Get Outside And...Build a Fort!

I think just about everyone I know has a childhood memory of some sort of secret outdoor hideout or fort. Whether it was an actual playhouse, tree house, cardboard box, hollowed out willow tree, climbing tree, cardboard box, tent or tee-pee, there was something particularly magical and special about having a special space to play in, read in or hide out in outdoors. And in an effort to make sure my own kids are no exception to the rule that everyone I know has a childhood memory of some sort of secret outdoor hideout or fort, I decided to help facilitate their first exposure to this longtime beloved activity.

The outdoors is HUGE. A small space, a special space, a secret even a sacred space is a childhood must! In these spaces, little ones can be big. Magic can happen. Play can expand to new heights even as you are crouched down low to fit beneath a low hanging rooftop. What is it about little children seeking little spaces? I believe that they are drawn to the wonder of feeling big in them. And seeing young children at play in settings like this is such a good reminder that while fresh air and open space are so important for exercise, large spaces are not a necessity all of the time. Plenty of incredible things can happen (and developmental goals can be met) in spaces that are quite tiny.

There are some amazing structures on the market these days. We've seen beautiful playgrounds with quaint little tree houses, hobbit houses, child sized cottages and even pergolas or gazebos. But to build our own backyard fort, one we would keep a temporary structure given our space and setting, all I needed was three plastic plant stakes from the hardware store, some rubber bands, an old sheet and some clothespins. While the boys were napping in the afternoon, I set up shop in the back. I finagled the supplies into a tee-pee and decided to add in our basket of playsilks, some extra clothespins, a small basket of our favorite Spring themed books, some sticks and some rocks and stones.

S and Y both saw the tee-pee from their bedroom window when they woke up from their naps and were eager to get and play! We had a quick bite to eat and headed out back! And then, I was quite surprised that S looked at the tee-pee, but then played with the mega blocks and trucks. Y walked around the back and lifted one side of the sheet, playing peek-a-boo underneath and then took to playing inside of our parked red wagon. What was going on here? Then I realized neither of them had ever seen a tee-pee and they didn't know they could go inside!

Once I showed them they could go inside and sit or build or play or imagine, a whole scene emerged. They needed to build a bonfire to roast marshmallows. What could they use as marshmallows? S had an idea! We could use playdough! He went inside and brought out our leftover bag of peppermint playdough. He rolled himself a marshmallow and stuck it upon one end of a pussy willow branch rubbed clean of its fuzzy little blossoms. Y was very jealous. S rolled him an even bigger peppermint playdough marshmallow and stuck it on the end of an even bigger stick (all the while having me heavily guard the one he'd made for himself from his very eager little brother).

Then it was time to build the fire, but it wasn't quite hot enough yet to cook the marshmallows, S explained. They needed some help. Help from dinosaurs and little Fisher Price people and construction trucks to haul over some stones. They needed to add more scarves to the fire to "make it hotter." And then it was finally time to roast their marshmallows!

And just as they got to roasting, I heard the loud whir of lawn mowers. Oh dear, they were coming to mow our lawn! Never have you seen a crew of backyardloving marshmallow roasting tee-pee dwelling nature babies clean up so quickly and cooperatively and hurry inside! We dismantled and gathered things back to their spots and into baskets as fast as we could and went inside. It was a bummer, for sure, but easy enough to rebuild and revisit another day. Who knows what adventures will happen in the Brothers' Top Secret Hideout the next time? And, the lawnmowers were a blessing in disguise as well. Besides for trimming our grass forest back into a sizable lawn, they preempted a massive storm of thunder, a few inches of torrential rains and even hail. We had certainly been spared a soggy surprise!

So grab what you have on hand, maybe some old sheets and lawn furniture, maybe a few plant stakes or some upcycled trellises. Maybe a large cardboard box or a few medium sized ones. Get outside and build your own fort. You don't need an enormous amount of materials and space to build enormously magical childhood memories. We can't wait to build our next outdoor fort, but until then....

Happy Playing!

Some [Last Minute] Lag B'Omer Fun!

Friendship, caves, camping, bonfires, Jewish unity, community and fun! These are just some of the fabulous themes that emerge on the 33rd day of counting the Omer, Lag B'Omer, which we celebrate today. S, who feels a special connection to this day being that he is partially named after one of its most important celebrated and honored historical figures, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, has already had a bonfire celebration at school today. He was "a little nervous" about the bonfire and quite honestly, I am OK with fire being something that makes him feel "a little nervous." We will all join together this evening with our community for a bonfire and BBQ party but S really wanted to have a "pretend" bonfire in our backyard this afternoon. So while he has been napping (yay) and Y has been repeatedly emerging from his bed and escaping his nap (I have 5391 steps on my pedometer right now from going up and down to put him back in), I have been eagerly setting up some play activities both indoors and outside for our afternoon pre-party!

