Let's Explore - Creative Activities for Preschoolers

Operation Playtime

Melitsa at Play-Activities is organizing 12 days of unplugged play at her blog.  She started yesterday with ideas for block play, and continued today with nursery rhymes.  I'll be contributing a guest post on Saturday, too!

If you are looking for some new ways to play or just want to be reminded of the simple, classic activities we sometimes forget, I encourage you to check it out!

Happy Playing!

Making Clean-Up Time More Fun!

Hello there!  I can tell it's the New Year, 'cause I've got cleaning and organizing on my mind.  Every night, before bath and bedtime stuff, the girls clean up their playroom and bedroom (with some Mommy and Daddy help usually...).  Since it is part of our routine, there is usually no fuss about it.  Sometimes, though, we need a little something extra to make the cleaning-up not such a chore.  Here's a few things that we like to do:

• Use a timer:  Set a timer and see if you can complete the clean-up (or a portion of the clean-up) before the timer goes off.  We usually can get it done in 15 minutes.  Some kids love this, but others find it too stressful (like my 6-year-old!).
• Roll the dice:  If it looks like a game, my girls are ready to play!  Write 6 jobs down on a piece of paper, such as put away the stuffed animals or tidy the art table.  Everyone rolls the dice and does their job.  You could also assign each number to a certain area of the house or room.
• Spin the spinner:  Same concept as the dice game -- make your own spinner and fill the spaces with rooms, jobs, or chores.  Everyone spins and gets busy!
• Music:  This is probably the easiest and most effective around here -- put on some happy music and dance your way through clean-up.  I'm thinking the girls and I could even put together a clean-up time playlist for the iPod.

I'd love to hear about the ways you have fun during clean-up time!

Happy playing & cleaning!

Idea Cards and The Junk Box

Hello there!  We are fully relishing our winter break around here - there have been a lot of pajama days!  While the girls are enjoying all their new goodies, I have been busy sorting, rearranging, and tidying toys, clothes, art supplies, etc.  It always feels so good to freshen things up.

I tend to rotate the toys from the closet to the more visible shelves in the playroom and back again.  It's amazing how fun something is when you haven't played with it for a month.  Still, I notice the girls often playing with the same toys and forgetting about lots of other treasures around the house.  I decided to basically take inventory, and write down all our toys (and some lesser-used art supplies) on cut-up index cards.  I'm calling them Idea Cards.

I put all the cards in a bucket.  When the girls are looking for something to do, or when I hear more squabbling than playing, they can choose a card from the bucket.  

Even better, they can choose 2 cards and then come up with a way to play with those 2 items together.  I think they will love the challenge of finding new ways to explore their toys.  Wood blocks + playdough?  Playsilks and puzzles?  Such fun! :)

I'd love to hear your ideas on managing toys and making them accessible for your kiddos, too.

One of the Idea Cards in our bucket is our Junk Box.  It's a great go-to place for sparking creativity, plus I have a place to put all those cardboard rolls and plastic lids.  You can read more about what I put in our Junk Box over at Blissful Kids today!

Happy Playing!

Collections

My girls love to collect and gather.  There is always a pile of sticks and rocks at my front door.  There's usually a bucket of little animals traveling from the house to the car and back again.  They each began focusing on collecting a certain item - buttons for Natalie, rocks for Delaney.  Collections need a place to be stored, so we made labels (cardstock + clear contact paper) for divided bead containers and the girls have been happily filling them with their treasures.

Besides the simple fun of collecting these treasures, I love to use the girls' collections to practice counting, sorting and describing.  We can sort by size, color, shape, texture.  We can count our treasures and put them in groups of 10.  We can write about our favorite item in the collection and why we like it.  Natalie has big plans to take a photo of each button and create a "catalog" with photos and descriptions of her entire collection.

I've been wanting to set up some "nature jars" too, where the girls can display assorted shells, rocks, sticks, etc.  Just need to find the right spot to put them (away from the puppy!).

Do your kids like to collect things?  How do you store or display your kids' collections?

Happy Collecting!

Activities for Traveling

Planning a holiday road trip this year?  Heading out on a plane with your little ones?  I received an e-mail (Hi Hannah!) asking what kinds of activities we bring to keep the kiddos busy while traveling.  Here's some of our favorites:

• pipe cleaners and beads
• new music and/or audio books (from iTunes or the library)
• clipboards
• plain paper
• coloring book pages (I usually rip out a bunch of pages from different books or print pages from the internet)
• colored pencils
• stickers (my girls love the colored dots from the office supply store)
• Color Wonder books and markers
• magnet board or small cookie sheet + letter/number magnets
• books, especially character ones, flap books, and I Spy books
• small animals or characters
• Wikki Stix
• sets of picture cards or flash cards 
• foil (for making sculptures)
• lacing cards
• yarn + cereal for stringing (such as fruit loops)
• Magnadoodle
• vinyl sticker play scenes
• finger puppets
• car bingo (make your own with things your kids will see/recognize)
• Leapster

I usually put a bin of activities in the back seat between the girls.  I also keep a few surprise things up front to dole out as needed.  Sometimes on the ride home we decorate postcards or draw/write about our favorite things from the trip and make a trip journal.

