I love to read books to my children and grandchild, but I hate to waste our time with something stupid. There seems to be a lot of really dumb picture books out there! Makes me wonder what criteria it takes to get published! When I select a book for my lesson plans, or for these book lists, I try to chose only books that I have read before. At the very least, I read all of the parent reviews posted at Amazon.com. Only books that have achieved a five-star rating from parents will get added to the list. If you are going to buy a book for your child, you are going to have to read it several hundred times or more. It had better be something worth reading!

A List of Great Picture Books about Autumn for Young Children

I Know Is Autumn	I Know It’s Autumn, by Eileen Spinelli The average customer review for this book is “Five Stars”. Check out their reviews on this book here. Buying the books you would plan to buy anyway through my blog helps to keep this site free. Thanks!
Mouses First Fall	Mouse’s First Fall by Lauren Thompson A very simple book, with one line of text per page. The illustrations are childlike and colorful. Little mouse learns about Autumn as he plays in the leaves. Sure to be a favorite for many preschoolers.
In November, by Cynthia Rylant This is a great story for naptime. The text doesn’t rhyme, but it’s rather poetic. The world is getting ready for winter, for taking a long nap before spring. We got this from the library, and read it many times. I’ll be adding this to our personal library very soon.	In November
Wild Child by Lynn Plourde The first time I read this, I didn’t really like it. It was strange. I’m more used to stories that have plots. A beginning, a middle and an end, with some action thrown in. This story doesn’t have that. It tries to rhyme, but the rhyming isn’t regular. It tries to be poetic. I didn’t like it that the child is stalling going to bed, and the parent gives in to the child’s demands. However, my daughter and granddaughter loved this book, and so did a lot of other parents. So, you can read the reviews and decide for yourself.	Wild Child
Red are the Apples	Red are the Apples by Marc Harshman If you’re looking for a book with beautiful pictures, this is it. A fall harvest of color drawn in pastel, depicts a boy and his pet as they find a full day of fun on the farm. Red apples, yellow corn, orange pumpkins… and like “Where’s Waldo”, there’s a hen hiding on every page.
Fall is for Friends	Fall is for Friends (Suzy’s Zoo) from Cartwheel This sounded like it was going to be a silly story, but the parents who reviewed it gave it five stars. Suzy Ducken is a character that was originally developed for a line of Greeting Cards! Even the School Library Journal calls it a “slight story” with “charming watercolor illustrations”. Again, however, several parents have given it a five-star rating. I’ll be looking for this one in the library. I’ll let you know if I still think it’s silly.
Apples, Apples Everywhere! by Robin Koontz Cartoonish pictures with talk bubbles. Simple text. This is a non-fiction book, and that’s why I’ve included it here. It is colorful, and teaches all about the apple harvest, how to store apples, make cider, and about apple worms. An index at the end, and an internet site are part of the book. No parent reviews on this story.	Apples, Apples Everywhere
Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White Beautiful illustrations, an engaging story, and a good moral, as well. Other parents have said that this is one book they enjoy reading again and again – the true test of a good book! A story about optimism, and being a good neighbor.	Too Many Pumpkins
It’s Fall (Celebrate the Seasons) by Linda Glasser A little boy tells what he smells, sees, touches, and hears in the fall. Three-dimensional, cut paper artwork. Very colorful and informative.	Its Fall!
Chipmunk at Hollow Tree Lane	Chipmunk at Hollow Tree Lane by Victoria Sherrow This book truly is a classic. I read it to my little sister, then to my children, and now to my grandchild. The illustrations are exquisite! Detailed, full-color realisitic drawings and a simple, charming narrative. Try to find it in it’s original size, instead of the miniature size carried at amazon.com.

If you have an Autumn classic you’d like to see on this list, please add it in the comments section below.
Thanks!

How do you learn? Many adults learn through reading. Some prefer to learn by listening to audio tapes, or watching video tapes. Some learn by doing, by taking classes from a master and imitating him. All are great methods of learning! And to some extent, your young child will lean towards one or the other eventually. But from infancy through the preschool years, young children learn most through their five senses.

How Children Learn

Have you ever seen someone give a rattle to a baby? What does he do with it? First, he sees it, using his sense of sight. Then he reaches for it, takes it in his hands, using his sense of touch. He shakes it, using his sense of hearing. He mouths it, using his sense of taste. And finally, he sniffs it, using his sense of smell (although few rattles have a scent). Then he throws it away. He’s done. He’s learned all that he can learn from it. And usually, the adult picks it back up and gives it to the baby again, who throws it again. That is a fun game! He will probably never play with that rattle again, other than to throw it. This is sensory play.

