Patterned Paint Rollers

I found these mini lint rollers at my local two-dollar shop and instantly thought I could turn them into patterned paint rollers for the kids. They seemed the right size for little hands and knowing they would be sticky I thought I could cut out some shapes from sponge and stick them on. When I got home though, I remembered I had some old foam stickers that didn't 'stick' anymore because they were too old, so they were perfect!! The only warning I give with this activity is not to load the roller up with too much paint as it just smears and slides across the page instead of actually rolling. Kids loved it :) Will have to use the Christmas shapes and make wrapping paper I think!

*this is what happends when you load it with too much paint (and ignore your mummy's instructions!)

Wild Things

When I picked Mr6 up from school the other day I noticed these big beautiful coloured pictures of 'Wild Things' on the windows. I think the kids designed them based on the book, Where the Wild Things Are (which I loved as a kid) as their drawn pictures had an array of animal features, combined to create their own special creature. I was really impressed by how great they looked and how many artists are in Mr6's class... very talented students in there! Knowing Mr6 is studying animal features at school, I thought some extra practise wouldn't hurt, and then we could discuss the concept of adaptation, environments and features to Miss3 too. I drew one for Miss3 don't laugh, I am NOT an artist, crafter maybe, but in NO way an artist and Mr6 created a new one. While Mr6 drew, coloured and painted his I asked a million questions to get him thinking and was happy his brain was functioning and the point of the lesson was getting through...days like this I feel like I can be a teacher one day . So all we had was oil pastels (Cray Pas), food colouring (diluted for paint) and our imagination, but we had LOADS of fun and learning and now we have some great wall decorations to remind Mr6 to think about creature features

• Where does it live? Mr6- In a tropical rainforest, thats why he is so colourful so he can camouflage in the trees and flowers.
• Where is does it make it's home in the rainforest? Trees, but it can swim in water too.
• What does it eat? Toucans, leaves and insects. It has a beak and sharp teeth so it can chew the Toucan and fish, and the beak can dig into things for insects and rip leaves.
• Why does it have a big eye? So it can see small insects! (seriously mum, dont you get it?!)
• Why does it have a tail? Umm, to help it swim.
• What special things can it do? hmmm, it can makes sounds like a Toucan so it can trick it then catch it and eat it (yup, thats my boy, I was impressed with this answer)

Final look of Mr6's Wild thing

We might extend on this and make a 3D animal I think... maybe playdough with plenty of bits for features (leaves, stickes, shells, sequins, beads, googly eyes, felt etc)... would make for more thinking and we could even make it a home/environment to display it in.... next rainy day activity maybe.

Family Dinner night

Yes that's right we have 1 of these a week. This will seem terrible (I can imagine most of my LDS friends have lovely family meals each night) to some, but we are lucky to have managed 1 night a week at this stage! My husband has always worked late hours, 12 hour work days, 4 days a week, so it;s like being a single parent 4 days a week. On a wednesday however, he finishes off early to start his 'weekend' and arrives home at 5pm. For me it's something to celebrate as I look forward to him being home and spending time with us, and if you're ever here on a wednesday, you'll see (and hear from streets away) the excitement and countdown going on while we wait for dad :) So, we decided wednesdays are our family dinner night. We even sit at the table like real people! This is rare in our house as I usually wait for husband to have my dinner, which is long after the kids bedtime, and usually done in front of the TV (I know it's a bad habit, but it's late ok, and he's not much of a talker as it is LOL). Our table is also rarely visable so we can all sit at it with food in front of us, usually there is a craft project going on, books sprawled out everywhere and pens & pencils galore plus the resident fish... so once a week it all disappears, we all cooperate to make dinner, set the table, make dessert and have a 'nice' dinner with 'nice' conversation. Wednesday is my favourite day of the week :)

Spaghetti and meatballs... cupcakes for dessert

Feta & Eggplant Meatballs.... fruit and marshmallow skewers for dessert

* I forgot to add that wednesdays we try to make a meal we ALL like, which can be very difficult... meatballs are popular with the littles!

