Activities-Play


3 Apples and Play Money

Math is Everywhere: How to Instill Love of Math in Your Children 1

I’m the oddball who’s always loved math. My favorite part of math is the every day, how math explains the world around us. So it is important to me was instilling that same love in my kids. I resisted buying workbooks for my kids until elementary school was around the corner, but I do bring […]


July 4th Family Fun Activities, Crafts and Recipes 1

Celebrating July 4th offers so many fun summer time fun opportunities from delicious food to spending time with friends and family to creative activities that can teach kids about our nation’s history. Here are ideas from our Mom experience and nifty resources we found online.   Seeing the Fireworks or Seeking Alternative Day Time Events […]


Young girl coloring her Easter egg

What’s the Big Deal about Easter? Celebrating Easter with Kids When You’re Not Religious 1

I don’t know how it happened, but Easter is one of my daughter’s favorite holidays. We aren’t religious, so to me it was always sort of a non-event holiday. But when my first child, now 5.5, was born, every chance to do something special was embraced; maybe even overindulged. If you ask her today why […]


Helping Your Child Make Friends 1

My fondest memories of preschool were with my best friend: drinking green punch, painting, tying our shoes. When my first started preschool, my hope was for him to make wonderful friends. But how does this happen? Some kids make friends on their own. My elder child, now five, made his first friends before starting preschool, […]


12 Ideas for Indoor Family Adventures on Bad Weather Days 1

When you’ve faced what can seem like an endless stream of bad weather days, entertaining young children indoors starts to test even the most creative parents. Here are ideas for indoor adventures out and about, building on our recent article, 11 Fun Indoor Activities for Bad Weather Days for keeping kids entertained at home. Be sure […]


Social Stories & Puppets: Powerful, Fun Tools to Teach Children 1

As parents we face a daily conundrum of opportunities and needs to coach our children about everything from conflict resolution and manners to transitions and routines. Two creative tools I love for teaching children social and life skills are social stories and puppets. Storytelling can be such a powerful way to engage children, capturing their […]


Finding a Middle Ground: Six Ways to Give Our Children Room to Grow without Undue Risk 1

Free Range Parenting vs. Helicoptering As I watch my two year old race to the play structure and try to climb a tricky bridge, something she’s never done before, my five year old warns me. “Lili can’t do that. Mama!  Quick!” I wonder, should I cover her? Do I give her the space to try […]


Young Boy Lighting a Menorah

Creative Ways to Celebrate Thanksgiving – Hanukkah

For those of us who celebrate Hanukkah, we will soon experience the once in a lifetime convergence of the Thanksgiving and Hanukkah holidays. We’ve been thinking about creative ways to combine our Thanksgiving and Hanukkah traditions, while looking over ideas published in honor of this unique Thanksgivukkah opportunity, such as this quick guide from ReformJudaism.org […]