October 25th, 2010 Monday links Posted by Melitsa in Homemade, language, play activities, pretend play, Roundups, Sites to visit, Thought of the week

This is what we’re doing during half term….again. It’s been a crazy couple of months. While we are offline, here are some links for calming activities that you will want to do between the mad moments or high energy of children at home.

Make your own family | Play-Activities.com

Why scribbling is fun!

Shaving cream fun | Play-Activities.com

Sensory Play with Rice | Play-Activities.com

Tuesday: Pasta and An Empty Water Bottle | Fun with Mama

Crayon and paint

Autumn Craft and Activity Ideas | Mum in the Madhouse

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

We went looking for conkers.

Read More…

July 14th, 2010 What to do when “there is nothing to do”? Posted by Melitsa in book review, Education, Good reads, language, play activities

How do you come up with play ideas for your kids? And, perhaps even more importantly, how do your kids come up with play ideas for themselves?

During holiday periods I, like many parents, plan ahead for games and activities we will get up to – using blogs I love (perhaps ones I’ve recently discovered via the Raising Playful Tots Index) but I also want to give my kids the tools to plan and create for themselves, and a rich vein of inspiration for my two kids comes in the form of picture books I read to them. Although it doesn’t always happen (and even when it does, it can be weeks after we’ve read the book) often my kids will create their own games and activities inspired by what they’ve read and listened to.

Three great books we’ve recently enjoyed (with my hope that they’ll sow the seed of inspiration when the time comes) are all about what can be done when it seems like there’s nothing to do.

Something to Do by David Lucas

Perfect for toddlers, this simply illustrated book is full of the adventures a baby bear gets up to having bounced on his dad complaining that there’s nothing to do until Dad finally gives in. Using a twig to draw, baby bear and his dad create places to explore, with no set agenda, just following the lines they make with their sticks.

Nothing to Do by Douglas Wood, illustrated by Wendy Anderson Halperin

Stunningly illustrated with immense detail this book is a delight for slightly older children. Nothing to Do celebrates how wonderful it can be to actually have nothing to do; instead of needing to rush to this activity or onto another class, instead of always being timetabled, days where there is nothing to do are actually something to be relished. Such days are full of endless, exciting possibilities – as you and your kids pour over the glorious illustrations you’ll all come up with ideas of your own, from making toy ships to watching clouds, from making paper airplanes to re-reading your favourite books.

Let’s do nothing by Tony Fucile

A great all-rounder this book will have everyone in the family laughing! Two young boys have done everything they can think of doing and all that is left to try now is – quite literally – doing nothing. It turns out, however, that doing nothing is much harder than anyone had realised! The comic strip style illustrations are full of energy and there are jokes for the adults as well as the kids in this pacey debut from one of the animators behind Finding Nemo and The Incredibles.

One of my stock go-to activities if we seem to have run out of anything to do is to put on some music and just dance with the kids. Here are some great songs that go wonderfully with these three fantastic books about doing nothing:

And if you do want to prepare some activities for your kids taking your cue from these books, here are some I think would work brilliantly alongside reading these stories:

Zoe Toft is a mum of two young girls and they really love words and they really love to make stuff.
Sometimes they make or do something and they want a good book (or poem / song / audiobook) that continues the game, that captures some of the magic we’ve enjoyed. Sometimes it’s the other way round and they read a great book which inspires them to get the glue and glitter out.

Either way, they’ve always got plenty of books around the house, boxes of “crafty stuff” and a desire to have fun. However, her memory is /terrible/ So Playing by the book is Zoe’s way of celebrating and reminding herself of many of the things they get up to as a family, of the books they’ve read and loved and that you might just fall in love with too.

June 28th, 2010 Preschool out of sequence alphabet letter game Posted by Melitsa in language, play activities

Do they know the alphabet?

Rote learning is great but we need make sure that they can identify letters individually.
I’m talking to myself here because I noticed that pointing to a letter on the alphabet at random meant that the MO sang the alphabet song quietly to himself until he got to the letter.
I was happy he had a strategy for the letter but realised that most of his alphabet practice was this. He has a good knowledge of more than 75% of the letters but there are about 50% that he sometimes gets wrong if taken out of sequence.

This was news to me.

Being a tactile learner and a big brother that is just dying to help out. We devised a simple game that is perfect for siblings to do together. That time when you’re trying to make dinner or special time with your preschooler.

Gather together sets of alphabet. We used the magnetic ABC from the fridge and the ones from the puzzle.
Drop them in a deep piece of tupperware with a lid.

Cover with rice.

Rules of the game

• MO gets a lucky dip ( no peeking)
• BG counts on his fingers 54321 ( no sound) holds them up or taps on the table.
• MO has to say the letter before the time is up.
• If the MO says the correct letter then he keeps the letter.
• If he doesn’t then the BG tells him the letter and keeps the letter.
• Whoever has the most letters wins.

Pop the lid on and whip out this game in a spare moment.

The MO and the BG played for a long time and have enjoyed it ever since.

Yes his alphabet recognition out of sequence is improving

I’m sure this activity can be extended for numbers and nouns……..

Technorati Tags: alphabet

June 25th, 2010 Playing with paper Posted by Melitsa in Education, Homemade, language, play activities

This is a repost from June 2007

If you don’t record them you’ll forget them.

Try this simple easy and cheap hour of fun!

So here is my son’s current favourite play activity. Running away from the crocodiles whoops that should read crocodimes ( pronounced croco- dime-es)

He had been drawing forever. We have a huge pile of papers. He let me reuse his drawings as stepping stones. Very environmentally friendly son. Thanks!
I set him the challenge of crossing the shark infested sea to get to the dry land without being eaten. He changed the story to crocodimes as these are his favorite chasing thing to be scared and running away from….other than monsters.

Here he is balancing on a sheet of construction paper A4 size……about to enter infested waters. Little brother tore up junk mail paper to keep himself amused so they became the crocs on the move.

He felt the boats had to touch…

Little brother still manufacturing ‘crocs’

Jumping…

… after some time…..

He made it!

The next picture should have been the leap to safety but little brother came to claim the boats as crocodiles. I had to make the mad dash over and that was that!

This kept us all amused for over half an hour.

He hopped, jumped, leaped, added more stepping stones, tried to go faster and then finally wanted to race me. His brother made a huge pile of crocodiles that filled the floor and just stepped on these. I had the feeling he was looking at us both and thinking…..you just have to do this it’ s much easier.

Other things to do

• make the paper smaller than A4
• have team races with play dates or family
• Try strips (rectangles) instead of squares
• play a song and see if you can get across before the song finishes
• make the infested area smaller/bigger over obstacles like cushions (mountains) etc

Before you throw away that paper, junk mail, flyer or your umpteenth bit of art from your little one- Challenge them to a crocodime race! You’ll have a lot of fun and laughter!