So we don’t have violins or cellos, clarinets or flutes but we have got lots of random bits and pieces around the house  that we get creative with to make our own instruments! and thats what Ashton and I have done!

We have started by making our own shakers with different containers and different mediums to go inside. We have used dry wheat inside a peanut butter jar, an old bead necklace cut up into a Body Shop Body Butter container, and some colourful pegs put inside an old CD container. Each shaker making its own unique sound when it Ashton shakes it. (There are obviously lots of other options that you can do to make different sounding shakers and if your child is older you could even take it a step further and decorate your shakers with paints or stickers.)

Ashton really enjoyed getting all of the shakers on his high chair tray all at once and banging the shakers up against each other, making an array of shaking sound! We did make a point of exploring each shaker one at a time and listening to the unique sound each one made.

I’m rather excited about using these shakers for more musical exploration and have already got lots of ideas for other instruments I want to try and make with Ashton to explore different sounds. If you have any ideas or experience with making musical instruments with materials that are lying about the house… please share!

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It was mine and Ashton’s turn to do an adventure video for this week and as I was thinking about what to do, I couldn’t stop thinking of painting. I hesitated at first, thinking how it might scare more parents from doing a painting activity than it would inspire them! As everyone well knows, painting with children (especially babies) is never a clean project. And as you will see after watching our adventure video . . . we made a mess!

Which brought me to ask the question afterwards “Was that worth the mess?” and I have to say, I 100% think it was  . . . So today I want to blog my case and try and convince those out there who shy away from doing painting projects with their kids, to at least give it a try.

During our ‘Tempo Painting’ activity, Ashton and I ran into countless learning moments which totally justified the mess at the end. . . we got to physically experience different speeds of fast and slow. . . we sang “The wheels on the bus” and did the actions in the paint as we sang. . .  we explored different shapes. . .  we mixed colours and talked about the new colours as they evolved. . .  we got to feel the texture and talk about how it felt on our hands. . . and, oh the fun when we got in the shower! We got to watch the water change colour all around us, another fantastic talking point!

Those are just a few of the wonderful learning moments we encountered and would have missed if I hadn’t been daring enough to take the plunge and get messy for half an hour! (Let me mention that we did go in prepared! We wore our painting clothes, we had a tarpaulin down and a cloth to wipe off excess paint afterwards! – If you prepare well, its not as scary and the more you do it… the better you will both get at it!)

Ashton and mummy get creative with TEMPO PAINTING! Go on do it! You know you want to!!! ;o)

Hey Everyone. Hope you all enjoyed this weeks Polkadots Adventure Activity. If you haven’t seen it yet check out my girls Caydence, Camryn and I on our Nature Obstacle Course on the Polkadots Adventure page.

So lately the girls and I have been feeling rather ADVENTUROUS! Doing obstacle courses has become apart of our daily routine and over time they have begun to evolve. We started doing mini imaginary obstacle courses in the lounge in front of the TV while listening to The Polkadots ” Jump, Shuffle, Jump” song. The girls soon mastered the indoor course and decided it was time to venture outdoors. Wed round up broken tree branches, wooden logs, buckets and chairs and lay them out in a sequence. Then we would run through our backyard obstacles, singing out favourite Polkadots song…

” Jump up and down, up, up and down, foward and back foward and back” The girls would sing as they jumped over the broken tree branch.
“Can you balance on a log, count 1, 2, 3″ they would sing as they crossed their wooden plank.
“Can you climb the highest tree, look what you can see.” They would sing as they imagined their bucket was a giant tree. And . . . “Crawl through a tunnel, shuffle, shuffle” They would sing as they imagined the deck chair was a tiny tunnel.
The girls would race through our imaginary finish line as if they were the winners of an Olympic Race, throwing their hands in the air, laughing and giggling, their confidence growing and growing each time they took up the obstacle challenge.

So now we’ve mastered the indoor imaginary obstacles, we’ve conquered the outdoor “Jump, Shuffle, Jump” obstacles and as you would have seen on the adventure clip we’ve had lots of fun exploring our Nature obstacle course. Caydence and Camryn have definitely become quite familiar with all of these challenges and are now coming up with their own new, exciting and more challenging courses that are literally reaching new heights, and quite possibly starting to enter into the EXTREME category of toddler obstacle courses.

Sarah and Camryn had a great time on their obstacle course

Today Brooklyn had a very special treat for afternoon tea – a juicy, succulent, fleshy, WATERMELON! But this afternoon tea was no ordinary afternoon tea.
As soon Brooklyn saw the watermelon there were a few excited giggles. As I placed the watermelon on the chopping board, Brooklyn immediately associated the shape of it with a ball and started to kick it! It didn’t really budge as it was almost as heavy as her.

We then sliced down the middle, and cut a slice off. We both had a little sniff . . . it smelt very sweet.  MMMmmmm I love the smell of watermelon!

We hollowed the flesh out and made a big circular frame. Brooklyn loved this and held it up to her face to look through the hole. She started feeling the inside with her fingers and couldn’t resist nibbling around the outside. We then decided to press cookie cutters into the flesh to make fun watermelon shapes! After demolishing a few of these, she turned to the big piece of watermelon and started poking her fingers through the flesh and picking out the seeds. She liked the cool feel of the flesh on her hands.

Who ever knew that exploring watermelon could be such an adventure!

RANDOM FACT: Did you know that because watermelon is part of the ‘cucurbitaceous’ family, watermelon is also classified as a vegetable. Some growers consider it as both fruit and vegetable, and sometimes call it a “Fregetable”. How interesting!