Shrove Tuesday, a.k.a. Pancake day, really crept up on me this year; probably something to do with a full moon on the spring equinox, and so a really early Easter with a chance of mad bunnies. So his morning I’ve trialled a few pancake making devices, some things that you can rustle up around the home to help kids learn to flip them like a pro.

You will need
frying pans - though big heavy ones are great for cooking the real pancakes in, for kids to help they need one they can lift
old bits of cloth and cardboard
an easy-to-dry kitchen

for the pancakes (makes 12-ish)
100g plain flour, sifted
2 eggs
200ml milk mixed with 75ml water
50g butter

Get the kids to mix up the flour, eggs and milky bits as soon as they come in from school… this kind of batter can be used straight away, but works better if you let it sit for an hour or so before frying up.

Now it’s time to make your pseudo-pancakes for practice time.  Draw and cut out circles of fabric/cardboard roughly the same size as the base of your frying pans.  Take these bits of material and soak them in tepid water… or chilled if you’re feeling mean.  Now teach the kids to flip them with a deft forward-up-and-back motion of the wrist.  Do it well and the water won’t spray; too quick or too hard and everyone starts to get wet.  High arcing flips to land the damp pseudo-cake on ones own head are to be commended.

After a little experimentation I recommend using the thighs of old jeans as the material of choice.  It gets good and damp, yet slides well out of pans.  Felt is a tad too sticky when wet, old flannels are a too crumply, art-foam sheets form little suction cups on the pan, whilst thick cardboard - though initially good - starts to come apart after 10 minutes or so.

Mop the kitchen floor and attempt with real pancakes.

Pancakes are a great way to introduce kids to safe stove top cooking.  As you have to hang around the cooker it gives them more time to watch and see what happens to the flame/halogen top, than your usual stick on a pan and bring to boil.  So get one pan good and hot, drop in a lump of butter until it sizzles.  Then take the batter mixture and pour out a couple of tablespoons, I’ve always found this is best done from a ladle so it all arrives at the same time whilst giving a long handle for littler hands.  Cook for less than a minute until you can pull back a corner and see that the bottom has gone all brown.  Now it’s flipping time.  Hot pan, check for others, two hands, flip and catch.  Award points for any pancakes that make it up to the light fixtures or maybe give a special topping for the most fragmented, so that all feel encouraged.

Depending on age you might like to flip with both you and the child holding the handle, or perhaps you might pre-cook a handful and slide them off into a cold frying pan to be slung around with abandon.

Enjoy (with a squeeze of lemon and a sprinkle of sugar)

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I’ve been spending the last week or so knee deep in playdough. It seems to be everywhere, in the kitchen, at nursery, in the carpet, in my pockets… everywhere.   Little kids seem to love the stuff.  And as they start school it is worth a little effort to keep their interest in all kinds of modelling going, for particularly as they start writing they need those squeezing muscles that dough helps develop.

But playdough does bring its problems.  Learn these tricks and become a playdough pro.

Make it
Shop bought stuff isn’t the cheapest, though it’s worth buying at least one set for the nifty airtight tubs it comes in.  Then you can make you own, adding colour or glitter to please.

Brush it
Playdough will end up in the carpet.  It’s one of those universal truths of childcare.  But fret not, it can be fairly easily removed.  First remove any lumps as best you can then wait for it to dry.  If you’re in a hurry DO NOT take a hairdryer to it, you’ll cook it in place forever.  Once it’s nice and crunchy go and find an old tooth brush and start combing the carpet in towards the middle of the offending smear.  Have a quick vacuum, repeat if necessary.  Should there be a coloured stain left try first with a little water (again moving from the outside to the middle of the stain), I’ve yet to have to break out the big guns, but should all else fail fetch the carpet cleaner.

Scratch  it
If you’ve got the stuff engrained in the knees of your trousers don’t wash it in hot water until you’ve left it to dry and given it a really good scratch and pick.

Poke it
It’s like removing mud from the soles of your footy-boots, or from the treads of your trusty but elderly hiking yompers.  There is something quite tranquil about poking around removing playdough from your shoes.  It’s one of those funny little activities that you do with your kids; sitting out on the porch, pokey stick in hand, talking through the day that’s been, and those that are still to come as the sun comes down.

