Pattern Challenge at Handmade Cooperative

Over the last month I have become addicted to making felt animal masks for the kids!

As part of the Handmade Cooperative pattern challenge for 2016, I chose to take on the animal mask patterns designed by Donna over at Ebony Shae Designs. The patterns up for trial were the elephant and the koala.

I made the elephant first and loved the way that all of the pleats were incorporated to make a very life-like mask. Miss 5 even wore the mask to the Melbourne Zoo!

Next, I tackled the koala mask. This is so cute and is very simple to sew to, a perfect mask for beginners to tackle.

These were the two patterns that were part of the challenge, but I loved sewing them so much that I wanted to make more. So I made the snowy owl. This was by far my most favourite pattern to sew, and I loved the way that it had lots of felt layers to make the mask more shaped and robust.

Finally, I decided to challenge myself and sew the dragonfly. This one was quite tricky, getting the gauzy ribbon sandwiched between the layers of felt, but it turned out to be very, very pretty (and glittery).

Search the hashtag #hcpatternchallenge on Facebook and Instagram to see what other projects the other Handmade Cooperative members took on!

Pattern Challenge at Handmade Cooperative

The great part of being part of Handmade Cooperative is the opportunity to take part in activities that I wouldn't usually do. Over August, we each chose a pattern to sew as part of the Coop pattern challenge. I was trying out the Old Mac Donald Finger Puppet Set by my friend Donna of Ebony Shae Designs.

Now, my inability to follow recipes extends to following patterns, so you will be unsurprised to learn that I took some creative license. The set is meant to look like this:

I used different colours to those specified and added in a pig from one of Donna's other patterns for good measure. I also didn't add the detail on the farmer with textas, but instead added the features with felt and embroidery.

I really love these finger puppets, particularly the pig. You need to be an experienced sewer for these, as Donna is TOTALLY not afraid of using tiny pieces, which I love and makes for the cutest little designs. Miss 4 has been putting on puppet shows with her other finger puppets (as you can see), although she would also like a horse, and Master 1 has been sneaking around with a sheep on his hand saying "Baaaaaah!".

Search the hashtag #hcpatternchallenge on Facebook and Instagram to see the other projects.
Grab your own Old Mac Donald Finger Puppet Set patterns right here.

Secret Agent Laser Obstacle Hallway

Pinterest is an incredible resource full of activities, crafts, tutorials, recipes... but I find that I often pin a great idea and then forget to actually go back an do it in "real life". I found a DIY laser maze the other day and it was too good not to try out.

This is a really simple, cheap and quick activity to set up. Just grab some rolls of crepe streamers (my mother-in-law had donated me a whole pile) and some masking tape or painters tape. Tape the streamers high and low, adjust for difficulty depending on the child (Master 1 was a bit too fond of the bulldozer approach), and let them navigate the maze. Take a leaf from Big Bang Theory and sing Khachaturian's Sabre Dance just to add some drama. This is seriously fun and super easy to pack up too!

Nailed any Pinterest finds lately?

Find some more ideas for toddler and preschooler play.

Active April

Because I'm an elite athlete and all (hah! not!), eight years ago I had an ACL reconstruction. I still play netball and as a result need to keep up the physio to make sure that my knee stays strong and healthy. But fitting in structured exercise with two small children is tough, especially once daylight savings has finished (I refuse to use a gym!).

What to do?

My strategy lately has been to do my physio exercises at the playground. Choose a playground that adjoins a nice flat area and let the children play on the swings and slides whilst you work out. This way, they're getting a work out too and having a great time whilst mum is preoccupied. Sure, keeping an eye on them means that you are not as focussed on your exercises, but you're getting them done, and that's the important thing. In addition, doing sit ups with a 15 month old perched on your stomach is an extra work out!

How do you manage exercise and small children?

