The Summer List 2021

 

The Summer List has been a tradition for nearly 10 years in our household. It has been so wonderful to see how it has evolved over the years as our child has grown and been able to do more activities, but there has also been some sadness as we realise that some of the activities we do may no longer be age appropriate (we're growing up here!).

Last year we had to be a bit more creative with the Summer List, and couldn't do some of the activities that we would normally put on there. This year was similar, as a lot of the larger events in our city were still unavailable or were something we aren't quite comfortable doing yet, but we did a lot of things that would allow us to be outside or utilized scheduling that limits the amount of people participating in an activity.

My son wouldn't agree, but family walks are always a favourite of mine, and I am really excited to get back into a pool. It's been nearly 18 months since I've jumped in and gone for a swim! What are you looking forward to this summer?

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Open Ended Toys: Wood

Nothing opens the imagination up to all kinds of possibilities quite like open-ended toys. Open-ended toys provide endless opportunities for learning such as science and math, social interactions (social-emotional), and creativity, and include items like blocks of all shapes and sizes, animals and trees, and cameras. They are toys that don't have a single purpose like many battery operated toys, or even things like puzzles and colouring books, and require imagination while using them (let's be honest, your mind's eye has to tell you what your wooden camera just took a photo of). 

As the amount of items I found for this post continued to increase, I realised that I would need two blog posts to share the amazing open-ended items I found from my fellow makers. Here are some wooden open-ended toys that would be perfect for exercising the imagination! You can find the felt and fabric ones here.

Wooden Camera from Sweet Child of Pine

Wood Hobby Horse from Hill Country Woodcraft

Red Fox Wooden Toy from Atelier Saint Cerf

The Game of Gnomes in Pots from Wood and Care

Wooden Telescope from Little Rose and Co

Wood Balancing Game from Des Enfantillages

Wooden Shapes from Creations Catelina

Wooden Trees from The Ridge Workshop

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Open Ended Toys: Felt and Fabric

Nothing opens the imagination up to all kinds of possibilities quite like open-ended toys. Open-ended toys provide endless opportunities for learning such as science and math, social interactions (social-emotional), and creativity, and include items like puppets, dolls, and items for dress-up...toys that don't have a single purpose like many battery operated toys, or even things like puzzles and colouring books. 

As the amount of items I found for this post continued to increase, I realised that I would need two blog posts to share the amazing open-ended items I found from my fellow makers. Here are some felt and fabric open-ended toys that would be perfect for exercising the imagination! You can find the wooden open-ended toys here.

Felt Campfire from Domestic Objects

Felt Finger Puppets from Cheryl Smith

Waldorf Baby Gnome Toy from La Fiaba Russa

Lambswool Fox Tail from Collette Bream

Fabric Crown from Rokka Design

Wooden Slingshot with Felt Balls from Handcrafted Buffalo

Felt Forest Fairy Play Set from Stitched By Dana G

Felt Beard from Sew Me Up

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Our Favourite Children's Books and Toys

Favourite Books for Preschoolers

The Book With No Pictures by BJ Novak is a fan favourite with both my preschoolers at work, and my son at home. It is soooo silly that there is absolutely no way that a child would simply not love it.

I just discovered The Button Book by Sally Nicholls, and the children are loving it!! Not only is it a beautifully illustrated book (thank you Bethan Woollvin), but it is also very silly (are you sensing a theme here? Silly is good!) and the children love doing the activities prompted by the buttons (especially the green button...).

Favourite Books & Series for Older Kids

If your child is a fan of the Geronimo Stilton books, then the Kingdom of Fantasy series is a good one to check out. My son cannot get enough of it, and asks for a new book every birthday and Christmas. Even if you've never read any of the Geronimo Stilton books before, you don't need to worry about it as this series stands on it's own.

