Top 12 Activity posts 2013 from Learn with Play at Home

Dec 27, 2013

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The year in review:


2013 has been an exciting year for the Learn with Play at Home blog. I have thoroughly enjoyed sharing our activities and ideas with you and have loved seeing our readership and followers grow and grow over the year. Our bustling community on facebook has almost 25,000 followers now, my favourite pinterest has grown to over 26,000 followers and we have been upping our profile on google+, instagram (love instagram, come and follow us!) and twitter. Just this past month, you, dear readers, have pushed us to over 200,000 pageviews per month with more than 100,000 unique viewers p/m. Thank you!

We have formed amazing partnerships with some incredible businesses that we fully believe in and support, this year. A huge thank you to the completely awesome art, craft and stationery experts, Micador and the awe inspiring team at Spielgaben. Your support and belief in this blog and our work has been truly invaluable and greatly appreciated. Not only do you make and sell awesome, high quality products that add great benefit to our children's lives and education, but you are also wonderful people to know and associate with as well.

Thank you also to my management, Bloggerati by Nuffnang who have looked after the commercial side of the blog and who make it possible for me to invest the time into keeping Learn with Play at Home running and full of free ideas. They have been instrumental in providing us with appropriate clients to work with and I have been privileged to attend some fabulous events and work with some major companies thanks to them.

Many readers would also be unaware of the friendships that blogging can help form and I am blessed to have made friends and connections with some of the most incredible and inspiring mothers around the world.

2013 has seen us with a fresh new look, (banner by graphic designer Paul Rasche and matching elements/style by Kate Pickle designs), a writing gig over on Kidspot, a fabulous Playful Maths series and a look at a different teaching philosophy with our Exploring Reggio series. Not to mention a plethora of other activities and ideas spanning all the different learning areas. It has been a truly fabulous year and experience with the blog and I can't wait to see what 2014 brings.

Here I have put together a combination of "readers choice" (the ones you viewed the most) and "my choice" (a couple that I just really loved doing), for our Top 12 Posts for 2013. I hope you enjoy! :)



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5 Simple, Fun Christmas Sensory Play ideas for kids

Dec 17, 2013

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Welcome to TUESDAY TOTS for this week.
Brought to you by Learn with Play at home (that's us), Rainy Day Mum,
and One Perfect Day


This Week:
Learn with Play at Home is showcasing

5 Simple, Fun Christmas Sensory Play Ideas

These great posts came from last weeks Tuesday Tots linkup. 
Don't forget to check out the other great features from our co-hosts.




FEATURED

My kids love Sensory play and so do I, as it's generally something that keeps them entertained for ages. Besides the fun they're having, there is so much learning that takes place through these experiences.

It is very worthwhile for children to be exposed to experiences where they can use multiple senses in order to develop these further and to make connections about themselves and the world around them in a way that is natural to them. Just sit back and observe as they hone their fine-motor skills and practice things like tipping and pouring and cutting. See them investigate and explore the varying materials and their properties and listen as they question occurrences or state observations. It really is delightful to watch.

With Christmas fast approaching, it's fun to get in the spirit so here are some lovely but simple to set-up, Christmas sensory play ideas. (Because let's face it, time is tight at the moment!)

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DIY Chistmas Tree Playdough Gift Bags with free printable labels

Dec 14, 2013

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As a little end of year gift for the children in Maddie's preschool class, we made some lovely little "Make your own Playdough Christmas tree" bags. 

There are so many variations that you could make of these playdough bags. We made some Very Hungry Caterpillar playdough bags for a birthday before and found them to be a fun, different and economical gift for kids.
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Construction Building with Blocks and Tape

Dec 9, 2013

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See below for your chance to win a complete set of Spielgaben

Today's activity is part of an ongoing series, Exploring Reggio. Our co-creators for the series are, The Imagination TreeAn Everyday StoryOne Perfect DayTwodaloo and Racheous- Lovable Learning.

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Kid-made simple Candy Cane Decorations

Dec 8, 2013

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If you're ever in need of a super quick and easy way to bring some instant Christmas cheer to a room, try twisting up some of these basic little pipe-cleaner candy cane decorations.

Adults can whip these up in a matter of seconds, but you will find that depending on the age of the child and how advanced their fine-motor skills are, they may take a little longer or need a bit of assistance.

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10 Christmas Activities for Toddlers

Dec 3, 2013

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Welcome to TUESDAY TOTS for this week.

Brought to you by Learn with Play at home (that's us), Rainy Day Mum,
and One Perfect Day


This Week:
Learn with Play at home is showcasing

10 Christmas themed Activities for Toddlers

These great posts came from last weeks Tuesday Tots linkup
where we featured 6 Christmas Countdown Ideas




FEATURED

Here are some fabulously simple crafts and wonderful sensory play experiences that I found linked up to Tuesday Tots. These activities are suitable for most toddlers with supervision and will of course be enjoyed by preschoolers and older children as well. (Ok, and adults too) :)

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A Letter for the Postman. Acts of Kindness for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Dec 1, 2013

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Each year around Christmas time, my children and I love to bake cookies and deliver them to an assisted living centre to bring some Christmas cheer to others. We're looking forward to doing this again this year slightly closer to Christmas.

Whilst it is important to encourage children to be kind and thoughtful towards others all year round, Christmas is certainly a fabulous time of year to put a real emphasis on kindness, giving and thinking about others and a little less emphasis on what we want and what we're going to get.

When Chelsea from Moments a Day organised a group of bloggers to participate in Random Acts of Kindness for Toddlers and Preschoolers I was grateful for the opportunity to think about this more and to reinforce these important messages in my children. Using Chelsea's ebook, 52 Acts of Kindness, for inspiration, I read through some of the different and simple ideas that we could do to bring a little bit of sunshine to someone's life. Together, we decided that we would write a letter and leave a little gift for our postman.
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