Category Archives: Craft

Maxi Hama Beads

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We have dabbled in Hama Beads before but the children were quite a bit younger, we used the small beads and it wasn’t entirely relaxing, so I left it for a long time, but I always meant to have another go at it.  Then I discovered Maxi Hama Beads, the chunky ones which are suitable for younger children.  It still took me a while to buy some kits, and even longer to do them, but a couple of months ago Rabbit made a butterfly.  She was very proud of it.  And then it broke.  I promised to fix it and forgot for a long time.  But today I did it!  I fixed the butterfly, and the boys made a dinosaur.  Turns out all it took was a vomiting bug to keep us all in the house.  Anyway, I think we now have the Hama Bead bug as well so we’ll be back here to buy some more.

This is not a sponsored post.  I am writing this because I want to support this business, run by a lovely home educating mum.  And also because I think the products are really good!

Autumn art, volcanoes and more Fimo

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I took Owl out for a hot chocolate at the deli yesterday morning, and then to his favourite local shop which sells stationery and toys.  (He used to call it the teeny tiny toy shop until he found out it already had a name!)  He enjoyed telling me all about Lego Ninjago while we were in the deli, and said he might write a book about it, explaining all the characters and themes.  In the shop he then showed me all the Lego kits he and Monkey might possibly like for Christmas, but I was pleased he didn’t asked me to buy any.  He did ask for the Horrible Science Violent Volcano kit, and I bought it mainly because we are learning about Rocks and Volcanoes, and I was intending to make a volcano this week.  I could have done it without the kit, but it would have taken longer!

In the afternoon, we went to our friends’ house for home education group.  The children had fun playing indoors and out, with cars, Lego and a football, and a little bit of pond dipping as well.  They were also offered two lovely Autumn art activities, which Rabbit and Tiddler decided to do.  Rabbit made a tree collage, and then made another one for Tiddler when he changed his mind about doing it, and they both made handprint hedgehogs.

In the evening, Monkey went to Beavers and made a candle holder out of clay.  Owl and I went to collect him and they spent 20p on some random bits of Lego at a fundraising stall which made them both very happy.

Last night, Tiddler woke several times in the night crying, and it seems that his cold has now got worse again.  So we gave his swimming lesson a miss this morning, and had a quiet time at home.  He played quite happily, after a dose of Calpol, and the others did some Maths and English.  I took Rabbit out for a hot chocolate, and to buy some magazines and sweets in the newsagent (the most exciting thing she could think of to do) and then to her swimming lesson.  In the afternoon, after some music practice, we got out the volcano kit.  It was a great success, but Tiddler wandered off and missed it the first time so we did it twice.

       

After that we had another go at Fimo, this time the Create Your Own Space Set.

Following some expert advice involving cocktail sticks and cardboard tubes, the boys managed to produce a rocket that didn’t flop, and Rabbit made a rather lovely star.

 

After that, we did some Bible Reading snuggled up on the sofa. Later on, all the big three did Conquer Maths, and then Rabbit did a bit of her knitting while Owl went off for a treasure hunt in the park with Cubs.  Looking back over the last two days, it is very clear to see the benefits of having Supergirl here with us.  We have done so much with so little stress and it has all been lovely and calm.  I am feeling very lucky and thankful!

Fimo Treasure Island

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I have been wanting to try Fimo for a long time, after reading Patch of Puddles and being inspired by this wonderfully creative home educating family.  It’s taken me a while, but thanks to the lovely Merry, of the above blog (and about a hundred other rather excellent websites) I have finally got round to it.  We received a parcel in the post a few days ago containing enough Fimo kits to last us through several rainy weeks, and we were all very excited.  Looks like we don’t need to go out for a while.  We started with the Fimo Soft Create Your Own Pirate Island Set which you can buy here.

I knew it would be a challenge to keep Tiddler away from it (Fimo is definitely NOT edible) so I got the playdough out first and he and Rabbit were very happily playing with it.  However, they lost interest as soon as they saw the Fimo.  Tiddler had a big tantrum about not being allowed to touch it, but thankfully Cbeebies came to the rescue.  Rabbit watched as Owl and Monkey softened the Fimo, with looks of intense concentration on their faces, and then she joined in with making the island scene.  I had a go too, and we had a lot of help from Supergirl who has used Fimo before.  The children looked at the pictures for inspiration but weren’t interested in following the instructions.  I think the results were rather good for a first attempt, though the trees collapsed a bit.  They were rather top-heavy, and it probably didn’t help that I left them in the oven for a bit too long.  We had fun, anyway, and we are planning to do another kit tomorrow.  I loved the calm, peaceful atmosphere that was created by doing such a therapeutic activity together, and I think we’ll be back for more once our supply has run out.