20 Spring “Bored Jar” Ideas – for a toddler

(If you want to find out more about what a “Bored jar” is, then please read the post at the bottom of this post, called “Winter Bored Jar Ideas”)

1. Feed the birds in the aviary in the War Memorial Park

2. Go on a Bluebell walk. Micheldever Forest is supposed to be lovely for bluebells, but I’ve not been there yet.

3. Take a ride on a train – Viables or Exbury Gardens and Steam Railway

4. Be King or queen of the castle. My favourite and the one closest too us is Odiham Castle

5. Discover something new: Museums

6. Paint some pots at Pots2Paint

7. Make some jewelery

8. Draw an animal

9. Make homemade bubbles

10. Do some painting

11. Make and decorate paper airplanes

12. Join a baby ballet class (this doesn’t have to be just girls!)

13. Go Swimming (Check out this post HERE for local swimming pools)

14. Create a dressing up box and pretend to be Princes or Princesses

15. Make some DIY coloured sand

16. Find shapes in clouds

17. Go to the Playgym at the Active Life Centre

18. Play with water and food colouring

19. Make a village out of all your toys

20. Make an Easter Egg hunt!!!!

Related Posts

Winter bored Jar Ideas – 40 ideas

Summer “bored sticks” jar 

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A Toddler Box of Tricks: Things To Always Have On Hand With A Toddler Or Two

This is a really hard post for today. I’m conscious that it’s half term and have loads of posts I could have finished but none felt appropriate for Half Term.

Recently I’ve noticed that Miss NHM isn’t as interested in her toys as I think she should be (given how much they cost!). She seems to have much more fun playing with things that are either free or relatively cheap.

I’m saving up for a plastic drawer set system (4 sets of the drawers in the link) for under our stairs. We already have one set of drawers which have different things in, like a dressing up drawer, a playdoh drawer with cutters, and a colouring and pens drawer.

Miss NHM enjoys these drawers under the stairs more than any of her other toys. I think it’s because she can choose what she wants to play with.

I’m hoping to put together lots of drawers with lots of different activities in, including a paint drawer (ARRRGGHHHHH!!!!). This is where The Range floor matting (see below!) comes in VERY useful.

Anyway, this is a bit of a cop out post but hopefully it will be useful for someone! 😉

A Toddler Box of Tricks

Bottles of bubbles or a bubble machine

Glue

Paint (if you are brave enough, and I’m generally not!)

Glitter (I hate this stuff, I really do.)

Sequins (great stuff, until you go to the office with one stuck to your bottom. This may, or may not, have happened to me.)

Cornflower for making Gloop

Food colouring for making coloured Gloop or coloured water

Cheap dried spaghetti for making Coloured Spaghetti

Buttons for Gloop or just for sorting through

Lots of different types of bowls

Dry Food for dry food play

Spoons and spatulas

Saucepans

Ice cube trays

Icing sugar

A box of straws (This was Mr NHM’s contribution. When I asked why, he said ” for cutting up and making things”. No comment.)

An easy fairy cake or cookie recipe. (I have one and if you would like a copy, please email me at northhantsmum@gmail.com ;-))

A big wooden dice or small dice in lots of different colours. (Miss NHM LOVES playing with dice. She pretends they are food. However, we supervise this play as I’m still worried about her putting them in her mouth!)

Toilet rolls

Paper plates

Coloured lolly sticks for arts and crafts or Winter “Bored Sticks” Jar – 40 ideas

An MP3 player with dock. (We have one which Miss NHM can operate herself. She’s loved playing with it since she was 18 months.)

Floor matting. (My friend Kate had a great tip to buy PVC cut fabric from The Range. There is one in Reading, Andover and Aldershot. We have one pattern as a table cloth and another pattern for arts and crafts. It’s great stuff, is very cheap, you can choose how much you want and it lasts for ages. Although what’s showing on the website is very expensive compared to what’s in store, so I would recommend going into the store and having a look. Thanks Kate!)

Playdoh. (I have a recipe for making your own playdoh but haven’t tried it out yet. It’s on my very long list of things to do with Miss NHM soon!)

Easel paper on a roll. (We’ve had hours of fun with this. Mr NHM starts at one end, I’m at the other and Miss NHM is in the middle. We vary between coloured pencils and crayons!).

