One day Briony...got a kindness elf

Last year I saw lots of ideas on Pinterest and blogs that I follow about kindness elves but Briny was too young for me to do it with her (I had already decided that I didn't want to have an 'elf on the shelf'') and at nearly 3 years old this year I was excited to start it with her. I found Holly, the name I gave to her elf, in the shop Tiger for £1. I cut some notelets with my Sizzix and decorated them with Holly and faux stitching. The first notelet I put in an envelope for Briony to open put the other days I have just put the notelet next to Holly. 

For the first day Holly introduced herself and left Briony a new pack of pens and some blank notelets for her to draw pictures for whoever she wanted. We had stayed at my parents the night before as they were looking after Briony while I was supply teaching for the day, so I didn't want it to be anything too tricky for them. 

Briony loved Holly and was excited to open her letter.

She got straight into drawing pictures with Holly watching!

One day Briony...had a small world snow scene

 I was getting bored of Briony's Autumn/three little pigs sensory tray in our Tuff Spot and wanted something more wintery. I had fun raiding the pound shops and found sprinkly snow, a polar bear and iridescent thin shredded plastic. I cut a piece of white felt to fit the bottom of the tray. I also added toy stuffing, a string of LED lights, white sparkly pom poms, a silver miri-card 'lake' and blue and clear large gems from a wholesale florist.

I also had fun making more fimo animals and made a seal pup and penguin. Our dog unfortunately took a shine to them and the penguin now has a gouge out of its tummy and is missing a foot! She also quite likes the tray in general and will drop her toys into it so she has to go in and retrieve them.

After Briony had started playing with it, we also added a papier mache bowl that she had made so that the animals had something to slide down.

One day Briony...played with the three little pigs

Briony loves the story of the three little pigs. After I have read her books at bedtime she wants me to tell her a 'stoy stoy' and this is one that she regularly asks for. About a month ago I created an Autumn themed sensory tray in her Tuff Spot.

As soon as she saw the 'straw' (shredded yellow plastic used in Easter baskets!) she started talking about the little pig who built his house out of straw. I decided then that I needed to make her the three little pigs. I searched Pinterest (one of my favourite past-times) for fimo pigs and set to making some. Of course I had some help from a very interested daughter! I had great fun making the pigs and, after making three, Briony wanted to know where their mummy was, so I made a mummy too. Briony played with some of the odd blobs of fimo that were floating around in the bottom of my fimo box. She informed me that she was making the wolf - a very abstract wolf as you can see (the two brown blobs on top are the eyes).

Briony loved using the fimo, particularly how easy it was to mold, yet it could then be baked and played with. I use a small toaster oven to bake the fimo so I don't have to worry about fumes in our oven. That evening I left the toaster oven outside Briony's door so that I could take it downstairs and bake the pigs whilst she was sleeping. While I was reading her books she kept leaving the room and checking on the pigs to make sure they were ok. I'm surprised they even survived and were able to get baked!

Once they were ready we retold the story lots of times using the 'straw', sticks from outside and Jenga pieces for bricks.

Briony loved the part of the story where the wolf blew the house down and we could knock away the 'straw' or the sticks. I am so glad I was able to make the pigs and I'm sure I'll be making more animals in the future!

One day Briony...played with noodles

Due to Briony's food intolerances it's sometimes hard to find sensory food things that she can play with. As rice is only grain she can tolerate I had the idea to use rice noodles. One evening I made a large batch of rice noodles, split them into 3 bags and added some liquid watercolour (food colouring would also work) and a bit of vinegar. Briony enjoyed feeling the bags.

I then put them in a plastic container for her to play with. I put a shower curtain on the floor and shone a torch through the side of the container to add to the experience.



After a while they got very sticky and she did not enjoy them as much. So the next day I took the activity outside, added the noodles to a large container of water and she played with 'noodle soup'! The colours blended and the water turned blue. She loved fishing for the noodles with a pasta spoon and sieve. She also enjoyed pouring the mixture into a bun tin.

One day Briony...played with lentils

I love our Tuff Spot and enjoy finding different things to put in it for Briony to play with. This time I bought a huge bag lentils and added jugs, measuring cups and plastic gardening equipment. Briony had great fun scooping, pouring and playing in the tray. Although Briony is unable to eat lentils due to her multiple food intolerances, I had hoped that she would be fine playing with them. Unfortunately she reacted to them so this will be the first and last time she gets to play with them.

One day Briony...went on a green hunt

One day we decided to find things that were the colour green. Briony enjoyed carrying her basket around the house and looking for things that she put in it. While doing this we sang (to the tune of We're going on a bear hunt):

We're going on a green hunt

We're going to find green things

One day Briony...had a small world safari park

I recently bought a Tuff Spot and am looking forward to creating lots of small worlds for Briony to play with. This safari park was really easy to put together with Autumn leaves that I bought when I lived in America, pinecones, wood slices, Jenga pieces, plastic animals (including dinosaurs and farm animals!) and of course small people. I wanted to create walkways and platforms for the people to walk along.

I played with Briony for a little while then she happily played on her own.

One day Briony...made a pen holder for her daddy's birthday

It's always a dilemma but what do you give to the guy who has everything? And more importantly, how do you make it meaningful when it's from his only daughter who's only 2 and a half?

You make something!

I have recently been making things out of polymer clay (I use Sculpey as its so much easier to mold than Fimo) and as Briony has been trying to help me, I decided she should make daddy something out of this great material. A pen holder was the perfect choice as it was easy to make, didn't use too much clay and he could put it on his desk at work. I made the blue centre part of the holder and then baked it. This meant that Briony could add the decoration without misshaping the main part. She had great fun choosing the colours she wanted and adding the dots.

She choose the paper she wanted (Christmas paper!) and wrapped it with blue electrical tape. She was so excited to be able to give it to her daddy and couldn't wait for him to get home from work. In the end she even opened it for him when he finally arrived!

How the blog "One day Briony...' got its name

I have wanted to do a blog for a while about the things that I do with my daughter Briony, but had problems thinking up a suitable name!

At 2 and a half, Briony's favourite expression at the moment is 'one day...' from 'one day my teeth fall out and new ones come down' to 'one day when I'm grown up I can eat that' (pointing to a piece of chocolate!). Finally inspiration struck in the middle of the night, as it often does, and I decided to use her words - one day - and this blog was born.

I love reading other blogs and looking at Pinterest to find lots of fun things that we can do. However as Briony has multiple food intollerances recipes and activities often need adapting. I hope that my findings might help others whose children have similar difficulties.