Homemade Rainstick

This is another addition to our do-it-yourself musical instrument collection - Poppet got FAR more enjoyment from making this than she does from actually using it so it tends to stay sat up on the windowsill but it was still worth it for a day of crafting activity!

I saw the instructions for how to make a rainstick over on The Imagination Tree ages ago and kept it in my mind for such a time when I had a cardboard tube available; well I finally framed and hung up a print that had been languishing in a tube in the cupboard for a long time so we gathered our materials together and got started! We used

• 1 cardboard tube (thick type)
• small nails (type for hanging pictures)
• hammer
• glue
• craft paper
• collage bits to stick on
• split peas and peanuts for the inside (you could use anything you have to hand - lentils, dried beans, rice, pasta etc...)

To start off you simply hammer in the nails at random intervals all around the cardboard tube - the more you use the better it will sound. Poppet was very insistent that she have a go at banging some in so I started them off for her then held the tube while she hit them, being careful to keep her hands away from the nail. She LOVED this.

Once we had finished the inside of the tube looked like this:

We filled the tube up with some nuts and some yellow spilt peas and made sure the lid was sealed very securely. We tried it out and they gave a good sound but I think you would get an even better sound if you used shiny, hard, dried beans like kidney beans or something. We will definitely try this again once I get around to framing some more prints that I have lying around! Then Poppet covered some pieces of paper (she chose pink and purple) in glue and rolled them around the tube to cover it and pressed it all down. It doesn't really matter if it creases as it will get covered in collage bits anyway.

We left it to dry (as usual, copious amounts of glue was used), and then in the afternoon Poppet decorated it with some torn up tissue paper, feathers and foam shapes.

And here she is trying out the finished product. The girls were distinctly underwhelmed by the noise it makes in comparison to the drums we made! But it was free and we had great fun making it!

Poppet : 2 yrs 8 mos

Little: 11 mos

Dinosaur Small World Play

Our local sells-everything-under-the-sun shop had a box of toy dinosaurs when we visited it earlier in the week; Poppet spent a long time rifling through it, comparing dinosaurs, trying to find a 'nice' one. She eventually settled on a quite friendly-looking brachiosaurus (they have their names helpfully printed on the underside). He still had a bit of a fearsome toothy grin so she obviously felt she had to confirm with me - "izzat a nice one?", before she was satisfied enough to take him home. We were en route to the library so picked up a dinosaur book while we were there, and thus a dinosaur enthusiast was born.

At home, we made a dinosaur small world play scene using a large garden sieve. We filled it with sunflower seeds and split peas, and then used greenery from the garden stuck into lumps of playdough to create trees and bushes.

It smelled really good! The playdough was eucalyptus scented and the foliage included rosemary and sage. I also discovered some mini dinosaurs in our job lot of plastic animals we got from eBay, so these became 'baby' dinosaurs.

We attempted to match the dinosaurs up to the pictures in the book.....

Later on I discovered that what I thought was a dinosaur was actually a kangaroo, felt a bit stupid. Should have noticed the ears......

We have had a couple more dinosaur books out now and they have really highlighted my terrible dinosaur-related knowledge! For instance, did you know that not all dinosaurs were wiped out?! Some survived and evolved into birds! Blew my mind! Poppet mainly likes going through the books and labelling all the dinosaurs as "good" or "bad". Most are bad.

I hope this dinosaur interest continues as I would love to watch The Land Before Time again!

Parcel Tape Drums

I was going to send a copper lampshade we weren't using to the charity shop but thought it might be able to become quite a good drum instead. I have been eying up toy drums online for a while as whenever the music box comes out at our toddler group the drums are the most popular instrument, but this alternative cost me nothing and has given the littles just as much enjoyment!

We had to experiment a bit with potential drum skins - starting off with a sheet of baking parchment secured with cellotape. This worked and produced a sound like a snare drum but was too fragile and tore after some enthusiastic drumming. 

