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Baby Play at 11 Months

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Today I’d like to share my favourite no cook play dough recipe - you’re going to want to tap the little save icon for this one!
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We make play dough all the time here. It’s one of our go-to activities for when we need a little help parenting our little learners AND want our chosen activity to have some amazing educational benefits too!
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Sometimes we leave it natural, other times we add our @worksatplay powder dyes and some essential oils or food essences to add an extra sensory element. Sometimes we add loose parts from nature and sometimes we add cupcake liners and candles!
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Play dough is a wonderful tool for strengthening the muscles in our fingers and developing those fine motor skills while we play.
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What’s your favourite way to use play dough? Tell us below!

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Sooo I want to let you in on a little secret 🐶🐱🐹
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This Vet Surgery was such a simple little set up using some side tables from IKEA (they’re under $10 each) and a cheap little $19 cube shelf from Kmart! All of the other props were things we already had around the home or toy stash...or that we could grab really cheap from the dollar shop.
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But these days I‘m a little bit extra 💁🏻‍♀️ I really put my all into setting up dramatic play spaces for my little learners....but I wanted to let you in on something....
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If I were setting these spaces up for MY little learners, I’d go way back to basics like this Vet Surgery. Our youngest children are likely to feel overwhelmed by a really big space with heaps of props and signs. Yes, I set up spaces like these BUT that’s honestly so that I have some staged examples for YOU!! Once we’ve taken photos that include lots of ideas and set up possibilities, I actually remove probably half of the props and signs for our own little learners....and they LOVE it! Lilly is 5 now and Elliot is 3 so I find they are more drawn to the space when I take it down just a notch.
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I wanted to pop on and share this with you tonight because I want to keep it real! I want to remind you that you don’t need to spend a fortune or spend hours setting up gorgeous spaces. A few simple props and signs will ignite the imagination of your little learners! Inside my packets, you’ll find ideas for dramatic play spaces of all sizes - simply print what you need!!!
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If you’d like to check out my dramatic play set printables that aim to take the stress away from setting up your role play spaces, please do check out the link in my bio! I love being able to save you time so that you can just jump right into playtime! 😍

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This week is PANDA week - a week where many are starting a conversation around Perinatal Anxiety and Depression. Tonight I wanted to share a little but about my own experiences with anxiety and depression as a mother.When Kurtis and I decided to start a family, we had a picture in our mind of how we thought that would look. We imagined our natural, drug-free hypnobirth. We imagined that immediate skin to skin with our new baby. We imagined our birth photographer capturing those beautiful first moments.But that was all taken away from us when I developed severe pre-eclampsia and HELLP syndrome which resulted in me having an emergency csection at 33 weeks. I was in hospital for monitoring as I had some reduced movement and couldn’t stop throwing up. I’d been back and forth to emergency for weeks prior only to be told I had gastro and to go home and rest.But something didn’t feel right so I asked to get checked over and they ended up keeping me in overnight because they wanted to keep an eye on Lilly’s movements. Out of nowhere, my blood pressure skyrocketed to 200/120 in a matter of hours. At 11pm the hospital staff had sent Kurtis home to rest and prepare for some scans in the morning...and an hour later they were calling him to tell him to get back to the hospital ASAP because they needed to get Lilly out immediately or neither of us would make it through the night. It was pretty hectic and I still relive that moment in my mind from time to time.I don’t think I’ve ever been so terrified in my life and I’m sure Kurtis and I actually suffered from some post-traumatic stress following her birth. During that first year as parents, we both struggled in different aspects of our parenting journey. Kurtis struggled with depression and struggled a lot with anxiety.
I was exclusively pumping because Lilly was so teeny tiny and just didn’t have the strength to breastfeed so I desperately clung to pumping because I felt like I’d failed her in so many other ways. I had my first panic attack one day when my pump broke. I remember sitting on the floor of the garage shaking and crying uncontrollably. I was hyperventilating because my pump...cont. in comments...

