The SC & more n°296: Apple

This week's theme is apple. It fits the season perfectly! This time again, it is my children's turn to participate to the challenge instead of me and here is what they made with their grandmother for my birthday:

Check out the Museum for the other apples, there are some very appetizing fruits around :) and don't forget to visit Isabelle's blog tomorrow at 8h for the next theme!

The SC & more n°294 : Leaf

This week Isabelle asked us to do something with or about a leaf. I have been pretty busy and this is a last minute project. I picked up a leaf in the street today and decided to make a canvas with a method I learnt when I was in primary school: toothbrush paiting :) So much fun!

 

and as an extra, here are the lyrics to a 20th century popular song about Autumn (invented by two female scouts in 1942 according to Wikipedia) - I just love it! (listen to this version on Youtube)

Colchiques dans les prés fleurissent, fleurissent,
Colchiques dans les prés : c'est la fin de l'été.

La feuille d'automne, emportée par le vent,
En ronde monotone tombe en tourbillonnant.
Châtaignes dans les bois se fendent, se fendent,
Châtaignes dans les bois se fendent sous les pas.

La feuille d'automne, emportée par le vent,
En ronde monotone tombe en tourbillonnant. 

 Nuages dans le ciel s'étirent, s'étirent,
Nuages dans le ciel s'étirent comme une aile.

La feuille d'automne, emportée par le vent,
En ronde monotone tombe en tourbillonnant.  

Et ce chant dans mon coeur murmure, murmure,
Et ce chant dans mon coeur appelle le bonheur.

La feuille d'automne, emportée par le vent,
En ronde monotone tombe en tourbillonnant.

Wishing you all a lovely colourful Autumn! Check out the Museum to see the other leaves :)

The SC & more n°293: Nathalie's birthday

This week is Nathalie's birthday and she is hosting the SC & more!

So Nathalie, I wish you a happy birthday with many beautiful virtual presents! here are mine for you: a colourful drawing I made on the weekend, and a little plane to help you in your travels around the virtual world ;)

Visit the museum to see her other presents! and see you next week for the next challenge.

The SC & more n°291: The woods

This week, Madame Cerise invites us for a walk in the woods. We haven't been out in the woods for a little while but I had some reserves from last year and on Sunday we went to the Botanical Garden. I love this place! The children also took advantage of the walk to gather some treasures.

 

This afternoon after picking up N. from the Kindergarten, we started doing some DIY. At first T. watched Cinderella, but after a little while he could not manage to resist to the attraction of paint and glue ;)

What did we make? Two door-wreath and a decorative box.

 Take a paper plate and cut it in the middle. N.'s was cut all around, with mine I made a sort of small "shelf" in the centre. Do some paint job, I chose a mix of brown, orange and green to recall the colours of autumn.

 Once it is painted, wait until it dries... N. and T. desperately wanted to get on with the next step, so I spent around 10 minutes hair-drying the paint. Then I took out my glue gun and they were able to glue all sorts of pine cones, leaves, branches etc.

N. is going to take her wreath to the Kindergarten to decorate the door to her group's room. Her Kindergarten changed the group system and moved the children and educators around a bit. N. is now in the green group which is "Nature and Senses". It suits N. really well as she loves bringing small stones, flowers, and other treasures to show in the morning.

So that's our participation to the SC & more. Visit the Museum to see the rest and Isabelle's blog on Friday morning for the new challenge!

Bath toys

Bath toys... Who hasn't had the problem of toys that get mouldy inside because it is near impossible to empty all the water?

Recently I came across a brand Olie&Carol that makes bath toys from 100% natural latex. I am very much interested in those toys and I'd love to get a boat and a duck:

 But I still need to find a shop close to me, or at least an online shop in Germany that would have both in stock.

In the meantime I am getting rid of the other toys and I am not buying new ones. The other day though, I decided to make some new toys for the children's bath time:

T. (2,5yo) tried to practice cutting in a straight line while I made some more advanced stuff ;)

In the end I did not get time to get much done, but at least they have a few elements to play with for now. Elements that include numbers from 1 to 5. At some point I'll make more numbers and letters, as well as signs: + , - , = etc.

