We girls are thrilled and delighted to once again be nominated in the Edublog Awards.

Last year we were very lucky, not to mention humbled, to have been voted as the winner in the Best Group Blog Category in the 2010 Edublog Awards.

This year we have made the shortlist in the same category as well as the Best Ed Tech/Resource Sharing 2011 category.

Last year was the first year any early childhood blogs had won an award. Along with our award, Tom Hobson won Best Teacher blog over at Teacher Tom  and Deborah Stewart won Best Individual Tweeter  at Teach Preschool.

This year the early childhood community should be feeling really proud of their achievements as many fantastic ECE blogs are being featured this year.

Some of our very favourites include:

PLEASE VOTE here

Amy Ahola at Child Central Station

Cath Oehlman at Squigglemum

Deborah Stewart at Teach Preschool

Jackie  at Happy Hooligans

Jenny Kable at Let the Children Play

Tom Hobson at Teacher Tom

PLEASE VOTE here

Deb Chitwood  @DebChitwood from Living Montessori Now

Karen Nemeth  @KarenNemethEDM from Language Castles

Deborah Stewart  @Teach_Preschool from Teach Preschool

Jennifer Kable @preschoolplay from Let the Children Play

PLEASE VOTE here

Christie Burnett at Childhood 101

The group from Play at Home Mom

Sherry and Donna (that’s us!) listed under Irresistible Ideas for Play  Based learning

Laura Balma Eldredge from The Seeds Network

PLEASE VOTE here

Karen at Flights of Whimsy

Jackie at Happy Hooligans

Leeanne A at Kreative resources

Kristin at Exploring the Outdoor Classroom 

Kierna Corr at Learning for Life

PLEASE VOTE here

Juliet Robertson at I’m a Teacher Get Me OUTSIDE Here!

Sherry and Donna (that’s us!) listed under Irresistible Ideas for Play Based learning

PLEASE VOTE here

Janet Lansbury at Janet Lansbury – Elevating Childcare

Tom Hobson at Teacher Tom

PLEASE VOTE here

Deborah Stewart #teachpreschool from Teach Preschool

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Tom Hobson at Teacher Tom 

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Deborah Stewart at Teach Preschool

PLEASE VOTE  here

Vanessa Levin at Pre-kpages

There are more categories to check out as well. Voting has already begun and will continue until Tuesday, December the 13th with winners being announced on the 14th. You can vote once a day in all categories if you wish!

We would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone who has followed us here at Irresistible Ideas and shared our journey over the past two years. Your incredible support through our blog, Twitter and Facebook page never goes unnoticed!

THANK YOU!

Last year we were surprised, thrilled and incredibly humbled to be nominated for, and win, the 2010 Edublog award for the ‘Best Group Blog’.

Edublog award nominations are now open for 2011. We wish that we could nominate all of our wonderful early childhood blogging buddies from around the world but the rules simply don’t allow that so after much deliberation and procrastination here are our nominations for 2011 …

Best Teacher Blog:

Jenny @ Let the Children Play

Jenny is an inspiring Australian preschool teacher who blogs on early childhood with great insight and passion. Her love for taking the learning outdoors and her loose parts philosophy has had a huge influence on our own teaching beliefs. She has encouraged and empowered us to spread the word of the importance of outdoor play through our blog posts and Professional Development workshops. Jenny’s has been trekking the blogging path right along side us for over 2 years and her genuine friendship and support has been invaluable to us as we travel this learning journey together.

You are a true inspiration Jenny and the world wide, early childhood blogging community is so much richer for having you here!

Best ed tech/resource sharing blog:

Juliet @ I’m a teacher get me outside here

Right from the start Juliet has been a wonderful supporter of our blog as well as a terrific online friend. Juliet’s passion for outdoor education is contagious, especially the way she connects and engages teachers and children in learning through her love for nature and the great outdoors. Through Juliet’s passion of promoting other outdoor blogs and resources she has become a leader of people who value outdoor play for children, influencing many educators, over all year levels, right across the world.

Your passion for spreading the word about outdoor learning is infectious Juliet and we thank you for that every day!

Most influential blog post:

Tom @ Teacher Tom … Spoiled Brats

Tom is another blogger who has been with us right from the start. Tom’s is one of the first blogs we read each morning and his influence extends way beyond teaching in that his daily blog posts are a rich resource of life experiences, philosophy and insight into human nature. So many of Tom’s posts have inspired parents and teachers to think outside the square and stand back and reassess the ways in which we trust and encourage our children to learn. Tom’s post titled “Spoiled Brats” is considered to be one of his most influential articles being shared over 2,000 times on Facebook and still gets hits almost every day.  It is for this very reason that we nominate Tom in the category of ‘Most influential blog post’.

Over the past two years we have developed a deep personal and professional friendship with you Tom and to us you really are a superhero!

