I’m a bad man; though not as bad as when I misplaced Valentine’s Day entirely. This year I just was a bit slow on the getting some sort of wrapping paper for Mrs. Welikeplay’s prezzie. So I got the boys to make some that, as well as looking good and costing mere pennies, gets extra bonus cute points.

You will need
to be in a state of mild panic
brown wrapping paper or that kids colouring paper that comes in huge rolls
a potato
pink paint
a sharp knife

Now for the children and knives bit. It’s good to bear in mind that the Inuit let their children use knives from a young age; they’re given little versions of their parents eating knives. The boys use a long knife whilst the girls get a curved all-purpose ulu. Kids are going to be ok with knives as long as you teach them how, what’s more if you teach them how then they’ll be safer than having to experiment when they’ve got their mits on an illicit pointy objects. I use the maxims ‘cut away from you’, ‘pass the handle’ and ‘blunt knives jump’. I’m sure you have you own, if not it’s time to put that parenting brain into gear.

To make the wrapping, the boys carved potato halves into hearts, dunked them in thinned out pink paint and printed away until our attention wandered. The only reason the paint was thinned was to ensure it dried in time. Which it did.

…and should you ever misplace Valentine’s Day completely, I found a let-out clause in a swift promise of a private not-V-day - complete with spontaneous choccies in heart shaped boxes - sometime in mid-March.

Enjoy

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

Kids and growed-ups alike, like playdough. There is something quite calming about squishing up lumps of putty. But there is a downside to shop bought dough, kiddywinks and dizzy parents aren’t too hot at remembering lids. Then the playdough goes all crunchy.

So I turned to Nana welikeplay and nicked her recipe. It makes very good playdough; soft, elastic, inedible and smooth for mere pennies.

You will need
a large saucepan
1 cup of flour
half a cup of salt
2 teaspoons of cream of tatar
1 cup of water
4 drops of food colouring
1 teaspoon of oil

Drop all the dry ingredients into a cold saucepan. Give it a quick mix. Add all the wet stuff, stir, and take it to the hob. Keep stirring for a few minutes until the dough becomes a smooth lumpy ball. It’s now good to go. After play store in an airtight container, like the ones the old dough came in.

Enjoy

tag... play for today, 2up, 3up, 5up, makes, money matters

The PTA at my own little ones school invited Happy’s Circus in as a fund raiser, it was so cool. A fantastic show which gets our recommendation for all our PTA-type readers as proceeds are split between Happy and the school… so everyone is happy.

tag... play, money matters

For those of you who need an introduction, here in the UK all childcare services - be they schools, local authorities, child centres, hospitals, nurseries, social services or childminders (like myself) - are now deeply immersed in the Every Child Matters framework. It started back in 2003, following the terrible case of Victoria Climbié, to ensure that no child fell through the holes in the services. As a strategy it has five aims, around which much of childcare and schooling is now being focused; you can browse this site for play ideas or reviews tagged with these aims.:

be healthy - stay safe - enjoy and achieve - make a positive contribution - achieve economic wellbeing

One of the founding principles of welikeplay.org was to provide ideas for play-professionals within such a framework, though it naturally lends itself to a rigorous approach to thinking about play in all its effervescence of activity.

We at welikeplay HQ hope this helps out. Do leave a comment here if this is useful to your setting, or you’d like to share good resources (I’m looking into How to Achieve the Every Child Matters Standards, though it’s school and child centre, rather than childminder focused).

If there is anything we can do to help out, let us know.

Brian

tag... play, be healthy, be helpful, enjoy and achieve, money matters, philosophising, stay safe