Growing Nimble Families

Harvesting your kid’s garden

in Play activities, Seasonal play on 08/29/08

Back in late May/ early June the kid’s planted a garden with Grandma, as mummy can’t bend like that anymore with Baby on board. Here’s the update…….. Nothing grew as I expected and certainly not as high or as fruitful as I expected. We think it was down to the soil and lack of a good potting soil and fertilizer,… View Post

Even Cardboard homes need an update

in Play activities on 08/26/08

Almost a year ago we moved in and the kids claimed some of the [tag]packing boxes[/tag]. We built a house together. Still in heavy use and showing need of major repairs and checking [tag]Angies list[/tag] for roofing specialists; the big guy decided to add some decorative features. The little upkeep we did together was more tape, minor redesign and remodelling,… View Post

Toddler play activity 6

in Play activities on 08/22/08

Why we like it? different sized bears. able to make patterns, groups and sequences. great for counting. Great for introducing colours Why he likes it? putting the bears into groups. trying to find all the same size or same colour. putting them in a line The little guy beginning to learn his colours and this is a game he likes… View Post

Summer is almost over and look

in Play activities, Seasonal play on 08/19/08

Any guesses to what it will be? Was sure it would be bigger by now…………

Summer reading

in Education on 08/15/08

Interesting blog posts to look at this summer Summer activities that won’t cost you a penny. Good Activities For Children With Autism. 90 Low Cost or No Cost Activities to Entertain Your Kids All Summer Long Dealing with a screaming child inside a store Play activities radio this month: Is Your Child on The Fast Track to Success? Rae Pica… View Post

Early childhood information

in Uncategorized on 08/08/08

Playing and learning through play is fundamental to the under 5s. If you want to know more about the process and get into more depth on the subject what better place to look than Early Childhood (EC) Smart Lots of articles that make you think and direct you onto further reading about play and the early years. Highly recommended. Always… View Post

Ladders good Snakes bad- Make your own snakes and ladders

in Education, Play activities on 08/05/08

After reading Junior magazine, that came via Grandma. I was reminded about a [tag]childhood game[/tag] I love and now my big guy loves. We’ve been looking for some new games to play as he has such a photographic memory he wipes the floor with us when we play any of the matching games. Grandma’s idea of putting the cards back… View Post

Planning with kids

in Play activities on 08/01/08

Website to love: Planning with kids– thoughts and ideas about making family life fun. This site is bursting with information about parenting. Planning Queen has a great free ebook with 100 tips for planning for your family. Some of my favourite posts Getting hands on 10 tips for getting children to solve their own problems Rotating the children’s toys We… View Post

DIY toy money

in Education, Play activities on 07/29/08

After a shopping trip the big guy asked for his own ‘bleep bleep’ machine. Once I worked out he meant a [tag]cash register[/tag] we got right to making our own. Materials Old amazon.com book box sheet of construction paper with markers computer with printer tape Coloured card Print program ( We used Printmaster ) We looked at a few cash… View Post

Toddler play activity 5

in Education, Play activities on 07/22/08

The little guy loves to [tag]pretend play[/tag]. He started his pretend playing much earlier than his brother so we’ve found it a bit more challenging to find activities at this younger level. Recently, he’s shown a big interest in [tag]magnetic playsets[/tag] like the ones found here and here. Magnetic play toys are great manipulatives and help to improve hand eye… View Post

Playing with Granny

in Play activities on 07/15/08

My children will be lucky enough to have their granny here to stay for an extended stay this year. We don’t live near either set of grand parents so it’s always a great cause for celebration when we can visit either set or they visit us. Granny plays with the kids in a different way than I do and similar… View Post

Letter scavenger hunt

in Education, Play activities on 07/08/08

Once your child starts having print awareness try this fun game. It combines [tag]movement[/tag], creativity and concentration. We generally use our names to [tag]play[/tag] but other familiar words work just as well. With [tag]Kindergarten[/tag] starting tomorrow for the big guy I felt it was appropriate to use the word “School”. This form of [tag]pretend play[/tag] is exciting as it encourages… View Post