After our lovely walk a couple of weeks ago I said I would let you know what we had got up to with our massive conker haul, and well here it is! We have been conker crazy in our house lately! Some activities have been more successful than others but we’ve had fun trying lots of things.
Starting with some messy activities first.
Conker Marble Painting
I saw this somewhere and thought it was a very clever idea. First of all tape a piece of paper into a box. We used a plastic tub but a cardboard box would work just as well. I used frog tape because I couldn’t find any masking tape and it peels off nice and easily.
Splodge some paint onto the paper, put in your conkers and then give the box a good shake about!
I think this is fab, and it worked really well when I shook the box but to be honest Monkey just likes to get stuck in and be a bit more hands on, so he wasn’t as interested in shaking the box and just wanted to get on with painting!
Painting Conkers
So we did and I then started painting some actual conkers , only to be told “my turn, my turn, my turn” and Monkey took over.
He quite enjoyed it and they turned out pretty well actually. we made some nice orange ones which I thought may be used as some little pumpkin decorations or something.
More Fun Painting with Conkers
Monkey then decided he wanted some pink paint so we experimented with rolling the conkers through the paint and using them to make a pattern… but the brush soon came out again. Then Monkey discovered that it was a lot of fun picking the ccnkers up and dropping them on the table as they made a good banging sound! So we did that for a while!
It’s not just messy play fun to be had with conkers though, oh no, here are some of the other activities we got up to.
Conker Threading
I have seen lots of things you can do with threading conkers and different ways of doing it but to be honest I struggled to keep Monkey interested in it. It may be because we have been doing a lot of pasta threading lately though who knows.
We tried threading using pipe cleaners or also with wool. To do it with wool simply wrap some selotape round one end of the wool. You have to do this quite neatly and keep the tape tucked in to the wool as closely as possible. I made holes in conkers using a screwdriver, which was pretty easy though I have read of other mummies using a drill. They are quite soft though and easy to push through with a screwdriver. It may turn out a bit neater with a drill though I haven’t tried it. Either way, make sure your hole is big enough to push through your taped wool/pipe cleaner!
Once threaded there are some fab ideas for what to do with them, make Conker necklaces, cute animals, such as caterpillars, snakes or I even saw someone had combined some tissue paper craft and made a lovely butterfly with them! I also saw this fab idea for threading on certain numbers of conkers – great to help with learning to count!
Conker sorting
Although Monkey wasn’t that interested in threading his Conkers he was still pretty fascinated with other things he could do with them. After an unsuccesful attempt at persuading him to thread them on a pipe cleaner, he instead decided to start sorting them out into his teacups.
So simple but he had so much fun with this for ages, counting them as he sorted them, moving them from one cup to another and then tipping them out. All very independent of me which was lovely :).
Conker/Marble Run
Possibly my favourite activity so far is this conker run/marble run. We had collected a pile of loo roll tubes as had been thinking about making a simple marble run for ages but it coincided really well with the conker haul and works really well together. Now this is an easy peasy homemade marble run. It is not the most visually attractive and I think another time I will spend some time with Monkey decorating the tubes first but for a quick and simple effort it really does the job.
To make the marble run I simply taped together 3 loo rolls, and made 3 longer tubes. I then cut a 10th tube in half and taped those to the ends of two of the tubes. I taped all of the tubes onto the fire guard. I don’t think I did the best job of this but it works pretty well! I then cut up a cereal box to make a tray on the floor to collect the conkers (so we didn’t lose them across the room and under the sofa!) As you will see I had to use some extra tape on the ends as some of the bigger heavier conkers flew straight off the ends otherwise!
Monkey absolutely loves the conker run and has spent ages putting the conkers down. He has enjoyed counting them as he puts them down (he does love numbers) and has been putting multiple conkers down quickfire, one after another after another. He headed straight over to it this morning in his PJs and was looking down the tubes watching the conkers roll down. Honestly he loves it and it was so simple to make!
There are so many fab ideas for things to do with conkers but this is just what we have been up to so far! If yo still need inspiration I also liked this page of ideas too. We still have a huge amount of conkers so please share any ideas you have for more conker fun!
Oh I should also say that you should be careful playing with toddlers with children under 3 as they may be a choking risk. Monkey hasn’t once tried to pop one in his mouth but you never know so keep an eye on them. 🙂
I love conker crafts – we used to paint faces on them and give them names etc.
Lizzie’s Daily Blog
aww that is so cute, we will have to do that next! 🙂 xx
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So many great ideas here. This is exactly the kind of thing I’m looking forward to doing when my little lady is older.
