Sticks, Stones and Pipe Cleaners

We brought some crafting outdoors today with this sticks, stones and pipe cleaners activity.  First we collected some sticks and rocks.  We added google eyes and pipe cleaners and the kids just started creating (me too!).  It was fun and somewhat relaxing to wind the pipe cleaners around the sticks.  There was no expectation for this craft just create.   

Here is her magic wand or pretend roasted marshmallow.

Here we added some dandelions to the pipe cleaner sticks.

Our collection of creations are above.  But my all time favorite is below... the selfie stick!  Get it - haha!  That was the first thing she made.  Cracks me up every time, I look at this picture #therealselfiestick.

Giant Animal Memory Game

Check out this fun, giant game of memory that you can print and play!  Get kids moving and thinking with this activity.  You can print the pages in color or black and white (color before you play).

Watch it in action below. Download the free Giant Animal Memory game at Growing Play.  

10 Suggestions for Parents to Help Children's Emotions Stay In Control

This is the second post regarding self regulation in children. The previous post discussed how we set children up for potential meltdowns with our hectic lifestyles.  As parents, we need to advocate for more unstructured, free play for children to help them to develop self regulation skills.  Here are a few changes that you can make to your family schedule to help children learn how to stay in control:

1.  Cut down on extra car rides - combine errands on the way home from work, don't sign up for extracurricular activities that are far from home or walk whenever possible.  

2.  Don't sign up young kids for too many organized activities.  Let younger children just play indoors or outside.  They will most likely get more physical activity playing outdoors when compared to waiting their turn at a team sport practice, dance class or language lessons.  For older kids, do not sign up for more than one activity at a time.  Make sure that children have some downtime each day.    

3.  Eat meals at home more often.  Pre-plan menus for the week to make it easier to prepare meals at home.  

4.  Stop hovering.  Back off from your children in certain situations.  This has been a big game changer for me.  Years ago, when our four oldest children were not school age I spent hours at the parks or story hours.  I hovered like crazy constantly telling my children to share, wait your turn, etc. It definitely makes for nice manners which is important but I interfered way too often, eliminating their ability to do that on their own.  

5.  Slow down and smell the roses!  I know life is busy, trust me!  Just try to occasionally slow down and let the children go at their own pace.  Maybe start with only 15 minutes a day where you just slow down, sit on the floor or dawdle behind them letting them lead.

6.  Unplug everyday for a certain amount of time.  Follow the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations to limit screen time to 2 hours or less per day.  This will be difficult at first if it is new to your family, but trust me over time your children will be more engaged, creative and independent.  They will be bored on occasion but will find things to do on their own.  Start out offering some suggestions of what to do when the screens go off ie. read, crafts, activity books, etc.      

7.  Create a structured homework routine to get it completed as efficiently as possible to allow for free time. Distractions will make it harder to complete the work so turn off the television, keep an organized space and encourage children to focus on their work.  Allow for physical activity prior to homework so the child's brain is ready to focus.

8.  Allow some extra time when you are getting ready, preparing meals or chore time.  Even 5 minutes more can be enough time for your child to tie their own shoes, put on their coat, wash a few dishes or pour a bowl of cereal.

9.  Kids should play outside every day for at least 6o minutes a day.  That's it, plain and simple - head outdoors!

10.  Advocate for more recess time at your children's school.  Here is a great article to get started with research to back up Why Recess Is Important for all children.

What Looks Like More Fun?

What do you think looks like more fun?  Choice A or choice B?  Question #2 is what do you think your children will remember when they get older?  Choice A or choice B?

I find it sad when I see children all circled around a smartphone or even worse every child just staring at their own cell phone.  Kids, including teenagers, should be socializing with each other and playing. Play should not constitute of only sharing funny videos or apps.  

Don't get me wrong - there is a place for technology in children's lives.  My concern is the overuse of technology while children are developing play skills, social skills and motor skills.  

I want my children to look back on their childhood and remember all the fun they had outdoors, camping, playing cards, board games, hiking, swimming, fishing, sledding, and exploring.  They may also remember watching movies together, playing Family Feud on the iPad, videoing crazy skits they created or geocaching. Technology does have a place in play development but it needs to be used wisely.  

