I’ve been busy today preparing for Thanksgiving tomorrow. Last minute shopping, cleaning, cooking – the normal craziness that descends on a household on the final day before a family gathers to eat massive amounts of food and remember all the things they have to be grateful for. As I take a moment to sit down on the couch and sip a cup of tea, I’m watching my teacup human play with his planks, magnetiles, and PlusPlus in an epic game of I don’t know what, I am getting a head start on that grateful thing. I am incredibly grateful to be a mom and even more grateful that I get to be a mom to this fantastic kiddo. I’m grateful that I get to watch him be the undeniably creative individual he is. I love getting to watch him beam with pride at being responsible for bringing his own dish to the family Thanksgiving gathering and muse about how it will “dazzle the family’s tastebuds”.

This is a blog about the power of play, but it is also a testament to slowing down and enjoying the days God has gifted us with these amazing kiddos we get to raise. This thing called motherhood is far from easy and not every day is a cake walk, but it is indeed a blessing. I, for one, am incredibly grateful to get to be in the throws of motherhood at this point and want to make sure I take the time to soak it up before it is gone.

Happy Thanksgiving, y’all!

Yesterday I posted about some super messy ways to have some outdoor fun – today, I have a less messy outdoor activity that is just as fun!

Simply provide a clothesline hung to their height, a bucket of water, clothes pins, and some rags or baby clothes. They will have a ball soaking them, wringing them out, and hanging them on the line. Then they will keep it going by taking them down and starting all over again!

This activity is super fun and in that aspect alone, it is valuable. Full stop. There are other reasons it has value as well though. We all want our kiddos to develop the muscles necessary to write, right? Well, this activity definitely works the hand muscles and is a wonderful pre-writing exercise! Opening a clothespin is hard work, and while it may look like they are simply playing, the truth is, when young preschoolers are playing, they are building the very important precursors to handwriting.

The skills needed for managing a pencil, copying letter forms, and managing pencil control when copying lists and paragraphs into a space on a page are initiated in the early childhood years. Often, when you see an older kiddo struggling with their handwriting they are likely missing some underlying skills that build the very foundation of writing.

Pre-writing skills include sensory motor, fine motor, and visual-motor. This activity works all of these motor areas in several ways. Sensory motor pre-writing skills used in this play include motor planning, core control, and bilateral hand and arm use. There are many fine motor pre-writing skills exercised here such as pinch precision/tip to tip grasp, finger opposition, finger isolation, hand strength/endurance, grasp strength, and thumb dexterity. The visual motor pre-writing skills being developed here include spatial relations and eye hand coordination.

There is also a sensory component to this type of play invitation (and if you don’t know why that matters you can find out on the Sensory Play episode of the podcast!) Your kiddo is having fun and enjoying themselves, but this contributes to their development in ways you may not know off hand, but are so powerful.

Play truly is a superpower, y’all. Until next time, exercise the superpower you have and play!

As the weather warms up many of us get the itch to get outside. If you are looking for a fun activity to do with your kiddos this spring, look no further than a clear shower curtain hung between two trees, some paint, and a willingness to let them get messy! Remember, skin washes, ink fades, memories are permanent.

The beauty of this activity is that it allows your child to be creative on a large canvas and works bot their fine and gross motor skills. It is key to remember that this activity is all about process over product – so let them have at it! Are they mixing the colors in the cups and on the shower curtain? No worries, they are experimenting with cause and effect, color mixing, and problem solving. Allowing kiddos to be messy and a little chaotic when they are younger will let them be more comfortable with the mess and chaos that inevitably happens in life as we live it.

So, hop on over to the dollar store to drop $1.25 on an awesome canvas for some fabulous outdoor creativity. Until next time, exercise the superpower you have and play!

Welcome to day 4 of our pumpkin week! Today’s activity is STEM inspired and a lot of fun!

Have you considered inviting your children to participate in a little indoor pumpkin launching? Give your child access to pencils, rubber bands, plastic spoons or little cups, and glue (a glue gun works best but definitely requires adult supervision). Let them look at some cool catapults in some books and then design their very own and launch some pumpkins! Well, since you are indoors orange craft pompoms are probably your best bet!

Encourage your child to experiment with different designs to see what works best and launches those “pumpkins” farthest. Are there different shapes that make a stronger or more stable catapult? (Hint: triangles are the strongest architectural shape!)

Are you looking to win the super cool parent of the year award? Supersize those catapults and take them outside for some serious pumpkin chucking! So, exercise the superpower you have and play!

Welcome back for day 3 of Pumpkin Play Week! We have already talked about some super powered play opportunities for your kiddo this week. Today we are goi g to talk about an opportunity that allows your kiddo to stretch their artistic wings.

