Playing with Snow Indoors

Cold Snowy Days Can be Stressful

For the almost 40 % of grandparents and other relatives providing child care, cold snowy days can be stressful. To relieve that stress young children may enjoy creating snowmen inside with cheap materials found in the kitchen. Quiet conversations while doing activities with adults also help nurture resilient children.
  To make homemade poster paint for making winter scenes, mix ½ cup flour and 1-tablespoon salt. Add them very slowly into a saucepan filled with 2 cups water.  Whisk while mixing.  Cook and whisk on medium heat to avoid lumps.  Remove when this mixture looks like smooth white paint. Add 1-tablespoon clear liquid dish detergent for a smoother glossy paint.
Then use brushes or Q-tips to paint thin- coat snowmen on colored paper, a cookie pan, mirror, or window.
Share Painting Pictures
  Children may take want to take a picture and send a winter message of love to cousins or other grandparents far away.
  Cut out white paper circles or use coffee filters and color a few a few Frosties. Cover them with white glue or a thin mixture of flour and water glue and sprinkle with salt for glitter. Margarita salt, cookie decorations, and sugar also work.

Take Pictures & Capture the Moment

Color a scene on computer paper, and glue on the snowmen.
  You can also glue on pillow stuffing, cotton balls, or make -up cotton wipe snow men on a calendar winter scene and start crossing off the days until Valentine’s Day
  Gather a cookie pan full of snow, and make a winter scene with small toys. Try making little snowmen before the snow gets too slushy.
  Shaving cream also makes winter snow scenes. Children can write messages in the snow with their fingers. Warn children not to eat or place near their eyes.  All this will make a mess and children will love it but it’s an easy clean up while you gather at the sink to sing Frosty the Snowman.
  If you are hungry, make snowmen out of bread or English muffins, cover with nut butter and decorate with Cheerios and chocolate chips.
Indoor Snowball Fights

View the Scene to Imagine Indoor Snowballs

When children need to be active again about every 30 or 60 minutes, roll up some newspaper half sheets reinforced with a little duct or cellophane tape and have an indoor snowball fight. Couches, chairs, laundry baskets, or cardboard boxes can be turned into fortresses. 
   If the snowball fight gets out of hand, switch to snowball basketball. Place a laundry basket a reasonable distance so all young ages can make baskets and practice adding up the points. Then there is snowball bowling, snowball baseball, tennis, volleyball, football, toss, hide and seek the snowballs, and find the snowballs with flashlights in the dark.
 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

Indoor Snowball Fun

When the weather is cold or the snow doesn’t pack well, it’s time to be creative indoors. Children love to read and do quiet activities, but they also need to be active even if there is crazy weather outside. It’s the way they are. When adults put them in front of DVD’s to quiet them, too often behavior problems occur when the DVD is finished because they still need to run around.
Snowballs Inside
  Snowballs can be made from crumpled paper towels or newspapers and secured with cellophane or duct tape. They are fun to make and easy to store until needed again. Keep the balls soft, remove the breakables, and have a snowball fight.
  If families want the real feel of snowballs there are fluffy balls on-line that are fuzzy and squishy.  Google “fake snowballs.” These snowballs are durable, washable, and don’t hurt.
Design Forts
  The quickest defensive forts are behind the couch or chairs covered with blankets.
  If there are some cardboard boxes around children can design their own fort held together with duct tape. Families can split up and discuss strategy of attack and defense. Often the youngest has fun sneaking around gathering snowballs and supplying older throwers.
Families can also throw snowballs in a laundry basket or paper bag for target then add up the points. How far can each person throw and measure the distance. Invite grandparents over for an inter-generational snowball fight and hot chocolate on a wintery evening.
Snowball Launcher
  Picture a tube within a tube with a rubber band slingshot at the end. For this launcher families will need two cardboard sturdy shipping or wrapping tubes about the same length. One must slide easily inside the other. Also needed are four sturdy rubber bands, duct tape, pointed scissors and pom- poms.
  Adults poke one hole one inch from the edge on either side of the larger tube and insert, tie, knot the rubber band and reinforce the hole with duct tape so it will not rip the tube.  Cut the smaller tube in half to be the pom-pom stuffer.
  Affix the rubber bands the same way as the large tube. Secure the two sets of rubber bands to each other with the remaining bands. The tubes and rubber bands are now connected. The tubes may need to be reinforced as they are used.
  Stuff a pom-pom in the launcher with the extra tube, pull back gently on the rubber bands and let go.
The technique will require a little practice.
  Later relax with a few newly published snow books:

“Blizzard” by John Rocco; “Outside” by Deirdre Gill; and “First Snow” by Peter McCarty.

