Cornish Mama

We are going on a bug hunt, we're going to catch a big one!  Today we went to Tehidy woods here in Camborne, Cornwall and we took our trusty bag (which I made from Frugi fabric) full of some of our favourite toys, perfect for a bug hunt! We pulled our wellies on, stuck our waterproofs on and off we wandered, Zach loves a puddle and in all honesty, he would've been really happy just in one puddle but we walked around and explored a bit as we were with family! The toys we took with us! We took our Lanka Kade bugs, Bee Happy Ned, Tickit Magnifying glass and a MDF camera shape which I painted myself as Zach loves taking toy photos! These bugs I think may be Zach's favourite Lanka Kade range for stacking and playing with as I think they're quite small and therefore easier to balance! He loves to find a log, balance them all on it, move them along it and then knock them all off and he literally spends ages doing that!  We also took Bee Happy Ned who ...

This weeks theme for #WonderPlayDiscover is Stacking! Zach loves stacking, he will literally stack anything! Loo rolls are a firm favourite in our house, if 2 or more loo rolls were in the bag, they're probably now in a tower curtesy of Zach HAHA! The first proper wooden toy we bought him was the Grimm's waves when he was about 10 months old and he enjoyed demolishing that more than anything but he did really enjoy it, for his 1st birthday my in laws got him some grinds pebbles and he loves stacking then but the proper stacking started when he got his 36 grimms cubes for christmas! He loved them (and so did Daddy who spent Christmas Day trying to see if he could stack all 36) and could probably do 5 blocks by a couple of days, he however then managed 7 after a couple of months and can now easily do 10 high!  He often stacks his animals and does prefer Lanka Kade for stacking however seeing as this was a challenge from the wooden play den, we stacked our Holztiger and N...

Okay, so this was one for the big kids! The Ned's went to see Lion King the Musical I am friends with two wonderful ladies who's children are buddies with Zach, well I say buddies but they're more like siblings because the love each other but fight like cat and dog, and they're both into wooden toys too! First it was me and L, when she first came I noticed her daughter was in a cloth nappy and she noticed Zach was in LGR clothes, then we started a talk about how cute Ned was and how much we both needed one, then we got more involved in the church and helped out together with the scenery for the nativity! Basically by the time it got to Christmas, we were best buddies, chatting Babipur, Maxomorra and Ned then we started a craft group and out came R as a serial crafter (honestly, she has no limits on her crafting ability) we all bonded over craft and crochet as a common interest and then we drew R into the "rainbow side" (like the dark side but obviously...

Ned is our favourite toy in the house!  The day he got his Ned (Excuse the allergy shiner) We got Zach's first Ned back in January and we got Dino Ned and Walnut Ned (although the walnut was mainly for me) and it was love at first sight, he carried that dino ned everywhere he went!! He is the perfect little travel companion for Zach, he is ideal for fiddly little hands which Zach loves as he sits in the car or the buggy and as he's wooden, you can hear him if he falls HAHA! We then also got Bee Happy Ned and the rainbow Ned a couple moths later although Dino Ned is still Zach's favourite, he even takes him to bed. Ned is a very versatile toy and if you love wooden toys and haven't got one yet, then I cannot recommend him enough, he is a perfect little addition to your toy collection. He is Zach's buddy, a phone to call Daddy, he likes to wave goodbye to everyone using Ned's hand, set him up with other toys, its limitless! He loves using them...

Travelling Through Space Ice Tray This week I did two tuff tray set ups based on space to celebrate and learn about the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, it was also part of the #WonderPlayDiscover challenge set up by The Wooden Play Den This Tuff Tray set up was really easy to do but very effective as Zach loves Ice play! I filled up 4 small buckets (small coloured buckets from Tesco, I think they are 60p each) using some black food colouring with water, a variety of glitters and stars. I also made another lot of shrinkie plastic, I made a rocket, star, moon and planet and put these in the buckets before freezing. This was all the prepping I had to do, all I had to do once frozen was to plop the most onto the tray and fill up the buckets with warm water! I gave him the buckets of warm water, a spade and a shallow metal bowl (which is great for scooping the water off the tuff tray) and encouraged him to pour the water over the ice blocks not that he needs mu...

Moon Landing Tuff Tray This week I did two tuff tray set ups based on space to celebrate and learn about the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, it was also part of the #WonderPlayDiscover challenge set up by The Wooden Play Den I started by making a slime, Zach loves playing with Slime but I find it a bit of difficult sometimes as he likes to eat it and I have to keep such a close eye on him that it sometimes ruins the whole child-led-play idea! But I found a recipe (it was on Instagram but I can't remember where from so if it was you, please let me know!) so here it is: 1/8 cup of chia seeds 1 cup of water Soak over night together (you can add food colouring to the water if you wish but i wanted it to look like the moon so i kept it white) Add Cornflour, I reckon I used about 2 cups but just add slowly until its not sticky to touch anymore, the texture is between slime and obleek and is incredibly satisfying! I don't have a huge range of 'space ...

Hello... My name is Sophie, I am 24 and I live in Cornwall with my Fiancé and my son Zachary who is nearly Two!! I am a HUGE wooden toy enthusiast and love creating little play set ups for Zach. I sometimes get questions about what I've used so I thought it would be a cool idea to start a blog (which I will probably forget about HAHA) I mainly use Instagram (@cornishmama17) and I love the little community of it, I am a brand rep for Rudi and Bear, Yes Bebe and also scribbles and sparkle! As a disclaimer, with Yes Bebe, if I post a link to something, it will be affiliated but I will also pop my code in the introduction section!! We also try hard to reduce our plastic consumption, we aren't perfect, far from it but we try. We use cloth nappies, reusable wipes, shampoo bars, organic clothes and reusable bottles and I may occasionally talk about that :) I love seeing Zach learn new things even if its something really simple like learning the word rocket or using manne...