CreativePlay Plus: Ideas in Play and Child Development

The social and cognitive benefits of recess and free play are too important to be ignored. During recess children learn valuable social skills like learning to negotiate with peers in order to keep playing with them.

“I want to play on the monkey bars too.  How about we take turns?”

“You got to choose 4-square yesterday, today let’s play tag, okay?”

“Come play with us! We need more people to play kickball! It will be fun!”

Recess also gives children opportunities to become comfortable with deciding how they want to spend their free time and who they want to spend their time with.

The argument that physical education is a good substitute for recess is not adequately supported. The instructional nature and highly structured time found in physical education classes does not allow children the same sort of free time to explore, be creative, or control how they spend their time with peers, on their terms. Physical education also does not give them the time to practice sophisticated ways to compromise and resolve conflicts.

Dr. Anthony Pelligrini has studied important questions like, does what children do on the playground predict school achievement? In fact, Dr. Pelligrini found that the behavioral measures he developed to observe children at recess actually predicted first grade achievement better than kindergarten test scores.  Meaning, playground behaviors should be considered an important part of child development that could determine academic success of children early on in child education.

How do you feel about the amount of free-play time your children gets at school? Do you agree that play could potentially promote academic success?

Playday is an annual event in the UK that celebrates children’s right to play. On Playday thousands of children and communities will take part in locally organized events across the UK.  While this is a great opportunity for children to get out and play, the Playday campaign raises awareness about serious issues affecting children’s play. For instance, creative play is essential for physical and emotional growth, mental, intellectual and educational development, and for acquiring social and behavioral skills.

Learn more about Playday in the UK.

The holidays are here, and if you’re a parent or caregiver to children, it’s a great time to start thinking about winter break activities that will keep kids busy and having fun.  As an added bonus, if the activities result in a little learning, well then, all the better!

Some of the best winter break activities are fairly traditional, like making snowmen in colder climates when weather permits.  But how about taking that outdoor fun to a new level by creating different kinds of snow creatures, from snowdogs to snowmonsters?  Don’t forget to utilize your creative play prop box during this activity – you’ll be amazed at what kids will find to “dress up” their creations!

Another great winter break activity for a frosty day is baking or cooking (with an adult’s supervision, of course!).  Have a book of child-friendly recipes on hand and let them choose what they want to make (make sure it’s age-appropriate – even kids’ cookbooks generally span a range of ages).  Then take them to the grocery store with a list of needed ingredients.  For older children, this is a great time to start shaping skills such as selecting produce or even budgeting.  Let them pick out what’s on the list, and only guide them when they get off track.  Once you get everything home, make a production out of it!  Tie on aprons, make chefs hats out of napkins, and get cooking!

For a simpler take on baking, buy refrigerated sugar cookie dough, and let kids of all ages have a chance to shape, bake, and decorate the final product.  Don’t feel limited to traditional holiday themes –a little cookie dough and a lot of creative energy will produce hours of incredible, edible art in all shapes and sizes.

Finally, the holidays are a time when many children receive gifts from various friends and relatives, and the perfect winter break activity to thank others for their generosity is making homemade thank you cards.  This is an excellent way to let kids get creative, while making a lasting and much-appreciated memento for the gift giver.  Gather up whatever art supplies you have on hand, a list of recipients and you’re ready to go!  This is the ideal opportunity to have a little messy, crafty fun, while learning the art of expressing gratitude to those around us at a very special time of year.

Mother of Tears: The Third Mother dvdrip Lie to Me movie download The holiday season is wonderful time of year that for some can mean a lot of stress and restless children. Often, families have to travel to see one other, normal routines that children follow may be thrown out the window, and it is sometimes the case that children are coming together with relatives or other children who they don’t know well.

When children become “bored” or feel out of their element, a lot of parents find that their kids tend to get into trouble or become clingy and demanding. So how do you keep children happy during holiday gatherings so you can also socialize and catch up with relatives? One way is to try to come up with activities that children can get involved in regardless of age or ability.

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• Have supplies available for a craft project and have children make decorative napkin holders, place cards, or center pieces for the table.  Check out enchanted learning to get some wonderful, easy craft projects for children preschool-elementary school aged.

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• Children can also draw pictures of what they are thankful for and have older children write down their stories with the picture. During dinner or dessert have everyone share what they are thankful for this Thanksgiving!

What are some of the ways you encourage the children at your holiday gatherings to get along and do something together?

With winter beginning to bear down on us, and the holiday season just around the corner, there have been some interesting blog posts lately involving creative play and activities. In particular, the highly entertaining blog No Time for Flash Cards features great activities and craft projects for young children to promote play and learning.  Along with most activities, there is often a suggested book that offers another way of talking about the activity with your child!

With so many families finding they need to fly during the holidays playing air travel can be a wonderful way to role play expectations for traveling and prepare children for this experience.   ”Air travel” requires little as far as supplies – just a couple of chairs, some construction paper and markers.  It can really be as simple or as complex as you want to make it!

Another fun activity is Weatherman.  This one requires a little more preparation and a few more materials, but is likely to be a huge hit in your home.  Out of foam board (or really any material that can stand up to a young child playing with it often) create some simple props, such as clouds, a sun, snow, etc. and attach  them to magnets. Grabbing the nearest magnetic surface (anything from a cookie sheet to a good-sized area on your refrigerator will do), you’ll be well on your way to teaching kids about the weather!  And what better time of year for engaging indoor activities like this than when winter storms (and potentially snow days!) could start popping up at any moment?

The final batches of leaves are falling from trees everywhere, creating spectacular piles (and messes!) for adults to clean up.  However, as time consuming as it can be to get lawns ready for winter, there are also some fun uses for all of those fall leaves during this time of year.  One of those is to teach color recognition to children.

