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Color Matchbox
On a large sheet of paper, draw a big square or rectangle and divide it into ten smaller squares. One for Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Pink, Grey, Black and White Then, using scraps of paper cut from magazines, have your child choose the scraps of a specific color and fill in each square with a different color. For example, have your child find ...(read more)
Tray of Colors
Get a baking sheet tray. Choose a color and ask your child to find as many things as he can of that color. For example, if you said 'red', your child could find an apple, a red car, a red crayon, a red flower, a red bottle of nail polish and so on.(read more)
Dressing Mommy
My child's preschool puts on an annual Mother's Day Tea and every year there are always a few moms who come dressed in outfits specially chosen by their child. What a wonderful (and brave!) way to listen to your child's opinion! So, if you've ever struggled with your little one over their outfits, it could be fun to turn the tables for once and ask your child what ...(read more)
Counting Beans
Keep a plastic container filled with different beans -- all colors and sizes. On a rainy afternoon, spread out a sheet or blanket on the floor and pour the beans out on a baking tray on the sheet. Give your toddler different cups, spoons, muffin tins to move, sort, count, and compare beans. You can make observations about numbers, sizes, textures, colors... the variations are ...(read more)
Pack-n-Play: Packing for an Adventure
Have your child pack a backpack, small suitcase, or any available bag for 'taking a trip.' They can pack whatever they think they'll need - socks, jammies, toys, toothbrush. Take the bag to a pretend destination. What will you do there? Did you pack everything you need?(read more)
Indoor treasure hunt
Tell the kids to hide in one room of the house. Then take some toy cars, action figures, or other non-breakable toys and objects and hide them in a different room. Once you are done hiding, give each kid a brown paper bag and then have them come into the room and try to find all the hidden objects. A way to make this game fun and ...(read more)
Toy Town
On a carpeted area or rug, tape down long (5 or 6 feet) strips of masking tape in straight and curved patterns. Make the strips intersect each other to form a system of 'roads' on the floor. Gather toys and divide them up by themes, i.e. railroad, farm, school, construction, etc. Place each group of toys at the end of a road, creating a little city. ...(read more)
Postcard game #2
Does your preschooler enjoy opening your mailbox, grabbing the contents, and shouting 'my mail'? Give her a reason for her glee, other than your daily delivery of bills and catalogs. Keep a stack of 4x6 index cards at hand, and, every few days, ask your little one to decorate one for a special relative or friend. Then show her how to sign the 'postcard,' address, put a ...(read more)
Tiny Treasure Hunt
Loosely hide some tempting objects in your garden for your toddler to find and investigate. For little ones, you might use bigger objects and give a few hints; older children will enjoy more of a challenge. Try a folded-up dish towel with some toys hidden inside, a box to open with a snack inside, an upside down basket to turn over and discover a favorite stuffed animal 'hiding,' ...(read more)
Itty Bitty Bye... About So High
This is a great treasure hunt game that can be played indoors or out with older children and ones as young as 2. My 7, 5, and 3 year olds love it. Pick an object to hide and show it to your child. Your child covers their eyes while you stash the object anywhere you like. When ready, you say 'Itty bitty bye, about so high' ...(read more)
Pantry Painting
Painting doesn't have to be limited to paint brushes. You can use lots of different painting tools to produce different artistic results. Some ideas include: feathers, twigs or leaves, eyedroppers, toothbrushes, vegetable and pastry brushes Also, try adding something to change the texture of the paint. Add flour to make it lumpy; Karo syrup to make it shiny and sticky; sand or sawdust ...(read more)
Cleaning Old Coins
Have your child clean old coins to make them sparkle again. Fill a bowl with a small amount of soapy water and place a few coins in the bowl. Your child will have fun brushing the coins with a toothbrush to make them look brand new. When the coins are as clean as your child can make them, dry them with a paper towel.(read more)
Button Collage
Try this fun activity to practice counting and sorting, and end up with 3 pieces of artwork! Collect an assortment of buttons before starting. You may find that you have extras around the house that came with clothes or you can buy some at a fabric store. Write the numbers 1, 2, and 4 on separate sheets of construction paper. Next, have your child sort the buttons by ...(read more)
Shoe Hunt
My kids love to try on and wear my husband's and my shoes, so we made a game out of it. Get several pairs of shoes and put them in pile, then have the kids race to the stack and try to put on a matching pair. When they tire of that pair, they can go back to the stack and find another pair. For those whose ...(read more)
Playing Elevator
Spread a towel on the ground for your 'elevator.' Step in and push the pretend button to travel to different floors. Describe each step: 'The door is opening' (show with your hands). 'We're getting on the elevator' (step on the towel). 'We're pushing two' (push button). 'We're going up' (look up), etc. Get off at different floors and describe what you see at ...(read more)
Whose Name Is It?