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You’ve probably heard of a threenager right?
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I’ve been getting a lot of messages about emotional regulation and how we can support our little learners through feeling some big emotions. I thought I’d share a little throwback to a little resource I created to support Lilly when she was a toddler.
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When you're 2 or 3 years old, sometimes it can be really tricky to verbalise how you're feeling which results in a whooooole lotta big emotions that are sometimes really overwhelming!
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We try really hard to be understanding, gentle parents who know that these big, scary feelings are totally normal....but sometimes it's really hard to stay level headed and calm in the middle of a toddler tantrum.
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When Lilly was navigating these big feelings, we made some emotion cards! I told her a feeling and we acted it out together, taking photos as we went 😁😭😠😮
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Then we laminated them and added them to a little calm down basket with a calm down bottle. We'd often go back to the cards and talk about the feelings when she wasn't in tantrum mode which she absolutely loved!
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It really helped her to verbalise some of those big feelings so that when she was in a mega meltdown mode, we could talk things through a little easier because she already had an understanding of what emotion she was feeling!
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They'd also be great displayed in a little corner with a cushion and some books about emotions! We’re actually working on a little time in corner at the moment to hopefully better support Elliot as he navigates these tricky feelings as well. I’ll be sure to share more of that soon!

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When was the last time you truly slowed down to see the magic surrounding you?Our little learners are so eager to experience and understand the world. But sometimes we are so eager to just check off the things on our list so we tend to rush from one thing to the next. I’m so guilty of saying the words “hurry up!” all day but I’m trying really hard to be mindful of it and really slow down. Our days are so busy, but I’m trying to reclaim them. I’m trying so hard to slow down and just be with my little learners. To say YES instead of “not right now.” So this is your Thursday evening reminder to slow down. To say yes to your little learners. Forget about that growing to do list and say yes to seeing the beauty in your everyday 🌿

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We’ve been busily updating and creating Christmas activities for you! 🎅🏼
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These number puzzles were so popular last year - so we’ve done some updates and added all the Australian State Fonts! If you purchased last year, you’ll be able to download the updates for free over in your account 🙊
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We’re working on the Christmas Play Dough mats next so keep your eyes peeled! If you’d like to stock up on some Christmas themed printables, you can head to the link in my bio!

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My faaaavourite part of the month is when I get to put together the Play Pack for my beautiful #LittlePlayClub members 😍
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This month is all about families so I couldn’t wait to try this activity with Audrey. Yep! Even the babies get involved! I used the puzzle pieces from one of her favourite puzzles to trace around some photos of our family members.
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Next, I laminated the pictures and then cut them out. I decided to use some tiny pieces of bluetac to stick the photos down to the base of the puzzles.
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Audrey was soooo excited to get her hands on the puzzles. She went straight for the large circle first and was absolutely delighted to find a picture of herself underneath. Swipe across to see her getting a close look at herself 😍 #CalmDownOvaries 💥
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I think I’ll add this activity to my 12 month baby play blog post next week...but I wonder what else we’ll get up to before then 🤔🤭

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I wanted to start by saying that I’ve been struggling a bit lately 😬
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Every single day I receive tonnes of emails, DMs, comments on posts and comments over in my free Facebook group from my beautiful community asking what my recommendations and favourite toys are for each age group. I try really hard to reply to them all but I just can’t keep up...so I knew I needed to do something!!
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I’ve been working behind the scenes for weeks to bring you my FREE play directory! There are several pages filled to the brim with our tried-and-tested FAV toys, play things and books for newborns, babies, toddlers and preschoolers. There is still so much that I want to add but I just can’t hold it in any longer!!! There’s a nice range of open ended toys, imaginative play supplies, books, puzzles and more.
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So if you’re looking for ideas for Christmas, head to the link in my bio to check out my new FREE play directory! Don’t forget to tag your friends below so they can check it out too 😍

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This week my elves have been busily updating our Christmas line including our very popular Santa’s Workshop which you all looooved last year!
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I’ve included SEVEN hands-on, Christmas themed stations ready for playful learning including a letter writing station for writing to Santa; gingerbread play dough decorating; present wrapping station; Christmas ornament creation station (with instructional posters) and soooo much more.
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But what on earth could your little one be learning while playing?! Well they will develop their fine motor skills as they decorate the Christmas tree and their hand-eye coordination as they decorate their play dough gingerbread. 🌟
They will develop early reading and writing skills at the letter writing station and their measurement skills as they estimate paper amounts at the wrapping station. But most of all? They’re gonna have a tonne of fun!
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Head on over to my store to start prepping for your Christmas play!

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