Fun at Snake Forest (Cedar Creek Harrow Ontario)

  Today we went to a hidden forest near Cedar Creek in Harrow Ontario.  We call it Snake Forest.  Its a pretty secluded place with lots of clearings and hills to explore if you can push through all the rose thorns.

Random Fun With Kids

 I'm loving his Luke Skywalker hair!  Yes, I guess that is an anarchist pamphlet on the floor.

 In one of my last posts I bragged about how cheaply I bought these kids clothes at the thrift store.  Well Lynden found an extra bonus in the form of a free Lego man that someone had forgotten in the pocket of his new shorts. 

A challenge to the reader: what kind of bug is that?

I don't know why but they absolutely love gutting melons.

One dirty baby!

Free Digital Art Creativity For Kids

 Here is a creative activity I setup for the kids.  What they are doing is designing their own 2d video game.  I start by downloading a set of free game tiles, and use a program called a tilemap level editor, a good free one is Tiled.  The kids click on different tiles and draw out their gameworld, adding in monsters, heroes and magic items.  This is a great activity for them because they feel like they are playing a video game, but instead of passively reacting to a game, they are pouring in all of their imagination and creativity into design their own (would be) game.  For them its not just a picture, its an entire saga unfolding.  The stories and ideas that come out of these sessions are incredible, and this keeps them busy for hours.  Here are their game world creations:

Play Idea: Toy Map Drawings

We drew some play maps for our dinosaurs.  Its great to do this on huge sheets of paper.  Its a good creative activity for the kids that adds some new excitement to old toys.