Tagged with 'Exploration'

Little kids wake up rarin’ to go! Race into the day with them with these delicious breakfast ideas that pair perfectly with their favorite preschool games:The Sneaky Snacky Squirrel goes nuts for muffins and your kids will, too! Start the day by whipping up a batch of these fun, fantastic finger foods – together!Ingredients:• 3-4 ripe bananas• 1 ½ cups flour• 1 tsp baking powder• 1 tsp baking soda• ½ tsp salt• ¾ cup white sugar• 1 egg• 1/3 cup butter, melted• ½ cup chopped walnutsBake-It-Together Instructions:1. You - Preheat oven to 350 degrees.2. Your Little One – Place a paper muffin liner in each cup of your muffin tin.3. You – Sift the flour, baking powder, soda, and salt together and set aside.4. Your Little One – Use a fork or potato masher to mash up the bananas in a plastic bowl.5. You – Use a mixer to blend the bananas, sugar, egg, and butter; slowly add the flour mixture and mix until smooth.6. Your Little One – Use a plastic spatula to blend the walnuts into the muffin mixture.7.  You – Fill your muffin cups ¾ full and bake 25-30 minutes (10-15 minutes for mini muffins) or until muffins spring back when tapped.While You Wait:Enjoy a round or two of The Sneaky Snacky Squirrel Game!®, practicing colors, building fine motor skills, and enjoying some special together time with your favorite early riser.Benefits:Bananas help build lean muscle, fend off diseases, support healthy eyes and vision, promote a good night’s sleep, and help your body fight stress, anxiety, and depression. And the riper the banana, the stronger its powers, so dig into these muffins and reap those ripe banana benefits! 

Fun-loving Frida can’t get enough of her favorite fruit salad! Check out our list of kid-friendly fruits below and let your little one help rinse, chop (butter knives only, please), scoop, and arrange your family’s own version of Frida’s Fruit Fiesta!Fruits for You to Prepare:• Strawberries – Remove the tops and bottoms, then quarter.• Grapes – Let your little ones pull them from the stem, then you cut them in half.• Pineapple – Slice off the top and bottom, trim the skin and remove the eyes, slice into small chunks.• Peaches – Halve the peach, remove the pit, and slice.Fruits for Your Kids to Prepare:• Bananas – Kids can slice whole bananas into pieces using a butter knife.• Melon – Let your little one loose with the melon baller!• Blueberries – Rinse and pat dry.• Raspberries – Rinse and pat dry.Once you’ve chosen and prepared your fruits, let your little one dump them into a large plastic bowl and mix – you may want to add yogurt or sprinkle a bit of sugar on top. Serve and enjoy!When You’re Done:Challenge your fruit-fueled little friends to a round of Frida’s Fruit Fiesta Game™! Spin the spinner, find the matching letter, use the squeezers to pick it up (and build those fine motor skills!) and place it in your nest. As you play, remind your kiddo of the fruits they just ate that match the letter sounds they’re finding – B – buh - banana!Benefits:Fruits, especially berries, can improve brain function and memory, build strong bones, aid in digestion, protect the body from disease, lower cholesterol, heal wounds, and even revitalize the skin!

 

Kids with crazy energy love the Pancake Pile-Up!™ Relay Game! Fuel their physical fun with a homemade pancake breakfast that you make together.Ingredients:• 1 ½ cups flour• 3 ½ tsp baking powder• 1 tsp salt• 1 tbs sugar• 1 ¼ cups milk• 1 egg• 3 tbs butter, meltedInstructions:1. Measure the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar into a bowl. Let your little one slowly stir to sift the ingredients together.2. Make a hole in the center of the ingredients for the milk, egg, and butter and mix until smooth.3. Heat your griddle or frying pan and prime with a bit of butter or cooking spray.4. Scoop ¼ cup of batter out of the bowl and pour onto pan.5. When you see bubbles forming on the up-side of your pancake, flip it over and cook the bottom until browned.6. Stack your pancakes on a plate, covering with a dish towel to keep them warm until ready to eat.Serve with your family’s favorite Pancake Pile-Up Relay Game-inspired toppings! Choose from butter, syrup, strawberries, blueberries, bananas, or even chocolate chips and get ready to chow down!When You’re Done:When your family is all fueled up, burn that breakfast off with a round of Pancake Pile-Up! Divide into teams and turn over an order card to see the order of your pancake pile. Then race to the other side of the room, use the included spatulas to scoop the correct pancake onto your plate, and race back to pass off your plate to the next player. The first team to correctly complete their stack – and top it with a pat of butter – wins!Benefits:The Pancake Pile-Up! ™ Relay Game helps kids develop important gross motor skills, balance, and coordination and teaches kids to follow a pattern – a key early math skill! Eating breakfast has big-time benefits, too, like providing energy to start your day, improving behavior, increasing the ability to learn and focus, and promoting weight management. It’s the icing on the (pan)cake!