Out back, we pitched one of our play tents An invitation to build a bonfire with loose parts is set up with fire colored silk scarves, sticks (who knew I'd have a use for the S's growing collection of sticks he must bring home from every place we go), tree blocks and drift wood and other collected natural loose parts. I set our child sized camping chair nearby with a couple of simple DIY "marshmallow" roasting sticks I whipped up this afternoon from cotton balls hot glued to sticks.

Our sensory bin is set out on the ground so both boys can easily reach and it's set up as a Fish, Frog & Flower Pond for the boys to "go fishing." I had some cut flowers in our house that are on the move list after decorating our table for a couple of weeks, and they made such a bright and cheery natural addition to this water table set up. Y in particular has been loving water play lately and with our toasty 90 degree temperatures today, I think both boys will have fun splashing around a bit.

In the theme and spirit of friendship and community, the nature based playgroup I run had a Butterfly Garden Seed Exchange earlier this week. All of our friends went home with a pack of assorted flower seeds to grow and attract butterflies (and other pollinators) at home. I set up a small planting station to sow our seeds this afternoon if we have time, but we may end up getting to this one next week...

We will definitely need to cool off inside before too long, so I have a Squeeze Your Own Lemonade Station set up in our kitchen (that's KID BAIT to get us inside when I get too hot). Then the boys will get to try their hands at marshmallow stamping "fire" onto the letter F. I have some separate marshmallows set aside for snacking so they won't be tempted by the painty ones. If you want to do this activity and not use food, you could make your marshmallow prints using cotton balls glued to a stick rather than actual marshmallows. Alternatively, if you want your entire activity to be edible, use vanilla pudding dyed yellow and orange as paint!

Lag B'Omer is such a fun and festive day. It is a little taste of celebration during the long seven week period between Pesach and Shavuot. Although my activity posting is a bit last minute this year, you can save these in the vault for next year or add them to your summer or camping themed play in the months to come. If you're looking for more ideas about Lag b'Omer activities, check out this post. Don't forget to check out our other Sefiras Ha'Omer posts and, while you're at it, it's not too early to get ready for Shavuot! 

In the late spring and summer, when Shabbos gets a bit long here, we try to incorporate some play and fun into the day. Everyone is very excited to extend the theme of camping into Shabbos this week for a family Living Room Shabbos Camp-In. Stay tuned to see what we're up to! Here's some more camping themed fun to tide you over until then...

Happy Playing!

A Camping We Will Go! And More Lag B'Omer Fun...

Lag B'Omer, literally translated as the 33rd day of the Omer count, marks the anniversary of the passing of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, author of the Zohar. This great mystic and sage instructed his disciples to mark the day of his death as a day of joy and celebration and indeed, to this day, the 18th day of the Jewish month of Iyar is a day of festivity in Jewish communities worldwide. This day also coincides with the end of a plague that struck Rabbi Akiva's disciples who were mysteriously passing away after quarreling and being disrespectful toward one another. On Lag B'Omer, they ceased to argue and so ended the terrible plague. On Lag B'Omer now, Jewish people celebrate with outings, bonfires, and community wide celebrations of Jewish unity. It is a wonderful time to teach our children about ahavas yisrael (loving their fellow Jew) and to play about the themes of this festive day.


There are many fun play and learning themes in Lag B'Omer. This year, I focused our experience on a camping theme and the idea of friendship/kindness. Join us for some fun dramatic play, a "fireside" singalong, a playful Yoga sequence and a cute craft!

 We began our day by pitching our play tent in the living room. Had we not been experiencing a few rainy, cool days outside, this lesson would have been a fabulous one to take to the yard! My little guy was super excited to play inside! He started by collecting some favorite books to read together inside and then it was time to build our campfire. There are many toys and props that can be used to build a play campfire and if you have a wooded area that is accessible, collecting sticks and twigs can be a lot of fun! It was rather soggy outside, so we used recycled cardboard tubes for logs and kindling and some tissue paper "fire." He had a lot of fun setting up and stacking the "wood" and even created his own little gross motor activity by using his feet to move them from place to place! We sat together around the "campfire" and sang some of our favorite Lag B'Omer and Camping themed songs and action rhymes:

We began with a couple of songs about friendship...
Amar Rabbi Akiva

Amar Rabbi Akiva, amar Rabbi Akiva
V'ahavta l'reacha kamocha (2x)

Shelli shelach, shelach shelach
Shelli shelach, shelach, shelach
Zeh klal gadol batorah!

Rabbi Akiva says, Rabbi Akiva says
To love your friend like yourself (2x)

What's mine is yours, I share with you
If you need me, I'll come through
This is the basis of our Torah!

Make New Friends

Make new friends, but keep the old
One is silver and the other gold!
A circle is round and has no end
That's how long I'd like to be your friend!

Next, we sang a fun little song about camping...

