Tag Archives: games

Mar19

Guest Post By My Kids!

Posted on by
Guest Post By My Kids!

Ok. Sometimes my kids can come up with some creative ideas. I wanted to share their ideas because if it works for them, then it might work for your kids!

First, a compact individual storage container for crayons on the go! This is simply an empty Mentos Gum tube that is the perfect size for 7-8 crayons. When I take the kids on the trip to Grandma’s house, I rarely let them take crayons. The reason being that the one time I allowed it, the entire box of crayons was spilled multiple times. I ended up with crayon wrappers and shavings all over the back of my van. This way, they have a few colors that can all be kept neat and tidy in this little container. Props to my 3 year old, Grant, for coming up with this idea!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second, a way to burn energy on those rainy days that the kids are stuck in the house! (and work on their coordination and balance at the same time) This is a beautiful winter scarf that, believe it or not, has lasted over 2 years for my daughter. Now, it is being re-purposed into an exercise program. Lay the scarf out lengthwise, as shown in this picture, to practice beginning jumps.

 

 

You can do these at your own pace, or crank up some music to keep you in time. Jump ‘forward’ then ‘backward’, being careful not to step on the scarf. Start with both legs, then try just one. If only 1 person is jumping, then try to get from one end to the other without stepping on the scarf. Then, when you feel like you’re ready for something more advanced, fold it up as shown in picture #2. This one is a bit more tricky–add some side steps. Now it is ‘forward’, ‘backward’, ‘right side’, ‘left side’. If you are really adventurous, allow a family member to call your next step for you. Since your mind isn’t calling the shots, it makes the jumps even more difficult. This fun activity brought to you by my 8 year old, Miranda!

 

 

 

 

 

We’ll save ideas from Clare and Elsie for another post. Let me know if your kids were able to use these ideas!

Feb20

Magazine Look and Find

Posted on by
Magazine Look and Find

Ever wonder what to do with those already read magazines you have lying around? I posted last year that you can turn some of those pictures and full-paged ads into some fancy-schmancy envelopes.

Well, here’s another idea for you. Look through the magazine and write down a list of things to find. The age of your child will determine how difficult you make the clues. These following lists were intended for my 6 and 8 year olds. I’m not sure if a couple of the clues were a little vague for my 6 year old, or if her “this is too hard” mentality kicked in, but my 8 year old found each one without difficulty.

If you already have a magazine subscription, great! If not, there’s no need to give up just yet. Do you get free coupon savings magazines in the mail? Do you ever see stacks of free magazines lying around in public places? I started receiving “Family Fun” magazine, and have no clue how or why. It isn’t costing me anything, and my kids enjoy reading it. Do any of you receive this magazine? You can purchase a subscription here, but I have seen multiple copies of this magazine lying in waiting rooms with “take one” signs attached. Anyway, if you can get your hands on a magazine or two, your kids might enjoy this little game.

Instructions for Mom:

Look through the magazine for items the kids will be able to find. If the child is very young, look for really obvious things and really big pictures. For my girls, I tried to make it a little more difficult and write down things that were pretty small, or little riddles they might have to solve while finding the picture. For example, in the Family Fun magazine, there was a picture of a set of utensils. The fork had eyes and a mustache (dad), the spoon had hair, eyes and lips (mom), and the baby spoon had braids and a face (girl). My clue was “A Family That Feeds You”, instead of writing silverware with faces. This made them use a little deductive reasoning. Miranda got this one right away, but Clare took some time to find it.

Instructions for the kids:

Look through the magazine and circle the items from the list that you find. The clues are in the order you will find them as you look from front to back. (I put mine on the list in order so they would not have to double back to find the next clue.)

Here are the lists I came up with, just in case you have a Family Fun magazine or an All You magazine in the house. The page numbers are for mom only…you can remove those if you’re giving the list to the kids.

Family Fun (March 2012 issue)

  • A Chocolate Rock   p.9
  • Small Garden   p. 18
  • Castle   p. 28
  • Cow Magnet   p. 35
  • Square Marshmallows   p. 39
  • Ball That Is Like A Candy Cane   p. 46
  • Alien   p. 54 or p. 68
  • Baby Bottle   p. 63
  • A Family That Feeds You   p. 69 or p. 70
  • An Orange Nose   p. 80

All You (March 30, 2012 issue)

  • Red & White Shoes   p. 7 or p. 141
  • Abraham Lincoln   p. 20
  • Remote Control   p. 51
  • Pink Pig   p. 73
  • Meatball   p. 91
  • Yellow Gloves   p. 99 or p. 118
  • Talking Fish   p. 111
  • Blue Wallet   p. 127
  • Alarm Clock   p. 133

Both of the girls had fun doing these and Miranda even asked me to make another one. I guess she’ll have to wait until the next installment of magazines comes in. And the nice thing about this game is that it’s free.

Do you have anything fun to do with discarded magazines?

Feb6

5 Minute Learning, Colors

Posted on by
5 Minute Learning, Colors

I told you when I began this series, that these posts wouldn’t be “groundbreaking” ideas you might find in the latest pre-school magazines. I wouldn’t be running out to buy a million different toys or educational tools to accomplish these little learning sessions. I had to remind you of this before showing you what we did for our 5 minute learning before naptime yesterday, since it is so very simple.

