Imaginative Play

Doing crafts and projects with your kids is awesome, but you can't always be doing structured activity. And you shouldn't anyways. Children need to explore their worlds without the limitations that doing a specific project can have.

 I like to set up invitations for my kids that supply the things needed for an implied task, and see where they take it. They can explore freely within the invitation without feeling limited.  It is one way to gain interest in a specific topic without taking charge and interfering with the learning process. A good example of this would be setting up an invitation with water and different sized containers. They will probably start playing by filling each container and then transferring the liquid from one container to another. You get them set up and then they take the lead. You answer any questions (or just be around for younger ones) and they get to learn all about how the same amount of liquid doesn't fit or fill different sized containers.  Plus, it's just plain fun!  

But even setting up invitations can't happen every day and they aren't truly limitless, so it is important to have "open-ended" toys in your play area. These are toys that can be used in more than one way. Construction toys are a great example. Blocks, Legos, Marble runs. Things that can be broken down and build back up over and over in new ways.  

Here my daughter is breaking down a "bridge" she built to build another structure.

Her Q-Ba-Maze Marble run that can be built in any way desired.

Craft supplies are also open-ended and can be used in whatever way their imagination takes them.

Some supplies she got out and decided to use.

Of course, you have to not mind messes too much :)

 

A nest my 4 yr old made with crafting feathers and her play foods for eggs.

These types of toys and supplies foster the imagination and don't require constant instruction. And they take a lot of the pressure off of you as far as having to plan activities all the time. It really isn't necessary,or even ideal, for EVERYTHING to be planned out. 

So next time you are looking for a toy for your little one, ask yourself, can this be used in many different ways, or does it have only one function. And keep in mind that, like in the photo above, even play food can become something else, in the minds of our children.

DIY Wooly Willy

My daughter is starting to really get into magnets and it reminded me of this game my sisters and I played with as kids. I'm sure you have all seen a Wooly Willy before, and if not, you need to look it up! They are really simple, yet so amusing. It is basically this bald guy that you can give hair to using iron filings and a magnet. Anyway, I wanted my daughter to have one. I could have ordered her one online, but I wanted to put a twist on the traditional version and make it bigger as well. Here is what I did. 

DIY Bubble Toys

We finally got a warm spring-like day here and Caity, my 4 year old, wanted to play outside.

 It was still pretty muddy so I set up this bubble invitation for her and her friend on our balcony. And since I didn't have any bubble wands or toys to play with, I threw together some items I had laying around and created a couple homemade bubble toys.

Here is the bubble invitation with the sensory bin full of soapy water. I provided some colored water for them to play around with, a turkey baster, a couple of single straws, and two DIY bubble toys made of plastic cups and straws. NOT PICTURED is the bubble wand I made out of a jumbo Popsicle stick and a pipe cleaner. That can be found below in the next set of pics.

Bean Sensory Bin

I love, love, LOVE sensory bins! You can do sooo many things with them!

You can do simple ones like this, or themed ones. For example, you could do a "Day at the Beach" one with sand, sand toys, water, shells etc.etc. Or you could do a "Camp Out" with dirt, twigs, rocks, and make little tents......like I said, soooo many possibilities! And all you really need to start is some sort of "bin". We use large Rubbermaid containers.

Here is one of our bins set up with different kinds of dry beans and some popcorn kernels. The idea is simple, but I was amazed at how long my kids played with this. In fact, right now it's 2 days later and they still keep going back to it.

Make Liquid Watercolor Paint

I really wanted to get some liquid watercolor paints for my daughters, but the ones I wanted wouldn't ship to where we live. So I found a recipe online here. It is really simple (something I love!) and takes very little time.

Here is what you need:

2 cups of water

2 tablespoons of Vinegar

Food coloring

Containers to store liquid water color paints in (I used baby food jars (stage2))

Roller Painting

This is the invitation I set up today for my 4 year old and her friend! I have seen this done with just marbles before, but I thought I would make it interesting and provide several types of balls and also some jacks in addition. I call it Roller Painting!

