picklebums.com

Can you believe it is almost March? And can you believe that Easter is only a few weeks away? I’m not ready for our summer to end, I am not ready for the end of our first term at school, and I am certainly not ready to think about Easter! Well, except for the hot cross buns, I’ve been thinking about those, and consuming them, since January! But if I must contemplate the coming of Easter, then the least I can do is make some Easter play dough mats! My play dough mat co-collaborator (aka Noah, my youngest child) was at school when I designed this new set of play dough mats, so he got a great surprise when he got home and found them all set up on the table waiting for him. Do you have an Easter hat parade where you live? Our school does one every year for the juniors and it’s lots of fun, so the first play dough mat in this series is an Easter hat to decorate

Do you need some great perler bead ideas to finally get the kids using that giant tub of melty beads you have in the cupboard? Then you’ve come to the right place! Once, long go, I bought a tube of fusible ‘Perler’ beads from Ikea. We gave them a try, but none of the kids were very interested

This chickpea salad is the perfect summer meal. It’s easy to throw together on days when you are too hot to cook, and makes a great lunch or dinner option

It’s hot today… so hot… And when it’s hot, or even when it’s not, one of my standby, easy sensory play activities is ice play. It doesn’t need to be a hot summers day to enjoy this easy sensory play idea