Meal-Time Activities: Kitchen Table Celebration

By: Deborah Pace Rowley

This isn’t exactly an activity to do at meal-time but is my all-time favorite use for my kitchen table. Whenever one of my children has done something wonderful that needs to be celebrated, we have that child stand on the kitchen table. *This is assuming you have a sturdy kitchen table that can support your child’s weight. **Only eliminate standing up if your table is really rickety. Trust me the best part of this activity is standing on the table! While the child is standing on the table, dramatically announce the news of their amazing accomplishment. Our kids have stood on the table for giving Primary talks, passing a spelling test, not crying at the doctor’s office when getting shots, scoring a winning soccer goal, not hitting anyone for a full day…you name it! The rest of the family then circles the table and cheers for the child as loudly and exuberantly as possible. We shout “Three Cheers for __________ (fill in the blank with the child’s name.) Hip Hip Hooray! Hip Hip Hooray! Hip Hip Hooray!” The child’s smile says it all!

Parenting Tips: Planned Spontaneity

By: Deborah Pace Rowley

Have you noticed that kids love it when their parents act spontaneously? It is exhilarating to let go of the routine, forego the rules, and just play together. The problem is…I can’t do it! I must be completely lacking in the spontaneous gene because, even if I could let go of MY PLAN (which I can’t!), I couldn’t think of a spontaneous action if my life depended on it.

So I cheat in this department. I plan ahead for moments that I can make seem spontaneous. I buy a kite and store it in the trunk of my car. Then I watch the weather for a windy day so that I can pick up the kids at school and “spontaneously” announce, “Let’s be crazy and go fly a kite today!” All the kids cheer as I wink and nod knowingly to myself in the rearview mirror. What a fun Mom I am! The amazing thing is that if I had made this announcement at family council, “Let’s go fly a kite on Thursday at 2:30 p.m.” my plan would have resulted in grumbles of disapproval and disinterested stares. Trust me, I have tried this approach. There is something about flinging it on kids spontaneously that makes the idea wildly popular.

If you are the predictable, day-planner type, (you know who you are) give planned spontaneity a try. Next time you are folding a mountain of socks into neat little balls, don’t put them away. Instead, sneak the laundry basket behind the couch. Then when Dad is pulling into the driveway, “spontaneously” gather all the kids behind the sofa for an impromptu sock war as soon as Dad enters the house. You won’t need to give Dad a heads up. He will jump right into the action, grabbing up socks and pelting them back at his giggling and screaming offspring. You will just smile, knowing that you had planned this spontaneous moment of family fun all along!

Elementary + Activities: Bash Down the Wall

by Deborah Pace Rowley

Junior high and high school can be so stressful for kids. Sometimes the pressure causes my teenagers to melt down just like they did when they were toddlers. Teenage tantrums look a little bit different than two-year-old tantrums, but not much! Right now at our house Dad is a student too and is approaching his finals this week. He has also been a little bit grumpy and stressed out (sorry honey, but you have!) so I planned a special stress-busing activity.

First, I gathered all the boxes that I could find of different sizes and shapes. *Couch cushions and pillows would also work for this activity if you can’t find enough boxes. I loaded them all into the family room with some tape, paper and markers. Then I gathered my family and had each person write on pieces of paper all the things that were causing them stress. They could write down specific assignments, tests or teachers, anything they were concerned about. Then they attached each piece of paper to a box. Some boxes got more than one label because we had so many. Then we built a wall with all our boxes. The wall almost spanned the distance of the room and almost reached the ceiling. Then each family member got a chance to bash down the wall. They could ninja-kick, karate-chop, or head-butt down the boxes. The only requirement was that they had to holler at the boxes as they did it. ‘Take that you big, bad assignments! You aren’t so bad after all!” “Is that the best you can do?” “You think this test is hard! I will show you hard!” After each person had a turn to bash down the wall (and some kids had more than one turn!), we talked about how we are bigger than our problems and God is bigger than everything. He can help us tear down any wall. He even tore down the walls of Jericho with the blast of a few trumpets! We don’t need to worry or stress when God is on our side. At the end of the activity, everyone lay peacefully on the floor of the family room for 15 or 20 minutes. The kids (and their Dad) probably should have been working on homework. But I didn’t care. It felt so nice not to feel stressed for a change.

