These free printable scavenger hunts are a great tool for encouraging children to immerse themselves in nature and look a little closer at the world around them with deep appreciation. This sort of play magically manages to nurture physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, and social growth in children. And they’re fun for adults as well! Our typical day involves a fair amount of time outside and while most of that time is devoted to simple free play, from time to time we’ll take one of our more structured activities or art projects outdoors. My days are currently spent with two two year olds and so I wasn’t sure what the response…
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DIY Alphabet + Number Playmat
We do number and letter activities often and so I wanted to create an inexpensive, but durable mat for number/letter matching, recognition, and counting. I ended up making this simple mat with a rug from Ikea that had never found a good spot in our home. I was super pleased with its simplicity and the boys have enjoyed playing with it. Right now they mostly enjoy the counting side and have shown exceptional preference for counting edible things, like Cheerios. But I like that it’s pretty open ended in how it can be used and can continue to be used down the road for more advanced activities as well, like…
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Wooden Color Rounds
My dad cut down a bunch of logs for me last spring as a set of natural blocks for Graham to play with outside. While he was at it, I had him cut me several of these wooden rounds as well. It’s not difficult to cut up a log if you’re the sort who feels handy with a table saw, but if you’re not the sort who is comfortable with saws and sharp things and don’t have someone in your life who is, they do also sell wooden rounds at most craft stores. I just rolled our Christmas tree outside and I’m thinking some more wooden rounds might be a…
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Wooden Color Blocks
It may come as a surprise to a lot of people who know me, but I actually do love color! However, I am admittedly quite picky about it. When introducing colors to our little one, I wanted them to be vibrant and beautiful. I wanted them to be something I also enjoyed looking at and playing with alongside him. So, this was a fun project to be able to create the shades and hues that I wanted with the remainder of the block set we used for our wooden letter blocks. I’d like to expand these colors as Graham gets older to do even further gradient sorting. But for now…
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Color Sorting with Yogurt Cups
My love for recycling yogurt containers in play based learning continues to grow and grow. It makes such good sense. It gives extended life to single use plastic. It cuts down on the additional plastic of which many store bought toys and learning materials are made. They’re not an eyesore. And they’re free! If your little one is expressing interest in color recognition and sorting, this activity is a super simple one to add to your learning times. (To make this activity even more simple, you could also replace the painted pasta with pom poms or other loose parts for sorting.) MATERIALS Assorted Dry Pasta Assorted Colors of Acrylic Paint…
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Yogurt Cups for Play Based Learning
Play based learning doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated. And much of the packaging for the food we buy can be repurposed for creating some simple learning materials. Yogurt cups are a perfect example of this. I began saving these when Graham was about six months old. I’d throw a stack of them into our diaper bag and we’d have some lightweight building blocks to stack whenever we needed them. (Well, at that point I would stack them and Graham would knock them down. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.) I’ve become a bit of a Chobani purist simply because I’m so grateful for the thought behind their packaging. This post might…
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Nurturing a Whole Child in Mental Growth
I began this journey with thoughts on mental growth that were somewhat synonymous with a notion of “book smarts”. I assumed the best thing I could do for Graham was teach him the alphabet and numbers and read to him everyday. My vision for his mental growth was clouded by all that a child “should” know. But I’ve come to believe that while there is nothing wrong with teaching the alphabet or other learning fundamentals, I was sometimes pursuing those clear milestones over embracing the intellectual development my child was naturally inclined towards. And I discovered that it was possible that my understanding of a child’s intellectual capacity was far…
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A Journey in Nurturing a Whole Child
This series of thoughts on whole childhood began as a real time documentation of our learning process and reflections through our first year with Graham. I felt so overwhelmed from the beginning that I would fail him unintentionally by my simple lack of knowledge in how to nurture his proper development. I knew that I wanted to nurture the whole of him, equipping him with resources early on for connecting with his emotions and creativity and spirituality. I knew that I wanted to instill a love of learning and a heart of compassion. I knew that I wanted him to have an appreciation for nature and the physical world, as…
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Color Play with Plastic Bottles
We’ve been on a color kick lately. And since I cleaned out the refrigerator in the garage today and found a collection of plastic bottles in need of recycling, I felt inspired to transform them into a set of colorful, rainbow bowling pins. I thought it would be a free, fun, new to us learning through play activity, where I could casually narrate our play and name the colors as we made them and knocked them down, etc. But things don’t always go as we plan. Graham very much enjoyed the process of making them and the magic of color theory basics. He enjoyed setting them up, however when I…
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8 Playlists for Children (That Are Equally Pleasant for Adults)
I’m frequently searching for ways to better practice presence in each moment. One of the most helpful tools for me has been intentionally creating ambience. Ambience is about completely enveloping. It’s about creating backdrops for desired experiences. The ambience I often strive to create is one of calm and beauty that allows me to recognize the sacredness of ordinary moments. Music can serve us by ushering us deeper into these moments. It’s all rather magical. And also useful for someone who struggles to get out of their own head. Now—I have some feelings surrounding music for children. I can appreciate a proper dose of nonsense for the fun of it,…