Enjoy.

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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.

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I’m starting to amass a fair old collection of play hats. From pirates (yarr) through builders’ hard hats and princess’ tiaras to those doctors head mounted cd things. Over the years of childcare I’ve found play-hats to be an invaluable resource for getting inside the kid’s head.

Hats, perhaps more than any other piece of costumery do allow kids to be someone-else for a while. It’s roleplaying in one simple step. You see your average child doesn’t have such a concrete notion of self as us encrusted grown-ups. You may have noticed this if you’ve been feeling a little grumpy and your kids have come bundling in. They’ll pick up and mirror your mood back to you with out pause (at which point you could choose to grump back at their grumping… but that way madness lies, doesn’t it?)

As they enact these other roles you may hear then saying things you’d not expect. No2 child in his copper’s hat became a young dictator, despite his usually mild self. Add a tiara and they become imperious, a cowboy stetson makes them crusty whilst an astronaut’s helmet makes them adventurous. Children are incredible things. To do roleplay like this they must have absorbed the roles these hats imply, whilst usually never even having met cowboys or princesses. Very clever little beings even if they struggle to tie their shoes. Taking on such roles allows them to say things that they’re thinking, but which their usual role of child forbids them from saying. The child in a police hat may voice authority over the parent whilst the doctor cd thing or nurses tricorn puts them in a caring role for their carers. So much can be learnt through this play.

The trick, if there is one, is to buy some big costume hats too. Being a little pirate captain is no fun unless you’ve a hulking growed-up crew. A ward sister is no fun without a bandaged patient. Builder work together to build and fix the house. Policemen need parents in trilbies to occasionally become a detective to give the wee ones clues to capture the cookie thief. Even a simple folded newspaper hat make you a Little John to a diminutive Robin Hood.

So what would be in your ideal hat collection?  What would give your kids a voice?

Enjoy.

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AJ at Thingamababy has posted “How to Host a Garden Snail Race“, and - in doing so - has provided me & my kids with a future ‘rainy week’ activity.

Many of the molluscs will be too skittish to come out of their shells. You want brave snails. Wait until one peeks out of his shell and starts moving. Grab that one and, while holding the shell in the air, press a racing number onto the shell. DO NOT apply the number while on the ground because you’ll smoosh and possibly injure the snail.

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I’ve had a few large paper bags scuzing around the welikeplay HQ for the last fortnight; and I’ve grown very fond of them. Their scope for play is huge. In the last two weeks they’ve been used for moving a pretend house, a bed for Monkey and his small simian pals, a cave for the dragon of the stinky swamp, and a sail on the Oozy Scab (our recuring sofa based pirate ship). And they’re also used for tidying up the days chaos.

I’m now on the prowl for some logo free jumbo sized paper bags to ink my own designs onto. I think some happy smiley faces to make bag masks and puppets, or “My Removals Inc.” or perhaps a skull n’ bones. Find yourself some paper bags and…

Enjoy.

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Daffoldillies.

Kids, my own and every single other one I’ve cared cared for, love mud. Sometimes it’s eventually but, none the less, they get a passion for steaming great lumps of rich black soil. Perhaps it’s because we all plant stuff and see it grow, perhaps it’s because we add too much water and make mud pies whilst we’re at it, perhaps its because I’m not above doing all the above inside on really cold days.

Yesterday the weather here changed; suddenly I had queues of three at the door whilst coats and scarves were being sorted. And Mrs Welikeplay, she in whom I keep my concept of time, reminded me it was the end of bulb planting time. In past years I’ve planted many bulbs with small kids. Usually in pots to take home, sometimes in my garden and on one occasion - as guerrilla gardening, with permission - in someone-else’s garden.

For indoor potting

You will need
Pots
(You can pick these up for free at good garden centres and the local recycling centre/dump)
Daffodil bulbs
(for pots I like ‘Jetfire’ with it’s orange middle; for gardens I’ve used a Bridal Crown/King Alfred mix for two overlapping flowering times)
Compost - homemade if possible.
(If your kids are of an eating soil stage, you might want to microwave a bowl of compost for about 4-5 minutes and allow to cool, to kill off some of the germs and bugs. The bulbs like this too.)
Trowels/spoons/hands
and, if you’re likely to get lynched for carpet gardening, a floor sheet

Half fill pots with compost, add 5 or so bulbs and cover. Water, and place outside against the wall of your house. Return indoors, add more mud to the rest of the compost and smear liberally everywhere you can reach.

