Review: Recipes for Play Creative Activities for Small Hands and Big Imaginations by Rachel Sumner, Ruth Mitchener

SUMMARY FROM NETGALLEY.COM:

Fun and easy playtime “recipes” that use household items to engage all five senses, for children ages two and up
Rachel Sumner and Ruth Mitchener created Recipes for Play for parents—and anyone else with a child in their life—who want to encourage tactile learning but don’t want their kitchen, living room, or porch overtaken by chaos. Recipes range from Yogurt Paint to Bubble Blow Darts and call for non-toxic, natural “ingredients” most of us already have—think flour, rice, lentils, tape, ice cube trays, ribbons, drinking straws, and sofa cushions. (The authors even give homemade alternatives for items like food dye.) At-a-glance icons show how each activity engages children’s sense of sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch, and every recipe comes with simple setup and cleanup instructions!

MY TAKE:
I was looking for activities to help my son's development, when I came across this book.

In Recipes for Play Creative Activities for Small Hands and Big Imaginations, several examples of indoor and outdoor activities that children can do are given. Not only can the activities keep them occupied, all of them engage a few, if not all, the five senses, thereby aiding your child's development.

One of the things I liked about the book was the fact that for each activity, set-up time, clean-up time and mess factor are indicated. This way, you can know at a glance how long it will take to set up or clean up a particular activity. Each activity also includes symbols that correspond to which senses will be used for the activity.

The activities in the book are meant for preschoolers, but you can always modify to suit your child's age. My son is 9 months old and of the activities I read, the one that seems easiest for him to do with little modification is the touch tub.

There are other fun activities to try if your child is older, like the jiggly eggs, how to make your own natural food color, and how to make your own playdough.

Thanks to NetGalley and The Experiment for the e-ARC. Publication date of Recipes for Play Creative Activities for Small Hands and Big Imaginations is on September 2, 2014.

THE GOOD:

1. The activities help your child's development.
2. It's easy to see how much effort you need to set up or clean up after an activity.
3. Both indoor and outdoor activities are included.

THE BAD:

1. If your child is younger, you may find that most activities will require modification before your child can do them.

FAVORITE QUOTE/S:

Sensory play is important for all toddlers and pre-schoolers - they are natural-born scientists, hard-wired to learn and develop. 

READ IT IF:

1. You want to help your child's development.
2. You don't want to rely on your television too much to babysit your child.
3. Your child likes trying new things. 

RATING:


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