Hands On As We Grow®

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• 10 Gross Motor Activities YOU can do Outside with the Kids
• 20 Cat in the Hat Activities to Celebrate Dr. Seuss’s Birthday!
• 10 Low-Key Birthday Party Activities for Kids
• 25+ of Our Best Valentine’s Activities & Crafts for Kids

10 Gross Motor Activities YOU can do Outside with the Kids Posted: 21 Jan 2022 06:00 PM PST Click here to read 10 Gross Motor Activities YOU can do Outside with the Kids on Hands On As We Grow® Thanks to Quaker® Big Chewy Granola Bars for fueling (aka sponsoring) me up to do these gross motor activities with my kids! We love to get active here. Gross motor activities are always a favorite, and its that time of year where we can get out and really get active again outdoors. Here’s the kicker for this. I’m usually running around doing these activities with my kids, as in, actually doing the activity with them. So I’m going to challenge you to participate in the activity itself too! What gross motor activity will you do today? 10 gross motor activities to do outside with the kids: Running around, flying a homemade kite. Rolling down the hills. Play hopscotch. Make it a learning experience like A Mom with a Lesson Plan, or just make it fun! Make a balance beam and walk the plank. Make big art, such as throwing ribbons! Go on an outdoor scavenger hunt. Make a bike course, idea from Little Hands Big Work. (Walk through it with them, or get daring and ride your own bike through it, too.) Blow bubbles and chase them! Bonus: Make art like Childhood Beckons. Make a rope bridge to walk along, brilliant idea from Go Kid Yourself. Make an obstacle course to go through, Adventures at Home with Mum has a simple one to set up. Bonus gross motor activity: Go to the playground and play with the kids! Climb up and go down the slides, swing on the swings, doing everything your kid does! Phew! No wonder I’m an exhausted mom of three. Good thing I can fuel up to have energy and then refuel after spending all my energy with Quaker® Big Chewy Granola Bars. And then I’m ready for more energetic activities with the kids! Nothing quite gets you going quite like the power of Quaker oats. Today is going to be epic. Quaker Up.” I seriously couldn’t get a photo of the box before it got opened. Too good to resist! How do you refuel after being active with the kids? Keep the fuel coming for these gross motor activities: Indoor Sticky Spider web Indoor Jumping Gam 30 moves for excess energy 40 more activities to get the kids moving I never know what my days will have in store for me and my family, so keeping Quaker® Big Chewy Granola Bars on hand help make sure we have the fuel necessary to get the day. Now the Quaker® Big Chewy Granola Bars have chocolate drizzled on top and are 60% bigger – perfect for my hungry family! Share what activities you need fuel for everyday and see other stories on Everyday Health. This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Quaker®. The opinions and text are all mine.

20 Cat in the Hat Activities to Celebrate Dr. Seuss’s Birthday! Posted: 21 Jan 2022 06:00 AM PST Click here to read 20 Cat in the Hat Activities to Celebrate Dr. Seuss’s Birthday! on Hands On As We Grow® Dr. Seuss’s birthday is March 2 and schools across America are getting Dr. Seuss crafty! Be sure to include some of these 20 fun Cat in the Hat activities in your weekly activities planner as you’re planning them out for the week! My kids love Dr. Seuss, and we plan to enjoy some of these awesome Cat in the Hat activities to make discoveries through crafts, learning activities and some just plain fun! 20 Cat in the Hat activities for the kids to create, learn and have fun! They’re going to end up loving the one and only Cat in the Hat if they don’t already! Get a full week of fun crafts to do anywhere, anytime! It’s Free! Get Cat in the Hat Crafty! These adorable Cat in the Hat crafts for kids are super easy to put together. Bonus – some of them can even become props for pretend play! Adorable handprints turned into Thing 1 and Thing 2. From Little Warriors Such a cute hat craft! Upcycle a tin can into a Cat in the Hat pencil holder! From Obseussed Make Cat in the Hat Maskes! From Like Mama like Daughter Print out this free printable for the kids to color in the hat! From Brilliant Beginnings Preschool Toddlers and even babies can make this sticky Cat in the Hat hat! From Simply Today Life. Create and play with cat whiskers! From Kindergarten is Crazy Thing 1 and Thing 2 simple craft puppets! From Creative Family Fun Create an abstract and fun Cat in the Hat hat. From The Chocolate Muffin Tree Learning with the Cat in the Hat Activities! Who says we can’t have a little learning mixed in with our play? Here are some fun Cat in the Hat inspired learning activities that focus on name spelling, word families, and more! The Cat’s hat is perfect for patterning! From Teach Preschool After patterning with the Cat’s hat, write word families and rhyming words on it. From Creekside Learning Set up the Cat’s hat to sort word families and rhyming! From The Pleasantest Thing Set up a rhyming game with toys from around the house! From Mom’s Tot School Make the Cat in the Hat using simple shapes! From Non-Toy Gifts The Cat’s hat can be used as a non-standard measuring unit too! From Coffee Cups and Crayons Print out this free printable to work on rhyming! TotSchooling Just have fun with the Cat the Hat! In the spirit of Dr. Seuss… just get goofy! Here a couple Cat in the Hat activities to let your kids relish in the silliness that is Dr. Seuss. Dress up! I made this Cat in the Hat costume for Henry on Halloween. Its made completely of felt with safety pins to hold it in place. Some black pants and the Dr. Seuss hat to complete the look. Take goofy pictures of how the Cat in the Hat looks with everything all stacked up! From Mom’s Tot School Make Dr. Seuss a birthday cake! Okay, this one may be out of our league (even mine and I’m a cake decorator), but a fun sheet cake with some red and white stripes would be fun too! From Crumbs and Doilies Celebrate Dr. Seuss’s birthday with a party and have snacks! These jello hats are adorable and look easy to make! From Bless This Mess Please Get a full week of fun crafts to do anywhere, anytime! It’s Free! What’s your favorite way to celebrate Dr. Seuss? Will one of these Cat in the Hat activities become a new favorite of yours?

