Hello! I am a mum to 3 boys! Sharing our play ideas, activities, crafts and inspiration for toddlers and children. From tuff tray play to outdoor play and sensory play, small world play, cardboard crafts and much more. I am also an experienced social media manager and content creator in the education sector. Message me via my socials for a chat.
20 Exciting Dinosaur Activities for Children
Dinosaur activities are a fun and educational way to engage children in learning about these fascinating creatures. Here we share over 20 of our Dinosaur Activities for Children. Here are some of our dinosaur-themed activities for children: Digging for fossils and bones Using a sensory base such as sand or mud, bury some fossils and…
Forest School in the Early Years and Beyond
Forest School is an educational approach that takes place outdoors in natural environments, typically wooded areas or forests. It originated in Scandinavia in the 1950s and has since gained popularity worldwide. Forest School programs are designed to provide children with regular opportunities for hands-on learning and play in nature. Here are some key aspects and…
The A B C of Play
The “A B C of Play” can refer to a variety of concepts related to children’s play, education, or developmental psychology. Here’s a breakdown of what each letter might represent: A: Active Play Engaging in physical activities such as running, jumping, climbing, and playing sports, which are crucial for children’s physical development and overall health.…
The Benefits of Playdough and lots of Activity Ideas
One of our favourite rainy day sensory activities – but not just indoors – we take Play dough outdoors too – in the mud kitchen, in my handbag for a meal out or holiday! Playdough offers a time for calm, quiet, mindful time and can also be a great collaborative activity. Here we share 8…
Egg Box Chinese Dragon Craft for Children
A lovely simple craft for Chinese New Year. Create this lovely Egg Box Chinese Dragon to display in your setting year after year.
Egg Box Flower craft
Egg box flowers are so simple, and yet so beautiful. Once made, the flowers can be used in a variety of ways. Find out below how we made ours and what you can do with them.
14 Popular Mud Kitchen Activities
A mud kitchen can either be made yourself or purchased from many stores. We started with a homemade version that we made from old wooden pallets, we then progressed to a more substantial variety and now have a few; up at the allotment, in the garden, a pack away / travel version. A mud kitchen…
Recycled cardboard Castle for small world play
A recycled cardboard box craft to make a castle. Your castle slots together with 2 simple pieces and can be stored away easily. It could be a Kings Camelot Castle or a Fairy Princess castle. You could have dragons in the dungeon or Trolls in the library! Decorate your castle how ever you like -…
Spring outdoor play activities
Spring is the time for longer lighter days, the sun shines brighter, it is warmer and nature springs to life. Although we love outdoor play all year round, Spring is a welcome season as it brings warm sunshine, flowers and life to explore. The birds are out, and insects are ready to be discovered. Below…
How to make Dragon Eggs – Cool Crafts for kids
Turn simple plastic eggs into magical, decorated dragon’s eggs with a tiny Fimo dragon to go inside!
Papier Mache Dragon Egg Craft for Children
Papier Mache is a great medium to work with, we use it quite a lot and have made Caves, Volcanoes, and Dragon and Dinosaur eggs. This time, we have made a Dragon Egg, although it can be easily re-purposed to a Dinosaur Egg.
