Shovel Clean Up

These letters-inside-baby-food-jar-lids are a part of a game I made Isaac for Christmas.  Last week he found a whole new way to play with them.

Using a shovel Isaac scoops up a letter, says it's name and what sound it makes, and then dumps it into his bucket.  He's practicing letter recognition, phonics, and fine motor skills, and to him it's just plain fun!

I think the best learning takes place when kids are having fun.  :)

Montessori

One of my nephews recently started attending a Montessori school and his renewed love for learning and school has spurred my interest in finding out more about Montessori.

Many of you may be very familiar with Montessori teaching methods, but I wasn't. I love that much of Montessori teaching is child directed rather than teacher (or parent directed) and that as a parent (or teacher) you can help guide and follow your child's natural interests and abilities.

There are so many wonderful Montessori resources online, these are just a few of my favorite blogs, mostly by moms or teachers with ideas for Montessori inspired activities to do with your little ones.

Counting Coconuts: a homeschooling Montessori trained mom or an almost 4 year old

The Wonder Years: a Montessori trained mom who stays home with her kids ages 3 and 5

Mi Escuelita Montessori: This blog is written in Spanish and English by a stay at home mom of two little girls

The Montessori Goldmine: Lists links to other Montessori blogs and ideas

Making the Most of What Your Kids Look At

Does it ever amaze you how observant young children are? They seem to notice everything and take in every detail!

Here are two ideas to make the most of what your kids are looking at.

1. Hallway Wallpaper: Recently I pulled out some maps of the continents that I had hanging in my classroom when I taught 6th grade. Isaac loves maps so I thought it would be fun to hang them in our home...the problem was finding a space.

And then the idea came, how about the hallway? We go through it all the time and it had lots of open space at the eye level of a 3 year old. Perfect. We're not having formal geography lessons at our house, but by seeing and studying (he sometimes sits in front of the maps to look at them) these maps of the world, Isaac is gaining an understanding of the spacial relationships, the wonder of the world, and so much more!

This is Isaac's expression after finding where we live on the map!

If you don't have a map to hang up, check with a local tourism office. They often have maps of the state, region, or city you live in for free.

2. The Power of Cereal Boxes: A few months ago my sister-in-law, Tatiana, who is raising her girls speaking English and Spanish posted this idea on her blog, Wanna Jugar with Migo? If your child is anything like mine, they probably love to stare at the cereal boxes while eating breakfast. Isaac even likes to make a wall around himself and his bowl at the table with the cereal boxes!

So why not cover the cereal boxes with something engaging and educational? It doesn't have to be time consuming to create, Tatiana shares some fun ideas here. And you can leave the boxes covered for a week or two, or until the cereal is all gone!

(Photo from Wanna Jugar with Migo?)

More Felt Ideas

I think felt is great! You can make so many flannel board activities/games/stories with it. Although you can buy them, you can make your own with some creativity and a little felt. I find that looking online at other people's work helps me figure out ideas for projects. Here are a few ideas:


-Freight Train felt story (you need a train car out of a variety of colors, similar to this idea, read the book by Donal Crews and place the train cars on the board, or have your little one retell the story with the pieces.)

-Old McDonald's Farm (make a barn and animals and sing as you put up the animals one by one). If you want some templates to make your animals, try this website, or google coloring pages for the animal you're trying to make. You can make it as simple or elaborate as time allows!

-Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed (make a bed and five monkeys. I used a die-cut as a school district office to cut my monkeys, but that's not necessary. Just search on etsy.com for monkey ideas)

-Snowmen (easy shapes to cut out and then assemble on the board). You can even sing this song to go along.

-Felt People/Face (cut out a basic person shape and clothes to go on him/her. Or cut a large circle for a face and then pieces for eyes, nose, etc.)

-Shapes (use different colors and cut different shapes. Use them to practice shapes, colors, counting, fractions, or make things as if they are felt Lego's)

-Five Speckled Frogs (I love this story and song! Here's one pattern you could use from Early Learning Activities.) Here are (one version of) the words of the song:

Five little speckled frogs,

Sat on a speckled log,

Eating the most delicious grub.

Yum! Yum!

One jumped into the pool,

Where it was nice and cool.

Then there were four green speckled frogs.

(Repeat until all are in the pool)

These are some of the ones we do at our house. What other felt ideas do you have?

Side note: If you have access to a die cut machine (either a home machine on one in a school district office) you can cut felt with it, although you'll want to put a piece of paper on top of the felt for the machine to work best. Our local school district lets anyone use their machine, and it was great for cutting things like vehicles and animals!

