Peter Rabbit Garden Party

I am pretty big on birthdays here but not so much of a party person. It seems like as soon as I throw in the pressure of a birthday party to creating themed activities, all of my creativity flies out of the window! But one thing we did implement here as of Y's first birthday just over a year ago is the family only party. It seemed silly at first to have a party with just the four of us, but it was so much fun, S wanted one, too and we've kept it going.

Y turned two this year! His English birthday fell on the same day as Purim, right after the first day of Spring. His Jewish birthday was over Shabbat, so this past Sunday we had his family party at home with a Peter Rabbit Garden theme. Y has loved playing and planting in our garden and both of the boys love Beatrix Potter books right now. S may have been a bit more cognizant of birthday celebrations at nearly 5 than Y is at just 2 (and in related news, he's already told me he wants a Peter Rabbit Garden Party for his birthday this summer, too). To combat my party panic induced lack of inspiration, I perused the internet for ideas--but in the end, I selected a very simple menu and activities list. We kept it short and sweet and tailored to the tastes and interests of everyone here (especially the birthday boy!) because going overboard and showing up exhausted to the party was just not an option for me this year. (I kind of overdid it last year with the boys' carnival themed parties.) And you know what? Everyone had a great time! There were just the right number of activities. It was not overwhelming, it moved at a reasonable pace and Y (and S for that matter) were still talking about it this morning!

The best thing about a Peter Rabbit Garden themed party is how seamlessly it fits into our family life right now. (I may have slightly selfishly suggested it strongly...) And the ideas here can easily be implemented into your own garden themed party, lesson plans and/or family activities.

The Menu:

Purim. Birthdays. So MANY treats. And with just weeks before Pesach, there are a lot of foods that are on the move list here as it is. When it comes to family birthday dinners, we want to include the birthday star's favorite foods. Y loves a lot of foods (basically every food he's ever tasted) and especially loves meat, corn on the cob and hummus. What can I say? We decided on hot dogs and french fries for the main dinner fare, of course, with a side of corn on the cob. And no party is complete without cake and ice cream--so we shlepped some really good ice cream home from our last family trip to Baltimore and Tatty made an ice cream cake. We also bought cupcakes. Oh well, so much for the lighter fare after all these weeks of endless treats. But we started it off with a quaint little theme related snack course of veggie sticks seemingly right out of Mr. McGregor's garden, homemade dill dip and some "garden fruit smoothies." 



I often go all out of paper goods and decorations for parties. It's a lot of waste. On the other hand, with a lot of dishes being used, it does make it a bit easier when you can just wrap up the disposable tablecloth at the end and toss it all. I tried to fall somewhere in the middle this time. We used our regular tablecloth and cover (it happens to have such a lovely floral print that it fits right in). We bought some floral and rabbit themed paper plates and napkins (I think these were intended for another upcoming holiday and not my son's birthday party, but it works!), and Y really liked a set of sparkly plastic silverware he saw at the store when we were picking out the plates. I stashed that inside an empty planting pot--it was adorable! We also set out our "Veggie Patch" and "Garden Fruit Smoothies" in advance (we already had plastic cups and straws) and it was time for the party to begin!


The Activities:

I will admit that I worried I didn't have enough activities for the boys. I don't know why. It's crazy to think that two boys need ten different party activities or that given the opportunity, they can't also come up with ten more once the main ones are done or in between waiting for one to be finished before starting the next. So I really only had a couple of hands on activities planned plus face/hand/arm painting. We already had a set of face paint crayons from last year and with my limited artistic abilities, I figured we could have some fun with bunny noses and whiskers, and a few simple drawings of favorite vegetables and fruits. I may or may not have been seen sitting on my front stoop yesterday with a pink nose and black whiskers across my cheeks. S wanted strawberries drawn on each of his hands and a carrot on each arm. Y followed suit. Everyone had a bath last night!