I'm sure all you moms + dads have even more traveling tricks up your sleeves!  What keeps your kids busy on the road?

Our Art Gallery

I am so pleased with how this art display turned out!  I saw the idea in the October issue of Family Fun Magazine.  They had taken some mismatched frames (without glass), painted them all red, and hung them in a grouping on the wall.  My hubby was nice enough to build me a few frames and spray paint them (in American Traditions apple green spray paint from Joann's).  Each frame has a small nail with a binder clip hanging from it, so we can change our display as much as we want!

What fun ways do you display your kiddo's art work?

Time for Preschool!

Now that Natalie is all settled in Kindergarten, it's Delaney's turn to head back to preschool on Thursday.  We attend a parent co-op preschool, where the moms/dads/grandparents work in the classroom with the teacher on a rotating schedule.  I absolutely love being so involved and getting to know all the kids and parents.  I also serve on the board (President this year!), so I get to be involved in all the logistical details of the preschool as well.  It's a nurturing, hands-on, play-based preschool and we love it!

This will be Delaney's third year at this preschool.  We did a Mommy & Me toddler class there when she was two, and last year she went two days a week.  I didn't actually start leaving her until April, though.  She just wasn't ready, and maybe I wasn't either!  This year she is going 4 days a week, one of which I will be working in the class.  We are starting this school year with a huge advantage - she knows the school, she knows the teacher, and she knows most of the kids in her class.  Still, I have been doing a few extra things to help ease her into this transition once again.

• Playing school - Delaney loves to pretend, so this works for her.  Sometimes I'm the teacher, sometimes she is.  We do a mini school day, role-playing things like circle time, moving from station to station, going to the potty, asking for help, joining in with other friends, etc.  Sometimes our dollhouse people or other characters go to school too.
• Making up stories - When we're in the car or the bath or other mellow times, I tell stories that start, "Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Delaney.  One day, she went to preschool..."  Then I tell about her day, helping her visualize all the fun things she will do at preschool.  She *loves* these stories, and Natalie wants kindergarten ones too. :)
• Drawing pictures - We have been drawing pictures of all the different things Delaney likes to do at preschool, such as swinging, eating lunch, painting at the easel, bringing Corduroy home, etc.  We're drawing them on small pieces of paper (4" x 6") so I can put them in a small, inexpensive photo album.  We'll add to this throughout the year with drawings, photos, and some dictations too.
• A bit of comfort - In my Kindergarten Transition tips, I shared our little photo cards that the girls hook to their backpacks.  We'll probably give Delaney's a little update with a fresh photo or two.  She loves this so much she sleeps with it sometimes!

Do you have a little one heading off to preschool?  Do you do preschool at home with your child?  I'd love to hear how you get your school year off to a great start! :)

Door Hanger Helper

I found a plain wood door hanger in my craft supplies and decided to make the girls a little reminder list of their getting ready jobs for morning and night.  I am really happy with how it turned out, and the girls love it.  They take after their mommy -- list and schedule-lovers!

    

To make it, I traced the shape onto 2 pieces of scrapbook paper, cut them out, and used Mod Podge to glue them on.  I printed out the lists, attached them with Mod Podge, and then sealed the whole thing with one more coat of Mod Podge.  Go easy on the final coat so your printer ink doesn't smear.  Super simple and super helpful!

Our Top 10 Keep-The-Kids-Busy Activities

We always enjoy trying new things, but I also depend on my tried-and-true activities a lot.  Especially when the whining starts to get out of control or I really need to start dinner or I just need to sit down for 10 minutes with no one talking to me!

