House of cards

DIY game and building kit

ADDED August 28, 2009

Length:  20 minutes

Parental Involvement:  Cut cards and play along

Kids Should Be Able to:  Have a bit of dexterity

Building a house of cards can be just plain hard. I have tried and believe me, it's impossible.  Building a true house of cards is therefore not a great activity for kids, but today's craft has a cheat that makes construction not only easy but a pleasure.  A game similar to this was created in 1952 by Charles and Ray Eames.  It was fun then and still can be fun today especially when you make it yourself.

You will need to sacrifice a deck of cards for this craft.  Please make sure you don't cut up Grandpa's cherished deck of cards from the Navy.  (The 99 Cent store is a great place to pick up a pack.)


First, you will need to cut six slots on each card so the cards can lock together (I have noted where to cut in sharpie so its easy to see).  Try to cut in the same place every time this will make your structure more solid and we also have found that cutting one card at a time will yield better results.

 

When you have done that to all fifty two cards you are ready to build.  The six slots on each card enable you and your kids to lock the cards together to build fantastic structures.

Sturdy, easy, and fun!  What more could you ask for?  (We would like to ask everybody to have a lot of fun with their kids this weekend!)

Own Home Library

Check it out! (Get it?)

ADDED August 27, 2009

 

Length:  20 minutes

Parental Involvement:  Print and play

Kids Should Be Able to:  Play and have fun

 

We have a bookshelf that is quite full, and my kids really like to read books from it whenever they get a chance.  They also like going to the library and checking out books; it is a very "big kid" thing to do.  So my wife and I turned the library into our very own home library.

Every library has a few important qualities:


Really, that is it.
 
I made some very simple library cards and check out slips (you can download these popular items here.)  And once they were printed, our library was open for business.

This is a great activity to encourage sharing, working together, creative play and reading.  Needless to say we are big fans.

Remember, every library has different rules about returning books late;  at our house returning books late means you have to eat all your vegetables, even if they're brussels sprouts.


Click to download!

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Five senses walk

A treat for them all

ADDED August 26, 2009

Length:  Twenty minutes or so.

Parental Involvement:   Encourage observation and use of senses.

Kids Should Be Able to:  Spell simple words.  Observe and . . . have fun!

 

Summer continues this week, and I am sure your patience is growing thin, as is your wallet.  So why not take a trip to a local Botanical Garden?  The flowers are beautiful and if you pack a lunch, it's a free outing.  (Have i mentioned that we are fans of free?) 

My son and I went this past week, and it was a blast! Now, on the surface, two guys at the botanical gardens does not sound like so much fun, but I promise it was . . . and in true TIF fashion it was also educational.  We decided to go on a Five Senses Walk.

Here is how a Five Senses Walk works:  First explain to your kids that everybody has five senses. They are seeing, hearing, touch, smell, and taste.  For a Five Senses Walk to be successful, you need to make sure you use all five senses at sometime during your walk and then report your findings to the group. 

 

When you smell something that is good, tell the group.  If you see something that is beautiful, tell the group.  If you touch something that is soft, or carefully touch something that is rough, tell the group.. . .

Homemade Raisins

A week-long science fun activity

ADDED August 25, 2009

Make a breakfast with a face.

If it smiles back at you, then eat it!

ADDED August 24, 2009

Length:  5 minutes or less

Parental Involvement:  Make the face

Kids Should Be Able to:  Eat a healthy breakfast and pat your back for a job well done.

Breakfast is one of those meals that can either be a joy or a horrible crying fiasco. It often depends on who is staring back at you from the other side of the table.  In this case, it depends on who is staring up at you from your plate.

Continuing our trend of fun, free kids entertainment, tomorrow (we clearly are not early risers here at TIF) make a face on your kid's breakfast plate.  It does not take much planning or even special tools, just a little creativity. A few of our favorite implements for face-making are: bacon, blueberries, sliced bananas, grapes, whipped cream (sure, why not?) and apples.  All of these items are great for making an expressive face to gaze back at your kid. 

Here is a collection of breakfast faces on our plates from the last few months.  Enjoy . . . and send us your breakfast faces.  We will be glad to post a picture of your face before you feed it!

 

 

 

 

Paper Plate Party Hat

And really, shouldn't every day be a party?

