Playtime Series : The Imagination Tree

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Meet Anna from The Imagination Tree!

[This is part one in a series of features on the play based hosts of It's Playtime!]

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The Imagination Tree is a very creative, play based blog written by Anna Ranson from the UK. She currently stays at home with her two little girls, but professionally she's a primary teacher. Throughout Anna's posts, she has learning experiences in everyday play. Anna encourages and expresses the importance of play in each post.

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It's Playtime! : Upcycle before Recycle

Recycling versus Upcycling? I'm still unsure of the differences, so I had to look it up and found this article from Intercon. How I understand it is to upcycle means you give new life to or reuse items without degrading it. Recycling degrades the item and turns it into something new again.

So my advice: Do both! Upcycle the item as many times as possible. Then recycle. And start over again!

With that in mind, last week's It's Playtime was full of ways to upcycle products!

I've been in awe of this upcycle post from Bellelli Educacion since it was first linked up to It's Playtime. Look at this city that was built by children from all recyclables! 

Talk about creativity!

Its hard to even recycle anything, knowing something like this can be created!
How can I store all these recyclables so that I can use them to upcycle?

There's so much inspiration to upcycle your recyclables before you actually recycle them! Give them new life!

Here's only a few more upcycle inspirations that were posted to last week's It's Playtime:

Upcycle a Bottle for Pottery Art [kinderpendent]	Upcycle Wipe Boxes to Flip Flops [Having Fun at Home]	Upcycle Paper Tubes for Printing [Play Create Explore]	Marble Run from Upcycled Paper Tubes [Tinkerlab]

High Five to these play friends!

[Go leave them a playful comment!]

[Grab featured badge on the right, if you were featured]

Have you been playing this week?

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It's Playtime is a community for play loving bloggers to share ways to play, hosted by: 

• Let the Children Play
• Messy Kids
• The Imagination Tree
• Quirky Momma
• hands on : as we grow

<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.handsonaswegrow.com/search/label/It%27s%20Playtime" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title="It's Playtime at hands on : as we grow"><img alt="It's Playtime at hands on : as we grow" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5KqJnu7hGflqac1Y_Y26MiH9nvt940BywBIFiHtRTWYLqr212qj25UOK-0-_yBxdMhKHq6EW369znAE4VDyrh-posSQJvT2rLCBa2NGmj7a6vzOW9POOarg-BmdY33KXQMFqSngOd60I/" style="cursor: move;" width="125/" /></a></div>

How to Play : Share a post about a playful activity. Grab the It's Playtime button and pop it into your post/blog. Invite your readers to the weekly playdate! Stop by every Thursday and add your link about play. Your link will show up on each of the blogs in the It's Playtime community. Each week the playtime hosts will choose favorite posts to feature. (By linking you are giving us permission to use an image and link back to you, if featured.) Visit other posts that catch your eye. Commenting on posts that you find interesting or inspiring is a wonderful way to develop your own playful community.

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-- Henry is 3 years old --

-- George is 7 months old --

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Traveling Activities

This past weekend the boys and I went traveling with Grandma and [someday] Aunt Kim to visit my other brother's family.

How to entertain the boys during our travels?

I packed bags of activities to do! 

Here's what we took along:

• Imaginets - a magnetic white board case with magnet shapes to create. [Included some of Henry's Crayola washable markers that easily wipe off with baby wipes.]
• I Spy Bottle for either of the boys to find hidden shapes and letters in the rice.
• Stickers and construction paper.
• Portable DVD Player with a couple DVD's - I don't own a portable DVD player, so I checked one out for a week from my local library!
• Little toys that Henry packed in a small bag.
• Special snacks [like chocolate milk and trail mix].
• Travel Lap Tray for eating snacks and playing.
• Most importantly: Extra adults to play with the kids in the back. [Minivan needed.]

We also played a version of I Spy - we looked for semis! Henry chose a color of semi for each of us to look for, then we counted them. This ended up being more of a game for the adults than it was for Henry - he just liked to point out the semis [which was constantly, by the way].

Most of these ideas came from my Facebook crowd when I posed the question of what to do while traveling on a long road trip.

Other comments on activities for traveling [I couldn't take everything along]:

Make a Busy Book for Traveling : Teach Preschool Portable Art Board : The Imagination Tree iPhone/iPad - Apps for the kids! Paint with Contact Paper [mess-free] : Dilly-Dali Art Buy an Activity, such as Pipe Cleaner Creations : Let Kids Create Car Bingo Kid's Learning Laptop Activity Box and Activities for Traveling : Quirky Momma

The next topic idea?

How to get kids involved with Outdoor Gardening/Landscaping

-- Henry is 3 years old --

-- George is 7 months old --

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Baby Play : Mirror Reflections

Mirrors are fascinating to a baby!

George is no exception.

I sat George in front of a full length mirror.

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Outdoor Play : Dandelion Picking

On Mother's Day, we headed outside to pick dandelions at my mom's house and collected them in a basket. Not doing anything in particular with them.

Later that week, we went outside and did the same thing again at home.

Henry thoroughly enjoys picking dandelions. 

He gets excited when he finds them.

He says they're pretty.

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