Weekend Wanderings – Simple Outdoor Play Ideas for Sick Toddlers!

I brought out a big basket of cardboard boxes and other recycled treasures (does anyone else hold onto everything thinking you could use that for craft later or is that just me?), added some paint with a little glue mixed in, a big bowl of loose collage items such as scraps of wool, felt and paper and pretty much just let them explore and create by themselves…..

We also extended this activity to a large box out on the grass to decorate…don't you love how Ruby needed to pull up a chair to paint the poor love! By doing these sort of unstructured activities outside you can keep reusing items for quite a few days and there is no need to worry about mess!

Ruby has been enjoying taking some risks and getting adventurous outside lately. By leaving a few loose (safe) materials around in the yard the girls can explore their own risk taking challenges. Here she dragged a board over to the sandpit and balanced it on a large boulder…she was surprised when she realised the end she wasn't standing on would tilt up but still decided to try walking down it.

It was fun watching her think about how she could get down the other side without falling off. Yes I could have stopped her but it's important to give them the opportunities to solve their problems and ‘have a go'. She got there in the end and was so proud of herself!

 We did play indoors too of course and a little mix and mess play with flour, playdough and a few other collected bits is always a winner…messy but it was worth the peace believe me!

As appetites started coming back I tried a new recipe for the family – Oven Baked Vegetable, Spinach and Bacon Risotto…which I turned into balls for the girls. An easy recipe easily modified for fussy toddlers. Look out for it on the blog later in the week! Yummy I promise!

I'm finally nearly ready to open my Family Day Care and it is all getting very exciting…and a little scary now I must say! I have been madly trying to finish setting up our environment and complete paperwork…and of course the girls picked this time to get sick! All part of being a parent I know!

I'm about to begin advertising my opening and am in love with my new logo. It was created by the wonderfully talented Kate from Picklebums and she captured everything I wanted to convey! What do you think?

The plastic of whatever container you use must be quite strong, I first tried milk cartons but that didn't work very well, we could still turn the handle with a little force.
With this one the children can still turn on the cold water but can't push it to the left to turn on the hot water. It doesn't look pretty I know but it is working really well and it saved me having to get a plumber out to adjust the hot water temperature which is a fussy and expensive process as we have solar hot water.

You can see from the pictures below how and where we cut holes…you would of course modify for your own sort of tap but do let me know if you have any questions! Perhaps it will help another Family Day Care Educator you know save some money too!

There was one last project this weekend that we managed to get done which proved to be the girls absolute favourite simple outdoor activity….although perhaps not our neighbour's favourite….do you know what this might be? Keep an eye on the blog because later in the week  I will share how we made our Musical Spool Table

Warm Wishes….