Peter Rabbit Mini Gardens: I saw this idea in Sharon Lovejoy's fabulous book on gardening with children, Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots. We upcycled a very old pair of rainboots of mine. I put my husband and boys up to the task of pounding drainage holes in the soles while I ran errands in the morning. I hear they had a lot of fun with this part. Y had accompanied me to the garden nursery last week to pick out a parsley and chamomile plant. We also had some radish seeds and short and sweet carrot seeds for planting. I prepped each boot with potting soil leaving just enough space at the top to sow seeds and stick in one of the plants before having each boy scoop a bit more potting soil over the top and sides. Y chose a little of each type of seed and the parsley plant. S picked just carrot seeds and the chamomile, which he says he would like to try as some tea like Peter Rabbit the next time he has a tummy ache. I have idea if the carrots and radishes will grow successfully beneath the herb plants, but the boots are so whimsical out there in our front garden and this was the perfect way to give them one last shot at life now that they were no longer suitable for my feet. (I did however trick my husband and tell him I'd changed my mind and wanted to wear them again after all!)

Veggie Printed Reusable Farmers Market Bags
I knew I wanted to do some veggie print painting and I also had a couple of bunny shaped cookie cutters for Peter Rabbit stamping. Initially I thought we'd just make some paintings on paper with tempera paints--but how cute would it be to make a set of reusable Farmers Market/snack pouches? I love these canvas pouches for packing up snacks on the go or bringing to the market for produce. So I swapped in the fabric paints we had on hand and set out the ends/tops of the veggies I'd prepped for our snack along with the bunny cookie cutters and each of the boys decorated one.

I love that the project is something we can actually use as opposed to just a picture to hang up. Everyone was amazed at the flower shapes that the celery bottom and bell pepper tops made! And no one tried to eat fabric paint covered veggie scraps--phew!

The Goody "Bag:" I think the Goody Bag eventually became my favorite part of all birthday parties growing up. It was always exciting to wait for the party--whether it was your own or a friend's. It was always fun to be at the party and eat the treats and play the games, but it was also always a little sad when it was over--except when you got a goody bag on the way out! In a way, it kept the party going just a little longer. Many times goody bags are loaded with candies and cheap toys. Those are fun and traditional (and there are some of those things in here as well), but rather than go all out on a lot of this kind of thing, I kept it simple and took a creative spin. Instead of the classic bag approach, each boy got a large plastic planter from the dollar store along with a small (but "real") gardening trowel and fork. They will each get to decide what to plant and grow in these pots--this will be their very own garden to tend to. I will definitely help them as needed, but they get to be in charge of their personal "plot" this season. And because no goody "bag" or bucket is complete without some toys and treats, we also added some "cotton tails" (cotton candy) and "magic beans" (jelly beans) inside of these little bunny bags. They also each got some bunny shaped crayons (it sure is handy having your Peter Rabbit themed birthday fall near a holiday with a bunny theme), a jar of playdough, a jar of sparkly slime and a carrot shaped bubble necklace. They got to take it outside to play in our garden and set off some firecrackers leftover from S's last birthday with their Tatty while Mommy did a bit of clean up and sitting down!

Everyone came in covered in chocolate, sweat, face paint, mud and smiles. A birthday party success! And of course, an obligatory shot of Y going into the cake face first because there are many ways to eat a birthday cake but there is only one right way!

So whether you snag some of these ideas for your own garden or gardening theme, or even your own garden party, I hope you have some good, messy, Peter Rabbit style mischievous fun. We'll be back soon and until then...


Happy Birthday, Y and Happy Playing!

The Day We Had a Birthday Party for my Son's Imaginary Friend (and Why)...

When we were growing up, my big sister had an imaginary friend, Kimmy Grape. Naturally, as with anything my big sister had, I was jealous. I circulated through multiple imaginary acquaintances of my own, including Johnny Strawberry,  a set of boy/girl twins, respectively named Sean and Shawn and numerous others whose names I can't recall. Sadly, none of these relationships developed into the kind of quality relationship my sister had with Kimmy Grape. So when S developed a fictional friendship with a young character named Jerome, I was more than a little eager to see where it would go.