My son read The Wild Robot by Peter Brown with his class and absolutely loved it. He brought home the second book in the series called The Wild Robot Escapes from the school library, and when I read the back of the book I was instantly taken with the story and how much it reminded me of the dystopian fiction that I read in university. It is very well written.

Favourite Toys for Preschoolers

Right now, the absolute favourite, top-used, could-play-for-hours toy for my preschoolers at work is Duplo. This open-ended STEAM toy has so many possibilities, and creates so many opportunities for learning co-operative play.

Another incredibly popular toy at work is the blocks. Every child currently in my room enjoys playing with the blocks (regardless of gender). These blocks would be a good starting kit if you don't already have access to some.

Honestly, preschoolers are happy with any kind of open-ended toys: toys that they can build with, toys that they can dress-up with, toys that they can explore water and sand with. Loose parts are also amazing and they use their imaginations to come up with so many different ideas and ways to use them. The beauty of loose parts is that you can use anything from around your house (buttons, nuts and bolts, pinecones...the list goes on!).

Favourite Toys for Older Kids

GraviTrax are like a marble works for older children that provide lots of STEAM opportunities, while also giving them something fun to do. You can find the starter kit here, as well as multiple expansion packs (including a magnetic cannon!). 

Nothing beats a solid collection of art supplies (great for younger kids too!). Getting crafty and creative is also a great way to use some of the recycling and materials that might note be recyclable in your area.

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6 Fun Valentine's Day Recipes and Activities to Do With Kids

This recipe for two-ingredient watermelon gelato would be a perfectly simple (and easy to make) treat for Valentine's Day.

If you'd like to make an entire meal for you and your little Valentine, I also found a recipe for the cutest heart-shaped pizzas and these yummy fruit skewers. 

These hearts are absolutely adorable and look so simple to make that I would have absolutely no problem making them (you don't even need a sewing machine!). They would also make a super cute DIY Valentine that would last forever.

If you're feeling extra crafty, check out this tutorial for an sweet little felt heart garland, and if you're not DIY inclined, this super fun activity that involves STEM is really fun to do with kids (and it works).

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5 Valentine's Day Activities for Preschoolers

If you are not aware, my day job has me working with children every day. It is part of my job to find activities for them relating to themes, and right now our theme is Things We Love and Valentine's Day. The following five activities are actually tried and true activities for the little ones in your life. Some of them I have done many times, and others I have only done once, but plan on doing again. Have a fun Valentine's Day!

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1. Make a Valentine Making Station. Provide coloured paper, pencils, markers, stickers, and other fun little extras so that your children can make their own Valentines for someone special. This blog has some fun tips and ideas.

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2. Make a heart stamp. Using toilet paper tubes -- or anything you can carve into a heart, like a potato -- make a heart shape by pushing down on one side of the circle to make the top of the heart, and pinching the opposite side of the circle to make the bottom of the heart. This blog says to put tape across the top of the heart to help keep its shape. Speaking from experience, it's a great idea.

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3. Make chocolate dipped pretzels covered in sprinkles! I made this delicious treat with the children at work today, and they had so much fun dipping the pretzels in the chocolate and then sprinkling sprinkles on top. It was a really great way to get them involved in making their own special Valentine's Day treats, and nobody cares what they look like because they taste so good!

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4. Make a pink, yummy smelling play dough. We made strawberry scented play dough with the children at work, but this recipe uses pink lemonade -- which would be so delicious! Play dough with heart cookie cutters is always a fun Valentine's Day activity for anyone.

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5. Do experiments on conversation hearts. We did some science experiments with the children using conversation hearts and various liquids -- water, vinegar, oil and honey. We had them predict what they thought would happen when the conversations hearts were put into the liquid, and then we had them observe what immediately happened as well as what happened several hours later. I was quite surprised with the results. This blog mentions other liquids that you could use. I also thought a light coloured soda would be interesting as well.

