Tagged with 'parenting'

Adam and I are always looking for activities to do with the girls, and there’s plenty of learning and fun to be had this Halloween.  It can be as simple as counting and sorting Halloween candy, drawing a spooky picture, or making a paper plate spider web. The learning is always there – you just have to look for it!

1. Pumpkin Coloring Contest

Get out the crayons, print out this pumpkin picture, and watch your little artist’s imagination come to life! Points for the silliest, spookiest, and most creative pumpkins.

2. Paper Plate Spiderwebs

Fall trees aren’t just full of leaves – they’re also full of spiders! Garden spiders are most active in the fall so you’re likely to see more of their elaborate, beautiful webs in the trees in autumn, too. Join the fun and spin your own spider webs out of a paper plate!

1. Cut the center out of a paper plate.
2. Let your kids color the outer edge of the plate with beautiful fall colors like red, orange, and yellow.
3. Using a single hole puncher, punch 12-14 holes around the edge of the hole.
4. Tape one end of a length of yarn to the back of the paper plate and wrap tape tightly around the other to form a ‘needle’.
5. Demonstrate how to weave the yarn back and forth through the holes to create the web, then hand the plate over to your child.
6. Once, the web is spun, remove the pin from the end of the yarn and tape that end to the back of the plate, too.

Add a pipe cleaner spider for the perfect fall finishing touch – cut four black pipe cleaners in half and twist to create an eight-legged creepy crawly!

3. Frankenstein Fun

Start with a blank sheet of paper, then guide your kids, step by step, to draw Frankenstein’s head. Instructions are below:

1. Draw a large rectangle, short sides up and down, long sides on the sides, to form the head.
2. Add a rectangular ear on either side of the head.
3. Add a zig zag line just below the top of the head to make hair.
4. Draw two parallel lines coming out of the bottom of the head to form the neck.
5. Add the start of another rectangle beneath the neck to form the top of the body.
6. Draw two circles for eyes and two half circles inside the circles to form pupils.
7. Add rectangular eyebrows at an angle over the eyes.
8. Add a rectangular mouth.
9. Using the bottom of the mouth as the base, draw three triangles, then connect the pointed tops of the triangles to the top of the mouth’s rectangle to form teeth.
10. Shape a nose between the eyes and the mouth
11. Once the outline of Frankenstein is complete, kids can go crazy with details – add bolts, scars, etc. Outline the creation in Sharpie, and color him in with crayons, colored pencils, markers, even watercolor paints. You’ll be surprised how differently each of your children’s drawings are!

4. Spooky STEM Sculptures

Put all that Halloween candy to good use, with STEM sculptures! Use candy pumpkins and toothpicks to create STEM structures designed to introduce early math and science principles like gravity, balance, angles, and more. Younger kids can try building a simple tower with a three-pumpkin base supporting a single, floating pumpkin. Challenge older kids to create a taller tower, pyramid, spiral, or spider web!

5. Skeleton Puzzle

This double sided skeleton puzzle not only makes a great Halloween activity, it’s also a great way to teach your kids about the name of bones!  It also makes a great front door decoration to help greet your trick or treaters. 

Happy Halloween!

This fall, take the classic vinegar/baking soda experiment for a spin inside a gourd by making your own pumpkin volcanoes!

Here’s what you will need to make exploding gourd volcanoes:

• Gourds or small pumpkins that can stand upright
• Carving materials
• Vinegar
• Baking soda
• Dish soap
• Food coloring
• Baking sheet or tray

Have an adult cut the top of the gourd or pumpkin. Clear it out completely.  

Next, fill the pumpkin about half full with vinegar. Add few drops of dish soap (for extra bubbles) and food coloring. Stir it all together until coloring is dissolved.

Place your gourds on the tray. Depending on how many little hands want to take part in the experiment, fill bowls with baking soda and hand out measuring spoons.

On the count of three, have your little scientists pour in about 2 tablespoons of baking soda into the pumpkins. The chemical reaction is always a crowd pleaser.

The pumpkins or gourds easily wash off for another round of color mixing and explosion fun!

What is the science behind gourd volcanoes? Mixing baking soda and vinegar together produces a reaction of carbon dioxide bubbles. The dish soap adds to the “wow” factor by making the solution foamy, as well as slowing down the chemical reaction. Gourd volcanoes are a scientific way to kick off fall with a bang! 

