Sunday 20 February 2011

On the Farm

Friday was Riley's Nursery trip to the Farm - we had such a good time (though we did have a couple of meltdowns from sheer exhaustion!)

So here's Riley looking like a hiker with a sheep....


And Freya chasing the chickens around the chicken coop....

Sunday 13 February 2011

Valentines Sensory Play

Oh, we had fun today!  This was so up Freya's street it was unbelievable - and Riley really liked it too.  The other day I dyed some rice with a bit of pink food colouring (approx 500g of rice and 1/2tsp of food colouring if anyone's interested in the 'recipe'!!!) and left it to dry.  Then today, I put it in the tub with half a pack of cheap table confetti.  Pink and sparkly - very Valentines-ish.  And very Freya!  So here they are...



Aw - so pretty!

Saturday 12 February 2011

Formula 1 in Glitter Glue!!!!!!

Today, Riley and I were sat at the kitchen table when he asked to do glitter glue.  Never one to miss an opportunity for art, I happily got the supplies out and just let him go for it. 




He started off blobbing different colours on to his page like he usually does, but after he'd done 7 or 8 different colours he started tracing his finger around the page.  To start with he went in between the blobs really carefully, then he started making car sounds to go with his tracing.


After a while he started going through the blobs of glitter glue, mixing them all together and leaving void marks with his fingers, and then he suddenly announced 'Its Formula 1!'  He was at it for ages, driving his finger around, making a track.  It was wonderful - totally process led.  And what made him think of formula 1, I have no idea (we follow it, but the season ended months ago.)

So anyway, here is Riley's interpretation of Formula 1, in the medium of glitter glue.....

Friday 4 February 2011

Crazy Soap Sensory Play


I think I've said before - I love this stuff!  Just like shaving foam, but without the mess. 


That being said, there was a bit of mess - Riley decided he liked splatting it to make tiny, tiny bits fly everywhere!  Aaaaargh!

Wednesday 2 February 2011

Miss F having a paint!


It was her first go with a paintbrush - she's turning into quite the little artist!  She's just fascinated with everything creative (hooray, hooray, hooray!!!!!).  It was just a splat and daub session today, so no finished piece pictures, just a note that, as ever, she had SO much fun.

Btw, the bleeding tissue paper art that I did with Riley was half success, half disaster.  When we peeled the dried tissue paper off the first one the next day it wasn't as good as we'd hoped.  In fact, it looked better before the tissue paper came off, so we left the other two with the tissue paper on!  My advice to anyone wanting to try it is to use different colours (eg. red and blue, or green and purple) rather than shades of the same colour so it stands out.  Or do a monochromatic scheme but use it for a background and stick something else over the top of it.  Have fun!!!

Thursday 27 January 2011

Freya the Mermaid!

Freya is very into clothes and dressing up, which I am so enjoying as Riley couldn't care less about either!  The other day she started trying to 'wear' one of our rainbow arches as a belt, (needless to say it didn't work!) so I quickly transformed her into a rainbow mermaid using them all.


I had to take photos of her to show her as she couldn't really go and admire herself in the hallway mirror - she was very happy with the result! 

Wednesday 26 January 2011

Bleeding Tissue Paper Valentines Art

Today Riley and I did some bleeding tissue paper art.  I've seen it done a couple of times, but I've never done it so it was a bit of an experiment!  And at this time of year, what else could we do but a pink, heart-y creation.  I cut out some little hearts and strips of tissue paper in different pinks and reds as Riley still can't use scissors.  Then he used a sponge to wet his piece of paper - this was apparently the best bit!


Once its nice and wet you place the tissue paper on it - it doesn't have to be neat, in fact when I've seen it done if its a bit messy and crumply the finished result looks better - and then you dab more water over it.



Riley thought it was great, and its minimal mess too - just mopping up splashed water.  We've left them to dry overnight.  In theory we'll take the tissue paper off tomorrow and it'll have left a colourful print.  I'll post photos of the finished result.  For now though, here's the pieces drying - so pretty!  (And can you believe he did 3?!  That's what splashing about with water does!!)

Sunday 23 January 2011

Dinosaur Sticky-Backed-Plastic Collage

I love doing sticky-backed-plastic collages - they're so easy and mess free, just tape a piece of the plastic down, peel off the backing and let your kid go crazy.  And my favourite thing to stick on?  Pictures cut out from used wrapping paper.  It takes a bit of time to cut them out if you don't have a kid that is great with scissors, but Riley has so much fun doing them.

Anyway, we had some dinosaur wrapping paper left over from Riley's birthday so I cut out the dinos and some leaves from some green tissue paper to make it look jungle-y and that was it.  As its so foolproof I decided to let Freya have a go for the first time - she loved it.


And here's Riley too....



To be honest, Riley wasn't into it that much today - he seemed to see it as a time-trial and piled all his bits on in the centre as quick as possible.  He literally did it for 2 minutes, then announced "No more dinosaurs."  But Freya sat there for ages and she only put one piece on back-to-front (and she tried to change it afterwards) which I think is pretty good for a first attempt!  Here's the finished ones.....

