{The Number Car Game : Sneaky Learning}

Well, yesterday I had one of those days with my 3 year old where I bet grey hairs were getting ready to sprout and I wanted to tear every one of them out!
So. Today. New Day.
There are a tonne of things I could have done this morning, but I made the choice to focus on him today. I made up a game that he absolutely loved! Better than that, it cost me nothing and took minutes to create!

Whilst we used cars, you could use whatever you like for this (stuffed toys, dolls, a button collection, little toy farm animals etc). I am focusing on 1-20 numbers here, but again, do what your child is comfortable with (1-5, 1-10).

{Pasta Play : And Other Cheap Toddler Fun}

All this funny Sydney weather has left me many times with a very active toddler at home whilst it's raining outside. Here are SOME of the ways I have kept him amused lately. I have had to get creative as he is a smart kid, but needs to burn energy and get creative and change activities frequently!

1. Pasta Play:
I started simply by putting 5 pasta noodles on one plate, handing him another empty plate and some mini tongs. No instructions, just let him play and count.


2. Spaghetti Tower: Then I blu-taked a spaghetti strand to a plate and he started building them up counting as he went. He was enjoying this more than I thought.





Of course my son found a way to make a mess (he is an expert there) and do we turned cleaning into another game (I know I may have a shelf life for this lol)!



Then we got s break in the sun so we decided to try car painting. Combining cars and mess = BIG hit for my little one.

1. Find old or cheap cars you don't mind getting painted.
2. Let them paint the wheels and watch on some paper as the tyres make rainbow tracks.
3. Then put done warm soapy water in a bucket and have a "car wash" to clean up ;)


There are a few other things I will share soon that don't cost the earth. If you have any other ideas - feel free to share them here or on facebook or twitter :)

Lauren x




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{Toddler / Pre-schoolers Quiet Book}

I was browsing on pinterest the other day and came across a few quiet book ideas for toddler/ preschoolers. Most of them were hand sewn and beautiful. I was in craft heaven!

However, with a family lunch on later that day, i didn't have much time. So I came up with this in the morning (nothing like leaving yourself a few hours to complete a project).
Armed with my mac book, a laminator and some blue-tak (will replace with velcro dots asap) I got to work.
I would format it properly if i gave myself more than 20 mins to design the pages.

So, here is what I came up with on the rush and it was SUCH a hit for my VERY busy and inquisitive 2 year old. The beauty is you can just add pages as you want to and personalise as interests and skills grow and change.

The cars being different colours and sizes makes a great talking and learning point "Show me the yellow cars" "where are the big cars?" "can you show me the little red car?"


The colours are printed on the page and cut out and laminated also, it helps the little ones know where to put them.

I hope you enjoyed this idea and I now have an order for a 5 year old in the house!

Lauren x