Dress Up for a Rhyme Time Scavenger Hunt #Unplug2Play

Hey, friends…you know how we play the “Honestly Game” around here?  Well, honestly, I have to confess that the Artsy Family spends too much time in front of screens.  Hubby has his Kindle, I have my smart phone and laptop, and LC?  Well, ever since he got a Kindle Fire for Christmas, that’s how he wants to spend his time.

It’s so common to see him downloading and playing a game or watching some of his favorite movies and shows on Netflix.  If he’s not doing that, he’s often watching a DVD or playing games on an educational website.  Let me emphasize that those things aren’t bad things!  Many of the games he plays are educational and really awesome for practicing skills he’ll need in kindergarten, and many of the things he watches also have an educational focus.

But the reality is, I want him to spend less time in front of a screen and more time just, well,  playing!  Things are so different now than when I was a kid!  Thirty years ago {yikes!} there was no such thing as an app.  I didn’t get a cell phone until after I’d gotten my license, and not only was it not “smart,” it was about as big as a football.  We purchased our first computer when I was in high school, and it was several more years before we actually had the internet at home.  I read books, played with my dolls, and loved dressing up to pretend I was all kinds of things…an astronaut, a teacher, a princess, a doctor, a ballerina…my imagination used to run wild and I loved every minute of it.  So, I recently decided it was time to get Little Crafter doing the same thing.  No, I didn’t take away his Kindle; in fact, he just fell asleep watching an old vintage episode of Mickey Mouse…shhhhhhh!  But he’s spending more time playing and imagining and learning without it…take a look.

It all started with a costume. Little Crafter is crazy {and I mean CRAAA-zy!} about the Cat in the Hat.  He is obsessed with the DVDs, the show, the books, and anything else he can get his hands on with that cat.  We happened to be browsing the Costume Express Dress Up Page in search of a pirate costume for his birthday party, and he asked me to search for Cat. Well, sure enough, we found it.  And he fell in love.

I made the mistake of giggling when I saw the online photo {I mean, seriously, how cute is that?!} and it sealed the deal.  LC LOVES to be funny and make people laugh, so when he figured out this costume would do that too, he begged and pleaded with me to get it for him.  As I considered it, I thought, “Hmm, we could use this for way more than Halloween.” After all, there’s no way he was going to wait that long to wear it.  I might as well let him dress up and play…and do some learning too.  Of course, we ordered it, as well as the cute little mitten accessories. {To see our full shopping experience, you can visit my G+ album!} As soon as the package arrived, he tore into it like you can probably imagine and immediately wanted to try on the costume.

Warning: The following photos contain an overload of cuteness that might cause you to giggle, smile excessively, or exclaim, “AWWWW!” out loud.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you!  Is he, or is he not the cutest cat you’ve ever seen?!  Once he tried it on, he refused to take it off even though it was literally 100 degrees outside and the costume is made from a nice heavy velour fabric.  The next day, he wore it again.  Saturday, he wore it to Dunkin’ Donuts and to build a Lego helicopter.  Sunday, he wore it at his grandparents’ house.  Monday, he wore it to the library and to buy school supplies.  This is the boy who typically refuses to change out of his pajamas.  There’s just something about the Cat in the Hat!

Here’s the game I created for him to play while wearing his costume at home to help practice his sight words and rhyming skills for kindergarten!

Rhyme Time Scavenger Hunt

Materials:
– cardstock or index cards
– marker
That’s it!!

First, write various sight words on the cards.  Make sure that each word rhymes with one other word.  You can choose the words based on your child’s reading ability.  For older kids, it would be a good way to practice vocabulary words.  I used 18 words, but you can use however many you like!

Hide those cards!  I stayed in one room for our scavenger hunt {mostly so I could remember where I hid everything}, but you’re welcome to hide them outdoors if it’s not a million degrees like it is here, or all over the house.  Then, let your little scavenger search for them and read each word aloud when it’s found.

After all the cards have been located, spread them out on the floor.

Choose one card to start with and have your little reader find the word that rhymes.  Pair those cards together and set them aside until all the rhymes have been matched!

That’s just one of the ways we play when LC is all dressed up!  He also likes to hide the cards for me, as well as writing his own words on the cards for me to find.  There are a million variations you could do; colors, numbers, shapes, etc.  And of course, the Cat in the Hat always takes time to read.

It’s awfully nice to be read to these days after all the hours spent doing it the other way around!

We’ve already had hours of fun unplugging and playing with Little Crafter’s costume; I can only imagine how many times he’s going to wear it before Halloween gets here!  Meanwhile, while we were on the Costume Express site, LC decided that hubby and I need to be Thing 1 and Thing 2.  Blue hair, anyone?  If you’re looking for a fun way to get your kids unplugged to play, Costume Express offers Free Shipping for orders over $75, and a 15% discount when you sign up for their email list!

Hugs & Glitter,

 

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