Martha's Marvellous Munchies

Hey, we made it through the holidays!  Toby is now back at preschool in the mornings which theoretically means I have more time to do stuff.  Actually it means I wrote a list long enough to take me the whole year, and then tried to do it all in one week.  So I am writing about the final theme a week after it happened.  The topic may have been apt, as it felt like we were fanning dying embers by this point. Activities 1. Making a "campfire" Here's Toby in best boy scout mode, rubbing two twigs together to make a fire.  Peppa Pig obviously is educational really, because he knew to set up the sticks in a pyramid.  Fortunately his efforts didn't produce any sparks. And where there's a campfire, there must be a tent: 2. The candle trick With all due cautions about not playing with fire, etc, etc, we lit a candle and I showed him how it goes out when you put a jar over it.  We repeated the experiment several times, and he was able to tell Dad...

A beautifully wide theme which can cover everything from blowing bubbles to spotting planes.  Sorry for the belated blogging! Activities 1. Straw painting Toby loves straws at the moment and usually has at least two in his drink, sometimes up to five!  So I thought he might enjoy a spot of straw painting.  We dolloped watered-down paints onto a big sheet of paper, and blew air through the straw to spread the paint out.  The results weren't quite as spectacular as I'd hoped, but it was quite fun.  2. Balloon on a string Toby had already been introduced to the idea of blowing a balloon up and letting it go whoowheeewhooo around the room, so we tried the next stage up - racing it along a string. Thread straw onto long piece of string. Tie string across room. Blow up balloon. Tape balloon onto straw. Let go.  Wheeeeee! Duck! 3. Paper aeroplanes Yeah.  This and the balloon on a string was my attempt to keep us entertained on a wet...

This week was the odd one out; plants are not one of the four classical elements.  But they feature in abundance as the British summer shades into autumn, and relate to so many good craft activities. Activities 1. Leaf collection and leaf rubbing My parents stayed for a couple of days this week, and they are ideal companions for a plant theme, being far more knowledgeable than I am about both the wild and cultivated kind.  Dad helped us with our leaf collection; on a short walk around the village, we acquired at least ten different kinds. The horse chestnut leaf was bigger than the paper! In the afternoon we used crayons to make rubbings.  Toby's friends from next door were around for this bit, and the six-year-old was very keen to label all the different leaves.  This is one of her sheets. 2. Sunflower printing Another idea from my friend Ellie .  This was great for a plant theme; not only were the pictures of flowers, but the prints were ...

You know how these things work.  The first week you're full of enthusiasm and do tons of stuff, and the second week... yeah.  Not quite so much.  It's not that we haven't done things, it's just that many of them weren't related to the theme.  So we made ice lollies, played with friends, took the car to the garage (not an expensive fix, fortunately), and occasionally squeezed in a few earth-related activities too. Since I may have less to write about, I'll take a moment to mention my two main mayhem-reducing tools for the summer. The first is a whiteboard , on which to delineate our day's activities.  The intentions being a) I'm forced to come up with at least a few things to do each morning; b) Toby has some idea what's going on in advance; c) Toby improves his reading skills.  We haven't used it every day, but I think it's achieved those goals when we have. He's also been improving his writing; that says "car" in case y...

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 minut...

I didn't plan this to be a theme week, but Toby's new refrain has become, "I want to do something else " (how does he know it's the school holidays?)  Something else turned into my digging out my body-themed activities and roll of cheap wallpaper.  So here we go! First thing to do is draw a body, and fortunately I had a handy template.  Lie down, Toby! Just ignore the face.  And lack of neck.  I know it's not a great likeness, but he really is that tall.  How on earth did that happen? He knew pretty much all the body labels already, so I can't really claim it as a learning opportunity.  Still, revision is good, right?  And everyone enjoys colouring on a huge sheet of paper. Another sheet of wallpaper became a blank canvas for hand and foot painting.  Fortunately it's been great weather, as outside is always the best place to do this.  Even with a strategically placed tub of water for washing off in. I've gone gree...