Preschool Activities: Secret Language

By: Deborah Pace Rowley

When one of my daughters was little, she often invented words. One time when she was really mad, she couldn’t find the rights words to express her anger at me. Red-faced, she blurted out, “Blah, blah, blue, blue!” I chuckled inside and decided to overlook the reason for her frustration. Instead I responded, “Why, honey, that is so sweet. I blah, blah, blue, blue you too!” Natalie began to laugh. This silly expression quickly became our term of endearment for each other. It was our secret way to say, “I love you.” The important part was that this expression belonged just to Natalie and to me. She guarded this phrase and wouldn’t let Dad or any of her siblings use our “special words.” Is there something special you could do or say that would show your love for each child individually? Spend a few minutes snuggling with your preschooler and come up with a made-up word or special gesture or hand shake together. 

Parenting Tips: What Puddle Wonderful Means to Me

By Deborah Pace Rowley

I am a working mother. I serve in my church. My husband works full-time and goes to school full-time. Like all moms, I am busy. If I am not careful, I end up too busy. My parenting philosophy can be summed up in these words: Be a great mom, a few minutes at a time. I can’t spend all day homeschooling my children, even though I envy those who do. I can’t spend hours sewing elaborate Halloween costumes, even though I wish I could. I can’t do the coolest “pinable” crafts with my kids because they are too expensive, too time-consuming or both. But I can snuggle with my daughter and read one chapter in the book we are sharing. I can shoot a few hoops with my son. I can sit on the back porch swing with my teenager and enjoy the spring sunshine. This is what “Puddle Wonderful” means to me. Have you read the poem on our side bar by e.e.cummings? My favorite line in the poem is “when the world is mud-luscious.” I love the messy, no-rules freedom this word represents. I love the way the whole poem celebrates simple childhood games and sweet moments of adventure and play that are gone all too soon.

I knew “Puddle Wonderful” was the perfect name for our blog because this was what we wanted to do: to provide inspiration for simple moments of learning and play. The ideas we presented had to fit this criteria. First, they had to be free or inexpensive to do. Second, they could only require just a few minutes of time. And third, and most importantly, they needed to be fun for both parents and kids to participate in.

Have we accomplished our goal? I know that I have loved the ideas that my sister has shared and I have loved trying out ideas on my own kids. This blog has helped me to be a better mother. As hectic as life gets, I try to remember that it only takes a few minutes to say, “I love you.” It only takes a few minutes to stomp in a puddle or play Pooh sticks in a stream. It only takes a few minutes to play an ABC game or sing a counting song, but the memories of these moments last forever. I can always slow down enough to have a Puddle Wonderful Day!

Included in this post are some of my favorite pictures of my kids. This was the backyard of our home in Arizona on a rainy day before we put in grass. The result of Mom seeing that a few moments of fun was infinitely worth a few more moments of mess= Puddle Wonderful! 

Meal-Time Activities: I saw It on Mulberry Street

by Deborah Pace Rowley

Today’s dinnertime activity is inspired by the Dr. Seuss book And To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. In this classic tale, Marco answers his dad’s question, “What did you see on the way home from school?” with an invented tale that gets bigger and better the longer it continues.

At dinnertime tonight participate in some storytelling of your own. Explain that the purpose is to make the craziest, silliest, most imaginative story possible. The goal isn’t to tell the truth. Begin the festivities by asking Dr. Seuss’ question, “What did you see on the way home from school?” If your children aren’t yet in school, you can ask, “What did you see in front of our house today?”

Each person in the family then takes a turn describing the scene. Tell the story round-robin style so that one person picks up where the last person leaves off. All the elements have to tie in together. If Dad saw a lion, Mom can see the lion tamer chasing after the lion, brother might see the lion tamer tripping over an elephant’s trunk, and sister might see the elephant putting down his trunk to pick up the peanuts that had spilled out of her backpack. Continue going around the table until everyone has run out of ideas and/or the story is super-sized enough for Dr. Seuss. For added fun, you can cover the table with butcher paper or a paper table cloth and illustrate your outlandish tale as the story unfolds or as an after-dinner activity.  

