What are some of the must-haves for a pretend clothes stash?  Here are a few of my preschoolers favorite imagination stimulating items.  What are your kids favorite pretend play items?  I’d love to add to our collection!
.
Capes
These are so easy to create and make terrific gifts!  Basically, take a rectangle of fabric, finish off its edges, then gather the top and sew a band around the top.  Viola!  You have a cape!  I’ve even made them with no-sew stripping.  The kids have used these capes as well, capes, but also …

One of the things I love about blogging is meeting people who become the friends I have never met.  Debbie is a mom/grandma who blogs about her life and experiences with her preschooler.  I love how she incorporates learning into play!  Debbie collected a bunch of doll houses, barns, and cars and trucks to create a mini-doll city.  I love how she morphed this dollhouse “game” into a discussion of government and city planning!  I only wish we had as many houses as Selena does so we could replicate this …

With the weather warming up outside my kids and I both enjoy being outside!  That said, there are times when I have to encourage them to stay outside.  Remember our Boredom Buster Dice?  We made a new one full of activities they can do outside.  Whenever they complain, “Mom, but I don’t want to ride my scooter – I wanna come inside.”  We roll the dice and see what fun activity we get to do together. Here are just a few of the activities the kids and I thought of …

As my younger children napped, one of my preschoolers and I grabbed a bunch of little items and played a game of “What is missing?”  using our used Easter Egg casings from the weekend’s festivities.
.

.

.
.
.
.
.
.
How to create your own “What is Missing?” Game:
We used Easter egg tops, but I bet you could use old cups or even sippy cup lids.  Basically, you want something to cover up each item.
.
A mix of ten or so small trinkets or items.  We had a figurine, a horse shaped eraser, some candy, a button, …

Does your preschooler love foamy bubbles?  Last year my kids and I went to the town square where the kids were amazed to have discovered a prank (here’s a picture of the Quirky kids with Bubbles).  Some kids (I’m assuming) dumped soap suds into the fountain and there were bubbles everywhere!  Since then we have always wanted to re-create our own foamy bubbles.  Thanks to Brooke  from The Parents and Kids for inspiring me with a bubble recipe.  We adapted it slightly with glycerin to create, well, not quite …

Combine play sand with cornstarch and you get lots of sand fun!  What is great about this mixture is that unlike regular sand, it cakes together when slightly damp.  Almost becoming hard, but smashes back into sand.  All of my kids enjoyed playing with there new “outdoor only” tub!  I will warn you though, they were covered in sand when they were done!  The “clumping qualities” exist on clothing too – haha.  This was messier than regular sand, it didn’t just brush off until it was bone dry (aka when …

Do you remember Cootie Catchers from when you were a kid?  I loved them!  Here is a cootie catcher perfect for the learning to read kiddo in your life!  For our paper we used one of the sheets of Shaving Cream Painted works from yesterday.  I was inspired by Jimmie and her daughter Sprite (love their blog).  They created cootie catchers for learning history and math facts at Heart of the Matter Homeschoolers.   If they can make one for the Civil War, I bet I can make one about “Short …

I loved discovering Mindi’s site, B.A. Bookworm, we are bookworm wanna-bes over here and I love some of the ideas she has for ways to encourage reading in our kids!  She is an advocate for getting kids up and moving, rather than sitting in front of a TV (or computer – we love starfall and online educational game over here!)  All you need for these activities is a brown paper bag and some creativity!

I love our fun activity box, well, actually we have two of them, one for when we travel with the kids and one for when I need to occupy them say at Church or another event where they have to sit quietly for a few hours.  Depending on how you use the box and how creative you get, the entertainment can last for hours!  To make the box last longer, only pull one activity out at a time.  If you don’t need to worry about stretching the fun out, try …

As we are working on learning our letters we have been having fun learning how to write them. Here are several ways that you can help your preschooler or kindergartener have fun while learning to write letters and words. You can also use these same techniques to practice tracing and working on any fine motor skills.
…
…
First we have sticky sticks. These are great for tracing letters you can also use them for “dot-to-dot” activities. I drew the letters out first for my daughter, but for a …