This afternoon my 6-year-old wanted to play hopscotch. So we all headed outside and proceeded to draw a hopscotch course on our patio. Once it was complete, my two boys and I all took turns hopping back and forth up and down the course. We did the course with one foot, with two feet, with all left foot jumps, with all right foot jumps, and even tried jumping through it backwards (though it was hard to avoid the lines that way).… Continue reading
learning
Making Art Teaches Mindfulness and More
We make a lot of art in our house. I keep a wide array of open-ended supplies available, and my boys have a space that they can work on their own projects (my toddler, with some help; my 6-year-old, mostly independently). While I frequently choose and set up supplies for my toddler, my older son has full creative control over his art experience, and he’ll help himself to whichever supplies will help him to bring his vision to fruition.… Continue reading
Learning through Origami
The other day, my 6-year-old stumbled upon an origami book on our bookshelf. As he looked through it, the paper balloons intrigued him. He immediately set to work on trying to fold his own. And after a few tries and some help from me in interpreting some of the more complicated portions of the instructions, he was able to fold a paper balloon on his own.… Continue reading
Painting a Self Portrait
My 6-year-old decided that he wanted to paint a life-size picture of himself. He also wanted to paint a life-size picture of his brother.
To help him to accomplish this, we took two large pieces of paper from our paper roll, one sized for him and one sized for his brother. I then had him lay down and I traced all around his body, starting with his head and working my way down to his feet.… Continue reading
Family Day at the Museum
Once a month, our local Natural History Museum puts on a Family Day. Each family day consists of several hands-on experiments, activities, and art projects that all center on the day’s particular focus. Today’s focus was Dogs.
Today my boys watched a demonstration of dog agility put on by the local Humane Society. They learned about how dogs use body language to communicate, and made their own dog ears and tail so that they too could communicate like a dog.… Continue reading