On a piece of paper, write the name of your child, a family member, friend, pet, favorite character from a book or TV show, etc. and ask your child to guess whose name it is. If she needs help you can give her clues (example: it is someone in your family, it's a girl, etc.). Be sure to talk about the sounds that the letters make. This ...(read more)
Post-It Games
Keep a pad of post-its with you when you go out. When you need to pass a little time, take out ten, and you or your child can write Xs on half and Os on half. You can then have an impromptu game of tic-tac-toe on any table or wall that is nearby. With an older child, you could also write a series of letters (e.g. A, ...(read more)
Word Search
Make a simple word search for your beginning reader. On a piece of paper, hide simple, familiar words in rows of letters. Let your child find and circle them. If you have quad-lined or "graph" paper, it's even easier. This is great for times when you're waiting at a restaurant or doctor's office, even a long plane trip. (read more)
Rice pouring
Using pitchers of uncooked rice, which is easier to sweep up than sand, show your child how to pour rice into various size plastic bottles with large and small openings. Once your child has mastered that task, give him or her a funnel and try this fun activity again! (read more)
Making Puppets
Puppets are fun to make and great to play with, especially when acting out stories. Silly dog -- An old sock can be quickly transformed into a "silly dog" puppet. Make a dog from a sock by cutting out two ears from some felt -- or any sort of fabric scraps you may have -- and sewing them on either side of the heel. Sew on two ...(read more)
Clap, Pat, Drum to the Beat
See what kind of rhythms you can make with just your own body. This can be done with two people or a whole group. Begin by clapping. Clap a slow, steady beat until everyone is clapping in unison. Then clap slowly and quickly. Can you add a pat? Clap, clap, pat...or pat, pat clap. You decide! Drum the floor using two hands ...(read more)
Bean Math
Give your child 5 lima beans (or other similar item) and a piece of construction paper divided in half. (For a game on the road, you can also put the beans in a ziploc bag and put a piece of tape down the middle). Have child divide the beans into all the different combinations that can be used to make five. For example, two on one side, three ...(read more)
At-Home Scavenger Hunt
Create a scavenger hunt for your child by creating a photo list of his or her favorite things. An easy way to create the list is to take photos of your child's things with a digital camera and then print the pictures onto plain paper -- alternately, you can find photos of similar things on the internet. Once you have gathered your pictures, cut them out and paste ...(read more)
Around-the-House ABCs
Label different items in your house with the letter that the word begins with. For example, a cabinet would be labeled with a C. This activity is great for children who have built their vocabulary and are ready to begin working on pre-reading skills. This activity helps them to begin to associate letter sounds with the letters themselves. This activity can be as basic or as ...(read more)
Q-Tip Geometric Designs
Early math concepts include shapes. Help your child to learn his shapes in a fun way. Have your child take Q-Tips and place them on construction paper to make different shapes. You can also encourage your child by asking him to make a triangle or a square. Once he has found a shape that he likes, he can glue the Q-Tips to the construction paper. ...(read more)
Flashlight Fun
Dim the lights so that the beam of a flashlight is visible. If your child is older, you can offer him a flashlight and take turns playing "tag" with the spotlight. You can make hand puppets, or experiment with the shadows created by placing different objects in front of the beam. With children just learning to speak, you can shine the beam onto different objects and ask, ...(read more)
Playing Card Categories
You can turn a deck of cards into a great learning game! Give cards to child and ask them to divided them into groups of red and black. Then ask then to divide into hearts, clovers, spades, diamonds. Then into number groups. You can create a pattern with the cards red, black, red, black and ask your child to put the next cards in the pattern ...(read more)
Target Practice
Put a large non-breakable bowl or bucket on the ground and ask your child to throw a ball in it. If she gets the ball in, ask her to take a step back and try again. See how far away she can be and still hit the target. For summer time fun, fill the bowl with water for fun splashing.(read more)
Indoor Balance Beam
If you have a little gymnast in your house, use this activity to get him or her off the furniture and onto a safer surface. Grab a bunch of throw pillows from around the house and line them up on the floor. Let your child walk across the pillows, as though they're a balance beam.(read more)
Special Soup
If you're trying to cook and your little one keeps demanding your attention, give them their own large mixing bowl and spoon. Hand them the odds and ends of whatever you're using: i.e. potato or onion peels, celery leaves, pasta, etc. Add water and any spices you feel you can spare. Stir, stir, stir... let your child keep adding whatever strikes their fancy. Et voila! ...(read more)
