New Year

Oops I've neglected this again!

Not posts since October! Ahh

New Years resolution is to post once a week!

Let's see if I can do it!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

Chalkboard Fun

I found this idea on Pinterest and absolutely loved it and wanted to make my own. 

It's a chalkboard table. 

So I bought a coffee table and am going to sand it and then paint it. 

I decided that I'll do progress blogs on it. 

So here is the first pic. Don't mind the items on the table, it kind of shows the size of the table too. 

Also repping the DailyBumps vlogs from June 2013. 

Cubby House - Completed

Here is the end result of the cubby house. 

P.S - You can tell how crooked the window is now 

Cubby Update

Today I covered the front of the cubby in white paper and then painted over that with brown paint, ready to draw lines for bricks on. 

The door is yellow but may change as I didn't like how it turned out. 

I also painted a blossom tree on a piece of white paper ready to stick on one side. 

As is is spring now I'm heading for a spring theme for the cubby. 

Cubby Houses

Oops haven't posted in two months. 

How fun are cubby houses. Everybody loved them as kids and I'm sure your kids love them too. 

I'm currently making a cubby for the kids at work out of a cardboard box and will be happy to share the progress with you. 

So here are a few pics of the project to start with. 

I painted the inside walls of the box white and the roof blue. 

As it is spring I'm going to put some flowers and a blossom tree on one side. 

There is a door and window on the front and I'll paint the front and door spring type colours. 

Stained Glass Windows

What you need;

Glue 

Food dye

Plastic lid

Tooth pick or skewer

What to do;

Put some glue on a lid. 

Add some food dye and use the tooth pick to swirl the colour around and make different patterns. 

When dry it should peel itself from the lid. 

Put a hole in it with a hole punch and hang by a window. 

 This one is probably a bit thick as you can't see through it too well. 

Above is looking through with no window. 

Below is looking through at the window. 

Snowman Door

How cute is this?!

I recreated it at work onto a glass door, doesn't look as cute but still good. 

Hopefully the children will think his cute too. 

Science Experiment

What you need;

Container (Like a cup, although it needs to be see through)
Water
Shaving Foam
Food dye

 

What to do;

Fill your container with water. I forgot this the first time and its the most important thing in the experiment haha
Put shaving foam on top of the water, maybe about an inch thick. We put way too much.
Then drip food dye onto the shaving foam. Wait and watch.

The children loved watching this. Kept them entertained for a fair while.

Crayon Resistant Drawing

What you need;
White paper
White Crayon (we used an oil pastel)
Food Dye

What to do;
Draw anything you like on the paper.
Paint over it with the food dye.
Watch your picture come to life.

Try not to get food dye on hands though. I'm sure you all know that though.

Sorry about being sideways

  

We also did one on black paper with black oil pastel but as you can see in the picture below it didn't really work out. 

Paddle Pop Stick Puzzles

What you need;

Paddle pop sticks

Picture of some sort

Glue stick

Knife

What to do; 

Glue your picture into the paddle pop sticks, I put the sticks on top of the picture to work out how many I needed before I glued the picture on. 

When the glue dries, use the knife and carefully cut down the picture inbetween the sticks. I found it easier to cut on the picture side rather then the stick side. 

Enjoy your new puzzle. 

Paper Mache Snowman

What you need;
2 Balloons (You can have 3 if you'd prefer a bigger snowman.)
Strips of Newspaper
Paper Mache glue. 
Masking Tape
Plain Paper (last layer)
Paint decorate


What to do;
Blow the balloons up, one bigger than the other.
Cover them in the paper mache, do each balloon separately first.
Once the balloons have enough paper on them.
Leave them to dry.
Once dry tape the balloons together with masking tape.
Then cover with more newspaper.
Leave to dry.
Once dry, layer with plain paper. Doesn't matter what colour because you can just paint it white when its dry.
Once dry. Decorate. Paint or stick on eyes, mouth, nose, scarf, hat, whatever you think your snowman needs.

