Every year when I was growing up, my family would pack up the car and drive 16 hours to visit family in Canada. We always looked forward to these visits, which were accompanied by homemade treats, soccer games, and fabulous hat parties. Our hat parties included dressing up with my grandma and cousins in the most outrageous…
Outdoor Pretend Play: Mixing Up Some Nature Soup
The weather is starting to warm up, and we cannot wait to get outside! A lot of our outdoor time is spent doing gross – motor activities – running, biking, climbing, but we also have a special area of our backyard dedicated to outdoor pretend play. Outdoor Pretend Play: Mixing up Nature Soup Some people…
5 Natural Language Development Activities for Toddlers
What is the most important thing for toddlers to learn? What is the one thing, above all others, that will benefit these wee ones most in their years ahead? Of course there are many opinions to these questions – but want to know what I think? I believe (very strongly. VERY strongly) that above all else,…
Incredible Woodworking Projects for Handy Kids!
Do you have a handy kid? All of my little ones amaze me with what they are capable of (when I give them the opportunity to show me, that is). And woodworking projects are no exception! Madeline didn’t have too many opportunities when she was little, I’m afraid to say. I cringed with the idea…
Winter Sensory Bin Ideas
Quiet bins are so important for the child and the parent. If you are a busy parent, you require no explanation as to why quiet bins are important for parents. These winter sensory bin ideas are for you. The calm, quiet, imaginative play, which your child experiences has the same calming and centering effect on…
Preschooler Activities for the Car
We have been spending an overwhelming amount of time in the car since deciding to move several states away. There is only so much screen time that my preschooler can tolerate and only so many games of ‘I Spy’ that I can handle before our car trips across state lines, and from potential home to potential…
Race Cubes – A Christmas Science Experiment
Here is a fun and simple Christmas Science experiment you can enjoy with your family. I don’t know about you but sometimes I find it hard to come up with or find fresh ideas. Then I realized, maybe I am trying to be too elaborate with my ideas. The goal of science is for our…
Halloween Activity for Preschoolers: Weaving a Spider Web
This year, our family, like many, are deciding to stay home for Halloween. Instead of going out trick-or-treating, we are going to have a celebration with just our small family, complete with costumes, decorations, games, and some treats. This is where our spider web weaving Halloween activity for preschoolers is being enjoyed. My ECE classroom…
Halloween Counting Activity
1… 2… 3… 4… 5… I love the sound of my kids counting from our kitchen table. “Is this right mommy?” “Yep, looks like you have five little ghosts ready to glue on.” Counting is a great skill for your little one to develop, so you won’t want to miss out on this super easy…
Halloween Sensory Bin
I’m always looking for fun and festive ways to enforce letter learning with my preschooler. It’s a bonus if the set up is short and the playtime is long. With this Halloween sensory bin, I was thrilled with how easy it was to set up and how many different ways my preschooler played and learned. Halloween Sensory…