Teachers Gifts 2010

Maxi made mugs for his teacher and teaching assistants.  We used porcelain paint from my stash and some 50p mugs from Morrisons,  He used his finger and thumb to make prints on them, which we turned in to pigs, beas, a caterpillar and flowers.

Mini and I made lavender bags for his Preschool teacher and the teaching assistants using fabric that Mini and Maxi had previously dyed (tutorial to follow).  Mini picked the ribbon from my stash and sat on my knee to help sew (I use the term help very loosely)!

The cards were super easy to make, we punched heart shapes out of tissue paper and used a paper brad to hold them on the card.  I then printed out "Thank you for helping me bloom" and the boys stuck them on to the cards.

Why you should vote for me

Today is the final day for voting in The Mads.  I am one of the final five who are up for the Best family Fun Blog, so I am putting in a shameless, last ditched attempt to gain your votes.

So here are some reasons why I think we fit the bill

Crafting with Children

Fathers day is June 20th, so here I have some great ideas for Fathers day cards and gifts you can make with your children.

One of my most popular posts via search engine is the rain catchers we made inspired by Cbeebies.

Do you have lots of broken wax crayons?  Don't throw them away, try out recycling them in to make your own funky multi-coloured crayons.

Cooking with Children

Get creative in the kitchen with this recipe for home made naan bread and dahl.

best carrot cake in the whole wide world, don't believe me take a look at the comments!

Try out our home made pizza dough recipe

Great Ideas

.  Well my car packs came in so handy when we had a breakdown

When I was teaching the boys to set the table, I made a printed table mat and also made a fabric one for each of them too.

Rewards and Incentives for children.   Read about our method of positive reinforcement and rewards to encourage good behaviour

Wonderful Readers

One of the most inspiring things I have learned from blogging is the support and comments I receive from my readers and commenter's. A great example is that fact that Mini suffers from terrible tantrums and the advise and support I received was life changing for us all. Read about the recomendations and how we implemented the ideas.



Voting closes tonight at midnight, so if you haven't voted for TheMadHouse yet, then please click here and give me your vote!

Children's Craft Showcase - Painting

Sometimes painting with children can seem such a daunting task, it can take on a uncontrollable pace all of its own, which is why it is often great to use paint with an end in mind.

So I set up the painting tings on the dining table yesterday for when I collected the minimads from school and decided we would do blow painting with a straw and then do some marble rolling.

Materials

Paint

Water

Paper

Straws

Marbles

Tray (A bowl would be better from smaller children)

Method

You need to water down your paint for this to make sure that it blows and rolls easily.  I tend to drop blobs of colour one at a time on the paper for the boys to blow with the straw.

I also show them how to turn the paper so that the paint doesn't come off the edge.

They both prefer marble rolling, they have such fun and we all ended up in a pile on the floor laughing at all the times the marble left the tray, which is why a washing up bowl would be easier for smaller children.

You can also use a larger ball and dip the ball in the pain rather than rolling it through a large splodge on the paper.

I love the randomness of the images and the ways the colours blend.  We had a great fun few hours.

So anyone who is doing crafting with their children, please link up below, I would love to see what you are doing and get some inspiration for me and the boys.

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Childrens Craft Showcase - Volcano's

I dont know about your children, but my two are now obsessed with volannco's thanks to the icelandic one.

We caught them making thier own volancic ash cloud with dust and mud from the pavement and then water on Friday evening and decided that we would have a go a making our own active volcano.

Materials

Bicarbinate of soda

Vinigar

Bottles

Hot water

Food colouring

Funnel

Salt dough is optional, mine wanted their bottles to look like mountains!

Method

Fill the bottles 2 thirds full with hot water and add a drop of washing up liquid and food colouring (to make your lava authentic!).  Add two table spoons of bicard to the warm water solution.

We popped the vinigar in to a bottle so the boys could add it themselves

So if you and your children have been busy making any crafts at all, please come and link to this page.