Toddlers and Preschoolers - 2013

The 'kaetoo' Canvas Photo Boards Blog has a collection of posts about my creations for my Madeit and Etsy craft stores and about goings on in the online handmade community. But the majority of this Blog talks about my inspirations and activities, including the renovations to our home, recipes and the activities that I get up to with two little girls, who are currently three years old and two-and-a-half years old.

Here are the 'kaetoo' top 10 most popular toddler and preschooler Blog posts for 2013. Read through the activities that you missed and refresh your mind on what we got up to this year.

1 - Teaching kids to deal with missing their family and explaining absence
2 - Taking over the living room and making a cubby house
3 - Practising colours and matching with a colour sort mail box
4 - Distracting children when combating fears with food
5 - Getting crafty making playdough monsters
6 - Spending time with each other doing fun activities, including painting together
7 - Feeding the local wildlife by making bird feeders
8 - Finding things to do with 102 cookie cutters
9 - Rescuing escaped pets in the neighbourhood, including a rabbit
10 - Getting ready for the Christmas season with Operation Christmas Child

Read all of the toddler art, cooking and play and the preschooler art, cooking and play activities.

Toddler Play - At The Park

As much as I love arts and crafts, getting outside with children is a fantastic way to burn up their energy and get some fresh air and sunlight. These days, we have a sandpit and trampoline for home-based outside play, but we still go to the park every day (weather permitting) to have a run around. Last year, I shared with you a selection of our park trips for 2012. Here are some of our 2013 visits.

12 months of parks in Melbourne...

January - Fulton Reserve

February - Orchard Grove Reserve

March - Blackburn Lake

April - Branksome Grove

May - Beckett Park

June - Wattle Park

July - Furness Park

August - Aranga Rserve

September - Queens Park

October - Marie Wallace Park

November - Holland Road

December - Orchard Grove Reserve

Fun things to do with little children? Read the previous toddler art, cooking and play and preschooler art, cooking and play posts.

Toddler Play - Card Games

Darren loves board and card games and I think that one of the best things about having children for him is the increased pool of people to play with. Unfortunately, small children do not make the best partners for most of these kinds of games, but there are some simple games that a child approaching three years old can grasp.

In our house, we play a lot of Snap. We have a couple of children's card decks with big, bright pictures (one is aliens and one is colours) and Misses 2.5 and 3 adore playing. It's a good way for them to learn to match pairs, to name colours (depending on the deck) and some healthy competition. Snap is very simple and you can modify the rules to make it even easier for small children.

Simple Snap Rules For Little Kids

Deal the cards as evenly as possible to all of the players - it's fine for some players to have one card more than other players. Each player places their cards face-down. On your turn, turn over the top card and put it in the middle of the table, face-up. The next person puts a face-up card on yours and so on around the table. When someone turns over a card with the same pictures as the top card in the centre of the table, the players race to be the first to call "Snap!". For little ones, the player who put down the "snap" card wins the pile and adds it to the bottom of their face down pile. Play continues until one player has all of the cards - this player wins the game.

We have also started playing Dominoes, again with brightly coloured pictures. Dominoes is another great matching game, which can also incorporate counting depending on your tiles. Dominoes is a little harder than Snap and requires a little help for small children.

Simple Dominoes Rules For Little Kids


Shuffle the tiles face-down and each player then draws five tiles that are placed face-up on the table for little ones. The remainder are face-down in a pool. On your turn, lay down a tile onto one open end of the Domino layout with the same picture adjacent to the same picture. If you have a double, it is placed inline to the end. If you cannot play a Domino, you must draw tiles from the pool until you are able to play (or the pool is empty). The winner is the first to have no tiles left, or who has the least number of tiles if no one can place a tile.

What other games do you play with small children? I'm thinking of starting the girls on Memory next...

Lots of other fun things to do with small children, including toddler art, cooking and play and preschooler art, cooking and play.

Toddler Play - Spring In The Garden

Children love being outdoors and there's no better time for being in the garden than spring. Here in Melbourne it's been a cool spring, but the girls and I have still been busy outside. There are lots of simple ways to get children involved in the garden and all of them allow children to learn and get active.

