Activities With Children

Arts, Crafts, and Fun Things to Do and Make with your children

Toss any magazine older Work them out. The problem with bad weather is that children don’t get enough exercise. Play “freeze dance” stopping in position when the music goes off. Pile up pillows and encourage the kids to gallop over them on hobbyhorses. Get out the tutus and do a dance show. The storm has hit and you are stuck indoors with small lightening fast children. Kids are bouncing off the walls. You’re just about to go bananas. You take a look, but the pieces to Candyland are missing. Maybe a boardgame can save you?
 
Grab some couch cushions or an large box and drape a sheet over them. Put toys and kitchenware for the kids to play with underneath. They can make a walkway to the structure with blocks. Set it up and hand out the invitations to all of the stuffed friends. It could be your dog or cats birthday, or your child’s favorite stuffed animals birthday. Decorate white paper plates for party invitations by coloring them and personalizing them. Bake up some cookies or have a popcornfest. Stretch out the preparation. Throw a ten minute party. Fill plastic bottles with whatever is on the shelf to make potions. Toothpaste, ketchup, food coloring - the yuckier the better. Add baking soda and vinegar and watch your concoction fizz. Clean out the magazine rack and have your kids clip pictures and paste them on paper. Suggest a theme, such as animals. Toss any magazine older than your toddler. Work them out. The problem with bad weather is that children don’t get enough exercise. Play “freeze dance” stopping in position when the music goes off. Pile up pillows and encourage the kids to gallop over them on hobbyhorses. Get out the tutus and do a dance show. The storm has hit and you are stuck indoors with small lightening fast children. Kids are bouncing off the walls.

 
Toddlers | Activities With Children

June 29, 2007

Making Colored Sand or Salt

Filed under: Art,Family Child Care,Fours,Head Start,Homeschooling,Kindergarten,Preschool,Recipes,School Age,Threes,Toddlers,Twos — admin @ 3:23 pm

mamarati wrote an interesting post today on
Here’s a quick excerpt
Here’s a movie of my kid and I making some colored salt…

As you can see, these are pretty easy to make. I know the big name guys like Discount School Supply sell this stuff inexpensively, but really, you can make it yourself and use the money you’d save on some colored butcher rolls. (Always seems like there’s never enough of that…)
Home Depot or Lowe’s will have sand in different grades (play sand is fine to use but white sand is way better) in giant bags… and generic salt is pretty cheap. If your center has a Sam’s account, go ahead and invest in the ginormous bag of salt for a project like this. Better yet, just have parents pick up a 30 cent tub of salt on their next grocery run and bring it in… that way each child has their own.
Salt
So, the [...]

Read the rest of this great post here

Learning about Rainbows

Filed under: Family Child Care,Fours,Outdoors,Preschool,School Age,Science,Summer,Threes,Toddlers,Twos — admin @ 1:00 pm

mamarati wrote an interesting post today on
Here’s a quick excerpt
There are so many teachable moments with kids, but sometimes we forget when we get caught up in routine or mundane tasks.
For instance, when you fill up the wading pool or you’re hooking up the sprinkler for the kids this summer, remember to take the time to show them how you can make a rainbow and give them turns holding the hose and creating this wonderful effect. (Just remember to put your back to the sun and tell the kids to spray over their shadows for the best results.
When I was a kid, I never got tired of making rainbows in the hose. And every rainbow seemed like magic to me. But don’t leave it at that for the kids in your care… be sure to teach them some of the science behind rainbows.
Other ways to have fun with rainbows:

Put prisms in [...]

Read the rest of this great post here