Looking for a fun game to play when you turn off the electronics?  Check out Set the Record - download it right away and start playing! 

I Love Geocaching!

I just love geocaching.  If you are not familiar with geocaching you basically go on treasure hunts to look for hidden canisters using a GPS device.  We use an app on the iPhone to find our geocaches and log which ones we find.  This last find on Friday was one of our best ever  - it was hidden deep inside a hollowed out tree trunk.  We actually had to use a flashlight to locate it.  My brave 10 year old daughter is showing off her dirty arm - she had it so far inside the tree trunk to grab it.  We all cheered when she finally pulled it out.  There was a few trinkets in it.  We traded in our trinkets (some lucky coins, silly bandz, etc) and left with the trinkets from the canister.  When done, we placed it back inside the tree trunk and went off to find the next one.  We found 2 of the 3 we set out to find on Friday.

Here is why I love geocaching so much:
1.)  Great for all ages.  You have to walk slow to follow the directions of the compass on the iPhone app.  This makes it easy to allow the youngest in the family (18 months) to keep up walking on her own.  The older kids are so engaged looking for the hidden treasures.

2.)  Short or long hikes.  We check out the geocaches before we leave.  Some days we have time for longer hikes some days only short treks.  We can usually find geocaches that are close to the starting point to make it an easy walk if necessary.

3.)  Satisfaction of finding the treasure.  We have gone on a few hunts and come up empty handed.  So when you go looking for one and find it (especially a tough one like inside this tree trunk) you feel a real sense of accomplishment.  In this day and age where every kid gets a trophy, the trophy starts to not mean so much.  Therefore, even the times we don't find the treasure it is okay because it makes the times we do find it all the better!  I am still feeling excited about our find on Friday and it is Sunday night.

Anyway, if you are new to geocaching you can find out more information here.   If you are not new to it, I am hoping you are impressed with our tree trunk find using a flashlight!

Bug Hunting

Here is a fun outdoor activity to get children moving their whole bodies - finger, hands, legs and eyes.  Get more details how to play at GrowingPlay.com.

Play Outdoors - Flour Socks

Head outdoors with some flour socks today.  All you need to do is take an old sock and pour some flour into it (about 1/2 cup).  Tie off the sock. 

 

 The kids can whack it against the ground to leave marks on the pavement, trees or big rocks.  Might seem simple, but the kids love playing with these.

Try having a throwing contest.  It is super easy to keep track of where it lands because it leaves a mark.  Challenge yourself how far you can throw it. 

We have always used just flour in the socks, but if your child is into smashing, try putting some sidewalk chalk pieces into the socks.  Smash them up with a hammer or rock and use them to leave colored marks.  

This activity encourages:

•  physical activity
• outdoor play
• eye hand coordination
• upper extremity strengthening (all that whacking against the pavement can lead to stronger muscles!)

Want more ideas like this to get kids playing, moving and developing to the full potential?  Check out the book Play, Move, Develop.

Shared this at the Get Kids Moving Linky

Outdoor Math Hunt

Here is a fun outdoor game to practice math skills.  We have played this before using cards and vocabulary words but figured we would change it up and practice math.  It works just like a treasure hunt.

1.  Head outdoors with sidewalk chalk.  Write the first problem i.e. 4+4=.  Continue creating problems and write the answers with a new problem underneath.  At the end of the hunt, write the final answer in the circle and the word PRIZE below.   

2.  Now time to go on the hunt.  Start at the first problem 4+4=.  Run to find the correct answer (8) inside the circle.  When you get to the correct answer, solve the problem below the circle.  Go and find the correct answer.  Continue until the child find the answer with the word PRIZE below.

Get creative where you write the problems.  Spread them out - try writing on trees and rocks.  It will all erase with a good rain fall.

The activity encourages:

• math skills
• physical activity
• outdoor time 

Need more activities?  Check out Sidewalk Chalk Fun and Games or Scavenger Hunts. 