Right now, these are the things that are working for us -- easy to set-up, easy to clean-up, and easy for my girls to work on independently for at least 20-30 minutes:

• Beads and pipe cleaners -- Lacing on yarn or string often requires mommy's help, at least for my four-year-old.  Pipe cleaners are easy to hold, and my girls make bracelets, magic wands, flowers, and other random sculptures.  We did this in the car on the way to Disneyland, too!
• Homemade playdough -- If you haven't tried making playdough, you should!  The texture is so wonderful and it takes just minutes to make.  My girls love working with it when its warm (but not too hot!).  Throw out some rolling pins, cookie cutters, shells, rocks, straws, candles, toy cars, kitchen gadgets, etc. and let the fun begin!  The recipe I use is here.
• Stickers -- My four-year-old has a bit of a sticker obsession.  I have to buy them in bulk!  We use office labels and colored dots too.  Try writing your child's name on a large piece of paper, and then she can stick stickers all along the letter shapes.
• Small books -- I staple up a big pile of tiny blank books.  Use colored paper for the cover, if you like.  Set those out with some colored pencils or markers, some stickers or magazines for cutting, and let the book-making begin!
• Collages -- Such a simple activity, yet my girls never tire of making collages!  A big pile of "stuff," glue or a glue stick, and some paper is all you need.  My girls especially love wrapping paper pieces, fabric, ribbon, foam shapes, pictures from greeting cards, and buttons.  They also like it when I cut the collage paper into a shape, such as a big heart, house, star, or tree.
• Water play -- At the sink, outside with a paintbrush, or even hopping in to the tub for a midday bath -- water seems to perk up the grumpiest of kiddos!  Add in measuring cups, sponges, bath crayons or paints, chalk, scoops, funnels...you get the idea!  Of course, water play still requires some close supervision, but I can do a chore or flip through a magazine if I like!
• Unusual toy combinations -- Sometimes forgotten toys can have a new life when combined with something unpredictable.  Try legos and play food, little animals and muffin tins, or shovels and magnetic letters.  Let those little minds come up with something creative!
• Forts and tents -- This is a no-brainer, right? :)  Throw some pillows, a couple flashlights, and some new library books inside and hunker down for the afternoon.  Maybe make s'mores when you're done inside!
• Pretend play prop box -- I have a large rolling bin from IKEA that I use to rotate various pretend play themes.  Right now, we have the Garden/Flower Shop props, which has been going strong all summer.  I really thought they would tire of it sooner, but there's something about those piles of fake flowers that keep them entertained.  Anyway, I am going to put the flower shop away for a while, and bring out something new.  I'm thinking maybe a play school prop set, since Natalie is heading off to Kindergarten, and Delaney will be missing her!
• Junk box -- Similar to making collages, using the junk box never gets old for my girls.  Of course, the contents are always changing, so it's exciting to see what's inside.  Things like cut up cereal boxes, drink holders, cards & envelops, bubble wrap, or frozen juice container lids become art or get incorporated into some sort of play.

I actually keep a little list of easy things like these in my desk drawer. Really helpful for those times when I am drawing a blank! :)  I hope you'll share your favorite easy activities, too!

Happy playing!

The Chore Bucket

It's true. My kids ask to do chores. Actually, they beg to do chores. Part of it I pass off to their ages - at almost 4 and 5 1/2, helping with the housework is still fun and novel. However, their continued enthusiasm day after day I attribute to The Chore Bucket.

Simple coffee can, lightly decorated, filled with colored papers, each one listing a specific chore job. They love it! Our goal is to do it once a day, M-F, sometimes on the weekends too. They are required to do one, but almost always choose to do 2 or 3. Sometimes we have "paydays," where I pay quarters for any chores done after the initial required one. I used to have cards in the bucket that said "Free Day," but I had to take them out because my kids actually cried if they pulled that card. What?

I presented this at a Kindergarten Readiness workshop at my girls' preschool. It was one of many ideas for encouraging independence, teamwork, initiative, etc. Many families at our school went home and made their own chore buckets and have been enjoying the same success with eager helpers!

Here are the chores we currently have in our bucket. Sometimes I add new ones, or take ones out that don't seem to be working.

• dust a room of your choice
• tidy the videos & dust the TV area
• help with laundry
• clean the bedroom & playroom closet mirrors
• clean the art table
• find 10 things to put away
• dust the living room
• look through a cookbook and choose a recipe for later in the week
• tidy the bookshelves
• clean off the refrigerator
• tidy bathroom counter and wipe down
• check snack cabinet and tell mom/dad what to add to list
• put away all the stuff on the front benches plus shoes
• help mom change the sheets on your bed
• wipe down the kitchen table and chairs
• help with dishes
• mom's choice

Keep in mind, they do not to these chores perfectly, but I do expect them to take their time and do a good job. If you have older kids, you could obviously use more complicated chores. The other plus is that I feel like I have to be a good role model and do my own chores while they are working on theirs. The girls have also decided to make a special chore bucket for chores they like to do with Daddy. It has things in it like sweep the front sidewalk, pull 10 weeds, help in the garage, fill the bird feeder, etc.

Hope you have a bit of fun doing chores! :)

Check out the hundreds (literally!) of other Works for me Wednesday tips over at the Rocks in My Dryer blog.