Exploring The National Maritime Museum

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Ness

We love visiting art galleries and museums. They are such a great way to spark kids’ curiosity and open them up to new interests. They are also a great way to offer some playful, hands on learning. Here’s five tips for making a visit to the museum fun:

1. Visit an exhibition that is about a subject your child is already interested in. This might be space, animals, cars, dinosaurs etc and then while you’re there visit other galleries in the museum that might spark a new interest and offer new experiences.

2. Talk about the exhibit before you go, ask your child what they think they might see, go the library and borrow some books about the subject of the exhibition, play games, draw pictures.

3. Find a museum that has hands on experiences and kid friendly activities. Most museums and galleries have activities for kids and exhibits that are hands-on and playful.

4. Take it slow. Follow your child’s lead. If they are interested in a particular exhibit, let them spend as long as they like focusing on that one thing. They are learning while they are so engaged! Don’t rush them through and it’s fine if you don’t look at every single thing that is on display. The important thing is that your child is interested and having fun.

5. Follow up your visit to the museum by talking about what you saw, ask your child what they enjoyed most and then pursue that interest with some books on the subject or find other places to visit that offer activities on the same topic.

We recently visited The National Maritime Museum and their latest exhibit “Rescue“. There is so much hands-on fun at the National Maritime Museum and all three of us had a fantastic day. It’s pretty good when the parents can come away from a day having had has much fun as the kids! R (4yrs) spent the entire day running from exhibit to exhibit, his eyes wide and the biggest smile on his face. It was as though we’d taken him to the best playground he’d ever seen.

There’s nothing better (or mure fun!) than hands-on learning. R was so proud when he managed to make this rocking boat balance by distributing the weighted blocks correctly. This was part of the “Ships at Sea” exhibition which runs until April 28. The activity pictured below was definitely one of the favourites of the day! Three remote controlled submarines that kids (and in our case parents!!) have to navigate into the docks. We may or may not have had some family competitions more than once at this one!

R learned about wind force at this exhibit. He moved the large fan to help move the sail boat across the table. He went back to this one many times.

After having fun at the Ships at Sea exhibit we moved downstairs to the Rescue exhibit. The exhibit teaches kids about search and rescue services on land, sea and air. So. Much. Fun! This interactive display teaches kids about the different types of fire extinguishers that are use for different types of fires. R was in his element. He has always loved fire engines and fire fighting and when we were ready to leave the museum that day we had to go back for another turn at this one before we could go home! (There were quite a few grown ups giving this one a try too!)

Rescue time! The race was on to rescue someone from the water. The wonderful thing about all of these exhibits was how suitable they were for different ages. The exhibition is recommended for ages 5 to 12 and there really is something for everyone. I saw many kids under 5 (and R was one of them) who were having a fantastic time and my hubby and I had just as much fun as R.

This is a blurry pic, sorry but I just had to show you because this was by R’s favourite of the day. Kids can put themselves on the news with this interactive video. They can sit at a newsdesk and read the news before putting themselves at the scene of a rescue mission. Lots and lots of dramatic acting and silly antics at this one!

Taking control of a full-sized helicopter simulator…..

Playing dress ups to look like a real rescue worker….

There was balancing for the little ones…..

And climbing for the bigger ones….. haha yes, that’s me scaling a rock climbing wall! Just call me spiderwoman. OK, so it’s not that high but the aim is to scale the circumference of a “mountain” and it was exhausting! It’s tougher than it looks but a tonne of fun!

A very special part of our days was the museum’s “Cabinet of Curiosities” . This is free with your entry during school holidays and is on display at 2pm daily. Kids can explore wonderful and curious objects from the museum’s education collection.

As if all of that wasn’t already enough, we then explored the museum’s vessels including HM Bark Endeavour replica, a fabulous tall ship and replica of James Cook’s famous ship, HMAS Vampire a 1956 daring class destroyer and HMAS Onslow, a 1969 oberon class submarine. There are many more vessels in the museum’s collection, just click here to seem them all.

