December 23rd, 2010 12 days of Christmas family activity Posted by Melitsa in Education, language, play activities, pretend play, Roundups, Seasonal play, Sites to visit, Thought of the week

The popular song at Christmas is  the 12 day of Christmas .From what I understand, the song was said as a round during celebrations after Christmas. Each person had to remember to add a new verse and remember what came before. If you forgot you had to do a forfeit. Sounds like a fun game!

During the long days of Christmas holiday we’re looking for a together family activity. There’s a lot of imagination at Christmas time with Santa, Christmas movies that many things seems magical to the little ones and perhaps a little far away or beyond them. They are creative too and we can encourage them by providing fun opportunities to be silly as well as use their environment.

It’s that looking at everyday things around us  and playing with them in our homes and area that we want to cultivate in our children. Let them problem solve by finding things and using them/seeing them for use in other ways.

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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

October 18th, 2010 Monday links Posted by Melitsa in play activities, Roundups, Sites to visit, Thought of the week

Hope you had a playful weekend. Now we’re into the week and you’re planning your play activities, I ‘d love to show you some favourites from the last week.

• Have Fun at home | How to Engage your Preschooler and your Toddler at the Same Time
• The Adventures of Bear | Artists and Art Week 5 – Paul Klee Part 2
• Frugal Family Fun | Owl Family Play Set
• Memetales | Paint with bubbles – Water theme craft and books
• The 2010 Children’s Book Week pack Download the 2010 Best Book Guide
• Don’t forget the September Raising Playful Tots Index is ready.

You’ll find 100 amazing play educators from all around the world. There are lots of new entries and movement in the list. Bookmark the index for the holidays. You’re bound to find some play activities that quick easy and fun. Thanks to Planning Queen who co created this list.

Keep on playing!

Photo credit:spookyriggs

October 4th, 2010 Monday links Posted by Melitsa in Good reads, play activities, Roundups, Sites to visit, Thought of the week

Easing into another week with the children, I have some links to share.  I’ve been inspired by so many posts, articles and links this week. Here are a few of them to get you going.

So grab yourself a cuppa/smoothie or whatever your passion and enjoy these links.

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September 27th, 2010 4 ways to make afterschool connections Posted by Melitsa in Education, play activities, Roundups

New routines usually take a while before everyone feels at ease with them. Starting school routines are no different. As I talked about in my recent post about after school activities to reconnect with your school aged child,  my enthusiasm at seeing them and the activities we plan to do and the tiredness and hunger they greet me with was leading to problems.

It was a mismatch.

I know we needed to change our routine from what we did before to something entirely different that would fit this purpose more.

Here are 4 awesome ideas from readers of the blog and followers on Twitter.

jdaniel4smom @playactivities We cook together. I do real cooking and JDaniel cooks with bubbles in a tub. He has a drawer for his cooking tools. [other times]..We do Starfall.com and ReadingKingdom.com together.

nurturestore @playactivities We love some kind of sensory play after sch, esp playdough, to be creative, play alongside siblings but also chill out

Mum_TheMadHouse @playactivities We have been reading as the boys have been to mentally tired or going to the park

Melissa We hang out and eat snacks and I make my girls have room time to decompress from the day. It seems to be working really well for them. Then, after some time playing or reading, they are refreshed and much more pleasant to be around!

NB: I missed taking these off my @mentions on Twitter. I had no way of finding them if I didn’t know your username. So apologies if I missed you off.

I’ve had a chance to try out these ideas at home over the past few weeks and wow they have made a difference. I had to be more organised and have the snack ready along with  a drink when they get home or on the way home if we walk. What we do at home has changes and is a little flexible but everything seems so much easier after a little decompressing time and food.

Thanks for the ideas and keep them coming.

Photo credit: ? Ambjer ?

What do you do after school to make a connection with your young  school aged child who is really tired from school?

Via email:  Julie S Well, its just morning preschool for us right now. But we go directly to the school play ground for 30 minutes (before the big kids come out after lunch) and play one-on-one. I do a few playground exercises I found in Parents Magazine (9/2010) and follow the leader (she’s the leader), then we do 3 laps around the sandbox (very large area) and then get back in the car and have a snack ready for her (water or juice or milk). Good time by all. Yes we have done a few things like StarFall too!
thanks for your blog!

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