Happy Friday

Happy Friday!  

I came home to find a package at my door! My tapirs arrived!

Hold on, Mel, what?

Yes, my tapirs arrived today and I am sooo excited.

 Let me explain.  G's favorite book right now is A Day with the Animal Doctors by Sharon Rentta.  I mean, favorite FAVORITE book.  She has is memorized!  It stars a mommy Dr. Tapir and her little baby tapir Terrence. Adorable.  Out of all the animals we have...we did not have any tapirs.  A problem I quickly remedied.  After searching for a bit, I found the Tapir and Friends Wildlife World Animal Store at www.tapirback.com - a tapir preservation fund.  I ordered and my little tapirs arrived in just a few days!  They are great quality toys too.

 On the way home, I stopped at the store for the ingredients for chicken enchiladas and found that my Kroger is selling Easter Schleich toys.  Nice.

 It's the little things in life that make me happy.  We are anticipating several inches of snow here this weekend, so I will be working on my etsy store, sewing, crafting, and being a shutterbug!  Have a happy weekend wherever you are!

Have a fun & playful day!
Mel

Playing Babies

Babies learn empathy early on.  They act out what they see and know and experience.

It's the old nature vs. nurture thing, but I believe that children have it IN them at a very young age to be caring and loving. 

I love to watch babies (and toddlers!) play with baby dolls.

Roo fed the babies, clumsily changed her diaper, and even shared her favorite toys.

The baby doll was swaddled (or a good attempt was made!) and feed A LOT of food.

Then, she cuddled one baby close and read her a book.  Now, that is something that we do with her all the time.  We read a mountain of books every single day.

Baby was also groomed. Yep, that's a scrub brush! :)

Diapers were changed.

I guess we need to buy better diapers - these seem to be sagging :)

She tried.  I am not sure if it's exactly pretend play just yet, but experience-based play.  She is acting out and imitating how she has been cared for.

I love to sit back and watch babies play.  Yes, they need a lot of attention.  But they also need time and space to explore and play on their own. 

Have a fun & playful day!
Mel

Singing the song of Spring

So l had this Schleich bear cub holding a robin button ~ just toying around with it when G saw it. This is our conversation...

G: Why is the bear holding that robin? (She knows alllll the bird names!)

M: Well...

G: Are they friends?

M: Maybe. Some birds help other animals by picking bugs out of their fur.

G: I think that the robin is singing about Spring and waking up the bear from hibernation.

Well, there you go. The logic of a 4 year old. I love that. I definitely have to document that in her scrapbook.

Have a fun & playful day

Mel

Things with Wings

There's a game we like to play all the time in the car.  Today is was 'things with wings".  G named all the things she could think of that had wings.  It's a great exercise in association and classification.   I made this board on polyvore.com, but we have made collages of like items or index card on a ribbon to take in the car or even a small photo book (you know those cheap ones at the dollar store? Excellent for making mini books for kids!).  
Have a fun & playful day!
 Mel

Craft Day Tuesday - Play with Your Food!

I am fortunate that all the kids that I know love their veggies!  My girls growing up loved mixed veggies - both cooked and raw.  A certain 4 year would choose broccoli or carrots over chips! Let's make food fun.

We made these simple veggie puppets with just a few items - veggie cutouts found at the dollar section, googly eyes (googly eyes make everything more fun!), popsicle sticks, tape, and a marker.

Tape the popsicle stick on the back, glue on the goggly eyes, make a happy face and...ta-da! You have veggie puppets.

So cute, right?

Baby Chameleon from Safari Ltd decided to get in on the healthy eating fun!  The fruits and veggies are from Safari Ltd Toobs.

Safari Ltd's motto is "toys that teach" - it's so true!  There's so many things you can do with this fruit and veggies toob - sorting, counting, pretend play with little animals, garden pretend play, talk about foods from around the world...sooo many ideas racing in my brain right now.

Or you could totally make a fun lunch landscape for your little ones to devour like this one.

(Above photo Parents Magazine)

Have a fun & playful day!

Mel

Math Games Monday - Penguin Grid Game

It's February and cold here in Ohio.  As we are stuck inside, I am inventing new things are us to do to keep the boredom at bay and the cabin fever away.

 Today, I made a Penguin Grid Game.  I used two pieces of scrapbook paper (JoAnn), glue stick, one die, and a penguin paper punch from EK Success brand.  Kids can help punch out the many min penguins then glue them on in a grid.

 Roll the die then cover that number of penguins with your acrylic hearts that can be found at the Dollar Tree.  OR you can use pennies or M&Ms or anything really.

 Continue you on...

 until you've covered up the whole board.

 My grid has 88 penguins on it - which would be good for a 4-5 year old.  If you are making with a younger child, make your game board with less (maybe 24 or so).  Younger children have a shorter attention span and may lose interest.

I can't wait until Spring, but until then...

Have a Fun & Playful Day!
Mel

Horse Valentine's Day Party Lunch

We are a little obsessed with horses here in this horse!!!

 

 Two weeks ago, a certain 4 year old began planning (she's a planner!) a Horse Valentine's Day Party Lunch, so...

 We made cookies and collected ALL the horses we had.  My husband found all the Breyer horses on clearance at a Meijer on night and bought all he could! :)  We had all the Schleich horses already in our collection.

 "Kitties should be invited too, because kitties and horses are friends and kitties hang around the barn all the time." -G

While she was at preschool for the morning, Little Sister and I put this together.  Well, Little Sister rearranged everything. twice. I can't wait to see her face when she gets home.

Have a fun & playful day!
Mel