Movin’ Mondays — crazy hats!

There is something about hats that seems to draw in children.  It’s as if wearing hats allows the preschooler the chance to be something different or to be somewhere else. None of my boys actually like to wear a hat for it’s real intent but they enjoy playing with them from time to time.  Plus, when you have silly ones like this, that makes play even more fun!

We have a basketful of ball caps and fishing hats in our hall closet (which is funny because none of us wear hats more than once a month or so!).  Instead of just letting them collect dust, every so often we pull out the basket and let the boys have at it!  They get so tickled seeing each other try out the different sizes and styles.  Some get stacked on-top of each other while others inspire them to suddenly act like they are out hunting or wherever their imagination may lead!


What’s your "Moving” activity to start the week? 

Movin’ Mondays – Playing dress-up

If you head over to the house of any little girl, I bet you’ll find a host of dress-up clothes…anything from tu-tu’s to toddler-sized high heals (complete with bling!) to oversized gowns and much more. But for boys, there really aren’t that many ‘dress-up’ options and we just don’t have that many outfits for pretending.

But playing dress-up is a great tool for letting children role play, express emotions, pretend, and much more! It’s a type of play that opens the door to expressing thoughts in a safe way by communicating as ‘someone else’.

So playing dress-up with three little boys gets a little creative around our house.  When we decide to play, half of the game time is allotted to searching for our outfits!

We pull out our magnifying glass and binoculars and go on a ‘hunt’ for the clothes to make up our characters. And we use anything from scarfs to Daddy’s neck-ties to old Halloween costumes to Mommy’s dressy shoes. The end result is a mishmash and often pretty funny but always fun.  Then we spend time playing our character roles; whether that is a role of fireman (photo above), explorer, detective, or anything else these little preschoolers decide to be!

What’s your "Moving” activity to start the week?

Tennis Balls & a ‘safe’ indoor game idea

What little child doesn’t love balls?!?  But in the winter, there are few opportunities to play with balls since we like to keep our pictures hung nicely on the walls. *wink*  So a game we came up with for indoor ball play is with tennis balls and a pop-up tube.  It’s wonderful way to burn off a little energy, build skills at hand-eye coordination, and keep the walls safe!


History ~~ About a year ago, my preschoolers we were bored playing indoors during the winter and I wanted some sort of game that got us up and moving.  We had recently purchased a bag of tennis balls and I thought my two boys would enjoy rolling them around our living room.  The younger of the two kids was only 1.5 years so it was very hard for him to keep the balls on the floor – he desperately wanted to throw them!  I tried to find a way to allow him to throw yet keep the balls contained and then thought about our nylon tube that goes to our pop-up tent…it was perfect!



We pulled it out and I told the boys to throw or roll the balls inside the length of the tube.  Not realizing that both boys had very bad aim, we STILL had balls flying!  Haha!  That’s when I realized what a great tool this activity could become at building hand-eye-coordination as well as finger strength while also motivating them to get up and move.


Skip forward to this winter ~ Both boys have better throwing skills now but we’ve moved the game into the hallway because those balls sometimes jump out of their excited little hands. Having the bag of balls is very handy because it allows the ball-thrower multiple opportunities to practice and we're not having to throw-stop-pickup-then start again.


Sometimes we play with one kid on each end and see who can get all their balls to the other receipent (since some balls stop mid-way in the tube) or we have both on one end of the tube and see who’s faster at rolling.  And it usually ends with at least one person rolling around inside the tube along with lots of giggling!



You can always modify the activity if you don’t have a pop-up tube like this and just use a closed-door hallway.  Plus, you can challenge the preschooler to knock over items at the end of the hall (empty soda bottles?) or put obstacles in the way of ball rolling or whatever else may fit your playtime.

Please share any thoughts on the activity and let us know how your little one(s) did with building their rolling/throwing skills!

Monday Moving activity idea: Box Train!

To further inspire all of you who play with preschoolers, I’ll start posting details about activities we do at home.  We try to incorporate activities on a daily basis that engage and grow the small motor skills as well as the large motor skills.  Please comment or email if you have done or decide to do any of the activities posted in this series on Mondays…let us know what you do and how your preschooler enjoys it!

This past week, we were recovering from the flu so that meant lots of indoor playtime.  Plus, we live in Missouri and the weather changes at the drop of a hat right now so many of our skill-building play is indoors.

Here is an activity that incorporates both small and large motor skills plus encourages lots of communication!

“Box Train”
Fine-motor skills/finger strength:
We started by collecting empty boxes from around the house.
My kiddos used their little fingers to thread yarn from box to box and then we practiced tieing knots. Then we practiced using scissors to cut the yarn.
Next we made binoculars out of TP rolls and tape and string. And then pulled out several stickers to decorate our ‘box cars’.


Gross-motor skills/arm and leg strength:
We were ready to fill our train so I asked the boys, “What jobs do people have on the train?”  They decided we needed:
1. Passengers = stuffed animals. After collecting our ‘passengers’ from around the house, we discussed where people go on a train and I mentioned that some ride in a ‘sleeper car’...well then we obviously needed our blankies too!
2. A “lookout man” who would use the binoculars to look for deer (per the imagination of my 4 year old boy).
3. and a conductor (who rode in a “special car” in the front = laundry basket) and he needed a flashlight and conductor hat to be able to drive.


The boys really had a good time playing.  They don’t like to play with stuffed animals on a regular basis but this was a fun way to use toys to open discussion and talk about how trains work and the places they go.

Small & Large motor skill activity: BOXES!

When young children receive a present, many times the box the present came in suddenly becomes more interesting than the actual gift!

As noted in an earlier post, we’ve been busy playing indoors this week and we try to build upon a variety of skill sets using different items around the house. Since we received several large boxes this past week from packages that were delivered, we decided to use the packaging as part of our motor-skill development.

For the small motor skills, Little S colored all over the box.  I created with him and showed him how to draw basic shapes and wrote our names to emphasis letter memorization.

And then it became a fun large motor skill activity when he played with his creation!  At first it was a car then it was a train and then a spaceship and finally used as a good hiding spot.

It was also good entertainment for the baby who was having fun just laying on the floor watching his big brother play!  Now that he’s 5 months old, the little guy is learning ‘object permanence’ and really got a kick watching his brother play peek-a-boo with him and the box! 

Today, we’ll get big brother J in on the fun and have him push around Little S in the box to wear off some energy. Yay!