May 29th, 2007 Roundup of fun play activities and ideas Posted by Melitsa in Good reads, Roundups, Sites to visit, play activities

This week has seen the Carnival of SAHMs at Mom is teaching. Summer did a good job of putting together all the post together related to Stay at home moms. You have to check out Lil duck duck and Messy party ideas part 3. I don’t know if I would be brave enough to have one of these parties…without a lot of help. You have to look at part 1. I would love to do that.

We all have scratched cds and dvds. Before you toss them have a look at what your kids can do with them at in the trenches of motherhood.

Fun play dates have a great series going on looking at Global moms. This weeks one is on a UK mum. You can see what other moms do in Italy, Hawaii and France. It’s always interesting to see what other people do elsewhere.

Jessica Zarin Kessin posted over at The Sandbox at Maya’s mom. She shares a timely message about choosing toys for children with special needs. Special needs and development disabilities are on the rise so this article gives some practical advice and activities when you’re looking for that prefect present.

We’re always told to watch less TV but sometimes we don’t know how to fill the time. Activity bags is an alternative I’ve not seen before. Find out where you can get yours here.

Parenting children reminds us about a great food activity to do this summer in Summer fun

Hope you find some great play-activities to do with your kids this week. Sometimes you have to schedule together time. Sometimes you just need some new ideas. Whatever you need here are some fun ideas.

***What fun play-activities have you done this week?****

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May 24th, 2007 Have you started your babies’ treasure basket? Posted by Melitsa in Articles, Education, Homemade, play activities

If your moving baby is anything like mine he’ll have discovered all the things that are at his level. For my youngest this means pots, pan lids, the food shelf with boxes, cans and packets all at some stage end up on the floor. He’s drawn to draws that open and shut and buttons to turn- and that’s only in the kitchen.

He’s drawn to the shapes and textures and must reach out and touch, explore and mouth it. Imagine my delight when I read at Bethany Project the idea of a treasure basket.

Read More…

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May 21st, 2007 Thought for the week Posted by Melitsa in Media, Roundups, Sites to visit

from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6641811.stm

Don’t forget to look up those carnivals. Play-activities.com featured in these ones.

Find out why carnivals are great for you by reading this post.

Grab yourself a long drink and a sticky bun and enjoy this weeks posts.

• Carnival of family life at beagooddad.com
• Carnival for stay at home moms at wiredfornoise.blogspot.com.
• Carnival of homeschooling

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May 17th, 2007 Play activity: How does your garden grow? Posted by Melitsa in Education, Seasonal play

Take a trip to your garden centre now and you will see that it is bursting and overflowing with plants and flowers. Supermarkets and grocery stores have bright blooms at their entrances to entice you to buy.

With the warm weather we decided it was time to start planting out. We had come from a street in Europe that put on a beautiful display of flowers every spring. The boys and I haven’t known any different so although transplanted to the US we wanted to fill the front deck with flowers.

Different flowers and containers since we are in a different climate not too mention elevation, meant we had a lovely long amble about choosing window boxes, colours of flowers and how many we wanted. Then choosing the soil and what equipment to use.

The boys had a riot smelling the herbs and choosing seeds.

Some of the bird feeders were lovely but raised more questions like would it be high enough away from the dogs? and would they eat the seed that falls? or chase the birds? So we stayed away from the finch and hummingbird feeders…..maybe next year.

The afternoon was warm and in the shade we planted the flowers and laid the seeds. Some of the flowers didn’t make it and were pulled out without the roots or the soil. But most made it. We collected rocks for drainage and counted and filled the bottom of the container- no soggy plants for us!

We poured more than planted the seeds as they kept disappearing through little fingers so I’m imagining clumps of parsley in 6 weeks-hopefully.

That evening we gave everything a good soaking with that Miracle grow stuff and water from a tiny watering can. What was I thinking? It kept both the toddler and preschooler happy running to the tap and drowning the thirsty flowers and herbs.

The preschooler was so proud of his efforts everyone that comes to the house, including the postman who drove on by in his cool van mid shovel, was told in a lot of detail how he choose, and was now planting all his flowers.

“They look beautiful.” was always his ending. Before dancing off “Bye!”

We bought

• parsley and basil seeds and one parsley plant (insurance incase the seeds don’t come up)
• 4 geranium plants
• Dahlias plants
• Gazania plants
• Lovely hanging basket plants

We spent a fun time together choosing and planting out the flowers, plants and seeds. It took a long time with a preschooler shoveling and missing but I wouldn’t have missed that in the world. Every morning he’s out there with the watering can……let’s hope they grow.

**How does your garden grow? What are you growing this year?

We’d love to hear…..**

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