Our Top 20 Toddler Books

For awhile now I have been saying that I would add a post about favourite Toddler Books so here it is.
In no specific order these are the favourite books at our place, the ones that get read night after night and are really starting to look tatty.

1. Where is the Green Sheep ~ Mem Fox
2. The Very Hungry Caterpillar ~ Eric Carle
3. Hairy Maclary ~ Lynley Dodd
4. We're Going on a Bear Hunt ~ Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury
5. There's a Hippopotamus on our Roof Eating Cake ~ Hazel Edwards
6. Dear Zoo ~ Rod Campbell
7. Goldilocks and the Three Bears ~ Little Golden Book
8. Kisses for Daddy ~ Frances Watts and David Legge
9. Are You My Mother ~ P.D. Eastman
10. Where the Wild Things Are ~ Maurice Sendak
11. Edward the Emu ~ Sheena Knowles
12. Guess How Much I Love You ~ Sam McBrantley
13. The Eye Book ~ Dr. Seuss
14. Everybody Poos ~ Tara Gomi
15. Each Peach Pear Plum ~ Janet and Allan Ahlberg
16. Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes ~ Mem Fox
17. Mr McGee and the Big Bag of Bread ~ Pamela Allen
18. The Foot Book ~ Dr. Seuss
19. The Three Billy Goats Gruff ~ David Glover
20. My Dad ~ Anthony Brown

What are your favourites? We love to hear them!

More Fun with Ice ~ Ice Balloon Balls

The weather here is still hot, hot, hot. So I am continuously looking for ways to cool the Toddler Timers down. Master E loved the Hot Day Ice Play so much that I was looking for some more fun with Ice. I found lots of great ideas via Pinterest including the idea to make some ice balls.

This was a little tricky and did require me to be organised. I used balloons (just the regular type). Used a funnel to add a few drops of food colouring into the balloon then filled them with water by attaching them to the kitchen tap. I tried other ways to fill them but they were unsuccessful. Then popped them in the freezer until the next hot day. 

When I got frozen balloons out of the freezer there were some interesting shapes where they had been pushed against other food items. 

The balloons easily peeled away to reveal lovely balls of ice. The food colouring pooled into the middle which was interesting and most effective!

Master E and Miss M played with the ice balls in our toddler pool. Master E loved them, he enjoyed creating big splashes and making waves by throwing them into the water. 

Two of the ice balls floating in our pool.

The day was very hot so the ice didn't last too long, but long enough for lots of touching, throwing and sensory fun.

Master E enjoying watching the ice balls slowly melt in his hands.

Master E loves the sensory experience of Ice Play, Miss M is still unsure, but does like to observe what is going on. Hoping there will be more hot days soon so we can experience more fun with ice. 

Enjoy x

Hot Day Ice Play!

The Summer Sun has been beating down on us lately so we have had the perfect opportunity for some ice play. Lots of sensory fun with a sneaky bit of learning too!!

I filled some containers with plastic Sea Creatures covered them in water and added some blue food colouring for the Sea feel! They took about 24 hours to freeze so you need to be organised for this one. 

We filled our toddler pool with water and popped our Sea Creature Ice Blocks in. 

Master E was very excited, he kept trying to scoop up the whole ice block with his net. Lots of discussion about temperate occurred as he was keen to hold the ice, but wouldn't for too long as it was "Too Cold!" He enjoyed trying to get the animals out of the ice one by one.

Since the day was so warm the ice melted quite quickly leaving lots of Sea Creatures swimming around in the pool ready to be caught in nets. We spent quiet a bit of time identifying various creatures and counting how many we could scoop up in the nets.

This ice play was lots of fun and I have been busy freezing some other creations ready for some more Ice Play soon!

Pool Noodle Marble Run

It has been so hot here lately that I have been trawling Pinterest for ideas to keep Master E and Miss M occupied inside. I came across a wonderful post about creating a marble run from Ramblings From Utopia about using Pool Noodles to create Race Tracks. There idea was to race match box cars which looked great, but Master E is marble made so we made a marble track.

I brought a cheap pool noodle from The Reject Shop and used a bread knife to slice it down the middle. It was hollow inside making a perfect slot for marbles to roll down. It was tricky to cut it straight, but it really made know difference to the finished product. We held the two pieces together with some wooden skewers and added a Starting Line and Finishing Line.

Miss M and Master E sat with the Racetrack propped up on the couch and running down to the Finishing Line with an empty shoebox to catch all the marbles.

This captivated them both for at least an hour and was great for working on Fine Motor Skills to pick up all the marbles. We will be bringing this one out again and looking for other things we can send down the track.

Reindeer Antler Headbands

These are soooo cute and super easy.

We started with some reasonably thick card that I cut into strips to use as headbands.

Traced around each child's hand and included some of their arm onto brown (antler coloured) paper.

Cut around the hands and left some of the arm (these are to be the antlers.)

Measured each child's head and stapled the card strips to make a headband.

Attached the hand cut outs using sticky tape to the inside of the headband

And there you have it, very simple and cute Reindeer Antlers.

We completed the look with a little face paint on our noses to look like Rudolf (although he did end up with some very interesting coloured noses!)

Miss M

Master E

Miss A

Miss A

Miss G

Miss O

Miss L

Merry Christmas Toddler Timers!

Easy Toddler Cooking ~ Truffles

I'm usually not keen to cook with the kids, to be truthful, I'm usually not all that keen to cook at all!  The Toddler Timers however are. So here is my compromise, no bake cooking to make truffles. We made kid friendly ones and covered them with hundreds and thousands rather than the usual coconut. 

Ingredients:

1 Packet of Marie Biscuits
1 Can of Condensed Milk
1 Cup of Desiccated Coconut
2 Tablespoons of Cocoa
100's and 1000's to cover truffles

Before we were ready to start I pulsed the Marie Biscuits in the food processor until they were fairly fine.  We then added the coconut.

Next went in the Cocoa and finally the Condensed Milk.

Then it was time to stir, stir.

Stir!

And of course have a taste test.

We then rolled the chocolate mixture into small balls and then rolled them in Hundreds and Thousands.

This bit was a little bit messy and a tiny bit sticky! (Warning, we had Hundreds and Thousands EVERYWHERE!!! Nothing a vacuum couldn't fix though!)

The best bit about cooking is helping to 'Clean Up!'

Our finished Christmas Fairy Truffles all ready to share at Mother's Group tomorrow!

Jingle Bells ~ Christmas Threading Fun

The Toddler Timers adore threading, Christmas and anything noisy so this was a perfect craft and so very simple.

We started with Christmas coloured pipecleaners, beads with large holes and some jingly bells.

We threaded lots of little beads.

Added some jingly bells.

Wound the pipecleaners back around itself to make a circle and to stop the beads and bells falling off.

And jingled the day away!

Some of our completed Jingly Bell Bracelets.