Creative Play & Summer Fun

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

15 Jun 2006 05:00 AM

Getting our kids to play creatively requires more than a little imagination on our parts. Here are a few summer activities that our five year old is doing to keep herself busy, entertained and on the road to learning more about the world around her.

Reading & The Zoo

The first day of summer vacation, we took her to the Dallas Zoo. Among some of the animals we encounter, there was a female giraffe, born in 1973 who is the oldest living female giraffe in captivity. Instead of reading to her where we were going, we handed her the map and let her plot our course. She used a combination of the animal pictures and words on the map to detail where she wanted to go. As we reached each new destination she marked. She would write down a word she saw on the little placards describing the animals in the area.

We used a digital camera to take pictures and once we were home, we printed out the photos. She took her marked up map and newly printed photos and glued them to the various places - creating a picture collage of her zoo visit. If you look at the photo map collage on the wall: she has created a detailed photographic journal of our day at the zoo. She's also glued words under and around the photographs that she can now recognize on sight including giraffe, zebra and rhino.

And the Band Played On

Kids love music and there's plenty of musical toys out there to buy - in fact there are almost too many. So instead of investing a lot of dollars in the different guitars, drums or maracas - teach your child how to make their own.

They'll need:

• A shoe box
• Rubber bands
• Coffee can
• Wooden spoons
• Empty Toilet Paper Rolls
• Some beads
• Construction paper
• Ice cream sticks

Use the coffee can and wooden spoons and you've got a drum. They can beat on the metal side to get the metallic beat or use the plastic lid side up to create a deeper, but less tinny tone.

Wrapping the rubber bands lengthwise around the shoebox creates a guitar - three or four and you can strum away against the opening, letting it increase the sound for them naturally.

Take the construction paper and glue or tape it down to one end of the empty toilet paper roll, fill in the interior with beads and close the other end up the same. Now tape or glue the stick to one end of the sealed roll and once it all dries - start shaking them - instant maracas.

What's great - is they can make their own band instruments and not only do they have fun in the making, wait till they start playing?

*Come back tomorrow and we'll make our own luau materials for a home grown Lilo and Stitch Luau Party!

Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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