Invitation to Build: Create a Dam

As Big Brother is getting older it's really interesting to see both his interests and skills develop into more specific skill sets. Lately he's been really interested in the building of things (mostly stemming from a love of Legos, Magnatiles, and our wooden railroad track.) As he leans that way I'm finding myself looking for other creative ways to develop those interests and skills.

A few weeks ago he had the chance to observe a beaver dam up close with my husband on one of their nature walks. This lead to some great questions. A few days later I followed up with a drive to a local man made dam which he was able to inspect from a distance.

When we came home I set up this building investigation in the yard. It was inspired by a great tinfoil river activity we did last year from the amazing book 101 Kids Activities That Are the Bestest, Funnest Ever by the team over at Kids Activities Blog. 

(Pretend Play) Homemade Menu

The kiddos love playing restaurant in their pretend kitchen when their cousins come over, which led to the inspiration of this homemade menu for pretend play.

When the two cousins are here it's not unusual to find all four kiddos pretending to run and own a restaurant. So one day when I knew Big Cousin was coming, I set up the materials for she and Big Brother to create their own pretend play menu.

20+ Ways to Play and Explore MUD!

We've been excited about the warmer temps lately because it means spring is on the way. And as the snow melts and the ground thaws, the MUD arrives. Now on one hand mud can drive a mama crazy; living on a dirt road means it tracks its way into the house no matter what we do. But on the other hand, it's only here for a short while, although long enough in New England to be considered the fifth season, so why not embrace it?

Here are 20+ ways to play and explore with mud, including creating your own mud sensory play even when there isn't any mud.

Fast and Easy Fire Truck Play

The other week we had a friend over to play. With three little boys in the house, the play quickly turned to our extensive collection of vehicles. All three boys especially became focused on using our well loved fire trucks. (We have two fire trucks which were one of our favorite yard sale finds last year, two for $2!)

They kept trying to find things "to put out" which led to this fast and easy fire truck play set up. 

Road Crew Sensory Snow Bin

Although the first snow storm last week didn't bring us as much as we expected, the second storm this week combined with with a few smaller storms has definitely started to make the snow add up. And although some grown ups may feel differently (this time I was actually excited to get some snow, but who knows how I'll feel in a few weeks) most kiddos usually get pretty excited about the snow coming down.

The other thing that my boys get excited about is watching the plow trucks.

We live on a small, dead end road but our town road crew, or highway department as they're called in larger areas, plows a large chunk of our roadway. For our boys, that's part of the highlight of a snow storm: they get to watch the plow trucks at work.

This lead me to be inspired to create our newest sensory play activity: Road Crew Sensory Snow Bin.

Across the east coast cities and towns have people busy at work plowing, loading, and removing snow. What kiddo wouldn't enjoy recreating the same experience?

Cardboard Igloo and Ice Fishing Play

We love cardboard box play and take any opportunity we can get to grab a big box for really fun activities. So when we offered a freezer box around the holidays, of course we couldn't turn it down. With a little paint and imagination, we turned our box into an igloo!

Big Brother has been really enjoying some weekend ice fishing with Daddy, and liked the idea of extending it into play at home. This inspired us to turn our box into an igloo and add some fishing fun too. 

Gourd Pirates!!

This week we've been exploring some fall fun with miniature gourds. On the day we were picking up some at the farm stand Big Brother became inspired with his own project idea: GOURD PIRATES. He eagerly picked out his own gourds and actively began making a plan for when we got home. 

Big Brother listed out all the items that he needed and together we gathered the supplies he wanted: craft foam, permanent markers, sequins, scissors, tooth picks, googly eyes, and the hot glue gun. I was still having a hard time imagining his vision, but as he eagerly got to work he clearly had a plan. 

Cucumber Boat Investigation

I hadn't actually planned on creating this as a post, but set this out one day during our Pirate Week as an extra activity. The kids had so much fun with it, and it sparked such great inventive thinking, that I couldn't resist putting it together as a post.

It's cucumber and zucchini season here in New England, and as often can happen, the crops are producing quite a lot of veggies! For the last two weeks we've been able to take as many of both veggies as we want from our CSA, and we've been using quite a lot of them in the kitchen. But we did have some extra around and it seemed like it would be great for building cucumber pirate ships.

Homemade Dinosaur Bones

We've definitely been feeling a little frazzled here between the hot and humid weather, a sick toddler, and several days cooped up in the house. Luckily, kicking off our dinosaur week is proving to be a great distraction.

Dinosaur books are something I've been collecting for a while now, so we officially kicked off the week by reading several different dinosaur books. Later this week we'll be creating a dinosaur bone excavation, and while I had planned on creating the bones, I realized it would be much more fun to get Big Brother involved.

Homemade Dinosaur Bones

These homemade dinosaur bones were easy to make and are proving to have more than one way to use them.

A Boy, Some Stickers, and A Box

The other day I was all set to explore a new project; using our window snowflakes, colored construction paper, and white crayons to create snowflake rubbings.

Except, Big Brother was not at all interested in the materials I laid out, even after I experimented myself.

He was too busy working on his box.

Last Saturday, as my husband was gathering the recycling Big Brother claimed a medium sized packaging box which had arrived over the holidays. On his own he began turning his box into a "rocket ship." He raided his art bin, collecting a box of markers and a bag of stickers.

He then proceeded to work, and work, and play, and work on his box. The design, the art work, the concept was all his own. He was completely engaged for large chunks of time. At the time of these photos he had invested over three hours of time into the box between creating and play over a three day period. And he was still going!

Moments like these serve as a good reminder to me that sometimes the best projects aren't planned. And often the best projects are led by a child's interest. Giving Big Brother the room to chose whatever materials interested him, and to create in whatever way he wanted, meant he was incredibly engaged with his project. It has also mattered to him that the box has been allowed to hang around the house much of the week, moving from room to room, with more and more additions. Its continued presence gives the project a sense of value to its creator. 

And it will continue to hang around, until Big Brother loses interest and is ready to move on. Until then, we can expect to see this boy in his box several more times.

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