10 Low-Key Birthday Party Activities for Kids Posted: 20 Jan 2022 06:00 PM PST Click here to read 10 Low-Key Birthday Party Activities for Kids on Hands On As We Grow® Birthday party activities don’t have to be stressful! It’s Melissa & Doug’s Birthday Bash and they’re throwing the Ultimate Birthday Bash. They’re sponsoring how I do my birthday parties and keep them low-key, aka less stress for me. I am not a huge Birthday party thrower. We keep it pretty low-key. Although I’m always a tad jealous of all the parties I see floating around Pinterest and blogs. They always seem so happy and fun! But when it comes to parties, I want to be able to enjoy them too. I don’t want to be running around like a mad-woman making sure everything is in place and the activities are done on a schedule and all the kids participate. That’s not how I roll. My kids are still pretty young (Henry turns 5 next week) so family is the majority of our birthday party invites and I want to be able to sit down and chat with them when they’re here. So I do a few things for every party that I’ve thrown to make sure that I still get to enjoy the day too. And the kids are sure to have an awesome time too.   How I come up with our birthday party activities: Every party we have had has some sort of theme. Henry’s first birthday party was blocks. His 2nd party was just a party theme. His 3rd birthday was tractors and his 4th was semis (ahem, yes. We have a farmer.). This year we’re doing monster trucks! I then take that theme and plan an activity for the kids to do. Much like I do most of our activities here. I base it off my kid’s interests to make sure they’re going to have a great time with it. I then treat the activity as an ‘invitation to play’. Its something that’s there if the kids want to play with it, but they don’t have to. And its something that the kids can do together and on their own (without adult help, but with distant supervision.) All of my birthday parties have stations and the kids can travel freely between them. I love not having to direct the party any more than I absolutely have to. ” – Joyce of Childhood Beckons 10 low-key birthday party activities to set up: Packages of play dough with objects to play in it with, such as trucks to make tracks, or blocks to make prints with, like Toddler Approved did. (Tip: Play dough can also be used as the party favor!) Learn how to make homemade play dough here! Set up block towers ready to be played with. Melissa & Doug Wooden blocks work nicely! Since we’re all ‘boy’ here, I often set out tractors and trucks to be played with on the floor or play table (and that often goes with our birthday theme). You could set up a racing area too like B-Inspired Mama. In addition to the trucks and such, I’ve made roads with tape and set out blocks  (or other small objects) to have them haul. Create a dress up play area with old Halloween costumes, or clothes found from the thrift store. Get them a couple sizes bigger than your biggest kids so they can slip them on right over their clothes and do it on their own. Tea Party. Set up a simple tea party with stuffed animals and the kids’ plates, bowls and cups. Let them play pretend during the birthday party! A tub of dirt has so many possibilities! A dino dig wouldn’t require much for adult interaction. Or have a garden planting activity, set out a tub of dirt (maybe best for outside if you’re worried about the mess) with all the tools needed to plant a garden! Easy idea from The Imagination Tree. A super simple one for outdoor birthday parties is to have bubbles and chalk set up for the kids to play with, an idea from Buggy and Buddy. Set up art stations. Mama Miss did a spray painting station. Set up a bunch of Melissa & Doug art supplies and they kids won’t want to leave the art table. Cardboard boxes are a great invitation to play and can be made into anything for a pretend play station. Coffee Cups and Crayons made some into pirate ships! Books and a coloring area (can be adapted to any birthday theme!) are a great activity station for birthday parties! Boy Mama made one for their Garbage Truck Birthday Party. … just set up little stations and let the kids go back and forth between them. I set up my son’s pirate party like that and it was low-key and fun for everyone.” – Megan of Coffee Cups and Crayons (Cardboard Box Pirate Ships from Coffee Cups & Crayons) My additional tips for a non-stressful birthday party: Remove toys that will likely be fought over. (Think favorites or the ‘big’ toys that you only have one of.) Clear the area. Remove rugs if possible. (Or lay down tablecloths to protect the floor.) Once the party goers start arriving. That’s it. No more worrying about how the party unfolds. Just let it happen as the kids make it happen! $500 Giveaway to spend at Melissa & Doug: Want more Birthday Bash fun? Click here to see ALL our Birthday resources and tips, AND to enter our special Birthday Bash Giveaway, where you could win $500 to throw the Ultimate Birthday Bash from Melissa & Doug! For even more fun, be sure to check out our Birthday Wishes Pinterest Board!

