Block Challenge

One day this week I made up a game on the fly...my two bigs were getting a bit wild and rough with one another and needed to be close to me.  I needed to finish handsewing some projects I was working on for Quinn's school event.  So....we made up a little game I could officiate while still having busy hands.  The kids LOVED it and have asked for it several times since.  This would be a great game to have in my toolkit when I need to interact with them and make dinner at the same time, or even on a roadtrip.  Thought I would share....though it is really nothing fancy!

My kids haven't played with these bristle blocks in a while, and they happened to be in the dresser drawer next to where we were sitting.  So I had them get out the blocks.  Each kiddo decided on their own team name, which I wrote at the top of a piece of paper.  Then I gave them different challenges, that I made up on the fly.

Build a boat using 6 blocks.
Build a restaurant using 15 blocks.
Build a playground using 13 blocks.
Choose just 1 color of blocks and build a school from them.

Etc., etc,.

Each kiddo had a little bell (this was Quinn's idea, which turned out to be a fun addition!) that they could ring once they were finished building.  It wasn't at all a race, but they did have fun ringing the bells.

When they rang their bell, I would ask them to tell about what they built, and they'd spend a couple minutes explaining their design.  I would ask some questions (and I did all this in an "announcer" voice and used "announcer-y" lingo).  Then the other person would have to say 1 thing they liked about the other sibling's design.  My kiddos weren't having a great morning getting along, so this was a way I used to help them practice kind words with eachother.

After they built each object and told about it, I gave them a point.  Quinn was much faster than Beck, so she got a couple challenges ahead of him, which still worked out fine.  I just wrote down at the bottom of the paper what the challenges he still needed to do were, so I didn't forget.  I had them return all the blocks to the box after each challenge, so that when they started the next object they'd choose different blocks, otherwise if I let them keep them out, they'd use the same ones and there wouldn't be much variety in what they built.

When they got tired of the game (which lasted about 45 minutes!!) and I was at a stopping point, we ended the game (in the announcer voice) and then I told them their reward was to share a cupcake (that we happened to have leftover from a babyshower the weekend before).  Of course the rule is that one kid cuts the cupcake and the other gets to choose their piece first. ;)

This game achieved my goal of peaceful play, but it also encouraged some problem-solving and higher-level thinking.  Educational AND fun!!  It could be played with any types of blocks, so it's very versatile!

Kindergarteners+Uno=fun magic!

We have been having a blast playing Uno lately!  She has trouble holding and seeing all her cards while still thinking through game strategies, so this piece of board with two grooves cut in it works perfectly.  I found in in Matt's scrap box, so I have no idea what it is really for, but HERE is a tutorial if you are a bit handy in the shop and want to make one yourself!  If not you can always prop the cards against a shoebox or use a clothespin!

So much fun to watch her strategizing improve!  This is a great game for kindergarteners--requires little skill (yet you can still employ strategies) and uses enough luck that it makes it a fair game to play with an adult, even if you are 6!  

Dancing/Obstacle Course

On Wednesdays we dance.  But lately that has turned into more of an obstacle course, which my kids are loving.  The night before (Tues. night) I sorta plan out my course and set out any materials I will need.  We generally use the same stuff with one or two new things each time.  Then on Wednesday the kids have to stay in the playroom while I set up.  Then I put on music and we follow the course!

We do have rules--

-no passing the person in front of you.  If you catch up to them you can jump or run in place while you wait patiently.  

-use the materials correctly 

-no pushing/shoving

-if you accidentally move an obstacle put it back where it was

Before we start the course I take them on a walk through and explain each obstacle.  

Here are some example photos:

We generally have a "step upon" which is something they can walk on that has a texture to it--in this case pom poms.  Sometimes they are in a pan or dish, sometimes just on the carpet.  Bubble wrap, marbles, or any other object that provides texture will work.  I trade this item out most times.  

This is a dish of nuts in shells (pecans, almonds, etc.)  They dump it out, walk across it, and then put them back in the dish.  Step-upons provide sensory input and teach them how to walk carefully on different surfaces.

