A new website to me is Totsy’s place. Run by two experienced pediatric speech language pathologists, it’s packed full of appropriate language activities and advice.  I’ve found lots of practical information and ideas.

Here’s a recent post.

Totsy’s Place:  10 Life Lessons I’d Like To Teach My Children

No.2 is one we are working on just this week. It’s frustrating to learn new things and it’s easy to give up, throw a tantrum and move on. We tried to come back to the same problem and tackle it a different way.

We’re living No.6.As hard as it is away from family. What would you add to the list? Our No.11 would be

Cultivate  and maintain friendships with people of different ages, stages and cultures. We have much to learn from each other.

You can follow Totsy’s place on Twitter.

Thanks ladies

Yesterday’s Wordless Wednesday was a messy play slideshow. The boys and I made these bird seed cookies as a teacher gift for the end of the school year. We got the idea from Amy at Let’s Explore.

We encountered similar problems ( not staying together and irregular shapes) The boys chose a cookie cutter each and yes that is Mickey Mouse!

We hung them up on the tree we can see while we eat breakfast. We also tried the front of the house. The birds love it.

We gave a few away to friends. The recipe makes loads and the birds keep on coming. I think we’ve become the fast food shop of birds lol

It was great gooey sticky fun- perfect for girls, boys and outside

Thanks for visiting my blog. I hope you have a chance to look around and be inspired to try some play activities!
Please visit Tell me Thursday to find other participants telling you the story behind their Wordless Wednesday post.

Please consider joining Rhyme Time on Mondays.

For more inspiring Nature activities

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Thought we’d change it up a bit today.

Watch our messy Wordless Wednesday slideshow.

Find out tomorrow the story behind my Wordless Wednesday photos.

For other Wordless Wednesday photos visit www.5minutesformom.com , http://keeperofthecheerios.com and www.wordlesswednesday.com

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I’ve been meaning to talk about KaBoom for a long time now.

KaBOOM! is a national non-profit organization that envisions a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America.

We know the value of play but finding a playspace isn’t always easy around America. I love the term playspace because it allows us to think more creatively about where we play.  Getting outside and playing outside has changed for all of us. But kids still need to be outside exploring, creating and learning.

They have a nifty widget to help you find a play space in your area.

As well as finding a playspace you can build a playspace or join in with a local build a playspace with  KaBoom’s toolkits, webinars, online training ,how to find funding information packs and much more. KaBoom has all the tools you need to start or join in a neighbourhood project for your kids. This is just great for YOU if you have few or no playspaces in your neighbourhood.

With all this talk about playspaces I was excited to see KaBoom is planning a  Play day in 19th -27th  September. Whether you want to plan one or participate in one save the date.

What are your playspaces like in your area? Do you travel far for Outdoor play?

Technorati Tags: KaBOOM, playspaces

This is the answer post to Guess the Nursery Rhyme. If you’re not familiar with Rhyme time, the previous post to this one there is a photograph of a nursery rhyme. You with your child try and guess which one.  I love participation so I’ve included a Mr. Linky at the bottom of that post so you can join in with your pretend play inspired Nursery Rhyme. So that you can guess without peeking. I try to do a separate post with the answer and some of the ideas we did. This is it.

The answer to Rhyme Time nursery rhyme

London Bridge is falling down

Falling down

Falling down

London Bridge is falling down

My fair lady.

For the origins and more verses of London Bridge

This was a set up I did for the MO.

• We sang the song.
• Played with the stickle bricks  to make more bridges.
• Found our wooden blocks and did the same.
• We balanced our train and lego figures ( whatever figures we could find) to see if the bridge would bend.
• We tried to bow the stickle bricks with our hands but had much more fun realizing they would ping across the room if we did it just right
• Since his brother is learning to read the MO has be imitating a lot more recently and moving his finger with the words( they don’t correspond but he’s enjoying the play and believes he’s really reading) We tried this Rebus version of London Bridge. It was a little tricky but the chance to be on the computer weighed out any frustrations.
• MO had super heroes fly over the bridge. He used a block to make a boat to go under the bridge.
• The other activity we planned to do was to call someone and sing the song over the phone. ( We ran out of time)
• The LO chewed the stickle bricks while the MO played for about 15minutes more independently.

