Written by Kara Fleck, Simple Kids editor and Rockin’ Granola mama.

Today’s unplugged play idea is to create a pretend play post office.

This is a chance to learn about people in our neighborhood, practice some letter writing, order of events, and perhaps even work on memorizing our home address.  But, don’t guide this activity too heavily:  set the scene and see where your children take it.

Supplies and materials

• paper
• envelopes (I save junk mail envelopes for my kids)
• cardboard or small boxes to act as packages
• pencils
• stickers to use as stamps, or draw your own
• a shoe box to act as a mailbox
• perhaps a bag or basket for delivering the mail

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Written by Kara Fleck, Simple Kids editor and Rockin’ Granola mama.

Today’s unplugged play idea is an easy one, short and sweet:  playing with play dough.

Whether you make your own (our favorite recipe is here) or use purchased play dough or play clay, have fun squishing, rolling, pinching, smashing, and squeezing with this wonderful creative toy.

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Written by Kara Fleck, Simple Kids editor and Rockin’ Granola mama.

We are on day ten in our series on Unplugged Play.  Last week one of the activities was to set up a Story Themed Playscape for your kids.

Today we’re going to set up a Garden Playscape.

What is a playscape?  A playscape is simply a scene that is put together to inspire creative play around a theme.  You are “setting the stage” so to speak.  In this case, we’re setting the stage for some kid-sized gardening and harvest fun in the living room.

Supplies and materials

• blankets or towels rolled up length-wise to create ruts and furrows
• play veggies from the play kitchen (or wooden blocks, or balled up socks, or play silks, or something else to act as pretend “crops” to be harvested)
• basket or bucket for gathering the crops from your blanket field
• child-sized rake, watering can, or shovel might be fun
• space in the living room or kid’s bedroom to set up this kid-sized playscape idea
• optional:  some books about gardening and farming, gardening gloves and a floppy hat

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