Jerome lived in S's belly button and was discovered there a bit after Y was born. Shortly thereafter, Jerome moved out of his belly button home and has since lived in many nearby and faraway locations, depending on where we are and where we might be traveling to. It has become apparent that he also lives with a character named Sallie and that they have a mother living there as well, though I am not clear as to the status of their relationship. It was also recently revealed that Jerome is 37 years old. Jerome was very prevalent in S's life as he adjusted to big changes like siblinghood, getting used to being in preschool and toilet training last year. He became less frequently active in S's life over the summer and into this year, but still emerges in conversation when something exciting, new or anxiety provoking is happening. He is reachable by phone--



Early this week, S announced the exciting news that Jerome was having a birthday, specifically on Tuesday!

He proceeded to write an invitation, stuff it in an envelope, secure it with a sticker and placed it in his toy mailbox. I proceeded to party plan. After all, everyone has a birthday and everyone who has a birthday ought to have a party! We started the morning before school by decorating birthday cards. S decided to make and mail some additional invitations. Then he went off to school for the day and I headed to the store to pick up some party plates, napkins and balloons. The boys had pizza and "Frenchy fries" for supper. We had cupcakes for dessert. We decorated party hats and even a chair for our invisible honored guest. S and Y used leftover wrapping paper, tape, scissors and recycled boxes to wrap "presents" for the birthday boy. They even got little goody bags at the end. But why go through all this trouble and silliness for a fictional birthday celebration?

Because childhood is short. Because it's the middle of winter and for two days it had been too cold to play outside. Because on the heels of a visit to family up north, Tu b'Shevat and the annual Jewish Food Festival here, we needed something else to celebrate. And because sometimes you don't need a reason to celebrate but you do need a cupcake on a Tuesday afternoon. Soon--a lot sooner than I'd care to admit--Jerome will vanish from conversation altogether. He will become a name reminisced about about with humor and nostalgia. S knows fact from fiction. I don't worry about his relationship with Jerome, because he has many healthy relationships with factual people as well, both his peers and significant adults. He has a tender and vast imagination and even larger than that is the size of his heart. I don't know if he will remember Jerome's Birthday Party when he grows up or even if he will remember Jerome. But I like to think that he will. And I know that Jerome, although we cannot see him, has helped my son through life experiences of all kinds. For that, I am so very grateful! Happy Birthday, Jerome, wherever you may be, and to everyone else...

Happy Playing!

A Peek Inside Our Playroom: Welcome to the Bakery!

Great things are worth repeating! Last year around Chanukah time, we set up our dramatic play area as a Holiday Bakery, and I'm pretty sure that's how we survived winter break from school! There's about a month until Chanukah now, but a month beforehand of birthdays in our family, Thanksgiving, and pending Chanukah excitement made me eager to get a jump start on our Bakery play theme this year.



Both boys are a whole year older now and dramatic play is something they are beginning to share in together, each at his own level. Y is mobile now, walking all around and navigating our play space. S is making huge strides in writing and math skills. Both boys love to play pretend, especially in our kitchen set and both boys love art and sensory play. Have I mentioned that both boys also love sweets and treats? Well, that's pretty much a given--so I knew they both would love this bakery theme.

When setting up a play theme in your home (or classroom), I'm a big fan of using what you have on hand. There's no need to spend a fortune or reinvent the wheel. I reused a lot of our bakery themed props from last year, including laminated printables, chefs hats we'd made, toys and props we already had, etc. Many of our kitchen set accessories were purchased secondhand, at the Dollar Tree or are homemade. This year I did get a lot of ideas and resources from Pocket of Preschool, including her great Bakery Dramatic Play set from TeachersPayTeachers.

I'm also enlisting the boys' help in making props out of Model Magic clay. This is such a fun art activity to do and it's so nice for them to see their own artwork being used at play! So far, they loved rolling and cutting out clay cookies. We allowed them to dry before "frosting" them with homemade puffy paints (shaving cream, white glue and food coloring), decorating with store-bought puffy paints (S did this) and adding rainbow rice "sprinkles" (both boys did this). Once dry, they were a great addition to our bakery! The boys will also be making clay donuts, cupcakes and perhaps even some gingerbread men!

