Fun Activities for Kids, Families, and Teachers

What to Wear?

Back to school time means new wardrobes for a lot of children, and more choices when they get dressed. Have you ever had a discussion with them about appropriate clothing for different situations, seasons, or situations? The following ideas come with the Fashion Doll felt set from Story Time Felts. If you don’t have this set, you can still do the activities with other dolls and clothes.

Using felt paper dolls is a great way to help children learn about color and style! They’ll learn the following concepts:

- The versatility of neutral colors such as navy, beige and black for coordinating outfits

- Patterns coordinate best when worn with colors that are a part of the pattern

- A versatile wardrobe isn’t about the quantity of what you have as

much as it is the colors, styles and patterns that go together

Let your child experiment with a felt paper doll set and talk to them about their likes and dislikes. You will see their tastes and their sense of what is appropriate develop. They’ll gain a better sense of coordination, especially as it relates to mixing pieces together. They’ll try ridiculous combinations and come to conclusions on their own.

Here are some activities to try:

Seasons:

Divide the felt clothes by seasons and put some away for summer and others away for winter. Decide which ones should be put away for which seasons. Talk about your child’s own clothes and which items get put away, or taken out, and when.

Roommates:

There are a variety of dolls that we offer, and the Fashion Doll Set comes with four. Talk about how each one may have a different personality and choose to where different clothes based on their lifestyle. Make up stories about them and decide which clothes each one would choose. For example, one works in a skyscraper in a fancy office. One lives near the beach and goes to garden parties. One is going to college to be a teacher, etc.

Invitations:

What would happen if the children received invitations to the following events? Which clothes would they choose to wear?

- A garden wedding

- A grand ball at the governor’s mansion

- Swimming and a picnic at the beach

- A Saturday afternoon of horseback riding

- An evening party in an elegant home

- The Academy Awards

- A weekend of skiing

As kids work through all the preferences they’ll develop social skills that will help them be comfortable with their own personal tastes and the preferences of others.

What to Pack:

Tell the children you are going to give them a place to go. They’re late for their flight and they only have a minute to pack. See how fast they can pick the best clothing to take with them on any of the following trips:

- A business trip to a large city

- A weekend skiing vacation

- A camping trip to the mountains

- A weekend at the beach

- A friend’s wedding

Put-Together Competition

Give child a doll and put the clothes at random upside down in a stack. Have the children take turns picking an item from the stack. Each child gets 5 points for a 3 piece outfit, 2 points for a 2 piece outfit and 1 point for a one piece outfit.

Color Matching

Here is another version of the previous game. Give 2 extra points when there are 2 matching colors in an outfit and 3 points when 3 colors are matching from piece to piece in a single outfit.

How Many Outfits

This is a great numbers game. Allow each child to start with 2 clothing items. Ask them how many outfits they can put together with these 2 items. Give them a point for each outfit then let them select one more item and count the number of new outfits now! They will learn quickly that some items and some colors are more versatile than others.

What Do the Clothes Say?

Tell the children that you are going to tell them a mood that their doll might be in and ask them to pick clothes that match that mood. This teaches them that what you wear affects people’s perceptions of you.

- I’m excited and ready for fun!

- I have too much to do! I hope people will leave me alone and just let me do my job.

- I’m sad. I wish I were somewhere else.

- I hope everyone notices what I am wearing today because I feel great!

- I’m having a bad hair day and don’t want anyone to look at me.

What’s Appropriate? What’s Modest?

Use the dolls to talk with the kids about why you feel is appropriate and modest in swimwear, evening wear, etc. Talk about what you would personally wear, and why. Share your feelings about modesty and you’ll teach more than you know!

Hi everyone! I got this cute idea from one of my July97 Moms, Jenn. Enjoy!

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Meggie had a pair of jeans that she absolutely loved. She was starting to
outgrow them, plus she developed holes in both knees, so I finally told her
we were going to have to get rid of them.

I turned them into a little jeans purse and it’s really cute. I cut off the
legs and sewed the bottom shut. I made a rope out of some long fleece scraps
that I braided together. I looped the rope through the belt loops and tied
it together - now she can cinch it shut.

She carried around the purse all day today. The back pockets have snaps, so
she has two places to store loose objects, plus the inside of the purse plus
the former front pockets. A bunch of people commented on how cute it was in
the grocery store.

Jenn

This just came in and I thought it was important enough to share! The product I sell, Story Time Felts, is all about learning through play!

Karen

Doctors urge more playtime for children
By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer

Here’s some soothing medicine for stressed-out parents and overscheduled kids: The American Academy of Pediatrics says what children really need for healthy development is more good, old-fashioned playtime.

Many parents load their children’s schedules with get-smart videos, enrichment activities and lots of classes in a drive to help them excel. The efforts often begin as early as infancy.

Spontaneous, free play Ëœ whether it’s chasing butterflies, playing with “true toys” like blocks and dolls, or just romping on the floor with mom and dad Ëœ often is sacrificed in the shuffle, a new academy report says.

Jennifer Gervasio has a 5-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter involved in preschool three mornings weekly, plus T-ball and ballet for each one day a week. That’s a light schedule compared to her kids’ friends, and Gervasio said her son in particular has trouble finding buddies who are free to come over and just play.

“There’s just such a huge variety of things you can do for your kids if you have the resources, you almost feel why not,” said Gervasio, of Wilmette, Ill. “There is a part of me that would worry if I don’t sign my son up for some of these things, will he not be on par with the other kids.”

For now, she says, she resists the pressure, instead allowing her kids plenty of time for looking for bugs, romping at the beach and other play activities they love to do.

“I truly believe that they’re better off when they can just do their own thing,” Gervasio said.

Numerous studies have shown that unstructured play has many benefits. It can help children become creative, discover their own passions, develop problem-solving skills, relate to others and adjust to school settings, the academy report says.

“Perhaps above all, play is a simple joy that is a cherished part of childhood,” says the report, prepared by two academy committees for release Monday at the group’s annual meeting in Atlanta.

A lack of spontaneous playtime can create stress for children and parents alike. If it occurs because young children are plopped in front of get-smart videos or older children lose school recess time, it can increase risks for obesity. It may even contribute to depression for many children, the report says.

Social pressures and marketing pitches about creating “super children” contribute to a lack of playtime for many families. But so does living in low-income, violence-prone neighborhoods where safe places to play are scarce, the report says.

It says enrichment tools and organized activities can be beneficial but should not be viewed as a requirement for creating successful children. Above all, they must be balanced with plenty of free play time, the report says.

“In the current environment where so many parents feel pressure to be super parents, I believe this message is an important one,” said Dr. Kenneth Ginsburg, the report’s lead author and a pediatrician at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Noted pediatrician and author Dr. T. Berry Brazelton praised the academy’s report.

“I hope it will have some effect,” Brazelton said.

Children overscheduled with structured activities “are missing the chance they have to dream, to fantasize, to make their own world work the way they want it. That to me is a very important part of childhood,” Brazelton said.

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