All children love to be creative. Some of them we have to help them along. Many just can’t help themselves and are eager to dress up or act. There’s no reason to think certain pretend play ideas are just for girls or boys. This is their time to experiment and try out ideas and make sense of the world.
My boys love to dress up in costumes. We have two huge stacks of clothes. Yes we are the family that has a superhero who shops groceries with his mom.
Just like outdoor play and gross motor play, finding time to encourage or allocate time for pretend play isn’t always a priority.
Inspire your children to try some pretend play. As usual push those boundaries only if you’re children are willing and try something different. Or else carve out some pretend play time.
Ideas
Read a story and extend the end of it into their adventure.
Start a pretend story you’re making up complete with actions. Ask them to join in.
Get a favourite toy and use it to start a play scene
Provide a selection of unstructured items ( material, natural objects etc) Invite them to go play and see where it takes them.
Set up an unstructured toy area ( dolls, train set etc)
Join in and extend the play by asking questions” Where should we go” I’m hungry- what shall we eat? Shall we stop? etc
We’ve lived in Colorado now for over a year. Being a military family we’ve lived in a few places. When we did our play audit we noticed we didn’t spend much time or nearly as much time as I’d like or have done in the past outside. Partly it’s the new area; pregnancy & now newborn- but excuses aside I’m looking for some ways to motivate us outside more.
I think this video response is apt for winter.
Don’t get me wrong we do go outside especially to the park and on our bikes…….just not for long. The boys are very active inside. Trying for a little more balance and direct that fantastic energy outside.
What do you do? How do you encourage outside play? Do the kids have to go out everyday?
Ideas
Think about the answers
What gross motor activities do your kids love to do? cycling? scooters? tag? teeter tooters? gardening?
What do they do unstructured play? outdoor toys and equipment?
Do you like walks; going for hikes; trip to the park?
Others???????
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Hi! My name is Amy Anderson. I have a background in elementary education, and currently am a stay-at-home mom of two girls. I am very involved in my daughters’ parent participation preschool and kindergarten classroom. I share many of our creative play and explorations at my blog and offer a variety of creative products to inspire imagination, discovery, and play at my online shop, Let’s Explore. I am very happy to be sharing a really fun and easy project with you today!
My girls and I love to explore painting with a variety of brushes and objects. One of our favorite explorations is with gadgets and tools from the kitchen. So, gather up some washable paint and an assortment of things from the kitchen. Here are some ideas to get you started:
potato masher
whisk
fork
honey dipper
spatula
sponges and scrubbies
bottle brush
cookie cutters
melon baller
chopsticks
Try spreading a thin layer of paint on a paper plate or tray. Your child can then dip a gadget in the paint and make a print on the paper. Some tools, like honey dippers and whisks, are also fun to dip into a cup of paint and then dab and roll on the paper. Experiment!
Most kitchen tools clean-up well afterwards and you can continue using them in the kitchen. However, I also like to keep a box of kitchen gadgets that I don’t use anymore or that I find inexpensively for anytime painting and less worry about clean-up.
Have fun!
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We love reading. We also take it for granted. We all read but how much time? Bedtime only/sometimes? For a project only or just for fun? Whatever the reason- take today as book marathon day.
I very much enjoyed The Read-Aloud Handbook. Which led us to focus on…reading stories aloud even as they get past 6. We also love audio stories and hope our kids will continue to love listening to stories as we do.
The BG has almost daily reading books from Kindie to read. I wanted him to still enjoy reading even though he’s learning. I didn’t want him put off reading by the struggle of it and missing out on the fun of the words.
The MO seems to have an insatiable appetite for books. We say, “Don’t sit down for long otherwise MO will bring you a book!” and it’s true.
The LO has realised his fingers can be directed and screw up and grab really well so he’s truly getting into books too. So with all this reading going on I need to find fun books to read as well. This compendium has 44 stories. Yes you read right 44- try buying 44 books separately for around $40.
The 1000 picture book blog post has been playing on my mind. My date planner is always nearby so I’m recording our books in there on each day. I’m not aiming for 1000 picture books but recording what books we read seems a fun thing to do. When I went home I was able to show my oldest some of my reading books still on my shelf in my bedroom. I’d love to be able to show the boys the appetite they had for books when they are older. I hope it’s still remains.
This is one of those unplugged activities we all do. Let’s change it a little bit and do something different than usual.
Ideas
Make a fort and read under the sheets or under the table.
