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Household "Toys" That Teach
Fun and Learning for Little Ones from Items Around the House
By Katherine Bontrager
For older children, she suggests making play dough with ingredients right in your cupboard. Mixing salt, flour, water, cream of tartar and a touch of food coloring is a lesson based on science, but it's good fun, too. Hint: Add a drop of food coloring to the water first to keep skin stain-free.
"Or take things from the kitchen that you're not sure what's going to happen when they're mixed, dress children up in a white shirt and let them experiment like a scientist with salt, sugar, water, flour or oil," Bongiorno says. "Let children explore, and remember if you add baking soda and vinegar to the experiment, they can watch their mixture bubble over!"
But Bongiorno says that these experiments don't have to just be limited to older kids. Younger children love this sort of play and since all the ingredients are safe, little ones can even safely try a bit of the flour or oatmeal. "Children love texture and anything they can put their bodies in," she says.
Once the kitchen has been exhausted, Caverly recommends heading to the laundry room. "Many pre-math skills are learned through helping with the laundry," she says. "Sorting, matching, understanding concepts like 'big' and 'little' and recognizing different textures are just a few." Getting help with the laundry while teaching? That has to be a win-win situation!
Sharla Feldscher, author of The KIDFUN Activity Book (HarperCollins, 1995) says it's amazing how much educational potential there is in a house. One of her favorite suggestions for tapping this potential is an Alphabet Treasure Hunt.
"On several 3x5 cards, print one letter of the alphabet," Feldscher says. "In this way, there is an A card, a B card, etc. Take turns hiding the cards in safe places throughout theliving room, and then go on an alphabetical treasure hunt. Use a handheld kitchen timer and set the timer for five minutes, to see how many letters can be found in that time. Don't make it too hard – we want the child to succeed!"