Best individual blog:

Amy @ Child Central Station

Amy’s blog, Child Central Station, opens up a window into her life as a family home daycarer supported by her husband Mr. Allan. Sharing the ins and outs of her days Amy blogs about play based learning with the wide ranging age of children in her care. Amy’s love for taking the play experiences outside, come all kinds of weather, and her passion for children and teaching comes through clearly in every one of her delightful posts.

Amy thank you for opening up your home to us and making us feel like a part of your daycare family!

Best new blog:

Karen @ Flights of Whimsy

Karen’s Aussie blog Flights of Whimsy is one of the new kids on the block this year. Karen blogs on a regular basis about teaching in a Melbourne preschool where she has shared the transformation of her outdoor classroom as well as giving us a regular peek at what her program is all about on the inside. We feel a real connection with Karen both geographically and philosophically after she mentioned to us how we inspired her to take the plunge into blogging. We are humbled to think that she views us as mentors and we continue to proudly follow her journey with great interest.

Karen it is so exciting watching you spread your wings in the world of blogging and we know it won’t be long before we see you soar high!

Best twitter hashtag:

Deborah @ Teach Preschool … #teachpreschool

Deborah is the queen of all things social media. Not only is her Teach Preschool blog amongst the most popular ECE blogs around the world, she has attracted over 25,000 Facebook followers and shared in excess of 22,000 tweets. While Deborah could easily be nominated in many different categories it is through her extensive use of the hashtag #teachpreschool which sees us nominate her in this category. Deborah’s ability to share and promote other blogs through her Facebook and Twitter pages has culminated in the early childhood sector from around the world being brought one step closer together.

Thanks to you Deborah the world each day becomes a little bit smaller!

Best individual tweeter:

Scott @ Brick-by-Brick … sxwiley

Scott has been a regular visitor and contributor to our blog since we began and we always look forward to his comments, finding them valuable and insightful. It is the same each morning as we visit his terrific blog Brick-by-Brick through which Scott’s genuine passion and love for teaching inspires us with each new post. Scott’s foray into tweeting this year means that we can keep in touch with him on a more regular basis as he tweets and shares links and information from around the early childhood Bloggosphere/ Twittersphere. It is through Scott’s regular sharing of tweets that teachers and parents are better able to stay connected with the early childhood blogging community.

Scotty you are the quiet achiever, the one who makes a difference without drawing attention from the crowd … Well we think it’s time you drew attention!

There are so many amazing early childhood blogs which have popped up over the last year and others that have been around for a while, all of which deserve praise and recognition heaped upon them for their hard work, passion and dedication to early childhood. While we believe our nominations are stand out blogs we just wish we could have nominated them all!

Our kind friend, Helen Ozdilek from chickaboo8 sent us a couple of dinosaur/lizard tails and a mermaid/fish tail.

She has progressed from making these now and is concentrating on making teepees, so it was lovely of her to do that for us.

The children LOVED them …

immediately popped them on and started playing with them.

As we never seem to have enough of whatever is the most sought after item, we decided to keep everyone happy we should be able to instantly put together some no sew tails, along the same vein as our capes and wings.

So we hunted out some fairly firm tights skulking around in the back of the drawer and cut off the legs, found some elastic big enough to go around a child’s waist with a little bit extra for the knots and a bag of recycled paper dots (like as if someone has gone crazy with the hole punch!). You could use any sort of stuffing of course, we just happened to have this.

The children helped us fill the stockings with the paper using a cone we quickly knocked up.

Then we tied the top of the stocking tight …

and added the loop of elastic.

Instant tail!

Now everyone was happy!

We have talked now and then about the joy of light boxes.

We were lucky enough to have been given one, but we know they are not cheap and also not easy to make. Deborah Stewart over at Teach Preschool showed us an idea of hers using plastic tubs as a quick and cheap alternative and Scott from Brick by Brick has also had a go, as did Amy from Child Central Station.

We thought that we would give it a go ourselves and make mini versions of the light box with what we had at hand so that we could have one each for a group of children when they wanted them.

First of all we needed a light source so bought one of those cheap camping lights from the discount shop. It is better than a torch as the light is broader and spreads out more and they are really easy for the children to operate themselves.

Then we used a clear plastic food container which we lined with black card …

a kitty litter tray with a glass chopping board on top …

a basket with the chopping board …

and a large wooden box with the chopping board.

We also had a tiny wooden box with a clear lid which worked well too.

We just had an assortment of ‘stuff’ for the children to choose from including some left over erasers they had been having fun with in the sensory bags.

The children had a lovely time making patterns with all the bits and pieces …

and then we were intertested to see them grouping the objects …

and not thinking about the light boxes as such any more.

Don’t children always take an activity off in a different direction …

  when they are allowed to?

Our weather is still a bit of a mix at the moment, so when the sun comes out and things warm up for a while we like to seize the moment and and spend as much time as possible outside.

We have seen lots of gorgeous mudpie kitchens, particularly those brought to us via Jenny Kable at Let the Children Play, so thought it was about time we got one happening with our children!