Toy cars (Again, Mr NHM’s suggestion. He suggests using them in paint on the “paper on a roll”. Over my dead body is he doing this our house!!!!! :-D)

What else would you add to this list?

iPads and toddlers

iPAD and toddler use is a bit of a controversial topic in our house.

We are very lucky  because both Mr NHM and I both have an iPAD. Yes, I know these are a huge extravagance and I know I am a little bit addicted to mine, but so much of my organisation is now done via my iPAD. (See HERE for the apps that I use).

I was very lucky at Christmas and was given a new iPAD as mine was one of the original versions and was a lot of functionality was failing on it. We decided that we would “give” my old iPAD to Miss NHM.

Now, she absolutely LOVES the iPAD and it’s the one thing that I physically have to wrestle off her when I think she’s been on it too long.

On her iPAD she now has lots of storybooks and lots of “educational” apps. I’ve made a very concerted effort to ensure that no “games” outside of the storybooks, are downloaded to her iPAD (I am an evil Mummy! lol).

We have downloaded a lot of storybooks when they were free or very cheap (App shopper is a god send for this!) and there are several storybooks where she just jumps to the songs.

She will listen to them repeatedly and I have no idea if this is a good thing or a bad thing. (I do know that if I hear “bibidybobidyboo” from Cinderella one more time, I may throw the iPAD out the window :-D).

I’ve seen her progress on things like Jigsaw’s, because several of the apps have different levels of Jigsaw’s.

I have seen her skills improve radically on matching up trains in the Thomas the Tank Engine Misty Island app and I’m fairly sure that the reason she can sing her ABC’s is because of one of the apps she uses.

However, I do worry about how much time she should be using the iPAD.

I do my very best to ensure that she has at least 4 days a week screen free. Although on the days when Mr NHM is on Night shift and he needs to sleep in the morning, the only way I can keep Miss NHM quiet enough is with the iPAD.

I know that this is a very first world problem and I sound very spoiled worrying about this, but our generation is the first set of parents that have had to deal with this level of technology for our children.

I saw something recently on another blog about a Mum who is letting her three year old self-regulate when it comes to iPAD’s and TV. After only a week, the three year old was already starting to limit her time in front of the TV and iPAD.

Miss NHM isn’t three yet, so I’m not ready to start the self regulation yet. 

I’m just a bit perplexed about how much iPAD time a toddler should have. No time would be preferable, but if she loves it, isn’t it a bit cruel of me to try to take that away from her? 

What are your thoughts on iPAD and toddler use?

Baby & Toddler Dance classes in North Hampshire

I’ve been meaning to put this post together for a LONG time…

I’ve finally got around to it. Yay! 😀

Active Life Centre – Houndmills

Basingstoke Academy of Dance – Houndmills

FitMama Mummy and Baby Dance –  Stroudley Road, Basingstoke

Jeannine Greville Dance Academy – The Vyne Community School and Aldworth Science College

Lisa Beaumont School of Ballet – Cliddesden

Marina School of Dance – Whitchurch

Mini Movers Dance Class Spotlight – Popley

The Lynden School of Dance – Basingstoke Sports Centre, Kingsclere & Overton

Related Posts

Dance schools in North Hampshire

Ballet/Dance classes for 2 year olds

Toddler Games: Dry Food Play

Sometimes something is SO obvious that when you finally twig, you feel the need to slap yourself silly for not thinking of it earlier. No? Just me? oh well. 😉

This is one of those activities. It kept Miss NHM busy for well over an hour and wasn’t too messy.

What you will need

  • Red or Green lentils
  • Oats
  • Brown Rice
  • Pasta (coloured looks good)
  • Lots of different types of bowls and plates
  • Cooking implements like wooden spoons, spatula’s and children’s knives and forks

Dry Food Play

I raided the cupboard for dried food. I found red lentils, oats and some brown rice.

I put them all into different bowls and put them on the table with some cooking implements like spatula’s, wooden spoons and Miss NHM’s knife and fork. 

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I recently bought some multi-coloured pasta from Sainsburys that was on offer, so I put out a bowl of this.

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Miss NHM had so much fun playing with this activity. She kept telling me that she was “cooking like Mummy”. Bless.

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Tips

It’s probably best to do this somewhere that you don’t mind being made a bit messy. We did this in the kitchen as it’s easy to sweep up.

Have lots of different types of texture of dried food.

Probably not a good idea to do this with your little one if they are still experimenting by putting things in their mouth…

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Don’t add water unless you REALLY want your little one to create havoc :-D.

