Even the most creatively-challenged parent or caregiver will have an easy time occupying the children with this abundant and detailed collection of activities for children aged two to seven. Waterman, a mother of three, arranges the activities into fifty-two "Theme Days," one for each week of the year. Themes are varied and interesting, and include dinasaurs, pirates, post office, nursery rhymes, inventions, and detectives. For each theme, Waterman gives suggestions for tailoring the activities to appeal to children of multiple ages. Waterman provides detailed instructions for all crafts and activities. Each "theme" also includes a list of related age-appropriate books and videos, and a list of arts and crafts materials needed for the activities. This book is well-organized and easy to use. Activities are simple but inventive and do not require expensive purchases or exceptional talent. --
Foreword Magazine, June 1999
From the Introduction
Who hasnt had to help a six-year-old with a craft, read to a four-year-old, and play blocks with a two-year-old all at the same time?! Oh, and they need a snack, too! The reality of life is a frequent need to keep more than one child happy for more than one hour, and even the most creative parent, grandparent, teacher, or babysitter can run out of ideas. Younger ones want to feel theyre doing just what the big kids are, and big kids get tired of toddler-limited play. Dont despair.
Children of all ages love Theme Days, where everything they do revolves around one idea, whether its dinosaurs or detectives, school days or birthdays. I originally came up with these ideas so that my college-age sitter could keep my three children (then ages 6, 3, and 1) happy while I worked in my home office.
All the books Id seen either addressed many things for, say, just two-year-olds to do (not challenging for the older ones), or just one type of activity (e.g., crafts) for a range of ages (not enough for more than an hours play). I decided to find lots of things for lots of ages to do together, and the idea grew into a family project. From there, friends who claim to be creativity impaired said it was just what they needed, and their children enjoyed helping with the testing.
Youll find that the themes in this book are designed to be non-gender-specific, and they offer different ways of doing the same thing to allow the full range of 2-to-6-year olds to join in. The activities and crafts use mostly everyday items, and the suggested books, cassettes, and videos are often available at public libraries or for rent/purchase at chain stores. Jump in anywhere, and enjoy this grab-bag of day-long possibilities.
Each Theme Day section contains the following nine categories of information, with directions and notes for adapting the ideas for 2/3-year-olds, 4/6-year-olds, or your own situation. Sometimes the play activity makes use of the craft project, but otherwise you can do the activities in any order. You (and the children) may want to spend more time on one part than another, or skip a part entirely.
Some outdoor activities can be adapted for indoors, and vice versa (especially considering the weather); similarly, the snack can be for morning or afternoon, or be made a part of lunch. Lastly, you can all decide when to snuggle in for the stories or to calm down with a videotape.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
How to Use This Book
Whats Behind Each Theme
Planning Ahead
Stocking up on Supplies
Art/Craft Supplies
What supplies do you already have?
Simple things to buy
More expensive supplies to consider buying
Ways to organize the supplies
Toys for Inside/Outside Play
Good toys you may already have
Lower cost toys to buy
Special Treat toys to buy
Dress-Up Clothes/Props
Dress-up materials on hand
Dress-up props to consider buying
52 Weeks of Theme Day Activities
Airports/Planes
Astronomy
Balls
Bears
Birds
Birthdays
Boats
Bugs/Butterflies
Camping
Carpentry
Cars/Trucks
Castles/Royalty
Circus
Clocks/Time
Colors/Light
Dancing/Jumping/Hopping
Detectives
Dinosaurs
Doctor/Dentist/Vet
Dragons/Fairies
Farmlife
Firefighting
Fish/Under the Sea
Flags/Signs
Flowers/Vegetables
Fruit/Trees
Geology
Hair
Hats/Shoes
Inventions
Kitchen Fun
Library
Maps/Traveling
Musical Instruments
Nursery Rhymes
Old-Fashioned Days
Pirates
Post Office
Rain
Restaurant
School
Sewing/Knitting/Weaving
Shapes
Shopping
Snow
Sound
Surprises!
Theater/Movies
Trains
Western Days
Wheels/Spinning
Zoo/Safari
Appendix:
Catalogs
Even More Books
Video, Audio, and Internet Sources
Index
