hands on : as we grow

Fun Kid Activity: Lines of Colored Tape

I finally got some colored tape!

I didn't even have plans for it, but I felt the need to have it for some fun kid activities!

We got to it right away.

I taped some fun lines on the floor in three different colors.

A blue zig zag line.

A red curvy line.

And one straight line in green.

We ended up with two activities with this one setup with colored tape.

Walk the line of colored tape.
Blow pom poms along the coordinating color line.

Fun Kid Activity #1: Walk the Line
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Labels: Activities, Activities for Preschoolers, Energetic Activities, kids, Preschool Activities, Toddler Activities

It's Playtime! Get Moving Indoors!

This time of year...
Even though its been a mild winter in Iowa.
We're still itching to get outside more and run!

We're finding creative ways to burn off energy in the house.
And so our some of our It's Playtime playdates!

I love the ideas that you guys have been coming up with to get active indoors.

[Crafty Moms Share: Indoor Snowball Fight!]

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Labels: Activities, Activities for Preschoolers, Energetic Activities, It's Playtime, Its Playtime

Preschooler Activity : A Big Maze

A maze and a maze.

Learn Language through Play

Guest Post by

Kristina's is one of the moms behind the amazing blog, Toddler Approved. Kristina is the mom to a preschooler and a baby. I've featured Toddler Approved many times on It's Playtime, so a guest post swap on our blogs was a must!

She's very fun at sneaking in learning. Especially name recognition. One of my all time favorite posts at Toddler Approved is her name twister game. It seems she may have a boy full of energy, just like Henry! [Her number hockey game is also a must see!]

Today, I'm over at her blog. We're not only swapping blogs, we're swapping literacy ideas. Since I'm not an educator, this made me kind of nervous. But, Henry and I discovered a fun twist on reading that I think you should all give a try tonight. I've even challenged you all!

Kristina has a very valuable post written here that I am ecstatic to share with you:

Five ways to learn language through play!

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Hi friends! I am so excited to be visiting from over at Toddler Approved! Jamie invited me to share some tips about how to incorporate language learning into every day interactions with our children.

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Labels: Activities, Activities for Preschoolers, Educational, Energetic Activities, Guest Posts, littlekids, preschool, sahm, teachpreschool, toddler

Outdoor Activities : Yet to do this Fall

With the weather getting cooler each day, I've found that we're not getting outside nearly as much as we were this summer.

The weather is still plenty nice to play all day outside, just with a jacket on instead. [Though that jacket seems to have bugs crawling in it or something, Henry just doesn't want to keep it on!]

To get us in the mood to play outside, here are a few activities that we can still do in this cooler weather.

Jump in the leaves, an obvious one, but you can't forget it either! Raking up the leaves as well as jumping in them can provide an entire afternoon of entertainment for children.

Activity : Indoor String Scavenger Hunt

During naptime, I setup this simple string scavenger hunt.

I strung yarn around the room [a couple rooms actually].

Looping it through furniture and toys, creating a tangled mess.

It's Playtime! : Energy Busters

I have lately felt the itch to get moving.
To get Henry and George moving, more specifically.

I noticed that we haven't been doing as many energetic activities as we were prior to the summer. Being outdoors all day does get the kids moving.

I looked through last week's It's Playtime for inspiration to get the kids moving. I found some nifty ways to get the kids tangled up and burn off their energy.
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Labels: Activities, Energetic Activities, It's Playtime, Its Playtime, kids, littlekids, preschool, sahm, teachpreschool

Outdoor Play : Balance Beam

A backyard balance beam is super simple!

Grab some scrap wood from the garage or shop and lay out in the lawn.

[If you have clean boards, bring it inside for an indoor walk the plank activity.]

Add corners where you like, make a maze if you please.

[Or one simple piece of board is enough, too.]

Outdoor Play : Scavenger Hunt

It has been a while since I made a scavenger hunt for Henry.

This time I wanted Henry to be more self-sufficient at it.

So I made a scavenger hunt guide with pictures [as well as the word].

30+ Dirty Kid Activities

International Mud Day is tomorrow, Wednesday, June 29th!

To celebrate, here's 30 dirty activities for kids, dirt construction to art with dirt, exploring teaching opportunities as well as the obvious mud and dirt sensory activities.

Find a dirt patch, make some mud and start digging!

For even more dirty and muddy ways to play, there's a mud day linky at the end to provide you even more inspiration to let your kids get full of mud!

