Well, as we start to wrap up this little series on open-ended play, I had to include some ways we’ve incorporated everyday things we have around the house into our play and learning. There are so many toys to be found in the kitchen! Outside of the many practical and original uses for items found […]
Open-Ended Costumes
[Open-Ended Play Series, Part 7] PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 PART 4 PART 5 PART 6 (Rich getting baptized by fire into our ‘style’ of homeschooling at my baby sister’s Egyptian Feast.) Our family LOVES to play dress-up. still… Growing up, we had a toybox chock full of wonderful dress-up clothes. Most of the items were […]
Play Silks: Inspiring Creativity
[Open-Ended Play Series, Part 6] I love play silks!!! They are right up there with blocks and, to date, have not resulted in bruises or bloodshed… So maybe that alone, would place them above blocks. And actually now that we’ve owned ours for several years and are getting a bit further into our homeschool journey, I’m […]
Block Play: Building a Child’s Mind
What are you able to build with your blocks? Castles and palaces, temples and docks. Rain may keep raining, and others go roam, But I can be happy building at home. Let the sofa be mountains, the carpet be sea, There I’ll establish a city for me… …Now I have done with it, down let […]
Open-Ended Play: Keep It Simple
[Open-Ended Play Series, Part 4] PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 Wooden stick horses and hockey sticks (aka Revolutionary War musket) see endless hours of play here at our home… And finally, we wrap up how we can help facilitate and protect free-play: 1. protect free-time 2. don’t micro-manage 3. keep it simple In our […]
Extreme Weather – Arizona Style
Dust storms are quite exciting, especially if you happen to actually catch one rolling in towards you! I had to break from my series on Open-Ended play to share some pictures we took when we noticed a big one rolling in yesterday evening as we were getting the kids ready for bed. From our upstairs window, […]