The leaves are changing and crisp fall air is upon us…the perfect time to head out into nature! Not only does time spent in nature promote exercise and fresh air (duh), but it has also been shown to build confidence, promote creativity and imagination, and reduce stress and fatigue (we’re all feeling a bit of both these days, no?).  Since we’re all spending more time indoors now, getting out into nature is more important than ever before. (Not to panic you, but Nature Deficit Disorder is actually a real thing.)Fall is the perfect time to get outside and explore! The weather is brisk and cool and there are so many amazing things to discover and do, both on your walk and after, like:Count the Colors!On your walk: Colorful leaves are one of the most amazing things about fall. See if you can spot brown, yellow, orange, red, and multicolored leaves. Take a few of your favorites home with you and…At home: Try printing them in paper clay and painting them, turning them into autumn suncatchers, making crayon rubbings, and more. While your kids are creating, you can share this simple explanation for color-changing leaves (and find other awesome fall leaf activities), from the EI blog. Don’t forget the apple cider!Photo credit: artfulparent.comEI Tip: Leaf peeping is even more fun with the GeoSafari® Jr. Kidnoculars® Extreme™! Kids can magnify what they see AND hear with this set of kid-friendly binoculars featuring 3x magnification and built-in audio amplification.Watch for Critters!On your walk: Stop, stand still (a challenge, we know), stay quiet, and look around. The critters you could see depend on where you’re walking, but you just might spot furry friends like rabbits, groundhogs, and chipmunks. Turn your gaze toward the ground and you see if you can spy any ants (look for the mounded dirt that marks their colonies), stinkbugs, ladybugs, or beetles. Check the trees for woodpeckers, hawks, jays, and squirrels. Watch your heads though – squirrels are scavenging for nuts in the fall!To add to the fun try a scavenger hunt that allows you and your little ones to soak up the sights, sounds and smells of fall! You'll love these free scavenger hunt printables from teachingmama.org. Get out and explore!At home: Check your hunt list and talk about all the things you found, and what you'll be on the lookout for next time. This may help inspire more curious questions and learning fun! Here are 5 Random Fall Facts facts you can add to the mix!EI Tip: If your kids can’t get enough of the amazing, organized activity of ants, bring home the GeoSafari® Ant Factory, an escape-proof ant habitat perfect for observing ants in action. Comes complete with mail-in ant certificate.Scope Out the Spiders!On your walk: Get out into nature early enough on a cool, fall day, and you’ll be rewarded with a spooky spattering of silky spiderwebs! Covered in morning dew, they’re easy to spot in the trees, on the bushes, and suspended between upright objects. With more than 45,000 different species of spiders found around the world, you’re bound to see something pretty cool. (Interesting note – only about a dozen types of spiders can harm humans!) Take the time to inspect their webs and point out the different weaving patterns and…At home: Make your own spider web, using a paper plate, hole punch, kid-safe plastic needle, and yarn, following these simple instructions from JugglingWithKids.com.Photo Credit: jugglingwithkids.comEI Tip: If you find a special spider you’d like to see a little closer, use the GeoSafari® Jr. Critter Habitat to take an up-close look! Built-in magnifiers reveal amazing details, while built-in air holes keep creepy crawlies safe until it’s time to release them back where they were caught.No matter where you walk or what you see, a trip into nature never disappoints! If your kids can’t get enough of nature, check out the brand new GeoSafari® Jr. Talking Wildlife Camera. The camera features 130 amazing wildlife images and speaks 200 fun animal facts in the voice of Robert Irwin. Kids choose between Fact and Quiz mode to test their memories and make nature even more fun. The perfect present for your little nature lover!