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dirt construction activities :

Free Play : Fabric

Yesterday's basket of fabric scraps that George explored,

turned into some exploring from Henry, as well.

The entire basket, of course, was dumped onto the floor immediately.

Henry began sorting the fabric scraps by color.

At least that's what he told me.

He was collecting the blue fabrics.

Learning Activity : ABC Mat Game

Using an ABC Mat and ABC Blocks a learning activity is formed!

Letting Henry lead the way,

we put the ABC mat together in order of the ABC's and 123's.

He used his hammer to pound in each of the letters to their corresponding blocks.

Once the mat was together,

we gathered our Melissa and Doug ABC blocks and drew one block at a time.

30 Ways to Play with Balloons

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A while ago, Henry and I had a little Balloon Extravaganza.
Balloons are a blast! Get them out all year round!

Since then, I've been on the lookout for fun ways to play with balloons.

Here are 30 Ways to Play with Balloons:

Through activities, art, experiments, and crafts!

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balloon activities :

Art : Ribbon Painting

Ribbon Throw Painting, that is.

Henry, what three colors would you like to paint with?

Blue, Green and White.

I was shocked he named three colors. I didn't have to correct him to only choose three, or coerce him into saying another color. He simply just rattled off three colors.

Add some ribbon [or cords, or tinsel, whatever you got on hand] and dip into the paint.

I taped four scrapbook papers together in a large square on some cardboard outside.

Henry dipped the ribbons in paint and ran them across the paper.

Surprisingly, this didn't really interest Henry...

Until he stood up to refill his ribbon with more paint.

He began throwing the ribbons onto the papers!

Seeing how they splatted onto the paper and what kind of design they left suddenly became interesting to Henry.

Then dragging the ribbon off to do it again, left yet another streak of paint.

Beautifully created art and a fun activity in one!

Henry chose to display the blue paper in the frame.

Why the blue paper? Because there's an H - for Henry!

Linking up at NurtureStore's Carnival : GetActive! Play

-- Henry is 3 years old --

-- George is 7 months old --

Labels: Activities, Activities for Preschoolers, Art, Big Art, Crafts, Energetic Activities, featured, Outdoors, preschool, Preschool Activities

30 Moves for Excess Energy!

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Henry has always been a child with lots and lots of energy.

He took his first steps at 8.5 months.

He always runs instead of walks.

He spins instead of stands.

He climbs.

Coloring bores him.

Crafts spend too much time sitting.

Henry simply likes to move.

I am learning to ~~deal with~~ embrace the energy instead of trying to hinder it.

Here are 4 ways to move

that we've done to help with the

endless amount of energy:

Rolling (or kicking) Eggs and Ball Painting
Balloons!
Egg Hunt
Bubble Pop Road

Free Play: Rolling Eggs and Ball Painting

Build a road with Bubble Wrap and hear the pops!

There's even more Energetic Activities that we've done -- so browse around!

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Be sure to check out yesterday's It's Playtime posts for lots of ways to play.

Science@Home is featured with lots of Body Games!

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Here are 26 more ways to help out with that excess energy:

	<< Get Rolling Moving Smart Paint with your Feet >> The Imagination Tree
	<< Drive with Hula Hoops Sharin' with Sharron Tumble and Wrestle >> Sharin' with Sharron
	<< Mop with your Socks Quirky Momma Play Musical Chairs (with cards) >> Quirky Momma
	<< Indoor Activity Course Messy Kids Obstacle Course >> Imagination Soup
	<< Pretend to be Animals Toddler Approved Puddle Jump >> The Adventures of Bear
	<< Have Target Practice Playfully Learning Build a Rope Bridge >> Let the Children Play
	<< Jump Boards Kleas Play Ball >> Irresistable Ideas for Play Based Learning
	<< Hopscotch Creativity My Passion Create Big Bubbles >> Come Together Kids
	<< Fly a Kite Maya Made Run Down a Hill >> Go Explore Nature
	<< Just Get Outside I can teach my child! Go for a Ride >> Steady Mom
	<< Climb at the Playground Can you Come Outside to Play? Hop and Pop >> Inspiration Sounds Creativity Abounds
	<< Jump on the Bed Really, Are You Serious? Dance! >> Squiggle Mum
	<< Go on a Nature Color Walk Sense of Wonder Exercise Cube >> Little Family Fun