Cat Games, 5 Ways

January 30, 2021Leave a comment

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On some cold winter days, it’s not just the human kids who get cabin-fever, but our four-legged kids, too! To wit, we came up with five ways the cat and kids could play together today, meaning everyone was entertained (for a little while at least!)

Fishing for Feathers

For this first game, I rigged up a homemade version of a classic cat “fishing rod” using materials from our craft bin. Tie a few craft feathers together with string, then loop the other end of the string around a dowel and secure with tape.

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I showed the kids how to dangle these “birds” for the cat.

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At first he seemed surprised to be the center of attention, but soon he was batting at the feathers with excitement. Clearly the kids thought it was a riot!

Laser Tag

This second game is strictly for kids who are old enough to understand that a laser pointer never gets pointed into anyone’s eyes, whether human or feline. Travis absolutely loved wiggling the dot of our laser pointer for the cat (it makes him go wild!).

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Veronika, meanwhile, got to watch and laugh at the show!

Sock It to Me

Forget the cat ball toys you can buy at the store; rolled up socks make instant balls for zero cost! Veronika in particular loved rolling a few homemade sock balls to the cat and back again. “Here’s a sock!” she would say each time.

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If you have fresh catnip, you could even sprinkle some in the socks, first. Then we tried a variation where I tied a long string around each sock. The cat loved pouncing after these if we dragged them on the floor, or batting at them if they were dangled in the air.

Kitty Soccer

Our cat loves to play “soccer” with crinkly Mylar balls, so today we tested out a few other “soccer” toys. Great options for batting around include spring toys (try the Thin Colorful Springs from Ethical Pet) or even just a ball of crumpled paper. Gooooaaaaal!

Two-Toy Tango

Finally, we got extra silly. I gave the kids one toy cat mouse and had them pretend to be cats, pouncing on it or batting it around with their “paws”.

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The cat received a second mouse so he could play right alongside my little humans. It’s highly debatable who had more fun with all these games, the two-legged kids or the four-legged one. Needless to say, the cat took a nice long cat nap after.

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Celebrate Cats Four Ways

October 29, 2019October 31, 2019Leave a comment

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In addition to Veronika’s birthday, it’s National Cat Day! So Travis and I took a moment out of the festivities to celebrate these amazing animals in four fun ways.

First up, have you can drew (or color in) pictures of cats. Make up a story to go along with these. Travis is having a bit of a mummy phase, so his story was about a magical mummy cat!

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Then of course we dressed up like them: simply twist pipe cleaners around a headband for cat ears. We made a matching mom-and-son pair.

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If you think it will work, consider teaching your cat a new trick!

And most important, consider visiting a shelter. Whether you bring treats or food, or make a monetary donation, or just donate your time and snuggles, the cats will thank you for it!

Purr-fect Pancakes

May 26, 2019May 26, 2019Leave a comment

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These kitty-faced pancakes are the purr-fect way to kick off Memorial Day weekend (or any leisurely morning) to set the tone for a lazy summer ahead. After all, no one nails the art of napping quite like a cat. In sum, this fun twist on pancakes had Travis grinning.

Prepare a batch of your favorite pancakes – or heck, just use a mix!

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We spread our pancakes with about 1 tablespoon maple syrup to help our fruit faces “glue” on.

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Add ears, noses, mouths, eyes, and don’t forget the whiskers! Ideally we would have used blueberries for the eyes, but a certain sous-chef ate them all up.

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Please share your animal face pancakes in the comments!

Teach Your Cat to High-Five

April 23, 2019April 23, 2019Leave a comment

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Here is an adorable challenge from Travis’s Highlights magazine: Can you teach your cat a trick? Travis was gamely up for trying, and although we didn’t exactly succeed, our cat was an eager participant! It was a great way to engage my son with our companion animal in a new way – cat and boy both enjoyed it!

The goal was to teach our cat, Krishna, to high-five with his paw touching our hand.

Hold a cat treat in your right hand.

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Hold your left hand up just slightly above the cat’s head, as if you’re waiting for a high-five. Now hover the hand with the treat in front of that. The cat will (hopefully) paw for the treat.

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We gave praise, and then tried again, over the course of a few days!

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Okay, so we never got a paw to palm, since Krishna wanted to go in each time with his nose. But it was fun to have his nose nuzzle up to the palm.

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In sum, what great inter-species play! Has your child ever taught the family dog or cat a trick? Please share in the comments.

Destination: Meow Cat Parlor

February 18, 2018Leave a comment

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Here’s the latest in my series of day trips for children if you’re in the New York City area. Meow Parlor was the first cat cafe in New York, modeled after similar spaces in Japan. The idea is to go in and spend time with cats, who are all available for adoption.