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

Making Waterfalls -- Indoors

fdarling fotos How do families encourage children to become scientists? They do it by playing with science from a very early age and carrying on conversations. Science discovery takes very little time and can use materials around the house. Have fun making and discussing indoor waterfalls on a rainy day to help add to the three million words children need to hear before kindergarten according the Great Start. Materials: Water, chopping board, kitchen bowls and a colander. What to do: Explain that you're making indoor waterfalls before you go to see some real ones in your county. An easy definition is an area of a river or stream where the water flows fast over and around rocks or drops over a ledge. There are many kinds and they can be viewed on Google images. Explain that you need help finding things in the kitchen to make a tower and pour water over it like a waterfall. Look for non-breakable plates, bowls, cutting boards, and a colander used to drain vegetables or spaghetti. Experiment making the tallest tower. Start with a cake pan to catch the water. Then layer cutting boards, various sizes of upside down bowls, and plates. The flat materials will help prevent the towers from tipping, sometimes. Place a colander on top, if available. Now pour a pitcher of water gently over the tower. The most important part of the process is talking about how the bowls and plates slow down the water much like hard rocks slow down and divert water in a river. Place a sheet of rolled up paper towel between layers of the tower. Does it change the flow of water? Perhaps it does for a short time, but then it will crumble much like very soft sandstone will crumble after years of flow. Notice how the water flows over the cutting board like a ledge waterfall. These waterfalls can be created in the tub or sink indoors with warm water. They can be created outdoors on hot days with a hose or built at the beach. Some families like to add food coloring in different pitchers and let colors mix in the cake pan pool at the bottom. Others like to recycle the clean water in the cake pan pool and use the water to nourish plants after clean up. No matter what you decide to do, the most important part is conversation. Talk while planning the activity, gathering materials, trying different ways to make the tower, laughing when it falls and reconstructing. All this talking teaches social skills and dealing with emotions. Let the activity guide the quiet conversation. Photo: Fran Darling fdarling fotos More Ideas and Activities For more ways to encourage music and expend energy on long winter days 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.

Come Indoors and Make Play dough: Video Version

Just in time for all the holiday fun! Make play dough for fun, learning, and great conversation. Watch our Youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL1WpveL8jY for all the ways simple play dough making and playing benefits your children.....

Here are more: Handy Recipes 

 Keep these around the house so you are always prepared for unexpected weather or visitors. 

  

    No Cook Play dough

Mix together: 1 cup flour, 1/3 cup salt in a separate bowl. Mix together ½ cup water, 3 drops food coloring, and 5 drops liquid detergent. Add liquid to dry mixture slowly and knead until desired consistency. Do not ingest. Keep refrigerated in a tight plastic container. It lasts for about a month.

    Clay Dough

This dough can be used to make small sculptures, garden stones, vases for dry flowers, and paperweights. Mix 2 cups salt and 2/3 cup water in a pan. Heat mixture until the salt is completely dissolved. Remove from heat. Mix 1 cup cornstarch and ½ cup cold water in a separate bowl. Stir quickly into the salt water and mix well. The dough will be stiff. Allow to dry 3-4 days.  Add food coloring to the water mixture, if desired. Dried sculpture can be painted. Look for animal, people, and car pictures to help children use their imagination. This mixture must be used immediately.

  Coat any container or pie plate with Vaseline or cooking spray for use as a mold. Press the dough into the mold. Add old jewelry or fake gemstones into the mold first.  Then add the dough. After thorough drying gently remove from the mold.

    Bumpy Texture Clay

  Use this dough for doorstops, summertime garden stepping-stones, and flower pots. They will crack if left over the winter. Mix 1 ½ cup flour and ½ cup salt. Add 6 tablespoons water. Knead to create the clay. This clay must be used immediately. The dried clay may be painted and spayed with polyurethane (adults only).

    Cotton Puff Dough

This is so simple. Mix 1 cup flour with 1 cup water to make a paste. Add 1 bag cotton balls and mix thoroughly. Scoop up a handful and let excess fall away. Form into desired animal or other shapes on a baking sheet. Bake for 1 hour at 325 degrees. Paint when cooled.

    Never Fail Play dough

This is the recipe used in the video. Mix 1 cup flour, ½ cup salt, and 1 tablespoon cream of tartar. Add 1 tablespoon cooking oil with 1 cup water colored with food coloring. Cook in a 3 qt. saucepan over medium heat until mixture sticks together. Remove from heat. Cool slightly. Knead. Store in plastic bags.

How Does This Help Children?

  Children who are read to twice a day and played with often, enter school with 20,000 words instead of a 3,000 word vocabulary.

For more easy fun activities see the our book “Learning Through the Seasons” at museums, bookstores, and http://grandparentsteachtoo.org  and listen to podcasts on WNMU Radio 90 at: http://wnmufm.org/learningthroughtheseasons.  

