Stuck Inside?  Cooler weather means more time inside, but it doesn’t have to mean endless hours of screen time and sibling squabbles. Check out eight of our favorite activities for indoor family fun and turn your next winter day indoors into memories your family won’t soon forget!1. Classic Card Games – From Go Fish and Old Maid to Concentration or even Spoons, card games are a great way to spend time together, as a family. And all you need is a deck of cards (and some spoons)![caption id="attachment_5097" align="alignnone" width="600"] Photo Credit: signupgenius.com[/caption] 2. Sardines – You may have forgotten but you’ll soon remember what fun it is to hide and seek! One person hides while the rest cover their eyes and count to 30, then let the hunt begin! Find the hidden one and join them until everyone’s hiding – together! Then choose a new hider and start all over again.3. Sculptapalooza – Add a bit of creativity to your together time with Sculptalooza™  the fast-paced, laugh-out-loud family game! Work together to guess what your teammate has sculpted out of squishy, squashy, Playfoam® before time runs out. No one likes reading directions, so watch this super fun tutorial on how to play![embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhS_Ah5NqFo&t=37s[/embed]4. Storytelling Circle – Sit in a circle. Someone starts a story with a single word, the next person adds another, and so on, until a silly story begins to take shape. Guaranteed to get you giggling, this game encourages creativity and teaches flexibility and thinking on your toes!5. Make a Fort and Read – Gather your pillows, blankets, and chairs (tip – chip clips are a great way to keep things in place) and design your own family fort! Then climb on in with your favorite book and a flashlight.[caption id="attachment_5094" align="alignnone" width="620"] Photo Credit: familyeducation.com[/caption]6. Board Games – Board games bring families together and, with Educational Insights’ squeezer games, even preschoolers can get in on the game! Adorable fun for everyone, little ones can practice colors with Sneaky Snacky Squirrel Game®, learn their letters with Frida's Fruit Fiesta™, and master numbers and counting with Shelby's Snack Shack Game®.[caption id="attachment_5096" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Shelby's Snack Shack Game[/caption]7. Treasure Hunt – Take turns hiding something in your house and racing each other to find it. Give one word hints to guide your family closer and closer until you have a winner, who gets to hide the object next![caption id="attachment_5095" align="alignnone" width="300"] Photo Credit: realsimple.com[/caption]8. Charades – Get ready to giggle with a simple game of charades! Everyone writes an act-it-out challenge down on a slip of paper, folds it, and drops it in a bowl. Then, take turns drawing a clue from the bowl, set a timer, and act it out!So let it rain, or snow, or gusty winds blow – you’ll be too busy having fun inside to notice! You can find even more indoor family fun ideas on our Pinterest page.

6 Mesmerizing Sensory Bin Activities for Kids of All Ages

There are so many ways to play with Playfoam Pluffle, but one of the most rewarding ways to get the most out of the mesmerizing, feel-good fluffy stuff is to dig your hands right into a sensory bin! Sensory bins are great, multi-sensory experiences that develop fine motor skills, bilateral coordination (using two hands together), and hand-eye coordination in younger kids and can also be used as a fun way to practice everything from letters and numbers to math and more with older kids. And, of course, they’re a wonderful activity for calming and soothing kids of all ages, particularly for kids experiencing anxiety. Below are a few of our favorite ways to use Playfoam Pluffle as part of a tactically-satisfying sensory bin:

1. Playfoam Pluffle Patterns – Fill two mixing bowls with two different colors of Playfoam Pluffle. Using a spoon and a muffin tin, show your little one how to spoon the first color of Playfoam Pluffle out of one bowl and into the first muffin hole, then swap to the other bowl and hole, repeating to form an A/B color pattern.

2. Playfoam Pluffle Fishing – Hide small objects, such as the acorns from The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game!®, the bones from Shelby's Snack Shack Game® or colorful buttons in a bin full of Playfoam Pluffle, then use the squeezers, a pair of child-safe tweezers or a scoop to pull them out. The Helping Hands Fine Motor Tool Set™, is a fantastic set for little hands. Practice sorting the objects by color or size to squeeze in some early math skills.[caption id="attachment_5072" align="alignnone" width="680"] Photo Credit: @my_three_little_strawberries[/caption]

3. Playfoam Pluffle-bet – Hide plastic or magnetic letters or numbers in a large plastic bin full of Playfoam Pluffle. Little ones can use their hands or a magnet to dig out a letter and show it to you – you can say its name and the sound it makes. Help older kiddos find the letters in their names, think of words that start with that letter, or set the letters out on the floor in alphabetical order as they find them.

