DIY ribbon and lace box

It was on holiday that I got the idea for making one of these. Isla is obsessed with laces, labels and tags at the moment (as I'm sure any child her age is). She spends ages playing with them, pulling them, turning them over, waving them in her hands. She just finds them fascinating. Let's face it though, a cord of any kind presents a hazard to children and so, with this in mind, I wanted to make Isla something with ribbons and laces that would actually be safe for her to play with.

To make her 'toy', I used an old shoe box, offcuts of wrapping paper, a variety of colourful laces and ribbons, scissors, cellotape, a knife and a pen. It's better to use a lidded box with a lid that can be completely removed, as this makes it easier for threading the laces and ribbons later on.

I started by covering the shoe box in the wrapping paper. It helps to make a rough net first so that the paper fits neatly around the box. I then used a pen to make holes in the sides and ends of the box and threaded laces through. Once the laces were through each side, I made a large knot at each end so that Isla could pull the laces out slightly but not enough to pose a danger. I should mention at this point that with anything like this, babies should not be left to play unsupervised anyway.

For the ribbons, I used a small sharp knife to cut a slit in the sides of the box and threaded them through. When using the pen/knife to make holes in the box, it helps to wiggle them slightly to increase the size of the holes and this will make it much easier when it comes to threading your materials through. At this point, you could also put some jingle bells (or something noisy) inside the box to make it more multi-sensory. I didn't bother with this though.

I wasn't really sure how well this 'toy' would be received to be honest. Usually when I take lots of time to make something for Isla, it doesn't take long before it's shoved aside in favour of something completely ordinary. However, I was delighted to see her engaging with it for a lot longer than I expected. It's been out on a few occasions since.

A box like this is fantastic for developing a whole host of skills, including concentration, fine-motor skills and problem-solving ability. Making a toy can be a bit soul-destroying when you realise actually they're not so keen on playing with something you've spent a lot of time making and put a lot of thought into. In this case though, my hard work paid off and we've been using the box regularly ever since.

Have you made any DIY toys for your baby before? If so, I'd love to hear your ideas if you have.

Foil Painting

As a child, I loved nothing more than to sit down with a colouring book and some pencils or a pad of paper and just draw/colour away for hours on end. Whilst Tommy definitely looks like me, he certainly isn't like me in terms of the things he enjoys doing the most. He is just an outdoorsy kind of boy; he loves nothing more than running around the garden, playing football, chasing Daddy or the dog and just generally being active. Although he enjoys anything and everything, painting and drawing are probably his least favourite activities. Some people say it's a gender thing, others an age thing but I tend to see it as a personal thing - he's just not really as interested in doing it as he is other things. I am fine with this to an extent, but whilst I want to obviously try and do activities with him I know he will enjoy and not try and force him into doing them, it is important for him to draw and paint regularly to help with his fine motor skills and creative development. Therefore I do build regular opportunities for doing artwork into his time at home.

Whilst Tommy can read a huge number of high frequency words, 'read' numbers up to 100 and knows all of his sounds, he is more reluctant to write and it always feels like I'm pushing him to do it rather than encouraging him. We're trying lots of fun ways of getting him to write at the moment, most of which have been successful, so I really think that I multi-sensory/more practical approach is going to be the route to go down. With this in mind, I've been looking for lots of different ways we can incorporate mark/making and emerging writing into our play. 

We found the idea of foil-painting on Pinterest and thought it would be a good one to try with Tommy. To set it up, we placed long lengths of tin foil in a tuff tray and stuck them down using cellotape. I then drew lots of different patterns on individual coloured cards so that Tommy could practise drawing a range of different shapes. This provided him with a starting point and gave him a little inspiration as to the kinds of patterns he might create. Tommy is getting really good at copying shapes and patterns without having to trace. We used ordinary poster paint for this activity. I was a little worried about how quickly it would dry but it actually surprised me how little time it took. 

I pretty much expected this activity to last for just a few minutes - I always prepare myself for this when we paint or draw, knowing how little Tommy enjoys it. However, we managed to continue this activity for ages. It even warranted me to remove our piece of artwork and replace it with another blank foil canvas and there was a request to do it another day! 

We really enjoyed this activity and it would be lovely to do with a younger child too - the tin foil makes a lovely noise when it's painted on and it's a lovely surface to swirl the paint around on. Here is one of our masterpieces: