New Parenting pinning party

Welcome to Mondays Parenting Pin-it Party!

Do you want to find the lots of ideas all focused on parenting, play and family things? Do you have a blog and are looking for places to share your posts ? Love Pinterest? Look no further the Monday Parenting Pin -it Party is here!

How does it work?

You can link up any posts that have a focus on parenting and families - ranging from play ideas, parenting tips, children's book reviews, kids craft and more.

We will pin the ideas to our fabulous Monday Parenting Pin-it Party Pinterest Board.

You can pop back next week to see which are the top two idea that we have featured.

Don't forget to follow the Pinterest board, visit some of the other people who have linked up and grab a badge.

<div align="center"> <a href="http://www.thefairyandthefrog.com/" title="The Fairy and the Frog" target="_blank"><img src="http://jbmumofone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Parenting-Pin-It-Party-Badge.jpg" alt="The Fairy and the Frog" style="border:none;" /></a></div>
So... who's hosting, as well as The Fairy and The Frog we have

Mum of One

Mammasaurus

Romanian Mum

Kiddycharts.com/mummys-little-stars

Happy linking- you can add as many as you wish. Why not add an old favourite as well as a newer post. I'm looking forward to lots of new posts to read. Don't forget to visit Mammasaurus next Monday to see which she enjoyed.

9 ways to reuse bottles and containers in the garden

Recycling makes great sense - not only is it all about making something for nothing, it prevents waste. The Fairy is regularly reminding me to 'reduce, reuse, recycle' (a lesson she has learnt from watching Bob the builder!). Too be honest, I'm not as good at recycling/ reusing as I could be (hence the reminders). So we've been trying extra hard to recycle and reuse things this month.

We made some mini green houses to keep our seedling sunflowers warm. I cut the bottom off - volia a tiny green house for free. Perfect for places too small for a real glass house.

We found some great ideas from other kids bloggers too,

What we do all day has some fab vegetable pots made from old containers. I love that they have a window so you can see the plants growing.

Teach beside me show how to make an elephant watering can - watering will never be boring again!

Playing in the garden is such fun. How about some pretend play with these juice cartoon houses from Red Ted Art- they are super cute.

Or scoops for the sand pit from Picklebums

Why not get active with a game of skittles from Domestic Goddesque.

Or milk bottle tennis rackets from Laughing Kids Learn.

I love this water wall from Sun Hats and Wellie Boots - it looks great fun.

Or how about a sprinkler from Housing a Forest.

Colour matching with The Princess and The Wizard

Are you familiar with the authour Julia Donaldson? I'm sure you'll recognise her monster the Gruffallo. This month the Poppins Book Nook theme is wizards. We chose to read The Princess and The Wizard by Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks. 

A wizard rather rudely interrupts a birthday party and turns the guests to stone. The plucky princess has to work out how to reverse the spell by changing her colour and shape.

We used the story as inspiration for a colour hunt. I wrote the names of several colours in English and Spanish on a sheet and The Fairy collected items to match.

Although The Fairy can't read yet her interest in text is growing and I'm keen to develop this in a gentle way. I'm keen to create a 'print rich environment';  naturally using writing in our activities is one way to do this. As we are a bilingual family I'm also keen for her to see Spanish as well as English text in her environment.

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom - Royal Baloo - 3 Dinosaurs - Monsters Ed - Chestnut Grove Academy - Growing in God's Grace - Royal Little Lambs - Life with Moore Babies - Teach Beside Me - The Usual Mayhem - Mum Central - Fantastic Fun and Learning - Kathys Cluttered Mind - Play Create Explore - Toddler Approved - Growing Book by Book - Adventures in Mommydom - B-Inspired Mama - The Fairy and The Frog - Edventures with Kids - Learning & Growing the Piwi way - A Gluten Free Journey - Rainy Day Mum - Mom to Crazy Monkeys - No Doubt Learning

Gardening in small spaces

Do you only have a small space where you can grow things? Never fear - growing things is still possible! We are very lucky to have an allotment but we also grow plants and vegetables on our balcony. Infact our crops on our balcony are often more successful on our balcony  than at the allotment as there are no slugs or rabbits to eat the plants.

This year we are growing sun flowers, tomatoes and strawberries. These all grow well in pots so are perfect for our balcony

Gardening provides a great opportunity for talking about what you are doing- digging, watering.

Talking about the difference between seeds and plants.

Looking at roots and talking about how plants drink.

Even if you don't have a balcony you can try growing some plants on a window sill.

We are part of :

*   The Usual Mayhem   *   Child Central Station   *   Housing a Forest   *   Rainy Day Mum   *   Growing Green Fingered Kids   *   Nature and Play   *   Fantastic Fun and Learning   *   Kitchen Counter Chronicles   *   Teach Preschool   *   The Educators' Spin On It   *   Kindergarten and Preschool for Parents and Teachers   *   The Fairy and the Frog   *   Let The Children Play   *   Little Illuminations   *   Early Play Outdoors   *   52 Days to Explore   *   Music Sparks   *   Milk and Cuddles   *   Teach Beside Me   *   The Pleasantest Thing   *   Making Boys Men   *   I'm a teacher, get me OUTSIDE here   *

Foil discovery bottle

Discovery bottles are great for entertaining little (and not so little) ones.

Here is a really simple one we made from left over tin foil from Easter egg wrapping and a juice bottle. You could use regular foil if you didn't have any other spare.

The Fairy helped me to make little balls and pop them inside a clean juice bottle.

The Frog loved the rattling sound as well as the bright colours.

Have you seen our autumn discovery bottle?

Child led books

I'm really keen to encourage a love of literature and telling stories with our children. Fortunately the kids are keen on this too!

When the lovely Cathy over at Nurturestore shared how she organises her play room, I knew The Fairy would be keen to adopt the idea of 'little books'. You provide your child with some blank books - ready to be filled with illustrations and stories. These make a great addition to a writing or creation station.

The set up is simple - some blank paper folded to make a book and pens/crayons.

Let the authors narrate.

One of my favourite things about this activity is how child led it is. I left a blank book next to where she keeps her paper, she found it and started creating (she did check with me first that it was OK to draw on it!) The when she was finished she came and told The Frog and I her story; then promptly asked for me to make her up a other blank book.

How do you encourage your child to tell and write stories?

Fairy Forest

The Fairy loves pretend play - especially if it's fairy related. She loves playing with her fairy tea cup house I made last year (click here to see it). So I created a fun filled fairy play scene simply by painting some pine cones green.

The Fairy helped to paint a shoe box as a back drop. We also added some glass beads which the were quickly made into a path.

I didn't stick the pine cones down as The Fairy likes to move things around in play and this provides more flexibility.

By adding a star (I used a hot glue gun to attach a sequin) the tree was transformed into a Christmas tree - a perfect addition to a dolls house.

Maggy over at Red Ted Art has lots more fab ideas of things to make with pine cones - check them out by clicking here

Language Focus: Pretend play is great for developing language. It provides a fantastic opportunity to develop narrative (story telling) skills and imagination.