Walnut Racing Mice from Red Ted Art

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Ness

Make these super cute, super simple, racing walnut mice from Red Ted Art. They are a quick and easy craft for kids and would be perfect for story telling, small world play, and imaginary play. Keep reading to download a FREE excerpt from the fabulous new book Red Ted Art – Cute and Easy Crafts for Kids by Maggy Woodley!

If your kids love to craft and you need projects that are straight forward, simple to create and use items you can find around the home, then look no further Red Ted Art. Maggy Woodley’s amazing website is full of crafty inspiration. When I heard that Maggy had written a book, sharing over SIXTY brand new crafts for kids that are cut and simple to create, I couldn’t wait to read it.

We were thrilled to receive a copy of this gorgeous book to review and we haven’t stopped pouring over it’s pages since it arrived. With every turn of the page, R (4 yrs) exclaimed “Let’s make that! Oh, let’s make THAT!” The adorable pipe cleaner and gumnut octopus that you can see on the front cover was his absolute favourite project and he was so motivated by the book to get crafting and be creative that we went for a walk to collect gumnuts the very same day the book arrived!

I can tell I’ll be referring to this book a LOT. There are more than SIXTY projects to choose from and every single one uses every day items found around the home or garden. Each project is achievable for even the most craft-challenged amongst us and almost all of them can be completed in five or less simple steps. Got some toilet roll tubes? Make a zoo full of animals! Got an empty egg carton? Make a string of blossom fairy lights! Got rocks and crayons? Make some colourful paperweights!

This is the sort of book that R can just pick up, flip through the pages, choose something to make and within ten minutes I can set up an activity for him to do while I ~~get on with some housework~~ enjoy a nice cup of coffee!

Red Ted Art – Cute and Easy Crafts for Kids is available to order through Fishpond with FREE WORLDWIDE POSTAGE and you can also purchase it at all good independent bookstores here in Australia. As a special treat for One Perfect Day readers, Maggy Woodley is kindly sharing an excerpt from her gorgeous book. Below are the instructions for making these adorable racing walnut mice.

You can also click on the photo to download and print this excerpt.

Red Ted Art Cute and Easy Crafts for Kids – Australian Blog Tour
Love the racing walnut mice? Want to see more projects from this fabulous book? I am thrilled to be part of a fun Australian blog tour for Red Ted Art – Cute and Easy Crafts for Kids. Check the list below to see all of wonderful blogs taking part, and you will be able to view other cute projects from the book!

Sunday 16 June: Laughing Kids Learn’s Book review
Monday 17 June: One Perfect Day
Tuesday 18 June: Triple T Mum
Friday 21 June: Picklebums
Saturday 22 June: Mummy Musings and Mayhem
Monday 24 June: My Little Bookcase
Tuesday 25 June: At Home with Ali
Wednesday 26 June: Everyday Story
Thursday 27 June: Learn with Play at Home
Thursday 27 June: Lessons Learnt Journal
Friday 28 June: Wildlife Fun 4 Kids
TBC: Learning to Play and Playing to Learn

Thank you for visiting One Perfect Day! Follow us on Facebook for lots more fun and simple activities for kids!

You can also ollow One Perfect Day on Pinterest, Twitter or Instagram for creative ways for kids to play and learn, family recipes, and much more.

4th of July Games and Activities for Kids

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Ness

Welcome back to Tuesday Tots! There were so many fabulous ideas linked up last week, thanks to everyone for joining in. The fourth of July is just around the corner, so, especially for my US readers, this week I’m featuring patriotic crafts and games.

Here are three fun and simple activities to try with your little ones.

1. Patriotic ribbon wands from Buggy and Buddy

2. 4th of July printable teaching pack from Gift of Curiosity.

3. Red, white and blue sensory bin from Little Bins for Little Hands.

Thank you to everyone who linked up and congratulations if you have been featured this week. Please feel free to grab a “featured at” button from my sidebar.

Last year, we made some sparkling 4th of July fireworks pictures. You can read how we did it by clicking on the picture below.