To some extent, one could argue that all play is sensory play. When children play with blocks, they are touching them, and they hear them if they knock over the block tower. When children paint, they may comment on how the paint smells, or how it looks when they swirl the colors together. But to narrow sensory play down a bit, sensory play is play that engages the child to explore one or more of his senses, that is not grouped into another category of play.

Earlier, I posted an article on the Seven Areas of Creative Play:

1. Dramatic Play
2. Block Play
3. Outdoor Play (also called Large Muscle play)
4. Art
5. Music
6. Books
7. Table Toys (also called Small Muscle Play, or manipulatives)

Now, I’d like to add the eighth category – Sensory Play.

Sensory play is often referred to as “messy play”.

Children can usually make a mess no matter what they are playing! But some sensory activities are inherently messy. Still, this area is critical to your child’s growth and development. You will need a bin, table, or area designated for sensory play. Day care centers usually have a sand play table, or a sand & water play table, which can double as the sensory table. At home, parents may wish to buy an inexpensive child’s splash pool – the smallest one available, 3 feet in diameter is fine. Put it on the living room carpet on top of an old shower curtain, to facilitate with clean-up. In warm weather, you can move the splash pool/sensory table out to the yard or patio.

Here is a partial list of activities for the splash pool/sensory play table. Once you get started, your own imagination will help you come up with dozens more. I hope you’ll share them with us here in the comments section beneath this post. Remember, for your child to get the most benefit from this play, you need to play with him. You need to speak with him, engage him in conversation. Ask him thoughtful questions. “How does this FEEL? How does this SMELL? Can you tell me how it SOUNDS? This is safe to taste, you may taste this. How does it TASTE? What does it look like?”

1. Sand. You can have a little sandbox inside. Sand is such a wonderful toy – it is ancient and universal. It feels cool in the morning shade, and warm in the afternoon sun. It packs better when it is damp. It washes away (erodes) in the rain. It doesn’t usually have a smell, but sometimes sand at the beach smells fishy. It feels rough. It’s fun to roll in! (outside!). When you have a little sandbox inside, the child plays differently than in the backyard sandbox. Outside he can sit in it, and push big trucks, and dig big holes. Inside, it is more fun to pour sand from a pitcher, or push little matchbox-sized construction trucks through it.
2. Water. If you run a preschool or daycare, you will want to have water play available. If you are teaching your little one at home, then he will get enough water play in the bathtub. For more information on the importance of water play, click here.