Because I was spending this time with both Elsie and Grant, I wanted to make it something that Elsie would enjoy and possibly learn from. So I decided to play a small game with colors. I went to the toybox with that in mind and decided to do a little matching game. I chose 5 tiny books, and 5 toys that were the same color as the books. Then laid them out on Grant’s bed like this.

He helped me to match a book with a toy of the same color, and while he already knows his colors, this was a good chance for me to drill the color names into Elsie’s mind. She was even repeating the names of the colors with us. Of course, once we found a match, we took time to look at the books.

I love taking this time with the younger two. It brings back memories of doing these kinds of things with my older girls, when they were little. Though my time is limited, I really don’t want to skip over Grant and Elsie’s early learning. Every 5 minutes counts!

Jan17

5 Minute Learning, Restaurant Wait Times

Posted on by
5 Minute Learning, Restaurant Wait Times

If you have ever sat at the table in a restaurant, with small children, waiting for your order to be placed and the food to come, you know they get a little restless. The problem is compounded when they are extremely hungry. Of course, many places will be happy to bring out some crackers or bread to nibble on, but even that runs out sometime.

Most places provide crayons and paper, but mine don’t always want to color the pictures. And often the puzzles are just too difficult for my youngest ones, so they lose interest. Here’s an idea from Stephanie, that might help keep them entertained for a little while.

Use those crayons to draw shapes on the paper, and have them practice identifying them. You can also do this with colors, numbers, letters, or whatever stage of learning they are currently in. Sometimes just having Mom or Dad participate in the game with them will be enough to keep their interest.

I have even used the sugar and sweetener packets on the table, menus or advertisements, whatever I can find to sharpen their learning while keeping boredom at bay.

What do you do to pass waiting time with your kids?

Jan12

Get Everybody Talking!

Posted on by
Get Everybody Talking!

I wrote earlier in the week about our creative story time, and I thought I’d take a post and share where we originally got the idea.

A month or two ago, I ran across this post that provided an entire file of “conversation starters”. I printed them off and we began using them every night at dinner. Most of these conversation starters are questions. Some are serious, thought provoking questions. Others are light-hearted, “what if” questions. And there are “Story Starters” similar to the one I wrote about. Each of them are great at getting the kids and adults talking. Even if you don’t usually have a problem getting conversation going, this can guide the topic a little and help you get to know each other better.

Because we had been enjoying ours so much, I made a couple of these as gifts this Christmas. You should really go print a copy for yourself. I promise you’ll have a blast!

 

Jan3

Noisy Kids???

Posted on by
Noisy Kids???

My husband is so clever. He comes up with all kinds of solutions to the problems I have around the house. At dinner a few nights before our Christmas vacation, the decibel level around the table was so high that he and I could not even carry on a conversation. After many attempts to shhhh everyone, he devised a plan.

“Miranda, go get me a package of crackers,” he said.

“Okay!” she happily replied. [My kids eat crackers like we own stock in the company!]

When she got back to the table, Daddy pulled about 6 or 7 crackers from the package and put them in front of her on the table. Then he said, “I’m going to set the timer on my phone for 1 minute. You eat as many crackers as you can before the timer goes off.”

“Okay. That’s easy.” she said.

When Daddy said, “Go!” she shoved 2 crackers right into her mouth thinking this was going to be so easy. Within 10 seconds she was laughing hysterically with crackers spewing out of her mouth. I ran to get the camera but by the time I returned, she had the situation in her mouth a little more under control. These pictures definitely do not do it justice!

Just starting out, still thinking "I can do this"

 

Now she's thinking, "This is crazy and impossible!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Racing each other

 

When Clare finished her food, she wanted to try it too. You could see on her face that she thought it was the simplest thing ever. “I can definitely beat Miranda’s 3 crackers,” she said. So we set them up to have a cracker eating contest.

 

 

"Seriously, Mom? Enough pictures already!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then they wanted Daddy to try it too. So later all three of them had a contest. Believe it or not, 3 crackers was the most anyone was able to completely chew up and swallow before the timer went off, including Dad.

It is kind of hard to talk, much less yell, with a mouthful of crackers, don’t you think? :)

Nov2

A Week of Fun Table Activities

Posted on by
A Week of Fun Table Activities

I have been planning to do this for a few weeks, but kept forgetting to take pictures for it! I finally got enough pictures to show a 5 day week of fun table. I will say, just keep your eyes out for clearance racks because some of the best ideas come to us for 50 cents or a dollar! And when we don’t have the exciting new crafts, we just do the simple stuff that they enjoy but don’t get to do often. Also, let me clarify that these were not all in 1 week. We usually have fun table on Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri…if we’re lucky. Tuesday is always too rushed since we have things going on in the afternoon.

Day 1

 

 

Felt Fraction Circles that I made myself

Musical Instrument Flashcards (Target’s $1 bin)

Solfege Flashcards (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do) (from college teaching days)

 

 

 

Day 2

 

 

Magnetic Letters and Numbers

Dominoes

 

 

 

 

Day 3

 

 

Printable Coloring Pages (You can find any character you want to find online these days! Today, Grant was into Superman!)