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Road Trip: The Fabric Paper Doll

When I was a little girl, my family went on a very long road trip across to the West Coast. To help us pass the time my Mom made these cute little fabric paper dolls for my sister and I to play with in the car. There were so many little outfit options and bows or hats to put on the doll. I don't remember what we did when we played with them, but I have cherished this doll my whole life and she was perfect for keeping me occupied on long car rides.

You can purchase or make your own doll for your next road trip:

Fabric Doll Pattern from Baby Dear on Etsy
Fabric Dolls and Clothing from Curlytoe Creations on Etsy
Fabric Paper Doll Pattern from Butterick - free download
Felt Paper Doll Tutorial from Girl, Meets Wolf

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The Gift of Open-Ended Toys

Open-ended toys are toys that allow the imaginations of children to soar to their highest peaks. They give children the building blocks to create the world that they want to live in at that moment, and they can easily make anything from a restaurant to the Batmobile.

At the early learning centre that I work in we only provide access to open-ended toys -- closed-ended toys are typically battery operated or have only a few ways of possibly playing with them -- and their imaginations go wild. I love seeing the things that they build and the scenarios that they create. 

Even in my own home I have provided my son with many open-ended toys. That's not to say that he doesn't have any access to closed-ended toys. When he was a baby he had a lot of fun playing with a little battery-operated walker that played music and animal sounds, and he recently has fallen in-love with remote-controlled cars. He even gets to play games on my iPad, but the majority of the time we encourage him to do art, play with his musical instruments, build Hot Wheels tracks with his Dad, and play with his toy dinosaurs.

 

It's good to have a balance of open-ended and closed-ended toys. When we look back at our own childhood's they were filled with making shoebox houses, mud pies and Lego cities, and I want to provide a similar experience for my own child.

Good ideas of open-ended toys include:

1. Animals and dinosaurs made from any kind of material. They don't have to be wooden -- find the elephants and other animals here.

2. Blocks of any kind -- wooden, plastic, milk cartons, tree stumps and branches -- find wooden blocks of all shapes, colours and sizes here.

3. Toys that can be manipulated in any way -- Lego, Tinker Toys, etc -- find the connecting rings here.

4. Cars and other vehicles -- motorcycles, dump trucks, school buses, etc. -- find the car here.

5. Clothing and other toys that encourage imaginative play -- babies, dress-up clothes, jewellery, fox tails :)

6. Play food and other kitchen items -- find the felt vegetables here.
7. Child sized furniture and toys -- find all sorts of rocking horses here.

Other good open-ended toys include any musical instruments, art supplies, and sensory things such as water, dirt, sand, and play dough.

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Earth Day 2014: It's the Little Things

On Earth Day this year we took the children at work on a walk around the university campus. They had a lot of fun exploring sculptures that have been sitting in a field for many years -- probably close to decades now -- and walking around seeing the birds and other animals that inhabit the campus area -- we also stopped by the geology building to check out the dinosaur bones, aquariums and snakes. One of the children shouted excitedly "Omigod! Look! It's green grass!" during our walk, and another proclaimed that it was the best time he's ever had while we were all sitting around the lunch table. It's the little things that make them appreciate this great planet of ours.

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Easter Eggs Made With Natural Dye

I did some canning the other day. Not your regular type of canning, but vegetables, fruits and such that I steeped in boiling water in order to make natural dyes to use with the children at work -- what's in the jars is just the juices to make for easier transport to work. 

Each year we try to do something fun and unique with the eggs rather than the traditional dipping in the dye made from the little pucks -- last year we drizzled the dye over the eggs. -- and this year we decided to try out the natural dyes. I love how the eggs turned out, and the children had a lot of fun smelling each jar and picking which fruit or vegetable they wanted their eggs to sit in -- we also had tea and grape juice available.