Our bakery theme is set up to encompass a variety of areas of play and learning. A print rich environment supports my pre-reader through the incusion of signs, labels and natural print on recycled food containers. Plenty of opportunities for writing are set around the room, including laminated party invitations, bakery order forms, a receipt book and customer order book (Dollar Tree). Our bookshelf is stocked with some of our favorite baking and party themed books and a trip to the library will fill out the rest. Some actual baking cookbooks with beautiful photos are set out next to the play oven (which I made using a recycled box covered in tin foil with some recycled bottle caps glued on and a dollar store digital timer).

Math skills come into play as the boys count out cookies and cupcakes and fill customer orders. Even Y develops early one-to-one correspondence by placing one cupcake in each space of the cupcake tins or one egg in each space of the recycled egg carton. Our cash register and play money also support early math skills. Sequencing skills through following recipes come into play and action in this theme (and we will likely be doing some actual baking in the coming month as well). Fine motor skills are busy at work for both boys. They both are still loving the DIY Pumpkin Pie Set (pictured on bottom right in the photo above) made from felt and orange pom poms that the boys pick up using a variety of fine motor tongs, tweezers and tools.

Both of the boys are still loving our Counting Cupcakes Sensory Bin. Y learned how to sing "Happy Birthday to You" over there (he sings it all the time, now) and S loves picking number candles and counting out birthday candles to go with them. I'm planning to do a flour bin later in the week outside (where cleanup will be a little less scary). Even here, the boys are developing fine motor coordination, spacial awareness, transferring and pouring skills, a bit of math and plenty of practical life-skills when it comes to sweeping up spills!

Dramatic Play is something that has seemingly faded almost into extinction in many early learning centers and homes alike. The push toward early academics has replaced kitchen sets with worksheets and playtime with "work time." More and more, children are struggling with the ability to engage in abstract and symbolic play and the result is not an increase in academic success, but rather an increase in behavioral, social and developmental challenges. While all things require balance, a well set up dramatic play theme encompasses opportunities to develop academic skills in a language children best understand: play! In addition to the skills noted above, children engaging in dramatic play also develop social skills like problem solving, role playing, conflict resolution and emotional awareness. They gain language and critical thinking skills. They work large and small muscles. And they do all of this in a natural environment. 

So now that I've got my soap box statement in praise of play out of the way, here's a peek inside our playroom and what you might add to your own Bakery:


Toy Food: We had some bakery themed toy food and ingredients, but you can also make your own from clay, cardboard, felt or craft foam. Our gingerbread men are actually just foam shapes from Dollar Tree's holiday crafts last year. Both my boys love using pom poms as play food. They have been everything from cupcakes to ice cream to pumpkins, apples and even coffee or tea.


Dishes, Tools and Utensils: Again, some are toys, but many are "the real thing" purchased from the Dollar Tree or secondhand shops. The nice thing about the bake ware from Dollar Tree is that it is a little smaller and perfect for small hands. We use and reuse it in dramatic play, sensory play and when preparing recipes for non-food doughs and slimes.

We just celebrated my husband's birthday over Shabbos and since this is a month of birthday celebrations for my husband and myself, I added a birthday party sub-theme to our bakery. In lieu of toy plates and cups, I added paper party plates, cups, hot cups with lids for hot beverages, plastic forks and spoons and even party tablecloth (cut to the size of our kids' table). All of these were purchased from the Dollar Tree and/or leftover from previous celebrations. S especially loves setting the table, so it's nice rather than setting up a table for the kids to let them do it themselves as part of their play.

