Penguin’s been enjoying the playdough mats I made for him recently (here), so the other day I decided it was time to make another one. I’d also been thinking of making some kind of simple phenology wheel, so I made this mat showing a tree, as a base for exploring the four seasons. Penguin generally … More The 4 seasons playdough mats – with free printables!
With the beginning of a new year comes a flurry of posts on social media, about the highlights that have been during the past year, and the happiness that may come in the next. Looking back on the year that we’ve had, I’ve found it a little bit difficult to join in the joyful exclamations … More A Hopeful New Year…
As I mentioned at the end of yesterday’s post, about making gingerbread, we went on to decorate some of our cookies with icing the following day. And we made a little gingerbread house, too! The house was a very simple one, just two rectangles leaning on each other (making a tent shape) and triangular end … More Icing on our gingerbread cookies, and a house!
For our advent activity no.21, I made these playdough mats for Penguin, to use with the three types of scented playdough that we’d made the previous day. I simply drew the pictures and laminated them. I also got out some beads, pipe cleaners, googly eyes etc, for decorating the playdough motifs. It was good fun … More Christmassy Playdough Mats – Free Printables!
We are still loving the orange-coloured Christmas scented playdough we made earlier this month, but I thought it would be nice to add a few more scents and colours. So for day 20 of our advent activities we made three different ones: Gingerbread (brown), cinnamon (red) and mint (green). All recipes are included at the bottom … More Scented Playdough: Gingerbread, Cinnamon, and Mint!
Phew! As I said at the beginning of this Advent Calendar of Christmas Activities, I’m not a super craftsy person (even though I’m working on becoming one now!), and this little project of making salt dough ornaments really reminded me about my inexperience… To begin with, I hadn’t realised that this activity would need to … More Making & decorating salt dough ornaments
For our advent activity no.17, we finally made it to the Christmas market at Leeds castle. We’d originally planned to go the previous Sunday, but the weather was awful that day, so we called it off. Luckily this Sunday was not as bad, although a light drizzle started to fall as we arrived. Our first impression … More Visiting the Christmas Market at Leeds Castle!
Today we got a couple of Santas made, so now they can help us looking after our two Rudolphs from the other day! Again, we used empty toilet rolls as base, and added felt, pipe cleaners, toy stuffing (for beard, alt. use cotton wool or other similar material), tiny pom-poms and googly eyes. We also … More Homemade Santa!
Yesterday we spent a chilly yet beautiful afternoon at the Port Lympne Wildlife Park! It’s a great place with large areas to roam around for visitors and for many of the animals. There’s a ‘safari experience’, meaning a guided tour in an open truck & trailer, which takes you around parts of the park where … More A Winter Visit to the Wildlife Park, Port Lympne
Tomorrow is Saint Lucy’s Day, 13 December, and in Sweden (where I’m originally from) that is a day which is widely celebrated with songs and processions, as well as with mulled wine, gingerbread and saffron buns. So this evening we’ve baked some of the latter, as our advent activity of the day. [EDIT: You can … More Baking Saffron Buns!
Sensational Learning with Penguin 