Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Wood is Good (Part 1)

I purchased two wood boards from Lowes and spray painted them. Graham and Parker are using them for a ball ramp and also for a car ramp, for their animal toys, their action figure type toys etc. I added speed bumps on one side of each board too. I will have to add some pictures of that later. I did not take any pictures of the speed humps yet. I was picture slacking. It's been a busy month.  Summer is tough. Oh and also in this blog posy, a photo of this amazing lamp I found for the indoor play area. It fits in so perfectly, like it was made for our indoor play area! I love how the colors are translucent on the little shades!

Balls going down the ramps

This is THE BEST way to use the ramps with balls. it is so neat to see them  roll down one and up the other!







carrot men and hedgehogs from IKEA in the barbie car  haha

love his expression after the car load of carrots and hedgehogs go down the ramp!

oops one fell out on the second time down  haha!

soapy pool fun!

so much foamy bubbly soapy fun!

The rope light wasn't making enough light, found this awesome light at IKEA!

The light can adjust to send all of the light downward to light up the magnet board perfectly!!

Some kindle time in the waldorf playstand

Parker is playing with the magnets

LED magnets are perfect for lighting up these plastic translucent shapes!  (some of the DIY magnets I made)

tubation building pieces made into a vacuum hahaha

we made the singing marble tree into a lighted tree!! Using plastic eggs and LED finger lights  


the new light!!

pretty!!

sorting plastic diamond like gems  smallest to largest


Monkey the cat keeping Haley's guitar tablature warm  haha

Monkey posing

oops I didnt wipe down the side I was taking a pic through well enough


Parker painting his own face


condiment squirt bottles for paint! We have spray bottles for the liquid water colors and no spill paint cups for the tempera paint but we had a few extra colors and no paint cups for them. Hence the condiment bottles

Parker wanted to be covered in sand  haha


BE SURE TO CHECK OUT WOOD IS GOOD PART 2!!!!

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Indoor play environment (update 7/12)

Here are some updated pics of Graham and Parker's indoor play environment. The last update can be seen here. I can answer questions about toys and such in the comments or by email.


The light table setup. You can see more views below that show the mirrors better!

This shelf has tree blocks, tree chips/cookies, stones, as well as other nature play and wooden toys

Games and Puzzles on the shelving, overhead projector in front of the puzzles (it gets moved around) You can also see the magnet play center there to the right, I have made them over 100 magnets!! It usually looks less clutered when the overhead projector is in a different spot. This is a good view of the overhead projector screen though. The screen is made of a shower curtain hung on it's rod and hooks, attached to the wall.

This mirror is used for magna tiles and other building toys that are not heavy in weight.

book nook and mini craft/art center

air walker, monster stompy feet, manipulatives, etc.  The floor play tray is behind it resting on the wall.

I have pretty much the whole window done in cascading rainbow sun catchers 



waterbeads in the vases



easel and kitchen play area






bean bag toss (bean bags are inside the bins right now)

this is the side of the craft/art shelving

for cars. marbles, small balls, and hexbug nano's


You can see the full length of the mirror in this pic. It is a mirror that my Dad bought for me when I was 10!!

2 tables, 4 chairs and YES we do need and use them very much daily. Twins need space when they build and create. They have friends over quite often as well!!

Our handbuilt Waldorf Playstand was made by a relative (Christmas 2011)


these small kids mirrors make great accents for fun lighting

the compartment bag thingy that is attached and hanging from the light table is from IKEA, it is holding all of our small light table manipulatives, like the translucent numbers, letters, dice, gems, shapes, bears, etc.

I move these small kids mirrors around to accentuate candles and other things sometimes

see the mirror under the chalkboard?