May 21st, 2009 Tell me Thursday- Who knew? Posted by Melitsa in Education, Memes, Seasonal play

Tell me Thursday is a chance to explain your Wordless Wednesday post. Join in the fun.

The local Children’s museum held a New Year celebration. Here the kids waited patiently on the sides then were let loose on bubble wrap. Everyone was jumping and trying to pop that stuff……..very tired but warmer children left that place that day.

Who knew that play outdoors at a museum could be so much fun!

May 20th, 2009 Wordless Wednesday- Who knew? Posted by Melitsa in Memes, play activities, Seasonal play

Come back tomorrow when I share just what’s happening here…..any guesses?

For more Wordless Wednesday participants see 5 minutes for mom

May 19th, 2009 Talkback- Are you crafty? Posted by Melitsa in play activities

I’m not very crafty at all.  But we craft. Why? It’s not about what you produce at the end but going through the process itself. OK….it helps if it resembles something like what you intended but diversions and new directions because your child has had a different idea are all fine. Imagination and the ability to act on it without being filled with worry is a skill to develop with our kids. Taking chances as well as knowing when you are beat and to give up…..gracefully ( No tantrums and throwing said item is not the answer)  are easily practiced at home.

Projects that don’t work out, as you wanted, are great talking points for both of you. Let’s face it many things don’t work out as an adult and what we say to ourselves to move on and start again or give up really define who we are and how successful we become.

We craft.

We play.

We learn to appreciate our efforts and celebrate when they improve.

We appreciate others who are talented with crafts.

Despite my ‘uncraftiness success’ the kiddos really like crafting and usually make things pretty well. I have to move past my ‘uncraftiness success’. Whatever our dislike maybe…….. of painting, biking, taking a hike, water play, (Enter your pet hate hereXXXXX) shouldn’t stop the kids from enjoying any of these things. Variety and opportunity is what fuels the baby, todder, preschooler and Kindie child. If you’re a 100% crafty parent I want to encourage you to not always have a fixed aim/product outcome in mind. The outcome doesn’t always have to be high quality all the time; redone until it’s perfect or you complete it to make it look great.

Other people who provide a mix of fun play activities

Here are their twitter names. Click to go to their website.

@kiddio

@NTFF

@ajpassey

@balmeras

@littlesheep

@Lets_explore

Play activities come in all shapes and sizes. Social development through play is just as important.

Now it’s your turn to share…..Share what you find hard doing with your kiddos. Do you naturally do certain activities? sewing, crafting, photography, biking- to the exclusion of most others? or share your tips on keeping a balanced play life even when you don’t like doing some activities?

Know any other cool play people. Let me know.

Thanks for stopping by

May 15th, 2009 What are you thinking? Posted by Melitsa in Articles, Education, Good reads, language, Media, play activities, Roundups, Sites to visit

 What’s good to know?

The way that mothers talk to their children when they are young has a lasting effect on children’s social skills, according to a research study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. The researchers found that children whose mothers often talked to them about people’s feelings, beliefs, wants, and intentions, developed better social understanding than children whose mothers did not include much ‘mental state talk’ in their conversations…..

How do I do it?

The researchers also observed how each of the mothers talked to their child when they were 3 years old as they looked at a series of pictures together. They found that children whose mothers had often described the mental state of people in the pictures – their emotions or what they might be thinking or going to do next – did particularly well on the social understanding tasks.

Find out how they followed children from the age of 3 to the age of 12  using Ricky Gervais’s character, David Brent from The Office measuring their ability to perform tasks designed to measure their social understanding.

Source: Mum’s the word: the secret to building children’s social skills

What I can do right now?

• When you read your next story point out the expression on one of the characters face.
• Let your voice show the emotion of a character or situation
• Ask them about facial expressions of the characters.

Books we tried this with today

Good Night Gorilla
The zookeeper says goodnight to all his zoo animals but one sneaky animal manages to open all the cages and one by one they all sneak behind the poor tired zookeeper all the way to his home…. across the road. He climbs into bed and finally says goodnight to his wife while putting out the light.

All the animals say Goodnight.

All that’s on the next page is black( night) and two eyes( the zookeepers wife). She’s clearly surprised, shocked etc and does something……  Her expression is a good one to talk about. Is she mad? Has this happened before?

The Great Goat Chase
Some goats get loose in the turnip field. The Farmer tries unsuccessfully to get them out of the field even with help from other farm animals. One very small ‘animal’ offers to help and all the other animals that tried and the farmer are sure this little one can’t do it.

This was a good book to look at feelings. Seeing the animals laughing and tears rolling down the face. “Why are they crying? Are they hurt?”

The Snail and the Whale

Snail goes on an amazing journey thanks to new friend whale.  Whale helps snail. Snail helps whale.

I pointed out more emotions than I was able to elicit. We did talk about what it would be like to be riding in a storm. He held on tight and I moved him about and tipped him up and down. He said ‘scary’

What books can you think from your bookshelf that would be good to use to talk about emotions?

May 14th, 2009 Tell Me Thursday Posted by Melitsa in Memes, Roundups, Sites to visit

Yesterday you saw this in Wordless Wednesday….

The MO in the laundry basket.

When they don’t want to be strapped into the seat anymore but you need them contained. Here’s something that’s worked well for all the boys. They love the bigger space. We get to put new things inside too to keep them occupied.

Safety? He’s right by me and we watch out for the tipping over.

Play activities come in all shapes and sizes…….don’t overlook what’s around you.