Kids Need Play – Page 15 – Search For Seven

Dump Truck Alphabet

August 18, 2020 Summer

Dear Reader,

Today I really wanted to focus on letter recognition with my preschoolers. They know their numbers really well (both can count at least to 20). This activity would have been perfect for that, had my toddler not interfered.

My preschoolers loved it, what we were able to do. They were able to take turns and grab a letter. Then the toddler, who is working on turns, just kept bringing random letters thinking it was her turn. Soon it turned into utter chaos.

I would say the idea was definitely better then the execution on my part. I think it would have been a lot better, and they would have had more fun with it, had I been able to distract the toddler.

The idea for Dump Truck Alphabet is to have letters spread out on the floor, give the preschooler a letter they had to get, have the preschooler drive the dump truck to the letter and bring it back.

I happened to have some fabric letters that my sister made me for the kids, but if you don’t have something like that you could always use letters that you make out of paper or something to that effect. Also if you don’t happen to have a dump truck you could use a basket or something to that effect, maybe an Easter basket. If none of those options work then you could just have them grab the letter and bring it to you in their hands.

Whatever you decide to use, I know you and your kids will have fun.

Sponge Targets

August 18, 2020August 19, 2020 Summer

Dear Reader,

Today was overcast and not too hot yet, so the perfect day for sponge target. It was already hot and humid at 9:00 so if you are looking for a good activity to get your kids to go out and play in the sun, but still stay cool, this is a good option.

This activity was great for both the older toddler and the preschoolers. That being said I focused mostly on my toddler for this one.

My toddler loved playing with sponges, and what is even better is that it is an activity that I didn’t have to monitor too closely. It kept them busy for a good 20 minutes and they would have been longer had I been willing to add more water to the bucket.

Another plus was that it took minimal setup (busy mom can’t afford to spend all day planning activities). All you need is a bucket (or something to hold the water), sponges, and some way to mark targets. I chose to use sidewalk chalk because it would be easy cleanup for me, (just the bucket and sponges to clean up) but you could use whatever your heart desires. My only caution is to make sure it is easy to clean up after yourself (Painting a target with paint that won’t wash off probably isn’t a good idea)

The steps are pretty simple:

Draw a target on the ground or wall.
Put out a container filled with water and sponges.
Demonstrate what is expected.
Sit back and enjoy.

Kids Need Play

Toddler In and Out game

August 17, 2020August 17, 2020 Keira

Dear reader,

I don’t know about you, but we’ve had one heck of a week with our brand new toddlers! Between growth spurts and *more* ear infections, we’ve had some crabby babies on our hands. Luckily, babies love a good “game.” Mommy interactions, playing with toys we don’t always play with, and simple skills challenges all put babies in better moods. Or at least distract them from the pain and frustration.

It’s pretty easy, actually. Put a bunch of toys in a container and practice putting the toys in and pulling them out! Babies and young toddlers are fascinated with the concept of where a toy goes when it “disappears” out of their sight, and are excitedly learning the concept of object permanence, so there’s not much prep involved to keep a toddler entertained. First, let them empty the container. Then fill it! Then, maybe a little of both! The think that I love about toddlers is that as long as you’re playing with them, there’s no way to lose!

But honestly, to be real, it’s just nice to have something easy to do to keep toddlers entertained and busy for a few minutes. Next to looking after the terrorizing of everything else in the house, picking up the balls after they’ve lost interest in the “game” is easy. I was worried as to whether I lost my sanity when I bought 1000 ball pit balls from Amazon. But so far (and by only bringing out a few at a time), they’ve been a fun distraction. By all means, though, I realize that most of the world doesn’t have ball pit balls at their disposal, nor am I advocating going out and buying 1000 of them, though if you do, I won’t think you’re crazy. Please, just know, this activity works with any toys and any container. And please, lemme know if you try it!

Kids Need Play

Paperclip Jewelry

August 17, 2020June 24, 2022 Keira

Summer has sure seemed to go both too fast and too slow. I confess that for me, even with Covid, it has gone too fast. I love summertime, and I love spending time with my family; working and playing together. Which is why we (my sister and I) decided that we wanted to become a little more on-purpose with our kids. We decided to start doing the activities – breaking them into activities for toddlers and activities for preschool – and to keep us a little more committed, to share them here, on my blog.

The first activity I did with my preschooler was to make paperclip jewelry. It was actually kind of fun, and I could see so many ways that it was a great learning activity. We worked on pattern skills, the pincer grasp, colors, and math, all in one activity. And it cost me nothing but time to sit down and build them with her. I had colored paperclips, which I highly recommend for this activity, but it would still be fun with the basic metal ones. With colored ones, though, you can work on colors and patterns. My daughter’s favorite colors right now are pink and green, so it should come as no surprise that when picking out colors, she went with those choices. I liked that she chose 2 because that gave us a great opportunity to work on simple patterns. She knows what patterns are but hasn’t really worked with them that often, and I feel like knowing the concept of something and actually using it are 2 different things, so it was good to put her pattern skills to use.

after I pulled out all the pink and green clips from my stash, we put them in order together. I’m sure we could have played with patterns longer, but she was happy with a simple AB order, and honestly it worked for me, so we went with it. then came assembly time!

It took her a little while to get the hang of connecting the paperclips, she kept sliding the whole clips through each other instead of slipping an end through a loop, but she figured it out, and it wasn’t that much trouble to help her. I had her count how many went round her wrist and it took 6 paperclips to go around her wrist. I don’t think she really cared, but it seemed like a good time to slip a little subtle math and measuring concepts in.

All in all, it was super easy, and we had lots of fun. she wore her bracelet all day while we were out running errands, and when we got home she wanted to take it apart so we could do it again another time. I think that it is definitely something we will do over and over again, because it’s not really hard to pull out the little plastic container of paperclips and put a few together.