One of the stations in my therapy gym right now is a dinosaur dig. I have had this idea in my mind for a long time and finally had time to construct it during the winter school break! The end result is a bin of sand with “dino bones” to hunt for, and their skeletons’ … Read more
This morning my kids invited me to a restaurant. Let’s start with the positive. The owners are clearly passionate about this restaurant, and even about personalizing it to their customers—as soon as I stepped up to the storefront and found out that they were calling it “Mommy Let’s Go The Restaurant”, I was impressed. And … Read more
If you’re someone who would say “Oh, I can’t handle letting my kids make a mess! It stresses me out too much!” …Well, first step, let’s differentiate between “wet mess” and “dry mess”. These aren’t strictly liquids vs solids here. We’re using the words “wet” and “dry” in a more abstract way than that. But … Read more
On my recent post about children being developmentally ready for games with winning and losing, somebody asked me if the same information applied to video games, which was a great question. I think the umbrella term “video games” is pretty huge, and that sometimes makes it really hard to talk about what we’re talking about. … Read more
To speak in very general terms of averages — because that’s all I can talk about, is average child development, not your kid’s specific child development — 5-6 is when children start to really become aware of winning and losing, but they still can’t handle it well yet. This is the age of racing ✨everywhere✨, … Read more
Another play invitation set-up from a recent weekend… Okay, so this is a little “extra” as far as I usually go with setting up play for my kids, but I was intrigued by the idea. You add a drop of food coloring to milk, toast some white bread, set out some paintbrushes, and let the … Read more
This is a very short prompt/invitation to play today! Short and easy – that’s the best type of prompt, right? Find something in your house that you have a bunch of. It could be anything. Invite your child to help sort it with you. This type of activity is going to be best and most … Read more
Inspired by Busy Toddler’s “Playing Preschool” — but a way more informal version of it — I sat down with the book “Ten Apples Up On Top” from the library and began reading. I didn’t call anyone over to the rug or make them pay attention to what I was doing. I read it all the … Read more
I wanted to give an example of how the same activity/craft/invitation to play can mean different things to different children (who are at different stages of development and therefore are exploring different things through their play!) I set out foam stickers, markers, and construction paper with my children, who were at the time ages 3.5 … Read more