Love to Laugh and Learn

Fun and interesting learning activities to do with the children in your life

LEGO® KidsFest Indianapolis 2014 and a LEGO® Linky

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LEGO® KidsFest Indianapolis 2014 and a LEGO® Linky

LEGO® KidsFest
LEGO® KidsFest

LEGO® KidsFest is coming to Indianapolis, November 7 – 9, 2014. I am so excited to be able to attend this year. The event is being held at the Indianapolis Convention Center. The Convention Center will be packed with tons of fun building opportunities and exhibits. There will be three acres of space providing lots of construction zones, dozens of life-sized LEGO® models and displays and much more. Check out some of the awesome activities here.

Sometimes these events sell out so you might want to get your tickets early. Currently, there is limited availability for the Friday session as well as both Sunday sessions. The Saturday sessions are sold out. To avoid long lines and sell outs, click this link to purchase your tickets now: http://www.legokidsfest.com/indianapolis/tickets.html
There will be no tickets to sell at the door once a session is listed as “sold out”.

LEGO® Linky

LEGO® KidsFest learning fun.

Since my blog is all about fun learning activities, I thought this would be the perfect time to host my first Linky. LEGO® building blocks can be used for so many learning activities. They are great for developing fine motor skills. They can be used for sorting. I have seen them used for teaching and reinforcing math skills such as graphing or addition and subtraction. And let’s not forget they are great for learning to follow instructions and constructing things. You might have a budding architect on your hands.

For this link up I want to see all things LEGO®. Whether you are doing arts and crafts with LEGO® building blocks or doing math, please link your post here. Whatever type of learning activity you do with LEGO® building blocks, please share it. I can’t wait to see all of the wonderful ideas you guys have.

By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post to feature you on my site or through social media sites such as Pinterest. Pictures will only be used to feature the post that you shared and will always contain a link directly to your blog.



LEGO® KidsFest Indianapolis 2014

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LEGO® KidsFest Indianapolis 2014

 

***Update 10/17/14 Congratulations to Tania. She is the winner of the 2 tickets to the opening night of LEGO® KidsFest Indianapolis, Friday, November 7, 2014, 4-8:30pm. For anyone still wanting to attend the event, tickets are selling out quickly. Get yours today. http://www.legokidsfest.com/indianapolis/
Indianapolis Convention Center
Halls I, J & K
100 S Capitol Ave
Indianapolis, IN 46225

Disclaimer: I was given 4 tickets to attend the opening night of LEGO® KidsFest Indianapolis as well as 2 tickets to use in a give-away. However, I was not influenced by the promotional materials. All opinions and insights are my own.

Please excuse my formality as I will be calling our beloved building toy by their formal name: LEGO® building bricks. This is a sponsored post and I have been informed that these wonderful little pieces are not called Legos or LEGOs but LEGO® bricks. Of course, those of us that grew up playing with them and watching our children and now our grandchildren play with them; we know what they are REALLY called. As stated above: “All opinions and insights are my own.” 🙂

I am very excited to have the opportunity to attend the LEGO® KidsFest Indianapolis. Have you ever been to one of their events? It is packed with tons of fun building opportunities and exhibits. There will be three acres of space providing lots of construction zones, dozens of life-sized LEGO models and displays and much more. I am amazed at the creations that people build out of these little bricks.

LEGO® KidsFest Indianapolis
LEGO® KidsFest Indianapolis

Sometimes these events sell out so you might want to get your tickets early. Click this link to purchase your tickets now: http://www.legokidsfest.com/indianapolis/tickets.html

I hope to see you there!

Fun Trivia

More than 400 billion LEGO bricks have been produced since 1949. (These little building bricks are just 11 years older than I am. How’s your math?)

The LEGO minifigure represents the world’s largest population of people! More than four billion minifigures have been produced in the last 30 years. This is almost 12 times the population of the United States!

Laid end to end, the number of LEGO bricks sold in a year would reach more than five times around the world.

With a production of about 306 million tires produced a year, the LEGO group is the largest producer of tires in the world.

LEGO is the contraction of two Danish words, “leg godt” which means “play well”. (Sounds like the LEGO® Corporation has the same feeling about learning that I do. It should be fun!)

“Leg Godt!”

LEGO® KidsFest Indianapolis
LEGO® KidsFest Indianapolis 2014

 

Smithsonian Magazine’s, Museum Day Live!

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Smithsonian Magazine’s, Museum Day Live!

