Do you know the story of the Brooklyn Bridge? Twenty One Elephants and Still Standing tells the tale of the construction of this famous landmark, and serves as the inspiration for this week’s Architecture and Engineering activity with a fun engineering science for kids challenge. Can You Build A Bridge for Twenty-One…
Book-Inspired
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Last month, the girls and I read Look at that Building! and went on an Architectural Scavenger Hunt to connect the vocabulary in the book with the world around us. The story ends with the kids in the book designing and building their own dog house, a great architecture for kids project… and…
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Anyone else have Ladybug Girl fans at home? I have two – and I love encouraging it because she makes a great pint-sized heroine for little girls to love. Ladybug Girl is adventurous, creative, imaginative and independent, all things I want to inspire in my daughters. And after my mom…
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Architecture and EngineeringBook-InspiredFor KidsSTEAM
Three Little Pigs Architectural Challenge
by MeghanConfession. Children’s books can be a bit tiresome, especially when your preschooler wants to read the same one for the 100th time. Therefore, I really appreciate clever ones, like The Three Little Pigs: An Architectural Tale which put an intelligent twist on classic children’s literature. It portrays the architectural greats – Frank Lloyd Wright,…
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Book-InspiredCraftsFor KidsFor ParentsPlayPractical ParentingSkills
The Best of 2015 – Parenting & Kids Activities
by MeghanHere on the Playground Parkbench, I share everything I would talk about with my fellow parents sitting on the parkbench as our kids play on the playground. That mostly fits into the broad categories of Parenting and Kids Activities. As my kids have gotten older, where we talk may vary – the…
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Art History for KidsBook-InspiredCraftsFor Kids
SPLAT! Toddler Process Art Inspired by Pollock
by MeghanThis project took some bravery on my part. You may have noticed most of our activity posts feature Big M, with Lil’ M along for the ride. Big M (age 4) is my rule stickler, takes direction well, and since birth, has possessed an incredible attention span. Lil’ M (age…
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It was not that long ago that artistic techniques were as prescribed as scientific processes or mathematical equations. Critics and instructors frowned upon artists who looked to create outside the confinements of traditional methods. Kandinsky was one such artist, and fortunately for all of us, ignored his critics. He wanted art to…
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Georges Seurat is famous for creating his own painting technique. Using hundreds of tiny spots of color, he created great masterpieces, with a technique now known as pointillism. While applying spots of paint to create an image may be a bit advanced for preschoolers, painting a picture with spots provides great…
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Book-InspiredFor KidsFor ParentsPlaySkills
The Pout-Pout Fish: Helping Emotional Children with Big Feelings
by MeghanWhile Big M may look just like me, emotionally we are night and day. Though she is little, not unlike other kids her age, she can be very emotional, highly sensitive, and it sometimes takes very little to set off big feelings. We recently discovered the book, The Pout-Pout Fish,…
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Art History for KidsBook-InspiredCraftsFor Kids
Degas Dancers: Preschool Art Study of Models & Pastels
by MeghanBig M is my little bunhead. She began taking ballet at age 2 and has been tutu obsessed ever since! I knew she would be beyond fascinated by the next artist in our Preschool Art series, as we studied the Degas Dancers. Unlike many Impressionists who painted landscapes outdoors, Degas…
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The girls and I are having so much fun with this Preschool Art series. I love the inspiration it is providing me in coming up with fun new activities, and I love all the support, feedback and excitement I am hearing from you all in response! This week, we continued…
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Art History for KidsBook-InspiredCraftsFor Kids
Painting with Scissors – Exploring Matisse Cutouts
by MeghanToday, we continue our Exploring Art History with Preschoolers series, sharing the first preschool reproduction using one of the masters’ techniques: Matisse Cutouts! Painting with Scissors – Exploring Matisse Cutouts This represents a number of firsts for us: the first Kids Activity in our Exploring Art History with Preschoolers series…
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Art History for KidsBook-InspiredCraftsFor Kids
Art History for Preschoolers – 40+ Books to Study Great Artists
by MeghanBig M is very artistically inclined. She has great imagination and loves to create. And, as I’ve discovered, she loves learning about real world topics, beyond just the usual preschool nursery rhymes, ABCs and dinosaurs (though we do plenty of that as well!). We recently decided to undertake an exploration…
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There are few books from my childhood that I vividly remember… Miss Rumphius, the story of the Lupine Lady, is one of them. Whether it is the beautiful illustrations or the inspiring message the story delivers, the award winning children’s classic is definitely one book from my childhood that has…
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Book-InspiredCraftsFor KidsFor ParentsOutdoor
Make the World More Beautiful Series & Giveaway
by MeghanHow many of you remember the award-winning, children’s classic Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney? In this now famous story of the Lupine Lady, a young Alice promises her grandfather that she will do three things in life: go to faraway places, live beside the sea in her old age, and…
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Happy Friday, y’all… and welcome to another edition of We Love Weekends! Sadly, this is also my last installment – but not to worry, the rest of my co-hosts will continue to carry on this great weekly link-up for all your family fun. I have loved getting to know many…
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With two teachers for grandmas, the girls are frequent recipients of books. The grandmas often think alike too, and this Spring, both gave Big M mermaid-themed books. MerMer, our Texas grandma, gave her Fancy Nancy and the Mermaid Ballet when she came to visit for Spring Break. Today, we are…
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Earlier this week, I shared my book reviews for two books from Hands-On-Prints, Around the World from a to z and Nuts for Coconuts. Be sure to check out the book review for a chance to win a free book for yourself! Big M has become quite taken with both,…
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I participated in an Influencer Activation on behalf of Influence Central for Hands-on-Prints books. I received books to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are 100% my own. Books are probably the most prevalent, and most loved, toy in our house. Big M’s library started before she was even born,…
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I recently received an amazing set of books from Hands-On-Prints. Stay tuned for my full review next week, but one of the books immediately became Big M’s favorite. Around the World from A to Z, by Christinia Cheung and Han Tran, is a beautifully illustrated alphabet book. Inspired by Montessori…