ADDED August 21, 2009

 

 

Length:  Thirty minutes or so.

Parental Involvement:  Explain the concept.  Help with some cutting where necessary.

Kids Should Be Able to:  Participate in hat construction.  Offer opinions on nice hats.  Test the hats out!

 

Here's a fun and memorable kids' activity for you guys to enjoy as Summer winds down...

And here's what you'll need for this one:

• A paper plate
• A paper grocery bag -- or any paper bag.  A paper "party" bag also works (as you can see from the photo.)
• A pair of scissors
• Some tape
• A kid who enjoys headwear

First, grab the largest paper plate that you can.  This will wind up being the rim of the hat, so make sure that the plate is larger than your child's head.  (Most regular-sized plates are just big enough.)  

Grab a pair of scissors and cut a hole out of the plate that is just slightly *smaller* than the size of your kids' head.   (We want the hat to sit on top of your kid's head.  If the hole is too large, it will slide down over your child's face and cover eyes, ears, and mouth.  Not that much fun for the hat-wearer!)

Now insert the "open" part of the bag into the hole you just made in the paper plate rim.  We found it helped to make two slits in the bag. Use the resulting flaps of paper to curl part of the bag up under the rim.  Tape the bag to the rim . . . and you're done!

If you don't have a paper plate handy, you can also make a hat using only the bag.  Just roll up the open part to make a rim. 

(For what it's worth, we want to be good custodians of the environment.  At the same time, we think it's okay to use paper products occasionally.  Don't go crazy, but everything in moderation.  Kids' birthday parties are, in our opinion, the perfect occasion for paper plates!)

Please have fun and please enjoy your weekend.  (One nice way to spend the weekend would be . . . showing off your fancy new paper party hats!)

 

(A special thank you to our extremely precocious and very charming models pictured here today!)

 

Flap Art

Kids' art taken to the next dimension!

ADDED August 20, 2009

Length:  About thirty minutes.

Parental Involvement:  Explain the concept.  Help with some cutting where necessary.

Kids Should Be Able to:  Draw, color, and possibly use tape.

 

We here at Today is Fun are all about providing the most fun for you and your family at the lowest possible cost.  (There are worse passions for people to have, you have to admit.)

We keep suggesting different crayon-marker art activities because they are inherently cheap.  Once you've bought some inexpensive crayons, your family can use them for hours and hours!

Today's crayon-marker activity, "flap art," does indeed add another dimension to the fun.

The trick here is simple . . .

Give your child a blank piece of paper and request a scene to be drawn on it.  For example, ask your kid to draw a house with a bunch of windows.  And just to make this interesting, a different animal should be peering out of each window and possibly waving or holding something interesting.

Once that's done, it's time to make some flaps.  Choose one of the windows to start with; you guys will need to cut out a a bit of paper that's approximately the same size as the chosen window.  Make the bit of paper just a little big bigger to accommodate the fold you'll need to make.  

If your young one needs some help with scissors, please take the cutting responsibilities on yourself!

For the example above, have the kids make something that could cover up the animals in their drawing.  They could draw:  closed shutters, curtains, part of an exterior wall, old boards, and so forth.  

Next, using clear Scotch tape, affix the flap to the drawing, making the window closed.  Now you've got an exciting  new dimension to the piece of art  -- and your child can move the flap around to admire the results.  Open the flap, close the flap!  Hooray!

Have your child carry on until the art is of masterpiece quality.  

And encourage your kids to use some creativity to come up with other "scenes" to depict and cover with flaps.  How about a farm yard, a forest, or a fiesta?  (Sorry, I just got on a 'f' roll there.)

Have fun flapping it up.  And if possible, please send us photos of your kids' masterpieces.  We are big conossieurs of the arts!

Fun with Graphs and Grids

Sorry, it's educational, too

ADDED August 19, 2009

 

 

Length:  Around thirty minutes.

Parental Involvement:  Explain the concept and demonstrate graphs to yoru kids.  At first, graphs can be tricky for children to grasp, so hang around and help them get it!

Kids Should Be Able to: Count and draw. After this activity, they will have an idea how to represent numbers and counting visually!

 

Here we go with some learning again.  Yes, we know it's still officially Summer break, but remember . . . we think learning is fun!  New knowledge is great for kids; it gives them more to think about!

