Activity: Big Ears

When I first found this activity, all I could think about what PSAT's, SAT's, ACT's, and any other kind of standardized test that you can think of. You know, when they have you read a story and the you have to correctly identify the point of the story, and various aspects about it? Yeah... I was never did excell at those kinds of tests, which is interesting because I love to read. But regardless of the tests, this activity is still fun for kids, and could actually make a great party game.

What you are going to do is tell a story with lots of descriptive words. If you don't have a story like this on hand, here is how to write one. If doing it for a birthday party, you could write a story about the birthday kid and do it as one of your games.

Before you begin the story, have the child or children clothes their eyes and focus really hard on listening (use their big ears!). Then tell the story, remind the kids to listen for descriptive words (you may want to explain what a descriptive word is at the start of the activity). Once the story is over, you can do a number of things.

1. Have the kids write down the answers to your questions
2. Draw pictures of the objects that they remember (pink dress, blue eyes, etc)
3. Have the kids try to retell the story (you can have one kid do this, or have kids take turns after a few sentences each)
4. Have costumes and things on hand to act out the story.
5. Have coloring pages for the kids to color correctly (again, pink dress, blue eyes, etc)
6. Whatever else you can think of.

That's about it! I would advise keeping the stories fairly short depending on the age and skill level of your kids. And the more you do it, the more you can add to the stories. You could even grab some library books and then add more descriptive words if you like. OOH! Or how about 

Have you done any thing like this? Do you have a descriptive story to share or recommend?

Activity: Half Day

This is an activity that can EASILY be used for Half-birthdays, Half-way though the school year, Half-way through summer, etc. All you need to do is pick a half day (I will be using a half birthday as an example), and start getting creative.

Picture courtesy of http://emilysneed.blogspot.com/2009/03/half-birthdays.html

For a half birthday, sing half a birthday song, bake only half a cake, and use only half the normal amount of candles.

You could also have lessons on fractions (what is half of 4?), sharing (if you have 1 apple but 2 people, how can we share?), Dates (using the calendar to find out what their half birthday is), Math (how do I divide a recipe in half), etc. So really the possibilities are endless.

Have you ever done a "half" day? What ideas, pictures, advice can you share?

Silliness: Mustache Mania!

There are plenty of things that you can find at the dollar store to keep you entertained. Some of them are great and others not so great. Fake mustaches fall among the GREATS! And you can use the mustaches for all sorts of activities! Pretend that you are a notorious bad guy going to rob a bank, and let your child save the day. Or add them to your birthday party theme along with other dress up clothes. Or have a contest to see who can be the most creative with their mustache placement. The possibly activities are endless. Here's what we did....

Items Needed:

Dollar Store fake mustaches (I have seen the same ones at ToysRUs and I think even Walmart)

Camera

Giggles

They came in a variety of shapes and sizes.

Here is Mia before we started playing.

Mia was a little nervous about having things on her face, so mommy went first.

If I remember correctly, I was actually holding Mia's hands down in order to take this picture. She kept trying to pull off the mustache.

Next it was Daddy's turn.

Uni-brow!

This is my attempt to raise a single eyebrow. Although it felt like it worked, it obviously didn't.

We put a mustache on Kitty to help Mia enjoy mustache time, but not force her to wear them.

Here's Papa!

Kitty up close!

Momo's turn!

I don't even know what face I was trying to make here.

Winnie the Pooh! My, how you have aged!

Results

Alright, so I admit that I got this packet of mustaches for Mia, but when all was said and done, I had WAY more fun than anyone else. It's probably evident based on on the fact that there are more pictures of me in mustache glory, rather than other people.