You can sing and adapt your own version of this song
to the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell"

This was the perfect segue into our camping themed Yoga sequence. I incorporated some of our favorite Yoga poses into a camping themed story:

We begin in a boat pose [sit in a v-shape balancing on your sit bones with legs and arms raised] and row our boat across the lake. You can sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" as you paddle along. Soon we arrive at our campsite! There are lots of trees [tree pose--stand with one leg balanced against your other shin or thigh and arms out, raised or gathered in the center for balance] and big rocks [child's pose--curl forward over your knees like a little rock] and a place just perfect for pitching our tent [downward dog pose--bend from the waist with feet and hands hip width apart creating a tent shape]. It is already getting dark and the moon [moon pose--stand up with arms raised above head and hands clasped and stretch to one side; repeat on other side] is shining brightly. We must build a campfire so we can cook our dinner! Once the fire is built, we sit around it to roast some hot dogs and sing some camp songs. [Sit in butterfly pose with feet touching or criss-cross and sing a favorite camp song.] Once the hot dogs are done cooking, we sit in chairs [squat in chair position] at a picnic table [begin on back and lift your hips and arms into table pose] and eat our supper. The stars [stand in Warrior Pose with legs wide and arms out to create a "star"] are shining so brightly! Boy are we tired from all the work of getting to and preparing our campsite. It's time to go to our tents [downward dog] and get some rest [lay on back into resting pose--you can invite your young yogis to close their eyes if they are comfortable to play some sounds of nature for them to listen to and see if they can imagine the sounds of the forest].

Well, all of that fun and exercise made us hungry for a snack! The tent was the perfect spot for this and you can even prepare a camping themed snack if you'd like--such as s'mores, or  s'mores trail mix (graham crackers/tea biscuits, mini marshmallows and chocolate chips--I was out of chocolate chips so I substituted pretzels per my son's request).

You might even have some fun singing

The Campfire Pokey
to the tune of "The Hokey Pokey"

You put your marshmallow in
You pull your marshmallow out
You put your marshmallow in and you shake it all about
You do the campfire pokey and you turn yourself around
That's what it's all about!

We love our DIY felt fishing
set for indoor fishing

Fishing is another great outdoor activity related to camping. We had some fun with another little action rhyme and some indoor waterplay and dramatic play. I created a magnetic fishing activity with felt fish that each have a paperclip "mouth." Using a wooden dowel, some yarn, duct tape and a magnet, I created a fishing pole to go with it and we've had fun over the last couple of years going fishing inside with this little activity! If you have a nice day outside or don't mind some waterplay indoors, try out a toy fishing set in a basin of water (or the bathtub) or try your hand at this fun "ice fishing" sensory bin!


As you fish, you can chant this playful action rhyme:

One, two, three, four, five
Once I caught a fish alive!
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
Then I let him go again!
Why did you let him go?
Because he bit my finger so!
Which finger did he bite?
The little finger on the right!


 In years past, we've had some fun making Lag B'Omer themed arts and crafts projects. Some of our favorites included painting with marshmallow "paintbrushes" dipped in vanilla pudding dyed with yellow and red food coloring to make a Lag B'Omer bonfire. You can also use regular washable paints and create handprint/footprint bonfires and add cut brown paper for your kindling and logs. One of my favorite arts and crafts projects for Lag B'Omer is one we did last year to create our own little campfire prop that actually lights up!

To make your own, you will need:

• a clear plastic cup
• a paper plate
• brown construction paper, cut into strips for logs/wood
• red, yellow, and orange tissue paper squares/scraps
• a small wooden dowel
• a cotton ball "marshmallow"
• an LED tea light
• glue

To create your own light-up campfire and marshmallow for roasting, begin by gluing on your brown construction paper wood to the paper plate base. For the marshmallow, dip one end of the dowel into glue and stick your cotton ball on top. You will need to pinch it on for a minute to help it stick and then let it dry. Meanwhile, you can create your "fire" by gluing on tissue paper to the outside of the cup. You can crumple the tissue paper or leave it flat for different textures. Once the project is entirely dry, place the cup over top of the LED tea light and turn it on to make your campfire glow. My then younger toddler had SO much fun pretending to roast his marshmallow in the fire! He still uses the project as a little nightlight in his room every once in awhile.




Well, learning and playing about Lag B'Omer and camping has been a lot of fun! We are rained in for a few days but this Sunday, which marks the actual festival is forecast to be warm and sunny. We look forward to celebrating with our friends and community. Until then...


Happy Playing!

