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Winter outdoor play ideas for kids: Creative ways to enjoy the snow

Next time your kids are bouncing off the walls on a snowy day, try one of these winter outdoor play ideas to get everyone some fresh air. You CAN enjoy the outdoors, even in cold weather!

Small child on sled enjoying winter outdoor play time.

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When the snow begins to fall, it can be tempting to hunker down and stay inside until spring. And yet, getting outside even during cold weather has huge benefits for kids and adults. Here are just a few…

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Don’t Touch the Lava! (preschool learning game)

Little boys love anything dangerous…and if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em! This engaging preschool learning game is a great way to get kids to practice academic skills in the context of a “death-defying”  challenge.  Little boys love anything dangerous...and if you can't beat 'em, join 'em! This engaging preschool learning game is a great way to get kids to practice academic skills in the context of a "death-defying"  challenge.What is it with little boys and ANYTHING that involves death-defying stunts and destruction? When Little Man (now 5) was just starting to make up pretend play scenarios as a toddler, his favorite thing to do was to line up his small animal toys on the edge of the couch and “rescue” them with his fire truck. He would act out a dramatic scene where the animals dangled off the edge of the “cliff” yelling for help, and the fire truck would swoop in just in time to save them as they began to fall.

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1-2-3 Animal: a simple gross-motor skills guessing game

This simple, no-prep game is a great way to get your kids’ wiggles out–and help them practice counting, critical thinking, and gross motor skills, too!This simple, no-prep game is a great way to get your kids' wiggles out--not to mention it will help them practice counting and develop gross motor skills, too!The story behind this game is one many of you can probably identify with. It all started during a Sunday evening visit to my brother’s house. See, I’m the youngest of five kids. We’re spread out from coast to coast, but two of my siblings live close enough to me that we try to get our crazy crews together once a month or so for dinner. Between us, we have seven young kids–mostly boys–so sometimes things get a little crazy….

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Four Corners Preschool Game about Colors

This perfectly simple preschool game about colors requires no prep, gets kids moving, and helps them practice colors and counting skills. This perfectly simple preschool game about colors requires no prep, gets kids moving, and helps them practice colors and counting skills. “Necessity is the mother of invention”…so said Plato. I’m inclined to agree, as some of my most successful ideas for learning activities to do with my kids have come when I’m desperate for something to keep us all busy at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. At least, that’s how this one started.
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Pirate Alphabet Treasure Hunt Preschool Game

This simple printable “buried treasure hunt” preschool game is a great way to get your kiddos moving, learning the alphabet, and practicing essential preschool skills–like matching.
This simple printable "buried treasure hunt" preschool game is a great way to get your kiddos moving, learning the alphabet, and practicing essential preschool skills--like matching.

Ahoy! Does anyone else ever question why we encourage our children to learn about and act like pirates? If you think about it, they go around hunting for buried treasure (usually other people’s) and making people walk the plank. Not exactly upstanding citizens. Oh well, I just choose gloss over the plundering part and focus on exploring the seven seas and finding “lost” treasure. We’ll worry about character education later on this one, I suppose.

Anyhow, as long as your moral dilemma about pirates doesn’t go any deeper than mine, I have another great pirate activity for your preschoolers today.
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Land Ho! (a preschool math & motor skills game)

This simple printable preschool game is a great way to get your littlest landlubbers practicing their numbers and developing gross motor skills.This simple printable preschool game is a great way to get your littlest landlubbers practicing their numbers and developing gross motor skills.Did you know that September 19th is Interational Talk Like a Pirate Day? Sometimes I wonder who in the world decided we even need a “talk like a pirate” day. At least it gives me an excuse make up fun and silly games to play with my kids.

This summer Little Man went to a summer day camp run by a few of the teenage boys in our neighborhood. One of the days was pirate-themed, and he loved it so much that I decided to make it one of our home preschool themes shortly thereafter….

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Fun sidewalk chalk games to play outside

Take your learning outside and try these fun sidewalk chalk games to play with kids.Take your learning outside and try these fun sidewalk chalk games to play with kids. Who knew you could teach your preschooler the alphabet, numbers, and so much more all with one simple piece of chalk?!

It’s almost summer! Whether you have kids in school who will be home all day starting soon, or, like me, you just still have the two same little hoodlums to entertain all day, today’s post will give you some fun ideas to make summer a blast.

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Spinning Easter Eggs…and 10 more no-prep Easter egg activities for toddlers

Need a way to keep your toddler busy until the Easter bunny arrives? These simple Easter egg activities require absolutely NO prep, and they’ll provide hours of entertainment!

If your kids are like mine, they LOVE Easter. Candy, hunting for eggs, springtime, bunnies…what’s not to like?

Last year, my three-year-old somehow found the Easter eggs in the basement mid-February and we had a month and a half of hunting for Easter eggs before the Easter bunny even showed up.

That would have been fine, but he had a bad habit of hiding the eggs for me to find and then forgetting where he put them, which meant I was finding random plastic eggs around the house for months! It was never-ending.

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The Rainbow Road: a life-sized learning game for preschoolers

Rainbow Road: A life-size learning preschool game…this game is a fun, rainbow-themed giant board game to help young kids play, move, and practice alphabet skills. So much fun!Rainbow Road: A life-size learning game for preschoolers...this game is a fun, rainbow-themed giant board game to help preschoolers play, move, and practice alphabet skills. So much fun!After the success I had with the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom alphabet game I created a few weeks ago for Little Man (age 3), I got inspired to make up some more games for him. We’ve been learning about rainbows for Mommy School lately, so I thought it would be fun to make a life-size board game for us to play together….

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