Lake Geneva

We were fortunate to head out to Wisconsin and visit my husband's family in August. Lake Geneva is an idyllic setting with a walking path that circles the entire lake. One of my favorite things to do, aside from enjoying the cousin extravaganza, is walk and gaze at the scenery. A summer thunderstorm set the sky ablaze one afternoon. It was a magical moment in the midwest. Three cheers for family reunions! 

Young Inventors Thrive at the Tech Museum

On a recent visit to downtown San Jose we explored The Tech Museum. I'm consistently awestruck by the number of enriching outings in the Bay Area, and The Tech was no exception. Greeted by words from Bill Hewlett inscribed on the entrance wall, I wondered if the exhibits would live up to his vision: An abiding curiosity and an insatiable desire to learn how and why things work are the hallmarks of innovation. Creativity is nurtured by being receptive and encouraging.




Testing battery connections and outcomes

Building circuits, floating magnets, and learning it all from a diverse group of video taped kids in the exhibit display

Discovering  how water flow makes the propeller shift speed

Playing a game of 'tip the table'

We started on the top floors and had fun with the alphabet robot, inventions to assist the third world, and a simulated bobsled. But the engagement really deepened on the lower levels where kid-friendly exhibits were abundant. In one room, there were hands on science experiments with videos of children talking you through the demo. We built circuits, split light into different colors, and connected gears. In the "Invention at Play" area, we balanced weights on a tippy table and adjusted water flow to power a propeller.

Usually my favorite part of a museum is to observe the kids as they explore and experiment. However, this time my favorite part was watching a video about the value of Play. I was actually trying to take notes on my iPhone until my battery died (thank you golf pencils and scratch paper for contributing to this blog post).

Some key points:

• Real world hobbies help us become inventive (we need to get a feel for the shape of the world)
• Don't underestimate the capacity of a child, and give them the freedom to invent
• Play is a conduit for understanding the world
• Technology should not be a substitute for physical play
• Beware of toys where you consume fantasy rather than create fantasy (i.e., over-engineered toys that pre-package the narrative and limit the child's ability to create)
• The very best educational toy for a child is another person

Although many may agree that the above points are obvious, someone at the museum thought those messages were worth communicating. That, in itself, must be a commentary on the times.

Things To Do
San Jose

Also participating in Delicious Baby's Photo Friday!

Five Ways To Create More Play

Open-ended and creative childhood play is a hot topic on my mind these days. With two daughters, I find family life to be most content when the play pistons are firing. Our typical playtime includes the living room rug with plenty of characters and trinkets; out in the patio with glitter and glue; or down at the park with shovels and buckets. For me, peace comes when I see what my children can create with play.

Fairy heart wands, - one for each member of the family. I was more peaceful 'after' we had cleaned up the mess from this particular project, however.

Although most of my current 'online' time is now spent over at Moms With Apps, that doesn't mean that I've lost my analog sense of self. As a recent foray into the news media mentions, the goal (well, my goal) is for the digital platform to be a springboard for real-life activities, learning experiences, and conversations.

Here are some habits we've formed to encourage play in our family:

1. TIME: "Let's Pretend" takes time. Rushing out right after school, five days a week, doesn't leave time for a jeweled parade of baby ponies (which is usually the case in our house). Choosing who is going to be which pony, decorating them with jewels, and then parading them around the house is at least a 60 to 120 minute affair.
2. FRIENDS AND/OR SIBLINGS: Kids are like instant cake mixes. They are easy to get going when you just add water (i.e., more kids). My kids can be meandering around, and as soon as a friend comes over, BOOM, it's like a spark goes off and all of a sudden the easel is up with a full school room and bossy teacher at the helm.
3. ART SUPPLIES: Easy to access art supplies that include 1) blank white paper, 2) bucket of markers, 3) tape on a sturdy dispenser, 4) scissors. Additions like glue, glitter, ribbons, envelopes, paper bags, boxes, stickers will be put to use as well. But 1 through 4 are mandatory.
4. PROPS: Basically, anything in your house that a favorite set of characters can  interact with. Let's see, I've seen shoe box lids, fabric, bowls, chop sticks, and Tupperware used for boats, cannons, blankets, and bedrooms. And as for the characters, I actually think it's OK to give your child access to multiple characters in a toy series. When my youngest first got into My Little Pony, I initially thought one or two ponies should be enough. Why was she asking for more? Didn't she appreciate what she had? Of course not! How can you play Goo Bandits with only two bad ponies? You need some good guys too, right? Sometimes, it does indeed take a village!
5. FOOD: "Ouch, stop it!" is kid speak for "I'm hungry!". Get a good, healthy meal in your kids, and "Ouch, stop it!" usually turns back to "Let's pretend".

