Creative Family Fun

Your one-stop shop for kids activities and family fun

Terri Thompson

Story Time: Books About Dogs & Cats

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Since we were talking about dogs and cats last week, I filled our book basket with books about them.We had some old favorites from our collection and some new books we found at the library.

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One such old favorite was My Cat Copies Me by Yoon-duck Kwon. It’s a story about a little girl whose cat follows her around every day doing whatever she does. One day, the little girl thought it would be fun to follow her cat around instead. She spends the day learning how her cat sees the world. It’s a perfect book for any child with a beloved pet cat.

Another fun book we found at the library was The Dog Who Cried Wolf by Keiko Kasza.It tells the story of a dog named Moka who lives with a little girl named Michelle. One day, after Michelle read him a book about wolves, he decided he wanted to live like a wolf. He runs away from home and has a grand time… that is, until he encounters a real wolf (don’t worry, nothing scary happens). This is a fun book about a dog who was just a little bit naughty and a little girl who loves him very much.

We read a lot of fun books last week! Here are a few more that were in our basket.

Cat’s Colors by Jane Cabrera

Four Puppies by Anne Heathers

Bad Cat by Tracy McGuinness

Kitten’s First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes

Poor Puppy and Bad Kitty by Nick Bruel

Sorting Puffballs

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Since AJ had a lot of fun learning how to play Memory with our seashell match game, I thought I’d come up with another version. It was also a sneaky little attempt to help her start recognizing her colors.

It was pretty simple. I just gathered up a couple of bowls of puffballs and cut coordinating circles out of construction paper.

Then I set the girls to work. Their goal was to put the puffballs in the correct colored spot. Lizzie thought it was great fun even though it too easy for her.

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I wish I could tell you they had great fun and played peacefully together.

But, let’s keep it real here. This peaceful little picture was taken a few minutes before the hissy fit to end all hissy fits broke out. It seems Lizzie put her organizing skills to work and wanted to each girl to have certain colors… and well, they both wanted red. Sigh. We had crying, we had screaming, we had separate corners. Even the dog decided to hide in some far corner of the house wanting to be as far away form the hissy fit as possible. Then, as quick as it started, it was over.

And now, peace reigns. They still have the game and have learned to play peacefully together. Let’s see how long that lasts!

Hawaii Basket

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I’ve had this green basket forever.In the past, it’s been used to hold toys and sometimes hold nothing. But, it’s main purpose was to get in my way.While staring at it one day, it occurred to me that I could use it as a theme basket. Our first theme basket was bugs. It was full of books, coloring pages, small games and a magnifying glass. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of it.

After we were done with that, we turned it into a Hawaii basket. Lizzie has been fascinated by Hawaii lately, so I thought it would be fun to explore that theme. I found several books at the library.

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ABC’s of Hawaii by Sharon L. Asta and Jeanne Donovan
Punia and the King of Sharks: A Hawaiian Folktale by Lee Wardlaw
Good Night Hawaii by Adam Gamble and Joe Veno
 
 

I also added several activities they could grab and play with whenever they felt like it.I added a flower lei, a map of Hawaii (found via Google images).

I printed out a large picture of a sea turtle, then cut it into pieces to make a puzzle.

I took unlined index cards and turned them into color-your-own postcards. I drew a picture on the front and added the address lines and small square stickers for stamps on the back.

We had a shell matching game that came from the back of one of Lizzie’s old High Five magazines.

Finally, I found some Hawaii-related clip art, enlarged it so it took up half a sheet of paper, then printed them out. I used contact paper to reinforce them, then punched holes around the edges. Voila, homemade lacing cards!

I also added binoculars and a file folder with several Hawaii coloring pages (not pictured).

We had fun with it while we had it. The girls especially love the shell match game.

Before retiring the basket, we had a couple of days devoted to Hawaii.We packed our bags for a virtual trip, watched several YouTube videos of hula dancing, which inspired a bit of hula dancing ourselves.

We also did the classic vinegar and baking soda science experiment to see how a volcano erupted.

So, what’s in the basket now? Lizzie requested an outer space basket, so you’ll have to stay tuned to see what we added!

Our Preschool Corner

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Tucked between our couch and the wall is our little preschool corner.

Other than the girls’ bedrooms, we don’t have a dedicated room for them. In the past (very recent past), their toys and books were taking over the living room and family room.

I’ve been trying to tame it by making small spaces for their stuff. This is one of the spaces I created.

This is the corner where we do all of our preschool activities. I keep small activities here that they can grab and work on whenever they feel like it. I also strung some twine along the banister where we can display some of their artwork.

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Next to this area is our weather chart and a basket where we keep books related to the topic we’re working on. Can you tell we just finished up ice cream week? The basket is now full of books about cats and dogs.

The girls enjoy this space and now we’re starting to work on our next challenge related to it… cleaning up after ourselves!

Do you have any dedicated kid’s spaces in your house?

Ice Play for Toddlers and Preschoolers

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How do you beat the heat (and learn a little at the same time)? Playing with ice, of course!

Yesterday, we set up a couple of ice play experiments to have some fun.

Beat the heat and have some fun with these simple ice play activities for toddlers and preschoolers. You'll learn some simple science and have some fun.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Ice Play Experiments

The first experiment we did was ongoing as we played with our other experiment. We put some ice cubes in a small glass bowl, set it aside and waited to see how long it took to melt.

We had to keep checking back to see the ice shrinking. It was completely fascinating (at least for the under 5 set)!

Beat the heat and have some fun with these simple ice play activities for toddlers and preschoolers. You'll learn some simple science and have some fun.

We took pictures to track out progress, the ice in the beginning, half-way through, and our bowl of melted ice. It was fun to try and guess how long it would take the ice to melt.

Beat the heat and have some fun with these simple ice play activities for toddlers and preschoolers. You'll learn some simple science and have some fun.

Next, I set up a cookie sheet with a bowl of ice and two glasses of water.The goal was to count how many ice cubes it took to make the water flow over the top of the cup. I was inspired by a game in the book, Math Play!.

Beat the heat and have some fun with these simple ice play activities for toddlers and preschoolers. You'll learn some simple science and have some fun.

We took our time with this ice play experiment.

We added ice, took away ice, played with ice and did whatever struck our fancy at the moment.We practiced our observation skills. What color is the ice? Is it hot or cold? Fuzzy or slippery?

And yes, we finally did get to the point where our water flowed over the top.

So, we took our ice out of the cup and started over again.

Beat the heat and have some fun with these simple ice play activities for toddlers and preschoolers. You'll learn some simple science and have some fun.

When we were done with our experiments, we had a little ice play time. We had a lot of fun with this simple activity and learned a little about ice in the process.

How are you beating the heat this summer?

You may also like one of these simple play ideas:

Colored Ice Fun

Go Outside: Shape Hopscotch

Go Outside: Counting Walk