Today we'll be working with some grids and graphs.

Graphs are a way of explaining stuff.  Sometimes seeing information on a graph makes it fast and easy to understand -- and we're talking about for both kids and adults here.

So today, have your kids make some graphs.  We've provided some downloadable and printable paper for you guys to use.  Click here to get it.

To make a graph, you need to choose things or qualities that you can count or measure.

Here's an easy example:  graph the number of beds, chairs, and people in your house!  Here's how it turned out for us:  



So, once you guys have chosen the two things you're going to graph, write each in a space on the graph paper, in the special area we've created.  By thing, we mean the "broad" category, such as "Day of the Week" or "Kind of Furniture" or simply, "Number."

Next, fill in the next to the individual rows and columns.  (If your child doesn't know what a "row" and a "column" are, now would be a great time to demonstrate!)

You will be filling in the actual days of the week, or the kinds of furniture or the numbers.

(This concept might be difficult to explain with words.  But use the actual graph paper to show what you mean -- and what we mean!)

Once the two sides have been named and filled in, it's time to count stuff and make the graph.

To carry on with our example -- numbers of furniture and people in your house -- have your kid count each item.  Once the count is completed and a number has been decided upon, your kid should fill in that number of boxes in the column.  

Again, have a look at our example if I'm  not doing a great job explaining here!

Graphing really can be a fun activity, and there are so many things you guys can decide to represent on a graph.   There is also an opportunity for learning when your kid suggests things that aren't nicely or properly represented by a graph.  Part of this activity can be discovering what graphs can do and what they can't.

Here are some other ideas of concepts for you guys to graph:

Number of bugs seen each day of the week
Times we went in the car each day this week
Books read each day of the week
Number of chairs, beds, tables, and people in the house
Pieces of mail received each day of the week
Amount of fruits and vegetables eaten at each meal today
Number of vowels in the names of people in the family

Would you like to suggest other ideas that can be graphed?  We'd love to hear.

And if you'd like to graph the exciting and fun kid's activities suggested each week here on Today Is Fun, well, have at it!

You're Pretty Much Surrounded by a Secret Code

Right this minute! We're not kidding!

ADDED August 18, 2009

 

 

Length:  Thirty minutes or more.

Parental Involvement:  Explain the concept.  Make sure nothing in your house is completely dismanted by young code hunters.  Help the kids type numbers into Google.

Kids Should Be Able to: Find bar codes!  Understand that numbers can be assigned to represent "things."

 
Not to sound overly "Da Vinci Code"-ish or conspiracy theory-plagued, but did you know that there is a secret code all around you right this minute?

This code surrounds you in the grocery store and at home.  It is called a code; there's no other name for it.  And it's so ubiquitous and secret that you don't even realize it's there!  As my five-year-old would exclaim,  "for real!"

The code we're talking about is called Universal Product Code (UPC), commonly associated with a "bar code."  And if you look, you'll find UPC's and bar codes all over the place!

(UPC's are the numbers assigned to a product.  The bar code is a "bar" representation of those numbers.  They are placed together on practically all packages' products.)

For instance, right I am sitting in a room with UPC's 9780761308188  and 036000283006.  You can type those codes into Google and discover what two things I'm talking about.

In fact, that's part of today's activity.  Your kids will be hunting high and low -- all over your home -- in search of bar codes on products for you to check with Google.  Here are some hints as to where they can find bar codes:

• all food boxes
• all toy boxes
• on some toys themselves (if they don't come to you in a box)
• the backs of books
• all medicine boxes or labels

Before your kids hunt for bar codes, it'd probably be good to have an explanation ready:  UPC's and bar codes are used by stores and by shippers to keep track of all kinds of products.  When you guys go to the market, watch the check-out person move the bar code over the scanner.  That's how the store "sees" the item you want to buy.  And it's how the store's computer quickly tells you guys how much it is going to cost!

(Can you imagine what it would be like if every time your family wanted to buy something, the clerk at the store would have to look up the price in a giant book?  And how would the store know how many things they've sold?  People would have to write down notes on paper.  It would take a lot, lot more time!)

So here is today's fun kid's activity using that all-over-the-place secret code, bar codes:

1.  As we suggested above, have the kids search everywhere for bar codes.  They should look on their toys, books, and in your pantry (with your close supervision -- if you're worried about Cheerios exploding out everywhere.)

