Archive for the 'ideas for dad' category

simplicity

Jan 21 2012 Published by under Family Fun, ideas for dad

At some point soon I am going to set to work on the ideas for dad section/blog for proper, but I have my one biggest idea for you right here – simplicity. Sounds a tad cliche, but really, sometimes, no alot of times, the best thing to do is to sit on the floor and get involved.  Sometimes, even just sitting on the floor but keeping distance is company and entertainment enough.

This works to the extent where I can make varied statements about stuff we could do, but sitting with her just playing shopkeepers is enough to keep her happy and occupied for hours.

Just playing is enough

peace, Dan x

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Ideas – Rainy days

Aug 06 2011 Published by under Creative and Messy Play, creative play, ideas for dad

So, it’s a rainy day. Sometimes rainy days are rubbish, they can ruin picnics, planned trips to the park or just generally stop you having fun – right? NO! wrong, very, very wrong.

Sometimes a rainy day can be exactly what you need. But what to do? Grab your wellies and a raincoat and go and splash in puddles. It’s fantastic fun! If you don’t have wellies, why not wear flip flops instead? Assuming you are confident the puddles aren’t filled with nasties, flip flops can be good because they dry out alot quicker than shoes. Plus it’s quite refreshing. Either way, if you and the little one need some fresh air and it’s raining – puddles all the way!

And in an age where peppa pig rules the airwaves in houses across the world, muddy puddles are the latest sensation don’t you know?

But, if it’s raining you can’t go to the park right? Nope, sure it may not be quite as much fun as normal and you may need to be careful  about slipping about – although generally I think kids wellies could stick you upside down.

If you’ve been jumping around in puddles getting a wet bum isn’t really an issue, so why not let them play in the park? At the end of the day it’s only rain and the whole thing can feel like quite an adventure even if it’s the park just around the corner.

Plus one of the best things about getting cold and wet on a rainy day is coming home, drying off and warming up. And Hot chocolates, warm milk or cups of tea feel like a lovely treat after the cold sting of rain.

The bear and I love splashing in puddles and playing in the rain. We have got incredibly wet splashing about, earlier this week the weather was awful, but man did we have fun. We are also really lucky as the drain down the side of our house always back up into a long thin puddle of fun!

If going out in the rain doesnt appeal, and lets be honest, it doesn’t every day, there are some great games to be had indoors. Earlier this week on said rainy day, we made a tent. Tilly actually has a pop up tent, but she loved the tent we made. We used a clothes horse and as my wife is an obsessive sling collector (we babywear) we draped those over it and made a tunnel down the back. Towels, bed sheets or old curtains will do just as well.

The picture to the right is version one, but it was a bit of a squeeze for daddy – you will note, I haven’t shared any pictures of that ;-) - so we made another, where we used the top of the clothes horse and top of the sofa to make a camp for us all. Tilly was overjoyed to be camping in a tent with us both, so much so she even bought a little picnic and feed us anything we asked for. Yum, yum.

The tent was a wonderful opportunity for some creative and imaginative play and a lovely bonding experience for us all.

So, a couple of ideas for rainy days, hope they are of use.


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Drawing – A pirate, a ship and a parrot

Aug 04 2011 Published by under ideas for dad

A Tilly original of a pirate and pirate ship, plus what pirate would be complete without a parrot?!

Ideas for dad - Why not ask your toddler what they are drawing and get an insight into their world of imagination? In my lay opinion I’d also suggest it helps promote the creative nature of drawing – which may sound a little grand. Alternatively it’ll just give you a giggle.

