The Simplest Garden Kitchen

The boys have helped their Dad make an organic looking house.

It's under a tree, and has the tree as it's roof and old branches for walls.

They created a Mud Pie kitchen from:

simply buckets and a plank of wood.

A "magic" black crayon to draw on cooker hobs, old chipped plates from the garage,

old baking containers e.g. baking powder pots, water and mud!

Big Seed had to put it together himself...they love playing in it together.

Do you like our REAL mug tree????

What a great place to store them!

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Space Theme

I know it is not a popular time of year to cover Space but the Two Seeds

went to a Space themed birthday party so we were inspired.

This is our Sensory Box. 

The Moon

Filled with sand and flour! It's brilliant!

Crystals, glass stones and some space toys.

We kept it simple, you don't need to fill it with expensive stuff.

This is the shot before they played with it.

There is a flat shell and a smooth garden stone too.

Later on they played with diggers and rollers as "moon buggies".

Free play with the space toys that came in a tube.

Found on Amazon.

Melissa and Doug Space floor puzzle. Its gorgeous.

  

3 part cards from here

We have been doing lots of colour mixing to paint planets.

This is our space role play area: a rocket.

Using the 2 cheap bookshelves again, I brought them closer together.

Tied a rainbow silk as a roof ( you can use a sheet), with wooden clips,

tied with string in the middle to my shelf on the wall to give it height.

2 baby chairs for rocket seats, tool kit box to fix the rocket,

food, cushions and silks to sleep in, and of course space helmets.

The brown one is seriously oversized...but he likes it that way!

At the back on the wall is a "window"...a collage of printables that we cut out,

numbers 10-0, planets, stars, etc.

As time has progressed the boys decorated the rockets with decorated stars,

more windows and buttons.

Presenting Choices For Play With A Toddler Around

How do I present choices in our play and learning area

when I have a toddler who likes to tip everything out and create chaos?

It has been frustrating because I want to create a lovely Steiner/Montessori 

area for them but I could not get it to work...

until NOW!

Here we have our cheap shelves which are occasionally used as a roleplay area,
but it has got a bit tired lately so I am trying something new,
and I think Little Seed is just old enough to go with it.

I put some Montessori activities in bowls on the top shelf where Captain Chaos can't reach.
I will do a post on what the activities are this week.

The middle shelf houses the imaginative play mat, influenced by Steiner.
Big Seed got it out this week so I have made a permanent fixture on the middle shelf for now.

On the bottom are Little Seed's toys, and things I don't mind him tipping.

Next to the shelf on the floor is a basket of Steiner based tree blocks and a few baby books.

The top shelf has a basket of envelopes containing Montessori card activities.

Now here is the best part for all you Montessori homeschoolers with destructive toddlers:
clear boxes with lids with activities in it such as Practical life; scooping, pouring, etc
so that Big Seed can still see what's there. The items for pouring are in jars with lids inside.
Problem sorted!

Bottom shelf has roleplay cooking toys which they both enjoy playing with.I have put the bulk of the cooking stuff away, as they just want to make cups of tea these days.

Big Seed has shown great interest in the boxes and baskets, and so far Little Seed has respected the area.

This is progress.

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Hairdressers Role Play Area

Big Seed was not doing many orders in his online shop anymore so time for a change -

into a Hairdressers.

I moved the bookshelf against the main wall and put a large mirror behind it.

A small corner table with a till and cardboard laptop, basket full of toys customers,

small chairs for a waiting area and hairdressing tools.

Pluto the dog is having his (playsilk) cape put on him.

Teddy is having a look at his new haircut in the hand held mirror.

Big Seed is squeezing some shampoo ( plastic toy milk bottle).

We used a wooden toy knife as a comb.

(I don't have small spare comb and this was made off the cuff).

Here he is using his fingers as scissors.

A hairdryer made out of a cereal packet and sellotape.

He loves making the noise for this.

His tools neatly laid out.

Big Seed is very very tidy naturally.

His patient customers.

Big Seed was so engrossed that he refused to go to bed until he had 

seen to all his clients!

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Online Supermarket Role Play Area - Read Through Play

As it is the season of Harvest, we have created a food shop

which takes online orders and delivers them.

Here is how it works:

The orders come in on the computer.

This was made in 2 minutes from an old Amazon cardboard envelope.

Big Seed types some stuff and they print out...

Here is an order.

I write objects that he has in his shop, with numerals 1-3 only.

I like to use items of the same colour to encourage him to use the initial letter to work out the word.

I make him a key on the shop wall.

He then chooses the right fruit/vegetables.

They are all made of felt or wool, apart from the wooden eggs.

It is a simple shop.

It is good for sorting when all the things have to go back in their places.

A mixture of knitted food.

This is his weighing scales... a wooden bowl.

He made this up himself : weighs everything and then pours it directly in the bags.

An assortment of cloth bags.

No plastic here!

Here he is in action compiling an order.

The bags are all loaded on the trolley and he goes off to deliver them around the house.

I keep finding small bags hidden in corners everywhere.

There are many beauties to this game:

He is learning to read, count and sort through play

He enjoys the daily repetition in the game

He can play by himself and get totally engrossed...useful at certain times 

It is easy to set up, it took us very little time and we created it together.

I think this shop will be here for a few weeks.

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