Sometimes these days can feel like all work and no play… for you AND your kids! Help your kids escape the screens and stress of at-home learning and get back to the business of play with these awesome, hands-on, activity ideas perfect for after-school playtime!Hands-On Fun for Big KidsThere’s a reason recess is built into the school day – big kids’ brains need a break! Hands-on play improves behavior, develops imagination and creativity, helps kids express their emotions, and so much more.Busy builders can blast into hands-on, building play fun (with a circuit-building STEM twist!) with EI’s brand-new Circuit Explorer sets! Kids follow the arrows to connect the pieces, at the same time connecting circuits that activate lights, sounds, and moving pieces. Get started with the Rocket set, complete with light-up nose cone and nozzles, Space Rover with light-up headlights, and Landing Pad with color-changing lights. Progress to the Rover set and build a Communications Station with a rotating Radar Dish, Power Station with Rover Charger, Powered Space Rover and Freewheeling Space Rover, both with light-up headlights. Then surprise your 3-D, circuit-building sweetie with the Deluxe Base Station, a Deluxe Base Station with circuit-powered Towers, Spinning Diner Sign, Planetarium with color-changing dome light, Voice Synthesizer Station with 10 space sounds, Communication Station with rotating Radar Dish, a Powered Space Rover and a freewheeling Space Rover both with light-up headlights. The perfect holiday gifts, the pieces in each set work with the others for a totally interconnected circuit system, and each set includes pretend play figures perfect for imaginative play. The only circuit-building set with buildable, 3-D pieces, Circuit Explorers are available exclusively on Amazon.com.Puppet shows are another great way to light up your kids’ imaginations! Put those cardboard delivery boxes to use and create a homemade puppet theater following the simple instructions at AskaGranny. Let your big kid decorate the theater using paints and markers, then pull out your puppet collection – or make your own sock puppets or tube puppets -  and act out your kiddo’s favorite book or let them freestyle with a story of their own making. Also, for the ultimate time-saving way to have fun, check out this super simple creative video featuring ways to make puppets out of regular household items and foods! They'll never look at their orange the same way again!Hands-On Fun for PreschoolersUnplugged, hands-on playtime is a must in every preschooler’s day. Hands-on play engages all of a preschooler’s senses, building critical fine motor skills, and exercising problem-solving skills.Design & Drill® Bolt Buddies™ are perfect for hands-on preschool playtime! Kids use snap-together pieces to build the bodies of a Rocket, Racecar, or Recycling Truck, then use a real, working, kid-friendly drill to bolt them together. When the hands-on construction fun is done, use the included driver and pal figurines to play out various pretend play scenarios, encouraging creativity and imagination, too!Slime is also a great hands-on activity for preschoolers! Perfect for sensory stimulation, slime is calming, promotes mindfulness and focus, encourages independent play, and helps build fine motor skills. Find all kinds of easy slime recipes, including MomDot.com’s edible slime, sand slime, rainbow explosion slime, and more, on our Easy SlimeTime Pinterest Board! Or create a homemade batch of party slime to give as an adorable birthday gift or party favor! Add glitter, Playfoam, pool noodles or whatever you fancy to make your batch colorful and textured!Photo credit: MomDot.comHands-On Fun for ToddlersEven though they’re not in school, toddlers are clocking more screen time than ever during this unusual year at home. Hands-on play is a great way to practice basic concepts including shapes, colors, letters, and numbers, develop language skills, and introduce early math concepts like bigger and smaller, shorter and taller, counting, sorting, and matching.The hands-on fun really stacks up with EI’s Bright Basics Nest & Stack Cubes! Kids as young as two can build a 3-foot tall tower by stacking 10 cubes featuring animals, shapes, numerals, quantities, and sweet starry scenes. When they’re done stacking, toddlers can nest each cube inside the next, building visual discrimination, spatial reasoning, fine motor, and early math skills as they play.Sidewalk chalk is a highly-satisfying, hands-on activity perfect for toddlers. Let them choose the colors, then go to town designing their own outdoor works of art. You can join in the fun, drawing everything from rainbows to hopscotch courts, cats, and clouds. Sidewalk paint is a slippery twist on sidewalk chalk and you can make your own! See how at our Home's Cool video tutorial.