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Creative Play – Midweek creativity

Jul 27 2011 Published by under Creative and Messy Play, creative play, ideas for dad

Had a fab few days off for the bears birthday. All sorts of lovely family craziness.
Had to go back to work today though which made for a sad tidge ‘no back work daddy’ she cried as I had to refuse the painting and sticking and playing with bubbles AND even the park!
Sat this evening after she had gone to bed, Helen and I were putting various parts of the world to rights -as is oft our way- and as ever the conversation meander to parenting – she has just ordered a glut of parenting books she is looking to inhale and share with her attachment parenting group.
The conversation led me to thinking about how much TV the tidge watches and how I wish I could interact more on weekday mornings and so my eyes drifted to her new tabletop easel. The whiteboard pens arrived from eBay today, it’s a shame I won’t have time to play with them with her, I thought………

Another really simple idea, that involves very little effort but will allow you and your children to interact and play in new and engaging ways

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Creations – Picture display solutions

Jul 23 2011 Published by under Creative and Messy Play, ideas for dad, messy play

So you may have noticed Matilda is quite a prolific little artist – but what to do with all the pictures? There’s only so much wall/door space.

When I was looking at her latest creations and sopping over how good they were I had an idea.

So what I have done now is put up string between bookcases and then hung pictures on them. They look fab, Helen and I get to blub over how amazing our daughter is and Tilly was very excited to see all her pictures hanging up :-)

Another simple idea to get some brownie points too.

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Messy Play – Midweek stickinging bonanza

Jul 23 2011 Published by under Creative and Messy Play, ideas for dad, messy play

Think I have lamented previously about not being able to do messy play during the week. Tuesday night was one of those very rare dares where it all fell into place.

Helen was out working, so we had eaten more promptly than we do some nights. After dins Tilly was desperate to paint, but time was creeping round and with set up and tidy up time and a toddler sleepy time bomb on my hands it seemed like a massive liability.

It also seemed like a great idea as I was a bit grumpy and jaded and wanting to have some fun. Then a brainwave hit. Sticking!

Now, I know you may be thinking it is just as messy, but with lots of shapes already cut up, glue pens and some supervision, it was seeming like a tidy plan.

We had a ridiculous amount of fun over the last half hour of the day. Tilly bashed out 6 works of art amongst squeals of delight and I felt like a daddy midweek, which was a massive fillip when I needed it.

My suggestions for sticking success are:
1) glue pens – you can cover the paper in glue, then your little one can do some too, the paper gets sticky and hopefully none else does
2) have an array of materials, we have been using tissue paper, pictures from magazines, multi-coloured paper   cut up into squares, triangles and rectangles of different sizes ahead of time
3) I usually pop these bits little containers because then she can pick the bits she wants as well as pour the shapes over the paper and then SPLAT them down
4) shake pictures over the containers when you are done to get any loose bits where you want them

I have previously torn and cut tissue paper up too, but tonight I let Tilly tear it. She loved doing that too once she got her head around the fact I was encouraging her to do it!

So Tilly went to bed happy and I felt alot calmer, great evening :-)

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Experimental Creativity, Bank holiday Monday Uncrafting Session

May 30 2011 Published by under Creative and Messy Play, creative play, ideas for dad, messy play

It was a brief session this morning, a tired Bear after much screeching for stamps and paint lost interest fairly quickly.

For the 5-10 mins that she was at the table we covered off quite a few new things, that she seemed to really enjoy once she got passed the initial confusion.

I think our activity today was one of those great ideas for dad. Definitely something to consider as an alternative to standard painting

Firstly we used  a stick as a brush. She got really into it once she realised what we were doing. I think she was under the impression I was trying to entrap her! But soon enough she was dabbing it on her hands and stabbing the paper with much zeal!

There are plenty of ways to utilise sticks, from just covering the stick in paint, to using it as a brush and scraping paint across the paper, or rolling it across the page. Depending on the stick you could always just dab the end on the paper and see what shapes it can make.

The great thing about using sticks -other than them being free- is that they’ll come in some many different shapes and sizes, as well as different trees offering new types of wood to play with.

We also painted a couple of pinecones. These would be great for rolling too, although today we mainly got as far as dunking them in the paint and then haphazardly dropping them on the paper!

I’m hoping to make lots of use of nature in our creative play, as it’ll keep things fresh and open-ended, it’s a free resource and it means we get the fun of getting out and foraging too :-)

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