Choose a theme of books and read. ( i.e. poetry, rhyme, dinosaurs, princesses, Ancient Rome, minibeasts, Thomas the tank etc)
Read for an amount of time rather than an amount of books ( or the other way around)
Let the youngest choose the most books and the oldest choose the least.
YOU get to choose the books instead of the kiddos
THEY get to choose the books from a selection
Download an audiobook from Audible.com
Listen to a story from Storynory.com
Visit the library and find an audio story/ and written story combination.
and many more……….
Share your ideas
What are your favourite books? How do you keep reading really interesting and fun as the kids get older? What read alouds or picture books are your favourites? Do you have goals like 1000 books in 2009 or 12 chapter books in 12 months; go to the library every week?
NB: I know that ‘marathon’ suggests a race of reading 100s of books. That’s not my idea. More- reading more than you would usually do/doing something different. Instead inspiring and promoting reading as a direct activity rather than a fill in activity ( got 10 minutes) or bolt on activity ( bedtime).
Put your thoughts in a blog post and use that link, not your blog, into Mr Linky. We want to go right to your post
Add a comment here as well if you’d like.
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This is Amber from Because Babies Grow Up. My educational background is in child development. After college I worked with infants performing developmental assessments. From those assessments, I learned a lot of fun mini-activities at every stage that kids love. I now have two girls and have enjoyed watching them discover the joy of play. I’m excited to share one of our favorite play activities with Operation Playtime.
Today we’ll head into the kitchen and mix up a batch of cookies! This is my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe ever. Whenever I talk about cooking with Sammi (my 2 1/2 year old) I typically hear these responses: It takes so much longer to cook with kids helping; It is so much messier when the kids help; I don’t know how my kids can help.
Here are some ideas to combat those potential setbacks:
Set aside extra time to bake. Think of this as any other play activity. Let it take as long as it takes!
Plan for messes. Keep paper towels, washcloths, or sponges close at hand to quickly wipe up the messes. It’s so much easier to clean up as you go so it’s not so overwhelming when you’re done.
Making cooking a play activity takes a little extra prep, but it’s worth it!
Give your kids wiggle room. Let them practice pouring, scooping, stirring. You’ll never know what they can do until you let them try.
Cooking promotes both cognitive development as well as motor development. Kids are increasing their understanding of ingredients-separate things come together to make something else-and measurements. At the same time, they’re practicing fine and gross motor movements: holding a measuring spoon and pouring it into a bowl, stirring, scooping flour or sugar with a measuring cup.
I have to credit my husband with this, but since we started cooking with Sammi, she can now crack an egg, open it and dump the egg into a bowl. To top it off, she rarely gets any egg shells in with the egg. I know that the only reason she can do that at 2 1/2 years is because we trusted her enough to let her try. I cleaned a lot of egg up off the floor, but now she has a lot of confidence in her abilities and loves to cook.
If this is your first experience letting your child cook with you, I caution you to not expect it to go perfectly. It may not even go smoothly! But, if you remember that it’s play and the process is the activity, then it can be a lot of fun. Your kids will be so excited to do something they’ve never done before, especially something they see you do all the time.
Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies (from Crisco)
3/4 C (cup)Butter flavored Crisco shortening
1 1/4 C firmly packed light brown sugar
2 T (tablespoon) milk
1 T vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 C all purpose flour
1 t (teaspoon) salt
3/4 t baking soda
1 C semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 C coarsely chopped pecans (optional)
Heat oven to 375° F.
Combine shortening, brown sugar, milk and vanilla in bowl. Mix until well blended.
Beat egg into creamed mixture.
Add flour, salt and baking soda. Mix into creamed mixture.
Stir in chocolate chips and pecan pieces.
Drop by the spoonful onto a cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 min. Remove from oven and let cool on cookie sheet 1-2 minutes. Remove cookies from baking sheet and place on cooling rack.
Enjoy with a glass of milk! (I give Sammi the beater to eat while I drop the cookies on the baking sheet. Her attention span for this activity is pretty much up once the chocolate chips come out!)
Ideas
Share your cooking stories. What do you love or hate to do? Have you tried baking but not helping with a main meal? or visa versa.
Put your thoughts in a blog post and use that link, not your blog, into Mr Linky. We want to go right to your post
Add a comment here as well if you’d like.
Follow the other Operation Playtimers and comment on their #OPT post.
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. Which led us to focus on…reading stories aloud even as they get past 6. We also love audio stories and hope our kids will continue to love listening to stories as we do.
. This is our current popular read.
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