Recipes for Play: Creative Activities for Small Hands and Big Imaginations

This book opens with the question "Dear Mess, Why are we not better friends?" and continues with a promise to try to embrace a more chaotic home where children are full of wonder and excited by play. Aimed at parents of preschoolers, the work strongly emphasizes sensory play, laying out 40 different activities, including recipes for slime and pavement paint, ideas for creating a miniature boat race, and instructions on building a fairy house. Although a few activities are obvious, like taking all the cushions off the couch or playing with buckets of water, most are thoughtful and clever, such as freezing small objects in water and letting children become archaeologists to excavate the treasure. The activities are organized by where they would take place: indoors, outdoors, or on the go. Each project is clearly described with information on set-up and clean-up time, mess factor (low to high), needed supplies, and a sensory guide, which discusses the senses each activity will engage. The bright, full-color photographs bring this title to life. All activities are designed with a focus on natural materials, and the authors even include information on creating natural dyes so that kids can finally create truly edible play dough.—Rachael Myers-Ricker, Horace Mann School, Bronx, NY