Kids Coop - Ice cream vans

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Its time for Kids Coop, please link up your child orientated posts and check out what others are doing, If you like something please do leave a comment, everyone loves comments. This week I'm linking the following:

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(Goblin is 43 months)

 Last week we got a piece of furniture delivered. We left the box out for Goblin to find in the morning. He was very excited by the possibilities of what could be made from the box. But he had to go to nursery and leave the box behind.

Four hours later Goblin returned to find his Daddy had made him an ice cream truck. There was a little chair inside so he could sit and drive it (using the movable steering wheel). 

Hublet had even printed out the Caution children at play sign for the back, as well as a Ford logo for the front and an Ice cream price list for the side. The back van door had a working latch constructed from a set of wooden nuts and bolts that Goblin has.  

 I whipped up a few batches of playdough - chocolate, vanilla, strawberry - and we put in the two we already had (blue and red which Goblin said was melon flavour, and blue which Goblin decided was raspberry). 

 And an entire days play was mapped out for the whole family.

Sorry folks, for some reason my linky isn't allowing anyone to add a link this week. If you want to link up please jump over to B.Inspired Mama and link up. But for those of you looking for inspiration here is the linky

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Kids Coop - Cardboard boxes

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Its time for Kids Coop. Please link up your child related posts and check out what others have been up to this week. I'm linking the following:

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(Goblin is 42 months)

As Goblin gets older I have become wiser in the art of playing with cardboard boxes. When Goblin sees a giant cardboard box he instantly starts listing things he wants it to be. So the latest box acquired from our good friends was apparently going to be a helicopter and a boat and an aeroplane.
In the past I would have set to work cutting it up and trying to build an elaborated construction (for examples see here and here and here). It would have taken a lot of time and Goblin would have been frustrated while I was busy with my masterpiece.

So now I stick to a few basic rules
1. Try to retain the structural integrity of the box. 
In the past I would have cut down the sides to make the shape more "boaty" but the more you break the boxes integrity the less stable it is and the less durable. This limits the length of time that it will remain intact for play. So keep it looking boxy and get your kid to use their imagination instead.
2. Involve your child in the decorating
In the past I would have spent a lot of time trying to build what Goblin had requested but not included him in the process. Now I try and keep it a lot more simple, and get him to give ideas.
3. Embrace paper fasteners
Paper fasteners are my new secret weapon. All kids like moving parts on their creations right? Well paper fasteners are a super simple way of attaching stuff so it can spin around. Thus giving your child something to fiddle with.

So my latest cardboard creation was a simple boat. I did not try to make it look too much like a boat. Instead I asked Goblin what a boat needed. He told me it needed a propeller (yey! paper fasteners). And a steering wheel (more paper fasteners). After a bit more thought he also decided it needed a radar, start buttons, and flashing emergency light. which were achieved through a  yogurt pot, straw and bottle cap.
As we played with his boat I pointed to some barnacles on the keel. "You need to scrape those off so the boat will go faster. Oh and you'll need to pain the hull". My imaginary play suggestion ignited another idea with Goblin. And he set to work actually painting his boat.

And himself! 

This simple box provided an entire day of imaginary play. I love cardboard boxes.

And now to the linky

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Kids Co-op - Learning about Fire

 
<center> <a href="http://www.tamingthegoblin.com/search/label/kids%20coop"></p> <p> <font color="#808080" face="'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/FkLk8.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a></font></p> <p> <font color="#808080" face="'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; white-space: pre-wrap;"></center> Its time for Kids Co-op again. Welcome back, or if you are just discovering this link up Hurrah and Welcome. Please link up your favourite kids activity posts and take a second to check out some of the others. I know its tempting to link and run but you'll be cheating yourself if you do because I guarantee you'll find at least one post that inspires you. This week I'm linking the following: ******

Goblin and I were doing some art and I'd put out red and yellow paint. In his usual format he tipped a blob of red and a blob of yellow on the paper and moved them around a bit. I said "Oooh it looks like fire". He looked at it, looked at me, and said "Can we make a real fire?"

I try not to say "No" to Goblin's suggestions unless there is a really good reason. In this case several good reasons came to mind including:
- Fire is really dangerous
- Fire should never be played with
- I don't want to encourage pyro tendencies in my three year old.

