Little Lifelong Learners

Playful Learning for the early years

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Foundation & Prep, Imaginative Play, Play, Preschool, Sensory Play, Small World Play, Toddlers

How To Get Started With Small World Play

I am such a fan of simple play that ignites the senses! One of my favourite ways to do this is through small world trays! They are SO incredibly easy to set up using things you probably already have in your cupboard so they needn’t be expensive either! Today I’d like to share some tips with you on how to get started with small world play!

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Art and Craft, Art and Craft Activities, Foundation & Prep, Play, Preschool, Process Art, Toddlers

My Favourite Subscription Boxes for Kids

Over in my Play Ideas facebook group, there are often questions asked about selecting appropriate resources and activities for certain age groups. It can be so tricky to know what types of activities and resources will suit the ages of your little learners, so I just love it when I come across a good subscription box that takes the guesswork out!

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Foundation & Prep, Imaginative Play, Play, Preschool, Toddlers

DIY Market Stand for Dramatic Play

If you’re like me, you’re probably super passionate about dramatic play. But sometimes the materials and props can be a little expensive! I searched high and low for market stands but they were either out of my budget or didn’t really suit the image I had in my mind. I wanted something simple yet open ended…that we could use for lots of different dramatic play spaces!

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  • Well it's been a tiny bit crazy around here this last week! I've been relying on simple play to get us through! 🌟 The kids have been sick. Again. And they're still super snotty. But we've been bringing out our small world trays for some quick entertainment! They're both still loving our lizard small world featuring our @minizooshop CollectA lizards. 🌟 This week I also had a pretty major issue with my website which resulted in losing lots of customer profiles and orders from the last 3 weeks. I cried a lot and ate way too much chocolate. But thanks to an epic rescue from my new website guru @hatched_designs and lots of support from my hubby and my beautiful, thoughtful and patient customers, I feel like the end is in sight! 🌟 I've got all the profiles and orders sorted and categorised and will update them as needed. Please don't hesitate to email me if you're missing any files from your user account or you can't log in and I'll get you sorted super quick! 🌟 I've also had some wonderful deliveries arrive this week from @officeworks @shamrockaustralia and @yowie_australia. I can't wait to share them with you tomorrow!!!! #ItFeelsLikeChristmas 🌟 Ohh and to top of our insane week. Today we kinda bought a brand new family car 💁🏻 #NoBiggie #IsItBedTimeYet? #ImExhausted 😴
  • Ahhh....I say this every single time, but this is definitely my new fav dramatic play set! #OkayILoveThemAll #HowCanIPickAFav 🌟 Over the weekend, we set up our new Farmer's Market fruit and veg stall and it was SUCH a hit with both kids. We often frequent the markets on the weekend to stock up on fresh produce so it was a set that both our little learners could really connect to! #FollowTheChild #HealthyKids 🌟 It was soooo sweet watching my little learners play and imagine together, especially when Elliot pretended to pay Lilly for his fruit! 🍇🍎🍌 🌟 We already had a set of these gorgeous felt fruits and veggies from @ikea_australia but I actually went and got some more to really stock up our stall! I also ordered a beautiful set of scales from @educating_kids and grabbed a few extra cane baskets from @kmartaus . We had everything else ready to go! Tap the pics to see where all the bits and pieces came from! 🌟 Would your little learners go crazy for this set? If so, follow the link in my bio to grab a set for your tribe! 🌟 #littlelifelonglearners_dramaticplay
  • Today was a dinosaur swampy, slime day of play! 🌟 Earlier this week, Lilly helped me to make a fresh batch of slime ready to create our very special dinosaur swamp! Little did we know, the kids would all end up sick again, so we only just got to set it up for some small world play today! 🌟 We kept it simple with some slime as the base, a few rocks, some Schleich plants, aquarium plants and our gorgeous mini dinosaurs from @minizooshop. The kids were both delighted to get their hands stuck in and Elliot was very quickly stomping the dinosaurs all through the slime! 🌟 Tomorrow we are off to get a little bookshelf for our play room so we will also put out all of our dinosaur books and maybe our big Schleich dinosaurs for a big small world on the train table! 🌟 Our gorgeous dinosaur minis are CollectA brand from @minizooshop - be sure to head on over because they just so happen to be running a little giveaway for some of these minis right now!! Our slime is by @shamrockaustralia at @spotlightstores and is by far the very best and very easiest way to make slime! 🌟 Swipe across to see a close up picture and a sweet little video from our play this afternoon! #littlelifelonglearners_smallworlds
