Rush Hour Jr: A fun Workout for young Minds!

If you're a parent, you know there are times where need something to keep your kids quietly occupied. For me, it's often when I need to make a phone call or help my oldest out with her schoolwork. It can be easy rely on technology. Coloring books and simple crafts sometimes work for our preschooler but it depends on the day. Thankfully I now have a new way to keep her busy and learning...and it requires no screens or electricity!

Recently Thinkfun sent us the kids version of the Traffic Jam Logic Game Rush Hour® to see what we thought of it.

Just like the classic version Rush Hour Jr. you need to shift 3D cars and trucks around on 'streets' in the correct sequence in order to help your ice cream truck escape the gridlock.

It's easier said than done!

Included in the game are 40 challenge cards, 15 vehicles, and the grid. 

To begin the player selects a card at the level of play they are working at (there are four levels from beginner to expert). 

The card will show how the vehicles need to be initially arranged on the grid. From here the player can begin sliding the vehicles forward or backwards to try and get the ice cream our of the traffic jam.  If you get stuck you can always refer to the solution on the other side of the card.

Both kids really enjoyed this game. To begin with I played it with our 4 year old as she had a little trouble setting up the board. As far as the game play, she really took off with it. It held her attention and was content to sit quietly and figure it out several cards at a time.

When our 8 year old managed to get a turn she thought it was 'pretty cool'. This is definitely not just a preschool game. The upper level cards are challenging for her and I think this Jr version of game will be fine for both of them for a good while. As for Grown-ups it gave my brain a good workout too. I would seriously look into adding the adult version to our board game collection as a family christmas gift too this year! I especially liked that is sturdy and the vehicles chunky enough for little hands to hold. The size of the base makes it extremely portable. A little cloth bag is included to carry the fun with you to pull out at restaurants or at the Doctor's waiting room.

You can find  Rush Hour Jr. at  Thinkfun's Online store! It would make a great gift for birthdays and other special occasions. Grandparents and Aunts might like to get one to keep at their place for when the little ones visit too! 

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Letter of the week: S for Sheep

Sheep week started off with us reading Russell the Sheep by Rob Scotton.  Mini Piwi made her own Fluffy Russell and enjoyed the first sensory plate of the week, aka. Bob the sheep.

Link to activity

Link to activity

 later on the week Mini Piwi got to 'shear' Bob's foamy wool and find the S to trace.

 The Shaving foam didn't stay on Bob for long.

This seemed to concern Perry the cat

At the library we found a second Russell Book. A thoughtful and creative Miss K, came up with a game to go with the book .In Russell and the Lost Treasure by Rob Scotton,  Russell comes across a map and goes on a hunt for Treasure. Miss K made up a treasure map for us and hid our many stuffed sheep toys. Mini Piwi thought it was great fun. 

One of our favorite sheep books is Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy Shaw. The last page about the cheep jeep always makes us laugh! This book had a two part project. First Mini Piwi made wrap up sheep...

and then we made a Jeep!

The Mailbox theme kits got a work out again. Mini Piwi enjoyed some of the Nursery rhyme and Farm Folder games this week

Miss K had been asking for us to do another sewing project together so we made sock puppets from Daddy's old socks. Miss K stitched, I guided and Mini Piwi glued on eyes and tongues. Meet the new Sheep puppets.

Link to activity

Link to activity

   

Fluffy Sheep fun

This week in Piwi Pre K is all about S for Sheep. Our first book to explore was Russell the Sheep by Rob Scotton. Poor Russell can't fall asleep and he has tried every thing! After reading the story we looked at each illustration again and asked Mini Piwi how she thought things in the pictures would feel. Rob Scotton did a great job at making the Sheep look so soft and fluffy!

 Mini Piwi made her own fluffy Russell with a Paper plate and cotton balls. Apparently it looked suitable fluffy to Perry the cat, because I caught him licking it -ew!

To practice letter tracing we made up another Paper plate sheep complete with an S. The S is covered with several layers of invisible tape to make it raised and to protect it from some of the things we plan to put on the plate this week. 

First up was rice. Here Mini Piwi is searching for the letter and then tracing it. She was super excited to play with the rice and made piles with it before scooping it back onto the plate.

It would be really neat if the Piwi's could visit a farm with some baby lambs in the Spring but I'm not sure there are many Sheep around here. Miss K visited a sheep farm in Auckland, New Zealand during our last trip home but Mini Piwi hasn't see them yet. If the Piwi's grew up in New Zealand Sheep would not be such a novelty.

Source

 Fun fact: The population of New Zealand is approx. 4.43 Million (source), we have 31.1 Million Sheep (source) That's about 7.5 sheep per person.You don't need to travel too far to see a sheep -or a thousand. Still. for me, there is nothing cuter than lambs frolicking in the green spring paddocks (that's a British/Kiwi word for a field). 

Rainbow letter sorting

 After the success of the (fake) cat litter box letter hunt I wanted to do something fun with the letter R. For Mini Piwi I am sure very little could top scooping letter P 'poop' but I was going to try.

Here is Mini Piwi Sorting the Letter R by color...she loved  it!!

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Pre K Monet

Mini Piwi had her own Monet Art class while Miss K was working on her Monet Lapbook and Art study.  We looked at the series of Monet's Water lily paintings and  I made up a story of a frog that lived in the pond. Mini Piwi decided ducks probably lived there too and asked to go feed them lol! cute!

We started off with Painting with water....

When the Monet style art lesson was ready to go Mini Piwi added green leaves with Oil Pastels. In stead of the water colors Big sis was using Mini Piwi went with dot markers...

She 'washed' her painting with water....

The water made a great effect with the 'dots' and acted a lot like water colors with the pastels. We were all very proud of her first artist inspired Masterpiece.

 

You may also like Miss K's Monet Art study

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