You're Recycling Your Cans and Boxes Too Soon

Playing in the Pantry

Toddlers and preschoolers are often underfoot in the kitchen. They empty drawers, bang on pots and pans, and spill things (and sometimes even try to clean them up). Sometimes they even offer to help put away groceries (or get them out) by playing in the pantry.

It is a life skill, really. Putting food away so that it is easy and safe to retrieve. Precarious stacks of heavy canned goods or glass containers are seldom seen in a well-organized and highly used pantry. And your children can start learning how to put things away pretty early in life. 

However, you might not want their "help" in your kitchen. So, why not make them their own kitchen stash? 

Facepalm, or Lessons from the Children's Museum of Phoenix

I'm not suggesting that you buy a giant, albeit inviting, toy kitchen. Nor am I suggesting that you stock up on wooden or plastic toy foods. Instead, I'm inviting you to take a page out of the playbook used by the Children's Museum of Phoenix - do it yourself.

The grocery store exhibit at the Children's Museum of Phoenix uses recycled containers to stock their shelves.

Just like the ones I have sitting around at home...

Facepalm? Yeah, me too. 

The Flux of New and Old

As you empty the contents of boxes, remove the plastic bag from within and then tape the box closed. Wash out the milk containers, let them dry, and then glue their lids on. You don't even have to do anything to an egg carton (assuming none of the eggs broke). 

How to Open a Can...

The only tricky part piece is having the right can opener so you can recycle your canned goods. Many can openers leave a sharp-edged circle that would fall to the bottom of the can if you tried to re-attach it.

The OXO Good Grips Smooth Edge Can Opener solves the problem.

As you can see, the top of the can is removed and has a lip on it. You can take it off, wash it, dry it, and place it neatly back on the top of the can. 

...and Close it Up Again

A couple beads of superglue secures the lids just fine.

And if you feel like being fancy then you can drop a few dried beans or uncooked rice into the can before sealing it up. Then you'll have a can that also makes noise! (Certainly a good trick to have up your sleeve to re-invent the toy.)

Speaking of Tricks Up Your Sleeve

Another way to embellish the groceries is to stuff old herb containers with yarn, paper, or fabric.

And, I mean, who DOESN'T have a ton of bits of scrap paper laying around the house? It makes perfect ingredients. Have your kid cut the paper up into tiny pieces and make their own concoction. They could fill an old cracker box with paper crackers; they could make a rainbow soup; or who knows what. But whatever it is, it can be recycled.

Get Started 

How cool is it that you can extend the life of your canned goods by turning them into toys? 

I see two huge things I put in my parenting "win" column: First, my preschooler gets free and novel toys on a regular basis. Second, I can throw out (recycle) the toys with no sneakiness or guilt.

Here's how you can get started:

1. Buy a good can opener, some packing tape (optional), and superglue.
2. Go grocery shopping.
3. As you empty containers, wash them out and let them dry. 
4. Seal the containers shut.

You can stash the play groceries away for a rainy day surprise. Then you can say, "Let's play grocery store together!" and do a big reveal. 

Kick it Up a Notch

OK, OK. This post would not be complete without a way for your child to haul their new groceries around the "store." So, you might also be interested in a collapsable Grocery Cart...

...or a Grocery Basket.

Whatever version of this post resonates with you, be sure to keep it in mind for the upcoming indoor play season! And I'd love to hear how it goes!

Pedialyte Tea Party

Has anyone else noticed that it takes a LOT for a child to actually rest when he or she is sick? My kids have to be really laid out before they will crawl in their bed and chill. In December we had just that happen to my 3yo daughter. Our whole family was passing a GI bug around...back and forth...each time with a new mutation and new symptoms. But it was Christmas! And Anna had received a tea set that she was dying to try out.

I fast-realized that the appeal of having a tea party was mixing. She didn't want to pretend there was tea and milk and sugar. She wanted it to be there. She wanted to scoop sugar, dump it into water, and mix it together. It seemed like almost the entire appeal of having a tea party was the process of mixing and stirring. But I didn't want her binging on sugar water. She needed bananas and toast and to stay hydrated.

