The Very Best and Easiest Playtime Activities from FunAtHomeWithKids.com!

We are so thrilled with this book! My daughter loves to flip through it and ask if we can do an "experiment" today. It's great for babies, preschoolers, and older kids. The introduction lays out why open-ended play fosters creativity, innovation, and scientific discovery, which are so valuable in today's world. Asia tells you what staple ingredients and supplies to have on hand and where to buy them (cheaply), so with a little bit of planning, you're ready at any time. She understands that DIY kids' crafts can be overwhelming for many parents and makes a point to break it down in easy steps. I tend to shy away from messy activities but she has convinced me that it can be manageable and that it's worth it. I love that she has done extensive research to find the best and easiest recipes and supplies, so I don't have to. And most of all, the activities are FUN!

Half the book is slime/playdough/goo recipes and the other half is tiny world ideas, but I loved the whole thing and will be spending a great amount of time using the activities in it! One of my favorite parts was that each recipe was labeled as "safe for mouthing" (eating) and not, there were gluten free recipes, all natural dye directions, tips on where to find the items, etc. I'm going to be buying a second copy for a gift to my daughters preschool teachers.

Love love LOVE this book! When it arrived, my four year old looked through it exclaiming "Oh wow"! every time he turned the page! We always love activities from the Fun at Home with Kids blog, and the book has even MORE ideas, includes tips for extending play and the author gives a good framework for how to get started with sensory play. I have two very bright and busy boys (18mos and 4yrs) and these ideas never fail to engage them both for a looong time. As a SAHM and former kindergarten teacher, I love the way the ideas in this book nurture children's natural curiosity and creativity. An essential resource for parents and early childhood educators alike!

LOVE this book!! We are already done so many activities out of this book. The recipes are very easy to follow and my 2 year old daughter LOVES them and so do the neighbor kids who always come over and join in on the fun! I also have enjoyed the sensory play suggestions for babies--My 8 month old really enjoyed the oatmeal bin.

I stumbled upon this book through the blog FunAtHomeWithKids.com. At the time my children (ages 7 and 4) were on winter break for a week and taking turns getting sick, so we were home bound and looking for easy things to do to keep busy, this book was my salvation. I just love the way it is laid out, and the beautiful pictures. I am also a preschool special ed teacher, and I have used several of the taste safe ideas in my sensory table at school. My kids love to look through it to plan our next "experience." Get this book if you are looking for easy ways to have fun with your kids.

Packed full of fun activities. Some suggestions are a bit derivative (the worlds), but nevertheless, we love them. Really helped get me out of a creative rut with my kiddo's activities. We also have "A Little Bit of Dirt" and look forward to doing some of those activities. We've done moon sand, cloud dough, many of the worlds, made the mat and the stage, and generally, had a blast!

This book is absolutely amazing and I plan to tell EVERY MOM I know about it! So happy I purchased this! Filled with fantastic ideas, and each one shows an age range and if the items are edible. I love that most of the "stuff" is edible and chemical free. This book is also a fantastic gift idea for new moms and experienced moms alike!

Asia Citro's collection of screen-free activities for kids is an easy and insightful guide for providing children with quick hands-on entertainment and learning without resorting to media. As a parent, I have enjoyed watching my children play, question, learn, and develop as they have explored different mediums, engaged in sensory play, and created imaginary worlds (fine, I'll admit it, I also enjoy playing and exploring with them as well!).

To paraphrase a bit of wisdom of Bill Watterson, it's a magical world - let's go exploring! Let this book serve as an initial guide for you and your children, I am confident that you will enjoy and appreciate wherever your journeys may take you...

This is seriously THE BEST resource for anyone looking for quality play ideas kids are sure to love! I love having all these ideas right at my fingertips-perfect when it's a rainy day or we have a playdate coming up. I plan on buying a copy for all my teacher and mom friends!

This book is jammed packed with idea after idea for engaging children in thought provoking sensory play. As a former classroom teacher, I appreciate the science background of the author mixed with the creative and brilliant recipes for play. This book is going to be at the top of my go to buys for others parents and educators. Every early childhood teacher should own a copy and reference it often.

This is an inspiring book as far as sensory activities to do with your child. But I am so very irritated by the photos in the book. This book is about messy play...but the photos show children in spotless clothes, in a perfectly clean room, playing with materials that magically stay in the "sensory" bin. Make no mistake, if you do an activity such as presenting your toddler with a bin full of beans, you will end up with beans in every corner of the room. I suppose in this pinterest perfect age, such photos were a necessity for marketing or whatever. But they do not represent reality at all of what it would look like if you were to do the activities in this book. Also...many activities would require quite a bit of setup beforehand (like dying dry rice with food coloring and setting it out to dry overnight), as well as a lot of cleanup afterwards (see original comments about beans in every corner of the room). Still inspirational though and has a lot creative ideas...I stilp consider it a worthwhile buy.

this is a FANTASTIC book full of wonderful easy to do at home crafts. I had most of the supplies/ingredients at home but actually followed the suggested list and bought it all. My only fault with the book is the two categories only. DOUGH and SLIME. Would love to see what other types of crafts this woman can share.

