Dressing for a Snowday

(Goblin is 41 months)

I didn't think I'd be writing a post about dressing up warm at the tail end of March in the UK. But we've just had two days of heavy snow. In order to stay out for any length of time in the snow both kids and parents need to dress appropriately. So I thought I'd share how we dress Goblin for the cold. 

1. Thermals: A really good start is a warm thermal base layer. We bought Goblin's Merino wool stripy thermal long sleeved top and longjohns from Mountain Warehouse. 
2. Normal set of clothes: Over these we just put a tshirt, joggers, socks and a jumper. 
3. Waterproof layer: Skipants are a great investment. We bought Goblin's in the sale, they are a size too big because we intended them to be for next winter, not expecting any more snow this year. Goblin does have a chunky anorak but we've actually been using a soft shell ski jacket. This is neoprene and both warm and wind resistant. With all the other layers he doesn't really need a chunky jacket. 
4. Extremities protection: 
• hands: We finally found some ski gloves that fit Goblin's little hands. And they can ge turned half way inside out to make them easy to put on. 
• Feet: Another great find are Neoprene Shoes. These go over the top of the socks and inside the wellies. They act as an insulator and if snow or water does get into the wellies they act as a wetsuit and warm the water to keep the feet toasty.
• Head: Finally a hat with earflaps is very handy to keep ears warm particularly if your child is vulnerable to ear infections. 

And then we're set for snow time play

 Of course Goblin doesn't always agree with the way we try to dress him for playing in the snow!

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Kids Coop - Ice Sculptures

 
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Its time for Kids Co-op, please link up your favourite kids posts and check out what others have been up to this week, plenty to inspire you. This week I'm linking the following:

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 (Goblin is 40 months)

During January I attempted to make Ice Sculptures with Goblin. I got every tupperware and plastic vessel I could find and filled them with water coloured with food colouring. I popped them in the garden and left them. The temperature dropped to minus five degrees, but they didn't freeze. And then it snowed. This apparently acted as an insulator so despite the freezing temperatures, after a week in the garden they still weren't fully frozen, and then the weather began to warm up.

In a last ditch attempt to provide my son with the experience of ice sculptures I emptied one of our freezers and filled it with as many pots of coloured water as I could.

Finally the blocks froze. In trying to empty the contents I manage to smash a couple of my Tupperwares - note to self, plastic gets brittle when frozen - *sigh*.

Goblin set to work playing with the ice blocks. But he soon realised that they were very cold. He continued playing for a while using his spade, shovelling the smaller pieces into a bucket and depositing them in a flower pot.

Then he asked me to stack the rest of the blocks because the ice was "hurting his hands". It made me wonder whether this might have been a better activity for the summer.

When it got dark I took Goblin out with torches to see what the ice looked like when the light was shone through the blocks. They were really pretty.

And now to the linky

Fun in the snow

(Goblin is 39 months)

It snowed this weekend. Hooray! We love the snow. Probably because we only get it for about two days a year so its always very exciting. I thought I'd share some photos of our snowy antics. 

 Sledging

Running races

Making giant snowballs

 Making a snowman on day one

Making a snowman on day two - slightly more impressive

Goblin's "Snow food" - he ate them like apples!

 Feeding the ducks

 And clearing the path

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Paper snowflake pattern round up

Just in case you wanted to do some last minute decorating I thought I'd share some of the lovely paper snowflake craft I have found on Pinterest.

Did you know that most of the super pretty snowflakes are folded in six rather than four:
How to fold by All for the boys

But you don't need to come up with your own designs because all of the following links supply one or more template:

• Snowflake Patters by Whitney Lunt 
• Single snowflake by Martha Stewart 
• Cupcake case snowflakes by Domestic Goddesque
• Printable for 3 snowflakes by vintage junk
• Faux sneauxflakes from bon temps beignet
• Star wars by dancell.cwahi.net
• Templates with no direct source

And here is one awesome way to display them
Snowflake curtain by Bugs and Fishes

Small World Snow Play

(Goblin is 37 months)

Today Goblin woke up to a snow storm. Not a real snow storm, a play one I'd laid out before I went to bed last night. I am a total hypocrite. I wrote a post just last weekend on how kids don't need elaborate play, and then I go and do it this. The thing is I haven't done it in a while and I do love walking in to the living room with him when he discovers a play scene waiting for him.

I made snow by grating four bars of cheap white soap. It was so cheap that it was squidgy so I could mould some into snowballs. It also smelled lovely - coconut scented. The great thing about soap snow is when your child has finished playing with it you can either add some water and mash it back into a soap ball for washing, or you can keep it for wet felting.

 I also made some peppermint playdough. I always use Nurturestore's easy recipe which doesn't involve cooking - just boiling water. Where playdough is concerned I go on the theory that if you find something that works you should stick with it. I added peppermint essential oil to make it smell nice (Goblin has a cold so this was good for his sinuses) and I used some glitter for wintery sparkles.

In the Autumn I collected a whole bunch of pine cones. I painted them white in the hope of making some beautiful ornaments to hang on our season tree. Unfortunately, while they looked amazing when first painted, they closed up as they were drying. I had heard that pine cones do this - there is a post about it on Science Sparks - but to be honest I hadn't really thought that paint would make them do it. Anyway my beautiful open pinecones turned into rather boring shrunken ones. So I covered them in glitter and donated them to Goblin's play scene as trees.

 I have conceded that no matter what play ideas I come up with Goblin always defaults to his diggers. So rather than fight this I thought I would accommodate it. So I added his bulldozer and dumper to the snow to create a snow shovelling scene.

Goblin was suitably impressed when he found his little snow storm. He spent a good part of the morning moving the snow from one part of the mat to the other with his many digger and dumper toys. LAter in the day he added gravel to the snow (not a problem as the soap can be separated out by washing). And eventually he took his "forest" apart and rolled the playdough into balls and carted them around in one of his bigger trucks. All in all this was a very successful bit of sensory play as it kept him going on and off through out the whole day.

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