This guy was not following one of the rules (don't remember which one now) and he had to sit on the couch for a time out.  My kids can definitely get wild and out of control during obstacles, and I don't want any blood or injuries, so we stick to the rules.

Riding the rocking horse:

Jumping across two rugs and into a down comforter, where you wallow yourself into it, then get up again.  We call it the "snow pit."

The tunnel is a big hit.  $4 at the Goodwill.  I see them there often.

Bendy board bridge.  Daddy made these for us.  Some of the best toys ever.

Stepping across to the ottoman:

Jumping off ottoman:

Rocking in the "boat" laundry basket:

We also have another bendy board that we put the other way so it can be rocked upon.  Sometimes we use diving rings that they have to step through.  We've put down a string line that gets walked upon....the possibilities are endless.  My kids LOVE this activity and it is awesome for proprioceptive awareness, motor control, rule following, and energy releasing, among other things!  I will try to post more obstacle course pics as the weeks go by!

What Rabbits Do

We are studying rabbits right now.  I made up a game for us to play during our circle time--needed something that could include an 18 month and 4 year old.  I cut some of Q's watercolors (I save them for projects) into rabbit shapes using a cookie cutter.  Then I wrote different things rabbits do on them.  When we play the game, we put on our rabbit ears (headbands with ears that we have).  We take turns drawing a rabbit, then we do what the rabbit card says.  We have fun acting out the different actions.  For example, for "Eat" we "hop" all around the living room to different parts of the garden and pretend to eat beans, carrots, cabbage, parsley, etc.  The kids' favorite is "dig."  Both kids love this game and get very into playing it!  They learn some great vocabulary words, exercise their large and small muscles and use some pretend play!

Letter Match/Memory

I made a simple memory game using the letters Quinn is still working to name. I didn't include all the letters because that would be too many pieces for her attention span and also because she already knows them.

I bought these round wooden discs at Hobby Lobby very cheaply using the great ole 40% off coupon. The letters are felt stickers from Hobby Lobby, as well. I made two of each letter (using the same colors).

To begin with we just practice finding matches with all the letters face-up.

Next we play Memory by turning them all over.

This game promotes concentration, memory, letter awareness, strategy development, and an awareness of letter features.

You could use any type of stickers or even write on the discs with markers.

This game could be modified to practice shapes, colors, words, or any other skill just by changing what is put on the wooden disc.

Valentine Matching Work

These are leftover cute animal Valentines from AGES ago when I taught 1st grade. I put two of each type out in a heart-shaped bowl and it makes an awesome matching activity for Q.

Even older babies would enjoy dumping, shuffling and looking at the Valentines.

Preschoolers could use them to play Memory!

My Lists

I keep a list of random ideas of things I want to do with Q in my office taped to the wall. Most of them are quick, easy projects, games or activities that don't necessarily fit with a particular season or theme. When I need something to do with her (like we are about to go stir crazy!) I refer to my list!

Let's Explore Blog published a great list for the month that I also added to my wall: (And yup, theirs looks MUCH nicer.)

Click here to download yours!

Beanbags

Our girl is into throwing stuff. Kinda annoying to Matt and I, but understandibly a developmental stage.....she's learning control of those large muscles and also learning to express her emotions through throwing things. We have been working to redirect her throwing to positive venues--I made her a set of beanbags (post to come) and we love to play the "beanbag game." We put a rug on the floor and then set a metal baking bowl a few feet away. We take turns throwing the beanbags into the bowl. Throwing somewhat accurately is a 2-3 year-old milestone and fun to practice with all different objects, including beanbags!

Pennies in a jar!

My mom reminded me of the great fine motor skill of picking pennies off the floor/table and putting them into a jar. It primarily encourages the pincer grasp. Older infants, toddlers and younger preschoolers often try to pick up smaller objects using either a raking motion (raking with several fingers into palm) or a side-hand grasp. For fine motor control necessary in writing, children need to develop the pincer grasp between their thumb and first finger.

