I had posted earlier about free summer bowling for kids and here is another great program that runs through the sumer. There are several movie theaters that run free and extremely cheap movies for kids once a week.

Regal Theaters offers free movies for 9 weeks on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.

AMC Theaters, which s Loews in my area, offers children’s movies at $1 each. They run their movies on Wednesday mornings at 10AM.

These are just two of the theater groups that are running special programs, there are several others throughout the country that have a similar deal. Check with your local theater to see if they are participating.

There is a great program going on across the country called “Kids Bowl Free.” You can register your children for free through this website, http://www.kidsbowlfree.com , and your kids can bowl 2 free games every day during the summer! I was excited to see that a bowling center in my area is participating.

The participation dates and qualifying ages vary from center to center. The one in my area is valid for children 15 and younger and goes trough the entire summer.

Also, if there are older children in the family that do not qualify or if you want to play also you can purchase a 2 games a day family package. For $23.95, four adult family members can also play 2 games a day all summer.

I think we will be doing a lot of bowling this summer. 

Helping your preschooler become familiar with mathematical ideas does not require that you take extra time out of your day just to teach math. Incorporating math into your every day activities is not only easier for parents, but it makes it more meaningful for the preschooler.

When can you add math to your day?

1.  While baking. Let you child count scoops or ingredients.
2.  After getting the mail. Let you child count pieces of mail.
3.  Go for a walk. Spot numbers in the neighborhood and discuss whey they are used for.
4.  Craft time. Sort and count different craft items.
5. In the car. Sing songs that involve numbers. Count the number of blue houses you pass.

Here are some more ideas on how to add some math to your neighborhood walk.
http://educationaltoyfactory.com/walk_and_count.htm

This is the perfect time of the year to make some bubbles with your kids and do a little experimenting and observing. Playing with bubbles is an acitivity that children usually love, so why not take this time to teach a little too!

Here is a great bubble soap recipe. You and your child can experiment with the different ingredients to find out what solution produces the best results for you.

Once you have the perfect bubble soap mixture experiment with different wands. I had a yard full of kids one afternoon and together we made a bunch of different wands. The kids had a blast and they also made observations about which wands they thought were best. It was interesting to listen to them discuss what they though they could do to make the different bubble wands work better. Their favorite were definitely the paper bubble wands.

Try it for youself. The combination of kids and bubbles always equals fun and it could create learing too!

This is the perfect time of the year to talk to your kids about frogs. Yesterday, I to a walk to out neighborhood lake with my kids and we saw a ton of tadpoles. There were kids catching them to take home and watch their development. Spring is so much fun because there are so many changes to observe and they happen fairly quickly.

If you would like some ideas on what to share with your children, here are some great frog activities and lessons. There is a fun activity that teach kids why a frog’s hands are webbed, a metamorphosis craft and I fun activity that help teach about how some frogs eat.

It’s Spring!  Get out and have fun.

March is National Women’s History month. Many woman made significant contributions to our world in science, literature, math, politics and much more. One writer that I have loved sharing with my children is Laura Ingalls Wilder. Her writing style is very engaging and easily holds the attention of children. She lead a very adventurous life that your children will enjoy learning about.

The life of Laura Ingalls Wilder is so different than the life out children know. What my own children found unbelievable is that what their own grandparents were children Laura Ingalls Wilder was alive. Knowing that really helped my kids understand how much and how quickly the world has changed.

Here are some activities based on the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Today is Dr. Seus’s birthday and you can celebrate this day with a little Seus science. Go ahead and read Bartholomew and the Oobleck and then go ahead and make your own Oobleck!

What is Oobleck? Another name for oobleck is goop. Goop is neither a solid nor a liquid. It is actually called a Newtonian Solid. It contains properties of both a solid and a liquid. Make some yourself today and experience this amazing substance made from household items. Enjoy our two different goop recipes.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seus!

February is Dental Health Month for children. This is the perfect time to teach children about the importance of taking care of their teeth and how they can do that.

There are many books that you can share with your children that can make the learning and teaching process more fun. A great book to start with is How Many Teeth?. This book will answer a lot of questions that your children may have.

I have share more ideas on the main web site for Dental Health Month, including some ideas of what to eat to help create stronger teeth.
Dental Health Month Activities

In play, children expand their understanding of themselves and others, their understanding of the physical world, and their ability to communicate with others. In play, we learn the bases for a great foundation in all areas of life. Play teaches the basics that every person needs to know for the real world, things such as:

-You don’t always win

-Good Sportsmanship

-Take turns

-Colors

-Reading

-Strategy

-Math awareness

-Cooperation

-Memorization

-Creativity

-Self Confidence

-and many more!

Some of these basics are hard to just teach a child. How do you teach a child to have self confidence? Or teach that they won’t always win? Playing games such as board and card games can help with these essential basics. It can help show them that learning can be fun (and they won’t even realize that they are learning.)

Incorporating play into everyday of life will not only help the child, but the family unit. Did you know that the ‘average’ family family spends less than 30 minutes a week in face-to-face personal interaction away from the TV or computer. And on average the American parent spends less than 15 minutes a day in actual with their teen?

Take the Challenge: Just 30 minutes 3X a week can do wonders for your family. Play a game with your children (including your teenagers) it will give you the opportunity to get to know your child better and keep you ’in’ on their lives.

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. - Plato

Verlina’s Favorite Quote on Play:

We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.  -George Shaw

Some great game ideas, From Simply Fun!

For the toddler: Crazy Mixed Up Zoo

For the Elementary age: Penguin Rescue

For the Middle-Schooler: Walk the Dogs

For the Teenager: Take Your Pick (three different decks available)

For the whole family:  Kayak Chaos

Happy Playing!

-Game Lady Verlina

My kids love to be outside in the winter. They have spend countless hours playing in the snow, making snow forts out of snow piles, sledding and even ice skating in the driveway. (It has been an icy winter.) The only chanllenge that we face with keeping active during the winter months is figuring out what to do when the weather is too cold to head outside.

Here are some ideas for what to do on those very cold days.

1.  Family reading.  Cuddle on the couch and read a book to your child. Make it a special book, one that may be a little longer or more complex than what they are used to reading and hearing.

2.  Break out a craft that has not been done before or has not been used in a while.  My kids and I had fun with Shrinky Dinks recently. I forgot how much fun those are.

3.  Have your children put on a puppet show or skit.

4.  Building with Legos or classic wooden blocks is always a hit around here.

5.  Do a science experiment. We can make goop over and over again and experiment with quantities of ingredients to see how the outcome changes.

6.  Turn the music up and dance that energy out.

What do you do on those days that playing outside is not an option?