Costumes: Every baker needs an apron and a chef's hat. We made our own chef's hats last year and had one in our dress up clothes as well. The boys decorated child sized aprons earlier this year as well that are perfect for work in our play kitchen or our actual kitchen. Child sized aprons and chef's hats are frequently available at Dollar Tree stores as well. You can also print and make role necklaces. I like the ones in the Bakery Dramatic Play kit I linked above or you and your children can create your own. You might also talk about different roles in a bakery like bakers, cashiers, customers, delivery personnel, etc. We have a "delivery truck" as well (our toy shopping cart, but you can also use a wagon or riding toy).

 Props and Accessories: You can include any of the following:

• cleaning supplies and tools
• potholders
• open/closed signs
• boxes (I used recycled produce containers and boxes with labels I printed last year)
• bags (I used leftover recycled gift bags with labels I printed last year)
• laminated party invitations and envelopes
• toy mailbox for mailing invitations
• DIY punch cards 
• hole punch or stamp for punch cards
• pens, pencils
• dry erase markers and rag/eraser
• printed menus and order forms (you can laminate them if you wish)
• sales signs or labels/stickers
• receipt books, customer order books (available in Dollar Tree stores)
• bentchers and/or laminated food blessings cards if you happen to be running a Kosher play bakery
• cash register if you have one, or you can use a calculator or computer keyboard
• play money (you can make your own as well)
• small clipboards and writing pads for taking orders

You can keep it is simple as you wish or get as detailed as your children inspire you to. If you're just starting out, less is often more. You can always add to the play scene later on as you get more ideas (or as your little ones do). Perhaps you'll visit a real bakery and have a look around! As we get closer to Chanukah, I'll be adding in some holiday props and activities and perhaps phasing out some of the birthday themed stuff. And while engaging in play with the boys will be both fun (hey, I like to play, too!) and helpful in learning about some of the novel aspects of baking and running a shop, I like to let them take the lead. I'll be in The Bakery if you need me...

Happy Playing!

Counting Cupcakes Sensory Bin

This Counting Cupcakes Sensory Bin is super simple to set up and so much fun! We're in a stage where both of my boys love and benefit from activities in our sensory table. Sensory play is certainly a common catchphrase around classrooms and homes. Pinterest, Instagram and blogs are full of ideas and there's a whole market for materials related to sensory play. But what exactly are children gaining from playing in a basin full of dried beans, sand or water? Isn't it just playing? Not to mention the mess! I'm here to cheer you on and encourage you to take a deep breath. Grab a cheap dustpan and brush from your dollar store, maybe a plastic shower curtain, too, to catch the spills. And while there is a whole industry to target folks looking for sensory bin fillers, props, tools and trinkets, you don't need to break the bank. You can use (and re-use) inexpensive materials, many of which you have in the pantry or can access inexpensively from dollar stores, the grocery store or even secondhand. Unless something gets irreparably damaged in play or we all have horrendous runny noses, we store and save our fillers for future use. It's a good idea either way to wash hands before and after sensory play.

What skills are children developing through play at the sensory table? As a teacher and a parent, I'm of the mindset that sensory play targets a huge range of skills, especially when you are creative in your setup. Particularly for children who may struggle in certain developmental areas, the sensory table is a safe and confined space to explore and expand skills that are challenging in a more traditional setting.

