A world in a shoe box

here is a guest post from my fabulous blogging friend ! I love this idea as it promotes ideas for literacy and does not cost the earth. Thanks to Penny for a truely brilliant guest post.

Free toys in return for a little imagination

Penny Alexander Residence

Toys don’t need to cost the earth.  I remember reading as a teacher about a fantastic project to teach low income parents how to make toys out of free things.  I think all children would benefit from having fewer toys and making  more of their own.  Boxes are a particular favourite of mine.   Either to play in, or to turn into something new.

One of my favourite box projects is to create a mini world in a shoe box.  When my daughter was 2/3 we made several along themes and characters she liked.  At this age children are really getting to grips with the world and creating their own worlds gives them a sense of power and control.  As they get older box worlds help them to make up their own narratives.

It all started with a Charlie and Lola hairdressers in a box craft set with Cbeebies magazine.  Apart from spending ages making it, she played with the cut out characters and tiny props for hours.

Then we made an In the Nightgarden world for her mini figures to play in, using the packaging the figures came in, followed by a Charlie and Lola Halloween box.  We also made a Tinkerbell House.  It’s easy to waste a fortune on character based toy worlds that children quickly grow out of.

Now my son is old enough to appreciate these ideas we made Dino world, complete with plastic ‘dinosaur’ eggs his Grandma gave us back in April for Easter.  The tree is a toilet roll covered in paper and stuffed with wool.

I don’t tend to do ‘organised’ craft because I never have the right materials, everything we make at home develops organically, improvised with whatever we have to hand.  But also for me, creativity is about driving in the dark, to see where it takes you and of course about giving  the steering wheel to your children as much as possible.  We’ve been to some wonderful lands thanks to empty boxes.

Silent Sunday

Texas Instruments I had a Little Professor but no Speak and Spell!

You might remember this way back from the mists of time (if you are 30 or under forget it!) the Little Professor. Millions and millions were sold in the past 25 years it's a very  simple but funny educational product. The basic idea behind the Little Professor is opposite to a normal calculator: The child has to type the answer of simple questions like " 3 + 5 = ? ". You can choose between the four basic maths functions and four different skill levels. If the child gives a wrong answer "EEE" occurs, otherwise another of more than 16000 different questions is asked.



This educational toy was designed  by Texas Instruments for childrens aged between 5 and 9 years. And I loved it, as my dad worked for texas Instruemnts in Bedford. I however did not have a speak and Spell. Why I don't know ? I always wanted want one and when my child was younger I bought him one of ebay . And of course  I bought him a Little Professor as well. It just goes to show you that retro can work , I think toy manufactors need to look back in order to go forward. Texas Instruments was way ahead of their time I  loved it.

Cats and Comping

Rollie as a Chef used in quite a few compeitions!

I like comping that is no secret , I love winning things especially for school. I suppose its the thrill of the chase. Yet a little known secret my cat actually comps with my help. And you know what? Rollie is rather good at it! He won a weekend away at a hotel thanks to Laterooms.com as part of their pet factor competition.

He's won pet food, recently a rugby shirt  and even some shopping vouchers for wearing a teacosey on his head. And the runner for this was a chicken so anything goes really!.

 There are many great sources of competitions out there - my friend Di Coke has her own blog all about creative competitions at http://super-lucky.blogspot.com. There are lots of quirky photo and video comps about that your pet can get involved in, they're great fun to enter and you might even win a prize. So why not get comping with your pet, you never know what they might win!.

Rollie matching in with the roof tiles.

Silent Sunday