A is for Anna of Arendelle

Posted on February 6, 2018 by Beth at Bamm Boo

Little Miss is a bit obsessed with Frozen lately! So Anna was an obvious choice for the letter ‘A’

I’ve made a few magnetic toys over the years. They’re great for popping in your bag to go to coffee shops and so on!!

Continue reading →

Posted in Crafts, Pre-school | Leave a comment

Camping with children – Why?

Posted on July 19, 2017 by Beth at Bamm Boo

If you’ve only ever been camping at a music festival or as a girl guide/scout you might be thinking of camping as some kind of purgatory. This post is for you!

Why camp with children?

Why camp with children

 

  • You get to be outside all day. This might not actually seem like a plus point but I really love waking up in the morning and just being out in the fresh air.

 

  •  You can let your kids be basically feral and no one minds. Kids love the kind of freedom they can only get from being in a massive field. Granted if you’ve got a crazy toddler that part of it is not necessarily fun for you.

Why camp with children

 

  • You get to eat burgers and drink beer from about 2pm while still feeling like an awesome parent.

Continue reading →

Posted in Baby, Camping, Pre-school, Primary School Children (5-10), Toddler | 2 Comments

Spring Round Up – 9 easy activities for kids

Posted on May 12, 2017 by Beth at Bamm Boo

In so many ways I’m not suited to being a stay at home parent! I’m terrible at cleaning, I have a tendency to be antisocial and I thrive on deadlines! I’m a master procrastinator. The longer I leave things the bigger they get. Then I don’t do other things that I want to do because I’ve got this big backlog of things I ‘need’ to do. Instead I waste time binge watching TV series on Netflix or playing silly games on my phone. I convince myself that I just need a break. That’s true but I’m also being lazy and avoiding doing things I genuinely like doing for no particular reason!

So, with all that in mind here is a round up of spring activities for kids. I can get these things crossed off my list and get on with other things! (Like making my nephew’s birthday present that was due three weeks ago! At some point I may go through and add extra detail but on the whole I think they’re fairly self explanatory

9 brilliant hands on spring activities for kids. There is a mix of indoor and outdoor activities involving sensory and nature play and learning.

This post contains amazon affiliate links which means if you buy something I get a small advertising fee at no extra cost to you.

Spring Play dough

9 brilliant hands on spring activities for kids. There is a mix of indoor and outdoor activities involving sensory and nature play and learning.

This really popular, both kids played with it all through March. I wrote about it here

Rabbits and chicks sensory play

9 brilliant hands on spring activities for kids. There is a mix of indoor and outdoor activities involving sensory and nature play and learning.

The green  side is rice dyed with food colouring and other side is ‘soup and broth mix’ that I found at the back of the cupboard. The bunnies and chicks were from Poundland’s easter range. It was really interesting to see the different ways the children interacted with this. The big one created a complicated game with the bunnies trying to steal the farmer’s vegetables. The little one made a mess!

Continue reading →

Posted in Primary School Children (5-10), Sensory play, Toddler | Leave a comment

Spring – Nature activities in the woods

Posted on April 24, 2017 by Beth at Bamm Boo

Little Miss and I were really lucky to attend 8 weeks of “Wellies in the Woods” run by our local Children’s Centre. Each week we went to the local woods for two hours and I attempted to get Little Miss to join in with the activities rather than running off and falling into rabbit holes :).

Spring nature activities in the woods using simple equipment you have at home. Suitable for mixed age groups. A great way to get your kids outside.

E came to a session in the last school holiday and was really disappointed it wasn’t on again during the Easter Holidays so we headed into the woods to do our own. Prior to this I don’t think I’d ever taken either child into the woods on my own. As I’ve said before I quite like planning activities so the idea of preparing for a trip into the woods rather than just wandering in really appealed to me.

Scavenger hunt

There are lots of different printables available on pinterest. I chose this one because I liked the pictures and I thought it might interest Little Miss as well. She liked drawing on it so I guess it kind of worked. It really kept E’s attention.

Spring nature activities in the woods using simple equipment you have at home. Suitable for mixed age groups. A great way to get your kids outside.

Bark Rubbings

This is a really good way of getting them to get really close to the trees and actually look carefully.  You just need ordinary crayons and paper. Little Miss also quite likes hugging trees.

Spring nature activities in the woods using simple equipment you have at home. Suitable for mixed age groups. A great way to get your kids outside.

Continue reading →

Posted in Pre-school, Primary School Children (5-10), Sensory play | 9 Comments

Spring Play Dough

Posted on March 29, 2017 by Beth at Bamm Boo

I love spring especially the way the flowers seem to suddenly appear. For March’s play dough set I wanted to bring some of that indoors because, let’s face it, the weather’s been a bit rubbish!! I was inspired my this Spring Play Dough Set from Mama Papa Bubba.

Spring play dough. This is a great invitation to play for toddlers, preschoolers and beyond. It's a good steam homeschool activity giving opportunities to talk about the changes of the season.

Contents

  • Soil Play dough.
    • I use this recipe from Counting Coconuts . If you’ve not bought it before, cream of tatar can be found in the baking section of any supermarket.
    • To make it look like soil I waited until it was cool then kneaded in about a tablespoon of ground coffee. This has given it a really lovely grainy texture – but also means that it leaves bits of ground coffee everywhere.
    • On my Facebook page people have also suggested using cocoa powder or making up a pot of coffee and using that instead of the water.
  • Fake flowers. I got these from Wilkos and cut them up. This can leave a sharp edge so you might want to try and get individual flowers or tape the ends off.

Spring play dough. This is a great invitation to play for toddlers, preschoolers and beyond. It's a good steam homeschool activity giving opportunities to talk about the changes of the season.

  • Plastic insects. We already had these Melissa and Doug ones. (This is an affiliate links which means if you click on the link and buy something I get a small advertising fee at no extra cost to you. )
  • Plastic Bowls. I decided to use bowls instead of plant pots because I couldn’t find any coloured plant pots.
  • Textured play dough rollers from The Dotty Dough Factory  (This one isn’t an affiliate link – but I highly recommend their play dough and tools)

Continue reading →

Posted in Sensory play | 13 Comments