4. Playfoam Pluffle Tubes – Remove about ¼ of the Playfoam Pluffle from its tube, then add plastic toys like insects or fish, buttons, bells, etc. We added carrots from Hoppy Floppy’s Happy Hunt™ Game. Shake the tube to mix them in, then have your little one roll and twist the tube to find as many hidden objects as they can. Talk about what they’ve found using descriptive vocabulary and try counting them as the objects are discovered. Great for on-the-go fun!

5. Playfoam Pluffle Funds – Bury some cash (use plastic coins and paper money if you’d prefer, like the those from our Play Money Coins and Bills set) in a bin of Playfoam Pluffle. Then, let your kids use their fingers, child-safe tweezers or our preschool game squeezers to make it a little trickier, to extract the money. Younger kids can count the number of coins they have; older kids can add up their value. Play against a sibling or friend to see who has more and who has less.

6. Playfoam Pluffle Excavation – Hide different types of rocks, minerals, and fossils, like those found in our Complete Rock and Mineral Set, in a bin of Playfoam Pluffle. Use plastic tongs or tweezers to excavate each item from the Pluffle and a paintbrush or basting brush to clean them off. Can your kids identify the specimen?  As a bonus, they may want to inspect their findings under a microscope.

 

Maybe it’s your favorite teacher’s apple earrings (or mug or sweater) or the apples you’re slicing for your kid’s lunchbox, but come fall, it seems like apples are seriously everywhere. Make the most of this sweet-smelling season – and celebrate National Apple Day (October 21) – with two of our favorite at-home apple-tivities.Apple Taste Test – An at-home apple taste test is fun for the whole family AND an easy way to practice some key early-learning skills, too. Start with whole apples of several different varieties (or at least one of each color).[caption id="attachment_5044" align="aligncenter" width="551"] Photo Credit: jdaniel4smom.com[/caption]

• Sort the apples by size and color. Talk about their shapes and textures using descriptive words like smaller, bigger, round, smooth, and bumpy.
• Cut one apple in half and show your kids that two parts make a whole. Then cut those halves in half and reassemble your apple to demonstrate how quarters make halves and halves make a whole.
• Help your tiny taster spell each variety of apple out on separate paper plates.
• Slice the remaining apples and place them on the corresponding plates.
• Let each child try a slice of each type of apple and select their favorite type, making a mark on that plate. Talk about the taste of the apples using descriptive vocabulary like sweet, tart, and juicy.
• Tally up the totals on the plates to see which type of apple got the most votes. Consider creating a simple chart with the name of each apple across the bottom, the number of testers along the vertical side, and the number of votes tallied above each apple name each to visually demonstrate the results. Or use the free tastes-test cards created by our friends at jdaniel4smom.com to track your family’s favorites!

Apple Stamper Art – Save any bruised or older apples and make some awesome apple art!

• Cut several apples in half horizontally and let them dry for a few hours.
• Pour some tempera paint onto a paper plate – red, green, and yellow are great colors for apple art, but, of course, feel free to get creative.
• Show your kids how to place the apple half into the paint, then lift and press firmly onto a sheet of construction paper or paper bag.
• Make single apple prints or print them in a circle or star shape or stamp them into a painted tree, like the creative mama at living well.com did. Use a paint brush to add the apple’s stem.
• Turn these hand-made treasures into note cards and send them to the grandparents or other loved ones or write a special thank you to your kiddo’s teacher.

[caption id="attachment_5047" align="alignnone" width="574"] Photo credit livingwellmom.com[/caption]Speaking of teachers, why DO we give apples to teachers? I mean, they’re delicious little self-contained snacks, but why not oranges or bananas? Word is, several centuries ago, Scandinavian parents paid their children’s teachers with baskets of apples. Those teachers must have made a lot of pie!Be sure to visit our Fun Fall Activities Pinterest Board for more edu-taining activity ideas!

