Site for Things To Do With Your Family in St. John's

You can find a lot of information on fun, family-friendly things to do around town on the St. John's Mom Blog. You will never think there is nothing to do again! Here is her list of things to do for the last few days of July:

Mon Jul 29  
•Beyond the Backyard & Summer Safari
 •Improv Games (AAMP)
 •SBTS: Julius Caesar
 •Haunted Hike:Sinners & Spirits Tour

Tue Jul 30  
•Beyond the Backyard & Summer Safari
 •Family and Child Care Connections drop-in playgroups - Family Childcare Connections 50 Pippy place, St. Johns
 •Drop in Play Goulds
 •Active Start Playgroup moved outside for Summer
 •Summer Reading Club Storytime -- Explore Music!
 •Family Fun @ The Rooms (Light and Shadow)
 •Summer Concerts at The Hill at Dusk
 •Under The Sea Crafts (AAMP)
 •The Haunted Hike: Ghosties & Ghoulies Tour

Wed Jul 31  
•Ride the Trolley Line (Hop on Hop Off to Historic Locations)
 •Beyond the Backyard & Summer Safari
 •Signal Hill Tattoo (11 AM & 3 PM)
 •Walk Kenny's Pond with L'Association communautaire francophone de Saint-Jean
 •GO! Up, Up and Away
 •Chris LeDrew Visits the Mount Pearl Library
 •Ultimate Frisbee Clinic and Games
 •Free Admission @ The Rooms - The Rooms
 •The Haunted Hike: Ghosties & Ghoulies Tour

For more activities, or for details, follow her calendar here.

Teach & Play - Using Cast & Paint Chalk for Creativity, Reading Strategies and Math Skills!

Discovery Toys recently launched their Summer Flyer filled with creative summer toys and books. One item that is sure to add fun to your days - no matter if it is sunny or raining - is the Cast & Paint Chalk! And, as with most DT products, this kit promotes the development of essential skills in a fun way!

Buy it here (and more besides!)

Now, don't diss chalk before you have a chance to hear about this great kit, or how you can use it! Cast & Paint is more than your average box of side-walk chalk.... the kit contains everything the children need to make 24 colourful chalk pieces in 6 fun shapes... which means mixing ingredients and colour experiments! While children figure they are "just doing crafts" they are actually using their creativity to design their pieces and choose their colour combinations, as well as boosting their comprehension of scientific concepts (states of matter; transformation), perfecting their ability to follow directions (to make the chalk), and learning how colours combine! The chalk mold is re-usable and replacement casting material (non-toxic, by the way) is available to prolong the fun :-)

So, that, in a nut shell, is the rainy-day aspect of the Cast & Paint Chalk kit.... and the benefits it provides while making the chalk.... But there's more! There is SO much you can do with your children outside with chalk on a sunny day! Let's think beyond the standard doodles (which promote creativity!) and hopscotch (number concepts/motor skills!) and consider some of these ides:

Letter Recognition - essential pre-reading skill:

• Alphabet Hopscotch - jump from one letter to another.... have children identify letters as they go.
• Upper-Lower Case match up - fill driveway with the upper and lower letters of the alphabet (don't put the matches TOO far apart!) and have your child jump from little a to big A, little b to big B and so on....

Sight Words - essential reading skill:

• Word Scramble - start with writing out the letters to short, common words, as they improve switch to bigger words, or the added challenge of un-scrambling 2 short words at a time (o g c d a t = "dog" and "cat" for example)
• Word Jump Maze - you write sight words on the pavement, then direct your child to jump from one end of your grid to the other by calling out sight words... they can only jump to the words you call as they move from one end to the other. 

Math Skills and Number Concepts:

• Sidewalk Math (addition/subtraction/understanding of number line) - draw a number line with numbers 1-10, 1-20 or whatever matches your child's abilities. Have your child start at their age, then walk plus 2 steps... so X plus 2 is? Then take that number and have them add on or take away steps, always reinforcing the math sentence before moving on to a new one (ie: child starts at 5... 5 + 2 =7, then have them take away/walk back 3 steps... so 7 - 3 = 4, then add on/walk forward 2 steps, so 4 + 2 = 6 and so on). 
• Math Grid (multiplication/division and understanding of mathematical terms) - create a 4 x 4 block grid on the pavement. Write various numbers (aim for those that are products and quotients of other numbers) in the squares. Direct your older child to go to the product of 5X5, or to the square root of 16 or to the quotient of 80/8, etc.

Do you play with sidewalk chalk with your kids? What games do you play?

Fun Toy: Tricky Fingers

I was at a Craft and Vendor Fair on the weekend, for the first time, with my toys!

It was a fantastic afternoon.... many, many children were attracted by my "wares" and parents were equally as interested! I mean, seriously, why wouldn't they come see my table? Discovery Toys are SO colourful and attractive you can't help but be drawn to them.... and you can tell they are well made! Like I tell everyone, as a mom I am looking for toys that are SAFE and FUN that help my kids LEARN.... and that, my friends, is exactly what a DT toy delivers!

But, as exciting as all that was for me, it was not want I wanted to talk about today.... I wanted to let you know about TRICKY FINGERS.

GET IT HERE!

When I first saw this toy, I wasn't really sure about it.... however, since it came in the mail, and I have been playing it, I totally get why it is one of DT's best selling toys! It is addictive!

So, basically, you get two of the marble-filled cases and a set of cards with a grid/pattern on them. The goal is to get the different coloured marbles in your case to copy the pattern of the coloured circles on the card. You can play it solo, or challenge yourself against a friend to see who can complete the grid the quickest!

This toy was one  of the ones I displayed on the weekend, and I was thrilled by the diversity of people who played it! Two little 6 year old girls kept coming back and playing it over and over again! A tween boy was also quite taken by it, and I had Moms and grandparents playing it too - one fellow even wanted it to take to the cabin!

You can get Tricky Fingers and other toys form DT's Clever Connectors collection here. 

Remember to....

Play Every Day!

“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” 

– George Bernard Shaw