As a child, I loved playing with the little circular plastic ball mazes that I found in Christmas crackers and party gift bags.

I now know that playing with ball mazes develops hand-eye co-ordination and that making them is a great STEM activity promoting the development of a number of skills including designing, constructing, problem-solving, ...

This weekend, my brother sent me a video of his kids playing on the beach in Tasmania, it's summer there right now. Ok, I have to admit I was a little envious...I live in Canada and it's winter here, cold and snowy! But the video got me thinking and inspired a sensory play activity outside that encouraged exploration of the natural environment and ...

Give your kids some ice cubes and pieces of material, e.g. foil, newspaper and bubble wrap, and challenge them to come up with a way to stop the ice cubes from melting.

This activity is a great way of initiating an investigation into what materials make good insulators. It promotes the development of scientific understanding and problem solving ...

Play dough is an easy to make, inexpensive, modelling material. It can be made out of just a few ingredients and is a great resource for focused play activities.

Check out Play Dough letter fun for our play dough recipe or print a free copy here

Last ...

Play dough is an easy to make, inexpensive, modelling material. Using just a few ingredients your kids can make their own modelling dough and sculpt it into their own role-play toys, models and decorations.

Play dough is also a brilliant resource for using in more focused play activities that introduce, practice and develop maths concepts ...

Grab a bowl of water, a few empty washed out plastic food containers and some spoons and get playing.

Water play is a fun, sensory activity that encourages exploration, investigation and creativity. Water play activities can be set up indoors, or outdoors, and help your child to develop language, motor, cognitive and social skills.

What ...

Getting your kids to design, make and test their own boats keeps them busy and promotes the development of fine motor, creative and language skills, scientific understanding and problem solving.

What you need:

(This is just a suggested list of resources, you do not need everything on it. Add your own ...