Imaginosity Children's Museum

I've often thought that toy shops should charge people to come in, since kids always end up playing with any toys they can get their hands on, despite their parents not always buying anything.

Well that's pretty much just what the bright sparks at Imaginosity Children's Museum in Dublin have done. They've gathered together big versions of children's favourite playthings, then charge folks to come and play.

The museum is in Sandyford near Dundrum (ideal for post-play shopping) and advertises itself as being suitable for children up to the age of 9. Most of the children we saw there looked to be under six. However I could see older children having fun too, if there were others there the same age. Visitors are admitted in two-hour slots and booking is advised.

The Museum is laid out on three floors. As we walked into the first floor Boy spotted a life size car with its doors opened invitingly. It took some serious persuasion to convince him that there was more worth seeing as he was delighted with sitting in the driver's seat and blowing the horn. Eventually we moved onto the interactive model railway village where Boy was once again in seventh heaven. There was a small soft area for Girl with a few simple toys and a play kitchen. She was quite content to be propped up against the oven, opening and shutting the cupboard doors while a friendly little boy served us a plastic slice of cake over and over again.

Also on this floor was a pretend play cafe, post office, and supermarket complete with shopping trolleys and grocery lists. This was a little too much like real life for my liking, but luckily for me Boy felt the same and did not linger too long. We dipped briefly into the library before heading up to the second floor.

The baby area on floor two was much sparser but this seemed to suit Girl quite well. She admired the (somewhat grubby) fish tank then, finally, managed to crawl forwards for the first time since she started moving herself two months ago - up until now it has been backwards or nothing. So I was very excited to see her actually crawling towards what she wanted today instead of away from it as usual (and I didn't miss the mandatory screech of frustration as the intended target moved further away instead of closer in spite of her efforts). I thought she was trying to reach a coloured bubble tube on the other side of the soft area. In fact she was trying to reach herself in a mirror along the far wall. She spent a good half hour then, playing with her own reflection, little Narcissa.

Meanwhile Boy was having a whale of a time in the 'construction zone', busily posting foam bricks down a slide, while two older children collected them and sent them back up on a pulley. He would take a break every so often to switch the lights on and off in a magnificent dolls house stretched all the way across one wall. There were signs everywhere encouraging people to help their children tidy up after themselves, and people did seem to make an effort to leave toys in the section they found them. There were plenty of staff around too and they all seemed friendly.

There were a few corners that we didn't explore, including a drama area where children can dress up and film themselves giving a news report, but I did spy B having a shot at hammering some tuned plastic pipes when he thought no one was looking. We decided to give the Hip Hop dance workshop a miss.

The top floor is home to an outdoor garden of toys, but this was closed during our visit. Another fine feature of which we couldn't take advantage was the 'Beanstalk', a huge winding tower which spanned all three floors, but which was labelled for ages three and up. Boy wanted to climb in but I couldn't see me squeezing into a child-sized hole to rescue him if he got stuck two floors up so we played at climbing the stairs instead. Thank goodness that's still fun when you're only a toddler.

Overall a great afternoon's entertainment, and we will definitely be returning in 6-12 months, once Girl is on her feet and can get a bit more out of it. The cost for the four of us was 24 euro which I found reasonable for what was on offer. A year's membership for a family of four would be 255 euro. I didn't find that quite so reasonable, but I guess if you are living close by and intend to visit very often it might be worth it.

In the end we didn't stay much longer than half of our allotted two hour slot - Boy was over excited and his teeth were beginning to show, though he was in a great mood, while Girl told us in her own special way that she was ready to leave. It's like she has a special radar for knowing when we don't have any nappies to hand.

Baby Cinema

I love that we are able to take Boy to the pictures again. I used to take him to monthly mother and baby cinema mornings (Eye Scream) when he was tiny but as soon as he was on the move it became less of a treat and more of a tortuous workout. I remember the last film we took him to see, one of the Narnia films - maybe Prince Caspian? Who knows. I didn't get to see any of it. I spent the first half hour feeding him chocolate buttons in an attempt to get him to sit quietly, and the next hour chasing him relay style up and down the steps. I learned two important lessons that day: 1)chocolate, toddlers and quiet places don't mix, and 2)my cinema days were over.

Feel free to mock my priorities, but I purposely chose Wednesdays as a crèche day for Boy so that when Girl can along I could indulge in Eye Scream mornings again. Right enough, we went together a few times but missed the last few months for one reason or another.