Forest School fun and activities – check out what we have been up to recently
We are lucky enough to have a few outdoor play groups locally including Forest schools. Our favourites have been Wild Ones and Forest Folk Play. Wild Ones started us off on our journey into Forest School and I have very fond memories of spending time in the woods, in nature with Jess and her girls.…
Be inspired by our Hygge in the early years journey and setting
We embarked on our Hygge in the Early Years journey in 2022. As a work from home, stressed mum of 3 children, our house is always full of toys, play areas, books and random activities set up in every room. Long lists of stuff we want to do. We basically couldn’t see the wood for…
Nursery Rhymes in Play
Did you know that Learning traditional nursery rhymes by heart supports children’s speech and language skills? I thought that I would share some of our activities with Nursery Rhymes in our Play. One of our favourite resources is the Alphabet Rhyme Time Book. With a rhyme for every letter of the alphabet, and, a double page spread…
Our Top 20 Favourite Educational Resources for the Early Years
This is a whistle stop tour of our top 20 favourite educational resources for the early years. It is actually a blog version of the reel I created – pinned on my insta page so if you get chance to head over there you can watch the video too. So, here goes… Magical Mirrored trays…
Learning through Play with Jigsaw Puzzles
We are a family of jigsaw lovers. I always ask for a jigsaw for Christmas (along with Lego!) and always buy my boys Jigsaws for birthdays and Christmas. Most recently we have come across some beautiful wooden jigsaws, handmade by a family in Derbyshire – Just Jigsaws. I was lucky enough to visit their workshop…
Play dough Travel Activites
We love play dough and it is great packed up in a little container with other items to take on trips and holidays for entertaining the kids. We take ours on long journeys in the car, on the plane and in the caravan. You will need: I will quite often just grab whatever comes to…
Sand and Water Ideas for Babies and Toddlers
Exciting ways to explore and play with Sand and water. Whether it is being used in the mud kitchen, sand pit, water tray, measuring for potion making, toddlers and babies love sand and water activities. Filling and tipping, transporting, digging, mixing, pouring and splashing. Play can be as simple as a tray filled with sand…
Autumn Play Idea Gallery for Children
I don’t know about you, but we love Autumn in our house. Watching the leaves change colour, Autumn natural treasures to collect such as acorns, pinecones and conkers. Making leaf kebabs, autumn mud kitchens and Pumpkin activities. Leaf painting, crafts and baking. Before we dive into our activities below, I’d love to share with you…
Recycled Toilet Roll Tube Light Up Castle
A simple budget-friendly recycled toilet roll tube castle – using readily available items such as toilet roll tubes and paint. Find out how we made ours here:
9 Halloween Craft Projects for Kids
My boys love Halloween and it is a great opportunity to keep them busy with craft projects. Here are our favourite 9 craft projects for kids.
How to Create Sensory Rainbow Chickpeas
How to make Sensory Rainbow Chickpeas – quick and simple instructions.
100 Tuff Tray Play Ideas
100 Tuff Tray Play Ideas! The popular Tuff Tray is such a versatile resource to have for children at home or in your setting. With or without a stand it can be used for many small world set ups, messy play, investigation, explorations, adventures and crafts. Tray Play filled with provocations and invitations to play…
13 recycled craft ideas for children
Turn your old cardboard boxes, egg boxes and toilet roll tubes into creative treasures that provide hours of fun and play. Upcycled and recycled crafts are cheap and often simple to make with a little imagination. Here are our 13 recycled craft ideas for children to make and play with.
24 easy lockdown craft and activity ideas for children
Whilst spending so much time at home with our children it can be difficult to provide varied, stimulating and engaging projects for them to do. Here is our top 24 lockdown craft ideas and activities for children to do at home.
Nature Trail Collections and Natural Sensory Play in a Tinker Tray
In the warm Spring sunshine we love to go on nature trails to collect an array of beautiful things! We really try hard to listen to the birds, the leaves rustling in the trees, birds singing and the crackling of twigs under our feet. We love collecting and displaying items in our tinker tray, where…
Fairy Small World Play in the Tuff Tray
Fairies are a popular theme. We love tuff tray play ideas. Our tuff tray gets used for a variety of activities and themes. This time is was small world play with fairies and our recycled cardboard treehouse.
Making Dinosaur Skeleton Bones
A great topic for boys and girls! My boys love Dinosaurs so I bought some shaped biscuit cutters which included the bone structures of them! We decided not to make biscuits – but used Air Dry Clay instead!
Egg Box Finger Mouse
These recycled egg box finger mice are super cute and easy to make. You can then play with your Finger Mouse, creating small world play scenes and whole families of mice!
Tuff Tray Play – Planting Seeds
The Tuff Tray is an ideal place to gather all the items you need for planting seeds. Then make messy mud pies once the planting activity is finished!
Exploring Circles and Basic Fractions
Our topic this morning was circles. How many circles can you find and identify? Followed by Pizza making with basic fractions and finally we set up a small world based around a circle.
Air Dry Clay Christmas Decorations
These are so easy to do and my boys really enjoyed this one. They make ideal handmade Christmas gifts for teachers and family members. Ours will be wrapped in tissue paper to give out at school and for Christmas Day.
Let it Snow Scrabble Christmas Decorations
These scrabble letter Christmas decorations are really simple to make and look great on the tree – they also make great little Christmas gifts.
How to make a Fairy Princess Wand
I borrowed my little niece for this activity, as I have 3 boys and none were interested in this craft project! I have a love for all things fairy, princess, sparkly and pink….so these tick all the boxes!
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