It's alarming to see children spending less time playing each day. While researching for my new book, I read numerous articles about how play impacts children. Children's freedom to play and explore on their own has declined immensely in recent decades. With busy schedules and the overuse of screens, children are left with less time to simply play. Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links to Amazon. See my disclosure for details. This is so sad to me! Even though we do a lot of play … [Read more...]
Why Play Matters
Letting children PLAY is so very important. I've always known that kids love to play, but I never really realized how important this was until I started researching this. Play is the foundation of learning for young children. It is voluntary, pleasurable, and engaging. To read more about why play matters, visit my guest post on What to Expect. … [Read more...]
Christmas Imagination Box
Do you have a kid who loves imaginary play? Troy has been using imaginary play with trains, superheroes or his stuffed animals lately. Today's activity was inspired by something I pinned on Pinterest, but modified for our little stuffed animals. We created a Christmas imagination box. Here's what you'll need: *a large box *Christmas wrapping paper *bows *tape *Christmas lights To start, we took the box and taped down the open side. Then we I wrapped it with wrapping … [Read more...]
Shaving Cream Sensory Play
We took a break from Halloween crafts to enjoy some fun sensory activities! We made a gel sensory bag. I took aloe vera and hair gel and dumped it in a large freezer bag. I added some food coloring to make it orange and then the kids loved playing with it and squeezing it. Troy practiced writing some letters with it, and Wes just liked the feel of it. Then we played with shaving cream. This was pretty fun! The steps are outlined below in the picture. So simple, and cheap, and fun for the … [Read more...]