Elementary + Activities: Roller-Box TV

by Deborah Pace Rowley

In my Spiritual Learning post last week, I suggested making a roller-box TV. My Mom taught me how to make this simple contraption when I was a little girl and I loved creating my own TV “shows” into my teens. Back then I didn’t have iMovie, but I did have boxes, broom sticks and an imagination. There are so many ways you can use this simple idea to teach your family. It is amazing to see how fascinated high-tech kids become when you unveil this old-fashioned “TV.”   

For your first TV show, decide what story you want to tell. Fairy tales are a great place to start. With your child’s help, decide what happens in the beginning, the middle and the end of the story. Divide the story into parts. Each part will have its own picture. The story should have at least 7 or 8 parts, but can have as many as 15 to 20 if multiple children are working on the story together. Create a story board or make a list so everyone knows what to draw for each page of the story. Here is an example of how we divided up the first half of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Mama Bear made some porridge but it was too hot so the Bear Family decided to take a walk until it had cooled down.  

Goldilocks came to the Bear’s house in the woods while they were gone. She knocked on the door but when the Bears didn’t answer, Goldilocks walked right in.

First she saw the porridge. She sat down and ate Papa Bears’ porridge. It was too hot. Then she ate Mama Bear’s porridge but it was too cold.

Then she ate Baby Bear’s porridge and it was just right so she ate it all gone.

Then she went in the living room and sat on Papa Bear’s chair. It was too hard. Then she sat on Mama Bear’s chair but it was too soft.

Then she sat on Baby Bear’s chair and it was just right. But she broke it all to pieces. Etc.

For added fun, give the fairy tale your own ending. What would happen if Goldilocks fell asleep in Baby Bear’s bed and grew fur while she slept?

When you are finished, use the list or the story board to create illustrations. One person can draw all the pictures or you can cut the list apart and share the illustrating duties with several family members. If several children participate, make sure each person has oriented their drawings in the same way. All the pictures should either be vertical or horizontal on the page. Once all the illustrations are done, follow the instructions below to create your own roller-box TV.

First, you will need to gather a box, some scissors, two rods and some tape. For the box, you can use something as big as an apple box or something smaller such as a large shoe box or family-size cereal box. Just make sure that you can cut an opening on one 

side about 8 x10 inches.

1.     Cut a rectangle in the side of the box. The opening should be slightly smaller than the 8 ½ x 11 pictures to be displayed.

2.  Cut two rods about six inches longer than the width of the box. You might use dowel rods, an old broom handle that has been cut up, wrapping paper tubes or sticks broken off a tree in your yard.

3.  Cut two holes for the rods at the top and bottom of each side of the box.

4.  Insert the rods through the holes.

5.  Tape the ends of the pictures together in the proper sequence so they form a single scroll of paper.

6.  Tape the last picture on the scroll to the rod on the right hand side of the T.V. Roll up all the pictures around this rod and then tape the first picture to the rod on the left hand side of the T.V.

7.   Choose a narrator to tell the story as you scroll through the pictures on the “screen”.

When you want to reuse your TV, simply remove the old scroll of paper and insert a new one. Let the show begin!

Preschool Activites: Alphabet in Eggs

by Deborah Pace Rowley

Before you put away your plastic Easter Eggs for the year, use them for this fun and easy learning activity. Gather up a few tiny toys that can fit inside the Easter Eggs. I found a little car, a Littlest Pet Shop animal, a piece of play food, a key, and a small game piece. Then I wrote the letters that those objects started with on small pieces of paper. You could also use small magnetic Alphabet letters or cards you may have from another game.