Listen to their shouts of delight as they find yet another bar code.  They should also report where on the item the bar code is located.  (Some are on the bottom of the package, some are on the back, and so on.)

2. Have the kids choose three or four bar codes to bring to your computer.  Together, type the numbers at the bottom of the bar code into Google.  (There are typically twelve numbers in a standard form, UPC-A.  Another common code, UPC-E, has taken those twelve digits and mathematically reduced them to 6.  Books seem to have yet another variant of code containing 13 digits.)

If Google doesn't find the product, you can use this UPC look-up site here. 

For my kids -- and I have to say, for me -- it was pretty exciting when the computer "knew" what product we had suggested.  When we typed in a book's bar code number, Google even showed a picture of it!  Pretty cool!

And this is exactly the purpose and point of bar codes:  so computers can know about things out in the "real world."  Bar codes help computers "be smart."

3.  Finally, for older kids, you guys can "figure out" the code behind bar codes.  Well, sort of...

As mentioned above, UPC-A has twelve digits.  The first six digits of bar code is assigned to the manufacturer.  The next five digits are used to designate a manufacturer's product.  (The last number is used to help make sure the bar code is correctly assigned and working properly, believe it or not!)

So, your kids can compare different bar code numbers and find similarities.  Products from General Mills (the company that makes Cheerios, Wheaties, and Chex, among many others) would have the same six numbers at the start of their UPC bar code numbers.

Here are three manufacturers that you might find in your house right now, along with some of the numbers that have been assigned to them:

Arm and Hammer  33200

General Mills  016000
General Mills  020000
General Mills  041196
General Mills  070470

Kraft Foods 021000
Kraft Foods 029000
Kraft Foods 043000
Kraft Foods 044000
Kraft Foods 070221
Kraft Foods 071159
Kraft Foods 759283

Are we right?  Do you have any of these numbers in your house right now?


We hope you find this code stuff fun and exciting.  It is neat, we have to admit, that it's so prevalent and yet mostly unknown.  (We didn't know about it until we undertook some serious Today Is Fun-inspired internet research!)

We were also wondering whether it would make for a really cool, action-style conspiracy theory movie?  We'd love to be paid for the idea, and you could get George Clooney and some other hunky actor to portray the two of us -- that'd be fine.

Have fun!

Up with Wikipedia

Lots of learning with just one click. Really!

ADDED August 17, 2009

 

 

 

Length:  Twenty minutes or longer.

Parental Involvement:  Sit with the kids and explore Wikipedia.  Try to find interesting and relevant information from each article.

Kids Should Be Able to:  Learn about the world (and the universe.)  Find articles that are suitable for their age and aptitude.

 

Summer is winding down already, like it or not.  School is on its way back in a matter of weeks.

You might think we would therefore recommend that you and your kids just relax, play, and enjoy this time.  Well, you're right; we do.  You might also think that we'd encourage you to avoid learning and dedicate yourselves to play.  No offense, but on that account, you'd be quite wrong!

We do want you to have nothing but fun.  The thing is, however, learning is fun!  It fills kids' minds with new ideas and information -- and that makes good times for all.

Today we'd like to introduce you to Wikipedia's "Special Random" function.  It's fun.  And possibly quite educational.

In case you don't know, Wikipedia is basically an online encyclopedia run by regular internet users.  Anyone can contribute information.  (Moderators attempt to make sure none of the contributions are overly whacked or flat-out wrong.)

The Special Random function on Wikipedia brings you to any random page.  Special!  (You can find this function on the left navigation section, at the top.  It is the bottom option there.  It's pretty easy to find, and if you'd like you, can also click any Special Random link in this post.)

This roll-the-dice approach to learning really can bring up some interesting results.  For instance . . .
 
A recent episode for our family got us Cengiz Akyildiz.  According to Wikipedia, Cengiz Akyildiz is a person (we didn't know at first glance, to be honest.)  He is a notable hockey player in Turkey.

Is Cengiz Akyildiz an important person for you and your child to learn?  Probably not.  But he inspired us to talk about:

• The country of Turkey
• The flag of Turkey
• The sport of hockey
• And, no offense, funny names.

My kids liked all of the above.