• Fine motor development is targeted through scooping, pouring, pinching with tongs or tweezers, transferring, manipulating more viscous substances (like slime, dough, ooblek, kinetic sand, etc.). Sensory bins are a great place for scissor practice as well when children cut their own crepe paper, ribbon, yarn, paper, etc. Provide scrap paper and hole punches for children to create their own confetti filler. For children too young to cut with scissors, tearing tissue paper or crepe paper is another great way to target those tiny muscles.
• Literacy skills are targeted through the use of novel vocabulary. Talk about textures, colors, scents, what you are doing, planning, creating... You can add letter manipulatives and written words and labels to create a print rich environment or base a sensory table on children's literature to extend a lesson through play.
• Social skills like engaging in conversations, problem solving (navigating sharing materials, space and ideas) are targeted especially when children work in pairs. In my classrooms, the sensory table was a place where children who may not typically play together did have an opportunity to do so. Sometimes this was strategic on my part (as in, I chose pairs and the desire to play in our sensory bin outweighed the desire to only play with certain students). Friendships developed in this space that might not have happened on the playground or in other areas.
• Problem solving skills and other executive functioning skills are called into play when children tinker, build, rearrange and otherwise navigate materials in the sensory bin.
• Symbolic play and abstract play skills that children struggle with or resist in a dramatic play setting are often more appealing (and less threatening) in the confines of a sensory bin when small world play is introduced through the addition of toy animals, people and other props. Children who do not naturally engage in role playing and character/story development through traditional dramatic play often feel more comfortable to do so in this setting.
• Math concepts like sequencing, measurement, sorting/categorizing, shape and numeral recognition, one-to-one correspondence and even early operations and fractions can be introduced through sensory play.
• Science is in action as children manipulate and observe materials found in nature or chemical reactions and states of matter of various concocted sensory bin fillers.
• STEM skills are targeted with opportunities to build, construct, design, transport and otherwise manipulate a variety of materials and loose parts.

Lately, S has been very engaged in play about cupcakes and baking. He uses pom poms, toy dishes and recycled containers on a daily basis to set up shop and sell his wares. He is always making sweet treats with play dough and clay (in fact, we've been working on a batch of Model Magic cookies to be used in our kitchen set). Such was the inspiration for our latest sensory bin. S is also making huge strides in his math skills both at school and at home. As it is something that interests him, I incorporate it into our play. Nonetheless, even if you have a reluctant mathematician at home, sensory play is a great way to sneak it in! Y just LOVES playing at the sensory table. He often spends even more time playing there than S! He loves practicing scooping, pouring and transferring and, um, cleaning up spills... He isn't quite to the point of counting candles or numeral recognition, but he will surely have a great time playing and exposure through play is the path to success down the road.

Here's what you'll need to set up your own Counting Cupcakes Sensory Bin:

• Rainbow Dyed Rice for filler. We reused the batch I had from our UnBirthday Party theme last spring, so it has some birthday confetti mixed in.
• Vanilla extract (optional) for scent
• Plastic cups and scoops (both from Dollar Tree). You can also use silicone cupcake liners and recycle scoops from protein powder or other drink mixes.
• Birthday candles
• Number magnets or candles
• A number line (optional) to support early mathematicians who do not yet recognize numerals

Children can use scoops to fill their cupcake cups, choose a number or number candle and then stick in the corresponding number of birthday candles.

Variations on the theme:

• Provide a second set of magnetic numerals and an addition symbol and equal sign. Children can set up and solve their own addition problem by adding two cupcakes together.
• Add some dice or a spinner into the mix and have children roll/spin to choose their number.
• Younger children (like Y) can play and explore by scooping, pouring, transferring and sticking candles into the rice.

Looking for more sensory bin ideas? Check out our extensive collection of related posts here and stay tuned for more ideas in the future! Until then...

Happy Playing!

A Very Merry Un-Birthday to YOU!

Is today your birthday? Mine either! But today is everyone in our family's Un-birthday, and that's something to celebrate! Today in S's school, all of the children who have birthdays during the summer got to participate in a special birthday celebration. It truly is so thoughtful and considerate of the principal and his teachers to organize this each year for students and parents who never get to celebrate in school during the academic year (shout out to all you moms who survived being Very Pregnant in the heat of the summer!). It also increases the excitement S feels about his actual birthday, which is still over a month away. Boy is it ever hard to wait! So this afternoon, we are having a Family Un-birthday Celebration. A certain little boy who is *still* 3 is so excited about this, he is singing to himself through nap-time...

An Un-Birthday Celebration can be as simple or elaborate as you like! I chose a few activities I thought the boys would love. So crank up the classic tune from Alice in Wonderland and wish everyone you know who isn't celebrating a birthday today a Very Merry Un-Birthday!