Inspiration struck. Pedialyte could double as sugar for the mixing necessary in a tea party! We were happy. She got to scoop and dump and stir Pedialyte powder into her tea cup. I got to rest easy knowing that she was not binging on raw sugar water but keeping herself hydrated.

Not only that, but tea parties are AWESOME places to learn some pre-STEM. The tea pot, sugar bowl and creamer each contain a different material. Combining them looks like pre-chemistry to me. Pouring, scooping, and dumping are all wonderful studies of technology (tea pots, spoons) and volume. And the way powder dissolves in liquid is endlessly fascinating (and, in fact, something that Albert Einstein pondered at great length).

So take a small amount of comfort in times of stomach flu...there are wonderful compromises to be made, learning to be done, and rest to be had.

Roadtrip!

Travel season is right around the corner. I have a handful of small trips in the works 2-4 hours car rides to campgrounds and national parks. Plus, I have one doozy of a trip planned - 20 hours in the car spread out over three days and two nights on the road. I am thinking about how long we will be traveling, what the children will do while I'm up front, where we can stop along the way, and I am sharing all my ideas with you, here.

My parents were school teachers and I spent many summer vacations on the road. We would drive from Michigan to Maine, or to Florida, or to the Grand Canyon, and back. It was a time before traveling screens and I remember the rumble of the van underneath me, playing games with my brother and sister. So, I think riding quietly in the car and watching the landscape speed by is a wonderful way to see our country.

But when we traveled I wasn't a preschooler. I was older, wiser, content with my nose in a novel to pass the time. So planning a roadtrip with my own preschoolers I realize that they might not be content to sit and stare out the window or into the pages of their books for too long. Their little minds will need a certain amount of thinking; their bodies a certain amount of wiggling.

I am approaching our summer trips the same way I try to approach many things in parenting - trying to manage the balancing act of doing what I think needs to be done (arriving at the destination in a relatively timely manner) with what my children think needs to be done (playing). That, combined with my commitment to not letting screens rule our life, have led me to this list of ideas for making our trips not just bearable but fun!

My first rule is that we will exhaust all our resources before turning on the iPad to watch "Bob the Builder." There is no reason we can't be creative in the car. We just need the right tools to use to build, to do art, and enjoy a good story. And here are those resources:

Building
Taking regular building materials and a table in the car is not practical. Blocks will topple, marbles in a marble run will rolls every way but where you want (which might be a cool experiment but not during a roadtrip), and train tracks between car seats would need a substantial amount of bridge support. So I choose things that bring their own sticking power - toys that help defy the laws of gravity.

Squigz stick to each other and to windows. I think these little "suckers" bring their own togetherness that is perfect for building in a car.

Like Squigz, magnets have a stick-to-it-iveness that make them ideal for travel. I love the Imagination Patterns by Mindware. The carrying case doubles as a magnetic foundation for free-building. It also comes with some index cards with pictures on them for your child to try to copy.

Mindware

Tegu boasts that it is the original magnetic block and I just love them. They are beautiful, wood sanded 'til they're soft, and holding them is a pleasure. Plus, the movement is inspiring. The magnet strength is the perfect amount to hold the pieces together but allow for easy spinning, reassembling new sculptures, etc.

Tegu

Arts & Crafts
Ribbon, scissors and tape are the most-used materials in the house. Together they accounted for the majority of activities for our 13 hour roadtrip last autumn. There must be something really intriguing about pulling ribbon off it's roll, something powerful about using "real" scissors to slice through things, and something peculiar about the sticky-but-not-too-stickiness of masking tape. You can pick ribbon, scissors and tape at your local craft store, using the easy-to-find 40% off coupon for Michaels or Hobby Lobby. For the sake of ease, I'm adding some fun ones to my aStore.

Carry the scissors and tape in one of the zippered pockets in an "Alex Toys Artist Studio To Go." It will also hold crayons in the second pocket and a pad of paper. (I recommend crayons because you don't need a sharpener nor will you have to worry about ink. The only concern is if they melt in an overly hot car!!)

ALEX Toys Studio To Go

Perfect! One child can build with magnets while the other is using the drawing desk.

