Pretend Play Architect

The kids have been playing architect for some time now.  It has been fun for all and is a great activity for older children.

Get some graph paper (if you do not have any in the house just google graph paper and you can get free printable paper).  The kids have drawn all different floor plans - 2 bedrooms - 6 bedroom homes, 1 bedroom apartments, condos, etc and describe the amenities ie pool, fenced in yard, close to shops, etc.  When the building plan is complete I was providing general prices for them based on each lay out and where it was located.  We did decide to price each unit as if they were in the same town otherwise pricing was too difficult.

Here is where the pretend play starts.  Choose someone to be a customer.  You get to create any persona you want - ie husband and wife with 6 kids, single college student, retired grandfather, etc.  You can add on extras that you are looking for ie pool, sidewalks, etc.  Now tell your price range.

Then each child picks one of their floor plans to show you.  The creator of each floor plan gives you a tour describing all the features and why it would suit your needs (based on your fake persona).  You, the customer, then chooses where you want to live.

We all had a lot of fun with this.  I have to admit it was quite fun to imagine I was shopping for a new place to live as a young 25 year old again or pretending I was transferring from some exotic place and needed certain amenities.

This was a kid created activity which I give a huge thumbs up.  It was a nice combination of quiet, creative time with pretend play.  Why not give it a try?       

Soapy Puddle - Simple Play

Here is a super simple activity we did this week that was loads of fun.  Simply put some dish soap into a puddle.  It was raining on and off which it typically does in Spring but the kids really wanted to play outside.  First it was some bubbles my youngest wanted to pour into the puddle so in it went.  Then they decided to try dish soap.  Add in a broom or some tree branches and they mixed up a soapy puddle.  No joke they played with the soapy puddle for about an hour and only stopped because it was dinner time.

Problem Solving Play - Matching Dots

Problem solving can be incorporated into playful challenges for children using objects and items from around the house.  I am going to try to do a short series on some problem solving play challenges.  Here is the first one:
Match the Dots - 
1.  Materials: 4 index cards for each player, 4 stickers, matching set of objects for each player (ie wooden dowels, paintbrushes, pencils, pipe cleaners and tape).
2.  Set Up: Give each child 4 index cards that match the 4 stickers and the set of objects.  Place one set of stickers at least 2 feet away from a starting line.  In our house, we established a rule that your body had to remain on the wooden floor.  You could not touch the rug at all with your body.  We placed dot stickers anywhere from 2 feet to 5 feet away from the edge of the rug.
3.  The object of the game is to get each index card to touch anywhere on the sticker without ever touching the rug.  There is no time limit.
4.  The only instructions I gave were to match the cards and do not touch the rug. 
5.  Each child started out by just trying to use one dowel to move the card to the dot.  Very quickly they realized it was not long enough and began taping the objects together.
6.  They worked hard at creating a long stick out of 2 dowels and 3 paint brushes to be able to reach the index cards to the matching stickers.
7.  Then a lightbulb went off in one of them and they realized they could walk around the rug just not on it.  This brought them closer to one of the dots.

The kids enjoyed the activity and landed up repeating it several times moving the sticker dots each round. 

Stay tuned and next week hopefully I will post about another problem solving challenge.  Try some questions from the Creative Brain Series.

Using Apps to Make Books for Little Ones

My little one loves to make picture books with her in them.  We have cut out pictures of her and just glued them onto different scenes or just drawn some simple sketches.  Well, today we used the PhotoChop app on the iPhone to make a quick book about some imaginary adventures.

Basically you take a picture and erase everything except the person or face.  Then you can change the background.  You can upload your own background or use the ones that are right on the app.  Either print the picture directly to your wireless printer or email it to yourself and print it from the computer.

I imported the pictures into a software program and added text to her adventure book.  In total, this project took about 15 minutes.  My little one really enjoyed picking the background and helping to write the text.   

We have read the book at least 10 times since we wrote it this afternoon!

Pretend Lollipops

Here is a super simple way to make pretend lollipops.  We traced circles onto adhesive backed fun foam.  Cut out two matching circles and put a lollipop stick in between.  That's it!  The kids had lots of fun creating different lollipops for the candy shop.  They poked each lollipop stick into half of a piece of pool noodle to display the lollipops.  The display headed off to a table and they hung up the candy shop sign.  Check out more candy shop ideas.

This activity encourages:

• creativity
• imagination
• fine motor skills

Playing Cards in the Bathroom? It works!

As you can see from the lack of blog posts I am having trouble making the time to write.  With children life can be very hectic at times as most of you know.  Between work, after school schedules and a little one each day seems to fly by and the Christmas season is making it pass even quicker.    Lately, I have been trying to make time during busy times to play with the children.  Here is what is working right now (doesn't mean it will work next week - haha!):

1.  Playing cards in the bathroom - I know sounds weird right?  But actually the two year old will stay in the tub happily entertaining herself which means I can pay some extra attention to the older children.  They take turns coming into the bathroom and we play a round of cards on the bathroom floor.  It is a win-win situation.  The little one gets clean and I get to play cards with the older ones.

2.  Cooking - My children love to cook and bake and obviously we need to eat.  During dinner preparation or baking desserts the kids will always help.  I don't have all of them help each time but rather one or two.  Makes it less overwhelming for me and they can tell me about their day without being interrupted.

3.  Travel Toy Bags - My older children are involved in sports which translates into lots of running around and some down time for the younger kids.  We have a few bags that come with us with small toys, trinkets and always paper and crayons to entertain us while we wait or watch.  The two year old obviously does not sit still for a basketball game nor would I expect her to.  This allows us to sit and play while I sneak peeks at the games.

What are your favorite activities to squeeze in?  I would love some new suggestions.

Sticky Christmas Tree

Boy, just realized how long it has been since I lasted posted.  So busy here with back to school and sports that I can not seem to keep up with blogging which I sorely miss.  Partially because it forces me to "lesson plan" for some family activities and partially because I just enjoy sharing fun activities that work in our house.  Here is one that worked for us - sticky Christmas tree.  First use some permanent marker and draw a Christmas tree on the non sticky side of contact paper.  Then hang the contact paper sticky side up on the wall.  Give your little one some foam shapes or pom poms and start decorating.  The great thing about this activity is that it can used over and over again quite a few times before the stickiness comes off.  Super simple and entertaining for the 2+ year old crowd!