'Hand'iwork

It's half term this week, and for Eden and I this means our usual 'hang-outs' of the library, parks, swimming pool and soft play centre will be much busier than what we're used to. Add to this that the toddler groups aren't running, it occurred to me that I needed to think up some alternative activities to keep the both of us occupied this week. So we're having a 'messy play and craft' week at home.

Eden turned 18 months yesterday - she really is just like a sponge the way she soaks up learning experiences, and I find it very rewarding that I'm the one teaching her everything (or almost everything) she knows. Today, we learnt all about our hands. We started the day by making handprints out of homemade salt dough (like play dough but you can bake it so that it hardens like clay and you can then decorate and keep it). Eden has far from perfected the art of handprints from paint (she's just too wriggley and doesn't 'get it' yet), but she really enjoyed our salt dough session.

We then moved on to me drawing around our hands with felt tips - again she really engaged with this activity, pointing out her fingers on the page.

We finished off with some nursery rhymes using our hands - Eden's good at 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' and 'If you're happy and you know it Clap Your Hands'.

All in all a very enjoyable morning with my little girl :)