It’s not often I pass on plays I’ve seen rather than done. But I saw this sitting outside my boys’ old nursery and had to find out more. They’ve been collecting 4 litre milk cartons from their parents to build igloos. This one stands about four foot high, and seems to be able to take three of four kids inside.

You will need
at least 150 4 litre milk cartons
a hot glue gun and a couple of those rubbery refills
a meter ruler/ thin plank to serve as the lintel

You might want to run the milk-cartons through a cool dishwasher to stop the slightly cheesey pong that could develop. Make a horse-shoe of twenty to thirty bottles, bottoms outwards, making sure that the doorway is narrower than your lintel beam. Hot glue (a growed-ups job) spots together somewhere away from any carpet you wish to keep. Then lay and glue the next ring in between the ‘bricks’ of the first… I believe brickies call this regular stagering a ‘header bond’, though I always have it classed as a ‘my first duplo’ wall. Now build up layer by layer, perhaps starting to shape it over into that classic igloo shape, until you get to the top of the door where you add in the lintel and build across. Then start to make the roof come in in earnest until its all glued up. Now, after you’ve been good and recycled any spares, it’s time to crawl in and read books to everyone’s hearts’ content.

Enjoy

tag... play for today, 3up, 5up, 8up, makes

And so, in plenty of time for Epiphany, the last 5 plays of Christmas.

Fiiive Noisy Things
The joys of Crimbo prezzies from those without small children of their own. You can guarantee that there will be at least one, but more often more, that delight the kids but melt parental minds with thier lack of volume switch.

More Falling Blurbs
We’ve been enjoying a new toy. With the dearth of Wiis this season I’ve taken the plunge and got myself the family one of those PSEye Camera thingies for the PS3. There is a lovely little download of Creature Feature where you have to take the ‘Blurbs’ (small snot-ball creatures) through mazes to the end. But there is no controller, rather you stand in front of the PSEye and ‘carry’ the Blurbs. The camera works out where your hands are and moves the creatures accordingly; the upshot of which is that the kids stand in front of the TV doing what looks like sedate Tai-Chi.

Three Secret Pens
My top tip for next Christmas is to make your own crackers. I found a kit this year and stocked them with good inards, Body Shop goodies for the mummies, camera tripods for the daddies and for the kiddy-winks I put in an Invisible Ink Pen Kit which come with invisible ink pens and UV torches. These can be picked up from any good toy stockist for a couple of quid and keep little ones amused for a good few minutes between courses. Later in the week I’m planning to leave secret messages leading to some kind of treat on the tile work around the house, perhaps beside some post-it notes to help them be found.

Two purple gloves
It’s cold, crisp and grey. Perfect time dress up warm for a walk through the park, though we’ll have to wait for spring time to try out the Bug Barn.

And a Cartridge in an Atari
In the basement I found Mrs. WeLikePlay’s brother’s old Atari… now to find a plug for it to show the boys how far their Ratchet and Clank has come. That’ll shock them, the last time they saw one was in the Science Museum.

So seasons greetings to all.

tag... play for today

<stretch> <yawn>

I like the Christmas/New Year break an awful lot. Regulars may have noticed a dip in the frequency of plays here at WeLikePlay; that’s because I’ve been engaging in play research, namely having a handful of days off to solely play with my own kids. The upshot is the 12 plays of Christmas, or things we’ll be doing until some sort of wisdom arrives on Epiphany.

Twelve Numa’s Numing
No.1 child, at 6, has been given the all clear to search the internet (with me at his side), and seems to be starting a passion for hoarding links to memes. So its Numa Numa and Potter Pals from here on in. As long as he never says w00t out loud… that’s my job.

Eleven Skype-ers Typing
We have been known to Skype the grand-parents, and they’re very patient; they put up with the boy’s obscure rambling for quite some time. Ta.

Ten Lads a-Leaping
with Cranium’s Hullabaloo.

Nine Luddites Dancing
No.1 child has a new music player, he likes a little ska and a lot of Bowie so I’ll wiggle along.  But any more S-Club “Reach” and I’ll hide in paternal shame.

