Taking a “family preschool day” is a hit for everyone and a great way to help your youngest children feel loved on.
We didn’t get snow days in the Arizona desert, so we would periodically decide to create our own – using shaving cream!
I usually teach to the oldest and let the youngers pick up what they pick up (which is usually a surprising amount). But sometimes I like to “take the day off” from our normal routine and just have some good ol’ open-ended play specifically geared toward my youngest.
So after piling on the couch and reading classic kids book, The Snowy Day
we made our way to the dining room table to play with shaving cream. I let the kids pick out toys that they wanted to bring to our ‘snow play’ and turned them loose.
Sensory activities are so important for little ones. Exploring new sensations teaches kids a lot about how materials work and sharpens observation skills. It is amazing how long they will focus and play when there are no expectations and their imaginations can run wild. These kinds of open-ended imagination inspiring activities are essential and I love incorporating them into our days…
The older boys enjoyed spreading out the cream thin and tracing designs.
Driving thru this kind of snow proved to be a favorite activity…
While it looks messy, it was surprisingly not! The clean-up was considerably easier than paints or playdough. Now I just need to make it to the store and stock up again…
Check out the rest of the series on…
Integrating Little One’s Into the Learning Journey Series
- Circle Time – our daily morning start to the day.
- Multi-Level Teaching – bringing them into the action
- Special Toys/Activities – what we do during math/phonics times
- Special Time – daily one-on-one time is critical for every member of the family
- Family Preschool Day – periodically catering the family learning activities to the interests and abilities of the youngest.
Whenever my kids are stuck indoors, we always put on an audiobook to accompany whatever they’re doing. There’s lots of great sites to download them, but we use this one a lot because all of the stories are free and original. Here’s the link for anyone who is interested. http://www.twirlygirlshop.com/moral-stories-for-kids
You are amazing!! I love this post and am so grateful you linked it up to my blog! I will for sure be doing this! I can already hear the squeals of excitement from my kids as they delight in getting messy!! You’re awesome! Thank you!
You are a brave woman! You guys do so much fun stuff. 😉
hahahaha! I’m only brave on certain days. Super messy activities are NOT a daily occurance. But they sure are fun for special treats! 🙂
I have shaving cream on my shopping list, too! Of course, we’re going to do something MUCH more messy with it–shaving cream + white glue + tempera paint + puffy paint! But now I’ll def set aside plenty of shaving cream for free play, too.
Thank you Heather! my girls are now currently playing in “snow” with their toys! What a great idea!
oh, fun!
you’re such a good mama 🙂