Fun Fall Leaf Activities & A Simple Explanation for Color Changing Leaves

Your curious kiddo has probably noticed the changing colors of the leaves that mark the beginning of fall. Color changing leaves are pretty magical, but the science behind the magic is so simple that even the littlest leaf lovers can understand!Start by explaining that trees grow and thrive by eating, just like kids do. Trees happen to eat glucose, which they make all by themselves, using water from the ground, carbon dioxide from the air, and sunshine from the sky. Plants put this recipe together in their leaves, which contain something called chlorophyll, which happens to be green. You can tell a plant is “full” of good, healthy food when its leaves are green. But as winter approaches, the sun shines less than it does in summer and it’s harder for the trees to make their “food”. The less food a plant makes, the less green chlorophyll it has, and the more you can see the yellow, orange, and red colors that were there all along, covered by the green.You can bring this mini-science lesson to life with fun arts and crafts using beautiful fall leaves! We’ve compiled four awesome projects from some of our favorite bloggers below:

• Doodled Autumn Leaf Mandala – Check out this gorgeous piece of fall wall art, made of kid-doodled leaves arranged in a mandala shape, from our friends at The Artful Parent!
• Sticky Picture Frame – Make your fall leaves last forever by capturing them in sticky paper and framing them with sturdy twigs collected on a nature walk! Find step by step instructions at NurtureStore.
• Lovely Leaf Prints – Make colorful leaf prints using a press and print method perfect for preschoolers, as outlined by the experts at the Kleas preschool!
• Classic Leaf Rubbings – Pour some warm cups of cider and settle in for an old school leaf rubbing session using just leaves, paper, and crayons, with our friends at Hands On As We Grow!And don’t forget to check out the leaves up-close you’ve collected underneath your GeoSafari® Jr. My First Microscope! With a bright LED light, easy-focus knob, and two extra-large eyepieces, your child will view the leaf’s veins magnified 8x larger!

