It's cold, go play outside.

It is still cold were we live and I mean windy and wet kind of cold. In the last few weeks we have had snow, which I love though this last snowy rain - yuck, cold windy rain, which I hate. When we get a day that is not too rainy I insist we go outside.  As my lovely mother in-law says "your not made of cheese" and that we are not so out we go! 

Baby T in her full rain suite dubbed the muddy-buddy,these are so great! Here she is exploring some crabs we found at the beach but she would be happy to just examine the rocks and sand for hours if we let her... hmm maybe we should, though I might get board after an hour. 

Baby T most always enjoys it outside regardless of weather even if it seems miserably cold. The only negative would be that she won't keep gloves or a hat on but I don't blame her it gets in the way of her exploring. Maybe to some I should be a better parent and put those gloves on and slap no that hat repeatedly, meh maybe.


I would love to have a set up where she has her naps outside. Might sound crazy but there is one daycare in my area that has an out door nap area so kids do sleep outside in an undercover area. My cousin's son slept outside in his old style pram surrounded by snow, he was in a snow suite and covered with a feather duvet, had the best naps and I was jealous.To me this sounds wonderful!  

on a little hike exploring a creek, logs, leaves, birds so much to see and do! 

There have been many studies which sate that children are spending less and less time outside. Does being charted around in a stroller complete with rain shield count as outdoor time? I think this is a good question as more and more families push kids around whilst someone is jogging behind them or pull them around while someone is biking in front. Ironically the adult is getting all the exertion, the wind through their hair but were does this leave the kids? This is not to say that afterwards a family does not spend an hour running around after their kids in the park but it does make me wonder. What do kids need from outdoor play?

"As all children frequently experience anxiety, disappointment, and even anger, a vigorous outdoor play activity can help relieve the child’s boredom or stress, and satisfy the child’s natural urge for adventure" CLEMENTS, R. (2004). An Investigation of the Status of Outdoor Play. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood , 5 (1), 68-80.

And what learning or development occurs through outdoor play? 

"Natural experiences such as collecting leaves, throwing stones in a pond, jumping over small brush or logs, building sandcastles, collecting sticks or nuts from the ground, or creating hiding spaces challenge the child’s imagination and reasoning abilities." CLEMENTS, R. (2004). An Investigation of the Status of Outdoor Play. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood , 5 (1), 68-80.

For me the best par of physical exertion and fresh air is that we all get good naps and night time sleeps in this house -score! 

Here is a little video of our puddle play. I can't stand my voice in this and it was initially made for Baby T 's dad to give him a snippet of what we did that day... so please forgive the whinny voice and my ridiculous directions for Baby T to reenact her dancing.  

Bringing The Outdoors In

It has been awhile... ok a long while but summer was too much fun to sit inside and blog and then I got off track.... way off track! 


So here I am blogging again, hopefully more frequently and hopefully about more then just kids activities. For now I have somethings that Baby T and I have been up to that I thought I would share. 


As it colder and sadly wetter in our part of the world I have been trying to bring some of the outdoors inside for us to explore. I also wanted some exploration/play things in the living room that looked like they almost belong there (we have a earthy short of living room). Sidetrack but I remember before I was pregnant and when I was pregnant I was like 'I will never have toys all over my house' yeah right! So there are toys in pretty much every room of our little apartment but I wanted to try and make our living room look a little bit more hmmm how to put it 'calm' without the super colourful crazy stuff that are generally kids toys.  


Here is what we ended up with: 

Basket with pine cones and and natural balls I bought at IKEA

Some rocks which we collected locally

To you and me they may look boring but to a baby or toddler they are very exciting! Baby T is all about putting things in her mouth (will this ever stop!!) so I make sure I am close by to keep an eye on her when she plays with these toys - you know your baby so do what you need to do. I promise you though these free and natural toys  are fun. 

So what does Baby T do with them?? 

We use them with of course the muffin tin! The items get sorted, placed in and out of the tin, mixed, examined. They occasionally get dropped intentionally perhaps Baby T is interested in the noise that makes, maybe she wants to see my reaction? Either way I try to make it safe and not too noisy by having her play with them on a blanket. I suppose she might one day try to throw them and if she does we might have to take it outside to try that out or redirect if we can't do that right away. 

So these are the cheapest toys we have and they have been in out living room for months and Baby T and her friends love them! 

What is she learning with rocks and pine cones??? 

Early math skills! - yep crazy but she is by sorting, pattern making and by exporting a pin cone which in itself is a se-metric mathamatic marvel. 

Early literacy skills and language  - learning the works for the objects. Creating patterns 

Fine motor skills- hand eye coordination, grasping