June 24th, 2009 The sky is falling Posted by Melitsa in Media, Memes, Thought of the week

Find out tomorrow the story behind my Wordless Wednesday photo.

For other Wordless Wednesday photos visit www.5minutesformom.com and www.wordlesswednesday.com

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June 23rd, 2009 More CBC with Danielle Johnson Posted by Melitsa in play activities

We’re back continuing our cross blog conversation with Danielle of MomGiveaways.

I’d asked Danielle the question,

Danielle, I can see you are a busy mom with lots of websites. How did you discover the Internet, blogging, giveaways and think of starting your own business?  and who are your biggest influencers  or people that keep you sane on this journey?

She answered at  MomGiveaways .

I was so interested to read that you have started things; been successful and was able to switch direction and again be successful.

Read More…

June 22nd, 2009 Incy Wincy Spider pretend play Posted by Melitsa in Homemade, language, Memes, play activities, pretend play, Sites to visit

We’re playing Rhyme Time. The previous post was a photo of a Nursery Rhyme scene you and your child together are trying to guess. If you’ve not done this yet………what are you waiting for

This post gives you the answer and some activities we did with it.

Pretend play gives your child the chance for unlimited creativity. On Monday we’ll celebrate that through Nursery rhymes.

Here’s the answer………………………………….

Answer: Incy Wincy Spider.

Pretend play inspired activities

• Sang the English version I grew up with and the American version both the boys learnt at preschool.
• They both taught me new verses of, ” The GREAT BIG spider” You  say the great big- loudly.
• We went outside to find a water spout to see if we could see a spider’s web nearby. ( This took a long time as we walked all around the house)
• We tried to guess how long it would take for the poor spider to climb up one of our pipes ( MO- a long long long long time. )
• We played with other bug friends and named them , Mr Cricket, and Mrs Ladybug.
• Took the bugs outside and I started a story. “Once upon a time, there lived a bug called….. ( waiting for MO to answer Incy Wincy) He lived….. ( MO grabs Incy and puts him in a big weed) What a nice house Incy Wincy you can spin a lovely web here. Where does his friend Mr Cricket live? We carried on the story and MO acted out eventually taking over the story. I left him with the bugs playing while the LO played in the garden on his push toy.
• My boys love superheroes so it didn’t take long for Incy Wincy to become a hero and have to save poor ladybug.

Other activities to do

• Pretend to be spiders climbing the water spout. Lay a rolled up sheet on the floor. The children move up the sheet pretending to be spiders.
• Act out the story using a spider hand puppet.
• or a felt board
• Read the story of  Incy Wincy Spider
• Teach the actions to the song.

 Why didn’t we do a craft?

There are lots of craft related activities with Nursery Rhymes. Today the focus is on encouraging pretend play; joining in with your little ones and extending their pretend play.

What I hope he learnt?

• Songs can change.
• We can make up stories from a rhyme.
• New vocabulary.
• how to spot spiders in their webs outside.
• You can play outside with typically indoor toys.
• Learnt a new verse.

Come join in Monday 29th  June.

What Nursery Rhyme will you choose?

What play activities will you do today

June 22nd, 2009 Guess this Nursery Rhyme Posted by Melitsa in Education, Homemade, Memes, play activities, pretend play

Rhyme time is a weekly play activity to do with your child. It’s a chance to learn new rhymes, use our toys creatively, encourage pretend play, singing etc… For more information about how to play and find out more.

Here’s today’s post.
Can you guess which Nursery rhyme?

Let me know your answer in the comments section.
If you are playing along add your name and blog post to Mr. Linky so we can try and guess yours. Feel free to use the Rhyme time button.

Answer will be added later on today…… See if your toddler or preschooler can guess which nursery rhyme this is…….?

Technorati Tags: Rhyme time, pretend play

June 19th, 2009 Cross blog conversation with Danielle Johnson Posted by Melitsa in play activities, Sites to visit, Thought of the week

I’m happy to introduce you to Danielle Johnson of  MomGiveaways and Daniellesjourney. She has asked me to be part of a cross blog conversation. How exciting! I had heard about cross blog conversations before and was so happy to join in.

What’s a cross blog conversation?

Danielle asks me a question which she did here.  A little time later, I respond to the question on my blog and in turn ask her a question which she replies to at Momgiveaways. So you all get to peek into our conversation. We’ll do this over several days with a cycle of questions and answers.

So you’ll want to watch both blogs to keep up with our conversation.

Danielle asked me,

Melitsa you have a great website for parents of young children!  Can you tell me about what you offer on your website and how you got started?

Thanks Danielle.:)

I have a few things going right now. My first love is the free weekly email of play activities for babies, toddlers, preschoolers and the ‘kindy’ set In one email per week you’ll get a range of activities (fine motor skills, pretend play,physical play etc) using things you can find around the home. Each week is a different variety so you ( the parent) don’t get stuck on doing mostly one thing. I know I still struggle with not just doing my favourites.

I love listening to parenting podcasts so I offer a Carnival of collected favourites of interest to parents once a month. Parents can send in their ideas. I love to spread the word about good play with your kids and information and ideas really empower us all. Also, I play a syndicated channel BAM radio with parenting interviews directly relevant to this Early years time.

I have an ecourse to learn what on earth is a podcast for complete beginners. Also an ebook about a fun play idea for babies- Treasure Baskets.

Just this week we launched a new weekly meme “Rhyme Time” a pretend play& nursery rhyme playtime for toddlers, preschoolers AND their parents.

How I got started

I’m an Air force spouse. We met and married in the UK, where I’m from, while he was stationed overseas. We moved to rural Italy. I had stopped working as a teacher and we started a family. They say teachers can’t stop teaching. I guess that’s true for me. With the language barrier I relied on books being sent to me or the conversations I would have with my mum about what to do with my baby.

Back in 2003, the Internet was dial up and very expensive.  My son soon needed  Early intervention & speech therapy. I loved the games he played. That coupled with new mummy friends we were looking for things to do that didn’t break our very small banks AND that were good play.

My mummy friends happened to have teaching background too….fancy that! We didn’t like all the electronic toys & videos for babies all the time that seemed to be on offer where we were. One now famous baby DVD was new and flying off the shelves. We were seeking a balance. When I did get online I was very interested in how mums were sharing their stories and ideas through message boards and blogging. I felt a connection with people I’d never met but shared similar ideals. I wondered if I could blog and sharing my play journey.

My teacher mummy friends left, like it always happens with military families, and I had new friends. But they were into play in a totally different way.  I knew it was time to reach out to other playful mums.

I knew then that I should blog.

Danielle, I can see you are a busy mom with lots of websites. How did you discover the Internet, blogging, giveaways and think of starting your own business?  and who are your biggest influencers  or people that keep you sane on this journey?

Technorati Tags: Danielle Johnson, giveaways