Invitation to Play about Fairy Gardens

Just as we got busy playing about fairy tales and getting ready for Purim here, S fell in love with the book Fairy Houses by Tracy Kane. Truly, this book combines two of my greatest loves playing and exploring with young children: whimsical fairies and a reverence for nature. I often have a plan for our mornings and afternoons together here and I thought we would be spending these weeks exploring versions of common fairy tales, incorporating STEM activities, dramatic play and story telling. But sometimes, the kids get hooked on a theme and I love the opportunity to run with it. Tailoring our activities to their specific interests and curiosities really honors their role in navigating their learning and play as well as their equally important role in helping to create our family routine. So we embarked on a whimsical world of fairy play here, concocting potions, planting and playing in fairy gardens and building a tiny world of wonder.

There are ample opportunities in the world of parenting to decide how to handle matters of mythology and imagination. Do we embrace or ignore fairy tales, unicorns, dragons and other matters of imagination? Furthermore, if we do engage in play about superheros, fairies, fictional friends and characters, are we perpetuating a false reality for our children? I believe that in most cases, children--even the very young--are aware and understanding of fact versus fiction. I also believe that having room and space to play about and engage with these ideas, that we also encourage important critical thinking and problem solving skills along with nurturing children's inherent creativity. Y is quite young and mostly plays through mimicking what he sees in real life, be it through daily routines and activities or the way that his older brother plays. S is more abstract in his play schemas now, creating rich stories and talking through characters at this point rather than only about them. He does know fairies are "make-believe" and he enjoys playing about them all the same. He knows, too, that his fictional friends Sally and Jerome are "make-believe" and uses them as well to share stories and experiences. These are valuable play experiences.

After we read Fairy  for the bazillionth time one Shabbos, S and Y both really wanted to make their own. There are great ideas in the back of the book for making fairy houses outdoors in all four seasons using only items gathered from nature. We also love to bring bits of nature indoors--especially in this season, as we begin to transition from winter into spring. I decided the boys would each love to plant and have their own fairy garden indoors and when the weather is warm enough, we will be able to transition them outside. We began by planting wheat grass seeds:

We used some leftover wheat grass seeds from last year, potting soil and a couple of large plastic pots from the dollar tree...

Y felt this activity called for a chef's hat...

We watered and waited, watered and waited...

The waiting part is a little hard. Waiting for spring. Waiting for seeds to sprout. S is so excited to "mow the lawn" (cut the grass) once it is tall enough--this was an activity he did last year when we used wheat grass seeds to plant grass hair on some funny face pots. So rather than simply wait, we engaged in some fairy garden play using the lavender bud playdough we made at our Fairy Potions Creation Station the previous week. The boys loved this activity so much, we did it twice! 

I set out our playdough, a collection of artificial flowers, fairy garden accessories (purchased from Dollar Tree), glass stones and marbles and wooden miniature furniture from a craft supply store (also $1 a piece) for them to design, build and play with. Their playdough fairy gardens were so unique, extending beyond the confines of one space to include flower patches, areas for fairy play and so much more!

The second time we did the activity, I added in some cookie cutters and playdough tools. S ended up baking up a batch of tiny cookies for the fairies and Y brought over a tiny ice cream dish from our kitchen set and made them an ice cream party!

We were so busy playing here that I almost didn't notice that our wheat grass had sprouted up! So one morning while I was able to step out for a bit, I picked up some small flower plants from our Trader Joe's floral department super inexpensively and Y helped me plant them in the pots. That afternoon, S and Y were eager to play outside in our play garden, but landscapers were working out front to trim the hedges. We thought we might go to the backyard, but then I realized it was also under some maintenance and construction as our apartment complex readies for spring, so I quickly set out the growing fairy gardens and our baskets of fairy play accessories and sat next to the boys at our dining room table to watch the fun unfold...

Their fairy gardens extended beyond the gardens themselves and across the table! It was so much fun to watch them build, design, deconstruct, re-construct, play and engage in whimsical fun! Soon enough, the landscapers were done out front and we were able to get our coats [back] on and get outside for a bit of outdoor play before the sun set.

