Sesame Street Podcast

Pretend! Play a game where you and your child act like different types of transportation and guess what the other person is pretending to be. Put your arms out to the side and fly like an airplane. Hold a pretend steering wheel and zoom around the house. Put your arms together above your head and blast off into outer space like a rocket ship. What other types of transportation can you think of?

Dozen Day! Spend a day with your child finding groups of twelve things. Look for a dozen eggs in an egg carton or a dozen roses in a vase. Then see what ways you can make a dozen, such as counting twelve colored crayons or eating a dozen string beans with dinner.

Be a volunteer! Encouraging your child to become a volunteer, someone who helps without wanting anything back, is a great way to teach her about helping and sharing. Together, think of some ways that you and your child can volunteer in your community such as helping rake a neighbors leaves or visiting a senior home. You'll both feel great about helping out!

Make shapes! Gems, special stones that have been cut and smoothed, can come in all different shapes and sizes. Cut out shapes such as circles, ovals, triangles, squares, and octagons from different colored pieces of construction paper and make your own pretend rubies, emeralds, diamonds, and sapphires. With your child, sort the gems by color or shape, and use the cut outs to create play jewelry or decorate a crown.

Encouraging healthy choices in your family's everyday routines and activities is a great way to establish healthy habits that can last a lifetime. With your child, create a healthy habits poster that lists all of the healthy things you should do each day such as eating lots of fruits and vegetables, washing your hands, brushing your teeth, exercising, and getting lots of rest. Hang the poster somewhere special and together talk about all the healthy things you do every day!

Go on an "identical" scavenger hunt around your home to find as many things that look exactly the same. Search for identical things like placemats, pens or socks. How many identical things can you find together?

When something is crunchy, it makes a cracking sound. Spend a day with you child counting things that sound crunchy. Listen to the sound you make when you take a bite out of a carrot stick or when you step on some dried leafs and twigs. How many crunchy sounds can you hear?

Galoshes, waterproof boots that you wear in the rain, come in may colors. The next time you and your child are outside on a rainy day, play "I Spy" together. When you see someone wearing red rain boots say "I spy red galoshes!" How many colors and patterns can you find?"

Cook together! Look through a simple recipe book and choose a healthy snack or meal that you want to make together. Talk about how a recipe is a list of steps for when you're making a meal. Together, make a list of all the ingredients you need to buy at the grocery store. When you're ready to cook, follow the recipe and let your child know which steps he will help you with. Then, enjoy eating a healthy meal together!

Go Incognito! Together, disguise yourselves as animals by making masks out of construction paper and acting like that animal. What other ways could you change the way you look to make it hard to tell who you are?

Arachnid Art! Arachnids, bugs with eight legs, can be fun to create and a great way to practice counting! Together, use art supplies such as construction paper, pipe cleaners and toilet paper rolls to create spiders, scorpions, mites and ticks. Count the legs as you put them on!

Dress Up! Create capes out of towels and pretend to be super heroes. Find a tiara or make one out of construction paper and pretend to be princesses. Create wands and pretend to cast spells. Including accessories to add to your outfits at play-time can make pretending even more fun!

Create shapes! It's fun to make shapes out of everyday objects. Start with three popsicle sticks and, with your child. create a triangle. Count the sides and angles and talk about what makes this a triangle. Add another popsicle stick and count the sides ' what shape do you have now. Keep adding until you have six sides, then decorate!

Talk to your child about the word allergic and things that someone could be allergic to, such as dogs, peanuts or flowers, and what happens when they have a reaction to those things. If your child has allergies, together make an allergy journal. Include a list of all his allergies and encourage him to draw a picture of each one.

Bath-time is a great opportunity to explore science! Select some items with your child to bring to the tub and ask, "What do you think will sink or float?". Drop them in the water and talk about what happens. Some good things to test could be a ball, a bar of soap, a rubber duckie, a plastic container, or a clean rock.