December 21st, 2010 Christmas activities that promote family time Posted by Melitsa in Articles, Education, Holiday guide, Homemade, language, play activities, Seasonal play, Sites to visit

I’ve talked before about squeezing in family time, play and routines during the Christmas or holiday season. Yes there are so many more things to fit into our day but it’s also a great time to add in activities that everyone can do together. Christmas holiday time is also the time when there are many more people around.

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Here is our list in no particular order of family time activities that we make sure we stop and do during the holiday time.

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December 5th, 2010 Finding the time for play during the Christmas season Posted by Melitsa in Articles, Education, Thought of the week

Busy?

Lots of new things you’re doing this month compared to a few months ago?

This time of year is really exciting and extremely busy and it’s easy for play to get pushed aside or limited.

Here are a few quick and open ended activities  perfect for the season

Finding time for holiday play

Teaching gratitude to little ones

What has stayed the same during this holiday time?

October 5th, 2010 Preschool art appreciation with Mondrian Posted by Melitsa in Articles, Education, Homemade, Media, play activities, Sites to visit, Thought of the week

We had many opportunities to visit the Art Museum and now the big art museum is a few hours away we’ve really noticed how much we miss seeing the gallery. Not being on the doorstep of a major art gallery will not dampen our enthusiasm for all things art based. Although we will have to be more deliberate.

The boys are really into straight lines and bold colours at the moment, so it wasn’t difficult to choose Piet Mondrian as our artist.

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Technorati Tags: Piet Mondrian

September 30th, 2010 Toddler play activities with conkers Posted by Melitsa in Articles, Education, language

We went looking for conkers.

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September 24th, 2010 Play newsletters you should know Posted by Melitsa in Articles, Media, play activities, Roundups

Last time I talked about the reasons why you should subscribe to play newsletters. I’d like to share 6  play newsletters you should know. I wouldn’t suggest subscribing to them all. Each newsletter should have an unsubscribe link. If you like them don’t forget to tell your friends and feel free to email the writers.

1. Kids craft weekly

Amber writes about ..”new craft ideas that are cheap, educational, child-friendly and fun.” Amber has crafted up amazing newsletters for many years now and archives them on her site as well.
2.    Play activities

Here you’ll find open-ended play activities for the under 5s. Many of the ideas are starting points allowing everyone to take the activity in their own direction. I also add in reader submitted activities.

3.   Productive parenting

Productive Parenting provides one new activity suggestion each day based on your child’s birth date! These activities are all about fun, creativity and bonding.

4.   Refresh

Stef produces a fortnightly or biweekly ezine of encouragement and simple solutions for busy parents. Each issue has a resources or link section and a great story.

5.                 Kaboose Weekly Newsletter

Kaboose produce a range of newsletters. I subscribed to the Kids’ Crafts & Activities Newsletter. I found the activities interesting but highly polished. So it was good for specific projects but I didn’t find it easy to use them as a springboard.

6.                  Family Crafts Guide

About.com have a few newsletters. I enjoyed the family crafts guide. The ideas were varied , entertaining and engaging. The activities are great for multi aged families.