Riley's:



And Freya's:

Friday 21 January 2011

Masking Tape 'Batik'

Today I tried to do masking tape 'batik' with Riley.  He didn't really get it, though he did have fun using sticky tape and slopping paint about.


Hopefully he'll remember what we did next time we try (our session was cut short by Freya waking up from a nap and screaming the place down) and it'll be a bit more successful.  And it all adds to experience!  Anyway, here's the finished piece:

Wednesday 19 January 2011

Chalks and Peppa Pig!

The other day I let Freya have a go with the chalks - she's so excited every time I give her new art materials!  I gave her black card, which is totally new to her, and coloured chalks, and then she decided to add a few Peppa Pig stickers (which in theory were hers, but Riley used most of them a few days ago when he had an arty moment so there weren't too many left!).  It was all a bit dusty and smudgy, but she had lots of fun.


Finished picture......



I've got a few good ideas up my sleeve for her to try in the coming weeks.  I can't wait to see what she does with them!

Saturday 15 January 2011

Christmas!

I know its a bit late, but I realised today that I haven't shared with you any of our Christmas.  And since its been a bit quiet around these parts for the last few days I thought I'd show a picture or two.  So here's Freya in her new Rudolph dress up costume:


And Riley with his toolbox:


To be honest, I'm getting a bit cross at the moment - I can't seem to get any good photos.  Even our Christmas day ones were rubbish.  Grrrrr.  I'm blaming it on the horrible, grey, cloudy weather we've had for weeks.

Tuesday 11 January 2011

Yet another sensory play

I am so into sensory play at the moment.  Its so easy - you tip the stuff into a bowl/tray, let them play with it, then tip it back in the packet and put it away.  Minimal set up and clean up!!!  Until today.  I've had an idea lurking for ages.  I was intending to do it before Christmas as a festive activity, but all the horrible illness got in the way (they both had the nasty nasty virus - did I tell you that?  And were both out of circulation for well over a week at slightly staggered times.  I nearly went crazy.)  The idea is very simple - uncooked, rolled porridge oats and a little bit of glitter.  As is usual now, Riley refused to even look at it.  Freya thought it was wonderful though and had a full on tantrum when I took it away (she was trying to redecorate the kitchen with it in my defence!)



A word of warning though - this is one to do outside.  The oats were really dusty and didn't want to shake off our mat easily, and well, glitter is glitter and goes everywhere at the best of times!  So my plan of virtually no clean up was thwarted today, extra sweeping and wiping - yuck!

Monday 10 January 2011

Fingerpainting with Freya

Today was Freya's first ever go with paints.  She seems so into art at the moment, I just had to let her loose when Riley wasn't around (I knew I wouldn't be able to cope with the mess 2 of them would make at once!)  I think she liked it.


So those are the cute photos of her painting happily......  And here's one of her after she painted herself:



Aaaaaargh!  She's still got paint in her ear now!!!  I'm not entirely sure how to get it out!  Anyway, here it is - Freya's first ever painting:


Sunday 9 January 2011

Getting back in the swing of things

Isn't it funny how the holidays completely disrupt your routine - or is it just our house?  I'm barely organised still.  Anyway, though I have great plans for the weeks to come (doesn't everyone in the first few weeks of January?!) none were suitable for today, so we did some basic drawing - Freya with crayons and colouring pencils, Riley with felt tip markers.




Apparently colouring pencils are tasty!!!  I'm so pleased - Freya is very into art.  She spent weeks climbing up on to the kitchen table, which drove me absolutely crazy, until I realised she was just trying to get to the crayons, bless her.  How cute is that?  Riley is rather take-it-or-leave-it with art most of the time, so I encourage him as much as I can, and try to provide varied and interesting projects for him, but Freya actually goes looking for art supplies.  (She keeps pointing to the glue on the shelf at the moment - not sure I'm ready for that chaos!)  I hope she continues loving it.  I don't think I've shown you any of Freya's 'finished' scribbles yet, but I thought I would today as in the last few days she's changed from back and forth scribbles to round and round ones.  She's very pleased with herself.  Here it is:



And here's one of Riley's:

Saturday 8 January 2011

More Sensory Play

Today Riley joined in too, for the first time in weeks.  Nothing amazing, our faithful bag of dried beans, this time with an Ikea heart shaped ice cube tray.  Freya had lots of fun trying to spoon the beans into the little holes!




I've got a great idea for a brand new sensory play activity - I'll reveal all soon!

Thursday 6 January 2011

I'm back - but barely!!!

Well that was a longer blogging break than I expected.  I had intended to take a few days off over Christmas, but Riley was ill for the whole run up so I never even made it on to wish everyone a Merry Christmas (hope you all had a good one!).  Freya then caught the virus off Riley, and well, things are just about back to normal now.  I'm afraid I don't have any pictures for you today - everything I've taken in the last few days seems to be blurry or was half a second too late.  I'll be back soon - with photos - I promise!