This project didn't quite go as plan, so unfortunately there is no progress pictures. 

One thing I can tell you though, don't leave the balloon up. As soon as the glue is dry, or mostly dry pop it. 

The balloon will start to shrink which will also shrink the paper you've just put on it and you'll have to start again. 

Cheese Muffins

Want to make super simple mini cheese muffins?

What you need;

2 cups self raising flour

2 cups shredded cheese

2 cups milk 

What to do; 

Mix together, put into mini muffins tins bake at 180 for about 15 minutes they should be nice and golden. 

Enjoy, they taste great! 

I made big muffins of these and cooked for 30 mins @180

I also sprinkled cheese on top before cooking. 

Imagination

Children have a big imagination an sometimes it's good to sit back an let them run wild with it. 

Children will have fun making up things to do as the day goes on. Although if they are having trouble with things to think of you can suggest things they can bring into their play. 

Ball Games

Ball Game Ideas.

1. Catch - Tossing the ball to each other

2. Rolling - Sitting down and rolling a ball to each other

3. Dodge Ball - Either in teams or all on all. Throwing balls and trying to get people out. Last one in wins.

4. Silent Ball - Stand around a room, not too close to other people and toss the ball to each other. If it is dropped the person who dropped it is then out, if the ball didn't make it to someone the person who through it is out. and this game is done with no talking, hence the name.

5. Tap Catch - Stand in a circle with a person in the middle, the person in the middle throws the ball to people around the circle, if they say tap you catch the ball before throwing it back to them, and if they say catch you tap it back. If you do the wrong thing you are out. Last player left in wins.

Paint fun

Yes another painting activity, 'cause who doesn't love to paint.

What you need;
Paper,
Paint
Paint brushes
Masking Tape

What to do;

Stick masking tape around the paper, and paint over it.
Pull the tape of and reveal your artwork.
Enjoy.

Painting is more than just paint.

Is your child bored with using a paint brush?
Do you need new painting ideas?
Well you've come to the right place.

Below is a list of 10 ways to paint without a paint brush.

1. Balloons - Blow the balloons up enough for your child to be able to hold, dip them in paint and paint away.
You can put rice, water, beads etc in the balloons for different prints on the paper.

2. Cylinders - Dip the end of the cylinders into paint and print onto the paper. You could also use the cylinders as paint rollers.

3. Marbles/Golf Balls - Put a piece of paper into a shoe box or something similar, roll the balls in paint put into the box and move the box around to create different patterns.

4. Fingers - Who doesn't love getting their fingers messy.

5. Wheels - Put the wheels of toy cars into paint and drive them around on the paper.

6. Shaving Foam - Put some shaving foam on the table and add some paint into it. Children will love to play with it and make a big mess, draw patterns and you can even print their creations onto paper. This activity is highly messy.

7. Nature Painting - Use sticks, leaves, acorns, flowers, all sorts of nature items to paint with.

8. Spray bottle - Fill the spray bottle with water, add food colouring and squirt away. Its best to do this outside.

9. Straw blowing - Drip some paint onto the paper and using straw blow the paint around.

10. Paint flicking - Using a spoon flick paint onto the paper.

Ball Pit

What child doesn't like balls?!

Why not make a ball pit for your child. Lots of fun and will entertain for hours.
You can buy bags of balls from different shops, I bought a bag of 100 balls from the Reject Shop but you can also get them from Kmart.
I put the balls in a porta cot for the child to play with but you could buy a blow up paddle pool, which you can also get from Kmart.
The only downside of this activity is getting balls everywhere. Before putting the balls in a porta cot they were tipped out onto the lounge room floor and went everywhere, we were finding groups of balls in all sorts of places, so the balls are seriously best to be used in a pit of some type.

Fun but simple

So its Autumn and we all know what that means
Leaves are falling, there's acorns on the ground, sticks, stones and many other items you may find in your garden that your child can use to create pictures.
One of the girls at work enjoyed using leaves, acorns etc. to make faces.
You child can use these items to make anything they wanted, or you can go one step further and use them to paint with, create a collage with them and you could even put them in a tub and give children magnifying glasses to look at all the different things that may be on them.
It is creative yet simple and easy.

