Kids Curious about Houses

Look Around and Observe Anytime...

Young children like to learn about houses and build them whether they are people or animal houses. Studying houses while on a walk in the neighborhood or in the woods provides a time for rich discussion.

  Summer is a good time to observe and build. 
  What do all animal and people houses have in common? They provide shelter and safety. Otherwise they are very different. Take along a paper pad and colored pencils while on a neighborhood walk and look for animal houses. Count anthills around your home. Their nests have many entries. Why?  Are there some with entry holes bigger than others?  Why is that? Scuff up a few anthills and check them the next day. Did the worker ants rebuild or make a new one nearby? Check under rocks or logs, too.  Look for bird and squirrel nests.  Why are they up in the trees? Draw these different houses. They are often very simple shapes.
  After a walk children may like to build some houses in the sandbox or on the beach. 

Study All Types of "Houses"

All they need is wet sand or mud and some sticks, acorns, or pine cones. They will have fun making anthills with many entrances and move on to houses that include sticks for birds and other animals.
  Another day talk about people houses.  Look around your own. Count the windows, doors, and rooms. Young children may want to draw their house. They may want to focus on their bedroom and draw their bed and toys. Children also like to draw their street with cars going by. If they have a pet, they may want to draw its home, too. 

This might be a good time to talk about safety in case of fire and the importance of a place outside where the family can meet. Firemen recommend reviewing procedures often.
  Then take out the Legos and build some houses for small dolls and super heroes.  How will they escape in an emergency? Children may rather

Get out the Legos!

go back to their sandbox or mud pile and make some homes for their figures. If you do not have a sandbox at home you may not mind dumping some sand at camp and giving the kids a pail of water to make some building mud or sand.
  Young children love making homes inside with blankets, pillows, a few chairs, and clothespins to tie it all together. Bring in the stuffed animals, a flashlight, a few books and snacks and they will be cozy for the day.
  A few books about homes include “Home” by Ellis; “Building a House” by Barton; “Houses Homes” by Morris, and  “Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site” by Rinker. 
Photos, Fran Darling, fdarling fotos

More Ideas and Activities....See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest

Helping to Calm Children

Sometimes both children and adults need a soothing time, a time to calm down from whatever agitates them during the day.

Drawing Time is Soothing

Research indicates drawing Zentangles and Mandalas may enhance this time. Coloring with markers, pencils, and crayons helps set the mood for talking softly, silence, crying a bit, working through problems, and hugs.
  Repetitive movement and making something creative and beautiful engages both sides of the brain.  The creativity comes from selecting colors that go together according to individual’s tastes. The tactical part of the brain plans and decides the design.  Both parts keep the mind from wandering to worries and other stressful emotions.  There are intricate Zentangle and Mandala-type designs in coloring books or you can make your own. Check out Google images and You Tube, too.
Zentangles can Calm
   Picture a piece of paper with a few lines, curves, or shapes that may be made from a thick black marker. Many thinner straight or curved lines surround, fill in, and connect the original shapes until the entire page is filled with lines and white spaces.

Drawing Zentangles and Mandalas

 With young children, start on 4-inch square thick paper that won’t tear easily. It will be easier to cover completely with designs. Show them how to use a black crayon, marker, or pen to make a design or several smaller ones, several numbers, their initials, geometric figures like circles or flower petals scattered around the paper. Then add smaller lines and curves to connect and fill. Zentangle usually stays black and white.
 Mandalas can Soothe
  Mandalas go a little further. Some people start with a circle and make a series of circles around the inside of the circumference.  Then they start another row of smaller circles around the circumference and continue making smaller and smaller circles until they reach the center. Now they fill in the shapes with thinner straight lines, curved lines, concentric circles, or patterns (repeating designs) until the entire page is filled and all of the shapes are connected in some way. The effect is like a Tiffany stained glass rose window. A large square, rectangle or triangle can be divided the same way. Artists often start with thick lines, but there are no rules. Anything can be incorporated into the larger design.
   Besides soothing people, Zentangles and Mandalas help children develop printing skills, eye-hand coordination and a sense of color.

Develop Hand-eye Skills

Most Mandalas have symmetry, balance, and color added to spaces. There are no requirements though and that’s the point.
  For more about Zentangle see information on Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. For Mandala books see Engelbreit’s “Color”, or Marotta’s “Animal Kingdom” for older children and adults.
Photos, Fran Darling, fdarling fotos

More Ideas and Activities....See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest

Make Learning Fun in Bottles

Young children can reuse clear plastic soda and water bottles to create interesting science, math, and art activities. They are handy for rainy days, quiet times, and birthday parties. Smaller bottles work best for very young children.

