Little Shop + Pretend Money = Supermarket Game

I guess the supermarket game never gets old, and the great thing is can be modified to suit just about any age level.
The bonus is it's fun, it's a game and there is heaps of learning to be had.

My daughter is 9 and she loved it so much, she keeps asking to play it often.
As well it just kept growing and growing until it had branched off into lots of different areas or learning and understanding of the bigger picture that is called life :)

For anyone who lives outside of New Zealand.
New World supermarket has a promotional thing going called Little Shop.
Every time you spend a certain amount on groceries at their supermarket, you earn so many of these little cute supermarket items.
                     

First Miss Personality put together a price list.
Since she is not the biggest fan of hand writing, she chose to type it out on the ipad.
When she was writing up her list, she was asking questions about which things would be considered diary products.
Which started conversations about where she thought things came from and how they were made e.g. Weetbix.

Next she made up a name and created a sign for her supermarket.

I could of encouraged for more creativity in her sign, but she was on a roll, so who was I to interfere

 :)

Now mum's roll in all this was the customer and Miss Personality was the checkout operator.

She packed my grocery items into my supermarket basket.

I started off just buying a couple of things at a time, so she could work out the change to give me.

We use pretend money that is done in New Zealand currency, so there is no confusion over connecting this to 'real life'.

Once mum started buying larger amounts of groceries, I asked if she could write me out a supermarket docket, so I could see what each item was worth, then see the total.
I explained that supermarkets do this, and it helps with working out the total and the change to give once items have been paid for.

We played this for an hour or so, until she started asking if she could stop writing out dockets as she was getting a bit sick of doing that part.

It was a fun game and I am sure you can come up with many ways to keep extending it, depending on what your childs age is.

Have fun and if you come up with some other activities that can be added to the this fun game, please share :)

Loom Bands - Bracelet / Bangle & Bracelet book.com

I have been consumed by loom bands and all the awesome things you can create.

                                          

I can't claim to be quiet this talented, as I am yet to design something of my own, and have just been  using the many YouTube tutorials.

But I came across this interesting new design of bracelet by Vixxstar.

The skeleton bracelet.

   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_tgkVMdnE8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR3VVQ1ngP4

Basically you have a loom, a loom hook or crochet hook, bands, and some grid paper.

Well that's what I used as we don't have a printer.

Once you have done this bracelet, you can pretty much come up with any design you like

Or................... Braceletbook.com, which also has an app for the iphone, which makes it even easier to find a pattern :)
http://www.braceletbook.com/

Once you have a picture of the pattern, you can convert it to grid paper and off you go, you can create it into a bracelet.

This website has some awesome patterns that you can either turn into a mural or one of these bracelet/ bangles.
I have found that 9/10 squares makes a good sized bracelet/ bangle.
I have mine a bit loose so that you don't stretch the bands as you put it on and off and makes it a bit easier for children to put on and off with our bands breaking.

 Before I found braceletbook.com, I went onto google and found pixel pictures that I could convert to a grid and then make a bracelet out of it.

Miss Personality was inspired to make one and found this pattern on braceletbook.com and then added her name to it.

Once I found braceletbook.com, there was no stopping me :)

So knock yourself out and go crazy :)

Loom Bands - Bracelets

My daughter and I have embraced our loom band passion, and have been making as many things as we can. Not just out of interest, but for also the creative challenge that it creates.

Here are some fun bracelets we have made.
No we didn't come up with the design ourselves, but some very talented people on YouTube did. So I will give you the links and you just need to supply is loom, loom hook or crochet hook and the bands of the colours of your choosing.

1) Spiral Wrap Fishtail bracelet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myZ5AvaEx-U

2) Rainbow Ladder bracelet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPfeBxJWPrY

3) Starburst bracelet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI7AkI5dJzo

The two at the front are smaller and fit a child's wrist better.

The other three are made with two rainbow looms attached length wise, just to make them a bit longer, in case you have a bigger wrist.

4)Triple Link Chain bracelet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7OIJV539c4

5) Flower Power bracelet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPiND_2MwmA

6) Extravaganza bracelet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqcGU6p5SN0

7) Minecraft creeper bracelet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zqv3MIXtL8

These are usualy done in green, white and black.

But I thought it would be fun to see what they look like in different colours.

8) Batman bracelet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo8bLFhzC7Q

Big thanks to all the wonderful people who put together these wonderful designs, and then took the time to put together a YouTube tutorial, for all of to be able to give it a go.

Have fun :)

Loom Bands - Minecraft

I am sure you have found out about two interesting crazes that are around at the moment.
They both seem to be growing in popularity every day.

1) Minecraft
2) Loom banding

If you haven't because of fear of it taking over and consuming your child/ children's lives.
Feel the fear and do it any way :)

Here are some cool things you can make on your loom, that are inspired by minecraft.
No I didn't come up with the ideas myself, sorry not that clever :)
But some other talented people have, and their tutorials are on YouTube.
All you need is a loom, a loom hook or a crochet hook, and the bands of the colours that you need to make them.

These are really easy to make and don't use a lot of bands.

The only challenge is finding the brown bands.

Torch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GbgOSrbb7g

Pick axe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PnLZHp_moI

Sword: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OTUNlPV_mk

Bow and Arrow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdSlpWVV4a0

These are a bit more challenging, but if your child has made a lot of things on their loom, then they shouldn't find them too challenging.

Steve: http://youtu.be/NrpvzHGARiE
Creeper: http://youtu.be/3IJwptuFdmg
Skeleton: http://youtu.be/pjjGkeDefxw
Spider: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cjNITMk14A
Enderman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP5KxbNT5yQ

The best part about making these, is they can play with them afterwards :)
Have fun making and playing with your creations :)

Our New Piece Of Paradise Called Home

This picture really sums up the feeling of our new place to park.
As well as this one :)

Any way I will stop teasing you and share some photos :)

These are our neighbors :) There is a family in the bus right up the end, that is owned by the people living in it. Then the orange/yellow one and the blue & white one are owned by the owner of the property and he rents them out.

 Miss Personality discovered a swing in the tree, and decided to try it out :)

 Miss Personality is showing me the hens. Little did we know, that a few days later there would also be some cute little chicks to hatch.
They actually belong to another family who live in a house on this property we are on.

Sorry about all the shadows, it was a bit of an overcast morning.

But this is the fruit orchid that we are free to help ourselves to the fruit.

Can't wait for summer :)

 The fun job of getting our bus into our spot. Thank goodness for grandad's help :)

 The challenge of getting the bus backed through this tight spot, without breaking anything.

 Lots of stopping and starting, and turning, and backwards and forwards to try and get it to fit.

 Everyone hold suck in your tummy :)

Finally made it with out breaking anything, YAY!

 Bus all parked up where it is suppose to be.
Sun came out to welcome us to our new spot :)

 We are allowed to use any firewood from the chopped down trees around the place.
Our bus doesn't have a fireplace, but it will come in handy for when we get around to making a bbq or fire pit of some sort for toasting marshmallows on :)

I know it doesn't look like much, but it nice to have a piece of land we can do what we want with.

Landlord is going to build us a little shed/ sleepout for storage and a deck off it.

Then we have plans of a vegetable garden and some outside furniture, that I plan to make our of wooden pallets.

Never done that before, so that should be some learning for me :)

Will share more photos later as things change.

But totally happy with our new piece of paradise.

Oh and Miss Personality has made friends with a family that live over the fence from us.

Guess what, they are home schooled too.

They are a family of 7 children, so Miss Personality won't be at a loss for play friends.

TO BE CONTINUED.................