 No, these are not your mother's fairy gardens...these are hands-on and all hands in play gardens. As such, we opted for inexpensive plants (but real ones nonetheless) and accessories that are safe and ok for small hands to handle. We will surely love playing outside with these as well once the weather warms. Fairy Houses can be played about indoors or out, year round, with or without a garden. Small toys and loose parts can be brought outdoors year round to play in nature. We are not rigid about adhering to the "rule" of only using items found in nature, but we are careful about only using items not still growing and not leaving anything outdoors that would be harmful. Here are a few other ways to play...

We used a wooden crate as an outdoor "doll house."

Here's a larger fairy garden from last summer...

We even take small toys and accessories on the go to parks and public gardens...
It's a great way to play or bring life to a great story outside.

We'll be back soon and until then....

Happy Playing!

A Peek Inside Our Playroom: Sukkot Inspired Invitation to Build

I know, I know, it's not even Yom Kippur yet and I'm posting about Sukkot--but in my defense, Sukkot is my favorite holiday, and that sukkah isn't going to build itself!  In our house, we have one little boy who loves to help, loves to use tools and loves to build. It's an ideal combination this time of year. He is pretty set on helping his Tatty build our actual sukkah, so he's going to need some practice. And what better way to practice than through play? With a little creativity and things we had already on hand, we revamped our main toy/activity shelf into a Sukkah Building Invitation Station. Combining materials for building, manipulating, planning, drawing/writing, dramatic play and more, you can easily set up a play area to inspire architects of all ages and sizes. And just in case you need to keep the younger and shorter architects busy inside while the older and taller ones are busy out back, this is sure to keep them busy and occupied!




Every young architect needs a little inspiration. I searched the internet for photographs of interesting sukkahs and printed/laminated them and attached them to a metal ring to hang from our shelf. When the feeling strikes, S can pull the ring off the shelf and search through the photos for ideas. You can select photos from your own album of Sukkots past or pick favorites from over the internet. These will surely inspire great stories, dramatic play and certainly some building!

Before you begin to build, it's important to have a plan! I set out a simple blueprint station with blank graph paper and colored pencils. Alternatively you can print off some blank blueprints templates for a more "realistic" approach. Young architects can draw up their plans, dictate/write relevant notes and labels or capture a particularly great structure on paper before clean-up time.

I like blank graph paper for its open ended nature, but if a blank canvas is a bit too overwhelming, your young architect might like to glean inspiration from a template or some basic sukkah building plans printed off from the internet. If you search "sukkah building plans," you will likely come up with a plethora of unique images to work from.

I like this black and white plan that I found here

You can introduce your budding builder to the components that make up a kosher sukkah and incorporate sentence strips with important vocabulary words like "wall," "door," "schach," "beam," etc.

Next, it's time to build! You might want to add in some toy tools and construction vehicles, or perhaps some hard hats and vests for dressing up. You'll also need a selection of building materials. You can use your children's favorite blocks or manipulatives. Building toys can be pricey, but I have often found great wooden blocks, Legos, Duplos and Mega Blocks, Lincoln Logs and other such items at secondhand stores. Some building toys are worth investing in, in my opinion. Our favorites here are Magnetiles and Tinker Toys. Keep your eyes peeled for online sales when it comes to those. You also don't need to use toys at all! Plenty of amazing structures can be made from recycled materials like cardboard boxes, empty tissue boxes, cardboard tubes and so on. Recycled tissue boxes wrapped in a layer of duct tape can make fun and durable blocks for larger structures.

I like including unique natural materials and small loose parts as well. This combination of wooden tree disks and artificial leaves really brings out the feeling of Autumn. Artificial leaves and greenery or garlands can make for some great schach! Perhaps you might collect some fallen branches, sticks/twigs and greenery from outside. A great rock collection can also be used for building a unique sukkah.

