Archive for April 2010
My husband commutes into the city everyday and we are left with little family time during the week. So to fit some family fun in we decided to turn dinner time into play time ! My son and I planned the meal, the menu and even met my husband at the door “in character”. It was a blast! Pretend play is a major part of preschooler’s play and there are ample opportunities to learn or simply connect with your kids within pretend play.
- Gather your materials. Grab some paper and a marker to make a menu and get your food cooking! A you can see our menu was kind of spendy! Let your child set the prices.
- Make some table settings that are appropriate for the restaurant you are pretending to be, for us it was a local fish and chips shop so we gathered up some ketchup, tartar sauce and set the table with the obligatory water. We rolled our silverware in paper towels and taped it with some paper.
- We prepared the bread and butter.
- Met our customer at the door… that sign is sitting on our Recycled Music Stand we made a while back.
- Took his order
- Then I took his order- hey there are no rules to pretend play the waiter eats with the customers at our restaurant.
- Enjoyed some appetizers and ate our food.
- Then presented him with our bill. If you have older siblings this would be a fun part to practice addition, explain taxes etc…
Remember to have fun even if the only time you have to do it is dinner time on a busy weekday!
These were so fun to make I decided that even if they turned gray while baking I’d post this. Luckily they stayed green and the blueberries are supposed to look like water, I think they do right? My son had a blast, we ended up skipping nap he was having so much fun with a bowl of flour while they baked and he even exclaimed, they “Kinda look like the earth mama.” I take it as a success!
- Gather your materials. The recipe (see below) I used is from the May 2008 edition of Everyday Food ( I cut it in half and used whole wheat flour) . You will also need blueberries, and blue and yellow food coloring. I was out of green but I would still suggest blue and yellow as it give your more control over how it mixes with the brownish color if you are using whole wheat flour.
- When baking with my son I measure out the dry and wet first and let him help from there. There is no right or wrong way of doing this it’s just what I do.
- Mix the dry.
- Mix the wet- apparently it smelled yummy.
- Mix together .
- Add the food coloring.
- Add in the blueberries.
- Spoon into the muffin tin.
- Grab some extra flour , measuring cups and let your little one play. He played for a long time with plain flour. Yes it was a mess but fun normally is.
- Celebrate cause they look enough like earths that it was well worth it! Enjoy .
Recipe
¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, melted.
2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
2 large eggs
½ cup whole milk
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
Mix dry, mix wet. Add wet to dry, add blueberries ( 1 cup) . Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes.
Source: May 2008 edition of Everyday Food by Martha Stewart
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This game was supposed to be done with beanbags, we were going to toss them into the shapes… but a classic 3 year old breakdown about not being able to do it perfectly lead to me adapting it. I didn’t give up right away, but when he calmed down tried again, did a fine job and STILL broke down into sobs I couldn’t decipher, I decided to change it. So instead I threw on some music , and went for it. If you have a child who likes to throw and isn’t in the “perfectionsit” stage mine is very painfully in at the moment grab some beanbags and take turns tossing them in for a fun varriation.
- Gather your materials. You will need some blue painters tape, a marker and paper. If you want add in some bean bags and music .
- Start by making shapes on the floor with the tape. We did square, diamond, pentagon, rectangle and triangle. Involve your child in this step by asking them to predict what the shape will be , asking them to count how many pieces or sides each shape has and to trace it with their feet by walking on it and pressing down the tape.
- Here is where you can start tossing bean bags in – simply call out the shape and have your little pitcher throw it in.
- Or you can do what we did and turn on the music , and have them find different ways to move while the music is on, and when it stops call out a shape for them to jump into.
- To make a more challenging variation write out some numbers . My son is big into speed limits right now so we went for big numbers, I suggested smaller numbers ( 10-20) but he insisted so I took him up on the challenge. You could also use letters or sight words too, for beginners try colors! As you will see in the video he needed help for these big numbers, which isn’t a bad thing at all but if you are playing this with many kids you will want the game to keep moving to keep them all interested and the inertia going so use numbers they are more familiar with.
- Pop the numbers into the shapes and play again. My intention was to have one number in each but my son wanted to put a whole bunch in the pentagon. Today was not the day to put my foot down . I wanted to play more than I wanted to force my specific rules on him.
Have fun remember that our best laid plans are often thwarted by our best loved little ones. I am glad i didn’t give into my growing frustration at his inexplicable meltdown and instead adapted the game. We had fun playing before and after nap .
Shape Books !
So Many Circles, So Many Squares
There’s a Square: A Book About Shapes by Mary Serfozo is a good shape book for preschoolers. Almost every illustration is made up of recognizable shapes and the text is made up of entertaining rhymes about the shapes on each page. My son thinks it’s funny that the shapes “Are sorta like people.” referring to the fact that the shapes are made into characters .
Dinosaur Shapes
Earth e !
Earth Day is coming up so to extend our learning about the earth into our regular letter of the week craft we made an earth e today. My son loves this paint roller and for a craft like this where you cover over crayon it was the perfect painting tool. I couldn’t narrow down my books to just 3 today, they range from toddler to school age so there is something for everyone.
- Gather your materials. You will need some white construction paper ( or paper plate), another sheet for the backing, a blue crayon, a black marker, green ( or yellow and blue) paint,scissors , glue, a dish and a paint brush or roller.
- Start by writing a lowercase e on your white paper. If you are me fail miserably, try again on the other side ( yes this is a picture of my better e). Still mess it up.
- Grab a paper plate because that was your last sheet of white construction paper, make a stencil and trace it on the paper plate.
- Give your child the blue crayon and explain that this e is the Earth ( show them pictures of the earth if need be to explain how the blue is the ocean and the green is the land). Have them draw some ocean- make sure they press hard.
- Time to pour paint
- Now mix it. I prefer to do this than use the regular green if possible. It’s some extra fun and extra learning.
- Roll it on!
- Let dry and cut out.
- Glue on your backing paper.
For more letter of the week crafts check out my eBook Alphabet Crafts ! From A-Z you will be learning and creating with your child .
Books
In the Garden
The Whole Green World
Herman and Marguerite: An Earth Story
EcoMazes
There are a few things I am passionate about besides early education moms supporting moms is one of the dearest to my heart and Mom Spark does just that. From posts about things all of us can relate to to reviews, giveaways , recipes and crafts there is something for every mom to enjoy. Amy and her contributors all write in a casual, way like you are reading a great email from a friend. What I am especially thankful for are Amy’s blogging tips. Amy knows what she is doing and thanks to her awesome tutorial I finally have a favicon! See my little logo next to my url? There are also forums for readers to join and connect with other moms, something I feel we all need especially at say 3am …. check it out!
