… 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

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

It’s not often I come across a new and never tried children-crafty thing these days, and when I do it’s a time for celebration and experimentation. Adrienne was saying nice things in defence of homedads at Thingamababy, so I followed her link and found Baby Toolkit where they had posted the most fantastic craft with crayons. I’ve done a little research, using my own experience of toasting cheese sandwiches with a iron, and worked out how to do this craft and still be able to iron your trousers later. Hopefully. It’s also a good exercise in letting your 8 year old start to use a hot-hot iron.

You will need
1 big piece of greaseproof paper
1 big piece of foil a bit bigger all round
your iron
that stash of old crayons that’s been scuzing around your craft draw
a pencil sharpener

Start warming your iron to a medium setting, too hot and you’ll get bubbles. Layer the greaseproof paper on top of the foil. Take some of old crayons and shave them into a pile in the middle of your paper. Flatten this pile down so it covers just one half of the sheet to a fairly even depth. Fold the paper and the foil over and start to iron evenly and slowly until the shavings fuse into one great big translucent sheet. Allow to cool. Now cut out your shapes and hang on thread at your window.

Enjoy.

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

… and yes it does have that delightful misharmonic squeaky quality of Oz. But it’s still so much fun. A month or so back I introduced my boys to Youtube’s Potter Pals; and the simple multi-voiced rhythm of “Ticking” became our collective ear-worm. Now No1 child divides up the parts to start some acapella with Mrs Welikeplay, No2 child and anyone else who happens to be visiting (young Uncle Welikeplay looked quite astounded this weekend).

For your entertainment, and in the possibility of introducing sung simplicity into your play, we present “The Mysterious Ticking Noise”:

Enjoy.

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

The welikeplay dart printable seems to have been much appreciated; not least by my noble testers here at the welikeplay play labs. The idea of a printable aeroplane sheet seems to have taken root in their minds, and so I’ve been compiling a little list of my top other printables and instruction sites:

• instructions for the world record holding ‘Blackburn’ glider.
• the printable Monarch Butterfly or Scarlett Macaw designs with instructions
• or try the bumper instruction site to fold any-old piece of paper
• instructions for the very impressive OmniWin , though a little complex even for an 8 year old engineering savant
• if you prefer your internet to be, well more online, try Amnesias FlightSimX; but find the mute button for the repetitive drums which could drive parents cuckoo

Enjoy

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

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.

tag... playpeople, 2up, 3up, 5up, 8up, gardening

You may have noted that, over the last few days the welikeplay household has been stricken by the dreaded lurgy. And so my mind has been gratefully turned towards the basics of play. Those little activities that you did as a kid, that you now pass on to you own kids. Nothing too wild or complex, just simple wholesome everyday play.

Today it’s going to be paper darts. There are squillions of them around, from the very simple to the intricate in the extreme. For my kids, and for posterity I’ve cooked up an A4 blueprint printable.

You will need
a printer to print this ‘print and fold’ pdf (do set your Adobe to print actual size or the folds won’t quite meet up)
A4 paper
a paper clip or two
colouring pens/pencils

Print the welikeplay dart blueprint and give to the kids to follow the instructions (if they’re under 8 or spatially dizzy they’ll probably need a hand); with any luck a welikeplay design approved dart will appear. Colour and prep for launch. A gentle throw causes this design to glide off into the distance. In case of nosediving, throw more lightly; or failing that add a paperclip towards the back.

Enjoy.

tag... play for today, 8up, basics, makes, printable

Welikeplay reviews games with one principle in mind. Can you play it with your kids?

Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction on the PS3 (rating 7+)

I won’t beat around the bush. Tools is great. Unbelievably great. Over the weekend welikeplay Labs put it through its paces and didn’t want to stop until bedtime (or at least to the brink the mandatory ‘1 hour before’ exclusion zone). It’s a high-def beauty, it’s learning curve is pitched just right. It makes allowances for new players, but pushes you when you start to get good. It did lose half a star though for a sloppy installation bug that made me panic; but the game is glorious so much can be forgiven.

Now it doesn’t have any multiplayer mode, which I had made the assumption that it would struggle on the ‘playing with your kids’ criteria which we seek to uphold. But I was wrong, because it is watchable. The boys are happy to take a ‘world-per-turn’ whilst watching the other’s progress… and I could too. This led to little discussions about tactics and upgrading strategies with little potted reviews regarding the salient choice of insane weaponry comparing the predator over the buzz.

Yes, you do blow stuff up. But all innards are green or blue, and you dispatch monsters; which is a good skill to have as an imaginative child. I’m tempted to lower the age rating, but that is your own call as parents not mine. Chiefly because I don’t mind taking my own turn-per-world to play it alongside my kids. Even if they snicker when I get eaten by a heavily-armed robotic frog.

And to top it all it has the Groovitron. A bomb which causes all enimies to strut their funky stuff; with the side effect that players and their entourage to collapse into giggles. There was even an episode where the welikeplay guinea-pigs went bolt mining, just so they could purchase more to make the fishy-head baddies groove.

Easily the best PS3 games so far, and earns pride of place on my play shelf.

Enjoy.

tag... review, play for today, 8up, gamer

Was going to write a little on the joys of Tag today, but stumbled on this which has taken root my little ones imagination. Extreme Tag games. Just glad I’ve a first-aid certificate squirrelled away somewhere.

Enjoy

tag... play for today, 8up, be healthy, 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)

tag... play for today, 2up, 3up, 5up, 8up, makes