Our adventure was going to playgroup with Little Dude’s friends! Fun and exciting! Followed by a quick trip to the mall for some mommy necessities. When I mean quick it was an in and out, get to the point, 1 store 15-minute shopping trip to buy much-needed concealer! To hid those oh so big bags under the eyes!
It was a very successful trip, I must add. The fabulous women at the make- up counter insisted on giving my Little Dude some Animal Crackers without asking. So rude but, he only ate 1 before I intervened. But that was still enough to sugar him up and make our adventure a bit more exciting!
In the evening we went for a long adventure walk and explored along the way. Little Dude and I found that the Caterpillars’ we’ve been watching have grown a ton and most of the leaves off the tops of the tree are gone too. The caterpillars’ had started off very small but they are getting pretty big. Just like in the book!
Little Dude is like the Mayor, or maybe practicing to be one day. He walked and greeted all the people in the neighborhood that were outside. And he stopped to chat for a brief moment, look at their yard, point to something and started walking again. Little Dude looked at all the Halloween decorations that were decorated around the neighborhood. He would try to go up and touch them and if they moved or mad a sound. Little Dude cracked up and then had to repeat.
On our walk, we played “Red Light Green Light”. I felt it would be a fantastic game for teaching him about what “stop” and “go” meant. It as got out any last bits of energy. He loved it and it gave me a workout too.
I would yell out… “Green Light” and together holding hands, we would run.
Then I would yell out… “Red Light” and we held hands and stopped. My Little Dude loved every minute of it. He already knew we had to hold hands on our walks and we have to stay on the sidewalk. So I just had to teach him the actions of stopping and going! The “Red Light… Green Light… game” reinforced his listening skills, compliance, and was fun for both of us.
“Red Light… Green Light Game”
1. First, start off by teaching your child the word “stop” and “go”…
2. If your child is just learning the words “stop” and “go”, like my Little Dude, practice with them a few times by holding
there hand and modeling “stop” and “go”.
3. If your child maybe knows the words “stop” and “go”, start off by testing them. Stand a few feet away and yell out “Green
Light”, hopefully, they run, then yell out, “Red Light” hopefully they stop. I strongly suggest that you “test” them in an
area that is not next to the road or maybe a fenced in backyard. Especially if you have a runner!
4. If they understand that “Red light” means stop and “Green Light” means to go” keep a little distance between you and your
child. Then start slowly increasing your distance away from them.
5. If you test your child and they were little wishy- washy with “Red Light= stop” and “Green Light= go”, and if you are not sure if they know what the words mean hold their hand and do it together.
6. Once your child 100% knows that “Red Light means stop” and “Green Light means go,” slowly start increasing your distance away from them.
7. I even use this game at the mall when it hasn’t been crowded. If Little Dude got too far from me while we are walking, I
yell out “Red Light”, and he stops. It’s a beautiful thing!
This is a fabulous game to play with kids of all ages and even mixed of ages at the same time. There is no limit on how many kids can play at one time as long as there is enough room. The more the merrier.
When you play with older kids you can create some rules. For example, if a child doesn’t stop when the “signal” (person calling out the directions) calls out, “Red Light”. They have to go back to the starting line. Another rule could be, that if the child tags the “signal”, then that child gets to be the “signal”.