Play

Happy Friday, y’all!  If you’ve never stopped by my Playground Parkbench before, welcome – I’m Meghan, also known as the PGPB Guru.  I write about all the things my fellow parents and I kick around on the sidelines at the playground: at-home activities for kids, parenting tips, financial savvy and…

The girls had so much fun a few weeks back with our patriotic colored-ice sensory play, this week we decided to do it again.  Only this time, we traded in the red, yellow and blue stars for neon-colored ocean animals!  Ocean-Themed Sensory Play Sensory play with ice is rapidly becoming…

Most of our ‘projects’, as Big M likes to call them, are targeted toward the preschool aged child, and I modify them so that Lil’ M, at almost 2, can participate as well.  This week, however, I set up a fun, July 4th Sensory Play activity just for Lil’ M……

How many of you love Instagram as much as I do?  I will admit to being late to the Instagram game… until I started Playground Parkbench last Fall, I never used it.  And now I am hooked.  Scroll through beautiful images, no ads, easily scan and search by fun hashtags,…

Happy Friday, y’all!  It’s time for another edition of We Love Weekends – a chance for all our favorite family-friendly bloggers to share their great ideas with you for inspiration to help you and your family love the weekend too.  This week, we are our featured favorites from last week’s…

Every parent has had one of these days… from the moment your child wakes up, they are crying about something.  Or maybe you didn’t get enough sleep last night, and you are the one with the short fuse.  Regardless of who the grump is, the day starts off all wrong,…

Nothing provides more entertainment at our house during warm weather than bubbles.  And after three summers of blowing bubbles until I was breathless, Big M has hit an awesome milestone: she can now blow her OWN bubbles!  However, this leads to Lil’ M wanting to as well, and mostly she…

Happy Friday!  And welcome to another We Love Weekends link-up, featuring content from family-friendly bloggers around the web to inspire you and your family to love the weekend too!  Be sure to check out our favorite picks from last week, a Summer School Ideas for Preschoolers round-up. Last Weekend Summer…

It’s the same thing every late afternoon… I start to get dinner ready, the kids are cranky and hungry, and insist on being right under my feet in the kitchen.  I try to let them help as often as I can, but sometimes, there just isn’t time for that, or…

 I received a complimentary Encourage Play box to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are 100% my own. As you may have guessed from our post on the Importance of Play yesterday, I am passionate about play for my girls, both free play, as well as organized projects.  I also…

When your mom is a kindergarten teacher, you hear a lot about the massive changes sweeping public education, impacting even the youngest of students.  You start to pay a lot more attention to these changes when your own children near the age of entering kindergarten.  And while research has documented…

Last week we had beautiful, perfect pre-summer weather: blue clear skies, sun for days, and that temperature that is warm enough for water play, but not so hot you are melting.  I promised the girls a pool day in the backyard, and of course, that morning, Lil’ M woke up…

We eat out with our kids a lot.  They have been going to restaurants since they were infants, and I can recall maybe twice since Big M was born nearly 4 years ago, where they were so badly behaved we took turns racing through our food while the other shepherded…

Last week, I got rear-ended enroute to preschool drop-off at a red light.  It’s been a fun-filled two weeks since of replacing car seats, getting the damage appraised and now repaired.  But what do they say – when life gives you lemons, make lemonade?  The car seat replacement left us…

Big M and I have been reading Charlotte’s Web at bedtime these last few weeks.  Due largely to the story, Big M has become increasingly interested in word formation, and we have made several projects this week featuring Charlotte’s web words.  Today, taking a little inspiration from Parenting Chaos’ Dinosaur…

As I mentioned earlier this week, I started reading Big M The Wonderful Wizard of Oz before bed.  We read a chapter every night, and each night, she is more excited than the last to hear where the story will lead us next.  Earlier this week, our weary travelers finally…

A year after its release, and both my M&Ms are still as Frozen-obsessed as ever.  Big M has dolls named Elsa and Anna (that are not actually Frozen dolls), she orders Siri to “Play Frozen soundtrack” when we drive to preschool every day, and she has to wear her hair…

…and 6 of them are FREE! There is great debate over the use of ‘screens’ with children under the age of 2.  Beyond 2 years old, the debate shifts to how much screen time is too much screen time.  If you don’t believe in screen time before 2, then this…

Music brings rhythm, levity and entertainment into any home.  And music education should be a critical component in your children’s curriculum.  To help you understand both why and how to bring music into your children’s daily life, I’ve invited my brother-in-law, a multi-decade music educator, as well as musician in his…