Ruth(playworkeatrepeat), Author at PLAYWORKEATREPEAT

Australian Animal Small World Play!

6 Comments / Insights Into Early Childhood Education

Earlier in the last Term of Preschool, we were looking at native Australian animals. My clever colleague thought it would be fun to make an Australian animal small world for the children to play with. Putting together the small world- I set to work and started by looking around the preschool for materials to create this super cute small world. It’s amazing what you can find in a preschool, you open up cupboards and there is always a world of creative possibilities! I found some great Australian outback scenery which I printed and then pasted around a big box. Next, I scattered some small rocks and added the plastic animals. We had kangaroos, Bilbies, Koalas and platypus. Finally, I collected some native Australian plants we have growing in the front garden of our preschool and placed these around the box. They not only looked fantastic but they also gave off a nice fresh scent. That was it! a small world ready for the children to enjoy. The Great thing about Small World Play- Small world play has many benefits for children’s development. It gives them a perfect opportunity to enjoy imaginative play, it supports their language development and builds their confidence and self-esteem. I just love hearing the little conversations and creative ideas the children have while playing together. Another positive thing about small world play is that it is nice and contained and the children can revisit it again and again. I just love putting together small worlds for the children. A while ago I made a Dinosaur world and you can read about that here. It’s so fun to see the children playing and enjoying the preschool activities. Definitely one of the highlights of being an early childhood educator!

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Hello Monday

1 Comment / Hello Monday

Hi everyone, I’m excited to be linking up with My Glittery Heart, The Sirios Family, and The Other Side Of The Road for Hello Monday! We have had a super low-key weekend. Not much we can do as Lockdown restrictions are just getting tighter here in Sydney. Every time I turn on the 11 am updates on television with our State Premier, sadly it’s just more and more bad news. My husband and I are still going to work but with reduced hours and apart from that we are just staying home and staying safe. Still, I know this isn’t forever and things could be much worse so I’m counting my blessings and enjoying time with my family. I am missing my oldest son and his lovely fiancee. They live about thirty minutes away and we haven’t been able to see them for weeks. Friday Night- Friday my husband got home late from work but we stayed up to watch FBI. It is a great show, and although we are watching it completely out of order it’s still easy to follow, as each episode has a stand-alone plot. We got stuck into some yummy snacks and enjoyed a couple of episodes. Saturday- We got up super late on Saturday and had a delicious brunch of bacon, eggs, mushrooms, and toast. So good! I love the luxury of getting up late but the downside is you lose half of your day. It’s not something I do regularly but the lockdown has us all over the place as far as routines go. Saturday night I cooked a delicious lasagna! I just love carbs!!! For dessert, I found a packet mix of chocolate pudding from Aldi I had bought a while ago. It was really good and we enjoyed it with ice cream. It was so cold and windy on both Friday and Saturday, comfort food was very much a necessity!! In the evening we settled down to watch ‘Run’ on Netflix Hmmmm….. I’m trying to think of what to say without spoilers. Ok, so I enjoyed the whole movie right up until the ending. The entire movie is full of thrilling moments when you catch your breath and cross your fingers for the lead character. And then it finished with, what I thought was a disappointing ending. It wasn’t awful it was just a twist I didn’t expect. I would actually like to hear more opinions on the ending, if you’ve watched it, what did you think? Sunday- On Sunday afternoon I raced to the shops to pick up an online grocery order, as I was unpacking I realized they had made a mistake and instead of the frozen vegetables I ordered, I was given a box of frozen party pies! Ha, my son was so, pleased. We finished the weekend off with leftovers from Saturday night, A glass of wine, and another episode of FBI. It was a nice and cozy weekend. Much to be thankful for! Hope you all had a great weekend too!