More Spring Cards and Crafts for Children

The boys have been busy making again, the above one is made by stamping with half a potato and mini made this all by him.

This one is Maxi's, his writing is getting to be excellant and he did the spelling all by himself.

Maxi did the cutting out on this one and it has become a classic in this house!

This is Maxi's Easter Bunny Basket.

This was maxi's Easter Bunny Egg, which he made all by himself at school.  He didnt win the competation, but them some of the eggs were pretty perfect a nd I am sure the parents had more of a hand in them than I did!

Egg Hunts, Child labor, Bonnets and Boogieing

Ormsby Hall, a place I have visited in my youth, but not since, but we took the boys on an Easter egg hunt there, which was fantastic.

They had to find all the clues in the Hall gardens.

Mini and Maxi had so much fun and I got very muddy in the process, but it was a fun hour on what was a dreary Easter Monday.

Ormesby Hall is a National Trust Property and we have annual membership, so it costs us nothing to get in and this year the boys are getting to the stage where they can enjoy the activity packs in each room, which is only 50p for the book and you get the pencil free!

One of the great things about Ormesby Hall, which was once home to the Pennyman Family is its Victorian Kitchen and Scullery.  The boys loved joining in with the washing. The volunteer (a teacher in her day job) was amazing and she really captivated them with the tales of turning on fires at five in the morning and also the fact that they would wash 68 sheets a week!

It was great that it was so hands on, they got to use a dolly and a mangle and also have a go at ironing (with cold irons)!  There is also a model railway, well three of them set up on the top floor, which is great for little and big men!  The Cleveland Mounted Police are headquartered in the Hall's stables too.

So we then came home and the boys decorated their bonnets for the Clubs Easter Party, which was last night too

I love the fact that they did it all themself themselfust a little help cutting out the egg shapes and adding the glue.

Finally, I leave you with the boys doing Big Fish Little Fish at the party, they danced the night away will 10pm, I came home early at 8pm as I wasn't felling well, they outlasted me!

Children's Craft Showcase - Easter Eddition

I know it has been a while since I last did a craft showcase, but real life has been getting in the way of our crafting mojo, plus the first glimpses of spring have had us out and about as much as possible.

However, with Easter Nearly upon us we are starting to do a few more things and I have seen some wonderful inspiring Easter Craft post out in the Blogging community, so without further ado, I would love it you would like any children's craft posts you have and I present my Easter Edition.

Easy Easter Chick Cards

Materials

Cards

Feathers

Googly Eggs

Glue Stick

Foam or card for beaks

Fold card in half and draw and then cut out a semi circle, it doesn't have to be perfect remember, in fact having a flattish bottom allows for the card to stand better.

Stick on feathers as wings and tail and add an eye and a beak - how simple is that!

Again almost too simple, but perfect for little ones to do all on their own.

Home Made Painted Pots

I did this tutorial over at Kelly's A place of my own for the blog swap, but it is a perfect craft for over Easter with the children, so please pop on over and take a look.

Paper Mache Tissue Eggs

Materials

Egg shells

Paper Mache Glue

Tissue Paper or Newspaper

We have been collecting eggshells for planting our seeds in and rather than blowing out and decorating eggs, we decided to have a goo at piercing two halves back together and then covering in paper mache

We have been lucky enough to receive some wonderful packages in the post (more about them next week) and decided to recycle the packaging some wonderful tissue paper.  So we tore the paper in to pieces, which the boys adored doing.

For the glue I used some paper mache paste we had in the cupboard, which as bought from Asda a while ago, but you can make your own paste from flour and water.

The boys then used the tissue to cover the eggs and hold them together.  This was a really fun, but very messy project and the eggs have quite a time to dry (ours are still wet 2 days later!)

We plan to decorate them further with some beads, glitter and ribbon and hang from our twig lights.

So if I have inspired you to get crafting with your children, or you have any recent children's craft you would just like to showcase the, please add your link below: