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Erin’s current daily vocabulary;

“Hiya” (not hello)

“Oh, dear”

“Oh, no”

“Oh, yeah”

“Pretty girl/shoes”

“Two” (never one, or three)

“Good Girl”

“ah, ah, ah” or “bah” (when someone, usually me, is being naughty, or telling her off)

“Garden” (to play round and round the garden)

“aargh, baby”

“goggle, goggle, goggle” (I have no idea, either?!)

“Ta” (at least she has manners)

“dog, dog”

“mum”

“dad”

“dad-dad” (Grandad)

What’s more funny, than the words is the expressions!!

Sorry, no photo this time, camera batteries were out, which is a shame because this was Fun (with a capital F).

Erin was given these paint wands by her Aunty, they are really, really good. You simply leave them in water for 20 seconds the first time (the next time they should work quicker) and paint away. Erin was able to have full control of the painting experience without my worrying about her ‘overdoing’ it with the paint, the thin handle and weight make them suprisingly easy for her to use. Kids from one (with supervision) through to primary school age could have fun with these.

On an arty level the paint colour is very good when it gets going, they are great for normal painting but I can feel a canvas coming out for Erin to make a masterpiece for her room!

More Activities Here (Don’t forget you can receive littlemummy updates via email, just input your email address in the box to the right - strictly no spam!)

The Simple Dollar is urging us to have a money free weekend. Spending time rather than money is a lost art for many of us. Living on one (and a bit) income, and being an avid reader of the simple dollar for some time now I have thought a lot about the activities we can do as a family that are free.

Have a DVD Night

Dig out the dvd’s you haven’t watched for a while, use snacks from the house and make your own ‘in-house cinema’.

Teddy Bears Picnic

Younger kids will love to take dolls and teddies on a picnic, all you really need is a blanket and a tea set.

Go Cycling

If you have bikes, go cycling, free and healthy. We don’t have bikes, but I think I might hire one when I go to Centre Parcs.

Visit Your Local Botanical Gardens

Most areas have local gardens that are well kept and free. Sometimes they even have free exhibitions.

Keep an eye out for Freebies

For example, in Scotland, this weekend, all historical sites are FREE entry, also, I just this week I received an invite to a FREE food tasting event.

Paddling/Ball Pool

Most homes with children have an inflatable pool for water or balls. This can provide hours of fun for kids.

Hold a Scavenger Hunt

Gather your kids and all their friends and hold a scavenger hunt. A quick list typed on the computer of about 20 items will suffice. Divide the kids into pairs, older matched with younger works best. Offer a small prize to the winner (something from the house will do).

Become an Entrepreneur

Ignite your kid’s entrepreneurial spirit and get them working. Make rose perfume (water and petal, remember that?), a lemonade stand, make badges/bracelets from those make and do sets from christmas, make slush puppies to sell, hold a toy sale, start a car washing business, kids love trying to make money!

Go to the Beach

Preschoolers love sand and they love water. At the beach there is an abundance of both, FREE.

Reading

Challenge your kids to read a certain amount of books in one weekend.

Visit Your Local Art Gallery or Museum

We have recently visited two modern art galleries and have thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Hold a Tournament

This is great for older kids. If you have a computer, hold a gaming tournament. If you are lucky enough to have a pool table or darts board hold a knockout tourney.

Arts & Crafts Afternoon

Lay a large mat on the floor and get the glitter, glue, card etc out.

Make a Den

Provide a group of kids with a few sheets/tarpaulin, and other random items to make a den.

Sports

Encourage the kids to organise a mass game of football or rounders in the park.

Photo by flickr user The Alieness

Just a quick post to express my (Erin’s) love of the Usborne touch & feel range. We have five now and I would highly recommend them for children of Erin’s age (14 mths). She happily sits and ‘reads’ these books alone and loves the touchy feely aspect, we also bought one for a boy friend who’s a bit younger than Erin and apparently he loves them too.

Here are the titles we have so far;

That’s Not My Fairy

That’s Not My Car

That’s Not My Monster

That’s Not My Pony

That’s Not My Dragon

Today was a busy day, first I started a new work at home job, then this afternoon I helped a friend with her wedding invitations.

Erin enjoyed some ‘Daddy Time’. Together they produced these white chocolate crispy cakes

(I’m not quite sure if the spring onion in the background is for garnish?!?!)

I was informed that they simply melted some white chocolate, added puffed rice cereal and mixed together. They then divided the mix into paper cases, licked the bowl (!) and decorated with mini eggs and milky bar buttons

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I bought this magnetic sketching toy to put away for when Erin is a bit older. But she loves it!

At first she waggled the pen around not making a mark, but now she scribbles away and has learned that only one end of the pen works. She manouvres the pen in her hand to get the best grip and control for her ‘drawing’. I have noticed Erin’s fine motor skills are really improving because of it.

Buy Etch a Sketch Scribbler

This is a nursery favourite, especially with younger children who get impatient with longer baking projects.

If you don’t fancy baking or think your kids would lose interest too quickly, simply ice rich tea biscuits and decorate with hundreds and thousands, jelly sweets etc… The other advantage, is that you get to see (and eat) the finished product very quickly.

Have fun!

A littlemummy reader gave me the idea for this activity. Simply mix cornflour and water to make the weirdest substance ever, you need to try it to see

We had an absolute blast (as you can see!). In fact it’s probably the best activity we’ve done so far. It’s a little messy, but easy to clean up because it’s only flour and water.

If anyone has any suggestions for activities for us to try please get in touch

We had fun yesterday with our first foray into the world of play dough. With only one attempt at ingestion I thought it went pretty well.

Erin enjoyed investigating, throwing it on the floor (!) and ripping it into small pieces.

The guide on the tub said two years upwards but having worked at a nursery prior to having Erin, I felt confident she would be fine with my full attention

Buy play dough supplies

We made these art work cards over a couple of days, if your kids are older they should manage them in an afternoon.

I gathered together the supplies. A piece of card, paint, brush, water and wipes (for the hands afterwards).

I painted Erin’s hands and let her loose on the card. She didn’t manage complete prints but that doesn’t really matter

I cut out the ‘prints’ and glued to some cards, you can see above that I added some embellishments in the way of glitter, stickers etc… If you have older kids they’ll love this bit.

We were both really proud of the finished article