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Friday favourites

2 Comments / Friday Favourites

Hi, friends, Thanks for stopping by to have a look at this week’s Friday Favourites. Hope you all had a great week and as usual, I’m excited to be linking up with Andrea and Erika today. First up, this delicious tea – I picked up this cute and inexpensive teapot at Ikea before lockdown as I had a real urge to make ‘real’ tea just like a good friend of mine always does (she’s from England and she knows her tea!). Usually, I just use teabags but I discovered this Australian leaf tea and gave it a try. I’m happy to say that I really loved it, it made me all warm and cosy. Coffee is great too but I generally prefer tea. My English friend gave me this really cute tea towel which explains It all! Back to work – Yup! Back to work for me after two weeks off for term break. All school children are back to online learning but Preschools, schools, and long daycare centres are open for children whose parents are essential workers. This means that this week we’ve had either one or three children at the most come along to preschool. As there are hardly any children attending, all of our staff have been put on a part-time roster. Although I work full time I am now only rostered on for half my usual load. So it was great to see some of my work colleagues but will miss seeing all of them until things get back to normal. Whenever that will be, who knows at this point? The only two little friends who turned up on Friday made this. Isn’t it cute? So fun seeing how creative preschoolers can be. Healthy food favourites- For this weeks Friday favourites I have to include these delicious vegetables. I chopped all these to go into my chicken stir fry on Wednesday night. It was a real winner! Making focaccia was so great this week. It goes to show how resourceful you can be when you run out of bread during lockdown! Yum so crunchy on the outside but soft in the middle. You can read about it here Friday night snacks- I love starting off the weekend with this- I’ve tried other ginger beers but this one is my favourite for sure! I drink water during the week but once the weekend hits, this is how I like to start, with a glass or three of Bundaberg ginger beer! Yes ma’am. I also love Kit Kats! especially on Fridays. I feel less guilty eating them on a Friday night. I buy the small ones in a fun pack and you get eleven of them. This way I only ever eat one small one because I know that if I bought the big blocks I would be way too tempted to eat more. A sweet movie – Lastly for this weeks Friday Favourites, Thursday night we watched Silver Skates on Netflix. Lockdown has us watching a lot more Netflix and Stan. The movie was all in Russian with English subtitles. It was a really lovely romantic movie with beautiful scenery. Thanks for joining me in having a look at some of this week’s Friday favourites. I hope you all have a safe and happy weekend and I’ll see you back here on Monday for ‘Hello Monday’!

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We made Focaccia!

2 Comments / Family Life

Hi All Well, this lockdown has definitely taken us all by surprise. We are now in week three and facing two more. Although I strongly suspect that it will be much longer just based on the number of growing COVID cases. This has changed my shopping habits and as we are under strict ‘stay at home’ orders I am only shopping once a week. Consequently, we ran out of bread, we actually ran out of a lot of things. I tend to shop after work so we rarely ever run out of anything and this was a new experience. Anyway, I thought ‘Hey, lets make focaccia’ So we did. I found this super easy recipe here. And now I have to confess that I actually didn’t contribute much to the focaccia-making process as my husband did most (nearly all) of it. But I have to tell you, the focaccia turned out absolutely delicious and he will definitely have to make it more often. It was very easy too, which surprised me as something that has such a fancy name should surely take ages to make. But no it didn’t at all. This was my contribution. I grated some fresh garlic and chopped up rosemary from our garden and added thyme (not from our garden because we’re not that good). I gently fried it in Olive oil. Oh my goodness it smelled so good. Steve mixed the rest of the ingredients, kneaded it, and left it to rise covered under a warm damp tea towel. We love olives so we added them! Into the oven, it went, and then it came out all golden, crunchy, and smelling divine! You have to try this recipe. It was really super easy and the focaccia was absolutely sensational. I wish you could have heard us all ummming and ahhhhhing as we tried it!! A big winner! Hope this post inspires you to try making some for yourselves, you will not regret it.

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Pizza Restaurant For Preschool Dramatic Play

9 Comments / Insights Into Early Childhood Education

Pizza Restaurant For Dramatic Play- The other day I blogged about our Bakery set up for preschool dramatic play. You can find that post here. Today I wanted to quickly share about our Pizza Restaurant for dramatic play. I work with the most amazing teacher who I am lucky enough to call my friend. She comes up with fantastic ideas and I am constantly inspired by her enthusiasm and dedication. A while ago motivated by the children’s interest in using the home corner as a restaurant. She thought it would be great to turn the home corner into a pizza restaurant. We both made a trip to Ikea to buy the cutest little pizza set made of fabric. To make the pizza oven we used a cardboard box, wrapping paper with a brick pattern, aluminium foil, and a realistic-looking fire image, oh yes, and a portable light switch. I had an idea in my head as to how I wanted it to look and I think it turned out amazingly well. The kids really loved playing with it and were in awe of how realistic it looked. This activity was so popular that it quickly turned into a turn-taking lesson too! Ha! don’t worry it’s not hot. All I did was stick a portable light switch to the top of the oven and the aluminum foil reflected the light around the inside of the oven. Then I just printed off a realistic-looking fire and glued it to the back. Look at all those toppings! See this pizza set from Ikea. Isn’t it cute? I totally love it. Ikea has such fun things for all ages. And there it is, another dramatic play setup idea for preschool. Thanks so much for stopping by, I hope you have a truly wonderful day!