Wooden craft sticks and small pieces of wood are great for permanent crafts but also great for temporary buildings and loose parts play. You may use them on their own or combine them with some playdough for an invitation to build a smaller sukkah--just the perfect size to sit outside of a dollhouse or entertain some Fisher Price sized guests.

It can be tempting to stock your play shelves with every building material and accessory known to man (especially if you have a lot in your collection as we do), but I encourage you to resist the urge. Less is definitely more in these set-ups. You may even want to introduce one material or a couple in combination at a time. Right now we have the shelves stocked with Legos, wooden blocks, and the small, loose parts pictured to the left and above. If any of those materials seem to get a bit stale, I will swap out for something else. On the other hand, if they really draw in my little architects in training, I'll leave them as is and maybe introduce new combinations or accessories.

Every sukkah needs some guests. Toy people or animals can make a great accompaniment. If you have dollhouse furniture, you may want to add that in as well, or perhaps you craft up some of your own chairs and a table. I have high hopes of introducing S to some basic (and supervised) woodworking this season, so we may end up with some handcrafted versions. Your little ones may want to add in some toy food for a festive meal, make their own mini lulav and esrog, craft some decorations or make up a miniature bed for those who have the custom to sleep in the sukkah. The opportunities are as infinite as the human imagination and great sukkahs come in as many shapes and sizes as those who take on the mitzvah of building them!

On a slightly larger scale, our play sukkah was a huge hit last year. Created with a combination of this fort building set we found at a discount store, blankets for walls, fall garlands from the dollar store for schach and a few clothespins to hold it all together. As Sukkot gets closer, we will surely be putting up another version for this year, but until then we will need all the space we can get in our living room for some creative sukkah building.  Wishing all who are celebrating an easy time getting that sukkah up and some happy playing in between it all!

Beyond the Book: "Boy + Bot"

We have read so many great robot themed books this week--some of them multiple times--and BOY + BOT by Ame Dyckman, with illustrations by Dan Yaccarino was by and far a favorite of ours. In fact, one branch of our local library even had a craft workshop to build robots using recycled materials along with a reading of this book today! I could not have planned better if I had actually tried! (I hope the librarians weren't searching for all of the other copies of their robot themed books as they prepared for today's event...)
BOY +  BOT tells the story of a boy and a robot who are both fascinated by how the other half lives! Both parties learn a lot and develop a wonderful friendship in this adorable tale. Children's literature about robots truly captures the wonder and creativity that fills a child's mind! As an adult, I'm still fascinated (and dumbfounded) by new technology; for young children, all technology is new! The world is filled with things that are mysterious and incredible. S has recently become interested in how traffic lights work while we drive from place to place. He has learned that many run on timers and many others on sensors. And he still finds wonder in pretending we can "turn the light green" by making up silly "magic words!" Learning about robots through children's fiction is a great way to gain understanding and vocabulary around how robots work while still maintaining that sense of whimsy and wonder. Creating and crafting about it truly takes that to the next level!

I came across the idea for this great invitation to create a robot using playdough and loose parts on the blog, Fantastic Fun and Learning and immediately fell in love! We do a lot of playdough activities here and I wanted to take this to the next level to create something that S could have permanently, so in lieu of playdough I substituted Crayola Model Magic clay mixed with silver glitter. I was so amazed at how much S enjoyed the experience of working with clay. He got really into it! He loved the texture and enjoyed using tools as much as he enjoyed using his hands with it. He moved through several different versions of his robot along with a fabulous story line as he worked. I'm hoping to add a magnet back to our finished robots once they dry so we can display them on the refrigerator.

Our library's craft event was incredible and a perfect compliment to the activities we've been doing at home. We were like kids in a candy store, only more like a recycled materials store! S and I worked together while Y slept in the carrier and created this amazing recycled robot:

When we do art together, I try to give options but not directions. I want for S to use as many of his own ideas as possible.

Our robot story stretchers have taken us deep into our imaginations through art, building, storytelling and, of course, play. To incorporate some math and science into our week, I set up these fun play stations:

There are so many fascinating parts inside robots! Exploring magnetism is a great way to expand on this theme. We recycled our dry pasta sensory bin from last week's story stretcher for this "Magnet Scavenger Hunt" sensory bin. There are a lot of great play and learning activities to introduce magnets to young children. This one is a great introduction.