Without further ado, the activity for today is the pumpkin art class with Nana from chalkpastel.com (afflink). The videos are truly wonderful and my son loves painting with Nana. There are so many awesome fall options available (like the pumpkin art above) in the You Are An Artist program and they are fun, quick, simple, and minimal prep work for you beforehand!

Nana is encouraging and this program is such a positive experience for kiddos who want to learn the art of chalk pastel, or just want to be artsy in general. I love that while she is guiding them through the project she continually encourages them to make it their own. As you know, I am all about process over product and I feel like this is a wonderful combination! I definitely recommend checking this out.

Day 2 of Pumpkin Play week is upon us! Yesterday we talked about Pumpkin Mad Science, so what crazy thing am I suggesting today?

Well, the next activity we love is a pumpkin or gourd sensory bin. Take a Rubbermaid tub and pour in dried corn, kinetic sand, green rice, black beans – anything you want for your base medium. Then add in small pumpkins, gourds, scoops, a magnifying glass, and anything else you think might be fun.

Another fun base in your sensory bin is water! Add the little gourds and pumpkins and let your kiddos play sink or float. You can extend this activity by having your kiddo make a hypothesis (I think the pumpkin will sink/float.) and then see if their hypothesis was correct. Talk about why they think the pumpkin sank/floated and if they think all pumpkins will do the same thing!

These are all fun and engaging activities to let your kiddos tinker with while you read them some fun, fall books! Need a good list to get you started? Check out The Read Aloud Revival October picture book list!

As always, exercise the superpower you have and play.

I read an interesting article last week about a trend being seen in Singapore (and in the world at large). The more formalized education children are receiving, the higher the levels of myopia in that particular society. According to the article by the BBC:

“Genetics play only a small part. While a family history of myopia raises the risk of a child developing it, a purely genetic case of myopia is rare, says Neema Ghorbani-Mojarrad, a lecturer at the University of Bradford in the UK and a registered optometrist.

Instead, lifestyle factors are thought to be more significant, in particular, a lack of time outdoors, and focusing on close objects for an extended period through an activity like reading. These factors help explain why one otherwise thoroughly positive trend in children’s lives has unintentionally worsened the spread of myopia: education.

Of course, education in itself – in the sense of discovering the world, and empowering oneself through knowledge and skills – does not cause poor eye health. In fact, education is associated with many positive, measureable health effects. But the way children obtain an education in the modern world, with the emphasis on long hours spent in classrooms, appears to be consistently hurting their eye health.”

Education is obviously not something to avoid and reading has ample benefits for children, as long as these things are not done at the expense of long range vision activities. Play, especially in the outdoors, is a wonderful way to afford your child with the opportunity to work long range vision and stem the vision regression being seen around the world.

I encourage you to read the article and draw your own conclusions, then go outside and exercise the superpower you have and play!

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220927-can-you-prevent-short-sightedness-in-kids

I spent the day today talking with new mommas about the superpower of play and the impact it has on child development and the human experience.

Have you been missing the podcast? Look for Season 2 to drop in November!

As parents we always worry about whether we are doing enough for our kiddos or if we are failing them completely. Just me? No, you too? Oh good, I’m not alone!

We worry about how many extracurricular activities we are offering them. We manipulate our schedule to fit school, sports, robotics clubs, math tutoring, organized play dates…the list truly seems to be never ending. We also spend time wondering if our children are doing enough. How are they spending their down time? Are they reading enough books at their reading level? Are they prepping for the next big test or the next team tryouts?

It’s time to stop worrying about if our children are doing enough and to start making sure they are thinking enough. I know, I know, easier said than done. How do you even make sure your kiddo is thinking enough? Well, that’s simple. Give them ample opportunity for boredom. What?!? Let them be bored??

Yes! Boredom is the precursor to creativity. If you never give your child (or yourself) the opportunity to quite their mind without the constant input from electronics, school work, and activities they will never have the time to truly think. In the quiet moments of boredom is when a budding artist will pick up a paintbrush, a future author will pen their first short story, and a fledgling photographer will frame their first photo. A child who is allowed to live with their boredom for a little while will be afforded the opportunity to become comfortable with their own thoughts and develop an ability to flesh out their own ideas.

So, the next time your child is building with their LEGO or PlusPlus, climbing a tree, playing in the mud, tossing a ball up in the air repeatedly, or sitting quietly staring into space; don’t interrupt. Watch them, study them, enjoy them; but don’t worry about them. I assure you there is learning in loafing, even if we don’t know how to quantify it or test it.