Although we're in Malaysia, we need lots of indoors inspiration, too - tropical storms and tropical heat are often enough to drive us back inside for days! Orla is pretty good at letting me know when she's bored, so I have to stay on my toes to provide her with a variety of diversions that don't cost a fortune and will help her to develop key skills.
BUILD A 'BOUNCY CASTLE'
Gather up pillows, beanbags and cushions and heap them on the floor. Throw a couple of double duvets over the top and throw yourselves about! It's great fun for mums and tots alike when cabin fever is setting in, and you can turn the central heating down, too - all the jumping about generates a LOT of heat!
MAKE A MEAL OF IT!
You'll need paper plates, PVA/Pritt craft glue, scraps of fabric, ribbon, wool, foil, wrapping paper, leaves, sequins, pictures cut from magazines... Orla has a craft box, full of bits and bobs that I've collected together and can pull out at a moment's notice. She loves dabbing glue onto the paper plate and playing with different materials and textures to build her own 'dinners'.
Her craft box..
... includes poster paints, pencils and crayons, wool, ribbon, fabric scraps, magazine cutouts, stickers (each sheet cut into smaller pieces so she doesn't use them all at once!), sequins and foil shapes, chalks, dried leaves, paper flowers, polystyrene trays for glue and paint, set of cheapie brushes from WHSmith, Pritt paper glue and craft glue, yogurt pots...
Some activities might require a bit more preparation...
* Search through your digital photos and copy them into folders to make themed 'slideshows' for your little one. Orla's favourite is her Animals folder (see 'Animal Magic')- she presses the 'enter' key to move through the pictures, calling out names and sounds, and identifying colours. We've printed out this set of photos and put them into a plain A5 photo album which cost a couple of pounds from Paperchase. When we're out and about, I snap photos of diggers, cement trucks, buses... or you could choose autumn, winter or Christmas images to fascinate your child and to extend his/her vocabulary.
* Kitchen Creations! Perennial favourites include playing with cornflour gloop (you can colour it with food colouring, but avoid contact with clothing and prepare to have your little angel running around with green and red hands for a day or two!), jelly squeezing, cold spaghetti, and other kitchen cupboard staples... all allow your child to explore a range of sensations and textures. Baking is a great way of involving your little person in what you're doing AND getting things done (mince pies, gingerbread men and cookies, anyone?) and they can have heaps of fun decorating their creations! So what if it's messy? It all wipes up with a damp cloth...
MAKING MUSIC...
Gather together a few milk bottles or jam jars, fill with different levels of water and provide a chopstick - you may find you have a mini Mozart on your hands. Make a rainmaker from an old plastic bottle and a cup of rice - your child can decorate the outside with the contents of that craft box! A few potatoes in a shoebox make a wonderful rumbling noise when tipped back and forth and beads in a jam jar make a great, tinkling sound...
Follow up your 'jam' session with a fantastic 'musical genre' disco! Get busy compiling iPod playlists of rock, pop, classical, Latin, World, jazz, blues, country - anything you've got on there - and enjoy flinging yourselves around the living room at your own personal night (or afternoon?!) club! It's a fun way for your little one to learn about different rhythms - Orla is old enough now to recognise the changes in tempo and style and she instinctively alters the way she moves and dances to a variety of music. She's developing a real taste for Latin rhythms - salsa classes by the time she's two, methinks!