When we talked to the children about creating a mudpie kitchen they began referring to it as our “Mudpie Cafe” … It must be a reflection of the Melbourne cafe culture in which our children today are growing up!

Again, we tried to use what we could scrounge up either from our houses, road side rubbish or Resource Rescue. It is so wonderful being inventive and at virtually no cost!

With help from the children we dumped everything in the yard and let them decide where they wanted things to go.

They had made some mini tables another time, so we popped an old metal trunk (which had been abandoned under Sherry’s house) on top of them.

We had two drawers from the roadside rubbish and a rudder from an old yacht which was made into a table …

and an assortment of plastic cable spools …

which, with along with some wooden logs the children made into tables too.

They declared they were going to make pizzas …

as we had found an old oar and they thought it looked like a pizza peel, the utensil used to put pizzas in and out of the big ovens.

Of course they needed toppings, so they grabbed some scissors and deflowered a few shrubs!

We also had some big recycled plastic lids which made great pizza bases.

Then balancing them very carefully …

into the oven they went.

What a busy lot of cooks they were in their new mudpie cafe.

They have certainly taken ownership of this project!

We see lots and lots of time being spent here over the coming warmer months!

Donna found a fabulous quick and easy chair to make, simply by using ‘stuff’ we had on hand.

We tied three lengths of dowelling (you could use tree branches) together at the top with some chord, then spread the legs out a little.

An old hessian bag was tied to the top too, and a shorter piece of dowelling was threaded through the bottom of it.

Adjust the legs a little.

And that was all we needed to do …

- instant chair!

Sooooo cool!

Now check it out in this video.

Add an old blanket (Sherry’s dad’s – it must be 50 years old!!) …

and voila!

- instant teepee!

All this FUN from … stuff!

A little while ago we showed you how we make no sew capes.

Well it’s birthday party time again, for another one of Sherry’s grandchildren, so this time we have come up with …

no sew wings!

Sure, for those of you who prefer, a few stitches don’t take long to do, but if you are under pressure by your children to produce instant wings, this is the way to go!

All you need are two tea towels (we bought two packs of 3 tea towels in K Mart for $2, which meant we could make three sets of wings for $4) …

 and some elastic!

Tie two corners of the tea towels together.

This becomes the center back.

Then slip a loop of elastic over the knot to go around the child’s neck.

Now add a smaller loop to the top outside corners of each tea towel, to go around the wrists …

and there you have it. How easy is that?

The children thought they were pretty darn good …

Whether they became fairy wings, bat wings, bird wings or super hero wings …

 they were just perfect for fun at the park!!!

We honestly get a real buzz when we receive comments or photos from people who have used our ideas.

So imagine our delight when we turned up at Chifley Preschool in the ACT recently, to see that they had recreated our miniature houses …

bead people …

and tree house, seen here covered in aluminium foil, being used as a space station!

WOW! … So humbling!

We seem to be bumping into stick insects all over the place lately – at Healesville Sanctuary, Syndal Preschool, Holy Trinity Preschool and now Croydon West Primary School.

Photo from - Sustainability at Croydon West Primary School blog

The first thing that struck us was the fabulous enclosure that had been made for her – it was an old drawer standing up on its side with a flywire door on the front. We LOVE the idea of recycling drawers, such as the sand play one at Ellie V. Preschool.

"Twiggy" - Sustainability at Croydon West Primary School blog

Actually, the stick insect had been given a reprieve, and after dutifully laying many eggs, she was set free to do her own thing.

Photo from - Sustainability at Croydon West Primary School blog

Her eggs had been collected up by the children and placed in the enclosure to hatch at their leisure. We guess they don’t need a mum’s love like we mammals!!!

Ruth said she just sprays some water over them every few days, and they’ll hatch when they’re ready. We saw baby ones at the Healesville Discovery Centre and they are so very cute – they look a little like bull ants and are just as quick!

While ‘Twiggy’ was still at the school, Ruth gave the children a challenge to recreate her using natural materials …

we love these stick and leaf art works!

AND we love the care and respect shown in the presentation and display of the children’s beautiful work!

A little while ago we posted about the children’s love of wearing ‘Super Capes‘.

They are such an irresistible play accessory loved by girls as well as boys.

This week Sherry was spending her spare time helping her daughter organise a 5th birthday party for her grandson.  He had 3 wishes for his birthday -

1 – It was to be held at Wombat Bend.

2 – He wanted his party to have a scary theme.

3 – Could Nana PLEASE make capes for all his party friends!

So we thought we’d show you just how easy it is to make a Super Cape in just a few simple steps … NO sewing – the Irresistible way!

Tea towels!

Why not? … They’re already cut and hemmed and are a great length. What could be easier?!

Holding the tea towel with the narrow ends at the top and bottom, make a snip at each end of the narrow hem – just inside the side hem.

Be sure not to snip the stitching in the hem.

Now just thread through some elastic and tie it off.

We picked up a pack of 3 cotton tea towels at Aldi for around  $5 …

It certainly doesn’t get any quicker or easier than that!