October 12th, 2010 Ideas for block play and displaying nature Posted by Melitsa in Outdoor play, pretend play, Seasonal play

Make a creative display for your Autumn finds outside with easy to find items.
Read  my post about how to make your own leaf plate at Blissfully Domestic

Block Play :: Helping Your Kids Learn with Blocks
Blocks- you either love them or are totally indifferent to them.

Whether they are scattered around your house or piled in a dusty corner of the playroom, these are one of the most versatile play objects you can have in your home……………….. Read more about how you can help your Kids learn with blocks visit my post over at Steady Mom

September 28th, 2010 9 must haves for your dressing up box Posted by Melitsa in play activities, pretend play, Thought of the week

Children love to dress up and pretend play.

Do you have a box or a corner for your pretend play dressing up area?

Top 9 must have items for the dressing up box

Read More…

Technorati Tags: dressing up box

September 17th, 2010 The power of influence in the Early years Posted by Melitsa in Articles, Education, play activities, pretend play, Thought of the week

Scene: The BG, MO and LO playing in close proximity on the floor.

BG: Vrooom see it’s taking off now [saying to the MO].  Character 1= legoship with wheels”You’ll never catch us now” . Character 2= farmer who is playing a bigger role today, “This is not the end!”

MO: Wait….the boat. It’s a boat.

BG: No we changed it remember. It’s a ship now.

MO: NO…….[getting up and yelling]

BG: OK… calm down it’s a ship now and next time it’s a boat. Alright?

MO………………… pause…………….  weighing up this response.

Enter LO who grabs the spaceship/boat. Promptly takes off the wheels and throws the wheels one way and the farmer the other, then runs.

MO and BG  take off running after the LO …………

Lots of shrieking and laughing from the LO .

MO gets to the LO first.  The BG rounds the corner and gives him a big hug and wrestles him to the floor.

Lots of laughing and screaming from the LO and the MO looks on.

BG: You silly. Don’t be taking out boat! Don’t be taking out boat! Don’t be taking out boat!

MO Yeah it’s our spaceship! spaceship spaceship spaceship

Scenes like these happen often… Here I was impressed with many things and how things played out and a few things surprised me.

However many times you separate your fighting children what words you use are powerful because they will repeat them back. Whatever you model they become

Children surprise you with their words and actions you least expect. Sometimes you smile and many times you’ll be disappointed.

They’ll handle things differently than we would like but they have to find their way too. Stumbling at home, finding their voice, being assertive, learning to be flexible I’m glad the boys feel safe to do this type of learning at home.

After this little event I did speak to the MO and the BG at different times during the day. Nothing heavy but wanted to talk about what had happened?

Would you do anything differently? | Did he fill your bucket ? |Do you fill his bucket?

I don’t do this for every event. We are a bigger influence than we believe on our children and especially what comes out of their mouths.

We focus a lot on play activities here but if the children can’t get on with each other how can play occur.

Whatever happened this morning or yesterday? Let’s use our power of influence on purpose today.

August 12th, 2010 5 ways to calm the unsettledness of moving with children Posted by Melitsa in Articles, Education, pretend play, Roundups, Seasonal play, Thought of the week

Traveling unsettles children. They are out of their routines and everything is just different. We can’t always bend enough for their needs and that inflexibility leads to conflict.
We’ve just had one of these periods of traveling. Things are not as we expected, which is fine and normal. How would we really know how things would be? We’re adjusting and reformulating plans. Hence my absence from Twitter, Blogging and Podcasting. Trying to get back on track for next week.
One day at a time……….

This is a post I had started for July .

Here are a few toys and ideas to keep them encouraged and positive about the future.
1. World puzzle

Showing them different places in the world.
2. Balls

3.

Only One You
4.pretend play

5. spinny critters

The boys have taken a keener interest in maps now that their dad is round the other side of the world. So we look at different map types every chance we get. Who can find dad the quickest etc?

Balls are a great way to burn off energy.

I need to talk about Only you another time. But it helps when you feel like another fish in a big pond and you know noone.

Kids act out and play through new situations. What better way than through a pretend play set from the region.

Laughing helps …………..we couldn’t have survived this move or traveling without having lots of opportunities for laughter. While the makers of spinny critters probably wanted matching parts. I know this was a super ice breaker and mood lifter when you showed a mixed up animal. “Horse-o-lion”. OK we loved the jokes

These are some of the things we have done recently. What do you do to prepare your child for long distance travel or moving? Would love to hear.

May 19th, 2010 Boxes make a great toy Posted by Melitsa in Memes, play activities, pretend play

This post is part of Childhood 101 ” We Play” Please visit the others and find out what they were playing this week.