Duck River

"Embrace their childhood."

What does that mean?

Does it mean let them run wild with no boundaries?  

No.  

Does it mean take them to the beach to play while you read?  

Well, we all need some down time, but no.  

It probably means different things to different people and on different levels.  

For us here at Play at Home Mom, LLC it means following their lead, saying "yes", and rediscovering our own childhood with our children.  It means doing the best we can to take advantage of every playful opportunity - every day.  It means never having to look back and say "I wish I had played more with my children".

So today, when the thunderstorm cleared, we did just that.

All you need for this activity is a drainage ditch, a good heavy rain, and some rubber ducks.  

Okay, so there may be other ways to improvise and recreate this activity, but our hopes are that after a hard rain we all think outside the box a little and take advantage of mother natures gifts. 

RL brought out some rubber ducks to send down the "river".
FUN!!

Catching the rubber ducks and enjoying splashing in the water.

I caught two rubber ducks!

Running down the "river" was just as fun as sending the ducks down.

Woo-hoo!!

Crawling through the tunnel after the ducks.

So the next time life feels like a thunderstorm...
think outside the box...
find your inner child...
and play!

- AK & RL

"Painting" with water

I think summer play season is here!  We are always looking for fun ways to play with water as the temperatures here get HOT and HUMID!  A few years we back we did this water play post....

http://www.playathomemomllc.com/2011/08/squirt-squeeze-spray-pump-pour-press.html

We expanded off that a bit and instead of just squeezing, pouring, etc into the sensory bin I thought I would give them a "canvas".... AKA our driveway.  

Some of the items we used.  

Watering Ducks (Target Dollar Spot)

Paint Brushes

Bucket

Condiment Bottles

Spray Bottles

Our refill station.

This is much easier than using the hose and having the water running constantly.  

My oldest (4.5 years) twirling around with a wet paintbrush.

"Look at the design I am making!"

My middle girl (3 years) making a circle with her paintbrush.  

 Condiment Bottles

The girls asked if they could add some color to the water.  

We grabbed some color tablets from the bathroom.

My oldest discovered that you can mix colors by placing them on top of each other and spraying them with water.  So cool!!!  I love watching them experiment.  

Above is a small blue color tablet on top of a big yellow tablet.

"Look!!!!  I'm making green!!!"  

We placed some tablets in front of our refill station.  

The picture doesn't do this justice!  We had a "rainbow river"!  

It was also fun to "clean" with the brushes.  

Watering the flowers.  

RL 

Melon Boats

An Awesome Book

My oldest was "reading" this book this AM.  There is a page (see below) that has Magic Watermelon Boats.  

"Mommy, can we make these?"

Since I had everything on hand we would need this was an easy YES moment. 

"YES- We can make watermelon boats!"

Magic Watermelon Boats

This activity was all set up and thought out by my oldest.  

"We need watermelon.  Do we have a watermelon?  We could use sticks and paper to make the flags.  Then we can fill up a baby pool and see if they float!!  Oh wait, we don't have a baby pool.  Do we?  That's OK, we can just put them in the bathtub.  That will work.  That will tell us if they sink or float."  

My oldest (4.5) making her "flag".

"I need to tape them together... like that one there in the book."

My oldest was making the boat with the blue sail.

My 3 year old decorating her sail.

It's finished!

Using a melon baller to clean out the inside.

For a fun edible sensory bin using melon balls click on the post below...

http://www.playathomemomllc.com/2013/03/melon-balls-edible-sensory-bin.html

Sticking the sail in.

Yes, you may suck out all the juice with your straw.

"Look, look!!!  They float!!!  It worked, they float!!"

We only had half a watermelon so my 3 year old compromised and used a cantaloupe.  :-) 

The girls added playmobil people and got in the bath with their "boats".  

Melon season is here, and we are looking forward to recreating these often!  It was such a fun project from start to finish.  

RL  

Pipes and Gutters

Both RL and I have a set of these WATERWAY PIPES.  RL told me she wanted to let the girls play with pipes in the bath.  So she purchased some suction cups (they have them at the Dollar Tree) and adhered them to her waterway pipes.....

Suction cups glued on to pipe

Let dry

Colorful and FUN!!

The girls LOVED it!!

Pretty awesome, huh??

Its all fun and games until the glue is an epic FAIL!!

Well, that stinks!!  Take note:  hot glue, super glue, epoxy glue.....NONE of those work.  RL told me about the mishap and we brainstormed together.  I was initially under the impression that she used PVC pipes for this and my first thought was - my little man would LOVE that.  So, I started searching for ways to attach suction cups to PVC pipes - gotta love google!  I stumbled upon this post on THE BROODING HEN.  Ah-ha!!  So, we followed her advice.....

I used PVC pipes and a piece of rain gutter - huge hit!

We also love using these BATH TABLETS for an added element of color.

The great thing about these pipes if that we can use them on the PAHM EASEL or on outdoor windows/doors.

- AK & RL

Alphabet Blocks.....of Ice.

Alphabet ice blocks

 Our first play with these perfect cube ice molds ------>  is HERE.  Today, we revisited them in a whole new way - alphabet blocks.  So fun!  We used LETTER JEWELS and simply froze them in the molds.

Check out more alphabet ice play -----> HERE.

  Its an obvious opportunity to learn about hot/cold, melting, properties of water, etc.....but you can also.......

...talk about and build sight words - for older children.

...create the alphabet....or play "insert the missing letter"

...incorporate heavy machinery

"Its carrying the K block"

...smash them......there are NO letter in the ones he smashed

...build CVC words - for older children

Just explore, play, and have fun!!

Some other options...

• put same colored letters together
• stack cubes
• slide them down a rain gutter - "there goes the G block"
• separate into consonants and vowels
• spell name
• match letters to objects with corresponding beginning sounds
• etc................

- AK (MESE, MECD)

Funnel Rack

I hadn't planned on blogging about this, but I've had a few requests to.  So....here it is......

When I asked my husband to explain to me how he made this so I could share it with all of you, he said - "I eyeballed it, cut it, and screwed it all together".  So, I hope that helps if you are interested in making one. ;)  I also have no pictures of the process because he made it while my son and I were at the playground.  I guess this post just kinda stinks as far as being a DIY Funnel Rack post.  (Sorry)

I can tell  you that he used scrap wood from Home Depot, cut it/built it to fit inside our sensory table, and used a Hole Saw to drill the holes in the top.  The funnels fit snugly into the clear tubing (all purchased at Home Depot) and simply rest on top of the rack.

Funnel rack (yes, I need one more funnel/tubing)

Great for water play!

Dropping water beads into the tubing.  The water beads didn't fit through the funnels, so we just used taped to secure the tubing.

- AK (MESE, MECD)