بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the name of Allah the most gracious the most
merciful.
We used the Easter holidays to have a bit of a break and to
gather ideas that Saffiyah would quite like to follow up.
Her first request was to make a dolls house, originally I
started to make it from an old box and polystyrene packaging but then as our
ideas grew, we agreed it would be better to attempt to make it out of the MDF that
I have conveniently kept stored in the house since we moved in.
Saffiyah made a couple of rough drawings and a list of
furniture needed in the house, prompting a discussion as to what defined
furniture and what was simply accessories to be added in later. From our discussions I drew up a spelling list
for Saffiyah (she loves her spelling lists) and made a simple wordsearch.
We have decided that the house is to have three floors plus
an attic space (the playroom). Saffiyah
wants lighting on all floors prompting us to think about starting some simple electronic circuits. I am still trying to locate some suitable
bulbs that will work with one 1.5V battery on each floor.
Our plans so far are shown below:
Here is the original dolls house from cardboard and polystyrene:
At the beginning of the Easter holidays we went to see the
Love Food Festival in Bristol, it was quite an interesting event, with much to
see, do and discover, the most exciting part of course was the children’s
area. Saffiyah made full use of
everything available.
The first thing Saffiyah did was head right over to the face painting area, where she duely requested a butterfly painted on her face. Only after this was completed was she happy to proceed with the other activities.
The ribbon skirt
This skirt is relatively easy to make, first a length of
wide elastic was cut and tied to fit snugly around Saffiyah’s waist. From then on it was up to Saffiyah how she wanted
her skirt to look. Using scissors she
cut a length of ribbon and folded it in half after measuring the approximate length
she would like. Taking the folded end up
under the elastic and over the top, then threading the cut ends through that
loop, she pulled it downwards to secure the ribbon to the elastic. This was repeated with each piece of material
and ribbon in all the colours (Saffiyah was very insistent that she must have
every colour available). Following her own pattern of colours, she
continued this until she had a completed skirt of ribbons hanging from her
waist.
Butterfly
wings
Plain silver card butterfly wing shapes were already cut out and small containers of
coloured materials left on the tables.
Saffiyah decorated her wings and decided she wanted to create eyes by
using white round stickers then cutting small circles out of the black sticky
foam on the table. To finish a length of
wide elastic was cut and stuck in the centre with sticky black foam creating
two elastic straps for the arms.
Other
butterfly wings were attached to the pillars on display and looked rather
pretty:
Juggling balls
Saffiyah, has always expressed an interest in learning to juggle, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to make some equipment for her to practice with.
Firstly, filling beads were poured into a money bag which was then folded over to seal it and prevent the beads from spilling out.
Then a balloon was chosen and the neck cut off, the money bag was rolled up and stuffed into the balloon.
A second balloon was then taken, the neck cut off and a couple of holes cut into the balloon making circles.
The first balloon was then stuffed into the second balloon ensuring the hole of the first balloon was completely covered over.
That simple task completed a set of juggling balls for Saffiyah to practice with.
Shield
Like the butterfly wings, a shield shape was already cut out
of plain white card and small containers of coloured materials left on the
tables. After decoration, a short
rectangular strip of card was stuck to the back of the shield to allow it to
slip over the arm.
Our 2 year old friend even also had a go at making a shield:
Since Saffiyah was painted as a butterfly, had made
butterfly wings to wear and now wore her very own ribbon skirt, she had a new
suggestion for the ladies helping other children making shields, “why can’t we
make heart shaped or flower shaped shields?” So we took that idea home for
another time.
The children’s area also had several cooking workshops going
on from lunch time and baking is one of Saffiyah’s current interests, so we
booked into two of them, cornish pasties (vegetarian) and pasta making.
Cornish pasties
The pastry was already made and handed out to each child in
the form of a block.
The first thing all children had to do (after washing hands)
was to roll the block into a ball, then flatten out the ball into a kind of
circle shape. 
Then came the task of rolling the circle shape out into a
wider, flatter circle.
The filling ingredients consisted of carrots, swede,
potatoes, onion, grated cheese, salt and thyme.
One by one the bowls were passed round and a small pinch of
everything was added to the bottom half of each rolled out circle.
Once the ingredients were in place, the top half of the circle
was pulled over the bottom half and pressed down to join the two parts.
The children were then encouraged to use a fork to make a
pattern round the crust of the pasty and then brush egg over the finished pasty
ready for cooking later.
Pasta making
This time the children made the pasta dough themselves, each
child was given a bowl of pasta flour and an egg.
Each child broke the egg into the flour, added a pinch of salt, then mixed it together until it resembled breadcrumbs.
The next task was to mould the crumbs together into a ball.
This was when the bowls were whisked away to chill for the next group and pre chilled dough was distributed.
Lots more pasta flour was sprinkled to make the surface less sticky and the dough easier to roll out, then the rolling out began, until a long thin rectangular shape was formed.
The rectangle was then carefully rolled up and then cut into thin slices. 
Each slice was then unravelled to reveal long strips of tagliatelle.
Then the tagliatelle was rolled up again loosely into nests, ready to take home and cook later.
All in all, a fun and eventful day, the kids we went with and Saffiyah were happy with their achievements and tired out, I'd recommend this food festival for anyone with kids preschool age and upwards.
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