Birthday celebrations at our preschool always involve a walk around the sun through the months of each year. S decorated his very own birthday sun this morning and it's featured on our own family living room rug this afternoon for everyone to get a turn being the Un-Birthday Person. Presents are certainly not a must for an Un-Birthday Celebration, but there's something super fun and exciting about unwrapping one--especially when it's not a birthday or holiday. You can scrounge the closet stash, hit up the dollar store or do what I did, and visit the children's book section of your local thrift store. I always find great books there and love to give them a second life.

I picked up a couple of balloons and put out some party hats, necklaces and party blowers for each family member. After dinner we'll have a surprise ice cream party (especially exciting for S who keeps asking for Shavuot to come back so he can have ice cream again!) and we'll spend our afternoon with a fun Homemade Puffy Paint Cupcake Craft and playing in our Vanilla Cupcake Scented Birthday Bash Sensory Bin.

One of S's favorite things to do in any sensory bin is pretend to make cupcakes. In this one, rainbow rice is meant to resemble sprinkles and an added scent of vanilla extract will leave your mouth watering for the real thing! I tossed in some plastic dishes, birthday candles, birthday confetti, necklaces, blowers, bows and tiny present decorations I had stashed away in a drawer. Both my boys will likely love to play in this one!

If you've never made homemade puffy paint, you really must! You can go buy puffy paint in most craft supply stores, but making your own is super easy and fun. All you need is shaving cream and white glue. If you've ever seen my husband's beard, you know that shaving cream in this house is purely a sensory play product. Squirt about equal amounts of both into a cup (you can't really go wrong here) and add paint or food coloring to get a color you like. Mix with a plastic spoon or craft stick and you're ready to go. Some kids love the feeling of this on their hands for finger painting and others prefer a brush or craft stick to work with it. Either way, it can be helpful to have a wet washcloth nearby. In this activity, I prepped some paper cupcake liners from brown construction paper and printed origami paper. I folded them like a fan and then unfolded and flattened them. Kids can definitely help with this part as well! In the spirit of process art, I always set out the materials all together for this type of craft, but if you do prefer your finished products to resemble a cupcake, you may want to first set out the glue stick and cupcake bottoms and next introduce the puffy paint. Finally you can add in any decorations you like. We are using real sprinkles, birthday confetti and small birthday candles. Once dry, the paint hardens and remains puffy! It's quite fun!

Well, we'll be back (with our next Sprout Scouts Playcamp Theme!!!) soon. Until then, a Very Merry Un-birthday to YOU and, as always...

Happy Playing!

Think Outside the Box Thursday: Getting Ready for an Upshernish!

When S was two days old, I cried for 40 minutes because he would someday get married and move away from home. Postpartum hormones are great! With Y, I cried for 40 minutes when he was 2 days old because I wanted to go home from the hospital and go to sleep; at least a little more in this decade... But I was right to an extent about how fast time flies. Not always (trust me, plenty of times, especially after 4PM, time goes by verrrrry slowly here). And yet, I can't believe that S will soon be 3! No, he's not getting married and moving away from home...yet. But for Jewish children, the third birthday is a very special one. It marks the "official" beginning of chinuch, Jewish education. For girls, many families celebrate by helping their daughters to light a Shabbos candle each week beginning at age three. For boys, many families have the custom to cut their hair for the first time and they begin to wear a yarmulke and tzitzit.

