After our short Penang trip, I thought it would be fun for Noah to work on some beach-related activities, since he enjoyed himself so much at the beach. Yes, I try to turn almost everything into a learning experience for him, based on his current interests. I guess old habits die hard!
We picked some seashells there, and I went online to look for ways to preserve the seashells in a creative way. Some suggested keeping little jars of sand and seashells, labelled with the place and date of our visit, but I didn’t bring any sand back, and thought the shells might break if I put them into a jar without any filler materials. In the end, I went to Daiso for some inspiration, and got some magnetic containers with transparent covers, as well as some light blue clay. It turned out the way I envisioned, though I’m not sure we should make the same thing for all our future beach holidays, because we’ll run out of space on our fridge door!
I got Noah to roll the clay, then helped him to flatten and shape it into a circle. We sorted out the seashells we collected, and Noah arranged them on the clay himself. We pressed them in carefully, then left the clay to air-dry for a few days, before coating them with decoupage finish, and putting them into the magnetic containers after they were completely dry. I had some alphabet stickers, so I taught Noah how to spell ‘Penang’, and got him to paste the letters on the transparent covers.
Carefully arranging the seashells
Showing me his work
Being air-dried
Final product
I went around looking for beach-related activities, and found this turtle painting craft on sale at Popular. Noah loves painting these days, so I thought it would be something fun for him to do. He liked layering the paints on each other, and it took a lot of willpower on my side to not stop him from doing that. I envisioned a pretty, colourful turtle, but the end product was erm, black. *rolls eyes* But okay, he enjoyed himself, and I shouldn’t stifle his creativity, so black it was.
Painting the turtle
Coating the turtle with some decoupage finish as well
I also bought this really pretty Melissa & Doug Mess-Free Glitter Underwater Scenes from the Mothercare online sale, and thought it was such a brilliant way of playing with glitter, without the mess. Noah was fascinated by it for a while, but soon lost interest, and until today, I still can’t get him to finish working on it. Sigh.
Mess-Free Glitter Underwater Scene
Some time back, I came across a little pop-up booth selling children’s craft materials at rather reasonable prices, and bought this sea-themed craft for him. It takes quite a bit of focus and patience to complete, so naturally, Noah took ages to work on it. I had to “compete” with him to paste the little dots on the right circles, otherwise, he would end up pasting the dots on his chair or table instead.
Sea-themed Craft
And because I’m such a sucker for pain, I bought this sprinkle foam crab craft from Qoo10. I was quite nervous about letting him try it, as I knew it would probably be quite messy, but I wanted him to have a bit of sensory fun, so I decided to just give it a shot. He loved playing with the little foam bits, and said it was like sand (which he really likes playing with these days). I put everything on a tray, though on hindsight, a deeper tray would have contained the mess better.
He couldn’t wait to get started!
Sprinkle Foam Crab Craft
All done!
I made a simple DIY Fishing Game for him some time back, and I think I’ll let him play with that too, but perhaps with the sea creatures buried in his mixed beans sensory bin, to create more of a challenge for him. I also plan to revisit the water-based sensory bin with him, with his smaller sharks and fishes frozen into ice cubes, mixed with the water beads and water.
Do share other beach-related activities that you’ve tried and enjoyed please!
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