Au Pair Chatter

I thought this video was a nice explanation of how to make the delicious summertime treat known as s’mores. If you really want to live it up, try replacing the Hershey Bar with a Reece’s Peanut Butter Cup! Yum

Looking for some cool summer fun indoors? Bass Pro Shops (located in Arundel Mills Mall) is offering a variety of free craft activities Tuesdays & Thursdays from 4-6 pm and Saturdays and Sundays from 2-5 pm, now through July 10.

Click here to see the full list on the Bass Pro Shops website

Bass Pro Shops has a large indoor fish tank that my kids always enjoy checking out. For older kids, there is a rock climbing wall (for a charge.)

Additional activities are available. Check with your host parents before taking the kids to participate in these or any activities.

Arundel Mills also has a Lego Store, movie theater and Dave & Busters Game Arcade.  It’s not right around the corner (30 minutes from most parts of our cluster,) but worth the drive, if you plan to make a day of it with the kids.

Finished Project

Supplies:
construction paper (various colors)
pencil
scissors
stapler
clear tape
drinking straws or chenille stem (pipe cleaners)

Step by Step Instructions

On this day in 1904, Dr. Seuss was born.  Today is a great day to share a favorite Dr. Seuss book with a child or let them share their favorite Dr. Seuss book with you.

Celebrate his birthday with reading and fun activities.

Check out the Seussville website for an endless selection of:

• online activities
• print and play games & activities
• list of events in your area

February 3, 2011 marks the beginning of the Chinese New Year.  Also known as the Lunar New Year or Spring Festival is the most important traditional Chinese holiday.   2011 is the Year of the Rabbit in the Chinese Zodiac.

Here are some links to learn more and find some related activities for kids:

Chinese New Year Info and Activities

Chinese New Year Crafts

Chinese New Year Printables

Photo by D Sharon Pruitt

It is great to see the world through the eyes of children.  There are simple things in day to day life that can be a thrill for young children.  Below are a few ideas to get you started thinking.  Try to take time for them to marvel at the world and see new things.

• A car wash (the drive through kind or a bucket and a water hose in the driveway at home)
• Parking on the street near a construction site to watch the big trucks
• Feeding ducks bread at the park
• Collecting leaves, pinecones and rocks
• Driving across a bridge where they can see the water
• Driving past a place where you can see animals
• Any place that has something out of the ordinary, like a fountain or sculpture

In the kids activity kits a few months ago, I included a perler bead fish craft.  I heard from some of you that the kids had a lot of fun making those.  My kids love perler beads.  There are days where they will work on bead projects for hours.

If you want to give them a try, you can find mini kits for $1 at Michaels and A.C. Moore that include everything needed to make one small project.  Perler beads are a great fine motor skills activity.  If you have kids ages 3-5 who have trouble with the tiny beads, they now have a larger size available that will be easier for them.

From this:

To this:  (Here is a gallery of my kid’s perler creations from the past 6 months.)

As promised at last night’s meeting, I am posting some photos and links that will assist you in doing a few of the projects I have given you.

Newspaper Seedling Cups

Click on the photo below to go to a web page with step by step photos and directions for the seedling cup I showed you at the meeting.   If you have older kids and are looking for something more to do with them, there are lots of videos on YouTube of how to make these using all kinds of different techniques including some origami folds.

Newspaper Seedling Pot

Butterfly Craft

Click on the photo below to go to a web page with complete project instructions.

Butterfly Craft Project

Shamrock Decoration

Below is a picture of what the completed shamrock project might look like.  They can be decorated using paint, markers, crayons, glitter glue and stickers.

Shamrock Decorations

I hope you will use these ideas as a starting point to come up with lots of other fun projects and activities to do with the kids.

It’s difficult when the weather is too snowy, wet or cold for kids to play outside and get all of that great kid energy out.

Here are some indoor physical activity ideas:

• Create an indoor obstacle course in the largest, kid safe room in the house (playroom, basement, family room, etc.)  Use large cushions and toys to create places for kids to climb over and under.
• Turn on some music (kid music or other music that is appropriate) and dance.

• Play freeze dance. Tell the kids to dance when you turn the music on and to stop dancing when the music stops.  Let the kids take turns being the leader,  controlling the music.

• Do the limbo dance.  Play music and challenge the kids to go under the limbo pole as it gets lower and lower.

• Make paper airplanes and see how far they can fly.  Remind the kids not to throw them at other other people.

• Mark small squares on the floor and challenge the kids to see who can stay on their spot the longest.  Make it tougher for older kids by having them stand on one foot.

• Play ball toss games with soft items like rolled up socks.   The younger the children the larger the container they are tossing into should be.  For very young kids, use a laundry basket.  For older kids, use something smaller like a box, basket or large plastic mixing bowl.

• Build a fort using blanket and furniture like chairs and tables.  Or if the kids have a small play tent put that up.

• Play sports charades.  Charades is a game where you act out something while people try to guess.  You can do this with sports actions, using no equipment, just making the actions.  For example – hitting a golf ball, pitching a baseball, serving a tennis ball, bowling, etc.)

• Jump rope. 

• Play with a hula hoop.

• Try juggling, top spinning, or yo-yo contests.

• Play hide and go seek.

• Play “keep the balloon up”. Use one balloon per child or one balloon per small group. The group may add additional balloons as they gain control and awareness. *

* Safety Note – Balloons are a choking hazard, supervise children when playing with balloons and make sure to find and throw away any pieces of popped balloons.

There are some toys that kids usually play with on their own while you watch on the sidelines. However, you can make those toys feel like something new and fun, by suggesting different ways to play with them.  Another thing that will make it more fun is if you become actively involved rather than just watching.

Play Food/Dishes

• Teach your host children how to say the names of some of the food and dishes.
• Using English and/or your language play games where you are ordering food like in a restaurant. Take turns with who will be the waiter and who is the customer.
• Come up with silly food combinations.  For example: Who wants pickles on their slice of cake?
• Play a guessing game where the kids have to figure out what food you are talking about.  For example: I grow under the ground in the dirt.  People eat me fried, mashed and baked.  What am I? (a potato)
• Play a game with setting the table using your language to ask for the different items (plate, spoon, etc.)
• Ask the children to divide the foods up into the different food groups (vegetables, meat, dairy,  etc)

Block, Lego Blocks and Other Building Toys

• Divide all of the blocks up between the people playing by taking turns for each person to select block by block.
• Suggest specific things to build (robots, house, mountain) and build together.
• Challenge everyone to use all of their blocks.
• Sort the blocks by color or shape and make patterns with them (red, blue, red blue or square, triangle, rectangle.)  You can create a pattern and ask the child to fill in what comes next to continue the pattern.
• Make the tallest block tower you can and let them knock it down (over and over again, if like most kids they like destroying things.)

Mr. Potato Head

• Teach your host children the names of the different parts in your language.
• Play a game asking them to put on the body parts by naming them in your language.
• Play the same game above, but using Simon Says.  Simon Says is a game where the leader gives commands by saying “Simon Says” first. For example, “Simon Says, put on the nose.”  The players are only to follow the commands when the leader says Simon Says.  If the leader doesn’t say Simon Says first and just says, “put on the nose,”  and the player follows the command they are out of the game.  Repeat the game multiple times, so all kids get a turn to be the leader at least once.