Today's activity is very simple, but sometimes the best things in life are very simple!  As you know, my kids really enjoy making "set ups" with their toys.  (A "set-up" is when the kids take a selection of their toys and, well, set them up.)

Today, we'd like the kids to make a special kind of set up.  Tell your kids to combine two toys they've never combined before . . . and then play with them.

For instance, your kids have some toy cars.  They also have some Star Wars figures.  Have the Star Wars figures ever ridden on the toy cars?

Your kids have a bunch of plastic plates and plastic foods.  They also have about a hundred stuffed animals.  Has the herd of animals

You get the idea.  Now go turn the kids loose!

Oh, but there are some rules.  The idea here is to combine only two sets of toys.  At least at first.  The idea is not to  have a hodgepodge of toys every which way.  Instead we are focusing on carefully considered combinations.  What two sets can be combined for maximum fun?

And if the kids have successfully set up two groups of toys, we'd also like them to clean those up before experimenting with two other sets.

Combining is fun!  We hope that this makes for hours of free and relaxing fun for your family this weekend.

My kids have not yet done this activity, but I am confident that they will love it.  Yours will, too -- I promise.

First of all, it's called the "Bad Bathroom."  Wouldn't that name grab a child's attention?

The idea is simple:  while I'm doing a couple things around the house today, the kids will turn our downstairs bathroom into the "Bad Bathroom."  That is, they will use their imaginations and art supplies to make it as scary and dangerous as they'd like.  (And my kids will certainly like a lot of scary!)

What will the kids put up in there to scare me?  Pictures they've drawn of dragons?  Monsters and witches?  I'm not sure, but I do know that I'll have a big reaction.  And I'll be very scared, I promise!

And if you're not excited by the idea of your children re-decorating your bathroom, that's fine.  Use a bedroom, pantry, or closet instead.  (Though the "bad laundry room" doesn't have quite the same ring!)

And once the activity is done, please have the kids clean up after themselves.  A big mess that I have to clean up is my idea of really frightening!

 

(Thank you, Karen Horton, for the not scary bathroom image.)

 

 

You know that we like to have fun here at Today is Fun.  We also love language and learning.

So today we're going to combine fun and language. 

One really entertaining aspect of any language are the expressions and idioms. 

To explain 'idiom' to kids, tell them that idioms are kind of like codes. 

(I don't know about you, but my children love codes!)

Idioms are phrases -- or groups of words -- that don't make sense unless you already know what they mean when put together.  Again, just like codes!

Also, idioms often don't mean what you think they mean at first!  (How crazy is that?)

For instance, my four-year-old knows that when we buy somebody a birthday present, we can't then go up to that special person and "spill the beans."

What do beans have anything to do with the situation?  Nothing!  It's an idiom!

English is chock full of great idioms.  Today your kids will be having fun learning about idioms . . . and stumbling across some that they've generated themselves.

First, though, here are a couple of common English idioms for you to discuss with your kids as examples.  Ask your kids what these simple sentences mean:. . .

 

I recently needed to address a lot of envelopes for a personal project.  That task wasn't too awful; there are certainly worse chores!

To make the addressing a bit more interesting, I gave myself a challenge:  to "justify" all the lines for the addresses.  This was just a bit tricky, and it did keep my interest up.

Do your kids know what "justified" means when it comes to written words?  Justified means that all the lines "line up" perfectly.  The edge of each line starts and ends at the same point on the page or computer screen.  It looks pretty cool, I think.  Most books, magazines, and newspapers justify their paragraphs.. . .

 

Today's activity is a bit unusual and -- I think -- very fun.  I hope you try it out with your kids and that a good time is had by all!

Grab some kids' books (and your kids.)  Turn to the title page of any book.  Do your kids know that this is called a 'title page?'  Do they know why?

Okay and fine.  Not very exciting . . . yet.  Now turn the page and have a look at the information on the other side of the title page.

You've undoubtedly seen this kind of page before:  it shows all the copyright and publishing information.

For your kids, this page can actually be very fun.  Today we'd like you and your kids to look for the cataloging information here.  This is usually towards the bottom of the page. 

The cataloging information tells what the book is about -- and that is what's exciting here.

Today we'd like you and your kids to look at the cataloging information in some of your favorite books.

Once you've found a book's cataloging information, ask your kids:  does the information do a good job describing what the book is about?

Next, set the kids loose on your family's bookshelves.  Let them examine the cataloging information for each of their favorite books (and of course, you should help kids who aren't able to read much yet.). . .