We Play: Every Day of the Year

Happy New Year to all of my We Play friends. I hope you enjoyed a safe and happy Christmas and New Year surrounded by family and friends.

My We Play story for today was inspired by of all things, our Christmas crackers! For some reason, our crackers contained cheap plastic bugs as part of their loot. I thought they would be going straight into the garbage but Immy had other ideas… cooking up Wombat Stew!

Fortunately our resident wombat loves a bowl of well cooked bugs 🙂 For overseas readers, Wombat Stew is a classic Australian picture book by author Marcia Vaughan. It is an absolutely delightful story and well worth a read.

For regular readers, you might have noticed that Immy is cooking her stew on her new wooden kitchen which was her big Christmas gift from us and her grandparents. We finally retired our DIY cardboard kitchen after 17 months of daily use and purchased this all in one kitchen and cooking centre from Eco Toys (I was lucky to see it on sale not long before Christmas). Immy adores her new kitchen as we knew she would.

Now it is your turn, what have you been playing over the holidays? Have Christmas gifts or holiday adventures inspired your play this week?

We Play is a place to link up your own play experiences. Please read this post if it is your first time playing and link back to We Play in your post.

Christie Burnett is an early childhood teacher, presenter, writer and the editor of Childhood 101. More importantly, she is a Mum who believes wholeheartedly in the value of children learning through play, the importance of quality early education, and the togetherness of family.

Read the comments or scroll down to add your own:

Marita says
January 4, 2011 at 6:03 AM
The little kitchen is fantastic, and so is the Wombat Stew :) That is one happy looking Wombat, sure he is enjoying his meal.
Marita says
January 4, 2011 at 6:03 AM
Hit submit too soon, we've been playing lots with our Christmas gifts, which is the Lego but also building in our existing Lego collection :)
- Christie Burnett says
  January 4, 2011 at 2:39 PM
  I can't wait until Immy is big enough for lego, my Mum still has a massive box of loose bits from when I was young :)
Debbie says
January 4, 2011 at 6:04 AM
Oooh! Wombat Stew - love it! Children's imaginations never ceases to amaze me.
Beth says
January 4, 2011 at 6:27 AM
Yum! Wombat Stew looks like a hit. The new kitchen looks fun and Eco Toys looks like a great shop; thanks for sharing! My nieces and nephews have become super heroes and magicians after receiving homemade capes. And my personal favorite game of their's is becoming scarecrows by wearing half cones typically used for football/soccer practice. Happy New Year!
A Farmer's Wife says
January 4, 2011 at 7:16 AM
Loving the Wombat Stew. Thank you so much for visiting my blog earlier. Take care
Narelle says
January 4, 2011 at 7:54 AM
I love that kitchen! Everytime we visit Eco Toys the kids spend ages playing with it in their play section :) I'm looking forward to linking in on we play again, have been awol from blogging recently!
Sarah says
January 4, 2011 at 11:01 AM
Immy's kitchen looks fantastic! I've been leaving the kids to their own devices today while I tackle a mammoth pile of laundry. But they have been busy and I managed to sneak a few photos of their meandering and unguided play.
Jo says
January 4, 2011 at 12:15 PM
The kitchen looks fab! J hasn't played with many of his Christmas gifts, (except the DS!) he's played with the the Mario World we made EVERYDAY since making it :) Thanks for visiting my blog :)
Miss Carly says
January 4, 2011 at 1:08 PM
Love the book - Wombat Stew - one of my favourites!
Maureen Sklaroff says
January 4, 2011 at 4:39 PM
Thanks for the recommendation for Wombat Stew. I have never read it, so I just reserved it from the library (to read to the Little Miss of course!). We love toy kitchens around here!
amandab says
January 5, 2011 at 4:58 AM
I still don't think we have gotten around to reading Wombat Stew, but, I have to admit, we do tend to look at the arly Reader section, the display shelves and then go to the letters of familiar authors when at the library. I will try to remember to look next time we are there.
Melinda at Weiser Academy says
January 6, 2011 at 8:00 AM
I love the link up at We Play at Childhood 101. Thank you so much for sharing this with all of us. Looking forward to reading the book with my children and see what will be in their stew.
Susan@improvamama says
January 7, 2011 at 12:06 PM
Lucky Wombat! I love the idea of making a DIY lowkey version of something and then if it gets played with, going for a more solid version (DIY or purchased). I've done that just by chance a couple of times but I want to try to make that a practice.
Melinda @Eco Toys says
January 10, 2011 at 4:41 AM
Thanks for the link Christie! Looks like Immy is having a fabulous time cooking up a feast in her new kitchen. I love the idea of recycling the bugs from the Christmas crackers and making wombat stew, it's such a great Australian children's story book!

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January 4, 2011 at 7:16 AM
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[...] happily shared with Childhood 101 [...]
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