Welcome to Play Activities! Glad to have you here.
Know more about me- Meet Melitsa
Listen to a show about Early childhood play- Raising Playful Tots
Posting schedule
Currently I post on average twice a week
- The Sunday Parenting Party : a collaborative Parenting Posts linky – a place for inspiration, discussion and sharing of Parenting posts with a related post on Parenting.
- Article, how to tutorial or play activity at the beginning of the week
- The Raising Playful Tots audio podcast is the chatty cousin to Play Activities and is produced and edited weekly. It is available to listen via iTunes on your computer, Stitcher Radio on your smartphone, the website or your favourite app. Each show has show notes with resources and links so you can enjoy the show without taking notes but find the links later. -Handy when you’re listening while working out, commuting, washing up or folding laundry, https://raisingplayfultots.com/ XXX ( insert show number)
- Occasionally I do a longer series
Top posts
If you’re new to my site, you might want to start with my most popular posts. Here are my top four in each category.
Sensory play
Play articles
- Teaching young children responsibility
- Teaching children perseverance
- 9 Ways to encourage imaginative play
- Help! My toddler is not talking
- 25 Rainy Day Activities for kids
- Teaching young children how to think
- Teaching Gratitude to little ones
- Teaching patience
- Young boys and Writing
Active activities
- Alphabet treasure hunt
- Preschool out of sequence alphabet letter game
- Letter scavenger hunt
- Two Art Activities
Process Play
- Create thumb print pictures
- Outdoor fun with indoor rice
- Miniature Garden with the little ones
- Find cut paste then draw
- Toddler play with Conkers
Craft play
- Create a toy cash register- pretend play
- Messy Play
- Mark making by writing with glue
- Fall fun with leaves
Family and parenting ideas
- 11 fun kid activities to do at Grandma’s house
- 8 things to do when stuck in traffic with the kids
- 10 tried and tested alternatives to Baby Einstein DVDs
- Creating a lift the flap book
- Resources for late talkers
- Give me five minutes
- Routine of unstructured play
Podcast
- How to teach children to share
- Sensory play for babies and toddlers
- Dealing with grumpy children so we can get to play
- Steiner and Waldorf Play
- How do you divide your time between work that has to get down and playing with your child
- Talking Tots- speech ideas
- 7 tips to raising a playful tot
- What’s the big deal about blocks?
Experience is a good teacher
- Superhero training camp birthday party
- 10 Things I wish I could tell myself 10 years ago
- Your baby can play
- 5 things we should do this summer
- How important is the mother’s attitude?
- The power of letting go
You can also check out my blog’s archive list for a list of every post I have written or use the search function below to find other posts that might be of interest
If you’re new to play activities at home feel free to start with Operation Playtime a 10 day journey into play. Find your way back to play with 31 days to a more playful tot.
Our family
We’re a male dominated household. My ally is our cocker spaniel. My big loves after my family are candles, chocolate and flowers.
I have three children. Big guy ( BG) 9 who begun this blog. Middle One ( MO) 6 who graduated from the blog last year and the Little One (LO) 4 who is currently on the blog.
I’ve stayed at home with my boys. Before that I used to teach.
Being at home with the under 5s is very different than anything I have ever done.
We’ve had a lot of opportunities to move and live in different countries, climates and places while serving. We’ve always lived a long plane ride from any family until 2010. It’s still a lovely novelty to know they are a drive away.
Filling out ethnicity forms always make us smile as we’re the ‘other other other’ category. This otherness keeps our home a global adventure.
We’re working on simplifying our lives in all areas. I love to read and my pile of books only ever seem to increase. I’ve recently started running and love it. Finding time to run regularly is harder but I set a goal to run a 10K in 2012. I have lots to say and enjoy discussion but am generally quiet in company. I love to help people. My ipod is full of podcasts.
I’ve written three ebooks about play
- Treasure basket Play ( + audio interview)
- Play Activities for Newbie Players
- Everyday Alphabet Activities ( + audio interviews)