My boys love slime! (And really, so do I!) Whether it’s playing the part of radioactive sludge engulfing their action figures, an alien blob, or just an enjoyable home gym for their fingers, one batch can keep them engaged for hours.
Use These 5 Tips to Boost Your Child’s Learning Skills While Shopping
The following is a guest post from Rachel Speal. Rachel is an educational therapist who has over 20 years experience working with kids and adults of all ages. Her specialty is disabilities on the autistic spectrum, and language delays. You can find more hands on learning games at her site Teaching the Future.
Presenting: DIY Puppet Theaters
Today I’m over at my friend Steph’s place, Modern Parents Messy Kids, sharing some fun and easy ways to create your own puppet show theaters. Here’s a taste:
The Simplest Way to Face Paint
Due to the enormous amount of fun we’ve been having with face painting around here lately, I thought I’d let you in on a little secret I learned about a decade ago while teaching at the lab school. If you purchase an inexpensive set of Watercolor Colored Pencils
Here’s just a sample of where these pencils, plus a little imagination, have taken us in the past few days:
Time Timer Video and Giveaway!
I had orginally planned on including the Time Timer in the First Friday Q&A, but it just didn’t seem to jive with the hot topic I ended up with for the Q&A feature, so I’m giving it a post of its own.
This is one of my favorite time management tools for kids. It’s a great way to help children grasp the concept of time. Check it out in this video:
Enchanted Learning: The Benefits of Fantasy Play for Children
I’m sharing some of my old favorites while I’m away this week. This one was originally posted July 6, 2010.
Many parents have come to their child’s preschool teacher with the same concern. “It seems like my child plays dress-up all day at preschool. What could he possibly be learning from that?” The question is understandable – what does he learn from leaping around with his cape fluttering behind him? And yet, the question is somewhat ironic, as these very parents likely spent much of their childhood engaged in the same kind of play.
I personally still have vivid memories of my own childhood, as my playmates and I snuck past sleeping giants, swung through the trees in the Amazon, and set sparkling lures for fairies. In fact, my playmates themselves included one conjured character named Cheney, a girl who lived in the clouds.
Serendipitous Seed Science
I’m sharing a few old favorites while I’m away this week. This one was originally posted way back in June of 2009.
It’s only June, and my preschool age son is already antsy for school. He asked me to “play preschool” with him yesterday. A convenient request, since I’m pretty good at playing preschool. He’s watched the show Sid the Science Kid on PBS (a great show for kids and teachers alike), and wanted to do a “Super Fab Lab” science activity like they do. He was in luck! I just happened to have such an activity on hand! It might be one you’d like to recreate as well!
Sensory Play Inspiration to Get You Going
Children are natural-born explorers. Present them with a bin of dry beans and random tubes, and they will dive in hands first. They will manipulate the medium — scooping, pouring, burying — creating stories and structures and, oh yeah, brain connections.
Sensory play is a powerful and alluring learning experience for children. Last year, I wrote this post explaining why sensory play is so important for preschoolers and this one about how to find sensory media inexpensively. Recently, a reader commented asking for a quick-reference list of sensory media as well as ideas for tools and storage tips for those who might just be starting out with their sensory play adventures.
The first thing I would point out is that sensory play is happening all around you, whether you have a dedicated sensory table or not. Children will naturally utilize their senses to investigate the world around them. And because they use their senses to explore everything and anything, that means almost everything and anything can be used in a planned sensory play activity. Notice the things they are drawn to in their impromptu sensory play. To get your own creative juices going, here are some of the basics of sensory play to get you started. [Read more…]
Magic Potions and Fizzing Formulas- Getting Kids’ Attention With Chemistry!
Calling all mad scientists!
Here’s a formula for fun! I have yet to see a child not get excited by this activity! While it has many developmental objectives in and of itself, it is also a great attention-getter for a variety of other activities. Let’s talk about the how-to first, and the when-to later.
Play: The Key to Creativity
It’s time for the final installment of my series on creativity for Willow Creek Pediatrics. Here’s a little snippet:
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