Music
Consider yourself lucky if your children don't insist "children's music." While my kids will tolerate and even enjoy some rock n roll, their first choice is always something that has lyrics that are easy to understand and topical. My son's first love was Truck Tunes, which was one of the first things that propelled us into the life of Preschool Engineering. Other favorites are "educational," too, because my son is sooooo literal and focused on facts more than whimsy. Here are the albums I'll be taking with us:

Truck Tunes 1
Truck Tunes 2 (available only as MP3 from http://www.20trucks.com/)
Moose Tunes
Sea Tunes
(There are also albums about cows and bears by Brent Holmes that I haven't heard yet.)
Incredible Flexible You

 

Audiobooks
Yes, audiobooks for kids! We had great success with audiobooks on our latest roadtrip and I expect the same kind of success on our next ones. You can either DIY with your favorite books or you can search for some that have been done for you. My first glance at the library left me feeling disappointed because all the audiobooks I saw were of chapter books - clearly for older children than mine. However, I did find a pretty awesome looking collection on Amazon of Winnie the Pooh! The first listen made me feel very excited. Each character and the narrator has a different voice, performed by a different artist. I've added it to the Preschool Engineering aStore for you and if you poke around you'll see other classics like "The Cat in the Hat," "Frog and Toad" and "Frances."

Update 7/5/2016: I have made a list of audiobooks that we have listened to and enjoyed: 14 Audio Stories for Little Kids.

Food
When adults might be able to put off eating and roll with a different eating schedule, children are less flexible. We are on the go quite a bit to geocache, hike, go to playgrounds, zoos, or museums, or just plain be out of the house. So I have developed a pretty workable system for taking snacks on the go. I always pack in two containers. Each child has his or her own snacks in a Goodbyn and all our lunches are packed together in an insulated lunchbox - sandwiches each in a plastic sandwich container plus some snack-sized cheese.  What I love about the Goodbyns is that they are easy to open and have nice deep places to contain the food. They are sturdy and dependable things for sitting on laps in the car. Check out all your options at http://store.goodbyn.com/ or just pick one up (in your choice of color blue, green, pink or red) at the aStore.

Getting the Wiggles Out
Lastly, how in the world will they get their requisite exercise? My children are movers and three hours per day outside is just about the right amount. But what happens when I don't have the option for kicking them out into the back yard to spin, twirl, run, climb, and dig? Well, I have heard that there are indoor play areas in McDonalds but I haven't tried that yet. Instead, I'm taking a page from the RVer's handbook (thanks to my parents who dipped their toes in that world last year).

State Parks and National Parks are great places to stop along your roadtrip. Along I-80 I was able to see a LOT of options that were less than 30 minutes from the highway. They are often located near lakes (good for splashing and throwing rocks) and the websites always can tell you what amenities are available like restrooms, picnic areas, and PLAYGROUNDS!

You'll have to do a little digging. Each state has their own website or you can look at reserveamerica.com. For instance, I searched reserveamaerica.com for "Everything" in Nebraska. Viewing as a map I was able to see which campgrounds were close to my route and check them out accordingly. Branched Oak State Recreation Area looks good. It is in a good location for my trip, it has a playground, and I can even check the weather forecast according to NOAA directly from the reserveamerica.com Branched Oak site.

The only downside is that I expect a day-use fee at each site. But since I'll be packing lunch I will consider the cost about the same as ordering McMeals for the whole family to play in a McPlayplace.

There you have it! I think I covered all my bases. And I have made a special folder in the Preschool Engineering aStore where you can find all these goodies to buy through Amazon: my aStore. What are your tips for traveling with preschoolers??

[Disclosure Statement: This post contains affiliate links. If you click and purchase, I receive a small referral fee at no cost to you. To see how I spend the money see my "Philanthropy" page. ]

Gingerbread Geometry

I love these Gingerbread house guides on Tinkerlab: "Seven Ways to Build a Gingerbread House." It reminded me of teaching geometry to adult learners at a community college in Wisconsin. In my class, I brought cylinders in that I had wrapped with paper. I asked my students to guess what shape the paper would be when we took it off. Guesses ranged from circle to oval but no one could believe their eyes when they unwrapped a rectangle. The lesson was to help them practice those spatial exercises to perform surface area calculations. Now that I am teaching preschoolers and the holiday season is upon us, I am recognizing all these similar pre-math activities.