Late Beds a-Making
Holidays are days for staying up late for no particular reason, and maybe taking a moon-lit walk to find pie.

Sodden Lawns a-Sinking
With the wet weather we’ve had the lawn’s a bit on the soggy side for playing. But kids like to garden so I’m going to convince them to don wellies and grab a garden fork. We can then hunt worms and aerate the ground at the same time. That’s the trick, making chores fun… otherwise I won’t do it either.  All worms will be released back to the wild, and not fed to the chickens.

Six nieces playing
Technically round here its 3 nieces and 5 nephews; and some of them are getting really grown up now.  There is something really important about playing with family; individuals who are closer in nature to your own than you’d comfortably want to admit.  We’re particularly lucky in having an age range from early twenties down to first birthday in a fortnights time.  Kids need to see the range, to see how they might grow up or to see how they once were.  It gives them grounding… that and a warm glow when pwning an elder cuz online.

…coming soon,

before Epiphany…

probably.

tag... play for today

The halls at welikeplay HQ are getting well and truly decked now. And amidst all the glitter and manic giggling there are some very excited kids and one over stimulated daddy. To ensure the tikes don’t flip out entirely in an explosion of candy-cane fuelled excitement; I’m weaving a couple of focus orientated things to do. And today has had the making of pom-poms, which we’re using as gift tags on the prezzies once we’ve wrapped them.

You will need
two rings of card
some wool to match whichever wrapping you’ve got

Get the kids to wrap the wool round and round and round the rings of card; this takes a while, but requires only a little thought. It seems to be one of those activities, like walking, which seems to free children’s higher brain functions. As you do this whilst chatting together you may well find some big thoughts coming bubbling up, so probably best to make sure background noise is kept to a minimum.

Once covered, cut between the cards and tie with a loop of wool (more detailed instructions at H2G2). If their interest has waned half way through there’s a quick cheat you can use to help them feel they’ve achieved something.  Quickly wrap some loops around your fingers, cut the top and bottom to make lots of strands then jam them in the middle of their loop to puff it out (my thanks to Bella Dia’s finger loop pompoms). Add a little tag if you wish, and stick to the prezzie.

Enjoy.

tag... play for today, 5up, 8up, makes

Despite the recent problem with bears and major world religions, I’m planning a teddy-bear nativity on the sofa (though I may still leave the twin soft toys Hal and Al to one side*).

You will need
as many little children as you can muster, (this is a wonderful activity when it goes astray and descends into chaos)
as many stuffed toys as you can find
a good nativity book
some hankies and elastic bands

Start with a little story-time. My top recommendation for books for little ones is the touchy-feely Nativity, while for just-started-schoolers the The Christmas Gift is really indispensable. Then set up a nativity scene together; choose which bear will be who, perhaps use a box for a manger or a side-table for a stable. See what happens, answer questions; ask how characters are feeling and what are they thinking. step inside the story along with the kids.

and enjoy.

*Hal and Al are a fictional creations because Har and Am don’t work as names.

tag... play for today, 2up, 3up, enjoy and achieve

… a way for kids to photograph, frame and learn to like the dark.

At 6, No1 child knows how to change themes. Opening the laptop is interesting as he has a DaVinci thing going on, the old Ubuntu box has been tripped out in hippy-trippy-ness, and now the PS3 has been tweaked too. But the new theme is so cool, it’s got these light doodle things that I last saw on the Chili’s Fortune Faded vid.

Being enquiring minds we trawled the interweb to find that these things in animated form are part of the Pikapika Project. So we set about cooking up a welikeplay kid friendly way… and it’s so much fun.

