DURING the week, tweets kept popping into my @ThreeLil Twitter account by northern-based mums battling 30C-plus heat. Here we were rugged up like Eskimos as we toasted our toes by the heater.
With summer momentarily disappearing, it enabled Princess Ella and I to rediscover our list of fun indoor activities. Today I thought I’d share some of our absolute favourites (even though the warm weather seems to have returned).
Ella painting her toe nails
Fingernail painting and pedicure:
Ella constantly asks to have her nails painted. She also likes to take over and paint mine. Of course, there’s usually more colour on my feet than my nails. My three-year-old nephew loves this activity too, so don’t exclude the boys.
Craft at the little table
Craft table:
The craft table, set up in the corner of the dining room, is constantly filled with pencils, crayons, paper, glue, sticky tape, pipe cleaners, pom poms and well, crafty items. Since Baby Holly came along, it’s been my saviour during breastfeeding. A fellow mum also set up a craft table, but had her house redecorated when the phone rang and her three-year-old ran, glitter in hand.
Messy craft at the big table
Sometimes Ella gets to play at the “big’’ table.
Hair in a braid after playing hairdressers
Hairdressing:
Aided with hair brushes, combs, bands and clips, the conversations usually goes something like this: Ella: “How would you like your hair done today?’’. Mum: “Ah, a cut and colour, thanks Ella’’. Ella: “No, I’m not Ella, I’m a hairdresser. Would you like a pink and purple colour today?’’ Mum: “Yes please, hairdresser. That’s exactly what I was thinking’’.
Cooking with Dad in her MasterChef outfit
Cooking:
Donning her MasterChef apron, Ella’s requests are usually M&M Biscuits (recipe to come soon), birthday cake (even when it’s not her birthday) and ABC muffins (Apple, Banana and … chocolate, of course).
Knitting:
This week Ella asked me to teach her to knit. Sound impossible? Quite the contary. She was thoroughly entertained with her needles and yarn, creating a beautiful big…
…ending up in knots
…knot! Our next step may be sewing (with glue, instead of needle and thread). She may just be the next international fashion designer.
We also enjoy Play Doh, dancing to music, doing household duties (she loves finding the sock’ “mates’’ and using her vacuum), taking photos with her Dora camera (see some photos we took together for Sunday Selection), tea parties, babies (although Ella likes to be the baby more often than not), reading books (particularly from the library), singing songs (with pretend microphones), puzzles and playing cards (I taught her to play Fish, but accidentally called it Snap Now she refuses to let me teach her Snap “No mum, that’s not how you play Snap’’).
Has this left you inspired? Please share some of your favourite activities with your preschoolers.
Visit Be A Fun Mum’s Activity Ideas for Children 2-5 or check out her list for Activity Ideas for Children Under 2.
What an awesome post Kell. Can’t wait to include it in my list! xx
Thanks Kell. We’re really looking forward to discovering some new activities in your post! 🙂
Very very talented young lady, I wonder what she is going to be? Beautician, Artist, Hairdresser, Chef, Dress Maker, (Knitted Dresses), Dancer? at least when I’m in the old peoples home my grandchildren will be able to keep me well groomed and entertained and most likely be able to write story’s about the nan who’s misplaced her memory along with her false teeth and reading glasses.
After eating half the cup cake mixture this afternoon, I think it might be chef…. 🙂
I like the idea of teaching Amy to “knit”.
Hello, came via AMB – I didn’t know you were a Tassie girl! We’re a bit thin on the ground, tassie bloggers.
Good luck with teaching Amy to knit, Veronica!! As you can see, we weren’t quite successful! LOL!
Yes, it’s nice to find a few Tassie bloggers, but would be great to see a few more. I’m a regular visitor to your blog – it’s fantastic! 🙂
Nice post Kellie. Love the ideas. We love to do nails too. The biggest pink is now big enough to do her sisters nails – which is always heaps on fun. We have a craft box now because the table just got tooooooo messy. With 3 using it went all over the house. Not so much fun!!
Oh, how gorgeous, Caz. I can’t wait ’til Baby Holly’s older and they can paint each other’s nails. Too cute.
Craft is fun, but yes, incredibly messy! I think I spend most of my day picking pipe cleaners up off the ground! 🙂
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[…] her boobs about breastfeeding Holly or trying to get Holly to sleep. I try my best to do as much craft, drawing, “hairdressers”, telephone calls to Dorothy the Dinosaur and hide and seek (with the bonus of getting five minutes […]
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Instead of knitting, I’ve provided my five-year-old with an embroidery hoop, an embroidery needle, and thread. I knot the thread onto the needle so it doesn’t fall off (too often) and he makes pictures with the thread. I find he does better when I give him Aida fabric, because it has the convenient holes so he can get things evenly spaced like he wants them to be. My three-year-old also loves to get cups of water with food coloring and just pour them back and forth, even after they’ve all become brown-ish.
I love the embroidery idea, Katrina. That’s fabulous. I’m going to look at doing that with Ella. I think she’d love it. Thank you! 🙂
[…] One of the girls’ favourite activities is cooking with mum. Ella has long had her own little apron, but it’s getting a tad small these days. So Holly gains […]