Everyone loves chalk! Right?

Want to make your own?
With this chalk recipe you can even have some fun with vinegar and make your pictures explode.
BUT be warned you may have a hard time removing from concrete.

All you need is cornstarch, baking soda and water.
Mix together equal amounts of cornstarch and baking soda and fill a bottle (I used sauce bottles, the ones you squirt the sauce out of, I will insert a picture for you) 2/3 full and then fill the rest with water, mix well, I used the handle of a paint brush to do this, add some colouring, food dye works best and then let the children use their creative minds and have some fun.

If you want the extra excitement with this, put some vinegar in a squirty bottle and let the children spray their chalk creations and watch them fizz up.




Sauce bottles for the chalk.



Squirty bottles for vinegar.

Sand Fun

Ever wanted to make your own sand?
Well now you can and all you need is flour and cooking oil.
Mix together 8 cups of flour and 1 cup of oil. The mixture should be crumbly, but mouldable.
When I made this at work I didn't really measure I just put it enough flour and oil for the children to have a fair amount each and not fight over it.
They enjoyed playing with it on it's own but after a while they introduced cups and spoons into it.

Pinterest

If you haven't already you need to check out pinterest asap! It has the best ideas for not only children activities, but for anything and everything. I absolutely love this website and swear by it. If I'm at work and need a quick idea for something to do, I will checkout pinterest. It is literally my first stop when I have a mind blank. So many ideas and so little time. Get onto it http://www.pinterest.com

Scavenger Hunt

Everyone loves looking for treasure so why not write some clue and place them around your backyard for your children to try an solve an find the next one. 

I believe 10 is a pretty good number although it is really up to you how many you have. 

It may be best to number your clues so the children know if they have the right clue. 

You can have prizes at the end whether its just a favourite toy, treat or maybe even something new. 

Fire Truck Collage

Wanna build a fire truck?!

Not quite the same as a snowman, but we can do them too (:

Any who I don't really have a way of explaining how to do the collage but here's a pic hopefully you can work it out. 

It's basically sticking the pieces on each other, I have also included the templates for your fire truck. 

Instead of cutting the middle of the ladder out I just coloured them in, was easier to glue on that way. 

Enjoy. 

Hungry Caterpillar Painting

What you need; A3 paper Your hands Paint Brush Red, Green, Purple and Brown paint
What to do; Paint the front of your four fingers purple and the palm of your hand green. Then print on your paper 4 times, next to one another. Next paint the back of your index and little finger brown and the back of your hand red. Turn your paper upside down and print above one of the other hands.

Chocolate Crackles

Want to make quick and easy chocolate crackles?! Well then here is a recipe for you, with just 3 that's right 3 ingredients. 

What you need; 

200g of chocolate 

1/4 cup of coconut 

3 cups of rice bubbles 

What to do; 

Melt the chocolate

Add coconut to chocolate and mix

Add the rice bubbles and mix through well

Fill patty pans with the mixture, sprinkle with coconut and refrigerate to set (10 mins)

Notes 

This makes 24

I used a block of cadburys chocolate which is 220g, so I added half a cup extra rice bubbles an it made 5 (I think) more. 

I tipped the chocolate on the rice bubbles, although it may be easier to tip the rice bubbles into the chocolate like the recipe says. The bowl I melted the chocolate in wasn't big enough so that's why I did it the opposite way. Would be totally up to you though. 

Enjoy, they taste so good. 

Squirt Bottle Painting.

What you need;

Squirt bottles

Food colouring

Water

Paper, the bigger the better

Outside space, somewhere to hang the paper 

What to do;

Full the squirty bottles with water and add colouring. Straight (not mixed) colours work best. 

Hang a piece of paper up somewhere outside is best as the food colouring may stain surfaces. 

Squirt the paper, watch the different colours mix together and drip their way down the paper making different patterns/colours on the way to the bottom. 

