Paint, draw, sculpt with play-do, scoop bears from the manipulatives bucket, draw big on the wall chalkboard, make a creative art/craft project to take home, and more.  Mondays & Tuesdays 9:15 AM – 11:15 AM.  All ages.  Free.

Parent & Toddler Yoga @ Lincoln Park Zoo

Connect to nature while exercising the body and imagination with your little one. Toddlers will practice fun animal yoga poses and also engage in activities like guided nature exploration, reading a storybook and more.

September 3rd & 10th from 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM. Ages 2-4 years.  $20/Child.

It’s a Bugs (and Bees!) Life @ Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum

Secrets of Bees is a highly interactive exhibit using live bees, costumes and props to allow families to role-play and peel back the mystery of bees.

Through October 1st.  $9 – adults; $6 – ages 3 – 12 years; Free – ages 2 & under.

A Detective Game With Three Little Kittens @ Emerald City Theater

This interactive spy story provides the purr-fect opportunity to show your little ones the mystery and excitement of live theatre.

September 12th – January 3rd.  Ages 0 – 5 years.  $15/child; $8/children 1 & under.

Learn and Play Date @ The Natalie G. Heineman Smart Love Preschool

Join Smart Love at a Free Learn & Play Date about Baby Milestones! The play date is casual and will take place in their baby room, a space specifically designed with your baby in mind.  Ages 6 – 11 months.  Free.

Your child is learning how to engage and play with peers appropriately, so he needs you to model and guide him through that process! You can encourage peer interactions within your current surroundings through seeking out opportunities that allow your child to practice relating to other children. Some ideas include, playing simple turn-taking games with siblings at home, bringing chalk or bubbles to share at the park, or attending a neighborhood play date or library storytime.

You’ll need:

-Empty water bottle (smooth bottles work best!)

-Glitter glue

-Fine glitter

-Clear gel glue

-Super glue

Directions:

1. Clean water bottle and remove labels.

2. Fill water bottle ¾ of the way with warm water.

3. Add glitter glue and fine glitter. Shake bottle to mix and melt glitter glue.

4. Add clear gel glue and fill to the top with cool water.

(You can play with the consistency at this point…more gel glue will make the glitter settle slowly and more water will make it settle more quickly.)

5. Secure the top back on with super glue.

6. Enjoy!

   Photo credit: By Inkwina (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Hide toys your child already has around your home. You could also extend the activity by having your child draw pictures of treasure that you can then “bury” (hide). As you hunt for your treasure be sure to model questions and answers about where that toy might be (e.g.“Is it under the table?” “No? Let’s keep looking!”). This activity is great for working on asking and answering questions, understanding location concepts, and following directions (e.g. “look on the chair!”).

Kids love seeing just how tall of a tower they can make when they stack the blocks in the right order, and the fun doubles when they get to knock it down. These blocks are great for teaching size concepts, location words, letter identification, and picture identification.