Girl Playing in Rice
3. Rice. Rice can be an interesting change from sand. It won’t make a sand castle, but it does pour nicely through a toy pitcher. It will make the wheels spin on a water wheel toy. It is fun to smoosh your hands in, scoop it, dump it, rearrange it… and it vacuums up better than sand. Pour about 30 pounds of clean, dry white rice into your splash pool. Add some measuring cups and spoons, toy dishes, small cars, etc. Your child will enjoy this for an entire week, I’m sure! By then you’ll be sick of vacuuming up the rice. Put it away, but save it to bring it back out on a rainy day when you really need to keep your child amused. You can add more to this by coloring the rice. Read how to do that here.
4. Fall leaves. In the fall, bring in a bag full of autumn leaves. Add whatever is available in your area. Add small sticks, acorns, nuts, pinecones, small branches of pine boughs, etc. Your child may just touch things, smell them, lick them (ick!), etc. Or he may want to bring his toy cars to the table, and build forts for toy plastic animals. Let him explore the textures of these natural items. When you are about to empty this sensory activity, press the leaves for a future art project.
5. Winter snow. Bring in a bucket full of snow. Let your child touch it and taste it. Smell it. Look at it closely. Use a magnifying glass. Put some in a glass and watch it melt. Dump small plastic penguins or whales in the snow, and let child play. Give him a pair of mittens and let him build a small snow fort for toy people. Talk about cold, hot, soft, hard, and other descriptive words.
6. Spring Flowers. Bring in a bucket of potting soil. Let child play in that. Add a bit of water, let him play in the mud. Let him play with small garden tools, or with his construction trucks again. When the mud play is over, then plant some bean seeds in the sensory table. Soak the beans overnight in water before you plant them – to speed up germination. Beans grow fast, and are easy to see. You and your child can pull up a bean plant every couple of days to examine the changes (plant plenty of seeds!). At first, the bean shell swells and splits. Then you can see a tiny bean plant folded up inside the seed! Then you’ll see the root shoot out, and then a stem with leaves. It never gets old. If you’re tired of the muddy splash pool, you can move the surviving bean seeds to paper cups or pots. Wash out the splash pool in the yard with a hose, for the next activity.
7. Bubbles. Best done outside! Mix warm water, dish detergent, and a bit of glycerin into your splash pool. Put your child in a swim suit, and set him outside with various bubble-blowing wands or toys. Supervise! Children can drown in an inch of water. Bubbles are great for sensory play. If you use scented dish soap, your bubble stuff will smell nice. Bubbles can have all the colors of the rainbow in them. They feel slippery. They taste soapy. Can you catch one without popping it?
8. Ooblech. This is very, very messy! But great fun for kids of all ages. You might want to mix this in a smaller area than the splash pool/sensory table. You could sit your child at a picnic table OUTSIDE, and give him a cookie sheet or cake pan half-full of oobleck. For more fun, read Dr. Seuss’s classic tale of Bartholomew and the Oobleck first. Oobleck is made with cornstarch and water. For more specific directions, click here.
9. Ice. While you really have to wait for winter to do the snow activity, thanks to freezers, you can do ice any time. It might be more fun to do it on the hot days in summer. Dump clumps of ice in the sensory table. Let child touch them, lick them, sniff them, and explore them. Then, child could drop droplets of colored water on the ice to create patterns or mix colors. Child could also shake salt on the ice to see what happens. (The ice starts to melt). You can extend this activity by placing tiny plastic toys in an ice cube tray, filling it with water and freezing them. The child can play explorer, or paleontologist, by extracting the toys from the ice with a toy mallet.
10. Packing Peanuts. Also, very messy! But right after Christmas you may have an excess of these terribly non-earth friendly styrofoam pieces laying around. Dump them all in the splash pool/sensory table, and let your child’s imagination run wild. He can pretend it is snow. Dress up in mittens and a hat and scarf, and sit in the “snow” to look at picture books, like Alvin Tresselt’s classic, “The Mitten”.
11. Put left-over wrapping paper in the sensory table. Children can rip it, cut it, make collages out of it. They can pretend to wrap up their toys in it. They will have almost as much fun with the left-over wrappings as they have with their Christmas toys.
12. Coffee grounds. Save your coffee grounds for several weeks. Set them out daily to dry, then put them in a bag to save them. When you have enough, put them in the sensory table. Coffee grounds have a different texture and a pleasant smell. Children will play in it like sand.
13. Seashells. You’re lucky if you live by the sea and can get a good supply of these for free. Otherwise, craft stores now stock them. Try to get a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. You can scatter just seashells, or put sand in the bottom of the table and scatter the shells on top of the sand.
14. Oatmeal. Plain, raw, uncooked, oatmeal. Can be poured, scooped, measured, or moved around with toy trucks. Shakes off clothing well, and vacuums up almost as well as rice. One mom I met kept a huge oatmeal “sandbox” in her spare bedroom for her two young sons.