You will need:
to get your paws on a digital camera with a night picture setting and timer
a tripod, or in our case a stool on top of the kitchen table
the night or really thick curtains
a led torch or two
some cheap balloons

Prop the camera up, set it to night mode for a slow shutter speed and press the timer. Run round to the business end and start drawing pictures in the air with your torch over and over again. When the camera goes beep, bleep, pause, ker-click (well ours does), run back to see what the piccy looked like. Repeat to your hearts desire, using baloons to cover the led to get different colours. Crop & keep, and…

enjoy.

tag... play for today, 3up, 5up, 8up, enjoy and achieve, makes

In a recent study, 43% of parents surveyed were not aware of rating systems that apply to video games. How come? It’s not hard. It’s like watching a DVD of a visit to the cinema.

Here in the UK, a big green U for universal means its soft and cuddly; jam it in and let them play. A yellow PG (parental guidance) means play it before or with your kids. 12 means be 12 for rude words, 15 means lots of cleavage for mid-teens and 18 means too much blood ‘n guts. Stick to the numbers and you can’t go far wrong.

Perhaps the boys will get hold of a game that is above their age, like we did with the old VHS around Halloween; and yes, they well see something that freaks them out a bit, like we did with Mr F. Krugar (I went three days without sleep). I escaped fairly unharmed from my childhood viewing habits because I loved watching films with my folks. So with any luck my kids will love gaming and films with daddy; and with just us much fortune they’ll want to game/watch with their old man as the years go by.

In the meantime I’m going to continue to tell them that PG is for Parent Gaming.

tag... play, gamer, philosophising

Children find making snowflakes rewarding. Not only are they getting to mess with the urban legend of dangerous scissors, but they get to display their creations around the home as an early precursor to the celebrations. I am also starting to think their may be an alternate reason for their enthusiasm, the summoning of winter. Children think symbolically. Reason is elastically plastic for them. Whenever we’ve made snowflakes the whole, the ‘will it snow for Christmas’ conversation loops by again (its not been a proper white Christmas in London since 1970; ‘cos the one lame flake on the Met roof in ‘99 doesn’t count). There is a fledgling cargo-cult building around paper snowflakes; if we build them perhaps… just perhaps, they’ll fall.

This week, in particular, we’re in that betwixt and between time of the advent season. When, arguments about the ‘Christmas creep’ of shops aside, it’s actually still to early to get a tree if you want it to have pines come Christmas Day. So to fill the week, and keep the kiddywinks anticipation bubbling on the stove of excitement, we’ve been cutting up the paper recycling.

I’ve stuck together snowflake folding crib sheet - no nativity pun intended - for folding a six pointed snowflake. If you’re doing this with 5 yr olds, you may need to show then how to fold it a few times or you’ll get squares which don’t ever seem to be quite as fulfilling.

And should they be natural born snowflake geniuses, let them try this, and perhaps… just perhaps they’ll fall.

tag... play, 5up, 8up, enjoy and achieve, makes

…really, I’ve now got a suspiciously clean patch on the carpet from trying.  Masking tape works just fine, and is east to remove after your kids art is done.

I’ve just spent a very pleasurable half an hour sitting on the sofa with a roll of masking tape, dolling out  strips to No2 child.  He’d then scoot off, arrange them on the floor and come back for more.  And slowly a kite emerged, so we had to grab the camera and do some kid-floating-off-into-the-distance imaginary shoots.

tag... play for today, 3up, 5up, enjoy and achieve, makes

Perhaps the tide is turning; video game bashing seems to have been all the rage in the early naughties, but it seems that others are joining me in starting to acknowledge the place of gaming, as just another childhood thing. In the Guardian, Steven Poole writes:

Imagine the headline 100 years ago: “Children spending too much time playing outdoors with hoops and sticks, says minister; should be forcibly enclosed to study improving literature.” There’s always some apparently pointless youth activity to scapegoat.

So if English children are not so much interested in picking up a paperback, maybe that says more about the quality of books currently being foisted upon them than it does about the evils of digital entertainment. Children are, after all, quite discriminating. If someone writes a new Harry Potter, they’ll curl up with it for days. If not, there’s always the games console.

Kids and games, it’s just another way to play.  Nice to see the world starting to agree with me for a change.

(via Kotaku)

tag... play, gamer