Let me know if you enjoyed this activity as much as we did.

Toddler Games: Making Gloop!

This post is for Jo who thought I said “Goop” and then thought I was best friends with Gwyenth Paltrow because she has a blog called “Goop” :-D.

I’ve been wanting to do this for ages with Miss NHM, since before she was born! I can’t even remember where I first found out about Gloop, but it’s such a simple idea and a very cheap activity.

What you will need

1 cup cold water

2 cups corn flour

Random buttons

Making the Gloop

Slowly add one cup of water to two cups corn flour in a bowl.

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Stir until the water is absorbed by the corn  flour.

Add buttons. Fishing buttons out of the gloop is great for your little one’s fine motor skills.

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Miss NHM played with the Gloop for about an hour. We had a brilliant time playing with it and fishing the buttons out added another dimension to her interest.

Tips

Go to the toilet before you start. I didn’t do this and spent most of the time playing, wishing I had gone beforehand! The thought of leaving Miss NHM on her own or trying to get her to stop playing just wasn’t an option!

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Don’t use fabric buttons like I accidentally did. Duh.

Do this somewhere that you don’t mind getting dirty. We found the kitchen was the best place. I probably wouldn’t do this in a carpeted room.

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You can also step it up a level by adding either food colouring or food essence. We might try this next time.

Also, if the weather is nice next time we try this, I will try this outside.

Let me know if you enjoy this activity as much as we did!

Related Posts

Toddler Games: Coloured Spaghetti

24 things to do during the summer holidays with young children in Basingstoke

This is an incredibly long overdue post, but as it’s the last week of the school holidays you might be desperate for some inspiration, so I thought I would post it up anyway!

Many of these suggestions are free!

1. Swim in an outdoor pool.

You could investigate rivers, reservoirs, lakes or canals with towpaths as this will be a new landscape for your child to take in, e.g.:

Fleet Pond

Frensham Ponds

Basingstoke Canal

Lido’s in Hampshire

Splash pools

Or you could just play in the water at Festival Place (the big green phalic things!! lol) or check out the baby swimming pool and the stepping stones in Eastrop Park.

There is also a new splash park which was opened in May 2016, near the Spotlight centre. We are hoping to visit it soon!

2. Walk through the Woods

A trip to the woods can also be exciting – see the woodland trusts nature trails for inspiration – or bike rides. Don’t forget to check out my Basing WoodFarleigh MountBasing Lime PitsMicheldever Wood and Alice Holt reviews.

3. Visit an Ice Cream shop

We have some friends who live in Birmingham which has a fantastic ice cream parlour in the city centre. We always make a trip here, as the children really enjoy it. It’s become a bit of a tradition.

Sundaes Gelato is in Basingstoke and is perfect for an ice cream or sorbet!

4. Fly a kite

Crabtree has to be the best place for this in Basingstoke.

5. Pretend to be a pirate

My little one is obsessed with pirates at the moment. When she’s bigger, we hope to take her to the Historic shipyard in Portsmouth.

She was christened on HMS Victory, so I want to see if they have finally sorted out her plaque!

6. Play ball games

I never realised how much fun you can have with a football till my little one started kicking one!

7. Go on a bear hunt (or a Gruffalo hunt if your little one has read the book)

We are very lucky because we live very close to some little wooded areas which are perfect for bear hunting.

If you don’t live close to some wooded areas, have a look at this post HERE.

8. Go to a Country show

You may be just in time for the New Forest Show this year (it was in July), but maybe something to think about for next year.

It’s a great opportunity to see shiny tractors, lovely animals and yummy things to buy and eat. Or check out some other country shows that are coming up HERE.

9. Go to the Zoo.

Marwell is probably the closest zoo to us, but I went to London Zoo in April 2014 when she was three years old with my little one and can thoroughly recommend this too. Just don’t walk it from Waterloo like we did!

10. Sleep under the stars

We are going camping next weekend and I’m looking forward to doing this!

11. Build a sandcastle or have a sand Castle Competitions

Fleet Pond

Frensham Ponds

Or go to the Beach! The Nearest “Beaches” to Basingstoke are Fleet Pond on the way to Fleet and Frensham Pond, just past Farnham. Otherwise, head to West Wittering, which is great for toddlers.

12. Run through the sprinkler

Not particularly environmentally friendly, but great fun!!!

