Play & Explore

How I embrace (and respond to) boredom

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I am not the kind of mom that plans a bunch of things to keep my girls busy and occupied. While I do set-up play and art invitations from time to time, for the most part my girls are masters of their own playtime. They have ample time for unstructured play, which they may spend [...]

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Edible Cells & Poetry Journals

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Edible Plant and Animal Cells Activity The hands-down highlight of this week’s learning activities was the creating (and eating!) of edible animal and plant cells. I saw this project at Se7en’s blog, and knew the girls would love it. Using jello as our cytoplasm, we added various fruits and candies to represent some of the [...]

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Quick & Easy Play: Sidewalk Chalk Streets & Signs

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Here’s a quick and easy play idea for your outside time this week. Grab some sidewalk chalk and draw roads, arrows, and street signs for your own bike and scooter path. This works great on a patio, but a driveway or sidewalk would work, too. We made stop signs, speed limits, yield signs, no passing [...]

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Playful Routines :: Getting Ready

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One of my go-to ways for connecting daily with my kids is adding some playfulness to our daily routines. Like you, I am a busy parent who often gets tied-up with to-do lists and laundry and meal prep. So, I find that anchoring playfulness to daily routines serves two purposes: 1. It reminds me to [...]

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Secret Codes for Mini-Detectives

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Happy mid-July! How’s your summer treating you so far? We’re getting ready for Delaney’s 8th birthday this coming weekend – she’s having a 50 states party! As I’ve mentioned before, my girls are on a secret agent/detective/super spy kick. (Remember the homemade detective kits from Christmas?) Every good detective needs a way to send secret [...]

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Morning Activities: Start the day with play!

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I’m over at Simple Kids today, sharing one of the ways I purposely add play opportunities to our day. Here’s a peek: What’s the mood like in your house in the morning? My girls happen to wake up early most days, ready to go. I, however, am not nearly as perky as they are. I’m [...]

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10 Ways to Celebrate the First Day of Summer

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Even though it has felt like summer for a while, we’re getting ready to officially welcome summer this Wednesday. We love to celebrate the summer solstice with some sunny crafts, snacks, and stories. Here are a few things we would like to do this week: 1. Play with paint and make sunshine monoprints :: my project [...]

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8 Ways to be Creative (Without Doing Art)

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I am a firm believer (and a perfect example) that you don’t have to be “artistic” to enjoy creating art with your kids. When you focus on experimenting and enjoying the process, art time becomes much less intimidating. That being said, creativity is more than making art. It’s experimenting, problem solving, and thinking outside the [...]

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Science Play: Make a Hanger Balance

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Here’s a quick and easy balance you can rig up with your kids. Gather a few supplies, and you, too, can answer the burning question – which Chipmunk is the heaviest? Materials: clothes hanger yarn or string paper or plastic cups (strawberry baskets work well, too) hole punch tape (optional) I think you can see [...]

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Leap Day Obstacle Course

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Burn off some energy this Leap Day with a jumping, hopping, leaping obstacle course. I’m sure your kids can think of many different ways to move by jumping. Here are the ones we thought of, to get you started: • Play hopscotch. Draw with chalk outside, or make with masking tape inside. • Try a [...]

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