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Color recognition is an important part of early childhood knowledge, in that learning to identify colors early on helps create a mental link between visual clues (in this case, the leaves) and words (or actual color names).

Incorporating the teaching of color recognition can be as simple as taking a fall walk Cheri dvdrip .  There is little young children enjoy more than stomping down a tree-lined path in a pair of boots, listening to the leaves crunch.  So why not use this time to engage them in a little learning at the same time?  With leaves truly running the gamut of the color spectrum this time of year there are plenty of easy opportunities to enhance children’s color recognition skills right in your own backyard

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Another fun way to teach color recognition with fall leaves is by having children pick up their favorite leaf specimens, either from your yard or from a nature walk (or even the local playground!), and then assisting them in their preservation and identification by doing a wax paper leaf pressing The Iron Giant Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey move .  This definitely needs an adult’s supervision, but is a very simple way to engage children in a fun color recognition exercise that will not only increase their knowledge, but also provide a great memory for both of you well into the future.

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Here are some other games for your children utilizing nature.

With kids back in school, it’s easy for families to fall into the familiar grind of a daily routine.  Trying to remember to take time for creative play can be difficult, which means it often falls by the wayside, as other seemingly more “important” things rise to the top, such as extracurricular activities or homework.  However, putting aside time to be sure your kids engage in creative play is every bit as important as what they need to do for school.  Creative play develops problem-solving and leadership skills as well as behavioral control, among other valuable abilities.

Transmorphers move When everyone’s schedule seems packed, remembering that creative play shouldn’t be work can also be difficult. Simply making sure your kids’ schedules allow for some time to play is really all you need to do as a parent.  But just in case you’re finding yourself at a loss as to how to get your kids away from video games and the television, here are three great ways to get them playing in no time!

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1.    Dress Up:  Some things never change, and the fact that kids love to play dress up is no exception.  Rather than giving away all of your old clothes, start a dress-up box Starsky & Hutch movies

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!  You’ll be amazed at what your kids come up with when they don old dresses or suits.

2.    Prop Box:  Creative play shouldn’t be ruled by specific props, such as store-bought things (i.e. a pirate’s sword, or a princess crown).  However, this doesn’t mean props can’t be made or imagined!  Whenever you think of throwing something out, think of how your child might see it.  An old blanket can easily become a cape; an old scarf, a bandage.

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3.    Art supplies:  Having kids get creative doesn’t have to be expensive. Simple paper and crayons can get your children actively participating in creative play in minutes.  Add glitter, glue, safety scissors, construction paper – the possibilities are as endless as your child’s imagination.

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How do you spur creative play in your children?

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Grocery shopping often begins as an exciting adventure and ends in tears, for both parent and child. Taking the nightmare out of the check-out aisle can often be accomplished by planning ahead.

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If your child understands the expectations for the grocery trip and has special tasks to preoccupy themselves, they may be better able to deal with a “long-drawn out” grocery store trip. Moreover, they can learn a great deal about planning, practice their language skills, and develop routines for activities they commonly experience. In addition, exposure to these ideas can help children develop a rich and complex narrative for future play activities like “grocery store” at home.

Spending a long time in the car with kids? Make it fun:

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Despite the high price of gas, many American families will be taking roadtrips this summer.

Some parents dread this extended “car time” and use electronic entertainment to ward off children’s boredom.

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Yet, many experts caution that nonstop use of electronic media reduces valuable time that can be better used to foster relationships and stimulate learning, particularly in the first six years.

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In her book, “Everyday Creative Play,” Lisa R. Church suggests a few ways to engage kids on car trips that help them learn, teach them life skills and engage them with other family members.

Her list includes:

• Tell a story: Someone starts out with the first line of a story and each person adds a line. This can be silly or scary (or not) and can last as long as the trip or as short as to the next rest stop.
• Count cars: This game has many varieties. Look for and count cars by make, color or any other category you decide. You can also count dogs, cows, churches, nests on power poles, etc.
• Measurement games: Which is bigger, an elephant or a hippo? Whose house is farthest away, Grammy’s or Uncle Paul’s? Talk about all the things we use measurement for and why.
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What sort of games do play in the car with your kids (or grandkids)?

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Loaded Weapon 1 movie Pretend play is a way for your child to experience and talk about a variety of feelings in a safe and fun environment. Through pretend play, your child can practice expressing how they’re feeling. It also allows them to think about and try to express how others are feeling. For example, when playing a game where the child is the “hero” they may express joy in saving the day, while the child playing the “bad guy” may express anger or defeat.

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Play offers a way for children to learn adaptive skills, including understanding social cues from playmates (what does happy, sad, or scared look like), negotiating what is “fair” (taking turns as the good guy/bad guy), and expressing their feelings to peers and caregivers in a thoughtful way. Play also allows children to label their feelings and pretend what others may be feeling while playing. Not only does play give children an opportunity to explore and practice expressing different emotions, in my work, I have found that children’s ability to express emotions is linked to their creativity.

There are many ways to encourage a child to express emotions in their play. Here are some suggestions to use with your child. Let us know what you think!

• Narrate and comment on your child’s play and label emotions that are appropriate. For example, “He looks really happy now that he’s won the race!”
• If your child is younger, they may benefit from you demonstrating what some emotions look like while playing. For example, using a higher pitch voice and perhaps jumping up and down to show “happy.”
  
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• Give your child a prompt, such as suggesting you make up a caring story about a boy/girl that takes a doggy for a walk or a sad story about a boy/girl that lost their favorite toy.

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