We then tried some vinyl tablecloth but it was too thick and we tried cling film too but that didn't work at all. Throughout all this Poppet was excitedly declaring "lets make a drum mum!" And had a great time going mad wrapping cellotape around things she found lying around trying to make her own one "I making a drum!"

Making a 'seat-belt' with the tape

I did a bit of googling and came across this youtube video from Child's Play Music which shows you how to make a drum using parcel tape (I also really liked the video they had on water play and music exploration and plan to do this one day). The parcel tape worked really well and produced a great sounding drum. Poppet loved helping. We stuck down strip upon strip of parcel tape, crossing them all over in the centre until every inch was covered in at least two layers. Then we pressed it down all over to make sure all the strips were stuck together.

Finished drum!

We were on a drum roll (gettit?!) so we also made a smaller one using a cake tin with the bottom removed. We learnt that a drum needs air underneath it to allow it to vibrate, so when the drums were flat on the floor they didn't sound as good as when they were raised up. With this in mind we raised them up using crates or books to improve the sound. We used chop sticks for drumsticks and set the drums up along with the other instruments we own (an xylophone and a set of maracas) to create a complete music station!

Mid-song

Both girls loved it and so did I, you could make some really good beats with them (is that even the correct terminology?! I have no idea!). We have played many different games using the drums. Poppet was really good at banging along in time while singing, although if I attempted to join in she would yell at me "no, I sing it!". We also explored tempo and volume by pretending to be dinosaurs (big, loud, slow thumps of the drum) and mice (little, light, quick taps of the drum), rhinos and rabbits, elephants and spiders.

We used them to explore numbers and counting, with me counting out a certain number of beats and then getting Poppet to copy me. We used different utensils for drumsticks to see what sounds they made - whisks, wooden spoons, plastic sticks etc... The drums have been really popular toys, even with Little!

Poppet: 2yrs 7mos

Little: 11 mos

Playing Cars

Poppet requested that we "make a car", so using some odds and ends from the garden and from our box of recycling, we managed it. When she first asked, I was thinking out loud to myself "How am I going to make a car?" and she heard and replied with "Don't worry mum!". Nice to know she has such faith in me!

I found an old key (at least I think it's old, I have no idea what it is for) and gave it to her. She loved this key, loved finding little holes to stick it into, carrying it about everywhere, losing it then frantically asking "where's my car keys?!" (I think she must have learnt that from her daddy!).

Lunch was a drive-through that day, she did not want to leave her car. I was told to come in quite a lot, first of all squeezed into the passenger seat, later on I was relagated to the back seat after monkey took my place.

The car had to be quickly dismantled during a sudden rainy spell, but the bare bones of it were left out and continued to be used as a car for a few days. Poppet took Little to the shops a few times, even opening the car door for her, entreating her to "get out", and then telling her she had to "hold hands, busy road".

They are really beginning to play together now!

Poppet:2yrs 7mos

Little: 10mos

The Paper Dolls

I think I've found my favourite children's book.

We have quite a few Julia Donaldson books (she of Gruffalo Fame). One of Poppet's favourite books is Monkey Puzzle. So when I saw one that I hadn't heard of before at the library we checked it out straightaway and took it home.

It's a beautiful story with the message that even when precious things are no longer with us, they can live on in our memories. It's the kind of children's book that will put a lump in your throat and a tear in your eye (Guess How Much I Love You anyone?)

It is about a little girl who makes some paper dolls with her mum and then they go on some adventures, and I won't tell you anymore because I don't want to spoil the ending. And I have a bit of a habit for spoiling endings. I will just say that the last few pages are incredible. Because of the message of this book it would be really good for a child coming to terms with any kind of loss (be it a favourite toy or a grandparent) or at the stage of questioning the circle of life.

I will be buying our own copy to keep I love it so much and it would make a lovely present.