Put the toys in some eggs and the letters in other eggs. To make the game easier for 3 and 4 year olds, keep the eggs with letters on one side of the table and the eggs with toys on the other side of the table. To play, have your child open up one egg with a letter and try to find its match by opening up the eggs with toys until you find the right one.  Help your child practice saying the sound the letter makes as you look at each toy to see if they match. For 5 year olds, just mix up the toys and the letters so that the game is more of a challenge. Continue to play until all the eggs have been matched.  If you want to continue the fun, send your child off to find more items to put in the eggs. He/she can then write the beginning letters with your help and you can start the game again.   

Parenting Tips: How to Make Your Kids Smart

by Deborah Pace Rowley

I was excited to read this recent article in the Deseret News on March 27, 2012. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865552992/Make-your-kids-smart-habits-of-highly-effective-parents.html

The headline was Make Your Kids Smart: Habits of Highly Effective Parents. In the article, Mercedes White gives the following 5 suggestions to parents.

First, read to each child individually for 20 minutes a day. Recent studies found that children whose parents read to them regularly at a young age performed as much as a year ahead of their peers academically by age 15. 

Second, talk to your kids. The average conversation length between parents and child closely correlates to the child’s future IQ and reading levels.

Third, devote time to play. Play helps kids learn to interact with others and practice what they learn. Studies have shown that time spent playing make-believe games is especially beneficial for brain development. 

Fourth, find a quality preschool. Studies show that children in a high-quality preschool have better academic outcomes and even earn more money and have higher rates of employment as adults.

Fifth, limit television viewing. Children who watch more than an hour of television a day have difficulty concentrating and are more likely to struggle academically.

I loved these suggestions because they are practical and doable. We don’t need expensive DVD’s. We don’t need the latest high-tech gadget. We don’t need to teach our kids a second language before they turn 5. We just need to read, talk and play as we make learning engaging and fun for our kids. That is what Puddle Wonderful Learning is all about!

The fourth suggestion made me really excited for Tiff’s preschool starting in the Fall. The research says that high-quality preschools have teachers with bachelor’s degrees in education. Check. High-quality preschools incorporate make-believe and planned play. Check. High-quality preschools are engaging and utilize a variety of multi-sensory methods. Check. My sister is an amazing and gifted teacher. Even though she is younger than I am, I constantly come to her for suggestions and ideas about how to improve my own teaching. She taught at the highest rated school in the state of Utah for a reason. I want to be a teacher like she is one day! If you are looking for a quality preschool for your child, I guarantee you could not find a better preschool than Miff Tiff’s. Check out her link today!   

Elementary + Activities: Skip Counting Songs

by Deborah Pace Rowley

It is always challenging for kids to learn their times tables. I have tried to help my own children as well as many students at school. We have tried flash cards, math games and times tests. Over the years I have found that Skip Counting Songs are a very effective way to solidify times tables in young minds. They are catchy and easy to remember. They can be recalled quickly. I still sing Skip Counting Songs with several 5^th grade students whenever I am working with them on their daily math homework.

There are many Skip Counting CD’s on the market. But I really like this version that is available for free on You Tube. Skip Counting Songs - YouTube

They were created by a teacher and his third-grade class. They are cheesy and they don’t have flashy graphics or high production value. But I still like them because they have the times tables set to songs that we already know. Because kids already know The Birthday Song or Row, Row, Row Your Boat, there is less to remember. The focus can be on plugging in the correct numbers instead of trying to learn a new song. And these songs are also easy to recall when needed.

Check out the songs at the link above. For best results, just work on one song at a time. Watch the song several times with your child, then you can sing it together in the car as you travel to and from school or while doing chores or other activities that are part of your daily routine.

For even more learning and fun, make a video of your own. Film your child singing the skip counting songs while doing different activities. Here is our video of Katie singing the skip counting song for the 3 times tables. We had so much fun working on this together.  Now if I could only get “Happy 3, 6, 9, 12”… out of my mind!

Preschool Activities: Painted Sugar Cookies

by Deborah Pace Rowley

I have a confession to make. I am not a fan of dying Easter Eggs. (Does that make me a bad mother?) The real problem is that I don’t like hard-boiled eggs. And eggs that have been died a greenish purple color and have been hidden in the dirt in our backyard are in a category all their own. Sugar cookies on the other hand!! I love this activity any time of year but Easter time is the perfect time to “paint” some egg-shaped sugar cookies.