Building gingerbread houses, wrapping different size and shape gifts, and winding twinkle lights around a tree are all wonderful places for children to learn pre-math skills and pre-engineering skills. They experiment with putting shapes together  when they build houses (pre-math). They learn about materials for holding sides together with rooftops as well as the aesthetic value of symmetry (pre-engineering). They learn experientially about length, circumference and surface area when they run around a tree trunk to wrap twinkle lights (more pre-math). They also learn how tightly they have to wrap or how to find "hooks" on the tree so the lights don't come tumbling down (pre-physics). The preschool STEM learning is just everywhere! No wonder it is an exciting time for preschool engineers.

So rest assured that STEM education does not take a break at the holidays. It is there. Let your child enjoy it!

Preschool Calculus

There it is - preschool calculus. My son was eating store-bought hummus by dipping saltine crackers. He proudly called me over to see his sculpture, pictured above, and I smiled. He had taken his square-shaped crackers and lined them along the edge of the circular container. It was a wonderful approximation of a circle using straight lines; it was calculus. He was differentiating the curve of the container!

A week later he was building an "ice castle" with magnatiles. He approximated the circular roof, or what he calls "frozen fractals," using the equilateral triangles. (It was actually a hexagon but in his mind's eye, it was close enough to a circle to pass muster.)

These are precisely the kind of math learning experiences that needs to be happening in preschool! Shapes, approximations, and error are part of preschool play that will form the foundation for learning the more academic aspects of math. All they need from us is peace and quiet, and perhaps a well-placed tool/toy.

Stocking Stuffers

Ha ha. Perspective is funny.

When I think of stocking stuffers I think of small, fairly inexpensive (usually) but interesting things. I'm keeping this page as a running list of toys, food, craft supplies, and other things that might be good as a small gift for a preschool engineer.


Twisty Crayons. When Mikey's preschool teacher visited our home to do a one-on-one meet-and-greet, she was not surprised that Mikey spent some time investigating the nature of the twisty crayons she had brought instead of drawing with them. "The boys always play with the crayons. The girls get right to drawing with them," she said to me. "Ah ha!" I thought, "two aspects preschool engineering. Mechanical (de)construction and design." The crayons are basically like lipstick...the wax goes up and down when someone twists the bottom. Simple, interesting, and small.






Post-it Flags. OK, this might seem weird but my kids love post-it flags. They have received WAY MORE attention from my preschool engineer than any sticker he ever has seen. I think it has to do with the interesting dispensing mechanism. I mean, who hasn't been stunned by the simple but clever design of a post-it flag? Add the favorite color-factor and you've got yourself a silly little treasure.







Color Packs of Crayons. Did you know that you could get a mega-pack of your kid's favorite color crayon? It makes sense but I was surprised and delighted to find that tid bit out. You can either buy a pack of twelve identical crayons like these Crayola 12-packs (available in ROYGBIV, black and pink) or pick one color in many hues like the Playful Purple or Hello Sunshine collections (also by Crayola and also available in other colors). I don't know about you but my kid would be ecstatic to have twelve identical pink crayons. LOL. Oh, and keep your eyes peeled at the local toy stores. I've seen these sets for ~$2 but they list for ~$8 on Amazon!

Safety Scissors. For a preschool engineer scissors are a lot like robot claws. They open and close like tongs or grabbers and they have an added bonus of cutting things. And my oh my how things have changed since I was a child! Scissor safety is still a concern but check out Crayola's "Safety Scissors." There is no blade! The super-sharp edges are enough to cut paper...and that is all they cut! Seems like a win-win for parent and child!

Chocolate Gears

Interesting Food. The holidays are a time of fun food! Just for kicks, I'll invite you to see food through the eyes of a preschool engineer. My kid calls peanut butter cups "gear chocolate" and "Annie's All Stars" also look like gears. He also picks out the Bionaturae "Fusilli" pasta at the store and calls them auger noodles. So when you're looking to splurge on new food for your children just imagine how cool chocolate gears might be received.

