Praises of a Wife and Mommy

Day 29: Role Play Play Prompt:    Set up a little imaginative play area based on your child's interest. Set up a shop (store) using a cardboard box or table and find some items to sell in baskets such as toys, play foo played d or shoes. Then take turns being the shop keeper and the customer and play! We have an adorable kids play kitchen so we had fun baking and learning in the kitchen.  Little Titus was even the chef for a little while too. :) 

DAY 28 CHALLENGE:                          CREATE SOMETHING                        FOR SOMEONE SPECIAL DAY 28 CHALLENGE: Take a moment to discuss ideas with your child about what you'd like to create and for who. How can you make it special?  How can you make it personal? If Papa is reading this then stop you will be seeing it in a couple days!  :)  Selah's papa is having a birthday this week so it was perfect timing for the play challenge to tell us to create something special.  :)   We created a pop out card for him. If you look you can see it is a birthday cake with candles that pop    out.  The cake is also a confetti cake because it is Selah's favorite.  :)  Selah is coloring the letters.   Here is Selah's hand written message to her papa.   Here is my translation message from Selah...

Day 27: Dress Up! Play prompt: Have a rummage through the dressing up box (if you have one!) or your own drawers and find some interesting dressing up items. Get the whole family to put something on and then make up a story, sing a song, dance, play imaginatively together! Dress up is one of Selah's favorite things to do but we did things a little different today.  We had a lot of running around and hustle and bustle with shopping and Christmas play practice.  So Ballerina's do need a bath so she had fun in her little tutu in the bath tub.  :) I mean what is not fun about dressing up in your bath??  :)  She and her friend did just dress up on Thanksgiving and they had a lot of fun.  :) 

DAY 26 CHALLENGE:                               PLAY IN A BOX DAY 26 CHALLENGE: Spend  [at least]  15 minutes playing with, in or around a cardboard box! Let the imaginations of your children decide what it will be today. Add any elements needed to create it. Since we just put up the Christmas tree it was easy to figure out we were going to play with the big tree box. :)   First we were drawing and coloring shapes.  Then Selah started to draw random things and before I knew it we had a house for her princess's.  :)  I think she was a bit sad when I told her it was time to clean up because we were going to put the box back in the garage.  We live in a small place so the box was kinda blocking our door.  Ponies were on guard. 

Day 25: Small World Play Is there really only 5 more days of the play challenge??  :(  Time went to quickly.  Today we created a ocean and made a boat.  We went fishing, swimming, made big waves, and sang row row row your boat, but also acted out Jonah and the whale and let Titus play Jonah.  :)  Some fish she caught! Looking for more fish! Titus thrown off the boat.  Big fish swimming deep in the water below looking to come up!

Day 23: Printing with Objects Play Prompt: Take a little box or basket and go for a hunt around the house with your child, looking for some everyday objects to print with. Absolutely anything and everything will do! The more unusual the better. Dip into paint and print, print, print!  We did not go on a hunt around the house looking for random objects this time around.  I have done this activity before and we had a ton of fun but with Thanksgiving tomorrow I wanted to make something for the table.  We made hand print turkeys and we can use them for the silverware!  :)  They were easy to make and my daughter had fun!  First paint the hand brown for the turkey.  Second glue on the eye and 4 feathers on the fingers and don't forget the beak...like me when I took these pictures!  LOL  :) Lastly use toilet paper rolls and cut them and glue the turkey.  Now you have a nice turkey center piece or you can wrap your silverware and napkin in...

Day 21: Have a Party!   Play prompt: Have a spontaneous party for no reason at all! It could be a  teddy bear's picnic  with a toy tea set and imaginary food. Invite all your child's favourite toys, make some invitations, set out the places, turn on the music and enjoy! Or find some left over party plates and napkins and spread them out on the floor (or in the garden) and serve up some  real food and drink! The first thing we decided we needed to have a party was some yummy brownies!  So our day started in the kitchen!  Since we were doing some Christmas pictures my daughter was able to get her hair done all pretty which went well with our party theme!  Look at her beautiful curls and braids!  She sat very nice to get her hair done... I have noticed that when someone else does her hair she is perfect but when I do her hair she whines and cries and claims I hurt her all the time when I am being gentle.  Anyone else have that issue?...

DAY 20 CHALLENGE: PAINT! DAY 20 CHALLENGE: Paint! In anyway you like! Get creative  [and maybe a little messy] , and spend 15 minutes of uninterrupted time, with the kids today! Challenge yourself to use a new tool to paint with. Or even better, paint on something out of the ordinary! Or maybe use a new method of painting! We made the salt dough and then used cookie cutters to get some Christmas shapes.  We cut out hearts, stars, Christmas tree's, candy canes, and cross's which will all be ornaments to give as gifts!  We also made a hand print for both kids!  :)  Selah got to paint them and put glitter on them.   Salt dough was super easy, I found the recipe from The Imagination Tree !  1 cup salt, 1 cup flour and 1/2 cup water!  Then bake at 200 for about 10-12 minutes.  

Day 19: Music Making Play prompt: Raid the kitchen cupboards and find some pots and pans, metal utensils,  wooden spoons, and anything else you can find of various materials and sizes. Sit down and use them to make some noisy music together! I told my daughter we were going to do some music time and told her she could even pick some kitchen items to make music with.  She went to her play kitchen instead!  It was cute and we still have fun banging on her plastic pots!  We also used her piano and her didgeridoo.   I really enjoyed this challenge because my lil man could easily join in on the fun! 

Day 17:   A Reading Tent Play Prompt: Find a cosy spot in the house (or garden if warm enough!) and create a reading nook using some material and cushions. Climb inside and read, uninterrupted, for  at least  15 minutes! Our reading tent was located in the BATHTUB!  :)   My daughter was thought I was crazy at first but then when I got her blankets and pillows and made it cozy loved it.  She had so much fun that she fell asleep in their for her nap!   We turned the lights off and closed the shower curtain and got a flashlight out to read.  :)  She actually wanted to read on her own because she was in her "fort."  :)   zzzzzzzz....sleeping as I wrote this!  

DAY 16 CHALLENGE: GO ON A HUNT DAY 16 CHALLENGE: Spend  [at least]  15 minutes of uninterrupted *  time going on a hunt! Plan one out with drawings, pictures or words. Or shout out an item to look for! Get creative with it! [* uninterrupted  : being present with the child. No technology, phones, television, computer, etc. No errands, chores, making dinner, etc.] Our hunt was a letter hunt.  We were looking and searching for 4 different letters.  We were out and about in the morning driving and found some letters on signs and that was fun! (No pictures from the car ride) At home we went from room to room searching with a lot of success!  :)  Our first letter was "S" for SELAH and here are the S items we found.  (Selah took the pictures)   The next letter on our hunt was "T" for TITUS and here are the other "T" things w e found: The next letter was "M" for MOMMY and here are the items we found: The l...