A Break for the Holidays : Favorite Posts

Throughout December I've decided to take a little break and step back from the blog a little bit during the holidays.

I'm going to be exercising what I learned throughout the 30 Days to Hands on Play Challenge, and focus more of my attention on the family.

I still may pop in a couple times this month with a post or two, as well as continue It's Playtime each week. But for the most part, I have the month full of wonderful bloggers who are going to share a variety of posts with you! From holiday crafts to parenting to creativity to literacy. I'll be introducing you to many of my favorite blogs that I feel that hands on : as we grow readers should really know about!

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It's Playtime! : Christmas Countdown

It's the beginning of the Christmas countdown.

There's 24 Days before Christmas!
Add to that a collection of 24 Kid Bloggers.
And that means there's a Creative Christmas Countdown!

Creative with Kids has organized an activity a day from 24 creative kid bloggers to countdown to Christmas! I'm very excited for this, and I'm taking part! I'm day 12! Yay!

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30 Days to Hands on Play : Keep Playing

DAY 30 CHALLENGE:

KEEP ON PLAYING!

Today is the final day of the 30 Days to Hands on Play Challenge.
While this month has been exhausting with keeping up with all the challenges and all the participants, I'm very sad to see its over already!

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Science Experiment : Ice, Water, Vapor

Henry woke up asking to do an experiment!

When I asked what kind of experiment he'd like to do, he replied,

Ice!

Probably thinking of our sand and salt experiment on ice that we did for the 30 Days to Hands on Play Challenge [for Day 22, Investigate]. 

I didn't have anything prepared yet, but ice cubes.

So after asking some fans on Facebook [check here to see their suggestions for ice experiments].

I came up with a simple, yet fun, interactive science experiment with ice. 

Watching and causing the changes of the phases of water as an ice cube melts and turns into water.

It then comes to a boil and vaporizes into thin air, disappearing completely.

This is how we did it.

I set up three ice stations.

Two pots and one bowl.

Henry added six ice cubes to each ice station [great counting practice for him].

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30 Days to Hands on Play : Special Craft

DAY 28 CHALLENGE:

CREATE SOMETHING 
FOR SOMEONE SPECIAL

DAY 28 CHALLENGE:
Take a moment to discuss ideas with your child about what you'd like to create and for who.

• How can you make it special? 
• How can you make it personal?

Take the time today to create it for that special someone!

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