Directed Drawing

1. Draw a large rectangle, short sides up and down, long sides on the sides, to form the head.
2. Add a rectangular ear on either side of the head.
3. Add a zig zag line just below the top of the head to make hair.
4. Draw two parallel lines coming out of the bottom of the head to form the neck.
5. Add the start of another rectangle beneath the neck to form the top of the body.
6. Draw two circles for eyes and two half circles inside the circles to form pupils.
7. Add rectangular eyebrows at an angle over the eyes.
8. Add a rectangular mouth.
9. Using the bottom of the mouth as the base, draw three triangles, then connect the pointed tops of the triangles to the top of the mouth’s rectangle to form teeth.
10. Shape a nose between the eyes and the mouth, however you like.

Spooky Stories

STEM Sculptures

How often do you find your child lost in their only little world of imaginative play? In our house, it’s a daily occurrence – and since school has started again this Fall, I often find the girls playing school. Pretend play is not only a critical part of early child development, it can also help you learn more about your child and their current school experiences.

4 Things You and Your Child Can Learn Playing School

Have you ever been struggling with a project at work, and you come home and think through it while you go through the motions of your day, maybe even in your dreams? Our kids are no different! While you may ask them how school was and get little more than a word or two response, left to their own imaginative play devices, they may reveal far more about their day.

So the next time they want to play school, you should not only encourage it, but listen up.

You Learn 95% of What We Teach to Others  

Ever heard the saying “We Learn . . . 10% of what we read,  20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see, 50% of what we see and hear, 70% of what we discuss, 80% of what we experience, and 95% of what we teach others.

”It originated from William Glasser, a famous American psychiatrist, who pioneered work in choice therapy and its applications in education. What it means for playing school? If your child can come home and pretend to teach what they’ve learned to their stuffed animals and dolls, they are more likely to master the material.

Last week, my daughter’s preschool class was beginning a year-long alphabet study by reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr. John Archambault. She was playing school, and asked me to write the repetitive refrain from the story on her pretend play school board – she’s a pre-reader, but after I wrote it, she used the pointer to point and read each word on the board!

So instead of doing more math worksheets, or practicing sight words on paper, ask them to teach addition to their favorite play things.

Gain Insight into What’s Happening at School 

How many times have your picked up your child from school with a glum face? You ask, “How was school today?” and get met with a single word response if you’re lucky. You can push the question, but you know it often leads them to shut down even more.

If you back off, and let them play freely when you get home, you can often learn exactly what’s going on at school without even asking. Whether they are playing school, or re-enacting dialogue with princesses or stuffed animals, you might just hear what’s bothering them. Or if nothing is bothering them, you can often discover what they are learning about, who they are playing with, who’s being reprimanded by the teacher, and more.

I recommend letting them play as independently as possible, and revisiting what you learn with them when you have quiet 1-on-1 time. I find the best time to really get them talking is just before bed, after stories, when you are tucking your child in for the night.

Role Playing Develops Social and Emotional Skills 

When your child is playing school (or engaged in any form of pretend or imaginative play), you will often hear them replaying dialogue they observe in the world around them. Maybe they are re-enacting scenes from their favorite show, or replaying what happened at school that day.

Practicing the exchange of dialogue and re-enacting events are an amazing way to help your child develop social and emotional skills they will use for the rest of their life. Role playing during imaginative play is also a great tool for you as a parent to help guide your child when they are struggling with feelings, or even after they have behaved inappropriately.

If they have had an argument with a sibling or a friend at school, or even with you, when they are calmer, you can recreate the situation and offer up words, phrases and alternative actions they can use the next time the situation arises.

Discover Your Child’s Passions

Want to find out what your child is really into? Leave them to their own imaginative devices. When they are playing school, see what lessons they choose to teach. Are they reading books to their stuffed animals? What books do they gravitate towards?

When they are playing school, do they re-teach science experiments or math lessons? The areas they choose to explore voluntarily are likely the subjects they enjoy most. Be sure to encourage those passions… but also take note of the areas they often avoid. This may be an indication of subject areas they struggle with, and may need your help to develop in those areas.

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So the next time you happen upon your kids ‘playing school’, be sure to sit back, let them play and catch the conversation. Not only are they having fun, they are cementing their learning while offering you valuable insights into the part of their day you don’t often get to see firsthand.Grab your own self-storing Pretend & Play School set here. For more great play ideas for kids, check out my Imaginative Play and Kids Activities boards on Pinterest.