Now it’s time to link up your fabulous play ideas for the under fives!

Please read the Tuesday Tots guidelines before linking up.

Fun and Simple DIY Games for Kids

Posted on June 4, 2013 by Ness

Welcome back to Tuesday Tots! There were so many fabulous ideas linked up last week, thanks to everyone for joining in. This week I’m featuring fun and simple DIY family games.

Here are 20 fabulous, fun and simple games to try with your little ones.

1. Rock Stamps from Thrive 360 Living.

2. Tin Can Indoor Golf from The Craft Train.

3. DIY Board Game from Octavia and Vicky.

4. Magna Doodle Learning Activities from Happy Hooligans.

5. Color Matching with Painted Garden Stones from Twodaloo guest posting at Train Up a Child as we Grow.

6. Lego activity for tots from Laughing Kids Learn.

7. There are loads of ideas for fun family games at My Little Bookcase.

8. DIY Walking Balloon Pet from Green Owl Art.

9. Family Dice Game from Adventures at Home with Mum.

10. For some Fourth of July fun, here is a fab list of Patriotic Activities from B-Inspired Mama.

11. Party Blower Frog Catching Game from J Daniel 4′s Mom.

12. Dinosaur small world play travel box from The Usual Mayhem.

13. Pretend Play Driveway Town from Me and Marie Learning.

14. Pool Noodle Games from Play Eat Grow.

15. DIY Felt board weather game from The Good Life Mum.

16. DIY Mix-and-Match Robots from The Kavanaugh Report.

17. Fun and simple Improvisation Game for Kids from At Home With Ali guest posting at Octavia and Vicky.

18. Alphabet Rocks from Mum of One.

19. DIY Connect the Dot Game from Adventures at Home with Mum

20. Pirate Treasure Map from Tutus and Tea Parties

Thank you to everyone who linked up and congratulations if you have been featured this week. Please feel free to grab a “featured at” button from my sidebar.

Now it’s time to link up your fabulous play ideas for the under fives!

Please read the Tuesday Tots guidelines before linking up.

Playful Storytelling: A Story Basket for One Snowy Night

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Ness

Story baskets offer so many possibilities for creative, open ended play. They are quick and simple to put together using items collected on nature walks, favourite toys, blocks and felt scraps. After seeing the beautiful fairytale story basket created by the lovely Anna at The Imagination Tree as part of our joint Playful Storytelling series, I was inspired to create a story basket for one of R’s (4 yrs) favourite books – One Snowy Night by Nick Butterworth.

One Snowy Night is part of the Percy The Park Keeper series. In this sweet tale, full of the most delightful illustrations, Percy finds his animal friends need his help on a cold and snowy night, and one by one an entire menagerie come to his hut looking for shelter from the freezing weather.

I filled our story basket with a few scraps of felt and some felting wool, pine cones and natural wood blocks, a mirror (to represent a frozen pond in the park), popsicle sticks, a plastic toy from R’s train set to represent Percy, and some animal finger puppets. (Our finger puppets were purchased from IKEA. I bought them a couple of years ago but I think they do still stock them).

R spread out the white felt to make some snow covered ground and added the pine cones, wood blocks and other elements to make the snow covered park in the story. We use these natural elements all the time in our imaginative play – they’ve been used for everything from a dinosaur world to a frog pond. He then began retelling the story of One Snowy Night adding in his own stories – such as the photo above where he’s taking the duck for a swim in the pond.

Story baskets are such a lovely way to encourage language development, imagination and creative thinking. This was a wonderful quiet time activity for R and he sat contentedly creating stories and new characters to add to the original tale.

In the story, all the animals pile in to Percy’s bed to keep warm and it soon gets a bit crowded! I simply cut one large and one small rectangle from felt, and voila! Instant bed. The animals in our set of finger puppets are not the same as the animals in the story but that’s the beauty of this kind of play. Things don’t need to be perfect. I find that if I just provide R with a starting point, he’ll take things in his own direction. It made no difference to him which animals we used – he even added the giraffe and elephant finger puppets to his story!