Keep Life Simple - Splash in Puddles

Outdoor Imagination Games

Finally, the weather appears to be getting a little nicer. After winter time, children just seem to relish in the sunshine and fresh air of the outdoors. Spring time is a great time to encourage your children to spend more time outdoors. Of course, you can do the obvious, bike rides, spring plantings, mud pies and puddles. Here are five outdoor imagination games that may spark some interest with children.

1. Outdoor Tea Party: Search the park or yard for smooth rocks to be the the plates. Find some circular rocks to be the tea cups. How about a fat stick for the tea pot. Serve up some acorn snacks as pretend food. Lay out a blanket and get the nature tea party started.

2. Nature Restaurant: Set up a pretend restaurant serving up mud pies, pine cones stew, rock soup, grass delight and more. Use your beach buckets for pots. Sticks can stir up all the special recipes.

3. Wilderness Family: Pretend that you live in the woods year round. Create a small fort outdoors in the woods or just drape a sheet on in between some bushes. Search for rocks, pine cones and grass to be your pretend food. Collect sticks to make a pretend fire to cook over and keep warm by. Make a bed of leaves to sleep on. Find a pine branch to be your broom. Pretend to go hunting for animals. Remember to stay in the fort during "storms" or if "dangerous animals" are lurking about.

4. Parade: Create instruments using items from nature - bang two rocks together, hit sticks together and grass blade whistles (personally never could do that but I know kids who can). March around the yard playing your homemade instruments.

5. Circus: Pretend to put on a circus show outdoors. Put jump ropes on the ground as tight ropes. Hang hula hoops from the trees to throw old stuffed animals through for the animal acts. Practice bike riding tricks i.e. ride with one hand, ride only pedaling with one foot, etc. Hula hoop or jump rope for long periods of time.

Children will not only benefit from the outdoor time but imagination fuels creativity and learning.

Keep Life Simple...Go for a Swing

Miniature Landscapes

Head outdoors and create some miniature landscapes or terrariums.  This activity is definitely about the process and not the end result.  Each child used a container to create a small landscape using mud, moss, grass or whatever they could find.  The end result was meant for them to use with their play figures but they all just enjoyed creating versus playing with it.  When I was a child, we would collect samples for our own terrariums as we hiked through the woods.   

Mixing up some mud to use in her container.

Getting dirty while packing in the mud.

One of the finished products!

Rock and Roll

Here is a fun activity combining the outdoors, crafting and gaming! Oh yeah and it incorporates a holiday theme - Valentine's Day. You could change it up by changing what you paint to match any holiday. You can read or watch the video for how to make the game.

Head outdoors and gather up 10 smooth, flat stones about 1/2" to 1 " in diameter.

 

Paint one side of each of the stones. For this example, we painted hearts on the ten stones.

We painted a coat of clear nail polish over each of the stones to give them a nice, shiny finish.

Put the ten stones in your hand. Roll them onto the ground or floor like you would dice or jax. Count the stones that are face up (heart side showing). The first player to get 30 stones face up is the winner. Each person gets one roll per turn. If you are playing by yourself, count how many rolls it takes you to get to 30. Prefer the watch the video?

Snow Cookies for the Birds

With just a little bit of snow on the ground we were able to make these cute little snow cookies for the birds using some inspiration from Active Kids Club. Making the snow cookies was accompanied by some great pretend cooking play outdoors. This would make a nice activity indoors just bring the snow inside in a big bucket.

Put some snow on a cookie sheet. Using cookie cutters create different shapes. Sprinkle the snow cookies with birdseed.

Place your cookie sheet into a pretend oven outdoors - we used the picnic table but if you had more snow you could dig a small cave for a fun outdoor oven and add stones or sticks for pretend on/off or temperature buttons.

Once the cookies were done, she took them out of the "oven".

Then onto the snow to serve to the birds.

This activity encourages:

• pretend play
• imagination
• fine motor skills
• bilateral coordination (using both sides of the body)
• FUN!

Need more activity ideas to encourage pretend play? Check out our ebooks.

Play Outdoors Flag Hunt

This is a favorite outdoor game - flag hunt. Here is how you play:

1. Preparation: To make the flags, cut up four different colors of fabric or felt. Make sure you have one of each color strip for each team. We play with two teams so you need 2 of each color. If you are playing by yourself, you obviously only need one of each color.

