Natalia, from Japan, sent in this great seaside invitation to play idea. Let’s take a look at it…
What did you do?
A very simple invitation to play – grab some play dough, some alphabet magnets / stamps / anything your child can press into the dough, and some shells if you have them to give it all a beach vibe.
Set up some sounds, words or phrases you would like your child to practice and you’re good to go!
Your child’s task is to find the correct letters to match the prepared words and stamp them into the play dough.
I set this activity for our Mr 6 and Miss 5 after a trip to the beach and my target was to expand their descriptive vocabulary. I made the play dough myself simply because I did not have the amount I needed for the task even if I out all our little bits and pieces together!
I made two batches – the sand bit (no colour added) and the sea bit (a bit of blue food colouring) and I used a very simple salt dough recipe. I have to google the recipe every time I make it but the rule of thumb is that you need a 2:1 ratio of flour to salt (so if you use 1 cup of flour, add half a cup of salt).
Then keep adding warm water until it all comes together and you can knead it without it sticking to your fingers (the ratio roughly is 2:1 flour:water too)
Tips for the dough:
– if its a nice ball but keeps sticking, try adding a splash of cooking oil.
-dont worry if you overdo it with the water, you can always add more flour.
Once your target practice is done, the kids can enjoy playing with the dough and maybe making some ocean-related shapes such as shells, fish or even a turtle!
The kids had great fun poking the dough and Mr 6 was all into it as I was setting it up. He loved rolling it out and making the frame by stamping one of our shells all around the edge. It took them a while to realise what they needed to do, so some prompting was needed and perhaps the amount of letters available made it difficult to find the correct letter.
I used a jumble of a 100 wooden letters but simplifying this down to having 1 set of the alphabet letters might be easier for smaller children to handle and will definitely avoid frustrated cries of “where is that E?!”
I missed the opportunity to involve them in the making process of the play dough (some good measuring skills there) so will be getting them involved next time for sure.
Do you have any other projects planned?
So many projects are lined up but one that I would really love to achieve this summer is making a play dough map of the world with the kids, we saw a lovely video on Youtube and the kids want to replicate it at home.
Tell the Housebound With Kids community a bit about yourself…
We are a family of four living in Japan. Our two munchkins are 5 and 6 and are finally beginning to play together without killing each other in the process!
@crafty_mum_in_japan
How are you finding being housebound so far?
It has been challenging migrating to an hybrid online school/ homeschooling approach to learning since it is neither one nor the other but a bit of both which made it very confusing for the kids. Doing just the homeschooling aspect now that they’re on summer holidays is proving a lot easier.
We miss being able to go to the science museum and the zoo and generally running errands together with the kids. Japan is far more relaxed about staying indoors than most countries, so at least we have been able to make sure they get their run around outside even if we don’t take them to any indoor areas.
Do you have any tips for other parents?
Protect your down time!
Make sure you and your partner work out a way of giving each other down time. My husband is very supportive and will happily chase the kids around the house while I get my cup of coffee. Likewise, I do most of the studying with them, so he has downtime and uninterrupted time to work. The kids still manage to run off and bug him far too often though!
If you don’t have a partner, make it clear to your children when your down time is. Make some visual cards showing when mummy is available or not. Introduce them to games they can do by themselves (mine love puzzles and can sit quiet doing them for an hour at a time!). For younger children, maybe let them play doctor and you’re the patient? You get to lie down and they can measure your temperature, listen to your heart (they need to be super quiet to hear it, right?), bring you some food to give you strength from the play kitchen. Mine have gone all the way to make me so pretend soup and would ask me what needs to go in it so I get better!!
And then there’s always TV. TV has always been a friend in our house, but now more than ever. The kids know they have an allocated amount of TV time at the end of the day. Usually after snack and until dinner. Sometimes when Mummy is feeling a bit tired, the kids get a choice of using that time after lunch instead and then we do some quiet games after snack.
Has this website and community helped you?
I absolutely love the simplicity of the layout. It makes it very easy and eye-catching to find ideas and I look forward to exploring it more.