At one point in the story, all the animals become frightened by strange noises coming from beneath the floorboards of Percy’s hut. Much to Percy’s amusement the noises are not a monster, as imagined by the animals – it turns out to be a sweet little mole. I added popsicle sticks to the story basket and R used them as the floor boards. Our finger puppets don’t include a mole so a little bear came up through the floorboards!

I adore the open ended nature of story baskets. While the initial idea behind this basket was for retelling the story from a favourite book, the elements can all be used in so many ways. The felting wool can be snow, clouds, rain or even wind. The wood blocks can be used as trees, or stacked together to make a house. The felt can be blankets, picnic rugs or snow. So many hours of creative play to be had!

Don’t forget to pop over to The Imagination Tree to see all of the wonderful Playful Storytelling ideas that Anna is sharing.

You can also follow all the fun via our Playful Storytelling Pinterest board.

You can see all of my Playful Storytelling posts here.

If this is your first time visiting One Perfect Day – welcome! If you like what you have found, please join us on Facebook or follow us on Pinterest or Twitter where you will find lots of ideas for fun kids activities, thoughts on parenting, family recipes and more.

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Outdoor Play Ideas for Kids

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Ness

Tuesday Tots is returning to One Perfect Day! I am absolutely thrilled to be co-hosting Tuesday Tots once again after a short break. Tuesday Tots is a weekly link up of activities especially suited for the under fives. It is a fantastic resource of ideas for kids to play and learn and is co-hosted by Rainy Day Mum , Learn with Play at Home and Growing a Jeweled Rose.

Each week I will feature posts that were linked up in the previous week. This week I am featuring outdoor play ideas.

1. Have some musical fun with a homemade rainbow xylophone from And Next Comes L

2. Make a giant chalk keyboard also from And Next Comes L

3. Explore painting with nature from The Usual Mayhem

4. Make a gorgeous beachcombing treasure tile from The Boy and Me

5. Enjoy some playful science with water, mirrors and reflections from My Nearest and Dearest

6. Introduce kids to gardening with recycled container gardening from Inspiration Laboratories

7. Get creative with some ice chalk from Reading Confetti

8. Draw some cool self portraits with chalk shadows from Reading Confetti

9.Have fun with 20 ways to play with bubbles from Blog Me Mom

10.Try painting with toy trucks and feet from Sugar Bee Learning

11. Enjoy a game of water bottle skittles from Poppet and Little

12. Have fun at the beach from Nothing if not Intentional

13. Have fun at the park with these 18 ideas from KC Edventures

14. Make cookie cutter bird feeders from We Made That

15. Explore the outdoor activities list from Early Play

Thank you to everyone who linked up and congratulations if you have been featured this week. Please feel free to grab a “featured at” button from my sidebar.

Here are some more outdoor play ideas that we’ve enjoyed recently:

Now it’s time to link up your fabulous play ideas for the under fives!

Please read the Tuesday Tots guidelines before linking up.

Playful Storytelling: Itsy Bitsy Spider Story Box

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Ness

Incy Wincy. Itsy Bitsy. Eensy Weensy. However you like to sing it, the traditional nursery rhyme about the little spider climbing up the water spout is a huger favourite in our home. Here in Australia we sing it as “Incy Wincy”. How do you sing it in your home or class room? We made a simple story box using recycled materials to go along with the song and R (4 yrs) has been thrilled with it. It was actually very quick to make and because it’s in a box, all the elements pack away neatly inside the box for easy storage – you have to love that!

We painted the inside of a cardboard box blue and green to represent a garden, adding some flowers at the front. On the top flap of the box, we glued on some cotton wool for clouds and a felt sun. To retell the nursery rhyme, we needed rain that could appear and then be taken away again so we painted a cardboard tube blue, and glued on some strips of blue tissue paper. The tube can be balanced on the two side flaps of the box at the appropriate part of the song, and then be taken away again as the sun comes out.