There is so much happening at the museum these school holidays and throughout the year. For full details of their school holiday events just visit their website. We visited with a “Big Ticket” which allows a family of two adults and up to three kids to visit all of the museum’s galleries and exhibits, all their vessels and the kids on deck activities for just $65 for the entire family. There are lots of kids activities held throughout the year including Kids on Deck and Mini Mariners where kids can explore the galleries, sing and dance with costumed guides. We had such a fabulous day and can’t wait to go back to explore some more!

What are your plans these school holidays?

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.

*We received a complimentary family big ticket from The National Maritime Museum. The words and opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.

Now to this week’s linky. As always, THANK YOU to everyone for linking up last week. Here are a few of my favourites. Thank you all for sharing.

Making it up to my son – Ghostwritermummy

This Time Around – Dirt and Boogers

Things I’ve Learned – Plain Vanilla Mom

If you’ve been featured, please help yourself to an “I’ve been featured at The Sunday Parenting Party” button from my sidebar. Thanks again for linking up!

Puffy Paint {Math, science and sensory play in kids’ art}

Posted on October 23, 2012 by Ness

We had so much fun with our raised salt painting, watching the reaction of the paint as it mixed with the salt, so I knew R(4) would just love the transformations that take place with puffy paint. This activity has it all – art, math, science and sensory play. Can’t ask for more than that!

There are a few different recipes for puffy paint, some which call for self-raising flour, some which call for plain flour mixed with baking powder. I opted for a recipe shared at Two Happy Homemakers which called for plain flour and baking powder. Of course self-raising flour is just plain flour with baking powder added to it, but I thought that having to add the baking powder ourselves might add a fun science experiment to this activity.

DIY MICROWAVE PUFFY PAINT RECIPE

1 tblsp plain flour
1 tblsp salt
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 tblsp plus 1 tsp of water
food colouring

Mix all the ingredients together. Paint onto paper. Put the painting into the microwave for 20 seconds. Do not leave the microwave unattended during that time. Carefully remove the painting and observe the wonderful transformation! Be careful – the paint may be hot when it is removed from the microwave.

NOTE: We were not very precise with our measurements. R measured the ingredients himself and we weren’t too fussed if we had a slightly heaped tablespoon or if we were slightly under with the measurements. We also found the mixture very thick so we added more water. If you would like to include math within this activity, then be accurate with your measurements and talk about quantities and capacity. You could even count the number of times you stir the mixture.

We made six batches of the puffy paint recipe, adding one batch to each hole in a muffin tin. It’s hard to see, but the above picture shows the science component of this activity. When we added the water to the mixture, there was a chemical reaction between the baking powder, salt and water. The mixture began fizzing and bubbling the same way that baking powder and vinegar react with one another.

Once we were happy with the consistency of the puffy paint, we began adding colours. This is always R’s favourite part of any art or cooking activity.

Mixing, mixing. So much messy fun!

The colours were so bright and happy. We experimented with mixing colours and combined red and yellow to make orange, and we mixed green and blue to make aqua (although it looks like dark green in the photo).

Even though we added more water than was listed in the recipe, the paint was still very thick. If we do this again we will probably add more water so it is easier to work with. It was fun though trying out something with a texture we haven’t worked with before.

Waiting patiently by the microwave.

R was fascinated with the transformation. This added a wonderful sensory element to this art activity We also talked about the science behind the puffy paint, discussing why reaction had occurred.

This was a definite hit with R and we’ll be sure to do this one again. There were just so many dimensions to this activity from creating the paint, watching the baking powder reaction, colour mixing, painting, and finally “cooking” our pictures and seeing the paint become puffy. Playing, learning, creating. That’s what it’s all about!

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. We are always sharing new ideas to play, learn, create and explore.

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Play, learn and connect with The Weekly Kids’ Co-op

Posted on October 20, 2012 by Ness

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Weekly Kids’ Co-op. There were 177 fabulous kids’ activities linked up last week and I’m so honored to be featuring four of them below.

This gorgeous corn necklace comes from Ramblings From Utopia. How beautiful are those colours? Click on the pic for the how-to and for more stunning photos.