First, buy some cheap paint brushes. It is best to do this activity with paint brushes that haven’t been used with real paint. Then make or buy some sugar cookie dough. I have included my favorite sugar cookie recipe below if you are looking for a good one. (Thanks Karen!)

Next, roll out the sugar cookie dough and cut it with an egg-shaped cookie cutter. You can just use a knife and create your own oval shapes if you don’t have the correctly shaped cookie cutter. DO NOT COOK THE DOUGH. Set the uncooked cookies on pieces of waxed paper around the table. In the center of the table set out bowls of “paint”. The paint is made with egg whites mixed with a little bit of water. This is to thin the goopy egg whites to a paintable consistency. Then it is dyed with food coloring. I dyed one bowl blue, one green, one orange, one yellow and one red. (The yellow and orange ended up indistinguishable once they were painted on the cookie so I think next time I will try some purple.) Set out some paper towels and some small bowls of water for washing the brushes.

Last, have the kids put on paint shirts or aprons and let the fun begin. IMPORTANT NOTE: Remind your kids not to eat the cookie dough or the egg whites before they are cooked.

Learning about patterns is an important part of readiness for math so I had the big kids paint patterns on their eggs for the little ones to copy. That was such a big hit that soon the little kids wanted to paint patterns for the big kids to copy. After passing our patterns around for a while, we turned the kids loose to create their own artistic creations.

When you have finished painting your cookie eggs, sprinkle the top with sugar. 

Transfer them to an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. With the sprinkling of sugar, the cookies are delicious without any added frosting. You wouldn’t want the frosting to cover up the art! I love how easy it is to put the unfrosted cookies in lunches and to stack and store them for future snacking. Trust me, it is much easier to get rid of all these decorated eggs than it is to find uses for the real hard-boiled ones!

Sugar Cookies

2/3 cup shortening

¾ cup sugar

1 egg

4 Tablespoons milk

½ teaspoon vanilla

2 cups sifted flour

1 ½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

Blend wet ingredients well then add in dry ingredients. Chill the dough for at least one hour in the fridge or dough will be too soft to work with. Roll out the dough on a surface sprinkled with flour and cut into shapes as desired. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 8-10 minutes or until the edges are slightly brown.

Meal Time Activities: Mystery Centerpiece

by Deborah Rowley

For this activity, set a cake stand in the center of the table before dinner. Choose a family member to put a small mystery item on the cake stand and then cover it with a cloth. During dinner you can make guesses about the mystery item before you unveil it to the “oohs” and “aahs” of the dinner crowd. Once the item has been unveiled, let that family member explain why the item was chosen and what it means to them. You may be able to use the item as a launching off point for discussion with older family members. You can also turn dinner into a comedy show by requiring every sentence to include that item (Try doing that with race car or Barbie for example!)

Last night, I placed a small airplane on the cake stand. When the airplane was unveiled, I told my family that I had recently read an article about Amelia Earhart. I have always been impressed with her courage and groundbreaking efforts for women. And I was fascinated to learn that they have discovered what might be the remains of her plane off an island in the Pacific. There is a theory that she might have crashed onto this island and then survived for several weeks with her copilot waiting to be rescued. I asked my family if they thought it would be better to crash and die instantly or to crash and live for several weeks in the hopes of being rescued but eventually die. We had the most interesting discussion about life and death and the value of hope and dreaming big. It was amazing what bringing a small toy airplane to the table inspired in all of us. I think Amelia would be pleased. 

Elementary+ Activities: Line Up!

by Deborah Pace Rowley

After a recent extended family dinner, I gathered all the older cousins in the living room and to play Line Up! My students love to play this game using States and Capitals, Word Wall Words, and anything we have learned in a sequence. All you need to do is announce how the kids need to line up and start a timer. It was fun to watch them work together and scramble to beat their previous time. I even learned some things I didn’t know about my nieces and nephews. Below are the different lines that we created. See how many you can think up on your own.  

