It’s a new year and that means looking for fun, new activities to try out with your kids. Here are 5 things to try in 2017 that will not only be super fun, but also educational.
1. Bring a Story to Life
This is especially important within the first three years of a child’s life. It’s both talking and listening to a child that is important. Reading out loud to children is incredibly important for parents and children and reading together is a great way to do that.
You can take turns reading each page so everyone gets a chance to read. Make up voices for the different characters and talk about the pictures. You can also reference the story later on if you see something in the real world that you also saw in the book (a dog, for example).
And, of course, you can always use your Click-A-Bricks to make things you read about in the story.
2. Build an Indoor Fort
To build the most amazing indoor fort, you just need some simple building materials like cardboard boxes, pillows, blankets, sheets, couch cushions or anything else you can use to build some kind of fort.
It will help teach them to plan and evaluate their finished product, plus it’s just plain fun to build things.
3. Make Musical Instruments to Make Music With
Music is good for everyone. Listening to it helps with intellectual, social and emotional development, dancing to it helps with motor skills and practicing self-expression and making it is just plain enjoyable (even if it is more racket than music).
You can make shakers from any old container from the recycling and any dry goods like rice or pasta or a makeshift guitar from old margarine tubs with elastics stretched over them. A pair of wooden spoons makes a great set of drumsticks and plastic food containers or pots and pans make a great set of drums. Try a homemade tambourine by filling a paper plate half full with rice and then taping another one on top.
4. Create Recycling Masterpieces
Hit up that recycling bin for old cereal boxes, shoe boxes, paper towel rolls, empty egg cartons and anything else that your kids can build with. Get out the glue, clear off a space on the kitchen table and gather any paints you have, old magazines, bread ties, bottle caps and whatever else you can think of that would make a great addition to a recycling masterpiece.
Make sure you put aprons or old t-shirts on your kids and tie their hair back if necessary.
5. Make Sock Puppets and Put on a Show
To help kids with their communication skills and their ability to work with props, how about making sock puppets and then putting on a show?
For kids who are old enough to sew, use old socks and buttons along with scraps of material and for the wee ones, you can use old tights and glue along with bits of colored paper.
If your children can sew, have them measure out where they want the eyes and sew on a couple of buttons. Then, make a mouth and sew in a scrap of fabric for a tongue. Other scraps of fabric can then be sewn on for other features. For a funny, big nose, take a small ball of fabric and stuff it in the end of the sock and wrap an elastic band around the sock to secure the ball in place.
The little ones should find it easy to stick the colored paper onto the tights material with glue.
If you’ve never tried any of these fun activities before, 2017 is the time to try them!
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