We printed and used this great free robot shape puzzle along with our set of shape magnets for a magnetic table time activity that also encourages mathematical skills in geometry! The free printable has a second page with shapes that can be cut and used in lieu of magnets and you can use it with a glue stick to create a collage or laminate it and use it with velcro or magnets for a reusable learning material.

That's a wrap for this week's adventure in robotics! We've had a lot of fun playing, creating, and reading together. Next week we will be back as the birthday train leaves the station. That's right, S is about to turn 3 and we're chugging and choo-chooing along to one of his very favorite books, The Little Engine That Could. We will be engaging in some fun story dramas, reviewing shapes and the aleph-beis (Hebrew alphabet letters), preparing for his BIG DAY and, of course, happily playing!

Shavuot Theme Round-up

S is especially proud to see his artwork
displayed as we count down the last
days before Shavuot begins!

It's a big holiday week ahead with Memorial Day tomorrow and Shavuot beginning Tuesday night. We will be enjoying some quality family time together before beginning our summer "Story Stretchers Mommy & Me Camp." But before we power down and fire up the grill, here's a little Shavuot theme round-up with some of our favorite activities.


Before you imagine I somehow have a clone who spends a lot of time playing while I am baking and cooking in the kitchen, you should know that many of my activities in preparation for holidays and Shabbat are ones that help me prepare for holidays and Shabbat!



Like baking challah...

From the time he was old enough to sit in a high chair with a blob of dough, S has loved helping to bake challah. Now he also enjoys climbing his step stool in the kitchen and pouring ingredients into our mixer. He likes to shape his own and, um, hinder help me to shape the rest! He loves to sprinkle on toasted sesame seeds and raw sugar. I used to stress myself out trying to fit in all the cooking/baking while he was asleep so we could play when he was awake. Now I see how special he feels to be a part of the preparations for holidays and special occasions--and with two at home on varied nap schedules, it's a lot less stressful to see cooking and cleaning and setting the table together for Shabbat or a holiday as part of our time together--not something that needs to be done so we can have time together!

Y has continued to LOVE the Tiny Seed Sensory bottle S made for him. The sound of the beans and the colorful flowers always make him smile and coo, and S feels especially proud that he made a toy for his brother.

This invitation to create a flower collage was a real winner. Although it's a repeat activity from a year ago, it occupied S's attention for quite some time and process art is always a great way to encourage independent play (so you can be setting the table or folding Mount Laundry in the background). He put a lot of effort and concentration into arranging parts of the flower to resemble a stem and petals. Another benefit to doing repeat activities and projects is our opportunity as parents and/or teachers to see how children have grown and progressed!

Playdough is always a winner of an activity here. I could offer it every day and it still would not get old! S really liked this year's invitation to create and decorate a playdough Har Sinai. Especially the rocks!

Sweet dairy treats like ice cream are a big part of the holiday of Shavuot. We made our own "ice cream" puffy paint for some colorfully delicious looking artwork!

 To make your own Ice Cream Puffy Paint you will need:

• shaving cream
• white school glue
• food coloring
• sprinkles (optional)
• construction paper for background (color of your choice) and ice cream cone (brown)
• scissors, glue stick, markers for details, plastic cup and craft stick for mixing/spreading, baby wipes for hands