Healthy Children have Fun with Exercise

Superheroes, fairy tale and cartoon characters can be an inspiration for imaginative play and large motor exercise with young children. Just think up a story and go outside for an hour of daily exercise.

  What is needed:

 park equipment, nature path, beach, YMCA, or children’s museum

What to do:

 Young children enjoy exercise more when it’s a fun game or imagination is involved.  They can imagine being stiff legged robots, galloping horses, soaring birds or characters with magical super human powers.  Phil, a personal trainer from Superior Fitness and volunteer in the Big Brothers program, sent these exercise ideas to promote heart health, balance, strength, flexibility, and endurance.

   To prepare, Phil suggests doing a some stretching first.Then act out a story your young children know from a book, legend, fable, movie or tv show. Perhaps there is an animal to rescue, but there are all kinds of obstacles in your way. There may be an invisible line, overturned log, or 2X4 to walk on. Play “Follow the Leader” to avoid getting stuck in the muck or some other danger. Throw a magic stone or stick at a tree to break through an invisible barrier.  Jump over a large stone or climb on a tree stump to look around. Gather sticks to make a safe path to hop on, or write a secret message with shapes and letters in the sand. Jog from one object to next, crouch behind it, and jog again.

  Grandpa Scott takes his grandchildren to the beach to skip stones in the water. Sometimes they pick up large rocks to make towers. They walk along the beach and hunt for rocks, sticks, and other beach treasures for art projects. While walking along a river path, children can drop a leaf in the water and race it down stream.

  Just about anything can be arranged for an obstacle course young children can walk, run, or ride around the yard. Set up a board as a balance beam. Roll a beach ball around, play soccer, catch, shovel in the garden, or sweep the sidewalk. Lay a rope on the ground for children to jump over or walk between.

   There are many active games to play. Young children love to play “What time is it, Mr.Fox,” “Red Light/ Green Light,” and many kinds of freeze or flashlight tag games.  When someone is tagged, the person says a cartoon or story character, color, letter, names a state, spells a word, counts, or anything else you’re working on.

How Does this Help my Child?

  Healthy children exercise for one hour every day. They use the large muscles of the arms, legs, and trunk to jump, hop, skip, kick, throw, catch, dance around, balance, push, pull, or jog.

For more math activities see the authors’ book “Learning through the Seasons” online at: http://www.grandparentsteachtoo.org/ and listen to this and many other activities at WNMU Audio Podcast 

Illustration: Mark Nowicki
Photo: Kock, Matthew. img_0929.jpg. June 15, 2010. Pics4Learning. 5 Jun 2013

Inside Fun and Imaginative Play

Children of all ages love to make a special cozy place to play. Outside, kids fashion huts or set up tents.  On a cold, snowy or rainy day when the little ones need to be inside, they can have hours of fun with  a little help from you.  With just a few things from around the house, you can help them set up a little box train, tent or hideaway place.

Materials you will need:

Cardboard boxes of various sizes, paper plate, markers, sofa cushions, pillows, saw horses(optional), 2 chairs or a card table, snacks, flashlight

What to do:

For a quiet activity, spread a big sheet over the chairs or card table or saw horses.  Inside the tent, let your children make a little room with their favorite blanket, pillow and books or toys.  Sometimes, little kids can fit into a tunnel or hut made just with sofa cushions placed against a solid surface.  Send in a non sticky snack like crackers or cheerios. A flashlight adds extra fun.

  For a more active time, use cardboard boxes to make a play train.  The boxes can vary in size as long as your child can sit in them.  Each box is a different car.  Markers can be used to draw on wheels and lights for the engine.  A paper plate can be made into a steering wheel.  Kids love to take turns being the engineer and passengers. Maybe they will take their toys for a ride.

What else can I do?

         Train books like “The Little Engine that Could” will be fun to read together.  Some children may like to pretend they are the conductor, collecting money and giving tickets.  Support the activity by helping to pretend and by carrying on a conversation, especially if there is only one child.  Don’t forget to take some pictures so that the activities can  be shared  with others later.  (You can also teach some basic math concepts by counting the boxes, the wheels or by comparing the size of the boxes.)

How Will This Help My Child?
      

Reading together is always a wonderful activity.  Imaginative play builds vocabulary, problem solving and communication skills. Children playing in the tent are learning to control their environment, problem solving, as well as developing an appreciation of quiet activities.  Reading and dramatic play activities should always be done with the TV OFF.  It is too hard for children to use their imaginations when the television is distracting them.

Look for more activities like these online at Grandparents Teach, Too and at WNMU Public Radio Learning through the Seasons Podcasts 

Photo, Dizzy's Castle: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dizzyscastle/7797869068/
Photo, Build a Fort: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lemon/8350451041/sizes/z/in/photostream/