Line up alphabetically by first names

Line up alphabetically by middle names

Line up from shortest to tallest

Line up from smallest feet to biggest feet

Line up chronologically by your birth dates

Line up by who has the most money (Not recommended for adults!)

Line up according to who played video games the longest and the shortest amount of time last week

Line up according to who read the most and the least last week

**No, I didn’t actually try this next one.

Line up in order from the most favorite to the least favorite grandchild

That line wouldn’t have worked anyway. There would have been a massive dog pile as all the kids tried to get into the favorite grandchild position!

Meal-Time Activities: Secret Identity

by Deborah Pace Rowley

Cousins laughing and having fun together!

Once a month, we hold an extended family dinner. We have a pretty big family so we usually have adults on one table, teenagers at another table and little kids at a table of their own. For our family dinner in March, I placed secret identity cards in the center of the teenager’s table. I made these cards by writing the name of a book character on a piece of paper and folding the paper in half, sealing it closed with a sticker. Once the teenagers had gotten their food and were all sitting down, I explained the rules. Each of them would choose one secret identity. Then they would have to talk like that character until the rest of the table guessed who they were. Once their identity was discovered they could choose another identity. The winner would be the person who had collected the most secret identities at the end of the meal.

Here is a list of the characters that I used to create my secret identity cards along with the books that they are found in. I tried to choose books that I knew my children and nieces and nephews had read. If I wasn’t sure on a book, I made sure that it had a movie counterpart that the kids would have seen. If you want to play secret identities at your dinner table, use this list as a jumping off point, taking away some characters and adding other characters of your own. 

Percy Jackson- The Lightening Thief

Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom- Harry Potter

Edmund Pevensie- The Chronicles of Narnia Series

Ramona Cleary—Beezus and Ramona

Edward Cullins- The Twilight Series

Katniss Everdeen- The Hunger Games Series

Sticky Washington- The Mysterious Benedict Society

Fern Arable- Charlotte’s Web

Seth Sorenson- Fablehaven

Jonas- The Giver

Charles Wallace- A Wrinkle in Time

Charlie Bucket- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Laura Ingalls- Little House on the Prairie

Ponyboy- The Outsiders

Greg Heffley- Diary of a Wimpy Kid

One secret identity was revealed with just three words. Guts, guts, guts!! Can you guess who that is? Ramona! Everyone started cracking up when my 16-year-old nephew tried to get his cousins at the table to guess Edward Cullen. “Do you notice anything different about my skin today?” I loved how this game really made the kids think about what their characters would say. I also loved the goofy British accents and the discussion about books. As for the kids, they just loved laughing and joking together.  

Parenting Tips: My Favorite Books to Read Aloud and Discuss with my Children

by Deborah Pace Rowley

(Tiffany reading to my children, before she had any of her own)

I love reading to my children. I loved reading their favorite picture books over and over again when they were small. But I almost can’t wait until my children are old enough to listen to a longer story read aloud. Children are usually ready to sit and listen to a chapter in a compelling novel by the time they are about five, long before they are able to read a book that big on their own.  I love to see their excitement to begin each night’s reading. I love to hear them beg for just one more chapter. I love to discuss the powerful ideas presented in the books together. I usually continue our read aloud tradition until my kids are about 11 or 12. That is when they begin sneaking chapters without me. They are off and reading everything they can find on their own. Here are a few of my favorite books to read aloud. I have listed them in order from simplest and shortest to longest and most complex. The first books listed in each category can be read to children from 5 to 8 years old. The books listed last in each category can be read to children from 8 or 9 to 11 years old.  Nothing fosters discussion about these significant topics like a good book. My absolute favorites are listed with a star.

About Love and Family Relationships

            Sarah, Plain and Tall

            The Little House in the Big Woods

*The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane- Get ready with a box of Kleenex as you read this amazing book. Kate DiCamillo is one of my favorite authors. You can’t go wrong with her books.

The Tale of Despereaux-

The Inventions of Hugo Cabaret

            Wonderstruck

*Heidi- It is fun to share an old classic with your children and then watch the movie based on the book together.