To do this at home, you will need:

Paints, any colors

A large container

Poster board (cut to fit inside container)

Assortment of objects to roll the paint around

The Invitation.

Valentine's Day Sensory Bin

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!! This is one of the ways we are celebrating today!

Here is our heart shape themed sensory bin/ Valentine's craft.

Inside we have heart shaped cut-outs of cardboard, pink and red paint, a bowl of Epsom salt, a bowl of cotton balls, red glitter, glue, and red colored rice!

Make Colored Rice

I wanted to make some colored rice for various craft projects and for use in the sensory bin, so I thought I would share how to do this with you. It is simple and even fun if you let the kiddos help out.

Here is what you need:

White rice

Food Coloring

Rubbing Alcohol

Containers for mixing

Containers for storing when complete

Wax paper or something similar

Epsom Salt, Colored Water, and Volcanoes

This one started off pretty simple with just some Epsom salt in the sensory bin and these $1 spray bottles filled with water and food coloring. She loved coloring the salts and touching them. I have to admit it did feel really cool! But then she started talking about how the red salt looked like lava, (she has an obsession with volcanoes lately) and Daddy heard her. And like all daddies he heard mention of something explosive and decided to join in!

Caitlyns Craft Area

I know this isn't a typical post, but I wanted to talk about the craft area we have set up for our kids. This is important because it shows that we try to make all of the supplies available to them. We trust our eldest to be responsible with her things. This takes some patience and sometimes some gentle correction. But over time I have gotten  more comfortable with allowing Caitlyn to have full-time access to these items. I should have started this sooner, and I always have had certain things within her reach, but it has only been the past few months or so that I have really started to give her more to explore with on her own. It builds self-esteem and confidence when children are allowed to be in control and know they are trusted. It is also an important part of Child-led play to have everything they need available to them. How can they lead in an activity if they do not have access to the materials? So this is what our (ever-evolving) craft area looks like!

Water Balloons In The Bath

Pretty simple way to make bath time fun!

Just fill up a couple balloons with water and then hop in the tub! Right now we only have these really funky looking balloons that get really long.  I gave her a pair of preschooler scissors and let her cut a hole in the balloons. We also had a blue bath tablet and bubble bath in, but the highlight was definitely the balloons!

Keeping Izzy entertained as well!

She cracks me up!

There are so many ways you can make this better! We were just taking a quick bath before bed this time, but if I really wanted to make it a full on activity I would probably have added some coloring to the water in the balloons and given her more than three to experiment with.  Oh and you could even add water beads in the balloons too! Hmmm.....maybe next time!!

Check out Play At Home Mom to see where I got this awesome idea from!

No Mess Finger Painting

I am always looking for good ideas for activities that don't need to be totally supervised. It's good to have a few up your sleeves for those times when laundry or dinner need to get done. I saw this one on my good friend Kristen's (who is also helping to co-admin my Facebook Page) Pinterest board. I love this idea and it will probably be used many times, or as long as my kids find it interesting anyway.

This is a NO MESS Finger painting activity! You don't have to worry about paint getting ANYWHERE. Which is awesome. I did two different versions of this with my kids today and both work great. It just depends on what kind of finished product you (or your child in my case) would like to have. Caitlyn, my oldest, preferred the first method because it gives you a piece of art you can keep. So here they are.

You will need:

A large clear food storage bag

Paint, any colors

A piece of blank paper

Tape 

Brrr! It's Cold Outside!

It has been so cold here the last couple of days that we can't even go outside to play. I think we are all getting cabin fever! So we decided to take advantage of the negative degree weather and make some cool ice shapes. I dug out these heart shaped mini baking pans, the food coloring, some sprinkles, and a couple balloons.

Homemade Goop

I got the recipe for this Homemade Goop off of Ehow.com. It's really simple and easy for the kids to do. I found that this particular recipe turned out a bit stiff, so I think next time we'll try to make slime or putty, but she still had fun with this.