A Kid-Sized Waterfall

Just a few miles down the highway from us is a national recreation area where we like to hike.  Last summer my husband and I took E there with the intent of letting her play in the river that runs beside part of the trail.  However, it had recently rained and the river was too cloudy to let E play in.  So instead, we found a little creek with a small waterfall and let her play in that instead.  E has always loved playing in running water, and the creek's waterfall was the perfect size for her.  She loved finding leaves and sending them down the waterfall, and she also loved throwing rocks in the little pool at the base of the waterfall.  She had so much fun that we took her back one weekend in September when her grandmother came to visit.  This time we brought a bucket with us and some bathtub toys.

Today we went back to the same creek to let E and W play.  They loved sitting on top of the waterfall.  W spent most of his time splashing, and E filled up the bucket we brought.  We also sent some toy boats down the waterfall.  I love doing this activity with the kids because they have such a great time, and it's completely free (other than the $20 yearly parking pass for the national recreation area, which I am happy to pay).





E's Restaurant

Requires advanced preparation:  Yes

Supplies required:
Play food
Camera
Paper

Additional optional supplies:
Play plates/silverware/cups (or you could use real items)
Calculator or play cash register
Fake credit card
Something to put the "bill" in, such as an old checkbook holder
Tray
Contact paper to laminate the menu (or you can go to a copy store such as Kinko's and get it laminated)

About a month ago, I asked E if she wanted to play restaurant.  I described to her what it involved, and she seemed excited about the idea.  First, we gathered all of her play food and some of her play plates.  We then put meals together and arranged them on the plates.  I took pictures of each meal.  I then downloaded the pictures onto our computer and made a menu using Microsoft Word.  I kept it simple, with a basic decription of the meal, a price, and a small picture.  I went through each meal and asked E what the price should be.  As you'll be able to see from the picture, eating at E's Restaurant can be fairly cheap or super-expensive, depending on what you order!  Her ravioli must come with a gold sauce.  I printed out the menu, which was 2 pages.  I printed it out double-sided so it was only one piece of paper.  I then took it to Kinko's to laminate it.  (They have a self-help lamination machine there; I believe the cost per page is $1.95 or something like that; I made two copies of the menu.  It actually didn't end up costing me anything because the Kinko's guy didn't charge me for it.  And no, I wasn't wearing anything tight or low-cut, so I have no idea why he was so nice.  Perhaps it was just laziness on his part.)  Here is the back page of the menu:

After the menus were finished, I showed E how to play.  I was the hostess/server/chef first.  I showed her to a table (which happens to be the only table at the restaurant--it's a little while table she has).  I gave her a menu and asked her what she wanted.  I wrote down her order on a paper tablet.  I then went and got the food and put it on plates.  Our real estate agent gave us a serving tray as a present when we moved into this house, so I put the food on the serving tray and brought it to E.  I think this is one of her favorite things about playing restaurant--carrying things on the tray.  I got her more food (she was apparently very hungry), and then totaled up her order on a calculator and told her how much she owed.

When it was time for E to be the hostess/server/chef, the restaurant was a lot less formal (as to be expected with a 3-year-old!)  She showed me to a table (it was cute listening to her tell me that there was a lovely table by the window, something I had said) and took my order.  She brought me some of the things I asked for, and didn't bring me other things I asked for.  She informed me that she was out of burritos.  Then, awhile later, she brought me a burrito and told me that it had been hiding.  E then just had a great time bringing me a bunch of food on the tray, and the menu part of the restaurant was forgotten. 

We have played restaurant a few times since, and I think it's a great role-playing activity.  It could easily be played with more kids, so there would be more customers, servers, chefs, etc.  It can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be, depending on the children's ages and/or interest level.  If you already have play food and a camera, then this activity is very cheap.  If you don't have play food, you could use real food.  If you don't have a camera and/or computer and/or printer or don't want to hassle with it, you could just draw/write a menu on a piece of paper. 

Some additional things you could do with the activity that I did not do with E:

• Have the child dress up as a chef, either with a chef's dress-up outfit (Melissa and Doug make one that's cute: http://www.amazon.com/Melissa-Doug-Chef-Role-Costume/dp/B002F9NH68/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311616486&sr=8-1) or just use an apron or other things you might have around the house
• After the customer is finished with the food, wash the dishes (either in the real kitchen sink or give the child a bucket or big bowl of water to do it in); E's grandmother got her a washing dishes sink for her birthday that we could use for this purpose:  http://www.amazon.com/iPlay-Doin-Dishes-Kitchen-Sink/dp/B001R94LWQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1311616529&sr=1-1

Introduction

I am the mother of two children, E (3 years old) and W (9 months old).  I work full-time, and my husband stays at home with our children.  I decided to start this blog in order to write about the activities that I do with E and W.  I plan to use it as a resource when W gets older, so I can remember some of the things E particularly enjoyed doing at various ages.  Hopefully, it will also give my readers some ideas for things they can do with their children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, students, etc. (assuming someone else besides my husband and mother read this...okay, perhaps my husband reading it is a stretch).

When I was a child, I didn't have a DVD player in the car.  My family didn't get a computer until I was in 5th grade, and we didn't have the Internet (AOL dial-up) until my senior year in high school.  Although E and W won't be able to believe it when I tell them (just like I didn't believe that my dad trekked through 6-foot high piles of snow for 10 miles to get to school), I somehow managed to survive.  Kids spend a lot more time in front of screens now, and the toys are more high-tech--it seems like they all make noise, move, light up, or all of the above.  I am definitely not against technology.  E and W definitely have toys that make noise, move, and light up.  E has lately started watching an episode of Curious George in the afternoons, and she has some Berenstain Bear DVDs.  She also plays some games on her grandmother's I-pad.  However, I vowed to myself even before E and W were born that I would encourage them to use their imaginations.  To create, pretend, explore.  To get messy, even if that sometimes means ruining an outfit. 

As part of a single-income family, it is important for me to find activities for E and W that won't be too expensive.  Although I can't promise that all of the activities I will write about on this blog are low- or no-cost (sometimes the expense is worth it), hopefully most of them will be.

If anyone tries out any of these activities (or variations of these activities), I'd love to hear about your experience...feel free to leave comments!  Thanks for reading.