This week is Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) Week! You can learn more about CACFP here.
Keeping children healthy involves more than just nutritious meals and exercising. Involve your children in the kitchen, let them pick out the produce at the grocery store and active play with them!
One activity you can do with your children involves bubbles!
Blowing bubbles is a fun way to interact with children. You can blow bubbles indoors or outside!
Infants
Place your baby on a blanket outside or on a soft carpet indoors and blow bubbles above them. You can gently clap their feet together to pop the bubbles floating down from above. Place your baby on their tummy and blow bubbles closer to ground level so they have something interesting and new to look at while they practice “tummy time.”
Toddlers
Clear all obstacles out of the way and blow bubbles in the air. Encourage your toddler to “clap” the bubbles, bringing two hands together. Build those language skills as you model saying “POP!” every time you catch a bubble. If you blow bubbles over carpet, they often float to the floor and land, intact. Ask your toddler to “STOMP” on the bubbles, too! You can give them a plastic cup and ask them to “catch” the bubbles. Model the phrase, “GOT IT!”
Preschoolers
Let your child practice independence by blowing bubbles all by themselves. Allow them to hold the wand, dip and blow. You may want to hold the bubble bottle or can tie it to a fence to prevent spills. Encourage your preschooler to catch the bubbles on their wand after they blow them. This is great for building eye-hand coordination! Use a short section of a pool noodle as a “popper” and help each other POP all of the bubbles in the air! This will get your heart rate going and offer plenty of aerobic exercise, especially on a windy day.