We painted one inside wall of the cardboard box to look like the wall of a house and added a water spout made from a cardboard tube covered in kitchen foil.

For our spider we cut a section from an egg carton and painted it black. For the legs, I used two black pipecleaners. I cut them in half to make a total of four lengths of pipe cleaner. Next, I made a hole on each side of the spider’s body, and threaded all four pipe cleaners in one side and out the other. I bent the ends of each leg to form a foot. To finish, we glued on two googley eyes and our spider was done.

Then it was time to play! Incy Wincy spider, climbed up the water spout….

(Enter the cardboard tub of “rain”) Down came the rain, and washed poor Incy out….

(Lift up the top of the box) Out came the sun, and dried up all the rain, so Incy Wincy Spider climbed up the spout again!

Don’t forget to pop over to The Imagination Tree to see the absolutely adorable Fairytale Storytelling Basket that Anna is sharing this week.

You can also follow all the fun via our Playful Storytelling Pinterest board.

You can see all of my Playful Storytelling posts here.

DIY Lego Magnets

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Ness

These DIY Lego magnets would have to be one of the easiest crafts we’ve ever done. A few Lego bricks, some hot glue, a couple of magnets and voila! Instant colour and fun for the fridge. They’ve been a huge hit with the little Lego fan in our family.

MAKE DIY LEGO MAGNETS

Supplies:

Lego bricks

Strong magnets

Hot glue gun

Note: Self-adhesive magnet tape that you can buy in a roll won’t be strong enough for fridge magnets. You need something fairly strong if you want these to be practical and not just decorative. Having said that, I didn’t buy anything special for these. I used very inexpensive magnets from our local $2 shop (for my US and UK readers, that’s the Australian equivalent of the Dollar Tree). As for the glue, I used a hot glue gun and our magnets have held together perfectly. You could also use super glue or any strong glue of your choice. Regular craft glue won’t be strong enough though.

To make your Lego magnets, glue the magnet pieces to the back of the Lego bricks. That’s it! Pretty tricky right? Wait for at least 24 hours before using them. They’ll stick to the fridge just fine before then, but you don’t want to put any pressure on them to hold things to the fridge until the glue has completely dried, so it’s best to wait.

These magnets are so fun and colourful. They’ve definitely brightened our kitchen. They’d be a fun addition to a magnetic board in a home office or play room.

The magnets would also make a quick and simple DIY gift – perfect for a Lego fan – and who doesn’t know at least one? They would also be a great party favor for a Lego themed birthday party.

Sidewalk Chalk Paint

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Ness

Sidewalk chalk paint is such a fun outdoor activity for kids. It is quick and simple to make and uses just three common household ingredients. Sidewalk chalk paint offers hours of creative play and it all washes away easily with a hose or some rain.

It’s Autumn here in Australia yet the weather has been gorgeously sunny and warm so we’ve been spending as much time outdoors as possible. We enjoyed taking our art to the beach recently and so we thought it would be fun to try taking art outdoors again. Last week I whipped up a batch of sidewalk paint and R (4 yrs) had a wonderful time painting and exploring with this simple diy paint.

How to make sidewalk chalk paint

Simply mix together equal parts of corn flour (corn starch for my US readers) and water and add several drops of food colouring. That’s it. It’s that simple. I don’t measure anything. I usually just half-fill the container I’m using with corn flour (corn starch) and then top it up with water. I add the food colouring and mix. It’s best to be generous with the food colouring because the paint will dry slightly paler than it looks when it’s wet.

I mixed up several colours and we headed outside for some colourful fun. I offered R some sponge brushes as well as regular paint brushes. The sponges worked really well and were a great way to achieve a good thick coverage of paint.

R enjoyed dipping the paint brushes into the paint and then flicking them across the cement to create this lovely splatter effect.

The colours were so vibrant and happy. We found that the corn flour was settling a little at the base of the muffin tin so we would mix the colours with the brushes before using them. This was another way to ensure a good thick coverage of paint.