Legos Stimulate Creativity, While Helping to Develop Small Motor Control
15. Legos. You need to be the judge if your child is ready for small LEGOS yet. Younger children can use DUPLOS. Sometime between the age of three and four, many children are ready to play with the smaller legos. If you dump an assortment in the sensory table, they can build and build, and not have to pick up! An alternative, is to let your child play with legos on a sheet. Then when it is time to clean up, you lift up the four corners of the sheet, and put everything into a box together. Little legos are so much fun, but very boring to pick up. You could actually make a lego mat, by cutting the sheet into a circle, sewing 1″ rings around the edge, and threading a cord through the rings. Then just pull the drawstring together at clean-up time.
16. Shredded paper. This is very interesting to play in, but also very messy. Little paper shreds stick with static electricity to your hair, clothes, and carpet. You’ll want to vacuum up your child when he’s through! I hid mini candy canes in shredded paper for a Christmas time activity at my preschool.
17. Dried corn. This is great for indoor play, especially for younger toddlers. It sweeps up better than it vacuums. You can get huge sacks of dried corn at feed stores for about $5.00. Some pet supply stores in the cities will also stock dried corn. After your child has scooped it, measured it, poured it, patted it, sniffed it, tasted it (ick), and you no longer want it in your house, then you can take it to a park to feed it to the ducks. Corn is a bit more nutritious for them than chunks of stale white bread.
18. Easter grass. This is a good seasonal activity. Let your child play with the Easter grass. He can bury plastic Easter eggs in it, or small toys. Let him glue it to construction paper at art time. It comes in many colors and textures. Some are very shiny and pretty. Some now are edible.
19. Nuts. Put an assortment of nuts in their shells in the sensory table. (Watch out for signs of a nut allergy in your child! One in one-hundred children are allergic to nuts. Some nut allergies are life-threatening.) Talk about the textures of the different nuts. How do they smell? Some are smooth, some are rough. Some are small, some are quite large. Get a nut cracker, and sit with your child as you crack open some nuts and taste them. Put the cracked nut shells back in the sensory table. Play with them until you are bored with them, or until you’ve eaten them all! Then glue some nut shells on cardboard in a mosaic, and clean up the sensory table for the next activity.
20. Pudding. Mix up a package of instant pudding, and let your child “fingerpaint” with it. You might want to put this in a smaller container, rather than the splash pool, unless you run a day care and plan to mix up several boxes. This is one sensory activity where you can encourage tasting! Have children wash their hands before playing there.
21. Coins. Supervise! A child can swallow a penny, and get copper poisoning. Dump your change jar into a bowl with rubbing alcohol to clean them somewhat. Money can carry many germs. Then, dump the clean, dry coins into the sensory table. Talk about colors, shapes, sizes, textures, etc. Let children sort the coins. Put the silver ones here, the copper ones here…
22. Magnets and paper clips. Dump several large boxes of plain paper clips into the sensory table. Add some large magnets. Let children explore, discover how magnets will push against each other, or pull together. How many paper clips can each magnet lift? Try adding other metal items to the sensory table. Will the magnets lift pop cans? Toy cars? Pennies?
23. Play dough. You can make quantities of home-made playdough. Add different scents to it – put vanilla in one batch and color it brown. Substitute Banana flavoring for the vanilla in the next batch, and color it yellow. Put peppermint flavoring in a third batch and color it red or green. Put almond flavoring in a batch, and chose a color to color it . You can put grape Kool-aid powder in another batch, skipping the vanilla (use plain kool-aid, not the kind with sugar in it.). Put all the colors of playdough out at once, and all the playdough toys. Let your child smell them, taste them, mush them around and mix them together. Cover the playdough up in air-tight containers when not in use. Add cookie cutters, rolling pins, and other playdough toys as needed.
    
24. Dry instant mashed potatoes. Start with the dry mashed potato flakes. Have your child experience that. Then slowly add some warm water and moosh that around. Add more warm water, and moosh. Can add warm, colored water – green on St. Patrick’s Day, orange for Halloween, etc. Add enough warm water until all the flakes are moistened, and potatoes are thick and warm and mushy. Continue to play, taste, mush, mix, and explore. Can hide clean, small toys in the mush. Can play with ice cream scoops and toy doll dishes. When done, dump the mush in the garbage and hose off the pool outside.

These are just a few of the hundreds of ideas you can use in your sensory play area. Next, you can try combining them. Add glitter to your sand table. Hide coins in the dry corn. Float ice in your water table.

Anything you see that might have an interesting smell, texture, taste, sound, or is visually stimulating, can have potential for the sensory table, if you deem it to be safe for children.

Have fun! Your child will.

Some materials for Sensory Play:

Related Reading:
Sensory Play
Sight lesson plans
Sound lesson plans
Taste lesson plans
Touch lesson plans

Photo Credits:
Baby with Rattle: by Ian Watson
Girl Playing in Rice: by Grandma Musher
Boy with Legos: by Mads Boedker

Ooblech is Made with Cornstarch and Water. Coloring is Optional.	What is Oobleck? Oobleck, glump, goo. This interesting muck is called by many names. It is cheap and easy to make, and kids of all ages will enjoy playing in it. Your preschooler can learn: Oobleck is a solid when you hit it It is a liquid when you touch it softly It won’t hold it’s shape when you roll it It loses it’s color when left out in the sun
For your information: Oobleck is a non-Newtonian Fluid Newtonian liquids are harder to pour when they are chilled (like molasses, or vegetable oil) Non-Newtonian fluids are harder to pour when you exert pressure (like oobleck or quicksand) The word “oobleck” was coined by Dr. Seuss, in his book “Bartholomew and the Oobleck”	Place Cornstarch in a Bowl. Add Food Coloring and Water.
Stir Until All the Cornstarch is Moistened	To Make Oobleck: pour 2 cups cornstarch into a bowl add 1 cup water optional – add a few drops of food coloring mix – with a spoon or your hand if too dry, add a small amount of water if too sticky, add small amount of cornstarch store uncovered – or it will mildew. Add more water as necessary.
Do this activity with your preschooler. Ask him to slap it. What happens? Have him slowly put his hand on it? What happens then? Can he roll it into a ball? Roll it real well! Now, can he toss it and catch it? What happens to the ball if he just holds it? Can he stir it? Try stirring the oobleck very hard. Now try stirring it gently. Is it hard, or is it soft? Is it a liquid? Is it a solid? How does it feel?	Playing with Oobleck Can Be Addicting
Your Oobleck Should Be Very Stiff	Oobleck Won't Hold Its Shape
Read Dr. Seuss’s “Bartholomew and the Oobleck” to introduce this activity. Let any spills dry. The water evaporates, and dry cornstarch remains. You can vacuum it up. You can dump the old oobleck in the trash, or let it air-dry until all the moisture is gone. Then save the cornstarch for a rainy day activity.	Oobleck Drips Between Your Fingers When You Stop Rolling It
For Further Reading: Non-Newtonian Fluid How to Make Play Dough How to Color Rice	Pound Oobleck, and It Feels Solid