One of the easiest things for the girls to do has been to help me spread straw, mulch, compost and fertiliser around the garden and in the chicken pen. Straw especially can be easily carried by little people and spread around. They don't have to be terribly neat about it and it's fun to throw around.

We have acquired some toddler-sized gardening tools since moving here - gloves, a trowel, fork and rake, a bucket and a small wheelbarrow. These work well because they're the right size. Gumboots are also essential garden attire. The girls have a space under the cedar which is their digging area. Miss 3 especially enjoys getting out with a toddler-sized spade and filling the bucket with dirt, whilst Miss 2.5 likes to transport the dirt from under the cedar around to the other beds
in the garden with her wheelbarrow.

Misses 2.5 and 3 enjoy planting things too. One of the first things that I had them plant here were pansies right along the front verandah. They were excited to dig the holes and "tickle the bottoms" of the seedlings as they came out of the punnets. Now we have a hedge of pansies and each day both girls announce proudly that they planted them and pick their favourite flowers, gifting them to various people who come over. And because they've practised on inexpensive hardy plants, they are now confident and capable about "tickling the bottoms" of other plants that we put in the garden.

I've found that watering the garden is one of the most popular activities. We only have two watering cans at them moment - a big one for me and a little one for the girls - and when visiting children are over there are battles over whose turn it is to water next.

Over the last few months, we have planted many vegetable and fruit seeds and seedlings. The girls have watched the little plants sprout and the fruit slowly ripen. They check to see if any strawberries are ripe each day and happily pick peas and herbs for dinner. It's interesting that Miss 2.5 is not particularly fond of green leafy vegetables at the moment, but she will wander up to plant pots and pick rocket or lettuce that she planted and munch away. We've got some sunflower seeds to plant today and I'm hoping that they will do well, because they will be interesting when they are big.

As we get more beds established, I'm looking forward to giving the girls their own bed to plant and seeing what they choose to grow. Hopefully they choose some good companion insect attracting plants, since they both love finding a caterpillar or ladybird and investigating it.

Explore more toddler art, cooking and play and preschooler art, cooking and play posts.

Preschooler Play - Library Story Time

The library is one of my favourite places to hang out with children for many reasons - books, understanding librarians, books, often a selection of toys, books, they're free, books, other media including CDs and DVDs, books...

Since we've moved our schedule has matched up nicely with pre school story time for 3 - 5 year olds at our local library. These sessions run for about 45 minutes and have stories, rhymes, singing and a craft activity to finish off the session. The sessions have a theme connecting the activities, such as all about hippos, or food, or snails.

Story time is very common and most libraries run sessions for children - have a chat with your local library about what sessions they have available, as there will probably be sessions for different age groups, including little babies. Story time sessions not only promote a love of reading and books, but also help children to develop their language skills, teach them to listen, socialise and be part of a group, and give them an opportunity to be creative and imaginative. And did I mention that they're free?

Investigate more activities for toddlers (including art, cooking and play) and preschoolers (including art and play).

Operation Christmas Child

82 days until Christmas and it's collection time for Operation Christmas Child.

Have you come across Operation Christmas Child before? We found it last year. It's a global operation run since 1993 by Samaritan's Purse where families, churches, schools and businesses put together gift-filled shoe boxes to be distributed to children in need. From 1993 through 2012, some 100 million gift boxes have been handed out in more than 130 countries (our Australian boxes go to kids in South East Asia and the South Pacific). Evangelical literature is also added to the boxes by Samaritan's Purse or given along side - Christmas is a Christian event, after all.

To pack a box for a child, you just need a shoe box and six presents:

• Something to love
• Something for school
• Something to wear
• Something to play with
• Something for personal hygiene
• Something special

Borrowed from http://operationchristmaschild.org.au/.