Notice in the first finger Q is using a fist rake, not a pincer grasp.

However, picking up small objects repeatidly helped teach her that it is most efficient to use a pincer grasp, and the more she practiced the better she got! My dad tried several different coins with her, but found nickels and quarters were too thick and did not force the pincer grasp.

We found her a little bottle with an opening only slightly larger than the pennies to drop them into, and of course it has a lid so she can practice putting it on and off!

She loves this activity and she and Opa had a lot of fun doing it together!

Obviously this activity is appropriate for non-mouthing children or under adult supervision. Sequins, small buttons, hole punches of cardstock, grains of rice and dry beans and tiny beads also work well for this activity!

This could turn into a game, too, with a die added--picking up the number of pennies that were rolled!

Animal Cracker Work

On a past roadtrip Matt and I stopped at Bucky's for a candy run. It's a tradition of our roadtrips.
I couldn't bring myself to feed my little one candy, but we compromised with a box of these animal crackers. My mom used to buy us these as a treat when we were kids, so they brought back fond memories and Quinn lucked out with a box due to my reminiscing. :)
I couldn't bear to throw the box away when the crackers were gone.
Of course you know I have to make Q some work from it.

So I got on Google Images and printed out pictures of animal crackers.

Then I found photos of the corresponding real animals.

I sit down with Q and we work on matching them--it's a matching game. Honestly this work is a little above her right now. Mostly because she won't sit still long enough. But occasionally she'll ask for this work (she can spot it up on the shelf where I keep work she needs to do with Mommy) and we take a spin at it. Each time she does a little better and works a little longer at it! I love scaffolding her learning in this way. Just stretching her slightly beyond what she was able to do last time. A little Vygotsky, for you child development graduates out there. :)

She is learning new vocabulary--she had never seen a camel before this! We also talk about the animal sounds and even what the animals eat. This is actually a wonderful early literacy activity. As she looks carefully at the animals it will teach her to attend to details that have meaning--such as the giraffe's long neck. Later on she will apply this visual discrimination to letters as she puts sounds and words together. Math knowledge of how shapes and lines and curves look also comes into play......Matching games are so valuable for preschool and toddler learning!!
For older kids this could be played like Memory.....Flip them all over and see if you can make matches.

Socks....oh socks....

Q is loving to throw things now. Annoying when it's her milk cup or the remote control.....but great when we can redirect her to throw something appropriate such as a small ball or some socks!
Today I emptied my sock drawer, gathered up a hand towel and a laundry basket....

I set the towel on the ground a couple feet from the basket, handed Q matched pairs of socks and encouraged her to throw them into the basket. The game also morphed into "chase the dog who just stole a pair of socks," "try Mommy's socks on your feet," "put all the socks into your push card and given them a ride around the house," and "name the colors of the socks." Added benefit for me--I got to sort out all the socks that need to go to the scrap basket in the studio and now my sock drawer is full of neatly matched pairs!

Quinn got to exercise her throwing arm (and utilize those important gross motor skills), practice her colors, use her positional words, follow directions, and have some fun on a rainy day where we're stuck inside.

For younger babies--set them inside the basket of socks and let them explore...or let them throw all the socks out...or chew on some socks....

Older babies will like pulling apart pairs--great use of muscles and pincer skills....

Preschoolers can help match socks, can throw them into the basket from a longer distance, and could even enjoy a big piece of cardboard with holes cut into it for them to try and throw socks into!

More challenges:
-throw socks high enough to hit the ceiling
-throw socks with eyes closed
-see how far down a hallway they can throw socks (mark line with masking tape)
-see how many pairs of socks they can hold without dropping any

The possibilities are as endless as the pairs of socks in your drawer!!

PS) this isn't my sock basket pictured....my socks are much more boring than these!

Scat the Cat Color Game

I got this song from the preschool teacher at Q's school:

I'm Scat, the cat.
I'm sassy and I'm fat.
And I can change my colors
Just like that!! (snap fingers when you say "that")
Now I'm ______________

I wanted to make different-colored cats from felt, but I had trouble finding enough colors of felt. So plan B--I used the di-cut at school to cut out different colors of cats, laminated them, and put a velcro dot (the hook side) on the back of each cat. The brown cat is made from cardboard and has the fuzzy piece of velcro.

