 5 minutes. Squeeze off extra starch and knead until mixed.
Bubbles
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of glycerine
2 tablespoons of liquid dish soap
Mix water, glycerine and soap. Pour in sugar. Add food colouring if desired.
Papier mâché
1 cup flour
1 cup warm water
1/2 inch strips of newspaper
Balloon/s
In a large bowl, mix flour and water – add more flour is mixture is too sloppy (dripping). Place newspaper strips into mixture, then smooth onto blown up balloon. Cover the balloon completely twice, letting it dry in between layers. Do not cover the balloon’s knot. Dry in a warm place for 2-3 days then hold the knot and pop the balloon with a pin. Paint, glitter and decorate the balloon as is or cut in half so you have a bowl/hat shape to embellish.
Modelling/play dough
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
water
food colouring
Mix the ingredients and knead to a dough consistency. To speed up the drying process, place the dough artwork in the oven on a low heat.
Soap crayons
1 3/4 cups of soap flakes
50 drops food colouring
1/4 cup water
Mix water and soap flakes together. Add food colouring and put mixture into an ice cube tray. When hardened, pop the ‘ice cubes’ out. These soap crayons are fun to write with on the tub and tiles when bathing. If grouting stains, spray with a weak solution of bleach.
Sand dye
Fine sand
Water
Food colouring
Paper cups
Plastic spoons
Fill paper cups half full with sand. Next, add water to cups to completely cover sand. Add food colouring until you get the desired colour. Stir with plastic spoon and let set for 15 minutes. Pour off water, spoon sand onto paper towels and spread the sand out to dry. Use sand to make sand – art – pictures (spread glue on paper and sprinkle sand on top) or to fill pretty bottles in layers.
Cornstarch Art/Finger-paint
3 tablespoons of cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water
2 drops of dishwashing liquid
1 cup boiling water
Food colouring
Combine cornstarch and cold water – stir until smooth. Add dishwashing liquid. Pour boiling water into the bowl and stir until the mixture thickens. Add food colouring and let cool. Use as you would finger paint.
Puffy Paint
Flour
Salt
Water
Tempera paint
Mix equal parts of flour, salt and water in a bowl. Add a small amount of tempera paint to the mixture and pour into a small plastic squeezy bottle. Repeat this over and over to make as many colours as you wish. Squeeze onto heavy paper or cardboard to make designs. Mixture will harden into puffy shapes.
Colourful Salt
1/2 cup salt
5 to 6 drops of food colouring
Add food colouring to salt. Stir well. Cook this in a microwave oven for 1-2 minutes or spread on waxed paper and let salt air dry. Store in an airtight container and use as you would glitter.
Children’s coloring and drawing – the cultural differences
Culture plays a large role in many things – from what we eat to how we dress – and it even has an effect on the minutae of life – like whether or not drawing will enter into a child’s repertoire of behavior.
For example, studies have shown that Taiwanese-American and Chinese-American parents tend to plan more drawing time for their children than they European-American counterpart parents do. As a result of more time spent drawing, Taiwanese-American and Chinese-American children’s drawings have been judged as being more advanced than those of their counterparts.
According to research carried out in 1983, when children are provided with drawing materials and encouragement they tend to create works that reflect their particular culture – and each culture has its own ‘style’. For instance, French children are prone to spending a good deal of time on drawing, filling the entire page with large, colorful designs, drawings by Japanese children meanwhile tend to be more complex, harmonious and complete than drawings by North-. Children from the island of Bali on the other hand, use many small and intricate marks to draw complex, colorful designs which fill the page.
While many cultures use and value drawing as art, there are a few cultures that do not foster coloring of drawing at all.
The children from the island of Ponape usually have no prior drawing experience. Yet when a recent study was carried out, those Ponape children that were given drawing materials tended to draw by starting in the center of the page making shapes that connected outward like groups of linked bubbles – they also tended not to fill the page and used only one color per drawing.
When children from cultures that do not include drawing are first introduced to the tools, they tend to experiment, scribble, or attempt realistic drawings right from the start. There seems to be great variation in first attempts. However, in general, it has been found that children tend to draw from a cultural perspective, imitating the designs reflected in fabrics, architecture or other aspects of the adult culture including symbol systems such as written letters or characters and numerals.
Culture therefore confines and defines the art of children.
Children from ‘First World’ countries like the USA have many opportunities to draw and color and are encouraged to do so by their parents, teachers and other caregivers. Material is plentiful too with crayons, paper, coloring books and even online resources in plentiful supply. Little boys tend to enjoy coloring pictures that represent what they sees every day such as cars, trucks and machinery while little girls enjoy coloring images of fairytale scenes – however you can seldome go wrong with Disney characters as most children have a favourite and at sites like Disney Coloring Pages you’ll find many Disney coloring page
With both encouragement and resources a-plenty, our children are very lucky to have both the means as well as the support to express themselves creatively through drawing and colouring.
Use Of Inhaler
Keyword: asthma inhaler
Word Count: 429
Keyword Density: 6/1.4%
If you have asthma, nearly anything can trigger it. For example, some people’s asthma is brought on simply by smells or shifts in altitude or temperature. Thus, if you want to stay in control of your health, it is important to invest and use an asthma inhaler. The following are just some accessories you can invest in to make sure that your inhaler is always around you.
The Asthma Inhaler Holder
If you are looking for a fun way to keep your inhaler on you at all times, then consider investing in an asthma inhaler holder. These models come in all shapes in sizes. This accessory helps you remember to have your inhaler with you at all times but is not intrusive or overly obvious. Thus, it makes an asthma inhaler look as natural to carry as lip balm.
An asthma inhaler holder comes in many different designs and colors. For instance , you can find these holders in everything from basic black to camouflage to rainbow and other kinds of fun prints. Thus, the fun part about finding a holder for your asthma inhaler is choosing which holder best suits the person. There is bound to be a design out there that suits each and every person’s needs.
The asthma inhaler can be attached to a key chain in a few ways. The attachment can be metal or can be plastic. Often, the kind of attachment depends on the look the person wants or the holder itself. One could have a traditional key ring or could opt for a larger attachment with a claw-like opening.
The Carrier
If you want to be prepared for everything that comes with asthma, consider investing in a tote that holds not only your asthma inhaler but any materials that might make an attack easier to cope with. Totes are generally water-resistant and are particularly great for long trips.
Sports Cases
Having asthma does not mean that leading an active life is over. On the contrary, many folks with this medical condition continue to play sports and go on adventures. However, the key for active folks with asthma is to have their asthma inhaler on them at all times. A hard sports case or cover ensures that the inhaler is not only on a person at all times but will not break in the middle of all the action. When playing a sport, it’s common for people to run into one another or for things to get jostled. A sports case or over protects the asthma inhaler, and thus, protects the individual.