Using ice in play for little ones is not just for hot days! Some of the most important play time little ones can have is tactile and sensory, where how things feel teaches them a lot about the world around them (and its loads of fun as well!).

You’ll need – Food colouring, Ice tray, Water Jug, Freezer and Paper.

First take a jug of water and pour some water into an ice tray. Next put one or two drops of food colouring into each cube. You can use different coloured food dye to make different coloured blocks of ice. Put the ice tray into the freezer until the cubes are frozen. When the cubes are frozen, empty the cubes onto a plastic plate. Slide and glide the ice cubes over a piece of paper to make a colourful ice cube painting then hang it out to dry.

Want another icy idea? – Again freeze a tray of coloured ice cubes. Introduce primary colours here with a tray of blue, a tray of red, etc. Put the coloured and frozen ice cubes into some re-sealable bags. Let the little ones play with the bags as the ice slowly melts into a bag of water!

Wobblers and Toddlers will enjoy painting with water as much as they will with bright coloured paint. Using water as an art medium introduces a new dimension to creative play and also reduces the amount of mess possible!

Start by giving your toddler paintbrushes, a plastic bowl of water and old magazines or newspaper. Encourage your toddler to paint onto the pictures and words, and soon they will discover what happens when water hits ink (It bleeds!).

Another fun task is filling a plastic spray bottle (available from most gardening stores) with water and taking this play outside. Have your toddler first decorate the wall or ground with chalk pictures, then spray the chalk with the water in the bottle!

The simple fun of scooping and pouring dry items provides at least an hour’s worth of continuous fun, not to mention plenty of fine motor skill development.

Set up a space in the kitchen (so you can vacuum up the inevitable mess later!) and give your little one an assortment of bowls, mixing jugs, funnels, scoops and different sized plastic cups. Grab a small bag of lentils, rice, pasta etc, and encourage your little one to get playing.

Children are fascinated by the sound and the texture of the lentils as they play with them, and will adore the added bonus of being given free opportunity to make a mess as they pour and scoop.

Want another idea? How about trying out some other fun food items instead? Uncooked rice makes a great sound when poured into a cardboard tube. Dry pasta comes in many unique and interesting shapes and sizes and is just perfect for stringing together or painting and gluing. And a small box of couscous becomes an indoor sand pit for small trucks and cars, or those plastic zoo animals when the weather outside is not co-operating!

Small children respond well to the visual, and are very interested in colourful, glossy pictures of the world in which they live.
You can encourage this interest with a little bit of preparation and effort when making this fun matching game.

Start by collecting a variety of pictures that match each other in some way (these could be found in old magazines). Good examples include a picture of a puppy, a lead and collar. A picture of a baby, a bottle and a nappy. A picture of a pot plant, watering can, and soil etc.

Once you have collected a minimum of 10 “sets” of matching pictures, glue each individual one onto a solid piece of cardboard.
You can now use these matching picture as a flashcard game.

Put the cards on the floor or at the table in front of your little one. Talk about what is in each picture and why the other items “match” it. For example “Here is a nice puppy…he needs his lead and his collar to go for a walk” “let’s find them together”. Never mind if it’s tricky what is most important is not the matching, but the developing of the language as you play together.

If you haven’t already handed over a bottom drawer or cupboard in your kitchen to your little one, now is the time to think about it. This works from when they can sit-up it will give them hours of entertainment while you work in the kitchen.

Fill the drawer/cupboard with plastic tupperware, metal and wooden spoons, lids, pots etc. This should be a toy free zone it’s a “copy what mummy is doing” place. When you start your cooking, suggest they do their cooking with their pots and pans. Next time you’re tempted to buy a fancy toy think about investing in some good tupperware or some plastic bowls instead.