I know there are a lot more scientific and geographical activities we can do with this Nursery Rhyme. Today I followed the lead of the MO. There will be plenty of time to do more with this Nursery Rhyme another time.

See you next week. What will you and your child try for Rhyme Time?

Here’s today’s post.
Can you guess which Nursery rhyme?

Let me know your answer in the comments section.
If you are playing along add your name and blog post to Mr. Linky so we can try and guess yours. Feel free to use the Rhyme time button.

Rhyme time is a weekly play activity to do with your child. It’s a chance to learn new rhymes, use our toys creatively, encourage pretend play, singing etc… For more information about how to play and find out more.

Answer will be added later on today…… See if your toddler or preschooler can guess which nursery rhyme this is…….?

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Part of the fun of living in another country is you get to celebrate their holidays. It’s always been strange to me to celebrate Independence day because being British they were gaining Independence from the British. lol But since I married an American, I’ve been celebrating Independence day for a while now. Now the kids are older it’s important to learn a little about their American history.

We started small this year.

We started with Daddy telling a story about 1776 and all that. They then pledged their allegiance to the flag.

Then we made these Independence day cookies.

I used this amazingly tasty sugar cookie recipe from Joy the baker. I added some orange zest left over from the Roasted pepper and Orange soup.

The boys painted the cookies with warmed corn syrup then sprinkled the red & blue sprinkles. I tried to drizzle icing sugar in the middle. We added stars.

We had 50 cookies to represent the 50 states. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the icing writer pen then we would have written the abbreviated names on each cookie. ( Co, Or, Fl etc) Next year.

What did you do for Independence day?

For more activities try

Patriotic crafts and activities @ABCand123learning

4th July crafts @ Totally tots

Red, White and blue @ NTFFC

Technorati Tags: Independence day, Independence day cookies

Like Dawn of Paintermom.com, I grew up going to the library all the time. With the lovely weather during the summer or the rainy days of summer there’s always a time to pick up a book.

We’re still trying to be outside more. We’re getting that more by taking more of our indoor activities outside. Reading is one of our newest things to do outside.

The boys have those pop up tents. 

I tried reading in there but I was way too big and it was way too hot for me. The boys loved it though. One of the benefits of having an older brother is that you get to hear reading books above your age. This is great for vocabulary building although we have to take care that the themes aren’t too ‘mature’ for the MO.

The two series that are favourites in our home are Ricky Ricotta’s Mighty Robot Collection (Books 1-4) and Horrid Henry

I used to worry about finding good boy books but Dav Pilkey has it spot on for boys. We’ve finished the Ricky Ricotta series ( minus one my son tells me) and this week I found The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby.

 These chapter books are for bedtime and evening reading and I have to hide them otherwise they read on. It’s great to see them so excited to read. These books aren’t for the faint hearted as they have a lot of potty humour that (my)boys and kids absolutely love.

The evening was nice so I was doing a bit of weeding while the boys were having their bedtime chapter. I was under their open window and the amount of laughing by all of them made me smile. Mind you it did take a while to get them settled to sleep. I was just happy to know how well stories can change your mood and make you laugh out loud.

Stories are meant to be for fun and pleasure. I try and keep it that way right now because learning to read is frankly hard work when you’re 6. I love a good chuckle when reading a book too.  My all time favourite lol book has to be Pest Control. I want them to know that reading isn’t just about learning but to make us laugh too.

We’ve just read Francesca Simon’s book, Horrid Henry. Henry is the boy who sticks out in the family. Always doing things wrong compared to his Perfect brother ( Perfect Peter). I think all brothers can relate to this one.

At the moment we try and balance our reading with Easy readers. The BG reading to the MO and LO ( if he’ll stay put. Seems to bother the BG no end with the LO moving around while he reads a story) The MO grabs picture books mostly from the shelf and we get a few out of the library. The LO has board books and overhears lots of stories.

 I really hope his first word isn’t poo!

Sometimes we get stuck in a rut…like when we were between chapter books. We found this children’s book list. We decided to look at the top 100 books kids should read.

So now we have an aim and a plan.  We’ll have to restrict our books like Danielle of daniellesjourney.com muses too.

We have year round school so we’re back to school next week. With the long summer evenings we’ll be outside reading. Won’t you join us?

What’s your summer reading plan?