We start out by letting Q choose a cat to place on top of the brown cat.
Sing the song.
Each time, change the color of cat.

Q loves this game and also loves just playing with her cats.

I made the container to hold the pieces out of a cheese slice container. I peeled off the label, modge-podged some scrapbook paper onto the front to cover the stickyness I couldn't get off from the label, and it's a perfect fit for the cats! I know I will find other uses for it once we are done with the color cats.

Creation Class!

Since school is over for the summer, I knew Q would be ready for some fun, challenging investigations to keep her busy! I decided to use Bible stories as our basis, and then plan activities around that. Creation is a perfect toddler topic because it involves counting, includes animals (which are very hip in the toddler crowd...), and there are lots of fun creation songs.
Here are some of the things we've been doing:

Yesterday we painted a shoebox black to represent darkness. It was interesting to see Q's reaction to painting the box, because she normally only paints on paper and flat surfaces. She was a little unsure, so I provided some modeling and she became interested after a bit.

Today I cut out a big circle (which would later become the earth) out of the back of a discarded Cheerios box. First Q painted it blue with a paintbrush and her fingers. After it dried a tad, we used cotton balls to dab on white paint (clouds). I love to introduce a variety of tools for children to paint with, beyond the basic paintbrush. Once again, she was a little unsure about the cotton balls, but she came around! She was very happy to pick all the cotton off her fingers once it got stuck on there!

I also cut out a big 1 out of cardboard and we made it black and yellow for dark and light.
We sing the song:
Day 1, Day 1
God made light when there was none!

I cut a little hole in the side of the box and we shine the flashlight in the hole and onto the earth and talk about how God made light.

We also went and sat in my closet with a flashlight and turned it on and off while we sang:
Light, light,
First God made the light!
He made the sun to shine in the day
and the stars to shine at light.

and
(to the tune of Skip to My Lou)
Light, light,
let there be light
light, light,
let there be light
And there was light!!

Today we played a gross-motor game--
I shined the flashlight beam in different places on the floor and had Q jump on the spots. Then I shined it on furniture and she would climb up to touch the light. That was a fun game! I tried letting her shine the light for me to jump on, but she had a very hard time holding it still enough for the beam to stay in one spot. We'll be working on that this week!

To go along with the earth, I chose circles as our focus shape. This afternoon we glued different sizes of construction paper circles onto a piece of paper with a gluestick. Q did pretty well with the gluestick and was fairly independent on this activity!

I also let her free paint after we finish a project--ie: after we painted the box black I gave her some paper and she used the rest of the black paint up painting away on her paper. I have been cutting the dried, painted papers into different sizes of circles and taping them to our dining room window. She loves to go look at them!

I will be bringing up the fact that the earth is actually a sphere. Sphere is the 3-d shape, and circles are flat....More on that to come!

Color Cards

Q isn't preferring to read in her playroom much these days--she likes the couch or the recliner, so most of her books are living out there. So...I found a use for the empty bookshelf. I had these color cards from when I taught 1st grade. I put one in each slot for her to take down and look at. We can also play a game where we try to find objects of each color to place on the card!

Yellow Bag

To reinforce the fun we've been having learning colors, Q and I made a "Yellow Bag." I quickly sewed 3 seams to make a drawstring bag out of yellow fabric. We looked around the house to find all sorts of yellow things to add to the bag. We like to open the bag and look through all the objects. A favorite activity is seeing how many we can put on the dog before she runs away. :)
This activity is great for teaching beginning classification and sorting principles.

Fit the pieces

This activity is from a great book called GAMES TO PLAY WITH TODDLERS. I am currently borrowing it and will highlight some of our favorites! Here's one we tried today, and a few of my extensions.