            The Secret Garden

            The Little Princess

About Growing Up and Finding Yourself

            The Hundred Dresses

Dealing with Dragons

Love, Ruby Lavender

*The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs-We all laughed at this sweet and surprising story. Then we tried to figure out what our seven wonders are.

Ella Enchanted

Holes

Where the Red Fern Grows

*The Chronicles of Narnia- This is a family tradition. All of our children have been read the seven books in the Narnian Series. We love to discuss the Christian symbolism in the stories together.

            Gregor the Overlander

The Mysterious Benedict Society

About Race Relationships

*Twenty and Ten- I read this to Katie when she was 7. It is a little scary but not too scary and I have been amazed at how often it comes up in conversation and how it has influenced her.                  

Number the Stars

A Pocketful of Seeds

*The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had- I just discovered this powerful story about the friendship between a white boy and a black girl in Alabama in 1920. I plan to read it to my class every year. 

            The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963

*Hitler’s Canary- I love this story based on the true account of how the Danish people resisted Hitler to protect their Jewish neighbors.  It leads to amazing discussions about how we would respond if a certain ethnic group was threatened.

            The Devil’s Arithmetic

Elementary+ Activities: Pass-Along Monsters

by Deborah Rowley

To Play: Fold a piece of paper into thirds horizontally. The first person takes the piece of paper and draws a head of a monster in the top section. Have them extend the neck of the monster over the fold in the paper so that the second person knows where to begin. Fold back the head so it is not visible and pass the piece of paper to the next person. The second person adds a monster body and arms. Extend the body over the fold in the paper so that the final person will know where to connect the legs. Fold back the body so that it isn’t visible and pass the piece of paper to the 3^rd artist. The 3^rd person will add the legs of the monster beginning where the lines extend onto the final third of the paper.  When the legs are finished, open up the paper and reveal your creation. You can start several pieces of paper at once, with each person beginning a head and then passing their piece of paper clockwise around the circle. Everyone will laugh when they see the hideous and hysterical monsters they have created together.

Preschool Activities: New Ways to Play with Play Dough

by Deborah Rowley

This is my favorite homemade play dough recipe. A friend gave it to me when my oldest daughter was 3 years old and I have used it for over 15 years. It will last in a Ziploc bag for almost a month.

2 cups water

3 Tablespoons vegetable oil

7 or 8 drops of food coloring

2 ½ cups flour

½ cup salt

1 Tablespoon Alum

Boil water and add oil and food coloring. Remove from the heat. Stir in the dry ingredients. Mix well and knead until soft. Add more flour if the clay is too sticky.

Once you have made the clay, what do you do with it? My children usually spent only about 5 minutes playing with the fancy Play dough sets that you can buy in the store. They were much happier dragging out all my kitchen utensils and testing them out. My garlic press and pizza cutter were especially fun. Two other activities that were big hits at my house were “Snowman” and “Favorites”.

How to Play SNOWMAN:

To play snowman, you simply sing the “Once There Was a Snowman” song while building a clay snowman. You quickly create and stack three balls, one on top of each other. The best part comes when the snowman in the song melts. This is when my preschoolers would use their fist to smash the clay snowman smaller and smaller and smaller, until he was as flat as a pancake. Then we would start all over again.

Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman,

Once there was a snowman, tall, tall, tall.

In the sun he melted, melted, melted,

In the sun he melted, small, small, small.

How to Play FAVORITES:

To play favorites, ask your child to sculpt his favorite item in a specific category. For example: Make me your favorite food. The child would then use the clay to make a pizza, a cookie, a doughnut, spaghetti noodles or some other favorite food. Other categories include:

Your favorite animal

Your favorite toy

Your favorite cartoon

Your favorite movie

Your favorite book

Your favorite thing outside

Your favorite thing in your room

Your favorite thing at Grandma’s house

When your child is finished, ask him or her to tell you about his clay creation. Nothing is worse than guessing wrong in these situations! It is amazing to see what kids will come up with in the category of a favorite movie or favorite book.  Happy Sculpting!