As we were hurtling towards the summer holidays, I started panic-planning. What was I going to do with Toby at home all day every day? And would I ever get anything done that I wanted to do? With the horrifying prospect of six weeks of "I'm bored" before me, I decided it was time to resurrect my toddler theme weeks. I can hardly call my long-legged almost-four-year-old a toddler any more though, can I?
This time round, I've gone elemental, with Water, Earth, Air and Fire, plus Plants just for good measure. Water filled a week and a half, because Toby's preschool finished on a Tuesday, and there are almost endless things you can do with water when it's warm and sunny.
Activities
1. Defrost the freezer!
Well, that was my job. Can you believe I spent my last few hours of preschool freedom defrosting a freezer? And as I scraped the chunks of ice off, I thought: Toby would love this. I hoped it might amuse him for ten minutes; he was out there for over an hour! Once the ice melted, he filled the bowl with water and carried on.
2. Water Music.
Not Handel, unfortunately. A selection of jam jars to fill with water and hit with a spoon provided some entertainment. And listening skills, and pouring practice, and volume measurement, and all good stuff.
3. Ice painting.
I think Toby was a little confused that we were actually painting the ice, rather than painting with the ice. This was an idea borrowed from Ellie's blog. She went all natural with her colourings; I just used food colours (hey, I'm a baker). Nice and simple: We made some highly-coloured water and froze it. Next day we used the ice cubes to make pretty patterns on an old muslin.
Outings
1. Feeding the ducks at a local park
2. Meeting some friends for a walk and a play at Foremark Reservoir
3. Admiring the fish at the garden centre in the village
Food
I have to admit to having no photos of my attempts at themed food. We had fish tacos one day - chunks of fish and vegetables in a tortilla - but we were too busy eating them to take a photo. We also made blue jelly, to resemble a pond, from gelatine, blue food colour and one of those clear flavoured water drinks. Then I put some supposedly fish-shaped fruit snacks in, but they were tiny and just looked like weird blobs. It tasted OK but I deleted the photos. Just imagine some kind of great artistic jelly fish pond, in a glass bowl with red and green and yellow fish sweets, and maybe even a lily pad on top.
And that won't be what it looked like at all.
This time round, I've gone elemental, with Water, Earth, Air and Fire, plus Plants just for good measure. Water filled a week and a half, because Toby's preschool finished on a Tuesday, and there are almost endless things you can do with water when it's warm and sunny.
Activities
1. Defrost the freezer!
Well, that was my job. Can you believe I spent my last few hours of preschool freedom defrosting a freezer? And as I scraped the chunks of ice off, I thought: Toby would love this. I hoped it might amuse him for ten minutes; he was out there for over an hour! Once the ice melted, he filled the bowl with water and carried on.
 |
| Theo liked it too |
2. Water Music.
Not Handel, unfortunately. A selection of jam jars to fill with water and hit with a spoon provided some entertainment. And listening skills, and pouring practice, and volume measurement, and all good stuff.
 |
| Equipment: jars, spoon, jug of water. (Ignore the fruit) |
 |
| Making different notes |
 |
| Topping up the water level |
I think Toby was a little confused that we were actually painting the ice, rather than painting with the ice. This was an idea borrowed from Ellie's blog. She went all natural with her colourings; I just used food colours (hey, I'm a baker). Nice and simple: We made some highly-coloured water and froze it. Next day we used the ice cubes to make pretty patterns on an old muslin.
Outings
1. Feeding the ducks at a local park
2. Meeting some friends for a walk and a play at Foremark Reservoir
3. Admiring the fish at the garden centre in the village
Food
I have to admit to having no photos of my attempts at themed food. We had fish tacos one day - chunks of fish and vegetables in a tortilla - but we were too busy eating them to take a photo. We also made blue jelly, to resemble a pond, from gelatine, blue food colour and one of those clear flavoured water drinks. Then I put some supposedly fish-shaped fruit snacks in, but they were tiny and just looked like weird blobs. It tasted OK but I deleted the photos. Just imagine some kind of great artistic jelly fish pond, in a glass bowl with red and green and yellow fish sweets, and maybe even a lily pad on top.
And that won't be what it looked like at all.
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