Learning Tools Archives – Page 2 of 3

Teaching The Value Of Money

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They say “Money can’t buy you happiness.” This may be true, but it sure can buy you a lot of things that make you happy. People love money. Even at an early age the love of money begins. My daughter may not comprehend the value of money, but she sure does know that she likes it. Whenever there is spare change lying around, her face lights up & she hoards it for her piggy bank.

Mai is in her “I want that” phase. We can barely leave the house without it. At the grocery store I hear it echoing down every aisle. “I want the Goldfish crackers.” “I want the funny juice box.” Alright, but you’re buying today. It is funny, she never does.

Children’s brands are clever. They advertise everywhere. Luckily, we do not watch much television that contains commercials, but those marketers find a way to sneak in a ad anywhere. While reading to Mai ‘If You Give A Mouse A Cookie’, she noticed the back book jacket with the author’s other books on it.

“Mama, I want the pig with the pancake.”

“I’m sorry honey. We don’t have that book.”

“Mama, you go to the store & get the pig with the pancake?”

Siiiiiiiigh! Thank goodness for the library.

I can remember at a young age my mother telling me “Money doesn’t grow on trees.” My smart ass remark back was always “Yes it does. Money is made out of paper & paper grows on trees.” Oh how, I wish I could go back in time & smack the crap out of myself.

We want Mai to grow up understanding the value of money and how to spend responsibly, but for now we will just start with her being able to differentiate between those coins that she loves to hoard. Here is an easy coin sorting activity.

What you will need:

2 paper plates

A couple of markers

Glue

Scissors

Assorted change

Directions: Money is dirty, so be sure to clean your change first. On one plate, slice 4 slits on the back just long enough to fit each coin. Use a marker & write the value of each coin to the side of the slit. On the other side of the slit, attach the coin with glue or with tape. Write the coin name underneath. Place the other plate down normally. Staple or glue the paper plate with the coins to the other one so that the coins are on top. It will form a little container to insert & catch the coins in.

“Mama, now we put them in the piggy bank?” The kid is no dummy.

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Sun
07 ^th

Baking Soda Volcanoes

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It has been a month now since Mai started daycare. As you all know, I was not exactly over the moon with the decision to put her in daycare, but now I couldn’t be happier. It is a pain waking up early to drop her off before work & I do still get that feeling of guilt at leaving her there, but I have seen such a wonderful change in her over these past few weeks. She comes home with great stories about her new friends & the fun things that they do together. It warms my heart to hear her talk about her day with such excitement.

The other day when my husband arrived to pick her up, they were outside making baking soda volcanoes. Hubby had a difficult time getting her to leave her fun activity. When they came home, they both wanted to share with me how much fun Mai & friends had playing with the volcanoes. My husband told me that it was just a simple activity using baking soda & vinegar. He said that he used to do this a lot as a child. Perhaps I lived a very sheltered childhood, but I had never heard of such a thing. I have seen many things on Pinterest for different science experiments that caused eruptions, but never actually looked at how they were made. Had I realized it was so simple I would have tried these ages ago. Thank you Miss Laura, you gave us a wonderful activity to try at home.

Baking Soda Volcanoes

What you will need:

Baking soda

Vinegar

Food coloring

Squeeze bottles

Small receptacle or cup- we used a mini flower pot & a Dixie cup

Plastic dish bin

Play Sand (optional)

Place your small receptacle in the center of the plastic dish bin. We used a mini flower pot & also a Dixie cup. Surround it with sand to give it a more volcanic look. Add baking soda to your center container. In a squeeze bottle or bottles, mix vinegar & food coloring. Squeeze the colored vinegar mixture over the baking soda & watch it erupt.

If you can’t tell, our daughter loved this. We went through a whole bottle of vinegar & box of baking soda. When we were done, she said, “Mama, Dada go to store to buy more food coloring?”. I guess we have to hit the supermarket for more supplies.

Fri
29 ^th

“ABC Soup” Water Play

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It makes me laugh to think that in a house full of fancy toys & play sets, it is always the simplest things that hold on to our children’s attention the most.

Our daughter loves to paint & draw, so we got her an easel. She prefers to draw at the kitchen counter. She loves building and stacking, so we got her building blocks & Legos. She still is piling up Play-Doh containers & paint bottles.

She loves to cook, so when her cousin gave her a beautiful play kitchen filled with fake food and pots & pans, we thought she would be ecstatic. Instead of cooking up plastic chicken drumsticks & Velcro vegetables, Mai was more interested in mixing up a pot of alphabet magnets.

Here she is cooking up something delicious in our rice cooker.