Water Cycle: The Cotton Ball & Water Activity
Read a book about rain...suggested titles are : It's Raining Cats and Dogs: All Kinds of Weather and Why We Have It by Franklyn M. Branley; April Showers by George Shannon; or any book with a story that involves rain. Introduce the topics of Evaporation, Condensation, Precipitation, and Collection. Evaporation is caused by the heat of the sun, it dries up the rain and it becomes vapor that goes ...(read more)
Picture Sort
Sort pictures into groups of boys/girls, tall/short, hair color, or young/old. Kids could also make a line of all the pictures from youngest to oldest or shortest to tallest.(read more)
Noodle Art
Let your kids get creative with what's in the pantry. Each time I cook pasta, I always save a little bit of the noodles in a baggie. Then once we have accumulated enough different types of noodles, we make art. Let the kids use their imagination and see what they come up with.(read more)
Sorting shapes
Get a bunch of household objects that fall into 3 shape categories -- circle, square, and triangle. For instance, you can use a wallet, a coin, a ball, a piece of bread cut into a triangle shape, a tomato. Once you have many objects, about 5 of each shape, put them on a table and ask your child to sort them by shape. Great both for sorting and shape ...(read more)
Bowl-O-Fun
My son loves to take things in and out of bowls and bags. He works at it like it is his job. I keep a bowl on our dining room table full of adult-items suitable for a baby (old tube of shampoo, wooden spoon, sunglasses case, basting brush, etc.) and whenever he gets really agitated I take the bowl down and give it to him. He loves ...(read more)
Working with Tongs
Help your child with her fine motor skills with this kitchen utensil game. Find two bowls and fill them with water. Take your smaller, waterproof kitchen items and put them in one of the bowls. Give your child the kitchen tongs and show her how to hold them as well open and close them. Then ask them to grab the items in one bowl and transfer them to the other.(read more)
What's That Sound?
Try this activity to help your child learn to identify different sounds. Gather different noisemaking props in advance and don't let your child see them. Stand behind your child's back and make different noises with your props. Then see if he or she can guess what is making the noise. If your child has trouble guessing, make the sound again and give him or her clues: ...(read more)
What are they thinking?
Look through magazines or books for interesting or funny pictures. Ones with people and/or animals in action work best. Take turns with your child making up what the figures in the pictures are saying to one another. Cut out the pictures and paste them in a book. Use your imagination to create a funny or zany story. (read more)
Cabinet Chaos
When my kids are home on a rainy day or I just want to entertain them in some way, I let them pick a cabinet or drawer in the kitchen and we empty the whole thing. The kitchen utensils drawer or one filled with tupperware storage containers or plastic cups are their favorites. They sit around the 'approved mess' and go through each item one by one. ...(read more)
What's Missing?
On a cookie sheet, place 5 or 6 small objects, such as a spoon, brush, book, toy, sock, or crayon. Allow your child to look at all the items on the cookie sheet. Have your child turn around, so you can remove one of the objects from the tray and hide it out of sight. Your child will try to guess which item is missing. You ...(read more)
Off to the Races (Indoors)!
Create an obstacle course with masking tape on the floor around various things inside your house. For example, you can have your kids crawl through big cardboard boxes, climb onto the couch, crawl to the end of the couch and then jump down onto a stack of pillows, then race over to a spot for stacking a set of blocks into a tower, and so on.(read more)
Homemade Memory Game
No need to have an actual memory game for your little ones to find pairs. Simply gather pairs of things from around your house such as a pair of shoes, a pair of spoons, a pair of hairbrushes. Lay these objects all around the floor & have your little one find the pairs!(read more)
Dishwasher Sorting
My son loves to play with the dishwasher while I am cooking dinner. When the dishwasher is clean, I put all of his plastic spoons and forks in the silverware holder and let him practice taking them in and out. I also include our stainless steel spoons since he loves 'big people' items. He can sit there and play for up to an hour sorting and resorting ...(read more)
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Being Savvy Today
Savvy Welcomes Jacque Grillo's 10 New Year's Resolutions for Parents
TEN PARENT RESOLUTIONS FOR THE NEW YEAR Resolve that one day each week will be a day without television, videos, computers, and electronics of any sort. Shut the things off. Reclaim your homes. Resist the pressure to become your child's
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