We clicked "Special Random" again, and were taken to an article about Robert P. Wilson.  Apparently, Mr. Wilson was a coach for a school's football team:  the New York University Violets, back in 1903.

Again, Mr. Wilson probably isn't the most important historical figure.  But his article did serve as a starting place for a discussion of:

• Different jobs people could have
• The fact that we remember people from long ago
• The year 1903 -- over a hundred years ago!
• Violets!  -- a flower and a color.  We didn't know a sports team was called that!

As you can see, there are a lot of interesting facts that can be gleaned and discussed from a Wikipedia article.

We'll give one more example, just so you don't think that Wikipedia is full obscure sports figures.  A third click brought us to Iota Piscium.  Have you heard of Iota Piscium?  We had not.

It turns out that it's a star.  It turns out Iota Piscium is a star 45 light years away from Earth, in the constellation Pisces.  To my boys and me, that was pretty interesting information!  It also led us to talk about:

• The universe.  And how big it is.
• The staggering amount of stars out there.  (Scientists say there are at least 100 billion galaxies.  This is kind of a weird way to think about it, but if you took every single person on Earth and turned them into 16 different galaxies, you be getting close to the amount of galaxies out in space.  Considering galaxies contain anywhere from ten million stars to a trillion stars, well, the Universe is a very, very big place!)
• People study everything!  And give everything names, too.
• The word "iota."  It's a word from Greece (where they speak Greek), and it means a "little amount" or "a bit."

Of course, there are plenty of "dud" articles we've found on Wikipedia using the Special Random function.  We've stumbled across quite a few articles for obscure Hungarian villages and for defunct Seventies rock bands.  Thanks, but no thanks.

Lucikly, it's very easy to just click "Special Random" another time and off we go to a different -- and hopefully, more appropriate and educational -- topic.

Have a great, Special Random learning and fun day!  We hope all your clicking brings you back to Today is Fun tomorrow, for another end-of-Summer fun (with learning) idea!

 

Silent Reading

Enjoy the silence!

ADDED August 14, 2009

With kids on summer break, sometimes the afternoons can get a bit rowdy.  When it gets too rowdy, I think everyone needs to take a break.  If your kids are like mine and no longer take naps, maybe a little silent reading time is what everybody needs.  It is a perfect way to settle everyone down so you can get dinner made, fold some laundry, or just have a silent reading time of your own.

Here is how we do silent reading. Feel free to make up you own rules, but this is what works for us.
 
First of all, at my house the activity is called silent reading, so there is no talking.  Secondly, each person will need a back-up book -- that is, a book that a kid can read if they finish their first book.  This cuts down on talking.  Third, silent reading has a time-limit.  Time is accurately monitored by a timer that will beep when silent reading is over.  Finally, wherever a kid is in the house when silent-reading starts, they need to stay there until silent reading ends.
 
I know it sounds like these rules were made by a dictator, but I have found that if everyone knows the rules before we start reading, a lot more reading happens, and a lot less time searching for a loophole.
 
Also, if silent reading is not something for your family, try "room time," or "yard time," or any of the other great activities here at TIF!

Happy weekend!

 

thanks to sugarpond and bastian for letting us use their photos

TIF-Sign-In Sheet

For your next party

ADDED August 13, 2009

 

 Sometimes at my house, we have parties with a bunch of grown-ups, where my kids are the only children attending. 

For my kids, these parties are not the most fun:  adults sit around talking about boring adult things, and all the while the kids' "bedtime clock" is ticking.  For me, the question is usually, "what should we do with the kids for the hour before they have to go to bed?"  Well, we figured out a perfect way to keep the kids occupied.  It's also a fun way for the kids to interact with our guests.  The kids should be in charge of a Sign-In Sheet.

The Sign-In Sheet is perfect: it keeps the kids occupied for the beginning part of the evening, and when all the guests have arrived, a natural break is created for bedtime.  Everybody wins -- and we get a list of the people who attended the party just in case any of our fine silver is missing!

We have created a Sign-In Sheet for you to download and use at your next party.  Have fun, we will be checking the mail for an invite!

      (Click to download)

Thanks to russandlori for the photo!

 

Homemade binoculars

What will you see?