Notes. 

Too much spray in one spot will cause paper to tear. 

Food colouring may stain, hands, clothes and surfaces. 

Squirt Gun Volcanoes

What you need; 

Tray 

Baking soda 

White vinegar

Water pistol/squirty bottle

Food colouring (optional)

What to do;

Put food colouring in the bottom of a tray and cover with baking soda. 

Fill water pistols or it squirty bottles with vinegar. 

Squirt the baking soda and watch the reaction. 

 

When I did this I didn't tell the children that I put good colouring under it so it was a surprise to them when the colour came through. 

Birthday Calendar

Birthday calendars are fun to make an do, the kids will love seeing their birthday on the wall or in a book. 

It's honestly not just something for a school or child care. 

You can make a birthday calendar for your home. 

Put all the families birthdays on it, kids friends, pets, maybe even special toys. 

And you can have any design you want. 

Pinterest had loads of different ideas for birthdays calendars. 

Check out the birthday calendar I made for work. 

Balloon Rockets

What you need; 

Balloon

Balloon pump (optional)

String

Sticky or masking tape

Straw 

What to do; 

Put string up, I put it right across the room, but then it depends how big your room is. But how far you want the string is your choice. 

Be sure to put the straw on the string before putting it up. 

Blow or use a balloon pump to pump the balloon up, how big you want the balloon depends on how long the string is. 

And then stick the balloon to the straw with the open end facing the opposite direction you want the balloon to go, as that's the rocket that make the balloon go. 

And then you let it go and watch it fly across the room  

String Easter Eggs

What you need;

String

Craft glue

Water balloons

What to do;

I used a balloon pump to pump the balloons up, you don't need much air, just enough to kind of have that egg shape. 

I put craft glue in a bowl and dipped the string into it, and then wrapped it around the balloon, it is better when the string has lots of glue on it so the string dries hard everywhere and not just some places. 

I then left them to dry over night. 

I checked to make sure all the string was stuck and not moving before popping the balloon. 

I found this idea in Pinterest and what I saw of it, they put Easter eggs in the balloon first. 

New Blog? Same Blog? Different Style?

I just had the biggest brainwave!

I work with children and when you do that you have to do activities with them or else they'll get bored. So I've decided I'm going to start posting activity ideas here!

So yes my blog is changing yet again. 

Camping - Petal Point

Australia Day weekend 2014

Headed up to Petal Point Saturday afternoon with the family to camp for the weekend. 

Beach, sun, family, fishing, what more could you want. 

The boys and my sister caught plenty of fish and we had fish and potatoes cooked in coals Sunday night. 

Bailee and I had fun at the beach watching Tommy and Jason trying to get the blow up boat an kayak out an building sandcastles. 

Monday we packed up camp and headed to little Mussleroe Bay for more fishing. 

Bailee had lots of fun playing on the rocks an in the water, mind you in her clothes an her last change of clothes too. 

We stopped at Little Mussleroe Bay campsite to cook some lunch before the trip home. 

Social Media. Bullying. Private Messaging. Effects. Consequences.

People really need to be aware about what they post online.  

What you post on the Internet is going to be out there forever. 

Even if you delete it, it won't make it gone. Other people could have saved it, screenshotted it, or shared it. 

If you don't want your children to see what you want to post I wouldn't post it. It will come back and haunt you later on. 

Bullying people isn't right either. 

So many people take their lives due to bullying. I know I may have bullied people online and not. But I'm now being the bigger person and stopping. I'm talking out about this. More people need to be aware of what bullying does to others. 

It's not just going to effect the people whom you bully it's going to effect everyone around them. 

As for posting things online you don't want out there. 

Just because someone else does it, it doesn't mean you have to follow. Doing something someone else does, does not make you a better person. 

Please be aware of what you post online and send other people privately. 

Just because its sent privately doesn't mean it will remain private. 

Teens this is mostly aimed at you. 

Don't put out what you don't want your children to see in the future.