10 Activities with Family Photos

From a very young age, children seem to be fascinated by photographs. Starting from when my kids were babies and I carried them around the house, they both stopped me whenever we reached a photograph hanging on the wall. My 1 year old still does this every day and loves to point at the pictures and call out which ones are "mama" and "dada".

When we look at old vacation photos, my almost 3 year old daughter loves to call out everybody's names and describe what they are doing in the pictures. It helps with her memory, logic and language skills.

Since photographs can be so engaging for young children, I thought it would be fun to come up with some easy DIY activities with family photos that are also educational!

1. Photo Puzzle

You can use a photograph that you already have, or print one out from your computer. If printing out, laminate the photo for durability. Then, depending on your child's age and the size of your photograph, cut it into 6, 9, 12 or 24 pieces and have your child put it back together.

2. Family Photo Matching (Visual Discrimination)

 

Visual discrimination practice is very important for young children, as it improves their ability to differentiate between similar images and, in the long run, will be an advantage when learning to read and write.
It's so easy to make your own visual discrimination matching activity with family photos - your computer does it all for you! If you use Windows, all you have to do is open up your picture folder, select 9 pictures (you will see why I say 9) that you would like to use, then either right-click and press "print", or find the "print" button located in the folder's toolbar. Once you click "print" you will see various layout options that you can change. The default layout is one large picture per page. If you scroll down you will see more options. The one I used is the "wallet" size layout that prints 9 photos per page. Click "print" again and ta-da! you have a photo sheet with 9 pictures. Then, print a second copy of the same 9 pictures. Laminate both sheets, then cut one into 9 separate photos that your child will match to the first sheet.
If you use Mac OS or if my explanation for Windows was unclear, click here to read some better instructions on how to print the photo sheets and it also has screenshots. Note: There is an option for a page of thumbnails but I thought the pictures came out too small.

3. Photo Sorting Activities

 

To make a sorting activity, follow the steps above (#2) to print off a photo sheet with 9 photos. Print several sheets with different photographs until you have enough photos for the sorting activity. Then laminate all the sheets and cut out the pictures.

Here are some ideas for sorting categories for family photos:
-sibling vs. sibling
-adult vs. child
-male vs. female
-mom's side vs. dad's side
-generations
-location: US vs. overseas, or NJ vs. FL
-events: Easter vs. Thanksgiving vs. Christmas

4. Photo Order Activities

 

This is the same as making the sorting activity above (#3), then the child puts the pictures in a specific order. Here are some ideas:
-age: youngest to oldest
-chronological events: the order that events happened (good for vacation photos)

5. Emotion Recognition Activities

Take pictures of yourself or your child expressing different emotions. Print off the photos using the photo sheet method above (#2). You can then do a matching or sorting activity (#2,3) or simply ask the child to describe the emotion expressed in each picture.

6. Photo Labeling Activities

 

This would be a good activity to do after one of the others. For example, after the child puts the family members in order of youngest to oldest (#4), they can add numbers labeling each person's age. Or, after doing an emotion recognition exercise (#5) the child can place a label next to each picture: sad, happy, angry, etc. Or, very simply, the child can label each person's name. Even if the child can't read the entire name or word, it can be good practice to sound out the beginning letter.

7. Family Tree

 

Print photo sheets (#2) with individual pictures of each family member, then laminate and cut out each person. Make your own tree with popsicle sticks and green construction paper, or any other materials you have on hand. Then, help your child adhere the photos to the tree in their correct location. You can also use a string to create links between family members.

Here are some more great ideas from other bloggers:

8. Make your Kids into Interchangeable Blocks by Meaningful Mama

9. How to Make a Flip Book for your Toddler by MomDot

10. Photo Face Collage by Mosswood Connections

Free Birthday Printable Pack

 

We just celebrated my younger daughter's first birthday this past weekend, so I made an activity pack for my almost 3 year old daughter (her birthday is also coming up soon) to help her learn some concepts about age, numbers, and candles on the cake. I also added other fun activities like puzzles, visual discrimination, coloring, do-a-dot, as well as letter sounds, sight words, and tracing practice.

 

Your child can do these activities around any family member's birthday, it doesn't have to be their own. The pack includes 17 activities for toddlers through preschool and you can download it for Free by following the link below!

Download your Free Birthday Printable Pack!

The Ultimate Art Skills Pack Review & Giveaway!

 

As you may know, I recently created The Ultimate Art Skills Activity Pack which is a series of 20 printable activities for children ages 2-6 to practice ALL of their art skills at the same time: scissor skills, gluing, tracing, coloring and drawing!

 

Ashley from Life with Moore Babies was kind enough to review the pack with her kids and write their opinion of it. She is also giving away a free copy, so be sure to enter the giveaway! Click here to check out the review & giveaway! While you're there, be sure to check out the rest of her blog - she has tons of super fun, creative & educational ideas for kids!

 

Free American Flag Playdough Mat

 

This post may contain affiliate links. Thank you for your support.

 

Looking for a toddler or preschooler activity for Memorial Day or 4th of July? This Free Playdough mat is sure to be a big hit! Also check out my Free Patriotic Do a Dot Printables for more educational fun!

 

Playdough is very good for developing fine motor skills and strength in the hands and fingers, which is important for future pencil and scissor control. It is also great for any kind of educational activity, from teaching numbers and letters, to science and geography. The hands-on sensory experience will make it easier to learn just about any concept.