Inspired by the book, we sat down one morning to make some paper dolls. I am not very craft-minded so my first attempt didn't go too well! To make them you need to accordion fold a sheet of paper, draw a doll outline on the front then cut it out. Making sure the dolls arms go right to the edges of the paper on each side to make sure the dolls are 'holding hands'. I only did it on one side the first time which resulted in a couple of twosomes.

I finally got it right and let Poppet unfold it to find the dolls holding hands which she was pretty impressed with. 

Then I blu-tacked the dolls to her desk (to stop them moving around) and gave her some paint to decorate them with. She painted some 'dresses' on them all and we left them to dry till the next day (she used a lot of paint!).

The next day she coloured in one of the twosomes with her felt tips and then we taped them to the painted ones so we had a very pretty six-some. But I never got a chance to take a photo because while I was making dinner this happened. 

Poppet took it upon herself to reenact the book. Oh dear I might have just spoiled the ending.

Poppet: 2yrs 7mos

Little: 10 mos

*Update* 2/10/13  I'm not the only one who loves this book, as I discovered the other day that The Paper Dolls has won a Scottish Children's Book Club Award, and free copies are being given to P1 pupils as part of BookBug. It is a really lovely book.

Holiday Collage

Whenever we go for a walk, we help Poppet pick up 'special' things to take home; things like leaves and shells and flowers (and we ditch the 'treasures' that she hands us that aren't so special, mainly a lot of twigs).

Our local library is running a competition over the summer, asking children to create a collage on the theme of 'A Year Of Natural Scotland'. We had been collecting bits and pieces from our travels and holidays this year, so for Poppet's entry she created a collage from them.

The wild flowers were picked by Poppet and her Grandma on the last evening of our holiday at their island home. The weather was not great for our week's holiday there but on that last evening the sun came out and we had a lovely after dinner walk. My favourites are the orchids and cotton grass. Grandma pressed them for us and brought them to our house on her next visit. Poppet was also given the flower press so hopefully we can have a go at some flower pressing some time soon!

Our other collage bits included postcards from each of our Scottish holiday destinations, Poppet's ferry boarding card, some leaves, shells and wheat ears. We used the sturdy cardboard back to an old scrapbook as the base for the collage. I gave Poppet a pot of glue and a spreader and she was off!

She loved the gluing and was completely absorbed in the task in hand. She spent ages at this activity, covering the bits with glue and deciding where to put them. Some of the things didn't glue so well (the shells and big leaves) so I got out some glue dots and she loved using them. They gave her fine motor skills a really good workout! 

Once all the 'treasures' were glued on Poppet was still on a glueing roll and wasn't ready to stop, I had to take the collage away from her to cries of "little bit more!" as I didn't think the masterpiece would benefit greatly from the addition of some coloured foam shapes (it is a competition after all!).

She was pacified by the prospect of glueing shapes onto a ladybird picture (it has been given two star-shaped 'eyes').

The finished collage!

*Update* Poppet won her category and received a £10 book voucher as her prize!

Its Raining, It's Pouring

Take one torrential downpour, and in the words of Forrest Gump, I am talking big old fat rain here;

Bundle one toddler up in their newly-gifted rainsuit and wellies;

Hand toddler a cup to 'catch some rain for mummy',

Usher toddler out of the door and into the downpour.........

The novelty of being outside during such heavy rainfall transfixed Poppet, she mostly stood very still, staring & listening, enjoying the sensation of the rain landing on her.

The sound of her singing drifted up the garden- she sang "It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring" and "Inchy winchy spider". Good choices.

Whenever her hood slipped down I was shouted to come and "put hood up!" but other than that she was happy to wander about in her own little world, singing to herself, knocking off any pools of rain she found on the leaves and jumping in puddles.

She dutifully returned with a rather pathetic amount of rain collected in her cup, and was inordinately proud of it. I felt a bit cruel at this point as her little hands were freezing so she got dried off with a warm towel and a mug of hot chocolate for her trouble.

She must have enjoyed it though as a couple of days later the heavens opened again and she responded with a "Rain jacket on?"