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Hello Monday

4 Comments / Hello Monday

Happy Monday Friends! Hope you all had a great weekend. Oh my goodness! what a rainy and dreary weekend here in Sydney, Australia. I guess days like this weekend make lockdown a little easier. Covid cases are getting worse, what started as a snap two-week lockdown is now extended with no clear time frame. Friday night- I felt like watching something light and funny. Usually, I go for movies full of action and I can never pass up a good thriller. You can just imagine how surprised my husband was when I picked ‘Yes Day” with Jennifer Garner! Such a fun movie, and just what we needed. Turned out to be a nice escape from reality and really worth watching. Great for the whole family. Saturday- As Saturday was even rainier I decided to burn some soy candles to make the house feel cozy and cheery. I think it did the trick! I bought this gorgeous candle the other day from our local Bed Bath N’ Table. It’s from Circa Home and I’m just loving the pear and lime fragrance. It smelt so good and gave the house a nice fresh fragrance. I can never go past a fruity candle. My other favourite is French Pear by Ecoya. I picked up a nice big pumpkin the other day and today was THE perfect day for a creamy pumpkin soup. Pumpkin soup has been on repeat around here and we’re loving it! I was super excited to discover a new British comedy-drama series to watch called ‘The Durrells’. I’ve only watched the first two episodes and it has me completely hooked. I’m really looking forward to watching the whole series. We were really craving a warm dessert for, after dinner, I found this easy recipe for Impossible pie and quickly whipped it up. It turned out great and really hit the spot! The recipe said to cook for about an hour or until golden brown. It only took about 30 minutes in my oven. Go, Ash Barty!! In the evening we stayed up until 1.30 am watching the Ladies Wimbledon Grand Final. I’m so glad we did. Ash Barty won and made Australia so proud! Did you know that the last time an Aussie won the Ladies Grand Final was way back in 1980? Aussie, Aussie, Aussie ! Oi Oi Oi ! She’s such an amazing tennis champion, so humble, and a great role model too. Good on You Ash!! Sunday- We got up late and by the time we had brunch, it felt like most of the day was over. Later in the day, I started watching this- The latest season of The Bachelorette. I’m hoping this season is more about Love and romance and less about sex and drama. Fingers crossed. That about sums up my weekend! Hope yours was a good one! Take care.

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Friday favourites

2 Comments / Friday Favourites

Hi, friends, and Happy Friday to you!! I’m excited to be linking up with Andrea and Erika today First up, look at these delicious Jam drops! I made these earlier in the week and they were definitely popular. My recipe is a classic but with a healthy twist and you can find it here. They sure didn’t last long at my house!! I added a pumpkin to my grocery order this week and look at this beauty! So big!! I’ll soon be making more wintery soups and pumpkin mash. Oh my goodness, my roots were in desperate need of colouring. A while ago I noticed my work colleague’s hair looking exceptionally shiny, so I asked her what she had used and she put me onto Garnier Olia. My previous hair colour product left my hair dull and dry after a couple of weeks. But after using The Garnier Olia, I’m finding my hair to be much healthier! Hot chocolates for the win! It was a cold night, so we had some hot chocolates and marshmallows. We settled in for a movie night but it was so cozy and warm, that unfortunately, I fell asleep halfway through the movie. I did wake up for the ending. Haha the movie felt very short. My cat ‘Sushi’ is so loved. I caught her having a nap on my soft blanket. She’s so cute. Dinners together with my family always make my heart sing. That’s it Friends, a short Friday Favourites post this week. We are still in lockdown and at this point, we don’t know when it will end. Sigh! I go back to work at preschool next week after the Term break. Schools and Early childhood Services are open. But only for children whose parents are essential workers. I guess we’ll see what happens. I’ll let you know. Hope you all have a great weekend. Thank you so much for stopping by.

