Weather craft

Today we have made some crafts to do with the weather, although maybe we only need the rainy one at the moment! We have made clouds, a sunshine and some rain so we can talk about the weather, learn the words and we will stick them up in the window to help him notice what the weather is doing each day.

For the cloud I drew a cloud shape on the back of a cereal packet, then let the little one squeeze some glue all over it and then apply cotton wool to it. You can pull out and jujj up the cotton wool to make it really cloudy. This is quick, easy and so fluffy I can't stop touching it!

Sunshine is the back of a paper plate painted with his poster paints.

Rain is whole milk bottle tops as they are blue, sellotaped to string which is then sellotaped to a lolly stick so we can blue tac it to the window and move it about.

Excuse the toy car in the picture, he wanted them low down for him to admire and that just happened to be there. That's real life for you!

Pirate boat

We bought a plastic set of drawers for organising craft materials for the little one (yay, organising!), and the box was rather large and quite frankly crying out to be made into a pirate boat. I had also recently bought a wipe clean tablecloth (also, yay!) so had a large tube of cardboard to make the sail out of with the bubble wrap from the drawers. (Note, bubble wrap makes a handy sail AND activity as you can sit for hours in your boat popping it.) Line the bottom of the boat with pillow and blankets etc to make your trip comfortable.

Make sure you have your telescopes and treasure chest and pirate eye patch.

Make a steering wheel out of a paper plate and plastic cutlery and sellotape.

Ahoy there, matey!

Plastic bead suncatchers

These are so easy and fun to make! Also I got to use up some old beads I had had hanging around *forever*!

They can be made in cake tins, cups, ceramic bowls anything really. They lift out beautifully once dry. I did one in a christmas pudding bowl and one in an enamel butterfly cookie cutter. In the butterfly one I used glittery beads and I love the effect. The other one, I will admit is a bit of an experiment. Not all beads melt, it would appear. But it was my little one's choice of beads and some have gone lovely and bubbly. Make sure you choose the cheap plasticy ones and it looks nice to have clear ones in there to let the light shine through.

Either drill a hole and tie some ribbon or clear jewellery elastic to hang or place a circle of sellotape to stick them to the window.

More beads on order for more suncatcher fun!

Best homemade white bread

Ingredients:

300ml warm water
5g dried yeast
560g strong white bread flour
10g salt
1 tbsp sugar
20ml oil

Method:

1. stir yeast into water and leave for 5 - 10 mins to get a bit activated
2. mix in flour, salt, sugar and oil
3. knead for 10 - 15 mns till you have a nice, soft, smooth, round ball of dough. The more effort you put in here the more you will be rewarded as you are stretching out the gluten which will help the bread rise
4. cover the bowl with cling film and leave in a warm place for 1 - 2 hours till doubled in size OR in the fridge over night
5. knock all the air out, shape it and place in baking tin or tray you will cook it in
6. leave to prove for another hour or so OR again in fridge for day/ night
7. cook in oven for about 25 mins on 200c if it is a loaf or less if buns (place a little pot of water in the oven to create steam 5 mins before you put the bread in. This will make the crust crispy. On that note, you may want to brush with salted water, milk or egg wash or just leave 'nude')
8. to know when it is ready it must be golden on top, sound hollow underneath when tapped
9. place it on a drying rack or similar to let the moisture escape or it will go soggy underneath
10. (when cooled you can freeze it if you like!)

yay, fresh bread made by your own fair hands! Now try not to scoff it all  in one go.

Muffin tin baked eggs

 Easy, fun finger food!

Ingredients:

(makes 5)

3 eggs
2 rashers of bacon, chopped up and pre-cooked
sprinkle of cheese
dash of milk

Method:

Combine all the ingredients as if you are making an omellette and pour into muffin tin holes. Only fill half full as they rise up like little cakes! Butter a piece of bread and cut off the crusts then squidge into one of the holes as a 'holder' and it makes a crispy yummy holder for the eggy mix and makes the muffin tin much easier to clean (a la top right in picture)!

Voila, brunch is served!

Fathers day paperweights

For fathers day this year we made paperweights out of salt dough with little stones pressed into them in the words DAD ROCKS (cos he does).

Salt dough recipe

1 cup of salt
2 cups flour
1 cup water
bake for about 1 to 2 hours at 130 degrees celcius (or less if a bit smaller) (you cook on a low heat for longer so they don't rise and lose their shape or brown in the oven)

Method:

Squidge them into a flat round and write the words on first with a pencil so you know where to put the stones. Squidge the stones in and bake! You'll kow when they are cooked as they look dry and sound hollow when tapped underneath, they will need longer to cook inside if they are very fat and less if quite flat but use your initiative.

If your child is younger and this would be too complicated, then press their handprint into the dough and write Dad next to it.

Happy Fathers Day!