25+ of Our Best Valentine’s Activities & Crafts for Kids Posted: 20 Jan 2022 06:00 AM PST Click here to read 25+ of Our Best Valentine’s Activities & Crafts for Kids on Hands On As We Grow® Valentine’s Day has got to be the funnest holiday for the kids to do crafts and activities! They always just love it and we always go overboard with all the hearts! George cannot get enough hearts! Every day he wants to do something with hearts! So we have been… for the last month, at least! Its not always just about the hearts though. We can’t forget about all the learning we’ve done for with our Valentine’s activities either! Those candy hearts are full of learning potential for preschoolers with the letters and words on them! Download a Valentine’s Week of Activities Here’s 25  of our Valentine’s Day kids art, crafts, and fun activities! How can I make my Valentine Day special? Valentine's Day isn't all about paper hearts and chocolate. Though both of those are fantastic gifts! You can make Valentine's Day and the days leading up super fun and special for preschoolers with simple DIY learning activities, crafts, snacks and art projects. Make some edible valentine's together and then do some paper roll heart stamping process art! It doesn't need to be complicated with preschoolers and toddlers. Just pick out a few activities from our Best of Valentine's Day lists below and give it a whirl. You won't regret it! Just 15 minutes together can go a long way when your making memories together. Art Activities for Valentine’s Day: These Valentine's Day art activities are super simple and fun to make. Use them into gifts for friends and family this February! Turn your fantastic Valentine's Day masterpieces into lovely cards to go with those chocolate gifts! Or just enjoy the process together and make some special memories. Tape Resist Valentine Art for Toddlers A Valentine Window of Hearts Sponge Heart Painting Cookie Cutter Heart Painting Stamped Heart Shaken Painted Hearts Collaborative Hearts Stuffed Heart Balloon Melted Crayon Art with Crayon Shavings Hunt for Love Bag Watercolor Hearts Crafts for Valentine’s Day: From DIY Valentines to fun love themed crafts and gifts. Your little ones will absolutely devour these craft activities this Valentine's Day! Make gifts for the birds, or for mom. And don't forget about Grandma or Grandpa! Or go all out with the countdown tree and fill the whole month of February with fun love themed activities to do together. 33 Super Cute Kids Valentines for School Homemade Heart Bird Feeder LOVE Banner Donut Hole Valentine Button Heart Window Heart Collage Heart Garland Conversation Heart Suncatchers Textured Yarn Heart Yarn Wrapped Heart Stamped Valentine Cards Valentine Tissue Wreath Strings of Hearts Chandelier Valentine Countdown Tree Yummy Edible Valentines Make Lava Lamp Sensory Bottle Heart-Themed Fine Motor Craft Who Do I Love? Message Board More Fun & Learning Activities for Valentine’s Day: There are tons of lessons and learning opportunities with Valentine's Day too! Add hearts to just about any learning activity and you have just turned it into a Valentine's Day activity. We have a fun list here of learning activities just for you. Letters, words, counting, fine motor, gross motor, sensory, and more! Go ahead! Try one this February with your preschoolers! Find the Letter on the Heart Candy Heart Letter Matching Valentine Scavenger Hunt to Find the Ways I Love You Upper & Lowercase Letters: Heart Matching Match Upper & Lowercase Letters Bracelet Dish Soap Foam! Candy Heart Patterning A Heart Hunt No-Prep Counting Valentine's Game Lava Lamp Sensory Bag This Preschool Valentine Matching Game from That's What Che Said with simple paper hearts looks fun too. Definitely something super simple to try next! Browse the Valentine’s Day for Kids board on Pinterest for tons of Valentine’s Day ideas! You and the kids will be set for this week of love! Happy Valentine’s Day! Download a Valentine’s Week of Activities

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