We got an old cereal box out of the recycling bin and opened it up. I found 3 cookie cutters and I traced them on the cardboard. As we worked, Q and I talked about each shape, where she wanted me to trace it, what color she wanted me to use (I traced two of each shape and used the same color for both times), and I verbally described what I was doing as I traced the shape.

I went ahead and colored in the shapes, because she drew on the cardboard, too, and that made it hard to see the outlines of the shapes, so I colored them in to make them show up more.

Then we practiced matching the cookie cutters to the shapes. Q lost interest at this point, so we put the activity up to work on again another time. Next time we will just begin with the naming of the shapes and colors and the matching game.

Extensions--
-use other objects besides cookie cutters
-let older children do the tracing themselves or help younger children trace with hand-over-hand help
-add more shapes for older children
-let older children cut out the shapes after they have traced them
-after tracing the shapes, let the child paint them
-let the child glue small objects (sequins, beans, cheerios, buttons, confetti, etc.) around the border of each shape or even fill in each shape
-cut the shapes out of fabric or felt

This activity practices matching (visual discrimination necessary for reading and writing), shape awareness, fine motor skills (tracing is one of the best ways for preschoolers to practice the fine motor skills they will need to write and draw), color awareness, and just some good ole fun playing a game!

I have several full-time working moms that wonder how to fit teaching and funtime in with their children in the short time they have together. I am an on-again, off-again full-time working mommy. Right now I am back at work for a while. So one way I fit fun/teaching time in with my little one is on the go. While we are sitting waiting at restaurants or in line at the store, we take advantage of the time! Three cookie cutters, 3 markers and a piece of rolled-up paper fit in a purse or diaper bag so easily and this activity is perfect for on the go! Yesterday was a crazy day and we did a long bday lunch for a friend at Joe's Crab Shack and a special dinner with some family at a mexican restaurant, and this activity would have been perfect for those times.

Nursery Treasury--we're loving it!

Picked this up from one of the thrift stores recently when they were doing 1/2 off books. We are LOVING it! It has different sections--baby games, nursery songs, dancing and singing games, rhymes, and lullabies. I wish I would have had it when Q was younger because it has great baby games and fingerplays. I will be posting some of our favorites from this book, so stay tuned!

http://www.amazon.com/Nursery-Treasury-Sally-Emerson/dp/0385246501

Proverbs 2 activity

Proverbs 2 says:

3and if you call out for insight
and cry aloud for understanding,

⁴ and if you look for it as for silver
and search for it as for hidden treasure,

⁵ then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.

I want my daughter to think of God's words of insight and understanding to be as valuable as silver and treasures! So--for today--a treasure hunt!

I got out a little basket and a handful of nickels (because they are silver....you could use quarters, pieces of paper colored silver, plastic lids spray-painted silver, whatever!)

I went outside and "hid" the coins. (For a 19-month old that means pretty much laying them down in plain sight....so hide them according to the ability of your child).

I brought her outside and simply explained that God wants us to think of his words as very, very important, like treasures we search everywhere for! I asked her if she wanted to look for treasures, and of course she did! I gave her the little basket and helped her find the first coin, then encouraged her to find more on her own.

You can decide whether the child/ren will keep the treasure or simply play the game, and then return them to the basket to play again later. I think it's important to return to the game whenever you can to keep reinforcing the concept of God's word as a treasure he wants us to search for.

With older kids, you can talk about some ways we can "Search."

Now, the honest part....Q did great finding the first couple coins. Then she figured out it was fun to drop them through the holes in the little table. Then it was even more fun to put them on the dog's back and watch her shake them off. Then, it would really get Mommy worked up if she put them in her mouth, little stinker.

Well, I started the game way too close to bedtime and she was not in a cooperative mood....so I tried redirecting her a couple of times. When that failed, I joined in dropping the coins through the table holes, and then some holes in our patio chair. When the coins went in her mouth, it was time to stop. So I was a little frustrated that the game didn't go exactly how I'd planned, but we'll give it a try again soon. This is life with a toddler...or any age child, for that matter....But the basket of nickels is sitting on our counter, waiting for another go-round at a treasure hunt!