I would welcome any comments or additions to this list. More ideas are better in this territory.

Travel Activities for the Road Trip Home

Whether you are wrapping up your holiday travels, or heading out for winter break, here are ideas for making your own activity kit. Our COLOR PLAY CREATE DISCOVER formula has been used in over 4000 My Busy Kits - so we hope it works for you too!

1) COLOR - crayons, markers, blank white paper, envelopes, tape, scissors
2) PLAY - action figures, finger puppets, bendables, little toy people or animals
3) CREATE - construction toys, connecting shapes, pipe cleaners, Wikki Stix, pop beads, lace boards
4) DISCOVER - magnifying glass, measuring tape, flashlight, puzzle

To supplement your activity kit, you can't beat a selection of books to bring along for storytime. Our favorite travel books are small and compact, with enough text and illustrations to keep us engaged. Here is a post on the Mr. Men and Little Miss series of books that entertain us on our trips.

If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, options for kids activities are endless. Not only can you access a library of books from your smartphone, but you can also make art projects on the go with apps like KidArt and SpinArt. Recently I've been collaborating with a group of parent developers who make apps for kids and families - so visit http://www.momswithapps.com/ for download ideas before your next family roadtrip. And of course, there is the app we released over the summer from My Busy Kit called My Little Suitcase, which lets kids pack their own suitcase to explore fun travel destinations.

Family Travel Tips

Build Your Own Busy Kit (Part 4: Discover)

We've all heard that children need to spend more time outside. One reason travel can be so valuable for families is that it enables outdoor activities. Parks, beaches, walks, and town squares are part of visiting a new (or old) destination. Exploring your surroundings is the purpose of Build Your Own Busy Kit Part 4: Discover.

If you are about to head out with the little ones, my previous posts have ideas for keeping children creatively entertained while traveling. They include four areas:

1) COLOR - crayons, markers, blank white paper
2) PLAY - pretend toys, action figures, finger puppets
3) CREATE - construction toys, connecting shapes, pipe cleaners

and...

4) DISCOVER! - magnifying glass, measuring tape, flashlights, etc.

Kids love to explore - and one of my favorite parts of being a parent is watching them go for it! Hand them a flashlight to light up the dark. Unroll a tape measure to wrap around a tree trunk. Hold up a magnifying glass to see a creepy crawly on a leaf. Or just sit back, and watch them create crazy open-ended uses for any of these objects (I've seen the magnifying glass used as a pretend pizza cutter, or the tape measure used to leash a stuffed animal - whatever works!).

The point is, children are nature's explorers. The more they do, the more they realize life's (and their own) potential. What other interesting gadgets can unlock a child's curiosity? I'd love to hear your ideas!

So next time you are packing up for a trip, remember the key words COLOR * PLAY * CREATE * DISCOVER to make your own busy kit. It will become an imagination-builder for your kids, and a sanity saver for you! Happy travels!

Lorraine Akemann / Co-founder / My Busy Kit
support@mybusykit.com

Build Your Own Busy Kit (Part 3: Create)

This is the third post for Build Your Own Busy Kit, a series of tips for assembling kids travel activities. Whether you are headed out on vacation, or just seeking things to do for quiet time, My Busy Kit provides activities to encourage independent and creative play. We always include something for coloring, playing, creating & discovering. This post will elaborate on the third category, Create (i.e., construction toys and manipulatives).

What I love about this category is how wonderful it is to see kids keeping their hands busy and their mouths in check. That's probably awful to admit, but when you are on an airplane, that last thing you need are seatmates giving you the evil eye because your kids are louder than the engines. Rather, I like my children ENGAGED. So, we build.

One of our My Busy Kit favorites are linking toys called Acrobats. But most homes have plenty of options like Legos, Tinkertoys, and Bristle Blocks. Anything open-ended that children can put together and take apart, lots of times, is GOOD. Children use their construction toys in combination with their pretend toys, making stables for ponies, or garages for cars.

So what are you going to bring next time you head out? So far, we've got something to write with, something to pretend with, and something to build with. Next time, we get to take all of these things out in the world to go exploring - and that is where discovery comes in! Thanks for reading!