#BabyBabble
Jenna at Tinyfootsteps xx
thank you, I am sure she will love them 🙂 xx
Ooo love these ideas. I’ve pinned them for when my baby is older! http://www.pinterest.com/thegigglesblog
Fab! Pinterest is so great for keeping track of great ideas! 🙂 xx
Fab ideas-we always end up with a huge stack of conkers that sit there, daring me to think of a way to use them! I usually fail miserably and they secretly get ‘stashed’ out of sight as soon as I get a chance. I like the idea of the marble run and using them to paint too x
haha I don;t blame you, I’ll be honest ours nearly went that way too but the marble run was a good easy way to use them! 🙂 xx
I love conkers, you can have so much fun with them. Great ideas here, especially the marble painting with conkers.
#SavouringtheSeason
Thanks Karen they really are fab, so many things you can do with them!xx
Umm can we come and play? Looks like lots of fun! I need to somehow gather all these awesome play ideas for when the twins are old enough. Love this loads. Good old conkers. Bonkers conkers! Xx
haha of course you would be very welcome, so much fun to be had with conkers 🙂 xx
Such fab ideas! Reading your posts make me so excited about becoming a SAHM and knowing Ive made the right decision!! 🙂
Lianne | TheBrunetteSays…
Ah yay, very exciting times ahead for you, it’s not always easy but there is a lot of fun to be had! xx
Oh, this had to be your word – looks like they’re taking over! Lots of great ideas, and I’d guess the conker run would be my Little Man’s favourite, too – looks fab! Thanks for sharing with #WotW
haha they really are, it’s been a lot of conkery fun though 🙂 xx
What great ideas….I must make a point of finding some conkers! x
thanks lovely! xx
Wow! What a lot of things to do with conkers!! Funnily enough EJ did a rolled conker painting at his childminder’s on Tuesday which he was very proud of and I have some rather lovely pictures of him doing it too! I think he might use that threaded conker string as a weapon though – he does love chucking stuff!! Have a great weekend hon Xx #wotw
haha yeah maybe not a great idea then lol, glad he enjoyed the painting though! xx
Some fantastic ideas and I can see why it’s your word of the week! I especially like the conker run 😉 #WordoftheWeek
Thanks lovely and definitely our wotw lol! xx
Great conker ideas! We’ll be trying some conker threading for sure. Great #wotw
thanks, hope you have fun with it! xx
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Looks like fun! Great idea. I used to love conkers, but would have never thought of doing this with it! #BabyBabble
Thanks lovely, there are definitely more things you can do with them than I first thought! xx
I love conkers!! Can’t wait to get crafty with them when Baby L is a bit bigger!
#mummymondays
aw yeah Baby L will love it I’m sure! xx
Wow – looks like you had fun with your haul! Some great ideas there – def going to try the marble run another year, am sure my little man would love that too! x
Thank you we really did have a lot of fun thinking of things to do with them! xx
Love the marble art will definitely be keeping that in mind for when Aidan’s older x
I bet he will love it! xx
Great ideas here, looks fun 🙂 we went looking for conkers last week but did not find any, lol must look in the right places next time!!
Thanks for linking up 🙂
Thanks Claire, I think we struck it very very lucky this time! Good luck finding some xx
Popping back, thanks for linking #LetKidsBeKids…..great ideas x
Marble run – amazing! What a cool idea
This is a definite crafting session for me and Carson, for sure. Great post 🙂 #babybabble
Thanks Jo I bet he will love it, monkey is still having so much fun with the marble run! xx
So many great ideas here. You’ve inspired me to try something different with them #minicreations
Ooh yay, hope you have fun with them! xx
Some fantastic ideas here! I love the marble run too. We did something similar with small cars, but I think the cookers would work even better. We have a few confers left and some wrapping paper tubes, so we might try this tomorrow!
#MiniCreations
Ooh fab, hope it went well, such simple fun, I’m definitely going to get Monkey involved in some deorating of the tubes next time! xx
Ooh… Love the conker marble run! That looks fabulous!! We’ve had so much fun too this year, discovering all you can do with a bag full of conkers! #SavouringtheSeason
It’s great isn;t it? When you get going there are so many things you can do with them! The marble run is a lot of fun! xx
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These conker crafts are excellent. I especially like the conker run. So much fun!
#letkidsbekids
Lucas says – I think conkers are AWESOME. Dad Dah taught how to ‘play’ conkers properly this year and we had a wicked time. I taught my friend Jordan and we got a little tournament going in the street. I think the idea of a Conker Fun Run is MEGA!!!! Thanks for linking to #minicreations
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