Photo Credits:
Lorelei Sieja

Genetically modified foods are banned in Europe

These toxic foods have been banned in Europe for a decade! Yet in the United States, they aren’t even labeled so savvy consumers can make the decision for themselves. October is Non-GMO month. Thousands of volunteers and concerned citizens are banding together to try to raise awareness of this growing potential health risk.

What are GMO foods?

Genetically modifying foods is not the same as hybrid seeds or cross-breeding animals. You can cross a horse with a donkey to get a mule, but the mule is generally infertile. You cannot cross a pig with a potato – unless you genetically alter its DNA. Some of the absurd and ridiculous things that have been done to our “natural” foods are:

• arctic fish genes put into tomatoes, to make them resistant to frost
• jellyfish crossed into pig genes, so their noses glow in the dark
• spider genes crossed into goat DNA to make bullet-proof vests
• corn is genetically modified with bacteria to make it poisonous to insects
• soybeans genetically modified with bacteria to make them resistant to herbicides

Diabetes, Autism, and Allergies reach epidemic levels

But whether GMOs are harmful or not – something is definitely wrong in our society. Type II diabetes is reaching nearly epidemic levels, and younger and younger children are being diagnosed with what has often been called “adult onset diabetes”. This information isn’t being presented by some blogger with too much time on her hands, but by the American Diabetes Association, the World Health Organization, and Science Daily. Diabetes has risen 33% in the past decade. Guess what? So have genetically modified foods in our diet!

Another sudden epidemic – the rise in children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. In a ten-year period from 1993 to 2003, the rate of children in the United States diagnosed with Autism rose 657 percent! Some may argue that these numbers are inflated, because we have better methods of diagnosing autism, or because of higher public awareness. Physicians and educators agree that they are seeing more and more children thus afflicted. Could this again be related to the genetically altered foods in our diet?

What about the rise in peanut allergies? Several decades ago it was unheard of! Now, nearly every school has a policy for dealing with children suffering from severe, life-threatening food allergies, including gluten intolerance, milk allergy, strawberries, peanuts, even chocolate. The number of children diagnosed with peanut allergies is about 1 in 100 in the United States, yet virtually non-existent in Asia where the peanut is a major food source. Peanut allergies have doubled in the past ten years – right along with the rise in GMOs. Yet, researchers are trying to genetically modify a peanut that will be hypo-allergenic! Why don’t they just study why Asians don’t have peanut allergies? I’ll bet it is related to the fact Asians don’t consume the quantity of genetically modified food that are causing irreparable damage to our health.

How to avoid genetically altered food in your diet

Should you avoid all genetically modified foods in the future? Without proper labeling, it can be difficult. Until then, here are four tips to help you avoid these potentially harmful foods:

1) Buy organic. Certified organic foods cannot intentionally include any GMO ingredients
2) Look for “Non-GMO Project” verified seals
3) Avoid at-risk ingredients, including corn, soybeans, canola, and cottonseed
4) Buy products listed in the “Non-GMO Project” shopping guide

If just 5% of the American population would boycott genetically altered foods, grocery stores would stop stocking them, and ultimately, companies would stop producing them. We don’t need more government control to end this potentially devastating practice! We can use consumerism at its best. It worked in Europe.

Spread the word.

GMO FAQs

References:
The “Myth” of Autism
Is There Really an Autism Epidemic? Scientific American
The Peanut Allergy Epidemic by Dr. Daniel More
Institute for Responsible Technology

Photo Credits:
Boy with an Apple: by Larry Grubs

Here is something cute I found while trolling through YouTube the other day. I posted it here, thinking that other parents might like to sit their preschooler on their knee and let them watch this three-minute alphabet song. It was uploaded to YouTube by 1Ronledson, who according to his profile is 71 years old. The Zoo Animal ABC lists that it has had 4 1/2 million hits.

Play this song several times, then encourage your preschooler to sing along. There are many other alphabet songs for free on YouTube. If you find another that you think is especially cute, post the link in the comments section! This could be a page that you come back to again and again. Happy singing!

Related Reading:
A is for Apple
B is for Bugs!
C is for Cookie

Play Dough is a nice, quiet toy. It’s cheap, easy to make, and entertains children again and again. It’s also educational! It helps young children develop fine motor control (necessary for holding a pencil in school), eye-hand coordination, and stimulates the brain. Your child can let off some steam as he punches and pokes it. It can provide a science experience, if you talk with him while you make it. Ask him how it looked before and after you cooked it. It provides sensory experiences – as he smells it, touches it, sniffs it, and tastes it.

I like the purchased play doh just fine! It was originally created as a wall-paper cleaner in the 1930s. It wasn’t marketed as a children’s toy until the mid 1950s, and the recipe for it is still a secret. It is labeled non-toxic, yet it does contain a petroleum additive and borax, to prevent mold – and neither of those ingredients are non-toxic. It’s probably harmless enough in small doses, and children do eventually learn not to eat it. I like to keep a container of purchased play doh in my purse. It’s just great for those moments when you need to calm a whiny child. My favorite time to whip it out is when we’re waiting for food at a restaurant. My granddaughter plays with it with the restaurant silverware, and she’s happy until dessert!

Here’s a great recipe for making play dough at home. It’s cheaper than purchased play dough, and is a little softer to manage for younger hands. You can also make it in large quantities, or in a variety of colors. You can substitute different flavorings for the vanilla. I like almond flavoring with brown coloring, or banana flavoring with yellow. The flavorings will encourage your child to taste it, but it isn’t harmful in small amounts. There’s too much salt to let him gobble it down. But creating it with an interesting scent and taste is a good sensory experience for the young child.

Cooked Play Dough:
2 cup flour
1 cup salt
2 tsp. Cream of Tartar
2 cup water
1 TBSP vanilla
2 TBSP vegetable oil
food coloring

Mix flour, salt, and cream of tartar in a small pot. Add water and oil, stir well, then cook while stirring over medium heat until it is the consistency of thick mashed potatoes. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla, and food coloring. Then knead on lightly floured counter until smooth. Children can play with it as soon as it is cool enough for them to touch. Store in an air-tight container or bag.

You can use unsweetened Kool-aide to color the play dough, and then you might skip the vanilla as well. Cherry Kool-Aide works great. The cream of tartar is the most expensive ingredient, but it is the preservative. If you skip it, the play dough will be gooey in a day or two. Try to find it at a warehouse store (Like Sam’s Club) or online, where you can get a larger container at a better price.

Edible Play Dough:
18 oz. jar of creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
3/4 cup non-fat dry milk

Mix all ingredients together. Have child wash hands first! Then he can play with this dough, and eat it. If it is too dry, add a little more honey. If it is too sticky, add more powdered milk. You can keep this in an air-tight container, or have child roll all of it into one-inch balls, roll the balls in shredded coconut or chopped nuts or powdered sugar, and eat! Makes a great, no-bake cookie (if your child isn’t allergic to nuts, of course).

Great Play Dough Toys:
children’s safety scissors
measuring cups
spoons
rolling pin
cookie cutters
muffin tin
toy doll dishes
Play-Doh: Fun Factory Deluxe Set
Melissa & Doug Shape, Model and Mold
Play-Doh Creativity Center
Play-Doh – Chomposaurus Playset

Related Articles:
Good Ol’ Raisins and Peanuts recipe
Home-Made Laundry Soap recipe
Home-made Baby Wipes recipe

Photo Credits:
Top: Barry Thomas
Bottom: Abigail Batchelder

Your young child loves to spend time with you! He will help around the house, if he is working with you. He will not do chores independently. Do not expect him to clean his bedroom while you watch television. But he will pick up the toys on his bedroom floor while you dust the pictures on the wall. He will help you make his bed, or straighten the crib blankets. He will set the silverware around the table while you set out the plates and glasses. He will wipe down the bathtub or counters with a non-toxic cleaner (white vinegar) while you brush the toilet or wash the mirror. Think of this as a partnership. Enjoy the time spent with your young child, and know that you are teaching him important life skills! By the time he is six or seven, he may be able to work independently for short periods of time.

A Two-Year-Old Can Dust Furniture	Age two and three: pick up toys and books help feed a family pet wipe up spills dust chairs, furniture, non-breakables sort silverware clear table with help set silverware at table put laundry in laundry room or basket
Age four and five: all of the above, plus: put away toys set table make bed bring in mail or newspaper clear table independently pull weeds, water garden use hand-held vacuum to pick up crumbs water plants load utensils in dishwasher wash unbreakable dishes in the sink fix a bowl of cereal with milk	A Four-Year-Old Can Wash Unbreakable Dishes
A Six-Year-Old Can Take Out Trash	Age six and seven: all of the above, plus: sort laundry sweep vacuum help make and pack lunch keep bedroom tidy pour own drinks answer telephone properly clean bathroom with nontoxic cleaners take out trash load dishwasher empty dishwasher

Safety is the most important consideration

Many household cleaners are toxic. Don’t give your child a bottle of spray cleaner and turn your back. But there are non-toxic alternatives that are safer for your child and the environment. White vinegar in a spray bottle, straight or diluted with water, will clean almost anything. If you need “scrub” power, shake plain baking soda on the dirt, rub, then follow with the vinegar solution. Your child may really enjoy the fizz reaction of baking soda and vinegar!

Young children can drown a few inches of water. Don’t leave a bucket of cleaning water sitting around. For cleaning up spills, I like to leave a very small pail (like a sandbox pail) with only an inch of soapy water and a sponge. My granddaughter can squeeze the sponge out, wipe up any milk spills, and rinse the sponge. I empty and refill the cleaning bucket as necessary.

Adapt the Chore for the Child’s Age

For dusting, you can put an old sock on your young child’s hand, and have him rub down the rungs of a chair, the top of the coffee table, or the shelves of the entertainment center. Don’t expect him to dust anything breakable for about ten more years.

A two or three year old can dump a scoop of pet kibble in the feed bowl, or can add water to a water bowl using a small watering can. He or she is not strong enough to hold a full pitcher. Only put a cup or so of water in a small pitcher, and he will manage better. Even if he does spill, it’s only water! Give him a towel and he will clean up the spill himself.

A very young child can sort spoons, butter knifes, and forks into the silverware tray. He may make mistakes, but this is a great skill for him to work on. If your knives are the least bit sharp, pull them out before you let him sort silverware. A very young child can help set the table, with your help. He can put a spoon next to every plate. He can put a napkin next to every plate. This sort of activity is called “one-to-one correspondence”, which is an important pre-math skill. A child needs to understand the concept of “one” before he can count, add, and subtract.

A two year old may not be able to clear the table yet, but by three it is something he can help with. He can clear his own plate and cup, at least. If your dishes are not breakable, he might help clear all the plates and silverware. Don’t expect him to clear serving platters and bowls – they are probably too heavy, even empty.

When possible, Make Work Fun

To get a young child to pick up toys, make it easy, and make it fun. Duplos or Legos can go in a big bin. Take a photo of a pile of duplos, and laminate it, or stick it to the bin with packaging tape. Now your child KNOWS where the duplos go. You can print the word “Duplos” on the bin. Knowing where something goes is half the battle. To help your child in picking up his toys, don’t let him have access to too many at a time. You can put half his toys on a top shelf out of reach, and rotate them periodically. Do not let him dump every toy he owns on the floor and mix them all up, then expect him to be able to pick it all up. The two and three year old child is easily overwhelmed and distracted. If he does have a big mess, you’ll need to help him focus. Break it up into smaller tasks… such as, “Pick up all the yellow duplos and put them in here.” Make it a race. You can pick up all the red duplos. Or have him pick up duplos while you pick up blocks. Better yet, spread a large sheet on the floor before he dumps out the Duplos, and then all you have to do is pick up the sheet.

Do not yell, scold, or shame

You want your child to be a willing helper. Keep it fun, and you will be training your child to develop positive attitudes towards work that will last him all his life.

For more information, check out:
Teaching Children to Clean
Children and Chores
Earth Friendly Cleaners

Or, from Amazon.com:

Photo Credits:
Helping with Laundry by Elizabeth/Table4Five
Washing Dishes by Clogozm
Taking out the Trash by Neeta Lind

“Hurry up!”
“Let’s go!”
“Stop dawdling!”

How often do our children hear these words, or similar phrases? We live in a busy society. We are often in a rush. We have deadlines- but young children do not understand time. We have responsibilities. The young child is ego-centric, caught up in his own little world with himself at the center. We are bigger, taller, with great long legs. Little children have short legs and little feet that are often quite clumsy. We are focused on our to-do lists. He has almost no attention span. And so, there is conflict.

Sometimes, we need to remember what childhood is all about. Sometimes, we need to slow down and enjoy the moment of discovery as our youngster spots a caterpillar on a leaf, or a rainbow inside a bubble, or any of the thousands of fascinating things that hold their interest when all we really want them to do is hurry up! But there are times when we just cannot afford the time. So, when you really do need your child to move faster, how can you motivate him?

Here are some suggestions:

1. Never repeat yourself. If you do, you are actually teaching your child to ignore you the first time. Give a command and then expect your child to obey. If your child obeys, don’t act too surprised! But you can praise him for being such a good listener. Our children really only want our attention. If you don’t give it to him when he’s being good, he’ll find other ways to get it.

2. Ask if she heard you. Ask if he understood you. This is NOT the same as repeating yourself. By asking him if he understood you, you can discover if he is exhibiting willful disobedience, or a simple misunderstanding is keeping him from doing as he should. Willful disobedience calls for an immediate time-out, or whatever discipline method you use in your family. However, if your child did not understand the order, then you can get down on your knees, gently hold his head in your hands, look him right in the eye, and tell him what you need him to do, clearly. Again, praise him when he listens to you. If your child still fails to obey, then this is not a dawdling issue, but a defiance behavior, and will be dealt with in a separate article.

3. Give your child a deadline.

Use a small, noisy timer. The child can hear it ticking away, and when the bell goes off, he knows time is up. You could use a large egg timer if your child is upset by noises (as some autistic children are). Using a timer is a great way to introduce the concept of time to a preschooler. You can use the timer for many things – from time-outs, to sharing toys.

4. Find a motivation. This can vary greatly from child to child. Some children are motivated by food. For example, “You may not eat breakfast until you have put on your clothes.” However, some children do not wake up hungry and wouldn’t get dressed until closer to lunch time! Some children will work for a penny or a sticker, or even a marble. You can let him collect the marbles or pennies in a clear container until a certain level has been reached – then he can “cash in” all the pennies or marbles (be careful not to let him swallow one!) for an extra-special reward, like a trip to the children’s museum, or the carousel, or a pizza party.

5. Losing a privilege. This is a more negative approach, and should be used only after other methods have failed. But find something the child really enjoys – like playing video games (I hope not!), or going fishing with grampa. If he fails to do the activity you need him to do in the time allotted, then he will lose the privilege.

6. Shaping behavior. This works better with younger children. Instead of expecting perfection right off the bat, you break the ultimate behavior down into smaller steps. Back to our example of getting dressed in the morning, first you might just expect your child to put on his or her own underwear. Tell your child that from now on, since he is such a big boy, and you know he can do it, you want him to take off his pajamas first thing in the morning and put on the clean pair of underwear that you will lay out for him. This is one, simple, easy task. You will reward him greatly for compliance. You ignore non-compliance for a few days, then use motivation and deadlines, etc, until he does come to breakfast dressed in his clean underwear. Then you celebrate! You announce to everyone how PROUD you are of him. That he is SO BIG, that he even put on his own underwear that morning! You kiss him and hug him, and you make SURE that when you reward him with the next small step of getting dressed – pulling on a tee shirt – that he’s going to really try hard to do it! (Just make sure that when he does, you praise him, and don’t make him turn it around when he puts it on backwards.)

7. Use natural consequences. Sometimes this works, sometimes it’s inappropriate. If your child dawdles at breakfast, and it’s time to go, then a natural consequence would be for him to miss the rest of his breakfast. Don’t take it with you for him to eat in the car. Don’t swing through McDonald’s on the way to work and school to get him a quick breakfast sandwich. Let his hunger provide the necessary lesson, and perhaps he will eat a little faster tomorrow. However, if your child dawdles in getting dressed, obviously, you cannot just let him go to school naked!

8. Create more time.

If you are always rushed in the morning, and your young child dawdles, then perhaps you need more time in the morning. The consequence would be that he will need to start going to bed earlier, so you can wake him up earlier. This is not a popular answer, but it may be the one that is most necessary. That would allow you the time to sit and eat breakfast with your child. To cuddle him on your lap while you help him get dressed. To read a picture book before running off to do errands or meet deadlines.

Childhood is precious. Every single moment of it! So when your child is dawdling, sometimes, you need to learn from him. Sit down. Relax. And enjoy the moment with your precious child.

Related Articles:
Reduce or eliminate tantrums
Children and Chores
Teaching Children to Clean

Photo Credits:
Serious Toddler: Benedict Francis
Getting Dressed: Abby Batchelder
Discovery: Woodley Wonderworks