This year, we again packed for a girl and a boy about the same age as Misses 2 and 2.5. The presents don't have to be expensive; we set a $20 limit for each box. We chose hand puppets to love, a mini stationary pack for school, t-shirts to wear, kaleidoscopes to play with, toothbrushes with feet for personal hygiene and some special stickers. I'd saved some shoe boxes from earlier in the year and we wrapped these in Christmas wrapping paper before the girls packed the boxes.

We also downloaded the participation certificates for the girls to fill in as a little story about who has packed the box.

Whilst donations to improve communities are probably better ways to help out disadvantaged children, every child deserves to feel special and getting a present brings them a lot of joy. In addition, learning to give is an important lesson for kids. I'm finding that toddlers really love preparing a present for someone else and they were so proud to carry them into the drop off centre and add them to the pile.

The final date for drop off is 25 October, although it's good to get in early as some of the drop off points close early. Start packing now!

Toddler Play: Colour Sort Mail Box

As a result of our renovations, we have accumulated a large collection of colour sample cards. We used these to make a colour sorting game for the girls.

I cut slots into an old shoe box and wrote colours on each slot. Each of the girls was then given a stack of colour cards to "mail" into the correct slot (they're very fond of mailing letters at the moment).

We had to add in another row of slots down the middle eventually, because some of the cards, like white and orange, couldn't be easily mailed into the original slots.

A cheap and easy way for toddlers to practice their colours.

I've written lots of other posts on toddler art, cooking and play - do have a browse.

Toddler Play: Explaining Absence

On Wednesdays, Miss 2 usually spends the day with her paternal grandparents. They come over late the night before and stay until bedtime the next day. Miss 2 and Grandpa have a special routine, which involves her waking him up in the morning and helping him eat his breakfast and helping him drink his juice. Then they walk to the newsagent to buy the newspaper, and to the bakery to buy a monkey face. They play in the park on the way home before morning tea. Then there is story time, nap time, lunch time, more story time, train time...

Sadly for Miss 2, Grandma and Grandpa are currently on a 8 week holiday around Europe. And for a little person, it is hard to comprehend how far away they are and how long it will be until they come home. On the way home on the second Tuesday after they left (the first, we were also away on holidays, so routines were a bit out), Miss 2 started asking if Grandpa would be coming over tonight. And I tried to explain that he wasn't and that he wouldn't be for a long time. But she resorted to "calling him" on the telephone several times a day to ask if he would like to come over tomorrow.

I used this same toddler calendar when Darren was overseas for an extended period before Miss 2 was one year old. Simply draw a grid on a sheet of paper and number the boxes. Then get some stickers, or a small picture of the person who is away with some blu tack on the back.

Put it up on a wall or the fridge and each morning, ask your little one to put a sticker on the number of days remaining until their loved one comes home. 53 days is a long time for a toddler to comprehend, but having a visual aid is really helpful.

Do you have any good ways of helping toddlers cope with the short-term absence of a loved one? Catch up with some more toddler play, art and cooking ideas.

Toddler Play: Driveway Alphabet

We are "blessed" with an extensive amount of concrete at our house. The driveway, which runs the whole length of the property, is two car widths at the top end. Plenty of room for drawing with chalk. I covered the driveway with the alphabet, in upper and lower case. Miss 2.5 is very fond of the alphabet at the moment and Miss 2 is very fond of alphabet puzzles.

We did hunts for letters. Miss 2.5 was right into it. We had long negotiations over what letter certain words begin with.
Me: "Where is M for Daddy Marc?"
Miss 2.5: "No! D is for Daddy Marc!"
Me: "Well, D is for Daddy, but M is for Marc."
Miss 2.5: "No! D is for Marc."
Me: "Um... well, D is for Daddy Darren."
Miss 2.5: "No! D is for Marc."
Apparently I had similar stubbornness levels as a child. Who would have imagined it? I'm *so* biddable now...

Miss 2 thought that finding letters was okay to start with...

 

... but quickly decided that riding her bicycle over the letters was more fun. Not a problem!