If you have been around this blog for a while, you know that chinuch has already begun here--but S will nonetheless celebrate his upshernish (also called upsherin, referring to a boys' third birthday and first haircut) at the end of this month, corresponding to the 6th day of the Jewish month of Tammuz. We have talked for some time about this upcoming milestone and celebration. He has seen some of his friends already celebrate their upshernish. I may be more nervous than he is about the whole first haircut part, but as with any big change (or little one), we are preparing for it through play. When he is three, S will begin to wear a yarmulke and tzitzit all of the time. We bought some in advance and he is already very eager and excited to wear them--particularly since they are decorated with some of his favorite things, like trains and Elmo. We talk about him wearing a yarmulke and tzitzit and having a short hair cut just like Tatty (his dad) and just like some of his friends. Many families have a huge party to honor this occasion and invite guests to help with the honor of cutting a boy's hair for the first time. For a variety of reasons, including S's disposition, we have opted to do this in phases and to keep the hair-cutting part a bit closer to home (and maybe a local kids' salon if that doesn't go as well as planned). He will get his hair cut in our home with just the immediate family, while playing a fun Aleph-bet (Hebrew alphabet) Scavenger Hunt game I constructed by printing off and laminating a color image of the aleph bet--and so he should always know the sweetness of learning Torah, his game pieces will be one of his favorite sweets, jellybeans! Many families use honey or chocolate syrup or another candy their son likes. We will be making a trip the following month to visit family in NY, including his great grandmother who has been waiting and waiting with anticipation for this special day. We could not bring her to his upshernish, so we are bringing the upshernish to her! We were not sure he would take so well to having his hair cut the first time by relatives he doesn't get to see so often and since we certainly do not want it to be an unpleasant experience for any of the parties involved, we will give GG the honor of the second hair cut and a family celebration. We plan to invite S's friends for a post-birthday play party later in the summer when we return to celebrate his having turned three and reached this special milestone.

In the meantime, S is very excited about cupcakes. He wants either a bicycle or a lawnmower for his birthday. He is eager to fulfill the mitzvos that come with turning 3; some may be easier than others in reality, and we will continue to encourage and support him through those adjustments. We are playing and reading about haircuts and having an upshernish, and if you're looking for some of our favorite books and activities on the subject, here's a few:

• S loves playdough! We printed and laminated some people playdough mats from this website to use with playdough and playdough scissors. S loves to give them wacky hairdos and subsequently, haircuts. You can also use these with laminated cut outs of a yarmulke and tzitzit as well as clothes/accessories and with velcro practice dressing up as a big boy!
• S also loves scissors. I'm shocked (and grateful) we haven't already had an accidental or unplanned first haircut! He loves this tray of "upshernish mentchies," little people he can give haircuts to that I made by drawing faces on recycled toilet paper tubes and cutting slits for hair. 
  
  
  

  

  He loves cutting their hair and keeping a tray or basket underneath aids with collecting the scraps for easier clean-up afterward. I showed him how to set the scissors and upshernish mentchies to the side and carry the tray to the garbage can to empty before putting everything back in and away on his art shelf.
  
  

  
  

  
  

• We love the books below! There are a variety of books on the topic of having and preparing for an upshernish and secular books on the topic of first haircuts. Here are three of our favorites:

• We do a lot of dramatic play as well. S has seen his Tatty cut his hair and likes to play about it and pretend.

It's sometimes hard to believe I will only fight my way to put all this hair in a ponytail for a short while longer. For soooo long, even when dressed in the most masculine of outfits, S has been mistaken for a little girl when we are in public! (Ironically, for quite some time S only used the pronoun "she" when talking about others!)  On the occasions I happen to correct someone, people are so apologetic. I always jokingly say that soon enough, he will grow into some of those more 'boyish' behaviors and I will miss my little girl. The truth is that I love all of S's personality traits. I love his eagerness to learn and try new things. I love his enthusiasm for life. I love his sensitivity and cautiousness. I love that he likes to pick flowers and find rocks and that he likes to dance and play music everywhere, on everything. I love that he is naturally kind and generous. And I even love that he is stubborn and determined like I am--because I know that those traits, reigned in, will carry him far in life. I mostly love that loves to play. Many a bedtime battle here happens because he wants to play! I cannot help but feel that a little bit of my little baby is disappearing with that ponytail, and I kind of want the snuggly part of that little baby boy to last just a little bit longer...maybe forever... And I am so proud and excited for the milestone that turning three marks in a Jewish child's life. S has always had a love for learning. May this sense of wonder carry him through life wrapped in the love of Torah just as he will be wrapped in a talis and carried through his cheder (Jewish school). Until and beyond then, we will be here, happily playing!