Sand Castles

As summer winds down, some of us are heading to the shore to squeeze in a few last days at the beach. There  is something magical about the ocean. It inspires your imagination, incites you to play, and sets you at ease all in one fell swoop. One of our favorite things to do at the beach is to build sand castles. And when we build sand castles, we like to make them BIG.  After building one castle that Rowan could use for her dolls, she tried to climb in and use it herself. I thought to myself 'Self, what prevents me from making a sand castle so big that she can play in it, too?' And, from that day forth, we've made it a goal to out-do ourselves in the sand castle building department. 

The most functional interactive sandcastle design that we've come across is to dig down into the sand (as opposed to focusing on building up) and create a bit of a bridge for Rowan to crawl under. This method creates two "rooms" on either side of the bridge that, if you make them wide enough, can be pretty great little hang-outs on their own. I don't think that you can see them very well in the pictures below, but we built small sand shelves, stairs and stools in each of the "rooms". One particular set of stairs collapsed, but we just turned them into a slide instead. The bridges themselves collapse from time to time, too.  Whenever that happened to us, we would just turn each side of the bridge into a mountain, which I think Rowan liked just as much.

Rowan loved decorating  the castle walls with little spires made out of drippy, muddy sand. We mix equal parts sand and water and drip the mud in little piles any place that needs a little decorating. We also enjoyed finding sea shells to adorn our fortresses. And, once in a while, we'd find a little crab and let him frolic in our castle. 

Before you go off an try this yourself, here are a couple of pieces of advice. First of all, make sure to always keep an eye on your little one in the sand castle. It is sand, of course, and anything you build out of it will be temporary by nature. So make sure that you're with them all of the time (naturally). Second of all, it's easy to get wrapped up in your project. I mean, who doesn't feel like they're a kid again when they're playing in the sand? So enjoy! But make sure that they're having fun, too.

Shake Your Silly Illy Willies!

We all get the case of the sillies from time to time and we were inspired by the children around us to shake those crazy silly illy willies out from our feet to our head.  Go on... we know you want to give it a try!

Big hugs and thanks to all the kiddos for their playful and sweet hearts who made this video such a blast to make, and to Scout for a fabulous production.

xo,

Yvonne and Lolly

Kazoos! Make your own with toilet paper rolls.

For the last several months, we've been collecting empty toilet paper and paper towel rolls from friends and family.  Thanks to everyone, we now have hundreds, and you might have noticed in our previous post for Olympic games that we used some as pretend torches.  Well, we still had a ton left, so we decided to create musical instruments.  I was a bit sceptical and not quite sure how well little ones would be at making the sound...but it was a huge success at our latest concert.  We gave everyone a chance to color and construct their very own kazoos to play along with us.  It's a super easy craft and a great way to recycle, too!  

You will need:

1. Toilet paper roll or paper towel roll sans paper
2. Rubber band
3. Wax paper
4. Scissors
5. Crayons or stickers to decorate

Directions:

1. Decorate the toilet paper or paper towel roll
2. Cut a small hole about 1 inch below the end of the roll.  ( I used one part of a scissor and twisted it to make the hole).
3. Cut a square piece of wax paper roughly 3.5" x 3.5" and place around the top of the roll (same side with the hole)
4. Adjust the wax paper so the hole is not covered.
5. Play!  Hummmm or sing into it!

Travel Scavenger Hunt

Summertime is a big time for traveling. And, no matter how amazing and fun you destination may be, spending hours in a car, train, or plane can be tough on kids. While trips to the park before and after your journey are great ways to prepare for sitting still for so long, it doesn't change the fact that everyone is about to be buckled into a seat for hours on end. Here is a game that we love to play on our long road trips.
You'll need a plain old notebook, some pens and some crayons or colored pencils. If you're not very confident in your drawing abilities, you can do the same thing by cutting out pictures from magazines or printing up old snapshots. What you need to do for this game is come up with a list of things that you might see on your trip. It can be as simple as a red or blue car, it can be as neat as a river or a bridge, or as exciting as a zebra or a helicopter. The trick with the list is to make it easy in parts so they know that there will always be something they can find, but interesting enough that it'll keep them engaged and curious for hours.
For each item, draw a line so they can mark off how many they find, write out what it is that they're looking for, then draw a picture of it! You can see one of my scavenger hunt lists below. You can assign points for each item, too, if you want to make the game a little more motivating (10 points for a stoplight, 100 points for a helicopter, 5 points for a tractor trailer).
I love this game because it gives kids some control over the trip. It gives them a task, and that can really help make the journey a little more enjoyable. It also helps to make them aware of the world around them. We live in an interesting world filled with fascinating things. Sometimes life is about the journey, not just the destination.
Safe and happy traveling!

DIY Ribbon Wands and easy ways to play!

Kids love playing with ribbon wands in the Let's Play Today fitness classes that I teach, so I thought you would really enjoy trying these ideas at home or in the classroom! Sometimes we use store bought ones from SSWW, (these wands are great because the ribbon doesn't get tangled around the stick part) - but we also had a lot of fun making our very own, with painters stirring sticks, cray paper (or ribbon), and some stickers,stamps, and crayons. See the video for a closer look!

If you're looking for ones that will last a little longer, visit  the SSWW website where we buy them from.

Here are 3 easy activities to do with ribbon wands:

1. Pretend they're kites and run around the room holding the ribbon wands up high.

2.Go on an adventure and use them as props. Pretend they are lots of silly things, like a horse tail (and gallop around),  a fishing rod (and catch some fish!), an elephant trunk (stomp around while holding it at your noes), a snake (slither it around on the floor), windshield wipers (move back and forth)...endless ideas! 

3. Make shapes or letters - spell out your name or make a circular, zig zag, or figure eight shape (use both the right and left hand to develop proprioception and coordination).  

Making Popsicles

Popsicles (or 'bicycle pops' as she likes to call them) are one of Rowan's favorite summer afternoon treats. And I certainly don't mind that. It's an easy way to make sure that she's staying cool & hydrated. But most store bought pops are loaded up with all sorts of dyes and sugars that I would rather do without. Thankfully, popsicles are one of the easiest things to make with kids. All you need are popsicles molds and juice! You could get fancy adding fruits or yogurt, but sometimes it's nice to keep things simple. I like to let Rowan pour the juice into the molds herself. I think that it helps her get excited about making & eating things that are good for her. It may be a little messier than doing it yourself, but it's well worth the clean up. If we show our kids how eating healthy is delicious and fun, then they'll follow suit. Here's to popsicles!

We had way too much fun playing these summer olympic themed games this week... this video makes me chuckle every time I watch it! Try burning some official Olympic music from itunes and you'll be all set!