What do your children play with in their bath?

The SC & more n°285: Self-portrait

This week, Les Bleues Mirettes is asking us a self-portrait. My daughter made one of herself so that's what I am sharing today. She got pink trousers and a "Frozen" t-shirt for her birthday. She loves them! We are having a small holiday and she sent a postcard to her friends. She drew herself in her pink clothes, she even outlined the figures of Elsa and Anna. I find it really sweet.

Square picture for the museum

I apologise for the lack of font colour, page set -up and lack of hidden links, my phone won't let me do what I want, how I want.

Perles à repasser à gagner!

Un petit jeu chez Nathalie Aime!! Je participe en espérant gagner!! 

Ma fille fête bientôt ses 4 ans, ce serait chouette :)

Popsicle DIY

A week ago I got a really good tip on FB, instead of buying Popsicle sticks in a craft shop or on a craft website, I could go to the local pharmacist and get a whole pack of 100 pieces for just under 2€! On the next day I went to the pharmacist and got myself a pack :)

 I had no immediate plan of using them, but I liked the idea of just having them at home... I am a hoarder, you know. On the same day I put four sticks to soak and left them overnight. They don't bend super easily, but they still fit in a small glass.

Today we are having a rainy afternoon and the children were in a bad mood when we got home from the Kindergarten. So I decided we'd do some craft.

First we made two bracelets:

 And then we made dolls. Just using felt pens and imagination. N. , who will soon be 4yo, was really thrilled and she tried really hard to copy my first doll and after that she just let her imagination loose.

T., 2,5yo, scribbled a bit on two sticks. Although he IS able to draw people now, he did not make any effort at all. He preferred playing with the ones I had drawn already.

We now have a nice little family of dolls, mostly girls in pink though ;)

I also had a wooden box lying around, I quickly glued some fabrics and the dolls now have a house!

Cutting to make children

Time to play!

How do you like them? Unfortunately for me, T. and N. had fun making them, T. enjoyed playing 10min with them, but now the novelty is over and they are moaning again. I so dislike rainy days!!

Transport Museum & traveling toy

We've finally managed to visit our Transport Museum a couple of weeks ago. What a great afternoon out! I definitely recommend it even with small children. They were allowed to touch some of the exposed stuff and there is a whole floor with activities for them, activities that include driving a model train!

 And because my blog is primarily to present you my craft, here's a traveling toy I made some time ago. It fits well with the transport museum theme ;)

What do you do with your children on rainy days?

Spool-knitting with a 3,5yo

My 3,5yo daughter and my almost 2yo son really like trying their hands at what I am doing. So the big game is sometimes to use scissors and cut all sorts of threads into pieces, or glue stuff, or thread beads, and so on and so forth.

 Some time ago I was spool-knitting and N. asked if she could try too. She found it difficult with the small knitting mushroom, so I made her try on my flower loom. She could not hold it too well as it was big, so I had to find an idea on how to set it up. Look what brilliant idea I had ;)

 The toilet paper roll was the perfect size to hold the loom AND the hole in the middle was just what we needed to let the knitted cord go down.

N. was very pleased with herself but she got tired of it pretty quickly. She still managed to obtain enough loose cord to make herself a small bracelet :)

 

Autumn DIY

Autumn is here, but almost coming to an end! Temperatures are now quickly going down. I almost expect the snow to start falling any day now ;) - I am exaggerating a little bit. It will probably be another month before the first snow fall. Anyway, here are some of the stuff we made last year. I had not got around to showing you then, and since this year we are not making much because N. is in the Kindergarten, why not finally show you these? 

All you need is:
- pipe cleaners
- acorns, conkers, wood...
- wooden beads
- a glue gun
- some yarn
- anything you want to use for decorating

It was a lot of fun to make all those guys and N. was proud to have a little present for all the members of her family and her best friends. And I was happy to be able to use (and get rid of!) the stuff the children had collected in the forest!