Honestly, something about the Fun at Home with Kids blog has always rubbed me the wrong way, but this book has been SUCH a hit in my house. It is the first activity book that my 3 year old has pulled off the shelf, flipped through, and said, "Let's make this! ... And this! ... And this!" And they have all been wonderful successes.
We have loved the flax seed goo, puffy paint recipes, colored salt, and colored beans. All the recipes have been easy to make and kept both my 3 year old and my 1 year old engaged, curious, and ready to experiment. I can't wait to see what we make next!

This book has so many ideas and activities for little ones. My kids are 3 and 1 1/2 years old. The projects in this book have given both much enjoyment. My older one can help measure and set things up and they both can have tons of fun!

I LOVE this book -- everything except the recipes using sweet basil seeds. I've tried many of the recipes so far and they are creative, fantastic, and simple -- everything one could hope for. BUT. The "water beads" made of sweet basil seeds was a huge headache (and the only thing that prevents me from giving a full 5 stars). The recipe worked great, but the seeds - tiny, mushy, gelatinous balls of doom - stuck to EVERYTHING and were impossible to clean up. The author notes, to her credit, that this is a messy experiment and that one may have to wait for the seeds to dry to pick them off. But even dry, the seeds basically "glued" themselves to my childrens' clothing. Only soaking and painstakingly picking every.single.seed. off worked, and took almost an hour. I wouldn't go near these things again if you paid me. That's the only bad thing about this book -- just avoid this one recipe and the rest are golden!!

Too much variations of the same thing. This book should really be called 15 screen free activities with 135 variations of those 15 things. I like that many activities use similar ingredients so I can do more than one activity with them. The highlight for me was the idea of the sensory play tubs like getting a huge tub and filling with water, then adding things for imaginary play like frogs and floating Lilly pads and jewels, etc. my kids LOVE that kind of thing and it got my creative juices flowing. Those ideas alone were worth the purchase for me. And who knows maybe I will make 30 different kinds of gak, slime, goo and dough someday.

Many of the activities are repetitive with just theme variations. For every activity there are three or four variations. Could probably have been written with 25% of the words and just a brief explanation and photos of the variations.

Every parent, teacher, nanny, uncle, aunt, grandparent -- anyone who interacts with children -- should own this book. It encourages tactile, open-ended play. This book fosters the type of play that builds young brains! It includes beautiful photographs, very easy-to-follow instructions, and resources on where to find everything used in the book (although most of the supplies you are likely to have in your kitchen). I am very much hoping the author will write a sequel! Keep the great ideas coming!

A great resource for rainy days and kids' parties, the author has obviously spent a lot of her personal time perfecting these amazing activities. We've used it on dozen's of occasions to great success, and my French mother-in-law has even struggled through the English to extract activities for her grand-children.

I was disappointed. After reading the reviews, I thought this would be a great book filled with easy activities but the activities are not simple to make. For instance one requiresfour 2x4's screwed together to make a square. Then holes drilled all over the sides of the square. The concept is the child can lace/weave long string through the holes back and forth. This is not only expensive, but who is going to make that? Where would you store it? I was looking more for crafty things you could make with toilet paper rolls. My bad I guess.

-the activities generally are not novel. I actually read an art project book earlier this year with largely the same content.
-the book lacks variety. I would draw on these activities if I were looking for an art/sensory activity. It would be nice if the book suggested a range of activities encompassing different subject areas.
-in the Internet age, I think the advantage of having a book of kids' activities is to have a resource at one's fingertips that can be quickly consulted for an idea that can be implemented on the spot. Many of these activities are not so readily implemented for toddlers and especially not for those of us who are juggling multiple little ones. If I have the time to undertake one of these projects, I have the time to search for a project on a website.
-Why is the child usually in front of the screen to begin with? In my house, it is because I am making dinner or tending to a sick baby or dealing with sickness myself. Would love a book that would suggest activities for these situations and not for afternoons when I've got the time and energy for a messy art project!
-I am somewhat distrustful of products if the negative reviews consistently receive "not helpful" votes. I purchase from the store at least once a week and the negative reviews for this book are being disproportionately voted down.

I don't have any young children or grandchildren but I volunteer in my Church's pre-school department. I bought this book because I thought it would give us ideas of fun activities to do with the kids. Some of the older kids have been looking at it too. The pictures and ideas are well presented, explained and with top-notch photos. I know it will be a great resource!! Thanks Asia Citro!!!