Isn’t this one of the cutest costumes you’ve ever seen? And the BEST part? It’s no-sew!! That’s my kind of costume. Thank you Atkinson Drive for linking up this fabulous no-sew shark costume. Click on the photo to read the full tutorial.

PlayDrMom shared some wonderful ways to help kids learn about feelings through playful activities.

And Little Wonders Days shared October’s 10 Easy and Inexpensive Ways To Show Your KidsYou Love Them.

Thank you so much to everyone for linking up. If you have been featured today, please feel free to take a “Featured at One Perfect Day” badge from the sidebar.

Now it’s your turn! To join in the fun, you might like to:

1. “like” The Kid’s Co-Op Facebook Page where you’ll find a complete list of all the amazing blogs who co-host this link up each week. Throughout the week we also highlight some of our favourite posts that have been linked up.
2. Follow our Kids Co-Op Pinterest board
3. Bookmark or pin this post and check back throughout the week to see what else has been added to the link up.
4. Link up your post featuring a child friendly activity.

I can’t wait to see what fantastic ideas are shared this week!

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Welcome to the Weekly Kids’ Co-op

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Ness

Welcome to this week’s Weekly Kid’s Co-Op link up!

We have many new subscribers here at One Perfect Day and you may be asking, “What’s the Weekly Kid’s Co-op?” Well, my friends, The Weekly Kid’s Co-op is a weekly link up party where you can share your favourite kids activities. Each week a plethora of ideas geared for toddlers to pre-teens are linked up and the party just gets bigger and better every week. We are looking for activities that are family oriented, fun, unique and educational.

Each week I feature two or three of my favourites from the previous week. What inspired you last week? Here are a couple that I know we’ll have fun trying out.

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Welcome to the Weekly Kids Co-op link up

Posted on April 28, 2012 by Ness

Welcom to this week’s Weekly Kid’s Co-Op link up. Every week I am amazed and inspired by the ideas that everyone has shared, and every week I find new blogs that I haven’t come across before that are just amazing! What inspired you this week? Here are a few of my favourites. Continue reading →

Kid’s Art – Raised Salt Painting

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Ness

If this is your first time visiting One Perfect Day – welcome! If you like what you have found, please join us on our Facebook page. We are always sharing new ideas to play, learn, create and explore.

Who knew painting could be so exciting! I mean, jump out of your chair and squeal exciting! Well, that’s exactly the reaction R (3) had when we tried raised salt painting for the first time.

For this activity we used:

table salt
white glue
liquid water colour paints (you could also use water with food colouring added)
paper of various colours (black works really well against vibrant colours)
paintbrushes or pipettes
A tray

STEP 1:
Lay your paper on the tray (we used a baking tray) and pour white glue onto your page. You could draw a picture or simply make patterns and shapes like we did. Go wild and cover as much of the page as possible for maximum effect.

STEP 2:
Pour table salt over the glue. Be generous. You don’t want to skimp on the salt here. Once you’ve covered all the glue with salt, lift up the page and shake off the excess salt. Shake it into the tray so that you can recycle the salt for your next picture.

STEP 3:
Now the REALLY fun part! Dip your paintbrush into the liquid watercolour paints and drop some colour onto the salt. You only need to drop a little colour in one spot. You are not actually brushing the colour over the page with the brush. Then sit back and watch the magic! The colour will spread and run along the lines of salt. R was entranced! (TIP: instead of liquid watercolours, use some water that has been coloured with food colouring. An eye dropper could be substituted for the paintbrush.)

This project was definitely all about the process, not the product (although the end product was pretty spectacular too!) R was mesmerised as he watched the paint travel along the lines of salt and glue. He would make a guess as to how far the colour would travel before stopping and whether one colour would reach all the way to “meet” another colour and when the colours did meet he literally leapt out of his chair yelling “It made it!”

That smile says it all! R kept at this activity for almost an hour – a very long time for him with painting. Painting is one of his favourite things to do but he usually only spends 10 to 15 minutes at a time on it. With salt painting, he just wanted to create more and more pictures. They turned out so beautifully too. The salt crystalises and sparkles - it’s pretty special. Here’s a close up.

