Holly and I, Rachel, wrote a book last summer. The book and our blog have a lot of similarities. BUT, one thing that the book has that our blog does not focus on, is a way to take the same activity and adapt it for different ages. Holly’s and my kids range in age from 2 – 13. Our kids have very varied interests and ability levels, and yet we’ve found ways to twist activities so that all ages can participate.
This activity is not from the book, you’ll have to buy our book of 101 Kids Activities to read those, but it’s in the spirit of our book.
Stacking Cups.
Here are several ways that kids of every age and size can enjoy playing with a set of stacking cups.
Ways Babies can play with Stacking cups:
- Teething. Babies love to test textures with their mouths. They differentiate between sizes and shapes all while gripping and chewing.
- Roll the cups. Watch what happens when you roll the cups to or away from your child. They are learning hand and eye coordination as they reach for a moving cup.
- Hide small items under the stacked cup. Babies love the surprise of finding more cups under the big one, or even a smaller toy.
Ways Preschoolers can play with stacking cups:
- Play memory. Show your child a variety of items. Cover them with the cups and have your kids predict what is under each cup.
- Serve “tea”. Playing pretend is something my preschoolers just love to do, for hours and hours. Add beans or other small items for them to “pour” as their “tea”.
- Incorporate other toys – add dolls and make the cups their hats… or their boats in the bath tub… Use the cups as scoops in sensory exploration. We have TONS of play recipes you can choose from.
A Thinking puzzle for older kids – and even adults!
Supplies needed:
- Stacking/nesting cup set – you will want to have at least 5 cups. Even more for grown-ups or kids who need more challenge.
- Paper plates. For younger kids you can give them 4 plates. My 7 year old enjoyed the puzzle with three.
How to play:
Put all the cups, stacked, on one of the plates. The goal of the puzzle is to move all the cups onto another plate. However, you can NOT put a big cup on top of a small cup. The smaller cups must go on top of the bigger ones, not the other way around. Kids need to rotate the cups between plates until the stack is “re-stacked”.
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Did you like our “versions of play”?
If you did, you’ll like our book. With each activity in the book, 101 Kids Activities – Available on both Barnes and Noble and Amazon, we looked for ways that all of our kids could enjoy and get involved with the activities we featured, even if they are 2 or 42!
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