ADDED August 12, 2009

Quick craft today that will pair great with yesterdays activity.  Make some binoculars for your lunch on a lifeboat.  We are big fans of recycling and this craft accomplishes what we try and do everyday here at TIF, take something that is mundane, even useless and transform it into something entertaining, enchanting and educational.  What better way to help your kids spot pirates, sea monster or the dreaded land shark than with some binoculars?  Here is how it's done (if you need directions).

All you need is some tubes from T.P. or paper towels, rubber bands and string.  

Bind the tubes together using the rubber bands. Thread the string through so the binoculars can hang comfortably around your kids neck.  And use!

That is it! Simple, easy and makes use of something your would otherwise throw away.  Happy spying!

 

Lunch on a Lifeboat

Watch out for sharks!

ADDED August 11, 2009

I like the word "lifeboat."  It seems hopeful word; no matter how bad things get, a lifeboat can always save me.  And if you are seeking entertainment today for your kids, try this activity.   It just might save you.

 

 

Spread a blanket out on the floor and tell your kids that the blanket is a lifeboat.  Everything will have to be on the boat or it doesn't make the trip.  So they should get a book to read, a blanket, and anything else that will help them on their "voyage."   If your kids are anything like mine, the lifeboat will kind of full and sitting rather low in the water.

Here are a few fun activities you can use to make your lifeboat adventure fun:

Lunch on the Lifeboat:  Have the kids wait on their raft while you are making lunch and then "swim" their meal out to them when it is ready. Just make sure that the sharks don't eat your food!
Rest on the lifeboat:  Spread out the raft in your kids room during rest time (I don't expect too much actual resting to be done.)  Close the door and let the gentle ocean breezes float them off to dream land.
Sail the lifeboat to a far off land:  Have your kids ever flown anywhere in a plane? If they have, then why not pretend to sail there in your lifeboat?  If they have not flown anywhere, look at a map and pick an exotic destination.  (Land-locked countries could pose a challenge, I suppose.)

Whatever you choose to do, it is always fun to break up the routine.  And lunch on a lifeboat may be just that.  Have fun!

Thanks to gurms and admitone for the inspirational photos!

Marble drop

How quiet can you make it?

ADDED August 10, 2009

We have wood floors at our house, so dropping anything on the floor is loud. My kids are big fans of marbles, and occasionally someone will drop a box of marbles onto the wood floor.  I will admit that the sound of 50 marbles dropping is kind of cool, but I don't encourage it because the clean-up is rather tedious. 

 

We here at TIF international headquarters have developed a fun, scientific hypothesis experiment game based on falling marbles, floors, and the silence all parents dream of. The idea is to try and drop one marble and not make a sound. 

You will need pillows, blankets, stuffed animals and anything else that will cushion the marbles' fall. Once these items are gathered, you simply need to drop a marble onto the floor and see if it makes a sound.  The trick is to use as little of these sound-dampening elements as possible.  Obviously, if you use blankets, pillows, and heavy winter jackets, the marble will not make a sound.  But if you use one tissue, a pot holder, and a t-shirt, will it make a sound?  Experimentation is the only way to know -- and thankfully, the kids at my house are ready at any time to drop anything repeatedly.  An added benefit to this game is that to play properly, you need complete silence so your little ones will want to keep it down.

Hopefully, with this activity we have answered the age old question, "If a kid drops a marble on a wood floor will the parent hear it?"  Try it with your kids today!

 

A Whole Lotta Dots (a.k.a. Up with Pointillism)

A fun art activity . . . that's the whole point!

ADDED August 07, 2009

 

 

Length:  Thirty minutes to an hour.

Parental Involvement:  Explain "dots-only."  Let the kids have at it.

Kids Should Be Able to:  Use markers or crayons. 

 

This is such a great idea – if you'll excuse a brief moment of self-congratulations -- that we're surprised we haven't suggested it before.

Thank you again for bearing with our tooting of our own horns.  And now, down to business:

If your kids are anything like mine, they draw and color practically every day.  My kids just love their markers and crayons!  They also love it when I give them a specific activity to do with their art stuff.  And they even like when I give them some "rules."

Today's rule is:  dots only!  No other type of drawing will be permitted.

What kind of art can your child produce while doing just dots?  Well, quite a bit, actually.  (Check out the work of Seurat, the acclaimed French master of "dots-only" art.

You can challenge your older kids by asking them to produce "complicated" images using just dots.  Also, you can "commission" specific works of art.. . .

