Kids’ Activities

Wondering what to do with your used Bunch O Balloons? Try this fun recycled materials art project for toddlers, using recycled Bunch O Balloons fast fillers. It’s an ecofriendly way to prolong the life of this summer staple (and work your kids’ creativity in the process!)

If you ask my kids, they’ll tell you all about how much they LOVE summer. There are block parties, and beach days, and adventures. There are museum visits and swim lessons and EPIC water balloon fights with the neighbors.

But what they always seem to forget is that summer is also filled with long, lazy days that sometimes feel wayyyy too long. This is particularly felt on days following particularly exciting events. 

Take one day last summer, for example. The day before had been EXTRA fun and full of impromptu play, filling up a Bunch O Balloons kit and hosting a big water balloon fight, and hopping in and out of the neighbor’s pool. So when I told them that today was going to be a more low-key, stay at home day, they did exactly what you might expect.

They lost their minds. 

So I did what any mother who values her sanity would do. I scrambled to find something- anything- to stop the kids’ incessant whining. The used Bunch O Balloons were the first things that caught my eye, and I decided to turn them into something new. 

And in the process, a new summertime art project for preschoolers was created.

Read More

Wondering what to do with your kids when school is cancelled? Find a list of activities you should include on your daily schedule for kids at home (and a few tips for maintaining a sense of normalcy) in this post from a teacher and two moms in the trenches.

Let’s call a spade a spade- life.is.weird. Like, under normal circumstances it’s strange, but these days? We’re taking it to the next level.

If you, like us, are dealing with kids who aren’t used to being home, you’re probably wondering what to do with kids when school is cancelled. You might be trying to fill long, lonely days, or working to come up with a daily schedule for kids at home.

Whatever the case, we’re all kind of grasping at straws here. It’s not like we’ve all done this before. So, as with all things, be kind to yourself. Give yourself grace. Take deep breaths, and feel free to evolve this kids’ daily schedule (and your schedule, too) as needed.

Read More

Need a quick independent activity for your preschoolers? Try this solo cup stacking challenge for kids all of all ages. It’s an engineering challenge your preschoolers (and older kids, too!) will want to play again and again.

You know those days at home that just drag on FOREVER? Maybe your kids need to stay home from school because they’re sick but don’t feel sick. Maybe you’re snowed in. 

Maybe, I don’t know, there’s a GIANT TERRIFYING VIRUS SCARE. No big deal.

But on THOSE days- the very, very long and boring ones, we need to pull out all the stops to keep our kids entertained for a bit. Whenever possible, we love those activities to be creative, educational, and engaging. It helps us to feel good about ourselves and, let’s be honest, keeps our kids out of our hair.

With that in mind, on one particularly boring stay at home day, I was trying to get my kids to build with their blocks, but to no avail. As always, when my kids aren’t interested in something I want them to do, I turn to introducing novel materials that accomplish the same objectives.

Don’t want to play with blocks? Fine. I’ll give you a red solo cup engineering challenge instead. Read on for the full instructions on how to pull off this solo cup activity for preschoolers (and trick your kids into building in the process).

Read More

Are you looking for the best workbooks for two year olds? Or maybe you just need some quiet, sit down activities for your toddler to do? Either way, we’ve got you covered with some of the best toddler workbooks in this fantastic list.

When my daughter Lila started getting homework in kindergarten, her little brother Abe was just two years old. But every night when we sat down to do homework with Lila, Abram would get jealous- sometimes to the point of tears!- about wanting some “homework” for himself.

While I’m not the biggest fan of starting kids on academic activities too early, I also believe that we should allow kids to explore things that they’re interested in. And for whatever reason, for Abe, that was “big kid homework.”

So I took it upon myself to find some of the very highest quality, best workbooks for two year olds. We’ve tried toddler sticker books, toddler activity books, and even cut-and-paste style workbooks. Here, you’ll find a list of the workbooks for toddlers that have been the most successful for us.

Read More

Looking for a list of gross motor skills for preschoolers or toddlers? Here are the top ten gross motor skills activities your child should be working on.

We know how important it is for kids to run, play, and keep active. We spend hours outside with our kids, encouraging them to move their bodies and, if we’re being honest, wear themselves out in preparation for an early bedtime.

But what most parents don’t know is that there are crucial gross motor skills that kids should be working hard to master, even in the toddler and preschool years. Your kids have probably learned to crawl, stand, and walk already, but what comes next?

We’ve got to keep on teaching these littles how to move their bodies. And while it may be scary to see them climb, jump, and go fast in all new ways, kids who take little risks like these actually are LESS likely to be hurt than kids who miss out on these early lessons.

So while you’re working on tiring out those kids (trust us, we get it) try to slip in a few activities from our gross motor skills list. Here are ten gross motor skills for preschoolers and toddlers to master as they grow.

Read More