December 30th, 2008 Unplugged: Wrapping paper Posted by Melitsa in Homemade, play activities, Seasonal play, Sites to visit

We thought we’d try another attempt at the unplugged project. We had so much fun the last time even though the outcome wasn’t what we expected.

We collected all the wrapping paper into a massive trash bag.  I had planned on an activity where you screw up the paper and throw it into a box. It’s one of our favourite rainy day activities with scrap paper. Get’s rid of some of the energy. What was I thinking? Under wrapping paper will be presents so stopping to do something with the paper and discard the present. That was not happening.

A few days later, I’m learning, we updated a previous craft. Remember this autumn day? We decided to create a winter version.

Here’s how they did it.

Stick to contact paper

Realise that maybe that’s not enough. This is what I love about projects. Problems naturally come up that can be solved by the little ones. I didn’t say a word.

The MO cut off a snowman’s head early on so was too mad to cut anymore for some time. His temperament fit very well with tearing when he came back and he produced this placemat a lot later.

The final results- excuse the glare.

Both placemats have been in heavy use. The Autumnal ones have been retired, temporarily.

What’s playing on Play-activities radio?

Why Are Some Kids Smarter?

Rae Pica and Dr.David Perlmutter

See sidebar

December 26th, 2008 Brain building fun Posted by Melitsa in Education, Media, play activities, Roundups, Sites to visit, Thought of the week

Advances in neuroscience give Drs a unique perspective on what’s going on inside there. There have always been lots of theories about how children learn and the best way to nurture and raise theme especially during the early years. Science is showing us the answers.

However there is the constant problem of what is good brain nurturing fun and what’s just hype? Where do you get advice that is scientifically based and not mere marketing hype.

Dr Jane Healy‘s recent presentation, “Your Child’s Growing Mind: How Families that Play Together, Build Brains Together” at the DuPageChildren’s museum provides a practical resource for parents and educators.

Grab your favourite drink and a Christmas cookie. Dive into this most fascinating lecture.

Don’t forget to let us know what you think and how it’s changing your thinking?

Well done DuPage Children’s museum for providing such lectures so parents AND educators can discuss and implement ideas. Thanks.

Technorati Tags: Jane Healy, DuPageChildren’s museum

December 23rd, 2008 Unplugged project: Dark/light Posted by Melitsa in Homemade, play activities, Seasonal play

With the holidays it seem like the perfect time to complete a project together…

Unplug your kids have a weekly unplugged project that you can join in by adding to their Mr. Linky. You can go see all the other unplugged projects. It’s a lot of fun to come up with a project on a theme for your little one.

My initial thought was some painting as we hadn’t done that for a while. Then I remembered we’d tried some crayon resist before with some success. We looked out the window at all the snow. The middle one suggested we paint a snowman.

Alas this time our ideas didn’t work out. We were trying to reproduce a snowman at night time( dark) and during a blizzard( light).

MO working on snowman. Star to right and full moon to left

BO’s snowman is on a hill

After pressing hard with the dark crayon. We mixed up the watercoloured paint and painted.

Even though we can see the snowman scene that’s just the flash working. It was much harder to see where to paint and draw. They held it up to the light a lot.

Repeat on white paper with white crayon.

Although we didn’t get the crayon resist we were hoping for we had fun drawing our magic pictures and playing around with the paint. If you’d like to try your own crayon resist try here for a better result.

Next weekly unplugged project: Wrapping paper.

Technorati Tags: unplugged project, crayon resist, snowman

December 19th, 2008 Book review: Too many toys Posted by Melitsa in book review, language, play activities

What could be better than a book that does the telling for you… The middle one just had his 3rd birthday and his little brother bought him this book.

“…Have you ever stepped on a Lego piece in your bare feet? Or a Jack? Well, it really hurts!”

Too many toys by David Shannon

Spencer is the boy who has lots of toys.  In fact the house he lives in is overflowing with toys. After a particularly bad day his mother decides the toys have to go.

Have you ever tried to reason toys away from your child? Spencer is the master.

Who’ll win ? There’s an unexpected twist that I won’t spoil at the end that would make any mum proud.