Enjoy.

tag... play for today, 2up, 3up, gardening, running wild

Being Divali it’s time to do some rice Rangoli patterns. Rangoli (and this is where my teacher hat is dusted off) are usually symmetrical circular patterns which are drawn/kept around Indian homes as a sign of hospitality; though drawn daily in really traditional homes, they’re drawn everywhere during the festival of lights, Divali.

You will need
Pre-dyed and dried rice.
Chalk
A large plastic plate (if you want it to be easy to tidy up)
To catch the pattern - spray mount glue and a big piece of paper

Hopefully you’ve already dyed your rice, and it’s a nice day where you are. Take the rice outside with the kiddy-winkles and give them a bit of chalk each. By copying what the others draw it is possible - if unlikely - to get a symmetrical pattern of circles, stars and of sorts; or the again, use a template. Throw in some peacocks if your the arty type. Take the dyed rice and use it to colour the shapes.

If you want to keep the pattern, go fetch a big ‘ol piece of paper, spray it with mount glue, lay it down and peel it up.

Enjoy and…

Sal Mubarak

(Happy New Year)

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… any mighty oaks that grow will be made to live outside. We’ve been planting acorns in our own acorniums™ (not really a ™ thing, I’ve just learnt a new bit of blog code).

You will need
a couple of shot glasses (you have small kids now, when are you really going to need your whole collection again)
some small stones
some acorns picked up from your autumnal wandering

Spend some time washing the stones in a shallow bowl of water, this is such good fun for little ones. No3 girl could spend all day doing this if she was allowed. Fill the shot glass with the stones, slowly. Most shot glasses are fairly indestructible, but take it slow nonetheless. Drop an acorn on top, then fill with water to below the acorn, or it will go mouldy; kind of cool in itself, but not the desired result. Place in airing cupboard and peek and top up every week. Soon you’ll see some white roots winding down through the stones and maybe even a little shoot. You have an acornium™.

I’m told, though I’ve never remembered to keep watering long enough, that you can pot out to bonsai pots quite successfully. Perhaps this time?

Enjoy

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Happy All Saints Day/ Día de los Muertos, one and all. But what to do with the ridiculous pile of candy/sweeties that could not conceivably (well perhaps…) be eaten? Here are two ideas dredged up from my memories of years gone by. I’ve found that these are good opportunities for smaller ones to start to talk about anything that may have spooked them last night. By transforming some of the Halloween paraphernalia into something safe can be a way for toddlers - and older kids - to understand a little of what went on.

Pumpkin Composting
I’m considering making a little ritual out of this. The smiley pumpkins and ‘neepy candles are carried in state through to the gently fermenting heaps at the bottom of the garden to lie in rest. The kids select and dig out a little niche for each to sit in and watch the garden. The pumpkins are thanked and one or two sweets are chosen to be placed inside. For the next couple of weeks we’ll watch them sag, paying a child-like attention to which bugs and worms seem to like pumpkin or the sweeties the best.

Perhaps as the boys get older I’ll light the lanterns one last time, this time using a couple of bits of loo roll to get a 4ft high flame. Though I’m not sure that the methane bubbles that I’m sure are forming in the heaps would be too happy.

Sticky Colage
Quick, run to the bin. See if you can salvage a handful of shiny wrappers to rinse off (alternatively consume the candy yourself using the keeping your children healthy excuse I use) and stick on a big ‘ol sheet of paper to make a reminder picture of their favourite bit of last night. You may have to draw some outlines, and I recommend upva glue over the stuff that comes in a stick. Stick it up on your fridge. I’ve done this a few times with younger kids, if it’s displayed at their hight you may well find yourself been escorted over to it to be told about it. This is when thinking big thinks happens. Listen.

For the sweets themselves you might want to check out one of my blog favs, A Readable Feast.  The Milky Way Pan Au Chocolat looks sooo good.

Enjoy.

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