13. Create your own perfume

I was obsessed with doing this when I was about 8 years old. All I needed was a jar with a lid, some water and a rose bush. My poor parents had to clean out the remnants! lol

14. Roast some marshmallows

“Burning Nights” are a big thing in our house. We have a chiminea and Miss NHM loves it because we can roast marshmallows over it. We recently learnt something new about counting to “50” after you’ve roasted your marshamallow to ensure you don’t get burnt.

15. Go on a train adventure

For a proper train adventure, check out the Watercress Line or Exbury Gardens and Steam Train. Otherwise, just a trip from Basingstoke to Winchester or Farnborough will probably be exciting for little ones.

16. Rainy day card making

Click HERE for some ideas

17. Explore art and music

There are lots of music classes in the area or maybe just a trip to the Anvil or the Haymarket will be inspiring.

18. Learn a new language

Borrow some books in a different language from the library. There are even children’s books in different languages at the Basingstoke Discovery Centre.

Or maybe investigate Linguatastic, the local language school.

19. Fruit Picking – Local Pick Your Own’s

Check out my previous post on local Pick Your Own farms HERE.

20. Climbing Trees

Basing Wood is perfect for climbing trees.

21. Painting Rocks

I want to do this next year with my little one, as I think it will make less mess then! lol.

22. Have a BBQ

You can’t beat a BBQ in summer! Check HERE for a previous post about outdoor BBQ facilities in the area.

23. Daisy Chains

All you need is an area with daisies in. Hours of fun!

24. Go to a farm

Try Finkley Down Farm, Miller’s Ark, Manydown and Bucklebury Farm.

Don’t miss out on future posts like this – you can receive updates directly to your inbox by email by adding your email address to the box on the top right of this page and hitting subscribe. You can also follow NorthHantsMum onTwitter,Google+,Facebook PageFacebook ProfileLinkedIn and Feedly. I hope to see you there! 

A Summer of sport VII: “Born to be wild…”

Another fab guest post from Peta at http://minrva.blogspot.co.uk/:

“Born to be wild…”

Last week’s summer of sport subject (ballet) was perhaps a little feminine, although, ballet is not just for Misses. All the same, it is for the sake of fairness that this week is a (stereotypically) masculine sport. But then motor sport is not just for Masters either.

As a young Miss I always wanted to drive, I was forever asking questions about road signs, (what they mean, why they are where they are etc), and every time we went to the farm I recalling whining (a lot) that I wanted to take the ‘Suzie’ out for a ‘spin’ (read: drive the Suzuki utility vehicle). It never mattered to me that my length-challenged legs were far from pedal-reaching proportions, nor that my driving skills were not fully manual-car capable, (Dad would let me sit on his lap and ‘drive’ our automatic car along the untarred lane-way between home and Grandma and Grandpop’s house). I simply just wanted to drive.

My sister, on the other hand, took jazz ballet classes.

The precursor to this driving fascination was probably the dodgem cars I loved to drive at a local theme park of my childhood. But they never went fast enough and it was a stretch to wear the seatbelt and still be able to reach the steering wheel and pedals. The, as I grew older, the track was predictably boring and I was increasingly frustrated with folks always getting in my way. On the farm, however, I only needed to worry about Kangaroos; not for fear of hurting them, it was a fear of them hurting me – which would promptly put an end to taking the Suzie out for a spin (those kangaroos really are brutal).

By the age of 12 or 13 I was adept at reversing the cars off the front garden grass onto the driveway, down the slope, onto the road, along the gutter and around the corner to the garages at the back of our odd-shaped corner block. Next, I would either reverse parallel park on the forecourt or park in the garage. All of this was done, of course, after washing Mum’s, Dad’s and then Nan’s cars. This is also precisely the same way that my father learnt to drive.

Alas, we have no family farm nearby, so it will be dodgem cars and go-karts for my Miss and Master. And I doubt they will sit still long enough to watch the Belgian F1 Grand Prix with Papa this Sunday (25 August). Mind, Master is named after a late legend of the Formula 1 (F1) scene, so perhaps go-karts might be a winner? He would certainly not be the first Briton to get into F1 this way…

Back to my old form, here are some local(-ish) go-kart providers, if you like to “Getcha motor runnin’…”

  • Chineham: The nearest and newest, having opened 27 July 2013, is Absolutely Karting Basingstoke, Wade Road, RG24 8LJ (near Great Binfields Road intersection)
  • Reading: Premier Karting (RG5 4SZ) and Teamworks Reading (RG30 1JT).
  • Andover: Thruxton (SP11 8PW)

11 Songs and Rhymes for Babies and Toddlers

Nobody warned me that once you have a child you have to suddenly start singing and be good at Nursery Rhymes! I’ve had to borrow some books from the library to learn the words of rhymes that I knew as a child but had forgotten since then.