1. Cut/prepare your ice cream cone and glue it to the background paper. I cut and drew the details on the cone first, but S used the glue stick to glue it on to the background paper of his choice.
2. Mix your paint! Combine equal parts shaving cream and school glue--you can't really go wrong here from my experience. S loved mixing it with the craft stick and adding food coloring in his choice of color (he picked a light blue). Note that even mixed into paint recipes, sometimes certain shades of food coloring or liquid watercolor can stain hands.
3. Paint and play! If your little artist is sensory averse to sticky textures (like mine is) he/she may prefer to use the mixing stick to apply the paint. S loved drizzling the paint over the paper and spreading it. He loves a lot of messy play, but dislikes sticky textures. I provide wipes or a wet washcloth alongside messy play activities in case children wish to wipe or wash their hands intermittently. Allowing for children to wipe/wash during a project (instead of the ol' wait till you're all done method we're all used to) often is the difference between a child trying and even enjoying a sensory experience versus avoiding them altogether.
4. Sprinkles! So you may want to have some separate sprinkles for nibbling if you have a sprinkle lover like I do! And this is definitely an optional material. You could also use glitter or sequins if you prefer not to use food for art/sensory play (are sprinkles technically food??). S loved using the spice bottle to sprinkle on these colorful little balls of sugar. As noted in the photo above, he also enjoyed a small bit in his hand to eat afterward.
5. Allow time to dry. Particularly in hotter/humid weather, this paint does take time to dry completely. It will be smooth and hard to the touch (an awesome sensory experience in and of itself) once it's dry and can be hung to admire.

 Hearing and learning about the aseret hadibrot (Ten Commandments) is a big part of Shavuot for children. There are so many great craft projects that can be done about this and creative ways to teach about it. If you have not already, check out this great free printable Shavuot activity pack from A Jewish Homeschool Blog. I've used this fellow mommy and blogger's free printable activity packs in a variety of ways. They can be printed and used as is or laminated/slipped into a plastic sheet protector for repeated use with dry erase markers. I've cut and laminated picture and vocabulary cards, puzzles and games for holidays. This time, I used her wonderfully designed page on the aseret hadibrot to incorporate into a craft I designed using a simple black and white image of a Torah I printed off. I presented S with a mini scroll I made by cutting/combining the Ten Commandments from the free printable pack. I affixed each side of the scroll with a paperclip and taped the center. S loved unrolling both sides as we read the aseret hadibrot together. I particularly liked the language that was used in this printable to teach the Ten Commandments to young children. I asked S if he could think of something he has ten of and gave a few clues before he found his 10 fingers! Since we all have a hand in receiving and keeping the Torah, S got to stick both of his hands into washable ink and decorate his Torah. You could encourage your little ones to create distinct hand-prints or allow for creative license. I did a bit of both! After he was done, S and I taped his little aseret hadibrot scroll to the center and hung his finished work. This craft is fun because of its interactive nature. Hung at child level, your little one can return to it to unroll the Ten Commandments and "read" the Torah. You can even remove the paperclips for easier access.

Well, that's a round-up of our Shavuot Theme for this year. Memorial Day weekend also means the opening of pools and sprinkler parks around here and in many other locations. If you're headed outside for some water-play fun, I encourage you to check out these old posts for some ideas for water-play with babies, toddlers and older children! Have a great long weekend, a fabulous week ahead and, as always...

Happy Playing

Community Helpers Theme: The Baker, The Chef, and The Mashgiach

Our final exploration of Community Helpers took us to the kitchen, the playroom, and beyond as we learned about occupations involving food! My son is currently very into playdough activities, so this invitation to make cupcakes (left) was a definite favorite. I included playdough, some baking tools, some small parts (foam beads and pompoms) for decorating and "birthday candles" (straws). Baking is a favorite activity of my son's (although he's not always a fan of eating what we bake together). One of his favorite toys to play with is this wooden Melissa & Doug cookie set (below). We got ours off Amazon when there was a flash sale.



We used that along with some plastic coins props to go along with this cute action rhyme:

Five Little Cookies
There were five little cookies in the bakery shop
Freshly baked with frosting on top
Along came [insert child's name] with a nickel to pay
He/she took one cookie and went on his way!
Now there are four....
(...and continue on down to one)

This baking-themed science experiment that we did earlier in our unit helped show how yeast works. You can read all about it (and other community helpers themed science activities) here.

