Setting Goals for 2016 (The Kid Friendly Way!)

Tomorrow is officially a new year, and if you’re like me than you are Pumped and Ready to set some awesome goals! If you want to get your kids in on this goal-oriented action, then take a look at the links below. I’ve rustled up some fun ways to get your kids in a future-oriented mindset. Even if they never achieve their goals (like so many of us), it’s still a good thing to get them thinking about these things.

1. Get them prepped with some great books about perseverance (I am a sucker for Oliver Jeffers and the Elephant and Piggie series)

2. For your smaller kids, visualizing and drawing out goals can be great!

3. Here’s a great sheet for your older kids…

4. And lastly, find some books about making mistakes (because none of us are perfect when it comes to New Years Resolutions)

Have a happy New Year everyone! See you in 2016!

Kids Nook Reads: Oliver

As much fun as it is to day-dream and to work out your imagination, some times you need to be in the real world.

This week we meet Oliver, a happy boy with a big imagination but a bit of a problem.

Oliver
by Birgitta Sif

Best Posts of 2015

We’ve had an amazing year at Kids Nook, trying all kinds of new programs and new games. Part of the reason that the year has been so great is you guys of course! So as a way to round out the year 2015, we wanted to share our three most popular posts with you guys.

See you in the new year (for some fun new changes!!)

1. Jungle Links to Get You Swinging
   
2. We’ve Got No Strings on Us (Pinocchio Storytelling)
    
3. Kids Nook Reads: The Lamb Who Came for Dinner
   

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy our last days of 2015!!!

Re-Post: Happy Holidays from Kids Nook

Note: This is a repost of our super fun Christmas party activities from last year. They included lots of food, awesome pajamas, and toilet paper games 🙂 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Kids Nook! To celebrate the occassion we hosted a very special pajama holiday party, featuring the classic story The Polar Express! 

Of course we ate too much food…

And played in the snow…

Made our own special Christmas pillow buddies…

And of course, drank hot chocolate!

Have a great year!

Explore Sound with these Fun Experiments

This week we told you about a book that tells the story of a bird who just loves making and listening to sounds. Of course he’s not the only one who likes listening to sounds, and so this week we decided it would be fun for us to share a bunch of different experiments with you and yours that explores just how sound works.

1. Using a Balloon to Amplify Sounds

2. Classic Sound Vibration with Glasses Experiment 

3. Exploring Sound with a Hanger

4. Tin-Can Telephones

5. Lastly, reading the Greek Myth of Echo (a fun introduction to how ancient cultures viewed science)

That’s all for this week friends! I’ll guess we’ll be hearing from you!

Kids Nook Reads: Harold Finds a Voice

Do you love making funny noises? Do you spend your time listening to different accents just because you love to? Well you may not, but I sure do! That’s probably why I loved reading about the adventures of Harold, a mischevious parrot in a big city!

Harold Finds a Voice
by Courtney Dicmas

Goldilocks and the 3 Bears Sensory Games

There are a lot of great classic fairy tales out there that are pretty much perfect for sensory games. One of those stories is absolutely Goldilocks and the Three Bears, a fun little story that you can use to teach your kids textures, sizes, and sequencing.

We started by giving each of our kids a different bear, big, medium, and little, then letting them use our special lego blocks (perfect for our light tables) to create homes for the bears.

Next we gave them different sized bear cut outs, and told them to put them inside the bears “beds”, which are made of different sized bags.

We filled the bags with different materials: straw for papa bear (too hard and stiff!), cotton for mamma bear (too soft!), and colorful fun cut out pieces for baby bear (just right).

After that we had them pick out the hard marbles from the bears “porridge” (in this case, colored gelatin).

The kids loved it, and they had even more fun learning about all the different kinds of textures.

How do you and your kids play with the Three Bears? Let us know in the comments!

Never Say Never! 5 Ways to Beat Boredom

Yesterday we shared a preview of a story about a girl who says nothing EVER happens to her… sound familiar moms and dads? We all fall victim to boredom every once in a while, especially kids. But thanks to the internet, you never have to be at a loss for what to do again. Here are five boredom busting games that you can share with your kids the next time they start getting a little antsy.

1. Sock Mopping!
   

2. Snowman Factory!

3. Reusable Gak/Bubble Blowing

4. “Sumo Wrestling” (great for boys!) 

5. Lego Ninja Hat (requires some sewing skills, but can we talk about how many HOURS of fun a lego fan would get from this?)

Kick that boredom in the tush guys!

Kids Nook Reads: Never Ever

*sigh*

Don’t you just feel like sometimes nothing interesting ever happens to you? It doesn’t matter if we’re five years old or Indiana Jones, there are just sometimes when we can’t really see what’s in front of us.

That’s what this week’s book is about: Never Ever by Jo Empson.

Duck Goes Potty: Potty Training Games for Kids

Learning how to use the potty can be a pretty tricky experience. Just ask Duck, the hero of Duck Goes Potty from Hello Genius!

Lots of our kids that come to Sensory Storytime are in that stage where they’re also learning how to use the potty, so the games we play with them are extra fun.

We always like to start with putting diapers on our stuffed animals, just like mammas do with the kids.

But of course that diaper gets a little dirty…

So we have to clean up! Get out the toilet paper and water guys!

Now it’s time to wash up our big messes we’ve made.

But we always remind the kids not to forget to use the soap!

Good luck with that potty training everyone!