When we decided to give the Saturday morning 'Kids' Club' cinema screenings a shot at the local Omniplex neither B nor I held out much hope. So we were totally thrilled when Boy sat mesmerised through the whole of "Puss in Boots". Hurray! We have been twice now with the same result. Although we are limited to kids' films (Eye Scream is geared towards parents with tiny babies and shows adult oriented films - though not necessarily quality features) it is a lovely restful way to spend a rainy Saturday. And at only €2.50 a ticket it's a total bargain too.

We splashed out today (on the full early bird price) to see the Muppets film at the Eye, but both kids were snoring from about halfway through. B was roaring with laughter - at fart shoes, really - and I wondered briefly how many children I actually have.

It is with more than a little regret that I must admit that Girl is almost at the stage when I won't be able to bring her any more. Don't tell the weaning police but breastfeeding is a pure godsend when you want a bit of peace to ogle, sneer, laugh or cry uninterrupted at whoever is on the big screen. (Recently Sean Penn, Daniel Radcliffe, Maggie Smith, and George Clooney, respectively). At least this time I can take a year off knowing we will be able to return in the not too distant future, hopefully without needing to flash everyone while juggling two babies and a large Pepsi Max.

Painting Shamrocks

Grunny and Grumpy are here for the week much to everyone's delight so I tried a little St Patrick's Day painting activity at the parent and toddler group yesterday while Girl and Grumpy got to know each other. It felt like a strange super-ability to suddenly have two arms to myself for a whole hour.

I started by cutting out a few shamrock shapes out of card. These were a bit dodgy; more a cross between a Club on a deck of cards and a conjoined trio of deformed love hearts than a shamrock but as Grumpy kindly pointed out, nothing in nature is perfect.

So then I put out two pots of green paint and a small selection of brushes and painting sponges. I stuck one or two Shamrocks on a sheet of paper using a small piece of rolled up Sellotape. Blue tack might have worked better, but the Sellotape was fine.

The children began to wander over to see what was going on and each was given a sheet of paper. Then they were given free rein to slap on the green paint. Once finished we took off the taped on shamrocks to leave a silhouette shape.

Grumpy kindly pointed out while shamrocks are green, my shamrock shapes would be, well, not green. So if you are after accurate horticultural replication you may wish to use white paint on green paper, or red paint on white paper and then let children colour in the white shapes with green crayon... I could go on. In the end using green paint on green or white paper was the most successful but the other colours worked quite nicely too.

The older children painted the actual shamrocks rather than the space around them, and some were a little put out when I said I was going to remove them, though they enjoyed shouting 'ready steady GO!'. In fact the younger children probably enjoyed the actual activity better, while the older ones appreciated the end result.

The parents' input was interesting too. Some parents sat right back and let their kids get on with it, some sat and helped their children do it 'right' and one daddy stared over his tiny toddler daughter's shoulder with such intense pride as - was that a tear I saw him blink back? - she slapped green paint all over her picture, the table and herself with a mini sponge paint-roller that I was slightly relieved when he finally enlightened me with a beaming smile: "I'm a painter too."

Paddy's Day Sensory Box

A sensory bin or box is a container of fun stuff for small children to play with, usually based on a theme. Once assembled, the adult who made it calls it a sensory box to make it sound educational.

I liked the idea and decided to put one together for the babies. I used a large, fairly shallow clear plastic storage box and filled it with all things green (with a bit of orange and white) to try and make it a St. Patrick's Day theme.

My first attempt wasn't great - I just collected all the green trains, hats and other toys going around and it ended up looking like a messy green toy box.

I ended up taking out most of the toys and bulking it out with a grass skirt, felt pompoms, a green tinsel wig and a Paddy's day garland from the Euro2 shop. Then I added a Paddy's day hat, a slinky and an Irish flag.

This was a much better combination as the touchy feely bulk half-hid the other items well enough to make them stand out. As it turns out, the less you put in the box, the easier it is for children to pick and choose what they want to touch and play with.

The box (mark 2) was a hit with Girl immediately and it keeps her entertained day after day whenever I need a minute. She loves it when I sit by the box and play with her too. Though I do spoil the fun a little by insisting on the extraction of pompoms from her mouth. The depth of the box is ideal for her to help herself safely, and she is fascinated by the jingle bells on the hat.

Boy initially turned up his nose at it until he happened to step in it with bare feet one day. He thought this was hilarious and pulled out the grass skirt and trampled back and forth over it laughing out loud. He still likes the box, but tends to tip everything out then sit inside with the tinsel wig on his head hanging onto Girl and singing Row Row your Boat. Each to his own.

I plan to change the contents every so often and have already started collecting bits and bobs for a Spring themed sensory box.

St Patrick's Day is on 17th March each year which gives us one more week of wig wearing, hat jangling, foot stamping, pompom licking, flag waving fun.