After dinner last night, Mai was a little bit antsy & mommy was tired. I needed something to keep her occupied for a little while. I asked her if she wanted to play with some water. I already knew what the answer would be, because she loves water play. I filled up our ice bucket with some water & went to get her some measuring spoons and scoops to use with the water. When I came back she had poured all of her ABC magnets in the bucket & was whirling them around with her hand. We traded in our measuring spoon for a ladle & a handled sieve instead. Mai would use the ladle or sieve to fish out the letters. “I making soup.” Yes you are. It looks delicious.

We made a little game out of it.

“Mai, can you find me the “P””?

“Right there!”

“P is for penguin.”

“Yes it is. Great job.”

Like I said, it really is the simple things. She played happily up until bath time, while I got a chance to sit down for a bit & just enjoy watching our happy little girl.

Thu
28 ^th

Lessons From The Kitchen

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I always found it humorous that children love doing the things that we as adults hate to do & vice versa. They fight naps & taking a baths while these are things that I dream about. Doing dishes & sweeping the floor are not my favorite activities in the world, but yet my daughter can’t wait to get her hands wet & pick up a broom. Children like to emulate what they see their parents doing. My daughter like many little girls has a play kitchen. She spends many hours a week cooking up delicious meals for mommy & daddy.

I used to find it difficult to prepare meals & clean up the kitchen with Mai running around. I realized the easiest way to get things done was just to involve my daughter. Cooking with my daughter is not only a fun bonding activity that we can share, but it also has a lot of learning opportunities as well.

1. Measurements – From as young as I can remember one of our daughter’s favorite toys has been our measuring cups & spoons. Now that she is older, she has learned that they are also used for other things. Show your child the different size cups & spoons & explain to them what each one is. Let them scoop and measure. Assist them for accurate measurements. Let them pour the measured substance into the mixing bowl or dish.

2. Following Directions – Toddlers are not always the best at listening or following directions. Our daughter is no different, but when we are engaged in an activity such as cooking or baking, she is surprisingly attentive. Explain what needs to be done in each step & let them help with anything that she can do safely. Offer them encouraging pointers along the way.

3. Hand eye coordination – All of that pouring & measuring requires a little bit of dexterity. It may take some time, but with practice you will see their abilities grow. Our daughter has become great at pouring.

4. Counting – This is an especially fun side activity while you cook. If you are working with items such as chick peas, lentils, pasta or chocolate chips ask them to count out a small number of them for you. My daughter loves counting and separating.

6. Teamwork – A lot of toddlers wrestle with asserting their independence. This is a wonderful thing, but it also important for them not to lose sight of being able to work together as a team. Cooking and baking is also a great bonding moment for you & your child or your whole family.

7. Reading labels – Reading does not always have to be in just your children’s bedtime stories. Take every opportunity that you can to read to your toddler and point out new words. If you are following a recipe, read it aloud and point out the words and pictures.

8. Home Economics – Let’s not forget the main task at hand which is to cook or bake something fabulous. At an early age your child is learning basic principles in cooking. Hopefully this will encourage a love for cooking and maybe someday they will be fixing you gourmet dinners & desserts.

9. Responsibility – Making a mess in the kitchen is the fun part, the clean up after leaves something to be desired. Throwing away trash, wiping down the counters and doing the dishes are chores that I could do without, but like I said before our children seem to love this part. That sets a good foundation for chores in the future.

Wed
30 ^th

What Puzzles Have Taught My Toddler & Me

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I think most mothers can agree that they feel a sense of pride when someone compliments them on their child, whether it is how cute they are, or well behaved, sweet or intelligent. It is nice to hear. I have been told for a long time how smart our daughter is. I have even had a few friends of ours with children ask for our secrets. I would like to take all the credit for it, but I do think much of it she was just born with. Of course we want to help our little one’s mind along & we do so by reading to her often, answering her never ending list of questions and by doing puzzles.

Kids learn to love puzzles from an early age. What’s not to love? They are bright & colorful with lots of pieces to play with and fun pictures. Puzzles aid in developing their fine motor skills, hand eye coordination and cognitive thinking. One thing that they taught me was I should not underestimate my child’s ability to learn based on her age.

At only two years of age my daughter knows all of her U.S states. She knows them by shape, location & name. She learned all of this from doing a puzzle. When we received the foam puzzle as a gift, I never imagined that she would actually be able to do it, but I would take it apart and rebuild it with her daily, pointing out and naming the states as I went. So sufficed to say we were shocked the day that she corrected her uncle as he was trying to place Idaho in the wrong spot. “No Uncle Pete, Idaho goes next to Washington.” From that day on she did her puzzle on her own without mommy’s help.

Don’t mind the fact that Massachusetts is missing.

From there we continued with the geography lessons. We introduced a new puzzle with all of the countries. The countries were all represented by animals indigenous to their region. “Look mama, the Panda bear lives in China.” Yes it does, baby. Yes it does. We now try to teach her everything regardless of how advanced it might seem. I will never underestimate my child again.

