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Welcome to week 4 of Wonder Weeks: a year of creativity, curiosity and connections. ☀️ This Week’s Theme: Our Dreams Matter
Parenting feels lighter when we do it together.
✨ Follow along for cozy inspiration, gentle parenting ideas, and real-life moments that remind you—you’re not alone.
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Note: activities may be similar for kids of a similar age.
Our Dreams Matter
This week, as we remember Martin Luther King Jr., we’re focusing on something children already understand deeply:
their dreams matter.
Not big, far-off dreams.
Not “what do you want to be someday?”
But the small, everyday hopes children carry —
ideas about what feels fair, what feels kind, what feels possible.
When we invite children to imagine, build, and share their dreams through play, we’re doing more than encouraging creativity.
We’re teaching them that their thoughts have value, their voice has weight, and their ideas deserve space.
This week’s activities help children practice imagining a better world — and seeing themselves as someone who belongs in it.
Main Activities
🏗️ 1. Dream Builder Cards
Materials
Small cards or paper slips 🃏
Markers or crayons ✏️
Open-ended building materials (blocks, Duplos, cardboard, loose parts) 🧱
How to Play
Create simple “dream cards” with pictures or symbols (people, places, helpers, feelings, nature).
Children choose 2–3 cards.
Invite them to build a place or world where those cards belong.
As they build, gently ask:
“What happens here?” or “Who is this place for?”Children share their creation if they want — no pressure to explain everything.
Level Up
Build one shared dream world as a group.
Add a challenge: “How can we make this place work for everyone?”
Level Down
Offer just one card at a time.
Adult narrates meaning: “You’re building a place where people feel safe.”
Skills Learned
🧠 Abstract thinking
🎨 Creativity with structure
🤝 Social awareness
🗣️ Expressing ideas through play
🔄 2. If I Could Change One Thing
Materials
Simple toy setups (a crooked tower, a sad puppet, a “broken” bridge) 🧸
Loose parts for rebuilding or acting things out 🪵
How to Play
Show a simple situation that isn’t working.
Ask: “If you could change one thing, what would you change?”
Children act out or rebuild their idea.
There are no wrong answers — the focus is on imagining possibilities.
Level Up
Try a second idea and compare outcomes.
Add: “What happens next?” storytelling.
Level Down
Offer two choices verbally.
Adult helps carry out the child’s idea.
Skills Learned
🔗 Cause and effect
🌈 Imagination
💪 Agency and confidence
🔄 Flexible thinking
🛤️ 3. Dream Paths (Choice-Based Movement Play)
Materials
Tape, scarves, or paper arrows on the floor ➡️
Picture symbols at the end of each path ⭐🌱🏠
How to Play
Create different paths leading to “dream destinations” (help, explore, rest, build).
Children choose a path and decide how to travel it (crawl, tiptoe, hop, roll).
At the end, children briefly act out or build something connected to that dream.
Repeat with new choices.
Level Up
Let children design new paths and destinations.
Invite group decision-making: “Which path should we take together?”
Level Down
Offer just two paths.
Adult models movement and invites imitation.
Skills Learned
🚦 Decision-making
🧭 Autonomy
🏃 Body awareness
🎯 Following through on choices
🤲 4. Helping Someone Else’s Dream
Materials
Shared building materials 🧱
A small “dream object” (stone, plush, card) 💭
How to Play
One child holds the dream object and shares a simple wish (words, gestures, or showing).
The group works together to help make that dream happen.
Adult narrates collaboration:
“You noticed what they needed.”Rotate turns if interest stays high.
Level Up
Add limits to materials.
Invite planning before building.
Level Down
Adult helps translate the child’s wish.
Keep the group small (2–3 kids).
Skills Learned
🤝 Cooperation
👀 Perspective-taking
🧠 Shared problem-solving
❤️ Belonging
🌱 5. Dream Seeds
Materials
Seeds or symbolic “dream seeds” (beans, paper circles, cotton balls) 🌰
Cups, soil, or small containers 🪴
Stickers or markers 🎨
How to Play
Children plant or place a dream seed.
Ask: “What do you hope grows?” (Ideas, not explanations.)
Care for the seed over the week.
Adult connects effort to growth:
“You’re taking care of something important.”
Level Up
Draw or photograph changes over time.
Pair children to care for one seed together.
Level Down
Focus on sensory planting.
Adult names the dream aloud.
Skills Learned
⏳ Patience
🌈 Symbolic thinking
🌱 Responsibility
✨ Hope
Little Explorers (Younger Toddlers)
Same materials, smaller goals, shared support
🌟 1. Choosing My Dream
Materials
Two baskets with different materials (blocks vs. scarves, soft toys vs. balls)
How to Play
Place baskets side by side.
Invite toddlers to choose which one they want to explore.
Adult names the choice: “You chose the soft one.”
Skills Learned
🧠 Decision-making
👶 Autonomy
👀 Preference awareness
👐 2. Helping Hands
Materials
A shared simple task (stacking blocks, pushing a ball, wiping a table)
How to Play
Adult begins a task and pauses.
Invite toddlers to help in their own way.
Narrate effort, not outcome.
Skills Learned
🤝 Participation
❤️ Belonging
🧠 I-can-help identity
Parent Tip of the Week
When children share their dreams —
what they hope for, imagine, or wish could be different —
listen first. Don’t fix. Don’t redirect. Don’t make it “realistic.”
Dreaming is how children practice:
agency
hope
moral reasoning
believing their voice matters
You don’t need to turn dreams into plans.
You just need to make space for them.
A simple response is enough: “Tell me more” “I like hearing your ideas” “That matters to you”
When children feel heard in their imagining,
they learn something powerful:
their inner world is worth paying attention to.
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