DIY Activity Centre

One of my earliest memories is of a Fisher Price cream coloured plastic activity centre with rollers, an old style telephone dialler and three men in a tub (rub-a-dub-dub). I suspect this memory is of a time before I was 3 years old.

As soon as Boy came along I wanted him to have one of these cot-side activity centres and in my haste bought the first one I came across, a very cheap Disney themed toy which has been on the side of his cot since he was too small to use it. In fact he got quite good use out of it, but these days it doesn't hold much interest for him. I was thinking of moving it to Girl's cot, when I spied a very cool home made activity cente online. In years gone by, when I worked in Special Education, I saw similar boards used as a sensory tool for children with autism and visual impairment.

We set out to Woodies for a big piece of plywood then had a great time picking out bells, switches, locks, doorknobs and other goodies to put on our activity centre. It took about three weeks from planning, through to the finished product, which still has a little room for adding extras should we want to at a later time. Both babies love their new toy, especially seeing their own faces peeking out from behind the little doors. Boy is particularly delighted with the shrieking alarm that sounds whenever his door is opened. Girl is not so thrilled with that part. Mammy is thrilled with the alarm's off switch.

The lovely part of the activity centre is that we all chipped in with making it. Boy helped to varnish the wood (he had very shiny hands for a couple of days there) and Girl helped us to see that leaning the board against a wall instead of screwing it down wasn't the brightest idea. But we won't go into details. If you like the look of this then please don't be put off. It was surprisingly straightforward to make and is customisable - use your imagination and add what you want. Everything is screwed on except the photos which are stuck on with masking tape, and the name tags which are stuck onto velcro strips.

Obviously, it is too big to be a cot toy. Nevertheless I hope it is one toy that both Boy and Girl will get some mileage out of and remember fondly for years to come.

Shopping and Galway City Museum

After a couple of beautiful days the West coast rain returned today just in time for the babies to start feeling a bit better. Girl slept the whole night for the second time in a week (the second time in her life, actually) and since we were all up by 6am and had the whole day before us we decided to visit Galway City Museum.

Despite living in Galway for over five years we had never visited the museum before. So we piled into the car and arriving a little early we headed to the Eyre Square Centre for a look around the shops.

Ahh I forget how much I love shopping in Galway. While B loves the chain stores - HMV, Game, Art & Hobby and the Early Learning Centre - I love the independent stores that line shop street. I picked up a huge bagful of craft material in Powell's and a tiny music box from Wooden Heart - though we stopped and gazed/drooled for aaages over the big wooden toys, sigikid dolls and quiet books (and their even bigger price tags). Before heading home we took a stroll around the St Nicholas market and stopped into It's Magic in the Eyre Square centre where two teenage girls were gawking at a pin screen. I've never felt older when one said "I've never seen anything like this before!" and I found myself telling her they were all the rage when I were a lass.

We did actually make it to the museum too, which was clean, quiet and pleasant if a little unremarkable. Entry is free. The exhibits (wartime, dance hall days, Irish cinema, prehistoric and medieval Galway) were interesting but not really suited to the kids, though Boy was entranced by the gigantic Macnas puppet from the 2010 arts festival parade and he did like the big hooker hanging from the ceiling. Apart from that the highlight for him was pushing coins into the somewhat empty voluntary donation boxes and going up the stairs and back down in the lift. Three times. Girl remained passively unimpressed throughout.

What was worth remarking on was the museum cafe, which was had a really beautiful brunch menu, gorgeous food well above the usual standard found throughout the county, a good cup of coffee and friendly service too. I will definitely keep an eye out for new museum exhibitions so I've an excuse to return for another plate of mezzes - it gets the thumbs up from all of us!

We don't go into the city centre very often, although we are not far away. So I don't feel too bad about the small fortune we spent. At least I should be able to craft the kids their next six pairs of shoes from all the felt and pompoms freshly packed into the art box downstairs.

A Straight Answer

What shall we do today?

No.

Shall we go for a walk?

No.

Would you like to colour?

No.

Will we stay inside?

No.

Do you want to go in the car?

No.

Are you hungry?

No.

Would you like a drink of water?

No.

Shall I sing a song?

No.

You put your left hand in, your left hand out-

NO!

Do you want to watch TV?

No TV.

That's a stumper

Do you want a cuddle?

No cuddle.

Do you want to wash your hands?

N- mmmm. No.

Can you please just tell me what you want?

whine

You need to say it in words or I can't help you.

loud whine

Are you tired? Do you need a nap?

NOOOOO.

Would you like a story?

Mmmmm.

What story do you want?

Tillah! Tillah!

Oh, you want Fidgety Fish?

YES.


Happy World Book Day!