Free Preschool Sample Pack

The company/website 123 Preschool Projects is offering a free sample pack of some of their materials. Although I'm not exactly sure what the pack includes, some of their products include: activities for each day of the month, pre-cut activities, 10-15 different textural materials, instructions, and parent newsletters. The materials and activities are geared for 2-5 year olds.

If you're interested in the free sample pack, go here.

There was and Old Woman who Swallowed a Fly

Back in December I went to a Ready to Lean workshop (see previous post about these free workshops) at our local grocery store about rhyme and repetition. The class was really fun (and I came home with two free books!) and we made a file folder game of the old lady who swallowed a fly story. I finally colored and put mine together the other day, and it is a huge hit with my one year old. (He enjoys putting the cards in the tummy of the old lady.) The handouts to make the file folder game are available on the PBS's Ready to Learn website, so here's how to do it:
Materials:
-printouts on cardstock
-file folder
-scissors
-contact paper
-crayons or markers
-extra cardstock
-envelop to hold the cards

-You'll need to print out the PDF found here. (It's 3 pages)
-Copy the printouts onto cardstock (or just print them out on it if possible)
-Color the old lady
-Attach the words of the story to the inside of the file folder like this:-Cut out the hole on the old lady's dress and cut a matching hole in the front of the file. Glue the old lady onto the cover of the file.
-cut out the animal cards. As you read the story your child will put the cards into the old woman's tummy.
-attach the envelop to the back of the file folder to hold the animal cards:
-You could call is good now, or if you want you can use the extra cardstock to make a little pouch to catch the animal cards in the old woman's tummy. Here's an example of what that would look like:
-Now you're ready to read the story over and over again! Hey, repetition helps kids learn!

PS: For another version of a file folder game for the same story, try this PDF! It's a drawing of the old woman with shapes for the animals. Kids place the animals on the right spot during the story.

Homeschool Freebies

I just ran across this site that I thought was neat, especially if you are homeschooling or plan to. Everyday the site posts another freebie, such as e-books, audio files, games, samples, etc. Sometimes they are only free for the day, so check back often if this is something that interests you!
Visit the site: Homeschool Freebie of the Day

Baby Sign Language

Our stake had a Best of Enrichment Activity on Saturday, and one of the classes I peeked into was about baby sign language. The teacher listed a bunch of websites on the board, and I thought I'd pass them along. We've done a little signing in our home, but I haven't been really dedicated. The sign I see with some consistency is "all done" and occasionally "more." Those are both helpful at meal time!
Apart from Internet sources, what I've found most helpful have been the books (for adults and babies) and videos available at our local library.

freebabysignlanguage.blogspot.com
Tiny Fingers
Smart Baby Sign Language
HandSpeak
Sign With Me

Happy Signing!

Parenting Classes in Utah

Each month I receive a Welcome Baby newsletter by email (from the hospital or county I think?). Anyway, this month's newsletter had a list of some parenting classes available in Utah County. The ones that caught my attention are put on by KBYU TV's Ready To Learn Program and are free. So Issac and I went to one this morning about Nursery Rhymes, and it was awesome! The presenter really knew her stuff, we all got a free book, and it was arranged through a ward's Relief Society, so it was like an enrichment and was even in a church building in Orem. It lasted for an hour and twenty minutes. The program has a web site where you can sign up to go (once again- it's free). They are held all over, from Sandy to Manti. The web site has through November posted right now. So if you live in the area, check it out!

PS: If you don't live in Utah, you can still download their activities for children from their resources website.

Behold Your Little Ones

The Church recently published a Nursery Manual called Behold Your Little Ones. It is a really neat compilation of 30 lessons and activities tailored to young children (18 months to 3 years). And that part I like best is that everything is together in the manual, meaning pictures and coloring pages are all there, so you don't need to look them up in another source. You can buy the manual online for $5.50 (there are no shipping costs), or you can access it online and print off the pages/pictures for free at this website. What a great resource for teaching children about Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the gospel!

File Folder Games

My sister-in-law emailed me about file folder games: activities that kids can do (mostly independently, depending on their age) that are contained in a file folder. How neat! There are lots of resources on the Internet, and many cost money, but I tried to find a few that are free. If you're really into them you can find ones to purchase and print online or books also (I'd check the local library first- Provo City has a few "Vanilla Manila Folder Games for Young Children" is one). And once you look at a few you just might come up with some great ideas for your own file folder games.

File Folder Games from MormonChic: Noah's Ark, Dress the Bear, Family History, Flower Garden, and a few matching games.

FileFolderHeaven: They have free games and ones to purchase.

Positively Autism: Scroll down for a few printable games

These are just a few of the many resources out there. If you find a site you love, please let us know!