Dyeing Playsilks Using Summer Fruits

We dyed our own playsilk using raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, 

tomato, rhubarb and beetroot from our garden.

I was inspired by this book.
We looked at the flower that related to their first initial of their name
and I wanted to make them an elf/pixie cape of the corresponding colour.

There are boy illustrations in these books...which is great for boys to get in touch with flowers
positively without it being overtly girly.

Little Seed needed pink for Mallow...

So we set up an experiment:

I boiled the plain silk in hot water and vinegar.

We mashed up the foods and I strained them with a sieve.

Then we dipped corners and bits of the silk in different pots.

The tomato didn't work, I wouldn't bother.

The beetroot actually gave us orange!

The silk dried lighter than the image so in a few weeks we can have another go
when it fades to a very pale pink.
Any tips appreciated to achieve a darker effect!
x

Click here if you fancy winning a gorgeous snackbag


 Linking to:
beneath the rowan tree

Creative Friday at Natural Suburbia

Writing by Imitation - Shopping Lists

I was browsing the recipe books and making a shopping list.

Big Seed went and made his own book, cut strips of paper and stapled them

(his new thing).

Then I got him a recipe book with large writing and he copied some words.

He was very proud.

Gnome Books

Big Seed discovered the stapler I placed in his writing box.

He is quite adapt with scissors so cut up tiny pieces of paper

that were so small...

"Well I can make these into books for the gnomes."

And so he did, he wrapped them up and then asked,

"When is it their birthday? I want to give it to them for their birthday."

Luckily a 4 year old has no concept of time...so their birthdays were today.

Joy

x

Tens and Units with Diggers and Toddlers

Numbers can be stimulating if they are tactile,

and hook onto their interests

Colourful, solid, smooth, round, long, spherical

flat, square, numbers, tiles, smooth, mixed up, jumbled

" What is this? 

I like this.

What is a hook?

What is this for?

What does it do?" 

 Toddler play along side Montessori style tens and units lesson

with homemade tens bead bars and digger number cards from here

See the other activities in our Construction Unit on the left bar

and our September giveaway

Construction Area Signs

Decorate your construction area with these signs

to download from this pack here

The boys pegged them up around their play area and used blu-tack 

on walls and cupboards.

Let's get building!

See the side bar on the left for our Construction unit links

and our September giveaway!

Back To School/ September Giveaway

I bought this bag for Big Seed for snacks.

I love it!

So I asked Sam at My Beautiful Girl from Etsy if she would like to do a global giveaway

for you ladies...

so here it is!

For your chance to win 1 sandwich size bag in a print of her choosing

All you have to do is:

1. For 1 entry-Go to her Etsy store here 

THEN write a comment on my blog saying which item you like the best

2. For the 2nd entry become a follower of my blog.
(if not I need a contact email address in your comment please)

3. For the 3rd entry become a follower of My Beautiful Girl on Facebook here

Giveaway closes 7th September

Good luck ladies, spread the love

x

What's On Our Shelves For Our Construction Theme

We are using this Unit and also these trays:

A transferring activity- using these coloured plastic ice cubes ( not frozen)

transferring them onto a truck with a teabag strainer/tong

Transferring black beads (rubble) to the truck with lemon slice tongs

All ready to deliver, off we go.

 Sorting nuts and bolts by size and shape. Matching them up and making pairs.

Sticklebricks from Charity Shop

Ordering diggers set 1-20 downloadable from Sparklebox here

Pin pushing pictures of diggers/tools self drawn.

We are also using toy pigs to tell the 3 Little Pigs Story
inspired from Structured Play here. She has some nice construction ideas.

X

Have you seen our gorgeous giveaway here?

Linking to:

Making a construction site & how to make moonsand.

We created a real Construction Site Scene with their small construction vehicles

and a plastic playmat from Ebay for £2.50 on the kitchen table.

You could design your own on a huge piece of paper.

We made our own builder's sand which can be moulded into bricks and things.

This is how you make moon sand:

1 cup of sand to 1/2 a cup cornrstarch 

( however much you want to make this is the ratio)

Mix water with cornstarch first and add food colouring.

Then add to sand.

Add glitter if you want.

Keep in an airtight box and add a few drops of water if it dries out.

Simple!

Part of our construction unit

x

ps it sticks to your socks/feet/clothes when playing

so wash off before you run around on the carpet!

Construction Unit Printables

We are now learning about Construction Vehicles

so I made my boys some printables to put on the shelves

Click on image for Scribd or here for Googledocs download

In this unit you will find:

Matching pairs

3 part cards

Counting 1- 10 with numerals

Cutting practice strips

Counting worksheet

 Addition worksheet

Sorry the printables wouldn't transfer across to Blogger

so these are photos of the sheets laminated before I cut them out for my Seeds.

Check out the link to see a clear view.

Print 1 sheet or the whole pack.

I have made things to suit both my boys who are 20 months and 4 years.

The unit is for your personal use not for resale or my gnomes will come and find you

and tell the troll who lives under my stairs....and we all know what happens then!

I hope you like it.

x

Graphics by BabyStarDesign@MyGrafico

Part of our Construction Unit Ideas and part 2

Have you seen our gorgeous giveaway?

Pin Pushing Is Our New Big Thing- Toddlers with Pins!

This is so simple...the boys love this.

Just a pin from a cork notice board with an end to grip,

and poke, poke, poke to their hearts content.

The paper is placed on a big sponge (... like ours . Car wash sponge for 50p!),

or piece of foam or polystyrene.

They trace inside letters of their name and then hold it up to the light...

Even Little Seed likes poking into the sponge or paper pictures...

Anything goes.

And yes... that is my 20 month old son with a sharp pin.

I am influenced by Jean Liedloff who wrote the Continuum Concept.

An amazing woman who went into South America and lived amongst Stone Age Indians.

She advocated baby wearing, breastfeeding, not to deny screaming babies but to trust their and your own instincts.

This is what she says in an interview with Michael Mendizza from The Mother Magazine:

"We pride ourselves on being so intelligent, and yet we feel that we are the only species whose children are so stupid that they're going to throw themselves into the fire, out of windows and into swimming pools."

" We are the only animal that doesn't follow its mother, how can this be? Because we keep showing our children we expect them to run away: whereas people in the jungle have their children follow them around like animals."

"The point is trust. We are paying a terrible price when we don't trust our human nature, which works beautifully when we do. When we don't trust, our expectations are inappropriate, for ourselves and our children."

I show Little Seed what to do, and he copies his eldest brother.

I show him how sharp the needle is and he then concentrates and builds up skills, thereby building up self-confidence.

He has not hurt himself yet and probably won't.

He cuts strawberries and bananas with knives, and handles scissors ( although he can't cut).

He is allowed to do things without an air of nervousness around him and he enjoys.

Try hesitating next time you want to shout, "Don't do that! " and see if you can 

find a way to scaffold what they want to do.

x

 

A Tiny Door To A Gnome & Fairy Land

What could possibly be behind the door?

Where are those 2 gnomes going?

You'll never know because they go in there at night when children are asleep.

I think they are going to appear in every room in the house, different shapes and sizes!

( A piece of wood painted with a button stuck on, attached to the wall with blu-tak...)