Month: April 2014

Painting Circles With Plastic Eggs – Mommy Teacher Spotlight

If you are looking for an activity to re-use those eggs from the egg hunts… look no further.

I love my artsy friend Allie and all the ways she crafts with her kids.  Keep reading because she inspired me to do this with my kids today and that is what The Mommy Teacher is all about:

“My girls, AvaKate (3) and Addie (2), absolutely love doing crafts. They would do them all day long if I let them.  So, when we woke up this morning, they asked to paint.

We painted yesterday, so I wanted to do something a little different.

They had an Easter egg hunt at school yesterday and I wanted to reuse those annoying, oh I mean amazing, plastic eggs before I secretly threw them away, I mean put them back in their baskets (any Moms with me??).

I took them apart and let them dip it into finger paint (easier clean up) and it made circles on their paper. Addie is really into shapes so she got really excited to see the shapes on her paper. Very simple, but it was exciting for the girls to incorporate their eggs from their egg hunt.

Painting with Easter eggs

 

You can also see in the picture little pieces of string and paper. My oldest, AvaKate is obsessed with decorating and making gifts… So those elements were her specific request.

I put some glue on their plate and gave them a paint brush and they “decorated” their art. They loved it! And I loved it because it was all stuff I had around the house and it kept them occupied while I nursed my six week old!”

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What Kids Learn When They Play Dress-Up

So, I haven’t been writing posts as frequently lately.  So much has gone on this year.

Though Casey and I each consider ourselves “stay-at-home-moms” we are actually both business owners.

Casey creates for her business Kidspired Creations, and I run an imaginative play center called Pretend Play Party.

In my facility, there are 20 imaginative play stations that children can pretend that they are little vets, bakers, chefs, moms, dads, construction workers, policemen, firefighters, waitresses, artists, and much more.

When children dress-up they get the chance to BECOME a role that they have learned about through observations for as long as they have been able to make connections.

mckayla - doc mcstuffins

When kids push a stroller, it seems like a simple imitation, but they are just starting to figure out how to imagine that they ARE moms or dads and they are also learning how to make what they believe come to life.

Socially, kids can learn how to relate to others in a positive and appropriate way.

Linguistically, kids can expand their vocabulary by learning and using more words in their imaginative world.  For example, if your kids are playing “grocery store” then you can teach them the names of fruits and vegetables they may not have tried before.  Or, they may learn about lists, and words relating to money.

Physically, children can strengthen their developing muscles by putting on costumes, tying aprons, hammering, digging, cleaning, all while pretending to take on a role/responsibility.

Cognitively, kids learn more when they put on a role, connect hands-on, and engage by allowing their understandings to come to life.

As a bonus, you might learn even more about what roles interest your child most!

So, it seems simple, but the next time your kids are dressing up and pretending to be an identity other than their own, pretend right along with them, extend on their language, and ask questions that will help them to search their developing brains for answers to deepen those connections with their world.

Share any other thoughts in a comment… we have so much we can learn from each other!

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