If you are here, I am dying to get suggestions from you!
Please write (either as a comment, or feel free to email me at mom@outside-the-toybox.com) with your suggestions for:
1) Ways to stimulate PLAY! Do you have a tried and true game or gimmick or idea that gets kids being inventive and helps them to make their own fun? Please share it! It can be something that takes 30 minutes or something that takes a whole summer or it might just be an idea for a project that you’ve never had a chance to initiate. Maybe it isn’t an activity - maybe it’s a place. Where do you take your kids to get them to play? Share your ideas!
2) GREAT books that promote great nonstereotyped images for girls and boys, avoid consumerist values, and charge their creative spirits. What book do you love? See the list I’ve started (above under “Good News”) for some ideas for what might be approprite. I especially need books for older girls and books for all ages that depict boys in nonstereotyped ways.
3) Entertainment media that are worthwhile. What programs/films etc. do you feel GOOD about showing to your children! I especially need ideas for older kids in the 9-13 range.
You have much to contribute — don’t be shy!
wwwmama
August 24, 2007 | 9:23 pm1
All I can think of are ideas that I feel like everyone must know about, but I’ll share them anyway. Ages 1-3 will love painting with water (just give ‘em sponges or brushes, a bucket of water, and a sidewalk)
Ages 3-4 enjoy story time. You start them off with a standard beginning and ask them a question to help them take their turn. (”And then what happened to the blue train, Johnny?”) Add lots of oohs and aahs and questions to keep momentum flowing. It really only takes a couple of times for them to pick up how it works and get into it. Even if they’re repeating formulaic pieces from stories you’ve told them, they’re learning about how narratives work and about how to perform.
Toddlers generally enjoy anything that you set up and sell to them with enthusiasm. “OK, who’s ready to dance? First, let’s clean up the floor, and then we’ll turn the music on. YAY!”
More later…
subarctic mama
September 14, 2007 | 1:29 am2
I’m damn glad I found you through your comment on my blog. I’ve been clicking through some posts and wishing you were my neighbor. Want to move to Alaska?
Our solution to the rampant child manipulating consumerism has been to ban all television. It’s never been on here, so they don’t know what they’re missing. So books–it’s hard. We read a lot of real (not the Disney crapified Winnie the Pooh).
We do a lot of art. We have “parades” constantly in the living room. We play a lot of music (dad’s in a band) and dance.
Cooking is a big hobby. I set the girls up in tall enough chairs across the counter and they mix and knead whatever I’m making. They like to play with spilled flour on the counter. Glitter play dough was the favorite today. We make it so we can mix our own colors.
Gardening in the summer and snowshoeing in the winter are good too. I try to make them involved in whatever I’m doing (so I can try to get something done too).
C'tina
April 9, 2008 | 3:20 pm3
We love papier mache!! http://www.papiermache.co.uk/tutorials/getting-started-with-papier-mache/ home made play doh is always fun…so warm and smooshy….good therapy http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-Playdough-Play-doh/