  • Elliot is really getting into our Grimms at the moment! We get all of our pieces from @thecreativetoyshop 🤗 🌟 Yesterday Elliot helped me to make some towers using our large rainbow and our natural semi-circles. He added our peg people from the 7 friends set all on his own. It was so sweet watching him rearrange them over and over until he had them perfect! 🌟 I'm often asked why Grimms toys are so expensive and if they're REALLY worth investing in. And my answer is always the same. Yes. Yes. YES x10000! They are just the most beautiful quality and they can be used in so many wonderful ways. They really encourage creativity and open ended play and are my favourite toys in our play space. 🌟 Would you like to see more Grimms play in our feed? Let me know! 🌟 #littlelifelonglearners_smallworlds
  • We started a busy box for Lilly to distract her while I take Elliot to bed for his daytime nap because I was feeling frustrated by her constant pop ins and felt my inner cranky mum coming out a little too often!!! 🌟 The little monkey was struggling to leave us for 15 minutes while I settled Elliot down for his sleep and was constantly sneaking in and waking him up again juuuuust as his eyes were closing! Whyyyyy?! 🤦🏻‍♀️ 🌟 I decided to put together a very special busy box full of activities she can do totally independently at the table while she waits for me to finish with her brother. #MumHacks 🌟 I generally rotate things in this tub one at a time. I might take one or two things out and put something new in to spark her interest. We've been doing this for a few weeks and it's working really well! 🌟 Some of her favourites include her write and wipe cards from Aldi and her rainbow pebbles from @thecreativetoyshop 🙌🏻 🌟 Now when I come out from Elliot's bedroom, we high 5 and cuddle instead of me having another talk with her about why it's important to leave me alone 😂 🌟 Definitely give this a go if you're finding your cranky mama is coming out a little too often or you just need something to entertain the little ones while you finish a hot coffee...or....gasp....a piece of chocolate 💁🏻 🌟 Swipe across to see a video tour of our current busy box and then tag a mama friend who needs one of these in her life! #littlelifelonglearners
  • Ahhh light table play makes my heart all giddy! 🌟 I've been thinking about our play room layout a lot this weekend. I have that itch that seems to happen every few months where I feel like our space needs some BIG changes! #IkeaIsCallingMyName #AndMyWallet 💸 🌟 Lilly is off to school next year and we're also welcoming a new babe later this year, so I feel like our space is ready for a few little changes! 🌟 I'm thinking about setting up a little nook with an interest table especially for Lilly....and right now, I'm wanting to grab our @modernteaching light panel out for some play-based learning and discovery! 🌟 Ahhh watch this space! Some exciting changes are coming to the play room and I can't wait to share them with you! #littlifelonglearners
  • Do you have a little learner starting school soon? Or maybe you're a teacher? Keep reading! 🌟 Lilly has become fascinated with letters. She's started writing her own name and is so keen to learn more about other letters and sounds. So I'm running with it! #FollowTheirLead #InterestBasedLearning 🌟 I decided to make her a special alphabet book! Inside are 26 pages, one for each letter of the alphabet. She can rainbow write the upper-case and lower-case letters and then use a pencil to practise writing the letters some more. I also added some pictures for her to colour to really cement the sounds and letters she's working on. 🌟 I'm really trying to emphasise beginning sounds with her so when we work through each page, we pronounce the beginning sound and streeeeetch it out and then finish the word. This is helping build her phonological awareness ready for Prep next year! #MyBabyIsGrowingUp 😭 🌟 We started with just the letters of her name but she is so keen to get through the rest of her book now! 🌟 If your little learners would love this resource, you can grab a copy from my store by following the link in my bio 😘 #littlelifelonglearners_printables
  • CONGRATULATIONS to our winner, @madebyloveandscience! 🌟 For the past year, I've been collaborating with the wonderful Roxanne from @inspirebookbox to bring you an exciting book-based sensory activity for their little hands box each month! 🌟 I've just finished this collaboration but we wanted to give my followers a chance to win their own book box!! 🌟 This month's theme is all about SPACE 🚀 so we'd love for you to win a FREE box for your little learners. Your little hands or big hands box will be full of space inspired books, activities and a fun recipe too! 🌟 HOW TO ENTER 🌟 Follow @littlelifelonglearners and @inspirebookbox and then tag a friend in the comments below! Tag each friend in an individual comment for more chances to win! 🌟 This competition is open to Australian residents only and will end on Sunday 10/06/18 at 8:00pm AEST. 🌟 This competition is no way endorsed or sponsored by Instagram. All entrants must be 18 years of age or older.
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