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Preschool Dramatic Play-A Bakery

3 Comments / Insights Into Early Childhood Education

Preschool Dramatic Play-A Bakery Hi All! For this week’s Preschool dramatic play, we set up a cool Bakery. Welcome to our Bakery I love setting up interesting dramatic play for the children. The Teacher in the classroom and I will collaborate to plan activities and experiences for the children based on their interests. During Term Two some of the children were interested in having a Bakery set up in dramatic play. I got the fun job of setting it all up! To me, it’s a great challenge to find resources to make the play area as inviting as possible. Our preschool is not purpose-built at all. Originally the building was used as council chambers and over sixty years ago it became a preschool. Granted the building is full of beautiful heritage charm but unfortunately, the playrooms are still slightly awkward. As a team, we all try our very best to make it work. Cupcakes for the win! See those cupcakes. I made them by scrunching up crepe paper and dipping it in glue mixed with some water. Like paper mache. After placing them in patty pans I let them dry for several days! We are always pressed for time however, it was lucky that I was able to make them super fast with the help of some of my little friends. The children have played with these cupcakes over and over, yet they remained intact! It’s impressive how durable they have turned out to be. Don’t you think? Thanks for stopping by. It’s always great to see some new ideas for playroom setups. Hope you enjoyed a peek into my preschool. If you would like to see my small Dinosaur world for some ideas click here That’s it friends. Preschool dramatic play-A Bakery! Please comment and tell me what you think. You should see the Pizza Shop we did! I’ll show you that next time.

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Jam Drop Recipe

Finally! A New Kitchen!

3 Comments / Home Improvement Ideas

We had dreamt of a new kitchen for ages but the thought of the mess, expense, and upheaval made us wait. Gradually when things in our old small galley-style kitchen started falling apart, literally. We decided to go for it and do a complete Ikea kitchen renovation including appliances and everything! We’re huge fans of Ikea and even though we visited a few other options we just felt we loved Ikea kitchens the best. The Planning Stage of Our Kitchen Renovation- After I was done hyperventilating at the thought of what we were about to embark on, we went into our local Ikea store and met with the lovely Ikea kitchen planner. She was absolutely amazing! And she also happened to look just like Scarlett Johansson. Every time she was out of earshot, I’d say to my husband, “Psssst, doesn’t she look like Scarlett Johansson?” His reply: “Ruth, I’m concentrating and trying really hard not to look at her and get distracted” Hahahaha !! Bless Him! Anyway, Scarlett I mean the kitchen planner was super knowledgeable and very friendly. She just made everything very easy and designed the most perfect kitchen on the computer right in front of us. Afterwards, we left the store feeling much more confident and excited. A couple of weeks later we had an in-home consultation for about an hour with a kitchen company called Eternity Kitchens. This company installs their own kitchens; however, they also specialise in Ikea Kitchen Installations. They remeasured for accuracy and tweaked a couple of things. I have to say we were extremely happy with this company. They were very professional and super accommodating. The in-home consultation was well worth it. We were now so much happier knowing that the measurements and all the details were on point. We signed the contract, paid the deposit, and I’ll admit I might have had a mini panic attack. Surprisingly, the whole installation process went quite smoothly. Yes, it was messy, dusty, and it definitely tested the neat freak within me, but it was so worth it. We could not have been happier with the final result! I think it’s beautiful and looks just as fantastic as the super expensive high-end kitchens. And while ours wasn’t exactly cheap. I don’t think we would have gotten everything we wanted for the price we paid if we’d gone elsewhere. Hello under-cupboard lighting! So if you’re considering an Ikea kitchen renovation, I say go for it!! This is the Original Kitchen Before The Renovation I took this photo the night before the kitchen was demolished. See that gap between the countertops. That’s where the fridge went. It was so awkwardly placed. The Renovation- Haha, it’s not blue. It’s just the plastic protection Finally-The Kitchen Is Finished I took this picture at night so you could see the under-cupboard lighting which I totally love! I really can’t recommend an Ikea kitchen enough! We had such a positive experience from start to finish. Plus now we’ve been using it, it is an absolute dream. My food even tastes better! I think I’ll eventually do a post about my super cute storage ideas and kitchen organization in general. Thanks so much for stopping by and having a look. I hope you have a sensational week.

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