Dino World

So as you may have seen we have already done digger land in the garden and as it got closer to summer those little plants at the edges kinda overtook so we turned it to dinoland but lil dude is going through a daft stage with bugs and those flowers attracted sooo many bugs. A rethink was in order!

Then I saw fun at home with kids dinosaur garden and inspiration hit she used blue gravel for a "water feature" and it looked so so amazing. I have to say have some serious green eyed monster of Asia's garden and home she has play areas that I could only dream of. If you get a chance take a look at her blog (but allow a couple of hours!) I loved the idea of adding a whole new level.

Well I'd already seen this volcano aquarium decoration and was itching to buy it but hadnt made up a reason yet (lil dude loves volcanoes almost as much as dinos) So here was the reason and also went to pick up the stones....they were nooooot cheap the blue ones came in a tiny bag and were expensive so rethink! I had brought some sea coloured marbles a while ago and not got round to using them as anything more than loose parts so improvised and used them instead and it looked pretty cool!

We have a gravelled edge to our patio which went perfect with the prehistoric theme also it is in clear vision to my kitchen window so I can wash up/make lunch while he plays and keep an eye on him.

Mr Pteranodon loves to perch on the old fence which adds a cool upper level to the area.

A few bigger rocks placed around the "lake" for the dinos to sunbathe on.

And the centre piece... a real volcano. Although it goes a bit against the natural play ideas I am leaning towards it adds a great dimension and lil dude loves filling it with stones and dinosaurs.

Ricetastic Airport...Budget Play Time Week One

This is Week One in our budget play time using toys around the house or cheap to source to create fun play concepts. This post cost me nothing as had the bits all round the house if you want to backdate the rice cost 40p and the play tray £1 but I must use the rice on average once a week and the tray more often than that!

You will need-

• Some Cardboard from the recycling bin
• Rainbow Rice- We made this a while ago using happy hooligans recipe.
• Tray
• Toy Planes (or if your feeling creative some laminated pictures of planes)
• Sharpie
• Few cones/barriers if you have any from other digger or race car sets etc

Lil dude got some little plastic planes free with a magazine recently and they are flavour of the month apparently they are a red and green arrow :-) twinned with a very well timed fly over by the real red arrows recently on route to an airshow lil dude is in plane mode soo what better than making an airport for him to play with.

Construction consisted of cutting a long strip of cardboard and drawing the lines then cutting to size. I made a small hanger to fit the plane in by folding the same cardboard and sticking down the edges with tape. A couple of squares with H's drawn on the and we were set.

Lil dude had been playing with his rainbow rice that day so I just stuck the bits in the rice added some random cones we have in the toy box and popped the planes and helicopter in. The box we use is a pound land kitty litter box as advised by Happy Hooligans and it gets used "a lot."

This may not be the most glam small world but I wanted this blog to be more about affordable play ideas than ones that look stunning but are currently out of my price range. One day I dream of owning every type of toob (yep that's the dream!) but until then budget play ideas is as far as we can get.

The Airport needed some work done apparenty so the diggers had to be brought in. I'm yet to create a small world that the dinos or diggers dont get involved in!

If you liked this take a look at Hidden Art Station for another budget crafting session.



Ocean Small World

This is a spin off from the water beads post but deserved its own post we had a great fun found these water creatures at a car boot and just had to create an ocean to let them swim free! It’s basically a few washed rocks and water beads so an easy make!
Ok ok I know they are very unproportioned and I’m sure that in the real world crabs, whales and starfish wouldn’t be sat next to each other buuuut it was still a great learning opportunity as we chatted about the whale spraying water, stingray hiding at the bottom and the crab scuttling. My lil dude is 2 so I’m not out to teach him Latin names or breeding patterns. He just picks up little facts and enjoys playing in water.

On this hot day the water beads didn’t quite cut it so we went on to add water and ice to the mix which was great fun.

Down On The Farm

So a great day on the farm a couple of souvenirs and a lil boy with farm animals on the brain led to the creation of another small world. While the lil dude had his nap I put together some lolly stick fences using a glue gun (adapted this from www.funathomewithkids.com her small worlds are fab!

Left them out so lil man could see them when he came down and as predicted as soon as he woke up he started inspecting the new creations. Once explained what they are he dragged me out to “make a farm”. I had planned to do it on the grass but the good weather had made the grass pretty hard and tough to break with a blunt lolly stick. We had a change of plans and invaded the flower beds. I had planned to make a field and road for the tractor but about 10 seconds after this picture was taken he saw a few ants and the world ended. I guess my next project will be overcoming his myrmecophobia (oh yes I looked it up and there actually is a name for fear of ants, admit it your impressed) so the farm has been shelved till I find a cure but hey ho the pictures good

Diggerland

With the sun making a much needed appearance we are dusting off the cobwebs and hitting the garden ahhh my lovely garden it’s such a treat with patio, flower beds and pergola. Our old house had a square of lawn which was open to next door and had nooo play opportunities whatsoever. Well as soon as I saw those mud filled flower beds I started plotting. All over blog land I have seen beautiful fairy gardens and boy would I love one! My lil dude on the other hand nooot so much he really is a boy!! Pair that with my darling hubby who was highly unimpressed with the kitchen I purchased lil dude I thought a fairy garden really would push the limits! Lil dude loves his diggers so I rolled with that and we came up with digger land. I started off using a long flowerpot and filling with stones compost and diggers and if you have a restricted space this would be a great option (would recommend a play mat underneath). I found this was slightly restricting and there was compost all over the patio. So digger land was relocated to the flower bed and am so glad it was it’s a fab addition to the garden and encourages lots of Independent play. This idea then lead on to Dino land in another section of the flower bed which is a working progress but similar concept.

Pasta Dig Site

So this is one of my cheap and easy chuck in a tray and go activities.
I brought lil dude a baking tray from Asda for 80p I planned to use it for a magnetic play tray for his letters etc. Well we had a pretty hard day with a seriously grumpy teething toddler and desperation to get the dinner done drew me to the kitchen cupboard. Poured a bag of leftover dried pasta in the tray and chucked a few diggers in.
I was not sure this would hold his attention but he was fascinated by it and the tray was left in our front room for a few days with various toys added and some amazing scenarios played out. I was pulled in to assist with bulldozing and then building a playground followed by moving in the dinosaurs to drive the diggers. Ok so not very romantic an idea and yes I could have spent a lot more time developing a small world scene but I find sometimes in times of need these simple ideas are the best!!

If you liked this take a look at Digger Land