Music Critic’s Club

Bossy or a pushover? It seems like kids fall into one camp or the other. One of the most important skills of childhood is learning to express thoughts and feelings openly and appropriately. Enter the Music Critic’s Club! Kids will just think they are having fun, but they are also learning a great skill: to have an opinion and to accept other’s opinions.

Put together a varied collection of songs on CD’s, old records, or playlists. Don’t forget some tunes from when you were young! Give kids paper and write down numbers 1-10. Play a bit of each song and let them rate it, expressing reasons for their rating. Pre-teach kids to accept each other’s opinions, even if their brother gives their favorite song a 1! This is good training for opinionated parents, too! Practice validating your kiddo’s response instead of trying to convince him that Milli Vanilli deserves a solid 10, controversy notwithstanding.

If you are being amazing on the go, turn to different radio stations and rate from whatever is playing.

Have fun with your little music critics!

 

Have fun with

Playdough Pictionary

I love Playdough Pictionary! Use regular Pictionary cards or simply write 5 words on scrap paper. Divide family into teams. Pick a card, show to one person on the other side, then try to sculpt out your word for your team to guess before the other team. (If you write your own words, the word-maker may need to sit out). Have fun!

Sardines

Whole Family/Under 10 minutes/

How we love to play Sardines! Grab flashlights for the weak-hearted, turn off the lights, and have a great time before bed with this reverse game of hide and seek. We had a great time playing tonight, except for our spoiler kitties. They kept stalking the hiders and alerting everyone to where they were!

  1. One person hides, while others count to 30 in another room with the door closed.
  2. When you find the hider, quietly join them!
  3. Once everyone is packed…like a sardine…into one hiding spot, repeat with another hider.

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Body Builders

Whole Family
10 Minutes or Less
Paper and pens/markers

This is one of our favorite quick games that all ages can play together. As you can tell, any artsy-ness I have is with words and music, NOT with visual arts.

Sit in a circle

Draw a head on your paper, ending with the neck20170105_105346

Fold paper down, showing only the very end of the neck

Draw the torso and arms, ending with the waist 20170105_105541

Fold paper down, showing only the belt or end of  waist

Draw the hips and legs, minus feet

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Fold paper down, showing only the tips of the ankles

Draw the feet

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Fold paper down

Give them a name

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Toss papers in the middle and everyone take one

Go around the circle, unroll your creations, and have a good laugh!

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