The illustrations are great. The close ups of Spencer show his emotions really clearly. I’ve already caught my 3 yr old trying to imitate them. Reading the story makes me smile as Spencer could be my son or your son. When have we not had conversations like these and reactions and actions like Spencer and his mum. The universality of these scenes means most parents can relate and kids too.

We like playing I spy with the toys in the picture as we read. Each time we find different toys to find. Also, we like to find our toys.

If we wanted to push the point home for the older child we might talk about Spencer’s predicament.. Which toys to give up and why it’s so hard? It’s a good opportunity to start the conversation about your own toys; giving toys away or throwing old ones away. Or you might just want the story to be the story and leave the message to ring through.

This picture book is a fun read with a good message. The pictures engage my preschooler to flip through and try and tell the story himself.

Love book reviews? You should listen to Just one more book?

 Hear my review of  Too many toys

Have you read any other David Shannon books? What’s your family favourite book right now? Would love to hear.

Technorati Tags: Too many toys, David Shannon

December 16th, 2008 TV on in the background Posted by Melitsa in Articles, Media, play activities, Thought of the week

Consider a 2-year-old child playing with toys in the
living room. The television is playing a program
designed for adult viewers. Mother is in the kitchen
making dinner while listening to the TV. The child
intermittently looks at the television for brief periods
of time. Is television having an effect on the child?

Source : Child Development, Volume 79, Issue 4 (p 1137-1151)

Full text of research

You would think it wouldn’t be a problem having the TV on in the background and your child playing.

New research casts doubt on the notion that background TV is ok for very young children.

The Effects of Background Television on the Toy Play Behaviour of Very Young Children, Marie Evans Schmidt, Tiffany A. Pempek, Heather L. Kirkorian, Anne Frankenfield Lund, Daniel R. Anderson, University of Massachusetts at Amherst (July 2008)

This experiment tests the hypothesis that background, adult television is a disruptive influence on very young children’s behavior. Fifty 12-24 and 36-month-olds played with a variety of toys for 1 hr. For half of the hour, a game show played in the background on a monaural TV set. During the other half hour, the TV was off. The children looked at the TV for only a few seconds at a time and less than once per minute. Nevertheless, background TV significantly reduced toy play episode length as well as focused attention during play. Thus, background television disrupts very young children’s play behavior even when they pay little overt attention to it. These findings have implications for subsequent cognitive development.

Abstract: www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/120775712/abstract

Download the full report at www3.interscience.wiley.com

There have been plenty of times when I’ve had the TV on and kids have been playing. Being so young I felt wrongly now that they wouldn’t be influenced. I noticed they were playing and not even glancing at the TV. If they stopped and started watching I’d usually turn it off. They were too busy into their play so this rarely happened.

Fortunately our TV is behind closed doors and now at an awkward angle in our house that you have to sit down in front of it to watch it. Who has time for that with so much to do during the day? I find we watch less TV because of it. None of us seem to miss that. Nevertheless, knowing that adult TV as background for the young ones does change their play and toy behaviour means when I turn on the TV- I need to be alone. Or certainly mindful of the consequences.

The full article is a fascinating read. It’s amazing how research tells us more about how children learn compared to the anecdotes we have had to rely on from friends and family. Nothing wrong with anecdotes but wider sampling of children and from a scientific background, gives us a better perspective on what we are doing with our children- helps, encourages or in fact hinders their development.

Managing screen time is an emerging skill as parents we are going to have to learn how to balance effectively. It’s clear that screen time for the under 2s is counterproductive to their learning to many sources like the American Academy of Pediatrics state no screen time. Let them play. But as they grow older computers, Leapsters, Xbox, Wii, “educational games” fight for their time.

We talk over dinner and don’t watch TV. That’s our family policy. It’s the one time we can come together as a family usually for the first time all day and share. We don’t want to share that time with the TV. Naturally, special occasions we’ll watch TV and eat but they are very rare, usually treats.

What do you do about TV in your house? Do you have a policy about screen time and how you’ll manage screen time as your children grow? When was the last time you talked about screen time with your partner? Do you set limits to background TV time in your house?

Would love to hear your comments.

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Technorati Tags: Child Development, TV, research, young children, Toy Play Behaviour