Part of learning about occupations related to food and its preparation also included talking about a very important Jewish community helper: the mashgiach. A mashgiach oversees the food preparation in factories, restaurants and other public venues to ensure that it is prepared according to the laws of kashrut. We help our son learn about keeping kosher naturally as we are eating and cooking together. He learns about how we eat only kosher foods and that we eat meat and dairy on separate dishes and at separate times. He learns to check eggs when we are baking together to make sure there are no blood spots that may render them unkosher and to wash produce carefully in order to eliminate any bugs. Grocery shopping is also an adventure in learning about kashrut as we look together for kosher symbols on packages of processed food items.

He plays frequently about cooking and shopping in his kitchen dramatic play area, so we brought out a fun Shopping for Shabbos game since we happened to get to this theme on a Friday. I prepared a shopping list ahead of time and set out the play materials we would be shopping for in our pretend storefront. He got to carry the list and a pencil for checking off items as he got them. He was very busy filling up a recycled brown paper bag and his toy shopping cart! You can make an activity like this more advanced by including a number of each item you wish to buy to encourage some practice with counting. You can also delve deeper by including prices and pretend currency and even a calculator or toy register if you have one. Take it on the road for a practical field trip and provide your little helper with his/her own list of items to find and add to the cart at the real grocery store!

Sensory bins are always a favorite activity in our house. We brought back our bin of dried beans and pasta from our construction workers day and this time added some toy kitchen tools, pots and pans and empty recycled spice containers. He loved scooping, pouring, filling and shaking. Then he was ready to eat some actual lunch and take a good, long nap before joining me in the kitchen to help prepare our actual Shabbat dinner.



Well, that's a wrap to our Community Helper's unit and we've had a LOT of fun. This theme is one that will continue to follow us in dialogue and in action as we go about our normal family routines. The dramatic play aspect of it was a great segue into the sub-themes of Purim, a topic we are playing and learning about heavily as the holiday draws near. Join us next time for a peek at what we're doing to get ready and until then...

Happy Playing!

Community Helpers Theme: Construction Workers and Vehicles

One of the best days of our year so far was
when we came home to find this in our apartment
complex parking lot!

 My son loves all things related to construction. Trucks, diggers, dirt, hard hats, shovels, tools, rocks--it's his best version of a playground. I can remember early last summer driving a ridiculously long distance to get to a far out branch of our library that is known for having an amazing children's play area. Just as we pulled into the lot, we passed a huge construction site full of dirt, piles of rocks and huge excavators. When we got inside the library and into that amazing children's area, my son started throwing a colossal fit; he wanted to go back to the parking lot to see the "big diggers!"
Well, we definitely needed to include construction workers and vehicles into our Community Helpers theme! As it is already a play theme he loves, we have a lot of related toys, books and activities here. To add some novelty to the topic today, we included some new books checked out from the library and some play activities to go along with them.

Our Construction Worker Puppet is ready
for a great day at Homeschool!

My son loves the board book series by Steve Light. Diggers Go has become a new favorite! He was equally excited to find our construction worker puppet and a copy of I Drive a Backhoe by Sarah Bridges and illustrated by Amy Bailey Muelenhardt in his school bag this morning.

If your little ones like construction vehicles, this is the book for you!

 It was a rather rainy day outside, so rather than digging around in the dirt and rocks outdoors, we found ways to play about construction workers inside!

All set up for some construction themed dramatic play plus an invitation to play with playdough and toy tools!

Tools and playdough were a match made in heaven!

He especially has enjoyed our construction site small world sensory bin. I used dried beans and pasta we've had on hand (spoiler alert, they will be reappearing in our Baker/Chef Day theme!) and added some toy construction workers, vehicles, scoops and dishes to fill and even some mini-eraser tools I found at our Dollar Tree. He added the big excavator!

He also had a lot of fun working on and in this cardboard Car Shop I found at the Dollar Tree. It came with stickers he enjoyed using to decorate and I added in some little toy people, he aforementioned mini-eraser tools and some cars! He LOVED it--a dollar well spent!

Car Shop

We've got a couple of Community Helpers left to learn about that will have us busy in the kitchen and at play--plus a day of exploring how we are helpers in our own home and family. Until then...

Happy Playing!