Experiment Adding Items to Bottles

   Gather some clean, clear plastic bottles and remove any labels. Add any of the items below and seal the bottle with hot glue, if desired.
Fill Bottles Creatively
  Fill half of a bottle with cooking or baby oil. Next add water until the bottle is ¾ full.  Add blue food coloring and a few small seashells. Shake.  What happens? Why?
  To make a tornado bottle, roll ten small pieces of tin foil into balls. Fill the bottle with water and a drop of detergent so the bottle is almost full. Twirl and lightly shake to make a tornado.
  Place Styrofoam pieces in an empty bottle and close it.  Rub the bottle on hair. Observe what happens and explain static electricity, the uncontrolled movement of electrons. Go into a dark closet.

Make a Rythmn Band of Bottles

Children may be able to see sparks.
  Add a piece of wet sponge into an open bottle. Sprinkle grass seed or some other sprouting seeds. Grass will sprout in two days. Discuss how plants grow.
 What floats or sinks?  Fill a bottle half full of water.  Drop in small items from around the house like small pieces of paper, paper clips, and tiny toys. If an item has more molecule than the water it replaces, it will sink.  Guess what will float or sink.
 Bottles of Fun
  Rain bottles make beautiful sounds. Fill a bottle with a box of toothpicks and uncooked rice.  Leave about two inches of air at the top.  When turned, rice falls through the toothpicks and sounds like a gentle rain. The bottle is a good addition to other musical instruments.
  Write a number on the outside of a bottle and fill with that number of tiny objects. Children can practice counting, adding, subtracting and counting again.
  Cover some bottles with black paper to make sound mystery bottles.  Collect items from

Make Bubbles

around the house like paper clips, rice, sand, water, pieces of paper, and marbles. Gently shake and guess the mystery sounds.
  Fill a bottle with magnetic and nonmagnetic items and sand. Rub the outside of the bottle with a magnet to attract the magnetic items.
  To make a bottle of bubble solution, gently stir 3/4 Dawn detergent and ¼ water or less.  Label the bottle “bubbles.” Fashion a long thin bubble maker from a hanger that will fit in the bottle. Show children how to blow bubbles. Use under supervision and store out of reach.
Photos, Fran Darling, fdarling fotos
More Ideas and Activities....See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest

Helping Children With Summer Writing

Save Holiday Memories

There are many fun ways for families to help children get ready for reading and writing at school and practice their skills during the summer. The interest in self-expression through talking and drawing begins at a very early age. Young children become writers as they realize that they can use marks on a paper to stand for ideas they are thinking.

Keep Writing Materials Handy

Later children learn by copying what they see adults do.
  Families have many opportunities during the day to show that writing, either with crayon pencil or on the computer, is a valuable skill. Adults can model that ideas are written down by using letters and words.  The following activity is a fun way to help young children realize that their own ideas can be written down and read by themselves and others. You will need pencils, paper, glue, and photos of families, pets, or trips. 
Make a Picture Poster
  Find some photos of your family. Then spend some time talking about the photos and choose a few favorites. Help your child glue one or two pictures on a sheet of paper or make a copy. Leave lots of space between the photos.  Make up a simple sentence about the picture.  Using your child’s words and ideas, print the sentence under each photo.  Use capital letters only for beginning the sentence or names.  When you are finished, point to each word as you read the sentences out loud.  Hang the paper up on the refrigerator or wall for everyone to see.
Make Little Books
  If you have more time, make a little book using a photo on each page and a printed simple sentence that your child has asked you to write.  Make the printing big and clear on each page.  Staple or clip several pages together. 

Grab Family Photos

You might want to make a cover for the booklet with a simple title and your child’s name on the front like My Summer Trip by Cindy. Children can decorate cardboard or a brown paper bag.  Both are quite sturdy. Grocery paper bags can also be turned inside out and cut to the size you need.  Keep the handles on the bag.  Preschool children will enjoy carrying their special books around the house.  Read books together and add them to the storybooks you have for children to use. These also make treasured gifts.
  Talking, storytelling, remembering, reading and writing together are important activities that develop language.  Understanding that ideas can be written down with letters and words is the first step in the development of writing skill. With adults as their first models and teachers, children who experiment and practice communicating through writing at home will be successful writers in school.
Sketch: Mark Nowicki      Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos 
More Ideas and Activities....See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest