My daughter got a great card game for her birthday. It's called 'Orchard'.
Game: Orchard
Game type: Card
Age range: 3 and up
Skills required: Only the identification of four colors
Cost: About $9
Basic idea: Players work cooperatively to collect fruit before the raven gets it.
The simplest games are often the best. This game has cards representing a path, each of four fruits, and baskets.
To set it up, you put the path cards down, lay the four fruit cards down in piles, give each player a basket card, and put the raven at the end of the path farthest from the fruit trees.
The die has a color matching each fruit, a raven, and a basket. On your turn, you roll the die. If you get a color, you take the card that matches (blue=plum, red=cherry, etc) and put it on your basket card.
Play continues with each player rolling and taking the fruit card the die indicates.
If the player rolls a basket, the player gets to choose two fruits for his/her basket.
If the player rolls the raven, then the raven moves one card closer to the fruit trees.
This is a cooperative game. It pits (ha!) all the players against the raven. If the players collect all the fruit before the raven reaches the end, the players win. If the raven gets to the end first, the players lose.
So, in my sample game shown, play has continued. Much fruit has been taken and the raven is moving down the path.
Eventually, some fruit is gone, but the game goes on.
In this sample, all the fruit was taken before the raven reached the end.
Yay! We win.
The whole family enjoys this game. The kids have even created a 'No Raven, No Raven' chant when we play. It's also helping our three-year-old with turn-taking. {Parents: this is a very quick game. Another big plus for us}
'The Orchard' was purchased at Piccolo Mondo toys. Look out--if my kids are invited to your birthday party, this just might be one of the gifts.
Have a few minutes? Interested in the research that supports a play-based preschool? I found the link for the article that was passed out at A Child's Way parent meetings this week.
"Why Play is Serious" by Alison Gopnik published in the Smithsonian, July/August 2012.
In particular, I found the comparison between preschoolers and scientists interesting. "The idea is that children at play are like pint-sized scientists testing theories. They imagine ways the world could work and predict the pattern of data that would follow if their theories were true, and then compare that pattern with the pattern they actually see."
I never thought of it that way but I'll try to keep it in mind the next time I see my kids playing. Little scientists at work. I love that.
Tips for having kids help in the garden. Just let them play (but there can still be rules). From babble.com
More teacher appreciation ideas (for next year) from eighteen25
Summer style -- specifically bags and shoes. Great ideas to help avoid the 'sport scandal' phenom. From aintnomomjeans.
Data about moms who blog. Note that I am not that woman--she is nothing like me. Different hair. Different age of child. I don't even own a laptop. No long-sleeved dresses in my closet. Interesting data though. From momcrunch on babble.com
Too funny. Here's a series of pictures of what OUR moms would have had on their pinterest boards. From babblekids.
Revolution cards. I love every. single. one. of these ideas. Just little ways to make our world a better place. From the oprah blog.
Story time -- but this time told by your kids. This lists a simple way to get your kids set up to tell you a story using manipulatives. From playathomemom.com
Happy Weekend!
Oh, bark chips. Yes, they cushion the falls of kids while playing on playgrounds all over the country. How many of us have said, "No throwing bark chips," on those playgrounds at one time or another?
I had a thought-provoking experience on our playground this afternoon. My four-year-old and some 10-minute old friends were playing with the spinning saucer. Do you know this newish feature of playgrounds? It looks like a teacup from Disneyland, but it's slightly askew. And it spins. So when your child is in it, and someone turns the cup, WHEE, the child gets dizzy. I talked about this with another mom last week. We decided that since they have removed all the 'dangerous' toys like merry-go-rounds and teeter-totters, all that's left is the opportunity to simply get dizzy.
Anyway, my son and three other children were grabbing mounds of bark chips and filling up the saucer. Now, as mentioned, my general rule is that we don't play with bark chips. However, they weren't throwing them. No one seemed to want to spin. They were having a great time. Plus, my son was the last to enter the game. The other moms hadn't shut it down. So I deferred.
Next, a different mom came up to the group, said something to them I didn't hear, and proceeded to shovel all the bark chips out. Wow. The faces of the moms of the boys in question probably looked just like mine: did she really just do that? Wasn't the group consensus that we had cleared this activity?
The truly interesting part was that none of the moms and I had said a word to each other. I didn't even know them. Yet, there was a clear feeling that the social code had been broken. And afterwards, all of us were much more picky about the kids playing with the bark chips.
It just made me realize just how much we learn on the playground--especially my kids. Not about how to climb, jump, and play although this activity is greatly valued. It's the social stuff too.
This brings me back to an article I saw today from Parents Magazine online: half of preschoolers don't get to play outside! To think of all they are missing, bark chips and all.
I came across this article today--it's everywhere on Twitter.
http://healthland.time.com/2012/04/03/why-are-parents-less-likely-to-take-little-girls-outside-to-play/
The idea is that kids aren't getting outside enough. Girls are outside playing less than boys. Interestingly, lower outdoor activity rates seem to fall along racial lines with Asian parents spending the least amount of time at parks. Weird. And sad.
The one bright spot was that physically active moms (activity equalling least 4 times a week) seem to get their kids outdoors more.
What does all this mean? Take advantage of some good upcoming weather and hit the playgrounds! Here's a link to the wonderful variety in the THPRD system.
http://www.thprd.org/parks/parklist.cfm
Get out and play!