 

Making the U.S. Flag with Playdough

All you need is red playdough for the stripes and white playdough for the stars.

 

Print the Free printable playdough mat. Laminate if you wish, although I didn't because I ran out of lamination sheets. It worked just as well, you just have to be more careful that your child doesn't rip the paper.

 

Before starting the activity, show your child the picture of the American Flag located at the bottom right corner of the paper. Explain that we will be adding the stripes and stars to make the flag look like the picture.

 

 

Show your child how to roll the playdough into long shapes to make the flag's stripes. If they can't do it on their own, start rolling each piece for them and have them "finish" rolling the pieces and then placing one at a time on the flag.

 

You will probably not be able to fit all 7 red stripes on the flag, we made 5. Next, we rolled the playdough into little balls to create the stars. Again, you can make the balls for them and have them place each piece at a time on the blue area of the flag.

 

 

We ended up with 8 stars instead of 50. Don't worry about trying to replicate the flag exactly. This exercise will teach your child that the United States flag consists of stars and stripes and your child will become visually familiar with how the flag looks like.

 

Lastly, we made the flagpole, which can be any color that your child chooses. Mine wanted to make a pink one.

 

Download your Free American Flag Playdough Mat!

 

 

Playdough mats work best when laminated! This is the laminator that I use below: (affiliate link)

 

Free Patriotic Do a Dot Printables for Memorial & Independence Day

 

This post may contain affiliate links. Thank you for your support!

 

You can start teaching children from a young age about the country they live in - the country's flag, geography, national monuments, etc. by showing them pictures and doing simple activities that help them visually recognize important information about their country. A great time to start talking to your kids about the United States is around Memorial Day and Independence Day when they are sure to see flags and feel the patriotic spirit in the air. 

 

These free printable Do-a-Dot Marker sheets will help to teach your child about the United States while also improving hand-eye coordination and concentration skills.

 

To read more about teaching your child U.S. geography click here: How to Teach your Toddler Geography

 

Click here to Download your Free Patriotic Do a Dot Printables

 

Click here for more Free Do a Dot Printables: Spring Theme

 

Click here for another great flag activity, Free Printable American Flag Playdough Mat

 

Recommended Products: (affiliate link)

 

Motor Skills Preposition Game

 

 

My daughter has always been a climber. By the time she was a year old she had conquered couches, chairs, small tables, and anything low to the ground. Now, as a toddler, she gets strategic and figures out how to reach the cookies in the top cabinet, or the light switch that controls the fan in the living room. She gets a chair from the kitchen, pushes it to where it needs to be, and uses it to climb on top of a second surface like the kitchen counter in order to open up the pantry. I think to myself, this baby needs to get outdoors more!

 

But what do you do when you are stuck inside for whatever reason?

 

So I came up with a simple little game that actually allows your kids to play around with furniture and climb or crawl all over it, and at the same time is educational.  You can do these activities with your toddlers and preschoolers to help develop their gross motor skills, fine motor skills, vocabulary and visual discrimination. Just print these free printable preposition cards and you can play the game several ways:

 

Gross Motor

If your child is like mine and loves to climb on chairs or tables, or hide and play underneath them, they are going to love this game! Use a chair or a small table and play the game similar to "Simon Says" by drawing from the pile of cards and directing the child on what to do. For example: stand in front of the chair, stand behind the chair, go under the chair, go through the chair, go around the chair, stand between two chairs, etc. This is not only great for gross motor skills but will also help build your child's vocabulary.

 

 

Fine Motor

Another way to play this game is by using a miniature chair/table and a miniature person/doll, such as from a dollhouse. Give your child one card at a time and have them position the toys to match what is on the card. If you already did the gross motor exercise, you can remind your child that they are matching the same positions as the ones they were in. 

 

Visual Discrimination

You can also play this as a visual discrimination matching game - just print off a second sheet of the cards, but don't cut them out this time. Give this sheet to your child and have them place the picture cards on top of the matching picture.

 

 

For Readers

Yet another way to play this game - cut out the pictures and words so that they are separate from each other, and have the child match the pictures to the words.

 

Click here to Download your Free Preposition Cards

Mother's Day Flower Craft

 

Mother's Day is this weekend and if you are still looking for a last minute craft idea - here is an easy and beautiful one! It took me a minute to gather the materials that I already had on hand, and the activity took about 10 minutes. The result is something you can frame and give to a mother or grandmother to melt their heart.

 

Materials: tempera paint, heavyweight paper, tissue paper, pom pom, popsicle stick

 

Here are the steps for your child:

 

-Paint a piece of paper with yellow paint (or whatever color your child wants)

-Paint a popsicle stick with green paint (skip this step if you already have a green popsicle stick)

-Glue the popsicle stick, vertically in the middle of the paper.

-Give your child a large piece of tissue paper to crumple up and then glue to the top of the popsicle stick

-Give your child a smaller piece of a different colored tissue paper to crumple up and then glue on top of the first tissue paper.

-Glue a pom pom in the middle of the flower on top of the tissue paper

-Glue green tissue paper for the leaves at the bottom of the popsicle stick

 

For a beautiful frame that fits 3 dimensional craft projects like this, check out this amazing company that I am affiliated with. All you do is slide the artwork right in. This would make such a wonderful gift, or a great way to display your child's artwork in their room.