The egg on the left was dyed with orange peels, carrots, dried mustard and celery seed. The egg in the middle was dyed with blueberries, and the egg on the right was dyed with beets. I believe that my juices are a little more concentrated than that of the recipe I used because the colours are much darker than in the original blog post. For each one I made 3 cups and added 4T of vinegar, and the more vinegar the better the hue. Here are the recipes that I used:

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Happy dying and Happy Easter :)

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My Favourite Apps for Preschoolers

You can say all you want that children should not be exposed to television, computers, or tablets, but the truth is that we do allow our children to be exposed to these things regardless of what age they are. But if we are going to let them be exposed to those kinds of things we might as well make it worth their while with a little bit of fun on the side. So here are five of my favourite apps that I have downloaded onto my iPad for my son to play with:

1. Endless Alphabet 2. Sound Box 3. Peekaboo Barn 4. Toca Train 5. Bug Builder

Endless Alphabet is fantastic because it is like a puzzle with funny little talking letters that repeatedly makes the sound the letter makes -- "are" for the letter "r" -- until you put it in it's correct spot. Once you have spelled the words there is a little video that shows and talks about the definition of the word. There are really good words to spell, too -- like  "gargle", "cooperate", and "famished". It's a lot of fun.

Sound Box is a great app because it introduces musical instruments and everyday sounds and then allows you to go wild tapping on the screen, making music and having a lot of fun with rhythms and sounds.

Peekaboo Barn is the very first app that I ever downloaded for my son. He loves how the barn interacts with him and how he has to tap on the screen to open the doors to discover what animal is inside. I like that it introduced him to animal sounds and allowed him to have fun while doing it. This app was a favourite for a long time.

I learned about Toca Train from our speech pathologist at work. It is a reward game that she uses with the kids after they complete all of the activities she has for them. It's a fun one because it's an interactive train track. You get to drive the train around town and collect passengers and freight. You even get to choose the speed and blow the whistle. We all know how much children -- and adults -- enjoy trains so it's a lot of fun for them to get to drive the train around.

Bug Builder allows you to create your own bug. You get to colour it, make it hatch from an egg, give it a hat, take care of it, and then snap a photo. Once you have completed that process, it lays an egg for you to help another bug hatch and then you get to design and take care of that bug, and so on and so on until you turn off the app. It's a simple, fun game.

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Halloween Activities: Pumpkin Faces

I have always struggled with trying to figure out some Halloween related games and activities for my preschool class -- this was before Pinterest really took off -- but last year I came up with the idea of making some different mouths, and shapes for eyes and noses that the children could stick to a pumpkin shape. As always, they didn't use the shapes as I imagined in my mind -- or like my adult brain put them together -- and they came up with some fantastic Jack-o'-Lantern faces that I could never have even dreamed up myself. That's one of the things that I like best about working with children.

I used mac-tac -- or a laminator -- to protect the pumpkins and the face pieces from wear-and-tear, and sticky-tack to make it easier for the kids to stick the pieces down and remove them too.

*Please forgive me! This was one of those moment when I needed to use my camera phone because I was working on this project at work. It also happened to be during quiet time so the lights were all out...please don't tell my boss :)

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What Do You Love About Dad?

 

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Father's Day is a tricky celebration at my workplace. Many of the children that I work with do not see their fathers and don't have a strong male influence in their lives. We always have to remember which children don't have Dad's and adjust our Father's Day gifts accordingly.

This year I found this fantastic idea on Pinterest where you interview each child and ask them simple questions about their Dads -- or Moms, Grandpas, etc. We got some really cute answers -- including one Dad's full name. One little girl told me that her Dad's hair is "light", and another one told me that her Dad likes to play on the teeter-totter for fun. What I noticed, though, is that most of the children love that fact that their Dads take them to the park, and I know that my little guy is the exact same way.

What is something you love that your Dad does?

I personally love how my Dad is willing to help me with anything that I may need help with -- be it finding a phone number, building me a bench, or looking after Little Boy so that I can go to a movie with my husband. My Dad is always there, and I love him for it.

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