If you’d like to visit Meow Parlor with kids, plan in advance! There are only special time slots available to children ages 8 and under, including select weekdays at 4 p.m. and every other Sunday at 11 a.m. You have to book online in advance.

With our reservation underway, we headed off to the city.

We arrived a little early, which gave us the opportunity to check out the sister store next door, the food component of the Parlor. Travis was ecstatic to try his first vegan croissant!

croissant

Then we headed next door to play with the cats. There are only 10 to 15 cats on site at a time, making it feel manageable and intimate for both humans and felines.

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The cats have ample room to roam around, get up high, and sneak behind custom-designed cabinets with multiple entrances and exits, so none ever seemed bothered by even very loud or assertive children in our group.

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Travis was over the moon. The hour passed surprisingly quickly, between petting cats, dangling toys for those who wanted to play, and simply marveling at their antics.

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For kids who want additional stimulation, the Parlor provides crayons and markers, books about cats, and pictures of successful adoptees.

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We couldn’t take a cat home today, but we loved the experience! We capped off our city afternoon with brunch at the mainly-vegan Dirt Candy before heading home.

Trip Date: February 2018

Ages: 0 to 8 (designated times only), 9+ (any time)

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C Week!

March 10, 2017March 10, 2017Leave a comment

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Wow, just three weeks to go on our Letter of the Week journey – so let’s c what we did in C week!

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Car: Believe it or not, we haven’t taken the time just to play with Travis’s car toys in a while, so this week was a nice reminder! We pulled out our town car mat and garages, set up a race course made from duct tape, drove cars down ramps and through tubes, and more. Want something more crafty? Make a car out of a box!

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Clean: Getting children in the habit of cleaning up should be on your list every week, but this week in particular we made a game of it. Try simple ideas like setting a timer to see who can clean up the fastest, giving clear instructions (“Let’s put all the Duplo away first!”), or – for toys that are especially hard to part with at night – tucking them in to a cozy place to “sleep.” A tot-sized set of cleaning tools makes clean-up even more fun.

Cardboard: Cardboard is everywhere and it lends itself so easily to the imagination. Check out the two crafts we made this week, with cardboard tubes as the base!

Camping: Pitch a tent (or a blanket over a stool) and camp in your living room; your child will think they’re in heaven! We added a few cozy blankets, a campfire made of straw logs and felt flames, and then cozied up for books by flashlight. Check out Flashlight by Lizi Boyd or the Shine-a-Light series from Usborne.

Castle: We headed to the non-fiction section of the library and got out a few neat castle books to help Travis understand more about what they are this week. From there, of course, we had to build our own from blocks at home! Fast Forward Castle and Look Inside a Castle are both neat options.

Captions: For several art projects this week, we added captions, so that by the end of the week, we had a mini art gallery! I loved this idea so much that I hope to continue it beyond C week. After your child finishes a project, simply ask him or her what is happening in the picture. Write down their words on a little index card. It’s a neat way to get them excited about art and reading.

Construction: In addition to cars, play with any construction vehicles you have. Better yet, make a construction site sensory bin.

Cloud: We made a shaving cream cloud on a rainy day, then went cloud watching the next afternoon when the sun came out!

Caterpillar: Very Hungry Caterpillar delights everyone from babies on up. This week we made a color match caterpillar, and also played with Travis’s other caterpillar toy, which happens to be appropriately named the code-a-pillar, his first foray into computer coding.

Clock: Toy clocks are great because you can gently introduce the notion of time as your child absorbs a little here and there while playing! Travis loves spinning the hands on his talking clock, and we read clock books like Tick and Tock’s Clock Book and Telling the Time.

For our weekly extras…

Fine art: Colors are the name of the game this week! First, try color mixing with paint. I gave Travis a little each of red, yellow, and blue… Soon enough we had a big goopy mess, but it was a great way to get talking about how colors combine to make different ones.

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Read about colors with My Very First Book of Colors by Eric Carle or A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni, then continue the play by color mixing with ice cubes!

Food: Fun foods this week included carrot-raisin salad, homemade cornbread, crackers, cantaloupe, clementines, and a decadent bite of vegan cheezecake.

Books: We covered cats and cows in books this week. Some fun titles are The Cow Who Clucked by Denise Fleming, Click Clack Moo Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin, and They All Saw a Cat by Brendan Wenzel. Travis also enjoyed Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina.

Songs: Travis was in hysterics laughing over Never Smile At a Crocodile (from Peter Pan), and also enjoyed the changing pace of Little Red Caboose.

Math: You can try teaching your child to classify this week, or better yet – classify by color! We used our color match caterpillar for this, but there are toys you can purchase such as a color sorting pie as well. It’s also a great week for calendars; daily magnetic calendars are a nice tool to teach about the year/months/weeks/days.

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Be back soon for B week!

joyful parenting

Tag: cats