Silly Utensils. Whenever we travel with these "Constructive Eating" utensils we get compliments. Since acquiring these utensils I've also discovered that they have a garden set (shovel, rake, and hoe) along with plates with ramps for pushing food around and scooping and lifting at the table.





Tongs, Claws and Grabbers. Anything that makes the tongs different from the next set and valuable to a chef will appeal to your child, too. Look for toast tongs, escargot tongs, as well as specialty toy grabbers...all listed on my Listmania List.









IKEA's Hand-powered Flashlight. When we discovered this hand-powered flashlight, I don't know who was more tickled me or my preschool engineer. It is so simple and small. It is easy for a preschooler to hold and crank. Plus there is immediate gratification because the more the child cranks the more the LEDs light up.







Wind Up Toys. Don't forget simple delights like wind up toys. Here is a link to my list of some of our favs.

[Disclosure Statement: This post contains affiliate links. If you click and purchase, I receive a small referral fee at no cost to you. To see how I spend the money see my "Philanthropy" page. ]

Cherry Pitter

Photo from amazom.com

The summer solstice is upon us and with it comes thoughts of summer holidays, activities, and super-fun food! In fact, we saw our first bag of cherries just last week and alongside them an aptly-placed display of a new preschool engineering toy.

Never-before-seen, the novelty of the cherry pitter was appealing to Mikey. Upon closer inspection it remained pretty awesome. It looks like a claw that opens and closes. It has a bucket of some sort. There is a funny-looking puncher ready and waiting to do its work. Plus, it is the perfect size for a preschooler's hands. The new kitchen gadget fell right into the cart.

When we got home I put Mikey to work with a bag of cherries and the cherry pitter. He was delighted that it worked as he suspected it would and very quickly decided to test it out on other materials. Play-doh was first, then paper, next a piece of bread, and the list goes on and on and on.

I do not need a cherry pitter. I like to roll the fruit around in my mouth and play with it until the pit is ready to be spit out. Plus, my kitchen and house is already filled to the brim with stuff. If I could rent this kind of thing then I would...until I start my toy library that just won't be an option. But my days are best when Mikey has something interesting to figure out, something new to dissect or take apart, a new tool with which to experiment. So I will make room in my kitchen for the cherry pitter and a dozen other kitchen tools, too.

Caterpillar

No, I didn't mean Caterpillar the truck manufacturer. These little wind-up toys by Toysmith are interesting to watch wiggle upside-down in your hand. The little boom circles around and around making the bug try to crawl. It is quite simply a marvelous toy for a preschool engineer. These caterpillars give your child practice with fine motor development when they wind them up. They are also along the lines of "baby's first robot" and your preschool engineer can see what automation looks like in its simplest form. I like that it offers an opportunity to step outside machines and look at living creatures.



Two Books
"The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle is likely not a new discovery for most of my audience. "The Very Hungry Caterpillar's Favorite Words" might be. Mikey and I discovered "The Very Hungry Caterpillar's Favorite Words" when we stopped at Barnes and Noble in Grand Junction, CO. We were in the middle of a road trip and needed to stretch our legs in a familiar place. As book junkies, a book store was a perfect place for us.

Mikey chose "The Very Hungry Caterpillar's Favorite Words"  because it is a funny shape. A small 2"x2"x2" cube, this is the first book of its kind on our shelf. Each page spread has a single word and single picture. Mikey and his one year old sister are too young to do "real" reading but this is a wonderful little book to learn about symbols. They take turns flipping the pages and reading, "strawberry," "apple," and so on all the way to "butterfly."


Fun Food

This is a silly little compliment to the world of caterpillars for preschool engineers. I found the picture of grape caterpillars on Pinterest and made them for a playdate. They were a huge success! The children gobbled them down. Depending on the age of your child and their eating skills you may have to do some cutting. I cut each grape in half, then skewered them onto six-inch sticks. The eyes are miniature chocolate chips held in place by frosting. Instead of buying a giant container of yucky frosting at the grocery store, I just mixed powered sugar into plain yogurt until it had a nice thick consistency. Then I dipped the chocolate chips into the frosting and smooshed them onto the end grape of each skewer. Admittedly, glueing the eyes on was the hardest part...there was a lot of frosting all over my fingers at the end. Mm mm good.