After creating a few pictures, R decided to tip out all of the colours. It created the most beautiful marbled effect as the colours spread and mixed together.

Such a gorgeous river of colour!

The mixture is basically a concentrated version of goop – you know, the corn flour and water mixture that is a solid when you put your hand into it but runs through your fingers like a liquid. This turned into a wonderful sensory activity and R explored the strange mixture – solid and tough as he ran his fingers through it on the cement but thin and runny when he lifted up his hand and it poured through his fingers. Those messy hands make me happy! It all washed off very easily and what a fantastic sensory exploration!

R tried using the sponge roller over the paint but he found that it didn’t spread – it was a solid once it hit the ground.

R explored happily for half an our or so and I had fun creating some colourful artwork in our back yard as well. We were left with beautiful bright happy murals along our garden path and it makes me smile every time I walk into our yard. We are going to wait for some rain to wash this all away but if you needed to clean up right away you could do so very easily with a garden hose.

I am thrilled to be hosting the 100 Days of Play blog hop today. Co-hosted by Sun Scholars and Life at the Zoo, the 100 Days of Play Blog Hop brings together 100 blogs from around the world, offering 100 play ideas over 100 days. If you have ever heard the words “Mum I’m bored!” or you think you might be running out of play ideas with your children or students, the 100 Days of Play Blog Hop will definitely provide some inspiration!

100 Days of Play Blog Hop
Sharing simple ideas on how to connect with your children through play!
New ideas shared each day from 4/1 – 7/20.

Help us spread the word!

Grab a Button from my sidebar to share on your Blog!

100 Days of Play is brought to you by these wonderful bloggers

SunScholars . Frogs, Snails & Puppy Dog Tails. Playful Learners . Train Up a Child . Fantastic Fun & Learning . Scribble, Doodle & Draw . Learn. Create. Love. . Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas . Nothing if Not Intentional . My Little 3 & Me . Buggy & Buddy . Sun Hats & Wellie Boots . Twodaloo . True Aim . The Educators’ Spin On It . Blog Me Mom . Life At The Zoo . Putti’s World . Kitchen Counter Chronicles . Triple T Mum . Busy Kids Happy Mom . Crystal’s Tiny Treasures . Rainy Day Mum . Momma’s Fun World . My Little Bookcase . Craftulate . One Perfect Day . MumCentral . Artchoo! . Creative World Of Varya . Simple. Home. Blessings. . JDaniel4′s Mom . NurtureStore . Me & Marie Learning . Child Central Station . Mamas Like Me . Mama Miss . Making Boys Men . Powerful Mothering . Craft to Art . 3 Dinosaurs . Domestic Goddesque . Lessons Learnt Journal . Royal Baloo . Smiling Like Sunshine . Adventures at Home with Mum . B-Inspired Mama . PragmaticMom . Eazy Peazy Mealz . Gluesticks . TheBoy&Me . Learning is Messy . My Nearest & Dearest . Growing Book by Book . How to Run a Home Daycare . Here Come the Girls . Think Magnet . Dandelions Picked . 123 Homeschool 4 Me . Our Ordinary Life . Parenting with Professor Poppins . 2 Little Hooligans . Fun-a-Day! . The Non-Martha Mamma . Angelique Felix . My Very Educated Mother . Creative Playhouse . Go Explore Nature . Zing Zing Tree . Sense of Wonder . Childhood 101 . Crayon Freckles . KZ & Me . Serenity You . This Mumma’s Life . Leapfrog & Ladybugs . Blue Bear Wood . Growing Together . KC EDventures . Mommy Lessons 101 . Nature & Play . Like Mama Like Daughter . Mums Make Lists . From Wine to Whine . Messy Kids . Babble Dabble Do . Sugar Aunts . Teaching @ Home . Preschool Powol Packets . Clothed in Love . Curiosity Creates . The Magnolia Barn . Strong Start . Stay-at-Home Mom Survival Guide . Learn with Play at Home . Mummy… Mummy… MUM! . Science Sparks . Toddler Approved . Thrive 360 Living . Rockabye Butterfly . Mud Hut Mama . Coffee Cups & Crayons . Playing with Words 365 . My Lil Love Bugs . Creative Connections for Kids . LalyMom . Love, Play, Learn . Kindergarten & Preschool for Parents & Teachers . The Pleasantest Thing . Teach Beside Me