But instead of letting the negatives overwhelm me I decided to use this as a teaching opportunities. So I said 'Yes'.
We went into the garden and I explained
"Fires must always be done outside, and in an open space so they don't accidentally spread"
We put the flammable material (boxes and paper) on the wet lawn and I explained
"The concrete might have air pockets and we don't want them to heat up because they could explode"
(I've seen a camp fire set on concrete explode the floor and send shrapnel flying and it is not pretty)
I put down one box and stuffed some paper inside. Goblin wanted it to be bigger but I explained
"Fire is very unpredictable so we need to keep it small and manageable".
Then I lay down two big bits of wood we'd had lying around and explained to Goblin that he wasn't to go any nearer to the fire than the back edge of the wood. He also had to pick a spot and stay there and he wasn't to run near the fire (children running towards a fire can easily trip and end up in the fire).
I made sure we had some full buckets of water on standby - because fire is unpredictable.

Goblin wanted to light the fire and I emphatically said No. I explained that Goblin was never to play with the lighter and he could only be near a fire if he was with me or Hublet. When I lit the fire the cardboard took very quickly and the flames were soon pretty high. Goblin could feel how hot it was and I think this scared him a bit - as you can see he didn't stand any where near the fire - another good lesson, Fires are really really hot.

When we'd run out of cardboard I told Goblin we needed to damp down the embers. He was keen to pour water on the fire but I made him wait until all the flames had died away. Then I let him pour water from his watering can on it. As it sizzled and steam came up I was able to explain that despite there being no more flames it was still incredibly hot and we mustn't touch it. 

After our fire had been safely extinguished I took Goblin inside and I showed him where we keep our Fire blanket, Fire Extinguisher, Burns kit, two smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarm. And what the alarms sound like.
Fire can be beautiful and something that can be enjoyed safely. But like the sea, fire is unpredictable and Goblin needs to understand the boundaries that need to be respected with fire.

 *If you intend to teach your children about fire through a practical lesson please bear in mind how flammable synthetic clothes are. Also wellington boots will melt if used to try and stamp out fires.

Here is a link to some fire safety resources including printables.

And now to the kids co-op linky


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Kids Co-op - cardboard mania

 
<center> <a href="http://www.tamingthegoblin.com/search/label/kids%20coop"></p> <p> <font color="#808080" face="'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/FkLk8.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a></font></p> <p> <font color="#808080" face="'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; white-space: pre-wrap;"></center> Its time for Kids Co-op again. This is a weekly link up where you can find some great ideas for activities with kids. If you have a blog of your own you can link up your favourite posts on kids activities. Link up as many as you like so people can browse and find the ones they like. Please stop in and check out other posts and leave a comment if you like what you see - everyone loves comments. This week I'm linking up the following:

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Cardboard mania!

I do most of my Christmas shopping on line. As a result, around this time of year I tend to have a tonne of cardboard boxes. If you are like me and have lots of boxes here are some ideas of things you could do with them to entertain your kiddos. 

Hublet was taken with some cardboard inserts the other day and made Goblin the cardboard ball maze you see above.

Goblin is a tad obsessed with vehicles so many of our box creations are machines. How about an Ambulance, Fire engine or Police car.

Goblin is not so keen on dressing up, but that doesn't stop me trying. So far we have tried a Robot costume and a Crocodile costume without much success!

However the working lawn mower was a big success. Unfortunately I now can't get my lawnmower out without Goblin wanting me to make one for him too.

We like using boxes for small world play as well - ironically the box is sometimes more popular than the toy that came in it once its been converted. You can find our Toy Car Wash and Toy Crane by clicking the word.

And flat cardboard makes a great cavas either for your little one, or yourself. I painted a street map for Goblin on mine.  
And finally the simplest of all activities, just leave the box out for your child to use as a den.
Have you got any other great box ideas?

And now to the Linky

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Guest post at The Golden Gleam

Recently my lovely friend Rebekah at The Golden Gleam shared the wonderful news that her family is growing. Rebekah and her husband are adopting three lovely children to join their beautiful daughter E. You can read about her emotional journey here.
While she is taking an important break to welcome her new family members I have had the pleasure of guest posting on her brilliant blog. My guest post is How to make a Cardboard Ambulance. I'd love for you to pop over and check it out - as usual with my Goblin based activities things did not go quite as planned.

Really lazy craft - Cardboard Crocodile

(Goblin is 34 months)

I am essentially a lazy person so I am always on the look out for ideas that don't take much effort. And here is a great one - a cardboard crocodile for make-believe play. It combines two elements, crafts and pretend play, and requires very little parental effort. 

I cut out a cardboard crocodile shape using a big box, and set Goblin to work painting it. We used a brush to paint it green and then used bubble wrap to make yellow 'scales' - I know crocodiles don't have scales, this was artistic licence. And Goblin decided to also add some gold glitter paint, which worked quite well.

And when the crocodile was dry, we had a creature for Goblin to scare Hublet and myself with - Simples!

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