Kid Customer Satisfaction Survey

How do you like that? (Or rather, how much do you like that? On a scale from 1 to 5?)

ADDED August 06, 2009

 

Length:  Thirty-ish minutes

Parental Involvement:  Print the sheet.  Explain the idea.  Let the kids do their thing and, later, review their answers with them.

Kids Should Be Able to:  Think about their lives.  Make judgments about their preferences.

 

The other day, I took some of the Today is Fun crew out to dinner.  When we were all done eating, the waitress brought the bill (oh, joy) and another slip of paper:  a satisfaction survey.

 

I don't really mind participating in satisfaction surveys.  In fact, I have opinions, and I'm always happy to share them!

When my kids saw me filling out the form, they were curious.  What was I doing?  When I explained, they immediately wanted in.  They had opinions about our dining experience, too.

As it turned out, we had accidentally been given 2 surveys, so I let them fill one out, too.  My boys especially liked choosing a number between one and five to grade their time in the restaurant.

And that got me thinking...why not create a satisfaction survey geared specifically for kids?  What are your kids' thoughts and feelings about their world?  And wouldn't it be fun for them to tell you?

Unlike the restaurant questionnaire, though, we don't want your kids to rate you in any way.  You're a parent and beloved family member, period.  We don't want them to rate anything about you or your parenting.  We don't want to know how much they liked breakfast today, for instance.  As far as we're concerned, all devoted and loving parents get a five out of a possible five!

But we are interested in other aspects of their lives.   On a scale from from one to five, how much does your child enjoy:

Renting DVDs and watching the movies on them?
Drinking a milkshake?
Playing with a dog or cat?
Singing a song?
Helping you wash the car?
Helping you make dinner?
Swinging?

The goal here is to get kids reflecting on their preferences in life, and also to transforming those thoughts into a number from one to five.

(Just so we're all clear:  this is meant to be a fun, positive activity.  If kids start "hating on" everything, or just being negative about the questions -- or about other kids' responses to the questions -- well, that's not the point.  Try to emphasize aspects of these things that your child does like.  A little negativity goes a long way.  And frankly, negativity is pretty boring, if you want my opinion.)

Oh, and one more thing, we've created a free, downloadable and printable questionnaire for your child, with 30 questions .  Click here, print, and ask away!

We hope you enjoy today's activity.  We also hope that you're a satisfied customer, and that you'd rate our website, Today is Fun, as a five out of five!

(Thanks to sun dazed for the five star thumbs up image, too!)

 

 

Advanced Animal Guessing

Fire Up Kids' Critical Thinking Skills

ADDED August 05, 2009

Length:  Thirty to forty-five minutes

Parental Involvement:  Explain the idea.  Participate in the thinking and the guessing.

Kids Should Be Able to:  Think about aspects of animals.  Guess. 

We will tell you that today's fun kid activity is a game -- and indeed it is.  But there is so much more here lurking beneath the surface.  We're really getting kids to look at things a bit differently.  Also, today we are going to study the details that make up the bigger picture.

Oh, and we haven't yet announced:  today's activity comes with a free download.  Click here to get the guessing sheet we've made, then print and go.

Once you've got our free, fabulous activity sheet all printed out, you can explain the concept to your little one. 

 

Back to the Stone Age!

No functioning time machine necessary!

ADDED August 04, 2009

 

Length:  Thirty to forty-five minutes

Parental Involvement:  Explain and lead the excursion outside.  Make sure the kids don't hurt their fingers on the rocks!

Kids Should Be Able to:  Follow directions, manipulate cumbersome objects, and exercise a bit of care around "biggish" rocks.

We like to talk with our kids about "super olden days."

(In case you haven't read this concept here before, "olden days" means the time before your kids were born.  The 1980's?  Olden days.  Your wedding?  Olden days.  And so on.  But at some, admittedly vague point, olden days become "super olden days."  This is the time so long ago it's hard for kids to imagine or place it in any meaningful chronology.  We're talking about kings and castles, the Roman Empire, and definitely dinosaurs.)

In super olden days, there were many, many things that had not yet been invented.  For example, the car, the microwave oven, and Hanna Montana  did not exist!  And a long, long time ago, people also didn't have metal tools.

