Play on Tuesday

I was dying to have a go at using some chalkboard paint these holidays. I really wanted to paint some blocks for school, that the children could create houses and people. I am always looking for ways to enhance play in the block area and thought that this would promote fine motor skills, language, problem solving and creativity to name just a few benefits. The only blocks we had at home were far too small for little fingers, so I used a wood glue to stick them together - Problem solved!

After gluing them together I gave them a coat of chalkboard paint. (While this was drying, I had a go at painting on glass and plastic which will feature in another post.)

My son had fun decorating!

We made some signs out of craft wood and pegs.

Our spectacular peg car.

Thanks for the inspiration, Strong Start

The finished product!

Last weeks post featured the "Holiday Idea Box" which has been a huge hit in our house and my kids can't wait to choose a peg every couple of days. We have had fun swimming together, cooking together and below is our 'crafting together' project.

After lots of brainstorming we decided to make a family game of checkers. We used a piece of rubber backed fabric (any plain fabric would be fine) and milk and orange juice lids, that I constantly collect, to produce this game with no cost at all.

Before you begin drawing up your grid you need to know the size of your checker pieces. You could just cut cardboard circles, use buttons or recycled lids like we did. I cut an old kitchen sponge , smaller than the squares because it expands as you push down. My oldest son printed the grid with fabric paint (but any paint would be fine) . You need 8x8 squares for a full grid.

Fortunately we had enough lids to have two matching sets. The orange set were super heros and the green were monsters. We used a permanent marker to ensure they didn't smudge.

For such a simple game our family has played it and played it over the last week and really enjoyed spending time together!

I love reading your comments and feedback, so thanks for following the blog and a big thanks for all your kind words.

See you next Tuesday...