Creative Family Fun

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Learning Activities for Kids

Story Stones

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Inspiration struck the other day and I decided to add some story stones to our sunflower playhouse. I’ve seen examples of these all over the Internet and figured I could make my own.

I took my Sharpie outside one day and pilfered some rocks from the rock border around our playhouse.

While the girls were playing, I started drawing. I decided on a fairy tale theme since both girls love fairy tales. In case you can’t figure out what I drew, here’s the breakdown: fairy tale cottage, wolf, dragon, horse, princess, castle, forest, tower, rose, ogre (giant, or any other scary creature), boat, cave, beanstalk. I also added a Lizzie stone and an AJ stone after they were requested.

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I’m hoping these will serve as story-telling prompts or just ideas to set the girls off to a different world with pretend play. They can set the scene like the one above where Lizzie leaves her cottage and rides her horse through the forest where she encounters a dragon.

Or, there’s always this story: AJ climbs a beanstalk and encounters a scary giant. I can’t wait to see what stories the girls come up with

On the Farm

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We’re having a bit of a low-key week this week.Last week completely got away from us and was much busier than I anticipated. We also did very little preschool-type activities and Lizzie let me know, in no uncertain terms, that she missed it.

So, this week, it’s all about the farm. Luckily, there are tons of already prepared materials out in blogland!

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Both girls love to play with these baby/parent farm animal cards I found at Counting Coconuts.The girls love looking at the pictures and matching them up. Their favorite way to play with them, though, is using them as a memory game. If you want your own set, you can find them here.

I didn’t need to do much, if anything, in setting up pretend play opportunities. Our barn, which is FULL of farm animals, has been getting a lot of mileage. It seems our house gets taken over regularly by “Super Cow,” a cow with a very loud moo who likes to terrorize the other farm animals!

I found these great images in the Farm Unit from Lawteedah. We’re using them with our felt board for storytelling, making pictures and just playing.We’re focusing on the animals on a farm and learning all sorts of little facts about them with just a little bit of letter writing practice thrown in as well.

I think this low-key week will be just what we need!

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?