In 2012, my niece made me aware of the Smithsonian Magazine’s, Museum Day Live. This is an awesome, nationwide event. It occurs annually and is hosted by the Smithsonian Magazine. In their tradition of offering free admission, other museums have joined them, for this special day. All you have to do is go to the Smithsonian Magazine’s website and print your pass. Each pass gets two people into a participating museum, for free. To see the list of museums included in this event, click here.

Smithsonian Magazine's Museum Day Live: Conner Prairie
Smithsonian Magazine’s Museum Day Live: Conner Prairie

Two years ago, my niece and I took three very young children to Conner Prairie Interactive History Park. I was actually amazed at how many things there were to entertain young children. You can read about our experience at Conner Prairie, in this post: “Review: Conner Prairie with Young Children”.

 

Smithsonian Magazine's Museum Day Live: Rhythm! Discovery Center
Smithsonian Magazine’s Museum Day Live: Rhythm! Discovery Center

Last year, my husband and I took our great-nephew to Rhythm! Discovery Center. We really enjoyed playing with the different percussion instruments. Check out the size of the drum that greeted us at the entrance. You can read about the fun we had at Rhythm! Discovery Center, in this post: “Review: Rhythm! Discovery Center”

There are several museums in our area that participate in Museum Day Live. Be sure to find out which museums participate in your area. We haven’t made our decision, as to where we are going to go this year, but we are definitely going someplace.

Have you participated in the Smithsonian Magazine’s, Museum Day Live, in the past? We would love to hear about your past adventures and please let us know where you’re going this year.

Bongo Boy Music School Review

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Bongo Boy Music School Review

Bongo Boy Music School
Bongo Boy Music School

I have been including activities from Bongo Boy Music School, in my Family Friendly Events, since April of 2013; but I had never been able to attend an event. I love children and finding fun learning activities for them, but the children in my life are under the age of three and Bongo Boy Music School didn’t have any activities for them. Well, that has changed! Recently, they added a class for birth to 36 months old. Perfect! My great-nephew is 32 months old and my grandson is 7 months old! I have really wanted to visit and, this past Saturday, I finally got my chance.

We were the first ones to arrive. We received a warm welcome and they turned on some cartoons to entertain the little ones until we got ready to go back to the drum room. There was also a little table and a bookshelf filled with books. We didn’t wait long at all and it was time to go have some fun.

The instructor/facilitator mentioned that she also teaches preschool…no wonder she was so wonderful with the children. She explained to us that there was no right or wrong way to participate. This is mainly an opportunity for little ones to experience music through instruments and movement.

The children were led through a series of fun activities accompanied by lively music. They got to use balls, bells and maracas, scarves, and….oh, yes…drums!

Drumming at Bongo Boy Music School

Some of the music was simply fun and encouraged movement, like the song about the animals. One song encouraged listening and reacting. This song had the children freeze in place when the music stopped.

Never to young for Bongo Boy Music School

Everyone was having fun, whether they were very young; sitting in their mother’s laps or a little older; up moving and participating. The children also get the opportunity to experience following directions, sharing and putting things away.

The cost of the event is just $5 per child and the parents attend (and participate) for free.
There is also an event for 3 to 12 year olds, on Saturdays. Bongo Boy also has activities for the family during the week. There is a free Community Drum Circle for special needs on Mondays and a free Community Drum Circle for the whole family on Thursdays. You can find their activities listed in my Family Friendly Event post, each month, or go straight to the Bongo Boy Music School calendar.

Related Posts:

Fun with Music: Percussion Instruments
Rhythm! Discovery Center: Review

Community Helpers – Overview

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Community Helpers – Overview





Teaching your child about community helpers can help them understand and feel more secure in their ever widening world. Learning about community helpers can help them realize that they don’t need to be afraid when they hear sirens in the neighborhood or in the car. The sirens are signaling that there are people out there to help take care of them. Police officers are there to help us when there is an accident. Firemen help us if there is a fire. The doctor and dentist help keep us healthy and the school teacher helps us learn new things.

When I taught preschool, we studied community helpers in the three year old classroom. At home, you might want to introduce some of them even earlier; for instance, the doctor. Children have to go to the doctor regularly, from birth, so reading books and talking about the doctor may help put them at ease. Before my children went to their first dental appointment, I read books to them so they would understand what was going to happen.

In the following posts you will find book suggestions and crafts to do with your children to help make learning about their world fun. Enjoy playing pretend with your children as they become the doctor and you are the patient. Please come back and leave comments about the books and crafts you enjoyed together. I would love to see pictures too. You can share them on the Love to Laugh and Learn Facebook page.

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Doctors: Love to Learn about Community Helpers
Dentists: Love to Laugh and Learn about Community Helpers
Police Officers: Love to Learn About Community Helpers
Firefighters: Love to Learn About Community Helpers