I have been so amazed at how quickly my little one picked up trying to do the actions and copy the sounds. Watching her singing/speech develop has been so awesome.

1. Pat a Cake

2. Round and Round the Garden (my little one used to giggle at about 4 months old when she was sung this)

3. The Wheels on the Bus (a particular favourite in our house as the actions keep our little one occupied so she doesnt try to crawl/sprint off the changing mat. She started doing the sounds when she was about 9 months old)

4. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

5. Baa Baa Black Sheep (My little one started signing this week and can get as far as “Baa baa blaaaa sssss”)

6. The incy wincy spider

7. I’m a little teapot

8. Old Macdonald had a farm (We sing this on the way to Nursery. Great to keep my little one occupied when she’s in her car seat)

9. If you’re happy and you know it

10. Wind the bobbin up

11. Row, row, row your boat

Row, row, row your boat, extra lyrics:

Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream
Merrily, merrily, merrily
Life is but a dream

Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream
If you see a crocodile
Don’t forget to scream

Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the river
If you see a polar bear
Don’t forget to shiver

Row, row, row your boat
Gently to the shore
If you see a lion
Don’t forget to roar

Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the creek
If you see a little mouse
Don’t forget to squeak

Row, row, row your boat
Across the reservoir
If you see a farmer
Stop and say ooo-arrr

Row, row, row your boat
All across the puddle
If you see your mummy there
Give her a lovely cuddle

Row, row, row your boat
In your bubble bath
If you see a spider/ tall giraffe
Don’t forget to laugh

Row, row, row your boat
Gently to the beach
If you see a dinosaur
Don’t forget to screech

Row, row, row your boat
Gently up the brook
If you catch a little fish
Let it off the hook

  • Row, row, row your boat
  • Gently to the lake
  • If you see something green
  • It’s probably a snake (Mr NHM made this one up! lol)

Row, row, row your boat
Out into the bay
If you see a pirate ship
Sail the other way

Rock, rock, rock your boat
Gently to and fro
Watch out, give a shout….
into the water we go… SPLASH!

Caterpillar Music 2013

Jaz has been a long time reader. NHM was one of the first places to announce the new Caterpillar Music classes when they started last year. I’m delighted to welcome Jaz back to NHM and to see that the business is going so well for her. It’s great that she is able to offer such a fab discount to NHM Readers. Please see below for details. Thanks Jaz!

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Looking for fun for little ones? Look no further- Caterpillar Music has everything on offer! As a private music teacher and a mum of 2 young children, Jaz knows how to engage and stimulate your child as well as help them to learn and develop. She aims to make each Caterpillar Music class an exciting experience for both Mum and baby or toddler.

Each unique session at Caterpillar Music will include amazing puppets, exciting instruments, bubbles, parachutes, light shows, ribbons, scarves, sensory toys as well as learning about colours, numbers, shapes and more. Your child will learn through play and song and make friends whilst doing it.

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There is a lovely, relaxed atmosphere at the Caterpillar Music classes and your child is encouraged to join in as much or as little as they wish. Ages range from the smallest (3 days is our youngest!) up to 3 years and each can join in and enjoy the music and activities, developing at their own pace.

If you are a Mummy looking for some like-minded friends too, come on down and have some fun and a good old natter!Contact Jaz to book a free trial- 07952 935021 or jasmine.mccarthy@caterpillarmusic.com, check the Facebook page /CaterpillarMusicChineham or look at the website to find out more www.caterpillarmusic.com

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If you quote “North Hants Mum” when booking, you also get £10 off.

Siblings are always free of charge.

Current classes are:

  • Mondays 11am Wellington Country Park (With a FREE hour in the park)
  • Tuesdays 11:10am Chineham Village Hall Community Room
  • Thursdays 1:15pm Christ Church in Chineham

Also, if you “like” Caterpillar Music Chineham on facebook to get automatically entered to the competition to win 5 FREE classes.

Spaces are limited as classes are small and intimate so you need to book in advance.

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Related Posts

Caterpillar Music 2012