Secret Puzzle Game is a simple, outside-the-box way of sitting with the words, feelings, and thoughts we’re experiencing during this wild time. Think of a word or image, keep it secret, draw it on the back of a cereal box that you’ll cut up to make your own puzzle. Then, hide the pieces around the room and hunt for the rest of your family’s pieces.
At Home Activity: Alphabet Scavenger Hunt
Today’s at home activity lets your children show off their literacy skills by finding items beginning with every letter of the alphabet. So explain the rules, maybe provide an example, and let them explore your space to find each object.
And while they do, take a minute to sip some coffee, look out the window, or even just stare at the wall for a little bit.
At Home Activity: Tabletop Bubbleologist
What’s a bubbleologist, you ask?
Simply put, a bubbleologist is an expert in all things bubbles—and kids are natural bubbleologists.
Today’s at home activity takes bubbles to a whole new level. Not only do the activities below allow your little ones to play with bubbles (which is obviously a blast), they’re designed to build important skills like trial and error and cause and effect. Plus, by following the directions below, kids explore geometry and shape-building, physical properties, and their own creativity.
At Home Activity: DIY Constellations
During all this social distancing, our worlds have gotten much smaller—our morning coffee, dinner dates, family outings, staff meetings, workouts, and children’s educations all take place in the same spot: our homes.
And as much as our lives have changed, so have our children’s lives, especially if they’re school-aged.
But what if we told you that, in the height of the Coronavirus quarantine, you can make your world seem as big as outer space?
At Home Activity: Animal Tracks
Since the days of just sending our little ones outside to play with the neighbors are at a halt for now, today’s at home activity focuses on something you can do with your littles outside: search for animal tracks!
This guided activity lets you and your little ones tap into your Discovery Channel sensibilities. Exploring the mud (or dare we even mention it this late in the year, snow!) is a great way to pique your children’s curiosities about animals, nature, and biology. Plus, you might learn a few things along the way.
At Home Activity: Breathing in Memory
… the scent of smell, also known as the olfactory sense, is powerful. In fact, it’s the scent most attributed to memory formation—which is why a smell may trigger an intense, vivid memory, sometimes out of the blue.
Smell is also deeply connected to emotion—our brains form strong connections between particular scents and powerful emotions, which is why smelling something can feel so suddenly intense.
What does this have to do with your kids, or parenting, or play? Well, we’re bringing you an at home activity that is all about how you can explore this powerful (and often overlooked) sense with your kids in the comfort of your own home (while reinforcing and building literacy skills).
At Home Activity: Estimation Games
This time of uncertainty might be the perfect time to explore one of math’s most kid-friendly concepts: estimation.
Practicing estimation skills with your kids is a great way to infuse math learning and play. With activities like the one below, children will begin to understand spatial reasoning in terms of height, weight, and length, and they’ll also start sharpening their educated guessing skills.
At Home Activity: The Element of Surprise
Today we’re sharing an activity that is all about how you and your littles can take the most familiar objects around you and turn them into something brand new. And since we’re all about quality play at Chicago Children’s Museum (that’s also a blast)—today’s activity also allows your kids to flex their imagination and literacy skills at the same time.