The Story of Blurt!® Word GameBy Tim Walsh, Inventor

On a beautiful spring day in 1993, I found myself in a 3rd-grade classroom at Gocio Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, surrounded by a horde of 8-year olds who WOULD…NOT…LISTEN. You see, my girlfriend at the time was a teacher and she asked me to come in and read to some students, while she took some other kids out of the classroom for year-end testing. I was failing miserably at that prescribed task. Did I mention it was a beautiful day at the end of a long school year? These kids were done. No matter what book I pulled off the shelf, my attempts to read from it elicited groans of displeasure.Then something amazing happened. In desperation, I pulled a children's dictionary off the shelf. To this day, I don't know why. I turned to the first page and said, "Who can tell me what the word is for… The nut of an oak tree?" Without hesitation, one precocious kid yelled out, "Oaknut!" I said, "No, it's an acorn, but that's funny." I scanned the next few pages for another word and read its definition. "OK, what's the word for… a book of maps?" Another kid, who I didn't think was even paying attention, said, "Atlas!" before anyone else. The kid who had yelled out "Oaknut" a moment earlier, was miffed he'd been bested. And just like that, the power of play revealed itself to me. ALL the kids scooted closer and waited, quite literally, with bated breath. I had their rapt attention. What sorcery was this? Only seconds earlier, they wanted nothing to do with anything I was saying and now? Well now, the race was on.I turned a few more pages and found myself in the B section of the dictionary. I read, "The first meal of the day." That precocious kid blurted out, "WAFFLES!" I said, "No, the word I was looking for was – another kid blurted out, "Breakfast!" I smiled, partly because all the kids were smiling, and partly because the enthusiastic answer of "waffles!" was just hilarious.Right then and there, the seeds of a great game were sown – a game with definitions printed on cards, with a board as a score-keeping mechanism. All you had to do was listen carefully and be first to answer correctly to move ahead.I called it DeFUNitions and made a prototype for the game. Looking back at that hand-made box, I can honestly say, it looked pretty bad. "Pick a color, would ya?!" The cards were all hand typed and the board – glued together with colored paper. Yet, the game, as rough as it was, played well. All the friends I recruited with promises of free drinks and snacks, not only enjoyed it but asked to play a second and third time. All ages seemed to like it, not just the kids who inspired it. However, it wasn't all good news.I found that certain players who were more facile verbally could easily run away with the game. So I added a play mechanic called the One-on-One, where you can send a player back on the board if you're able to beat them toe-to-toe. Another suggestion made repeatedly by play-testers was a name-change. Indeed my teacher-girlfriend warned me, "I don't think you want to use a misspelled word as the name of a word game, do you?" It was made clear to me that DeFUNitions was out, but then what to call it? At the time, a game called Outburst was popular. That name always struck me as negative. Outbursts were not pleasant, but when someone "blurts" something out? That was often funny. But surely the name Blurt had to already be trademarked by some game company, right? It was so simple, punchy and fun. The name was so good, I was certain that the United States Patent & Trademark Office had erred when they granted me the trademark. Incredulously, Blurt! (with the exclamation mark to boot!) was mine.Not so fastI pitched the revised prototype to Hasbro, Mattel, Western Publishing and several other toy companies, and all of them passed on the game. Finally, in 1994, a company called Patch Products agreed to give the game a try and Blurt was published. It started slow, but soon word of mouth began to build the game's audience. It was no surprise that teachers loved the game for its ability to engage kids and improve vocabulary, but early in Blurt's trajectory, it was clear that adults were playing it too... as a party game. The things that people blurted out in an effort to be first were often quite funny. Eventually Toys ‘R Us, then Target, then Wal-Mart and K-Mart, all bought Blurt! National TV and radio shows played the game. We released a travel version, a Bible version, and a card game. Before we knew it, we had eclipsed 1,000,000 copies sold!The heart and soul of the game's success were teachers and in 1997 we were able to donate $50,000 to Literacy Volunteers of America to help in their effort to help people all over the U.S. learn to read.As the game's trajectory continued upward, it was only a matter of time before a larger game company came calling. In 1999, Mattel purchased the licensing rights to the game from Patch Products and I. It was a three-way negotiation that took some time to complete, but we got there. I was poised for a new era to begin – an era that saw the Blurt game sold alongside Barbie.It never happened. The Blurt/Mattel era is a toy tale for another time, but suffice it to say that when the rights reverted to me, the game had been completely off the market for nearly 4 years.Educational InsightsWith all momentum gone, there was a very short list of game companies I trusted to bring Blurt back. I had decided to take the game to its roots, and so I needed a company that spoke the language of parents and teachers. Enter Educational Insights. The General Manager of E.I., Lisa Guili, and her team "got" the game from the get-go. After months of reworking the game for a new audience, we relaunched Blurt at the International Toy Fair in New York.Toy Fair was only the start. Educational Insights continued the effort throughout the entire year, sending me on a Blurt tour along the west coast of the US. I met with enthusiastic toy and game store owners who had missed the game and were thrilled to have it back. It was one of the highlights of my career in the toy industry, getting to meet so many Blurt fans. One of my favorite events was a fair where we created a Blurt game show and pitted friends and family against one another for a chance to win a free game. It was so fun!As the game continued to sell, I was happy to get stores like Teacher Heaven in Texas to promote the fun. Over the years, many radio stations played Blurt with their listeners and gave games away. Here's a clip of a great day in Lubbock, Texas from 2010. It started at KLLL radio and ended up at the Grand Opening of Teacher Heaven where we played Blurt with everyone in the store.Last year I experienced a rare moment of reflection and gratitude at the fun that Blurt has brought to so many people over the years. Here in Sarasota Florida, where I live and where Blurt was born, I had the opportunity of a lifetime, thanks to the marketing team at Educational Insights. Earlier in the year, I received an excited call from E.I. General Manager, Lisa Guili, who informed me (after swearing me to secrecy) that Blurt was scheduled to become a kids' meal prize at Chick-fil-A stores nationally! What a gift to have something I designed promoted to families across the country! So in February of last year, exactly 11 miles from Gocio Elementary, where Blurt was conceived 24 years prior, I had the out-of-body experience of driving through our Sarasota Chick-fil-a and buying a kids' meal for myself. Of course, I recorded it!So it's 2019 and the humble little game that came out of a classroom celebrates 25 years of word racing and vocabulary building. What a privilege to still get contacted by fans of the game who thank me for creating something they love to play. I once got a letter from an architect who wanted to tell me that Blurt was his favorite game "growing up." That made me feel thankful… and old! When a game is on the market for a few decades, a second generation of fans can discover it. How cool is that? I am grateful to have discovered the power of play. Blurt!® has now sold over a million and a quarter copies, educating countless kids and entertaining countless big kids.And I owe it all to a group of boisterous third-graders, and that fateful moment when play saved the day.