Playful Storytelling: Three Little Pigs Dramatic Play

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Ness

For this week’s Playful Storytelling post we are continuing the theme of traditional Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes. We had fun dressing up and using simple props to retell the story of the classic fairy tale The Three Little Pigs. We are all about simple play and using items we already have around our home. With just a few simple items, we had everything we needed to have an afternoon of fun acting out one of R’s favourite traditional tales.

Our very simple wolf costume was created using a party mask that we pulled from R’s dress up drawer. I used black paint to add features such as the nose and eyes. The ears are two triangles cut from some silver cardboard, then outlined with black pipe cleaners. The ears were attached to the mask with adhesive tape – all very quick and easy. Now, I actually think this looks more like a fox than a wolf, but R was thrilled with it and that’s all that matters, isn’t it? This is about playful story telling, not complicated crafts and details. For the finishing touch I tied one of my scarves around R’s waist and voila! A wolf’s tail!

For our straw house we used a few wicker baskets stacked together. These baskets are the kind that fit inside the Expedit shelves from IKEA. The base comes out of them so they can be packed flat and two bases leaning against each other made the perfect roof for out little house.

After building our straw house and it was time to huff, and puff and bloooooow that house down! Disclaimer: there may have been a little more than wind power used to knock down this house!

That wolf’s tail is the cutest, isn’t it? I love dress ups that turn every day clothes into something magical. For our stick house we gathered up some fallen branches and twigs from our front yard. We have an enormous gum tree that sheds tonnes of twigs every day. We basically just piled them up into a big mound and called it a house. Our own home became the third little pig’s brick house.

This took next to no time to put together and R had a brilliant time. When it comes to playful storytelling, or any imaginative play, the simpler the props the better. It leaves so much scope for children’s imaginations to run wild.

Do your children have a favourite nursery rhyme or fairy tale?

Don’t forget to pop over to The Imagination Tree to see what Anna is sharing this week.

You can also follow all the fun via our Playful Storytelling Pinterest board.

You can see all of my Playful Storytelling posts here.

First Map Skills – Teaching Kids How to Read Maps

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Ness

if you’re a regular reader here, then you know just how much R (4 yrs) loves treasure hunts. We’ve enjoyed a garden treasure hunt with painted rocks, and an alphabet treasure hunt with objects from around our home to name just a few. I thought it would be fun switch things up a little and add some map reading to our treasure hunt games. Map reading is an important skill for kids to learn. It fosters spatial awareness, encourages problem-solving skills, creative thinking and reasoning.

To introduce R to basic map reading, I drew a simple plan of our living room. This was just a simple rectangle frame with the windows marked on the sides. I then wrote the names of “landmarks” within the room on pieces of cardboard. These landmarks were the furniture in our room – bookshelves, sofas, coffee tables etc. I colour coded the cardboard landmarks so that sofas and chairs were all one colour, tables and bookshelves were another, and the TV was a third colour.

I talked to R about orientation, and explained that the map was a representation of the room in which we were standing.

He then placed the landmarks in their appropriate positions on the map and glued them in place.

Let the treasure hunt begin! When the map was complete, I hid five Lego mini figures around the room and placed blue dot stickers on the map to show where they were hidden.

R then used the map to navigate himself around the room and find the Lego mini figures.

This was a huge hit and when he had found all five Lego figures, R hid the figures for me to find. He moved the blue dot stickers to the appropriate parts of the map to show me where he had hidden the figures, so he was using the map in a new way as we reversed our roles in the game. I’m not sure if it was the fact that we were playing a treasure hunt game, or that it involved Lego or that he was excited to learn something new (map reading) but whatever it was, R loved this game!