Good Behaviour Chart

People keep telling me it's normal for siblings to fight and tease eachother, but I don't know... I have siblings and we NEVER fought and carried on like my kids do! Mind you, I am 8yrs older than the brother I grew up with, and only saw my other siblings on holidays when I visited my dad, so maybe that's why. STILL Miss3 and Mr6 drive me absolutely insane at times with the bickering, tormenting and constant dobbing on eachother. The last few days I have felt ill and can't muster the energy to yell, lecture and have the wooden spoon on display, so today I decided a behaviour chart was needed. My kids are very visual beings, which is why displaying the wooden spoon can work well sometimes, when they remember it's on the bench. So something that can remind them, but in a positive way seemed to be a good idea. While the kids were busy painting (one of the rare things they can do without fighting too much), I put these charts together. I actually wanted to make a felt chart with velcro pieces but impatience gets the better of me when I'm unwell so paper it is.

Money is a good incentive as my kids sure know how to spend it! So here's how our chart works:

1 flower = 10cents

Mum will buy your flowers every wednesday

flowers are given for good behaviours, taken away for unacceptable behaviours (by mum and dad only)

*excuse the unbrushed hair, she HAD to see her chart first

* what the charts SHOULD look like after a few days!

So far, so good, less fighting, more cooperating and off to bed with no "but I need...". Hopefully this will mean the wooden spoon will only come out for cooking from now on :)

Hole lot of fun

One of my prize possessions is my hole punches. I developed a love for them before I had kids and own some books called Punch Art by Debra Clark which caused me to become a hole punch addict! The possibilities with all those shapes are endless and can be very pretty. My kids know I love my punches and not to touch without my okay to do so. This morning they were out and I told the kids they could help themselves... anyone would have thought it was Christmas in our house with the squeals they let out! They're now at the age where they can use them (I think), supervised of course, and they understand they are 'special' and need to be taken care of. They are actually STILL sitting there punching out shapes and gluing while I am posting this (it's kept them busy for the last 1.5 hours). I know you're not all hole punch hoarders, but kids love having shapes to stick and create pictures with, and its great for their imagination.

My stash

Daddy's craft too you know

The other day I left the husband with Miss3 to go do my thing at the craft shop. I left some craft supplies out and said "keep her busy with this... NOT the TV thanks!". When I came home Miss3 was very excited to show me her creation and I was suprised daddy did so well (not that he isn't clever, I can only wish to be as brainy as he). Paddle pop sticks, cupcake wrappers, glue, glitter and daddy thought to use the yogurt tub as a flower pot (just used a knife to make slots to hold the flowers) and tada... everlasting flowers :)

He did try to convince me Miss3 drew the dog... but it's his art work LOL

Girls Card Pack

My latest request was for a pack of cards specifically for girls... so here it is.

Baby Girl

Ice cream

Butterfly (my least favourite, and may be replaced very soon!)

Crown

Mermaid

Dancer

Cupcake

Castle

Unicorn

Fairy

Felt flower headband

A few weeks back I saw some lovely headbands on this girl loves to talk and thought I'd love to make some. I finally got around to it this week. On inspection of my craft supplies though I had an abundance of felt and black elastic (left over from garter belts I made for a hen's night party), and always have a stash of buttons so had to alter my headbands a little for my supplies. I was still pleased with the results and they were simple to make, giving Miss3 a selection to play with now :)

Cut a strip of felt 5cm x 21cm. I used scalloped edge scissors to give my flower edges a rounded look, but straight edge scissors work fine and give a different look. Try cutting zig zags too!

Cut about 2/3 of the way into your felt strip to make a fringe. Then roll it up keeping the straight edge tight and coiled.

Secure the base of your flower with a few stitches running right through the middle of the base under the flower. This will stop it from unravelling when attaching it to the elastic.

Turn your flower over and find the centre, press your thumb into it to spread the petals out

Bring needle up through the centre of the base to secure a button as the centre of your flower.

Now you have a pretty flower to attach to elastic

Measure elastic around your head (or child's head) and secure the ends by stitching together.

Attach your flower by stitching the base of the flower to the elastic

All done :)

Here are some we have made the last couple of days... Im going to use all the elastic I have on me at the moment before I stop this craft I think!

and here is Miss3 being a very uncooperative model for me