Fun Learning Activities Kids
It is not quite cool enough yet to play outside for long periods of time. It is still 100+ degrees here in Texas, but we are dreaming of the 90s and bookmarking some fun outdoor play ideas as inspired through last week’s It’s Playtime Link-up. Each week over a hundred bloggers link up their favorite [...]
We team up to run the kids play activities link-up, It’s Playtime, each week with Hands on : as we grow, Let the Children Play, The Imagination Tree and Messy Kids. Each week you, our beloved readers submit your favorite play posts to show up on all of our blogs. This week I have the [...]
It is important to start teaching kids at a young age how to earn money, save money and spend it wisely. One of this month’s sponsors, Manilla, wants to hear about our financial struggles and successes – sign up for Manilla, tell them about your money mountains in the comments for a chance to win [...]
We have tubs of playdough around here and love making our own batches. Just last week we had fun creating coffee playdough. Here are four creative posts that inspired me to play with playdough. Thanks for submitting them to It’s Playtime! Kate of Picklebums, had fun with her kids, some jungle toys and props, and [...]
This post is in honor of International Mud Day… whoever made the last Wednesday of June “mud-day” does not live in Texas. The heat index was 107 yesterday and it’s dry, very dry… while we LOVE mud and LOVE playing outside, this is just not the time of year for outdoor play (well, after 8:30 [...]
What ways have you encouraged (or allowed) your kids to interact and play in the outdoor world around them? Preschoolers are so curious! I love how these sites, from last week’s link-up “It’s Playtime” party, had fun outside or inside, with “outside” things. 1 -Gina of Play-Based Preschool brought a number of outdoor “treasures” into [...]
.The kids and I made our first video (well, that I can remember) using car marionettes. Chevy DFW inspired this post, they dared me to make a video with my kids and cars. My minivan isn’t quite movie worthy, let’s just say its got more than it’s fair share of dings and is it’s typical [...]
Do you remember our post with painters tape and stripes? We went through a painting kick for several weeks… my hubby had a large strip (about a foot wide and 8 feet long) of painted plywood 1/4th an inch thick. He saw trash, I saw fun! We chopped it into 5 different pieces and the [...]
Cardboard Boxes – There are so many fun things that my preschoolers and I can do with them! They among my kids favorite “toys”. Rachele from Tinkerlab, in honor of her 1-year blogging birthday, is having a round-up of activities you can do with cardboard boxes. Fun! We had fun “throwing paint” onto our box [...]
Preschoolers love to be read to and to play pretend; combine the two and you are sure to have a great afternoon activity. Here are some of my favorite link-ups from our Kids Meme, It’s Playtime, that featured families reading and playing with their kids: Preschool lesson plans: If I got to award a “prize” [...]
Looking for ideas of ways to help your preschoolers explore their world? Sensory tubs are a great! Most preschoolers love touching and feeling things. Tubs (or in our case, a kiddie pool) full of sensory objects are sure to keep your kids engaged and exploring! . Some of the things you can put into your [...]
Textures are so much fun for preschoolers to explore with and about! We have found that modeling clay is the best medium to “test” textures.DIY Silly Putty is the easiest to clean up after, and playdough is a great standby, but modeling clay is perfect as it holds it shape really well, being stiffer than [...]
Have you noticed a theme this past week? We have been learning about things that begin with the letter B in this months Activity-a-Day Calendar. These are just a few of the “B” things I’ve come across this past week: . If it weren’t for the fact that my youngest preschooler has recently decided bath [...]
This week we are having fun playing and doing things that begin with the letter B during our playtime, lots of blocks, lots of banging and bouncing, and lots of quiet-down bedtime stories! Candlewick Press must have known that this week was the letter B in our Activity-a-Day calendar as they sent us several bedtime [...]
Do your kids enjoy making a mess? I know that mine do! We got a really fun book in the mail from Penguin books, Mess: The Manual of Accidents and Mistakes, by Keri Smith. This is such a fun book filled with activities and ideas of ways to make art from messes, or rather to [...]