Those sweet days of summer are behind us and the kids are back in school. Help set them up for success from the get-go with our top tips for supporting progress in language arts and math!1. Read! Read to your kids, with your kids, listen to them read to you, and model reading on your own. The more they read, the better their language skills and vocabulary, critical thinking skills, and ability to concentrate. Heck, reading even supports empathy and boosts curiosity. And, of course, reading is a great way to introduce kids to all kinds of new topics.2. Talk! Share the details of your day with your kids and ask about theirs. The more they hear you discussing the order and flow, interactions, and experiences you’ve had, the better they’ll get at articulating their own. Use humor and ask open-ended questions like, “What was the first thing you did in the classroom today?”, “What made you feel proud today?”, and “What did you and your friends do on the playground?” Repeat what your child told you in your own words – this not only shows you’re listening, but also introduces new vocabulary words! Try not to correct their pronunciation or speech patterns, just respond enthusiastically and be engaged in their efforts.3. Play! There are so many ways to slip early math practice into your everyday experiences. Count the crackers on the snack plate, cut an apple in four to demonstrate a whole/half/quarters, and arrange the fruits in your fruit bowl in size order. Sort the socks by color, then match them up – older kids can count the socks and divide the pile into two. Bake cookies together and let your kids get a sense of measurement and volume. Count front doors and stop signs on your walks. Estimate the number of steps from the car to the house or the number of Cheerios in the bowl. You get the idea.4. Explore! Give kids the tools they need to practice what they’re learning at school on their own using engaging, interactive products like:

• Hot Dots® Jr. Let’s Master Math and Reading sets! Available for grades Pre-K through 3, these sets include 100 grade-specific, interactive lessons perfect for independent learning.
• Hot Dots® Jr. Highlights™ On-The-Go! Learn My ABC’s and Learn My 123s sets or the Succeeding in School with Highlights™ set! Each set features Highlights’ traditional puzzles and games coupled with age-appropriate learning.

No matter the set you choose, each one features fun, full-color question cards or books packed with grade-appropriate challenges. Each set also comes with an adorable, interactive pen that gives an immediate audio and visual response as soon as kids press it to an answer dot, enabling them to learn and explore at their own pace and providing a sense of confidence and accomplishment.5. Applaud Progress, Not Perfection! Your kids are just starting down a lifelong path of learning. Rather than expecting them to know it all, encourage them to always do their best, applaud what they do know, and celebrate any progress they make. Supporting a Growth Mindset will teach your kids that there’s nothing they can’t master – now and for the rest of their lives.With a loving heart, a bit of planning, and the right tools up your sleeve, there’s lots you can do to support your little one’s academic growth and development at home. Together you can do it! ❤️

A brief history of some of our favorite outdoor playthings.Whether due to inclement winter weather or endless hours of electronics, we’ve all spent more than enough time inside this year. But spring has sprung and it’s time to get outside and play! If you feel a little rusty, don’t worry – the play experts at EI have put together a crash course on some of the classic outdoor playthings you may have forgotten about during your hibernation. From hula hoops to hopscotch, we present a brief history, along with some little-known facts, about your favorite outdoor playthings. Did your fave make our list?Riding Bikes – Bikes have been around since the early 1800’s. Invented by the Germans and named by the French, the first bicycle had no pedals – riders sat on a seat and pushed the bike along with their feet. Necessity was the mother of this invention, as many horses, a common mode of transportation before the bike, were dying of starvation due wide-spread crop failure.Skateboarding – Turns out Marty McFly wasn’t far off! The skateboard actually owes its popularity to surfing – skating on a board with roller skates underneath was a way to “surf the sidewalk” when there were no waves. The first skateboards were made and sold in L.A. by a surf shop owner who ordered skate wheels and attached them to wooden boards.Pogo Stick – The first batch of wooden pogos to hit U.S. soil rotted on the ship ride over, so Gimbles Department Store asked a local toy designer to create a more durable jumping stick. Popularity of his version sky rocked after being featured in the Ziegfeld Follies and today’s Xpogo athletes reach heights of 10 feet and perform incredible stunts at professional pogo events like Pogopalooza.Hula Hoop – Although modern-day toy manufacturer Wham-O is credited with launching the hula hoop in the U.S., its history goes a bit further back. To ancient Greece, actually. There’s evidence that the Greeks used hula hoops to work their abs. We’re not that surprised. They did bring us the Olympics…Hopscotch (and it’s very best buddy, Sidewalk Chalk) – Speaking of ancient civilizations, it is thought that we can thank the Romans for hopscotch! This classic game of tossing and hopping was first recorded as “Scotch Hoppers” and is still played by children around the world (Cuban kids know the game as Pon). The first hopscotch squares were etched out using tiles, coal, or chalk, all of which became scarce during WWII. Now street painters use colored chalk and even 3-D glasses to bring amazing works of art to life.The fact that some of our favorite playthings have been around for several centuries isn’t that surprising. After all, people have been playing outside since the dawn of time, so we’ve had plenty of time to perfect it! You can find additional outdoor play ideas on our Pinterest board. What’s your family’s favorite way to play?