Flour Play

This was a really simple activity to set up and one that went down really well. 

I put a pile of flour in the middle of the Tuff Spot along with some cars and aeroplanes and by the time I grabbed the camera the girls were already investigating it.

Poppet soon discovered that the wheels made tracks in the flour and she had fun creating roads, then I showed her that you could also trace shapes in the flour with your finger. She loved experimenting with this drawing 'faces' in the flour. Little was just enjoying kicking her feet in the flour and rubbing it in with her hands. Poppet clocked the fun Little was having in her bare feet and really surprised me by deciding to take her socks off too, because Little "got socks off".

Normally, Poppet is reluctant to actually get that messy when engaging in messy play, preferring to use utensils to explore the sensory material on offer, and if she does get anything on her hands or feet is usually pretty quick to ask me to "clean it!". So I don't know if there is something special about the flour that she likes, or if this is a change in her approach to messy play generally. Time will tell!

She really enjoyed the sensation of the flour on her feet and went a little crazy jumping about in it- maybe I have a tap dancer in the making! She has always liked sprinkling it everywhere when we make pastry or anything and it does feel lovely and soft to play with. I'm looking forward to finding more sensory play ingredients that she likes! 

Messy Play - Jelly Smash!

It looks like summer has finally arrived! Today has been gloriously sunny so we took the opportunity to  engage in some messy play outside, introducing Poppet and Little to the sensation and texture of jelly!

I had a few farmyard animals and a shell suspended within the jelly, and I also gave them various tools that they could use to explore it. It looked very jelly-fish like sitting there and Poppet spent quite a while just poking at it to see it wobble!

She liked nudging the jelly with the wooden spoon in order to free some of the animals. Little got stuck in with her hands as usual. 

Poppet's weapon of choice was the toy mallet and she spent the rest of the time bashing the jelly up into pieces. Little by this point had figured out that it tasted good.

Poppet also liked eating it. I even gave it a taste.

  Little preferred to use her feet and legs to mash up the jelly. While eating it. She is multi-talented.

Two sticky, happy babies then had a paddling pool bath (£1 from Poundland!) to clean off. I think this was Little's favourite part.

Poppet: 2yrs 4 mos

Little: 8 mos

Spaghetti Messy Play

This was our first ever messy play activity in our Tuff Spot. I first read about Tuff spots over on Edspire and was inspired to get one as part of the messy play legacy of Matilda Mae, a beautiful 9 month old little girl who was taken from her family too soon. Hopefully it will encourage us to engage in more messy play and make lovely messy memories.

They are great for messy play activities indoors and outdoors, making cleaning up a lot easier!  I cooked up a batch of cheap spaghetti, dyed it green and put it on the tray along with a selection of things - a yoghurt bucket, tongs, dustpan, knife, doctor's scissors things, a car, horse and mini wok.

Now I should probably mention that Poppet is not the biggest fan of getting messy! Even as a baby she didn't like her feet in grass or sand, and hates having 'dirty' hands. She was quite cautious when faced with the pile of spaghetti but was definitely curious..... Anyway I left the room for a second and when I came back Little had a pile of spaghetti on her head that I am pretty sure she didn't put there by herself so Poppet must have overcome her fear.

Little displays none of her older sister's mess aversion and got stuck in. Everything goes into her mouth at the moment. Poppet was really concerned about this, shouting "don't eat it it's dirty!" at her.

Poppet preferred using the utensils to pick the spaghetti up, and fill the bucket with. She really hated it if any spaghetti got stuck to her feet and wanted it taken off immediately. We talked about what it felt like and decided it was 'cold' and 'very sticky' and 'not nice'. Fair enough!

She finished up by making dishes and plates of spaghetti pizza and spaghetti pie and spaghetti cake.

Poppet: 2yrs 4mos

Little 7 mos