Lorraine Akemann / Co-founder / My Busy Kit
support@mybusykit.com

Build Your Own Busy Kit (Part 2: Play)

This is the second post for Build Your Own Busy Kit, a series of tips for assembling kids travel activities. Whether you are headed out on vacation, or just seeking things to do for quiet time, My Busy Kit makes combinations to encourage independent and creative play. We always include something for coloring, playing, creating & discovering. This post will elaborate on the second category, Play (i.e., characters and props to encourage imaginary or pretend play).

When I watch my two daughters, I can tell that playing is their job. They've got work to do, and they do it well. Ponies need hairbows, cars need garages, and rockets need to go to the moon. The stories that unfold are the product of lively imaginations, and the props are examples of resourcefulness. My job, as their mother, is to get out of the way as they get down to business on lazy weekend mornings. My job, as a busy kit builder, is to provide some portable tools so they can play on the road. Below is a selection of things we've included for pretend play in My Busy Kits, but one quick walk around the house and you'll find plenty of choices.



Finger puppets, action figures, bendi dolls, mini animals, vehicles, knights, ninjas, bugs, or even stretchy lizards can all be part of the mix. Any portable character, preferably with a buddy so there can be some sort of interchange, can work great for making up those stories. We especially love food shaped erasers for 'feeding' our characters, and craft sticks that can be colored into puppets.

But don't stop there. When you are sitting on the tarmac on a 3 hour layover (like we did last summer in Chicago) we combined the Color category with the Play category by using markers, tape, paper and scissors to cut out decorations for a Pony Parade across the tray tables. I think it was the most decorated seat row in airplane history, but it got us through the jam!

Do you have more ideas that work well for pretend play? We would love your read your comments, because ideas are what keep us busy!

Tune in for our next post in the series, which will cover "Create" (construction toys, crafts and manipulatives).

Lorraine Akemann / Co-founder / My Busy Kit
support@mybusykit.com

Build Your Own Busy Kit (Part 1: Color)

In my spare time, I build children's activity kits, lots of them. Since we started My Busy Kit two years ago, approximately 3000 little busy bodies have gotten their hands on our kits, somehow. Our goal is to encourage family outings by providing the tools to make traveling more fun for everyone involved (including the airplane passengers in the row in front of you). But it's not rocket science, it's really just about creativity and convenience. Build Your Own Busy Kit is a series of tips for assembling your own travel activities - we hope you find it useful for your next trip!

Every My Busy Kit includes four content categories: Color, Play, Create, and Discover. For part 1 of this series, we will focus on "Color" (which means anything that will facilitate coloring, writing or drawing). What you see below is a selection of items in the "Color" category for My Busy Kit.



Take a visit to your art supply cabinet, and try to find a combination of crayons and washable markers. Markers are colorful and fun, but crayons are good for writing practice because you need to press a little harder to see the result. For added insurance, older kids may like pencils with a sharpener, but for the younger set, a 4-color pen might be just fine.

For paper, we always have at least one pad of blank white paper. Blank paper is an open-ended imagination-builder. It can turn into anything, which is part of the magic. In addition, we like activity books with a mix of guided tasks to keep kids focused. Step over to your office supply cabinet and grab a scratch pad. Then, snatch a coloring book (one of the thousands piled up somewhere in your house). Put them together, the combination can be useful.

To kick it up a notch, add some tools of the trade, like rulers, stencils, protractors or a compass. The novelty factor on these alone can fill up that extra hour on the tarmac. And don't forget your stationary drawer: pretty paper, sticker seals, envelopes and mailing labels. This can be a treasure for children just waiting to play post-office.

Helpful? Got more ideas? Then come back for more! The next installment in the series will be about imaginary and pretend play. Can't wait to see you there!

Lorraine Akemann / Co-founder / My Busy Kit
support@mybusykit.com

Packing Up the Pink

So there we were, getting ready to leave for a family overnight, with limited cooperation from our youngest travelers. After a few too many complaints about wanting to bring along this or that toy, my husband caved. "Here, have a suitcase, fill it up, and that's what you can bring." Oh, what joy! Squeals of excitement reverberated through my home. The youngest travelers flitted about the house, fitting in each toy like a puzzle, and even making room for the dearest of books and sibling treasures. I stayed out of it, figuring that he dug this hole, so he can pack the car. Turns out, he really nailed it. Not only did the kids do a great job getting packed and out of the house, but they were plenty entertained when we got to the hotel. And here I am, Miss Busy Kit, trumped by her very own husband!