This photo was taken while the painting was still wet. The colours faded a little as the painting dried. Something else to keep in mind – these pictures are not built to last. The salt will crumble and fall off the page as it dries. So, if you really love the masterpieces that your little ones create, take lots of photos!

Here’s a few of R’s paintings. They looked fantastic and I don’t think he’s ever had more fun producing a painting before!

Here’s one that we created together. I applied the glue and R applied the salt and the colour.

What’s your favourite non-traditional painting material?

This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

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Sometimes a walk in the garden is all it takes

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Ness

The photos in today’s post are not all that exciting, but they show a truly lovely part of our day and that’s what this blog is all about. We had reached the witching hour this afternoon. You know the time of day that I mean, when everyone is tired, patience is an effort, the dinner needs to be made, and no-one is at their best. I knew what we needed was to just re-group and get some fresh air and sunshine. We headed outside with no particular plan in mind.

We began by watering our vegetable patch. R(3) has been carefully tending some carrots and celery that he planted with his Daddy a few weeks ago. As he sprayed the hose over the garden, he said “Just soft and gentle, like Daddy said. We don’t blast them.” He continued watering the garden, declaring that “hosing is fun” and at one point “Hey Mummy. Guess what?” “What darling?” “I love you.” I knew heading outside was a good idea.

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Mixing oil and water – science experiment

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Ness

One of R(3)’s most favourite things to do at the moment is colour mixing. Whenever we play with paint lately, he inevitably has more fun experimenting with mixing the colours than actually putting paint on paper. I thought this little experiment of mixing oil, water and food colouring would really spark his imagination. He had so much fun with this and as usual, his play evolved from our first intention (the science experiment) to something else altogether – fine motor, sensory and imaginative play.

I found the idea for this experiment via this post over at Play Create Explore. Be sure to check them out. Jessie has some fantastic ideas for creative play.

This is so simple to put together. All you will need is water (at room temperature), vegetable oil, and food colouring.

Fill a vessel to about three quarters full with the water. We used a hurricane lamp simply because I wanted to use something large, but a vase, or even a larg drinking glass would work just as well. Next, pour in the vegetable oil. For this to work, you will need the layer of oil to be about two inches deep.

Even this first simple step was so much fun! Watching the oil bead together and drop down into the water, and then float back up to the top of the water was fascinating and very meditative.

We waited until the oil had settled into a single layer above the water.

Then it was time to add some colour! We added a few drops of food colouring to the oil. At first it seemed as though nothing was happening, until, slowly……

Slowly…

Things really start to explode in there…

Until at last, we ended up with this….

WOW!

SOME TIPS:

(or what we learned from doing this experiment twice because it was a great big fail the first time around!)

You only need a VERY small amount of food colouring. Just a few drops of each colour. The first time we tried this, we squirted the colouring from syringes and the colour just shot straight through the oil immediately and the water was just a murky mess.
The water needs to be at room temperature.
The larger your vessel, the thicker your layer of oil needs to be. For the large hurricane lamp that we were using, our layer of oil was approximately three inches thick.
Drop in one colour at a time for dramatic effect. Start with your lighter colours first and end with your darker colours, otherwise you won’t see the light colours dropping through. We started with yellow, then followed with red, green and finally blue.

After the colours had started to blend together, R announced that he wanted to mix the oil and water. I handed him a wooden spoon and he explained that he was making “magic jelly”.

I brought out some of his sensory tub tools and handed him a ladel and a bowl. He continued with his imaginative play and this time delcared that he was making a cake for Daddy. This was a wonderful opportunity for scooping and pouring, something R just loves to do. When I put him to bed that night and asked him what his favourite part of the day had been, he said “Ladelling!” It’s written all over his face….

At one point, the ladel fell deep into the oil and water mixture. I decided to hand him some tongs to retrieve it. We use tongs quite a lot with our Montessori trays. Tonging is great for strengthing the pincer grip and is a great pre-writing and pre-scissor cutting exercise. Although R is pretty skilled with tongs these days, I still imagined there would be no way he would retrieve a heavy metal ladel, slippery with oil, using the tongs. He was up for the challenge.

Having a try….

Success!