Make matching cards. On index cards draw circles to match the colors of the strips of fabric. So for our example we needed orange, yellow, green and purple circles. Do each card in a different order. Create 4 cards. Now you are ready to play.


2. A person who will not go on the hunt hides the flags within a designated area. You can tie them to trees, stuff inside a bush or put on the ground but most of the flag has to be showing.


3. Each team (or individual if only one player) picks a card. You have to go find the flags in the order on the card. So if the circles are yellow, orange, green and purple then, you have to find the yellow flag and run it back. Return to find the orange flag and bring that back. Find the green flag and bring it back. Finally, find the purple flag and bring that back for the win! You must bring only one flag back at a time.

Happy Flag Hunting!

Shared this on the Get Kids Moving Link Up

DIY Scratch Off Cards for Kids

The kids can make their own fortunes, game cards or activity ideas using a simple recipe of paint and liquid dish soap. After seeing this idea at Oh The Lovely Things blog, I thought this would be a great activity for the kids. You can either have them make their own or print our suggested activities for outdoor play. Regardless, it adds creativity and novelty to children's play. Give it a try.

You can download the template at Growing Play.

Build Your Own Balance Beam

This was a great activity we did last week. The kids have been very interested recently in using real tools. At first I was hesitant but figured why not try it. I guess I better mention use all tools with adult supervision. So they decided they wanted to make a balance beam. We had lots of scrap wood lying around to make one.




They started out by picking a 2x4 that was too long. Out came our first real tool - the saw. Working together they were able to saw through the 2x4 with almost no help. I was really impressed by their hard work and determination. Even they were surprised when they finally made it all the way through.







Next came the hammer and nails. They hammered in a few nails on each end to keep the beam on the wooden blocks.






And, voila the beam was completed. She was so proud. After a few times across though they wanted to add on. So using some other scraps they created some bridges up to the beam (see photo below).





This play time encouraged:

• sense of accomplishment
  

• eye hand coordination

• bilateral coordination

• spatial awareness skills

• balance skills

• lots of physical activity outdoors
  

Homemade Straw Rockets

Today the kids had hours of fun with a bicycle pump and some straw rockets. All we did was cut a plastic straw to about 6 inches. An adult used a glue gun to put a dab of glue on the top of the straw to seal it shut completely (make a few extra, each straw only lasts for a few launches). Now, pop the straw on the end of a bicycle pump (yellow nozzle) and watch it fly. After experimenting, we found out that the longer the straw (within reason) the farther it went in the air. We also found out that this project was better outdoors after we kept hitting the ceiling.

This was a super fun activity that encourages:

• muscle strengthening of the shoulders and arms
• science experimentation
• cooperation (you need one kid to hold the straw and one to pump)

After using it for awhile just to shoot off the straw the kids added on a racing game - who could get to the straw rocket first!

Watch the video here:



Stay tuned for tomorrow's post with another activity using a bicycle pump.

Play Outdoors Flyer

Print this Play Outdoors flyer. Children can tear off the activity ideas for suggestions when they head outdoors. Hang it by the back door to remind the kids (and parents) that children need play time outdoors. Visit GrowingPlay to download the flyer.

Nightime Reflector Hunt

It is chilly here this time of year and it can be hard to think of things to do outdoors with the kids. There is only a dusting of snow on the ground but the grass is covered. Thanks to ActiveKidsClub, we played a super fun game this evening. We modified their suggested hide and go seek activity wearing reflectors. Instead I picked up some inexpensive mini reflectors at the hardware store ($3/pack of 8). We stuck each reflector on an index card, punched a hole and added some string.


Once it was dark out, I headed outdoors and hid the 8 reflectors. I hid 2 of the same colored reflectors in the same spot. We divided the kids into two teams and provided each team with a flashlight. Off they went hunting for the reflectors. The first team to find all 4 of their colored reflectors was the winner.

This game was a huge hit that encourages:

• physical activity
• visual perceptual skills
• team work
  

Happy hunting!

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