Think Outside the Box: How To Get Those Dishes Washed With(OUT) a Toddler Underfoot

How do you get dishes done or dinner on the table without your little ones underfoot? I've recently had some success trying something new. HINT: it's not Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, although has its time and place here, too!
Actually, it's sensory play! Sensory bins are fun for all ages. They are versatile, they can be used repeatedly and in many different ways and they tend to captivate attention for a decent amount of time--even from the youngest little explorers. They can be created at home without breaking the bank using many materials you likely already have and others that can be purchased inexpensively, even at discount/dollar stores. But let's face it, sensory play can get messy! I have a few tried and true tips for this. One is to use a drop mat underneath your work area, whether it's below a table or your bin is directly on the floor. You can use a sheet, a tablecloth (vinyl ones are especially useful if your sensory material is wet), a towel or a shower curtain. Clean up can be as simple as gathering up the mat, shaking contents still usable directly into the bin again for next time or shaking away remnants outside/in the trash. When the drop mat gets too dirty, you can throw it in the wash or, if it's disposable (like a paper tablecloth or plastic liner from a discount store), you can part with it altogether. Another tried and true tip is to take these activities outside. Sometimes, weather doesn't cooperate with this plan, and the heat here has been really unbearable for me. That has admittedly led to a significant decrease in sensory play around here--until I remembered yet another tried and true solution: sensory play in the KITCHEN!

The kitchen, you ask?! Yes, the kitchen! Our kitchen floor is cleaned and mopped more frequently than any other floor in our house, and it's still always needing a good washing again. We live in an apartment and our kitchen space is rather small--especially when you keep a kosher home (two sets of everything and separate prep/cooking areas). Our kitchen also houses our laundry room (well, closet), which, incidentally is also the most frequently used facility in this house that is always needing to be used again. I can almost always find a towel waiting to be washed to throw down on the floor beneath a bin of one of my son's favorite sensory materials. It can be as simple as a plastic bin with soapy water and some dishes for washing, scooping and pouring. The bonus? Your floor is likely to get a good washing in the process and your towels needed to be thrown in the laundry anyway--when playtime is done, dry, toss in the laundry and walk away! Amazingly no matter how many times we've brought this activity out, washing dishes is something my son never tires of. (Why can't I share in that sentiment?) We've had a lot of fun also washing vegetables to prep for a recipe--and then you get the added bonus of your little one having a hand in getting supper on the table, a factor sometimes helpful in making him more likely to try the aforementioned recipe.

Yesterday as part of our UNPLANNED End of Summer Fun, I revisited a favorite theme of ours, Camping IN. We pitched our play tent in the living room, got out our handmade felt fishing set and played the day away. When it was time for me to tackle that stack of dishes in the sink, we took the fun into the kitchen with some Waterbead Ice Cube Fishing.

I prepped the ice cube fishies in the morning--just water, food color (next time I will NOT use orange, it looked a little iffy when melting), and a couple of google eyes in each compartment of an ice cube tray--and popped it in the freezer for later. We had some waterbeads (from the Dollar Tree floral section) we had prepared a few weeks earlier. I prepped his work area with a towel to soak up splatters, added some water and a set of Dollar Tree tongs to our plastic bin (also Dollar Tree), and he had so much fun, he was still playing when the dishes were done. When the fishing was done, I strained out the waterbeads, collected the google eyes to put away for another project and replaced the waterbeads to the bin. I added a few drops of lavender essential oil for some calm evening play. My son still wanted to use the tongs with them--what great fine motor practice!




Sensory bins are such a versatile and developmentally important activity for children, but they need not break the bank. There are a lot of wonderful sensory tables out there for purchase and a lot of creative ways to fill them beyond the classic water or sand. Here are some more outside-of-the-box ways we incorporate sensory play here:

• a large and shallow plastic bin with a lid can be put directly on the floor for play--little ones often have fun climbing right in! They can also be placed on a child's table for standing play
• smaller plastic basins, bowls or disposable baking pans can make for great sensory bins as well--plus they are easily transportable
• I keep a few shoebox sized plastic bins with ready-to-go sensory materials to use indoors or out
• Even pencil box sized containers with lids can be used for travel sized sensory bin play--one of my favorites is one we keep filled with kinetic sand and seashells collected on a family vacation
• Overall storage of sensory materials can easily be done in plastic containers with lids or ziplock bags
• I keep a stash of recycled plastic containers, cardboard tubes, and discount store scoops, shovels, bowls, cups, plastic spoons, etc., for scooping, pouring and exploring
• Plastic animals, figurines, and other such toys and miniatures make for great small world additions to sensory play

And now for some in and out of the box filler ideas:

• water is a classic and always fun--you can add a bit of dish soap for washing and toss in a sponge or you can add some food color and jars/containers for pouring and color mixing exploration
• rice
• dry beans or lentils
• dry pasta
• waterbeads
• pom poms
• glass craft stones
• flour
• shaving cream
• play sand
• soil
• dry corn kernels
• straw
• dry oats
• items collected from nature (leaves, pine cones, acorns, twigs)

Happy playing, and may your fun stay inside the bin but outside of the box!