For this month’s play roundup, here is a quick photo post of a few of our favourite homemade loose parts* for play. (*In the early childhood education setting, loose parts are simply open ended materials or items that can be combined, redesigned or lined up in multiple ways for play).   Yoghurt bottle tops I built up this collection gradually over time from the squeezy yoghurt pouches I pack in Nathan’s lunch box. I get Nathan to save them and take them home for me to wash and stash away in our collection. The children enjoy playing with these in a myriad of ways--colour sorting, counting, pretend cooking, lining up in patterns and so on. ***** Coloured pasta You can find heaps of DIY articles on Pinterest for making your own coloured pasta. Just regular dry pasta mixed with some food colouring and vinegar. They make a very pretty collection of loose parts for open ended play. Apart from playing pretend cooking and sorting with these, the children also thread them on string...

{ This Product Talk is brought to you by Nuffnang and Funtastic ‘Bunchems’ } At our place we do a fair amount of art & craft and sensory & messy play. It does involve a bit of work, especially with the clean up. But the children all love it and it’s good for them too… getting all their creative juices flowing, practising their hand-eye coordination skills, stimulating their various senses. Though sometimes, it’s also nice to have a break from all the clean up and mess-management. So when I came across ‘Bunchems’, I was immediately intrigued. All the creative, crafty, hands-on play with some funky-looking material without any of the icky-sticky-gooey mess. The Bunchems Mega Pack comes with: 400 pieces of little Bunchems; 36 accessories to embellish your creations with; And one ideas booklet. I laid out everything on our big play table as a ‘Bunchems Play Invitation’. My little ones were so excited they could hardly finish their afternoon tea in their eagerness to begi...

If there was one person in the world who could beat me at being a drama queen, it’s this little person… Most of the time, it’s the best fun ever having a little drama queen. But there are times when we get a bit too much drama to handle. But nothing that a little cuddle time time with teddy can’t fix. ***** One of our current favourite family games is ‘Funny Face’. Basically I just call out an expression or emotion (“make a happy/sad/angry/scared/surprised face”) and the kids would make that face. Two-and-a-half year old Grace is pretty good at this game. Though sometimes she and her big brother crack each other too much they end up in a mess of giggles and silliness to keep up with the game. ***** One morning a few weeks back, I headed over to Grace’s bedroom to get her out of bed as part of our usual morning routine. This was the sight that greeted my eyes… { Crime scene re-enacted by the primary suspect } Me : Grace!!! What happened??? Who did this??? Grace : Errrr… Gra...