This post idea, to test our sunscreen by painting on our paper with sunscreen and leaving them out in the sun, was inspired by the comment by Lady in a Small Town in my earlier post, Sun-bleached Alphabet Puzzle. She said that she’d heard of an experiment where they painted with sunscreen and watched the [...]
My toddler is learning her colors! This was a fun activity that we did together. The older two kids rushed around the house independently, while Quirky Kid A and I looked for all the red items. Unfortunately, this is not an original idea, only I can’t remember where online I read about another family having [...]
My preschoolers love crackers and all things snack related. I was thrilled to have discovered Sara and her nifty blog, Splendidly Imperfect. She has graciously agreed to guest post her alphabet cheese crackers for us! Thanks Sara! Go check out her blog today and leave a comment there if you like these yummy preservative-free healthy [...]
My mother used to make these frozen pudding cups for us when my siblings and I were kids, calling it “poor man’s icecream”. We loved it and as the Texas heat is climbing in the tripple digits, I thought today would be a great time to pass on my mother’s tradition to my kids. These [...]
There are five things that have made my life so much easier welcoming our latest bundle into the home. Juggling a newborn with three feisty preschoolers can be a bit daunting, maybe these ideas will help you adjust to life with a newborn (and older kids). . New Toys: Keep your preschoolers entertained in those [...]
Germs, I don’t like them but I am usually not on a “death to germs campaign” but right before our latest Quirky bundle arrived (she’s a whole 9 days old! Boy, time flies!) we were battling rotavirus with the older kids. Anybody who has struggled with rota doing its rounds through youngsters would totally appreciate [...]
We are looking forward to the fall and beginning to homeschool our oldest. I love the sounds of this meme, stART. Michelle is a former elementary school teacher who created weekly activities for her kids mixing literature (stories) and art projects. They look like a ton of fun! Here was one of the projects that [...]
My preschoolers love to color with crayons and love to paint – why not do both? This post was adapted from the post on resist crayon paintings on The Activity Mom several months ago. It has been mulling around in the back of my brain as a craft activity waiting for the perfect moment. This [...]
Do you have independent children? So far, I have three of them! This Popsicle recipe is perfect for them. It was simple enough that with minimal supervision/intervention my four year old was able to give the directions (she loved that) to my three year old who mixed these yummy treats up! We made a couple [...]
Anna of The Lawrence Girls and Daddy, has three crafty girls. The stories of their lives and interactions has me laughing almost every time I read her blog! In 2-3 weeks our little girl will arrive and I am both terrified and curious what life with three girls is like – curious, read her blog! [...]
Our last and greatest road trip sanity tip for traveling with kids is a bucket pulley system. This idea was the brainchild of my hubby. We went on our trip when I was nearly 8 months pregnant I was unable, unlike previous trips, to turn around and hand things to the kids during the long [...]
Painting with toddlers can be a challenge. Our youngest wants desperately to participate with her older siblings during craft times, and yet, she still has a tendency to put things in her mouth. Time for edible paints! French’s sent us some honey mustard (yummy!) and Quirky kid A has had fun playing with “paint” while [...]
We are having a series of tips and tricks that have helped us on our last road-trip. We drove through 9 states and spent nearly 60 hours in the car with three kids aged 3, 2 & 1. Crazy. Some of the things we used to help us maintain our sanity included: buckets, plastic Easter [...]
My daughter just turned four! Her birthday request was for rainbow cupcakes. I was imagining rainbow icing till she explained she wanted the entire cupcake to be a rainbow. How on earth would I make that? Then I remembered the blog post I read from Shannon, at Milk and Cuddles, there was hope! We could [...]
Our kids are just beginning to grasp the concept of different states. A few months ago we ran a post card swap here at Quirky Momma, inspired by Liz over at A Belle, a Bean, and a Chicago Dog. There were nearly 30 kids who sent post cards to each other. I also begged and [...]
