Whole Child Development
Spin art is a childhood favorite. I don’t think I’ve ever met a child who doesn’t want to take a shot at it. I think it’s interesting that even the kids who often don’t want to sit down and work on a static art project, suddenly come alive when you introduce movement art like this.
As I’m watching the leaves turn bright red on the mountain near my home, I thought I should share some of my favorite fall activities. I listed study themes for fall, and accompanying activities over here. Just to highlight a few of my personal favorites that I can’t wait to get into our activity line up:
Children are natural scientists. “What is that?” “What’s this do?” “Why does that happen?”
(Update: I now have FOUR boys, but my feelings about this remain the same.)
I have three boys. My husband likes to say we’re specializing. So of course I often find myself tripping over light sabers, stepping on Lego’s, and dodging Nerf darts. But the toy that sometimes surprises visitors to our home is a couple of baby dolls. Why would dolls have a place in a “testosterhome” like ours? [Read more…]
One of the things that makes young artists so great, is that they are concerned more with the whole experience than with the product alone. Expand your next painting experience by trying out these tips that encourage children to use more than just their eyes to experience art. (Originally posted January 2010.)
If you’d like to incorporate a few more senses into your painting projects, add some regular salt generously to your tempera paint and use as fingerpaint or with a brush. The resulting project will have a bit more texture and grit that becomes even more visible as it dries. [Read more…]
Water is everywhere in our lives. Without much thought, we bathe in it, drink it, cook with it, and wash our hands over and over on a daily basis. And in spite of its everyday status, there’s still something mesmorizing about it, especially for children. They’ll scoop, pour, and explore, over and over and over again.
Christie Burnett is an accomplished Aussie blogger who specializes in early education and child development. Sometime between running her exceptional blog, Childhood 101, and writing a fantastic ebook, she’s also just produced the first issue of a wonderful e-zine, Play. Grow. Learn. Read on to get to know more about Christie and this new resource for parents and educators. (I only wish you could hear her delightful Aussie accent as well. Go ahead and add your own if you like.) [Read more…]
We all know about Jack and Jill and their unfortunate experience. Wouldn’t it have been nice if they’d just had running water?
I’m so excited for Nicole (who said: “Thanks for the giveaway! I am so impressed by the blog tour and look forward to following Not Just Cute going forward!“). She’s the winner of the Playful Learning giveaway! Don’t worry, the rest of you can pick up Playful Learning at Amazon (it’s absolutely worth it). And you can still register for the fabulous Playful Learning ecourse, which starts September 14th, by clicking here.
I also wanted to share with you a few more resources available now. You could take advantage of all four of these for just $10 total! (In fact, one offers the possibility of actually making money!)
I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was excited to share a new book, Playful Learning
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