This was, in case you've forgotten 8th grade history, the "Stone Age."  That was the time before metal tools, when people used stone ones.

As it turns out, stone tools aren't half bad, and that's what today's activity is all about.

First, give your kids a brief explanation of the paragraphs above:  a long time ago, et cetera, et cetera, no metal tools (and no Hanna Montana.)  Tell them the only tools people used were made out of stone.

Next, take the activity outside.  Bring along a piece of scratch paper or two. The kids are in charge of finding two "biggish" rocks (that is, rocks that are about as large as the kids' hands -- rocks that they're just able to pick up and hold.)

You guys will now turn these big rocks into tools.  What can you guys accomplish with two big rocks?

Well, there are two simple things you can do with two biggish rocks:  cutting and grinding.

Have your kids try cutting first.  To do this, put the piece of scratch paper on the ground and have your child cut it with a rock.  As you'll all soon see, a rock is not exactly a precision cutting tool!  Instead of making a clean cut, your child will most likely shred all or part of the paper.  That's okay!  It's a good chance to teach the word "shred," and it also shows how difficult simple tasks were before metal!  If your kid has achieved less-than-perfect cutting results, have them try to find a "cutting edge" on the rock.   Tell your young one to try to make a straight cut in the scratch paper with this edge.  Hopefully, the results will be better -- but they won't be perfect.  (Again, that's okay!  We're not using "perfect" tools today!)

The next task we're going to do is grinding.  Typically, rocks are a lot better at grinding than they are at cutting; it's just the way they're "made."  Put one of the biggish rocks on the ground, and then stick a piece of the (possibly shredded) scratch paper on top.  Hold the other rock and use it to grind the paper up.  (That is, between the rocks!)  The results won't be perfect again, but again, that's okay.

(And please be careful of all little fingers and toes during biggish rock play.  Somebody could get hurt!)

Here are two more quick thoughts on grinding with biggish rocks.  First, in a way, these rocks are like molars, right?  You could use this activity to talk about molars and how they grind up food in our mouths.  Secondly, did you know that alligators swallow some large stones that stay in their stomachs and help them digest food?  It's true!  (And frankly, a little bit gross.)

We hope that you and your kids enjoy playing with Stone Age tools today.  Please remember that Stone Age tools are a bit limited, though.  Especially if you're going to be hanging a picture or doing any other kind of home improvement work in my house!

(Thanks to Dennis Wong for the "kid's hand with rocks" photo, and to Ryan Somma for the rather surly-looking alligator shot!)

Many Book Madness

We're not kidding. It's madness!

ADDED August 03, 2009

 

Length:  Thirty minutes, more or less.

Parental Involvement:  Explain the activity.  Participate if you want!  (But kids can do it without you, too.)  

Kids Should Be Able to:  Basic reading is great, but not necessary.  Kids should be able to look at pictures and create simple stories.

 

If you've been visiting our blog even occasionally, you probably know some of our favorite things:

 

(1)  Books and reading
(2)  Creativity and imagination
(3)  Fun

and finally:

 

(4)  Madness!

 

(By madness, I mean joyful, energetic craziness.  And in case I'm not doing a good job expressing myself, it's supposed to be a good thing.)

Today's activity is meant to get kids reading.  It's also supposed to rev up their imaginations and their creative instincts!  (Oh, and it's quite simple, too.)

Have your child go to the bookshelf and choose five random books -- or seven, or nine.  (For some reason, I think an odd number of books works better for this activity.)

Your kid should spread the books out on a bed, table, or the floor.  Then have your little one open each book to any random page.  Next, you guys should read each opened random page out loud.

Do the pages make any sense whatsoever when you guys read them back to back?  Probably not a lot of sense, but maybe a little.

You don't have to work too hard to make sense of the random pages.  Either you'll see a connection or you won't.  Even better, maybe the budding bright minds will spot a connection or story that you missed!  (Parents have enough work during the day as it is.  Let the kids figure out the story!)

Here is an example many-book story session for you.  We randomly flipped to these pages...

 

From these pages, my kids decided the story was this:  Some kids were bored.  They looked out their front window and saw some bears walking down the street.  The bears were wearing hats: a  blue one, a green one, and a red one.  (And oops, one of the bears tripped and fell.)  Then, the bears got into cars and swerved, curved and. . .