 

 

 

 

Day 4

 

 

Wooden Dolls Craft (Grant had a monkey.)

We found these at JoAnn’s on clearance for 50 cents. They loved these! Just a simple variation makes coloring seem so new and exciting!

 

 

 

Day 5

 

 

Color Jars

They all worked so hard on these! I simply put 1 object in each jar to label the jar, then they searched the house over (mostly the toy box, but a few other drawers too) to find matching colors. Grant just went to his toy car stash and wanted to fill every jar with tons of cars. The girls helped him vary it up a little.

 

Jars Full!

 

Oct17

Technology for Kids?

Posted on by
Technology for Kids?

I remember the first time I sat Miranda down at the computer. We had gotten a free game CD in a Chick Fil-A kid’s meal and she kept begging me to play it. I was making dinner so I thought I’d show her a couple of things and let her be entertained while I was busy. Well, it didn’t quite work that way. I was running up and down the stairs trying to help her and trying not to burn dinner at the same time.

Since that day, most of what she has learned, she taught herself. And most of Clare’s computer knowledge was learned by watching Miranda. Now, either Grant has learned from her as well, or he just has a built-in technology gene. He is just naturally better at navigating around those little kids sites than the girls ever were.

I think it is almost as important for kids to begin learning computer skills as it is to learn to write. Their future is full of computers, laptops, smartphones (of which I am now a proud owner!), music players–do I really need to go on? So when Stephanie told me about Starfall, I gladly turned the girls loose with it. I listened while they played the stories, songs, and games, but hadn’t really navigated around it much myself until recently. It really is a great tool for not only teaching basic computer navigation, but also for phonics instruction. It is a fun way to teach them letters, sounds, colors, shapes, calendars and holidays, and even nursery rhymes. Many of you have kids learning these things right now, so I thought I’d pass the link along in case you’re interested.

Any other educational sites for preschool and elementary that you can share?

Sep22

Serving Your Family in a Hotel, Pt 3

Posted on by
Serving Your Family in a Hotel, Pt 3

Here is the final post in our series on how to keep kids entertained when you are away from home. If you want to start at the beginning, here’s part 1 and part 2.

First, while this may not be the most fun, doing chores is still important when you’re away from home. If you are in a hotel, you do have the option for the cleaning service to come in and tidy up the room. For some reason though, I prefer to leave the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door and tidy up myself, unless we’re there long enough to need the sheets changed. There usually is not a lot to do, and it can be done quickly. It is really great to get the kids involved in cleaning their own areas. Living out of a suitcase can get pretty messy, so have them organize and fold their own clothes. Depending on their age, they can pull the covers up and “make” their own bed. They can help with dishes if you are in a suite or room with a kitchen. Wiping down the bathroom counter is a good job for younger ones, as long as you keep the clutter removed. Set a timer and see if you can complete the entire room in just a few minutes.

Okay, now on to the fun stuff!

-If you have failed to bring supplies with you, the dollar store is a great place to find cheap coloring books, crayons and puzzles.

-Play Simon Says.

-Play “On A Trip I Took…” The first person names something beginning with the letter A, then the next person the letter B, etc. Each time a new letter is added, you must first recite the entire list before yours. Example: On a trip I took an apple pie, a baseball, a crayon, a desk, then name something for the next letter in line. This list is from our own game just the other day. [Hey, after you recite the same list almost 10 times, it sticks in your head!] Our next item for letter ‘e’ was Elsie. How sweet—they want to take their sister on a trip!

-Role play. Pick their favorite book/movie/tv show characters and they must be in character for the amount of time you set. Example: Little House on the Prairie. Bryce was Albert, Brea was Mary, Mel was Laura, and they pretended that Megan was baby Carrie. Mom…well, she was Ma! This can make chores more interesting and even fun to do.

-If you have a little freezer in your room, buy some juice, popsicle sticks and cheap ice cube trays and make popsicles.

-Make handmade cards, letters and  cool envelopes to send to family members. If you are in a vacation area, have them draw their own pictures of the scenery to send to grandparents.

-The next three ideas are great ways to get the jitters out. Just make sure that if you are not on the first floor, you only do these activities when it is assumed that no one else would be sleeping!

Do aerobics. Jumping jacks, running in place, hopping on one foot (have a contest to see who can do this the longest without falling).

If there is room, let them pretend they are a particular animal. They can act and sound like a frog, or an elephant. The girls love to be kittens or puppies.

We had quite a bit of space in one of the suites we stayed in. We were using our air mattress for the kids at night, but during the day we used it as a slide. Lean it up next to the side of the hotel bed, and let the kids roll or bounce down. Keep in mind that the air mattress can get holes in it and be ruined in a matter of minutes. Sometimes we opted to slide the hotel mattress off the box springs and slide on it.

The lesson we learned through our travels is to be content where you are and with what you have. You can make it work. When you have the right attitude, you can make ANYthing fun!

Have any of you ever stayed more than a few days in a hotel before?