Wed
07 ^th

Encouraging Your Toddler’s Imagination

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Albert Einstein once said “Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.” He was right. A healthy imagination is a great thing. It sparks creativity, aids in problem solving and ideas. Many of us lose our sense of imagination as we get older, but our children are still growing & honing theirs. As parents there are many things that we can do to help our young ones develop this.

Role Playing: This is something that toddlers naturally do on their own. They love to mimic the actions of the ones around them. The first hint of this I saw with my daughter was with her pretend talking into a remote control. She would have full conversations about her day on her fake cell phone. She has since graduated to tea parties, baking Play-Doh cakes & teaching her stuff animals.

Enjoy the Abstract: Do you remember being younger and laying on the ground and finding images in the clouds? It is amazing what your child can see. I did an experiment with my daughter a while back, where I made about a dozen inkblot pictures and asked her what she saw. The results were interesting.

Read, read, read: I don’t know about you, but when I am reading a book, I always play it out in my mind. How many times have you saw a movie that was adapted from a book & the characters were not how you pictured them. Books expand your creative mind. Be theatrical when reading to your child. Invite them to be too. How fun would it be to act out “Pete’s A Pizza” with your child?

Playing dress up: Whether you have a little boy who likes to dress in a cowboy hat and vest or a little girl who likes to don a tiara and magic wand, playing dress up is a great way for your children to feed their worlds of make believe. Costumes inspire new characters to be born and formed & it is fun for mommy and daddy to play along too.

Story telling: This is the most fun. Get your child to tell you a story. Many times my daughter will start with a one simple sentence. “I went down stairs to get a birthday cake for mama dinosaur. ” This can spark a fun story telling experience with your child. “Really, who came to the birthday party?” “What color was mama dinosaur’s cake?” My daughter has such an active imagination. She comes up with the most creative and colorful stories. I started writing them down. In fact, I took one of her stories and made it into a book. I am currently illustrating it.

Get artistic: Transferring the beautiful images in your mind on to a piece of paper is a wonderful way to open up your imagination. Mai’s drawings don’t quite look like anything yet to us, but she knows exactly what she is drawing. “Mama look! The mermaid is in the pond.” Yes it is!

Pretend: This can often go hand in hand with dress up or role playing. Our daughter likes to pretend that she is various animals. Her favorite is a kitten. She will often ask me to play along. I am usually mama kitten. Tonight, I had to be mama kangaroo & she was my Joey. We bounced around the living room with her pretending to be in my pouch.

What sort of activities do your children do to expand their imaginations? Please share any fun or interesting stories about your smart and imaginative children.

Mon
07 ^th

Learning to Read

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My husband and I both love to read. On the evening of our first date while riding in his car, I happened to glance in his back seat and noticed a book sitting there. After closer observation, I realized that he was reading the same book that was at that time residing on my night stand. I knew at once that it had to have been a sign.

Before we had our daughter we agreed that we would read to her often and encourage her to love books as much as we did. We kept that promise & continue to. With a lot of help from her Nana, my hubby & I have bred a fellow book lover.

Over the weekend, we pulled out two bags of books that we have not read yet and had a reading picnic on our living room floor. We put down a blanket, some pillows, spread out all our books and put out a few snacks.

We devoured book after book. Mommy would read to her & Mai would point out what she was seeing on the pages and narrate the story based on the pictures.

Mai’s has such a great grasp of the alphabet and is able to distinguish the first letter of many common words. It is common practice for her to sit in her crib in the morning and practice her phonics. “A ahhh ahhh ahhh, apple”. We have done a number of phonics lessons with her and she has done wonderfully with them. We wanted to start some reading lessons with her too.

One of my favorite tools for making easy learning materials is to create simple lessons using Microsoft Word or Paint. For this lesson, we created a page with a clip art picture and the word that describes that picture minus it’s first letter. Here is an example of one of the pages.

I used a printed copy of the page I created & hung it up on a magnetic easel. You can also use the refrigerator. I gave my daughter a bag of alphabet magnets and let her go.

Mai did a great job and was very proud of herself when she was finished. She clapped her hands and said “Mama, I did it.” Yes you did!

Sun
16 ^th

Sorting Game For Toddlers

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I know that there are mixed feelings about children and electronics. I think that they can be a great learning tool, but in moderation. Our daughter has a Nabi Tablet. It has been a wonderful tool in promoting learning for our daughter. She can access her ABC Mouse Learning Center from there and there are also a lot of learning apps that we selected for her. As I said, I think that is a fabulous tool to educate my daughter, but I also don’t want her parked in front of it for hours on end. I thought I could bring one of her favorite lessons to life.

There is one application that has an assortment of objects and a row of baskets that represents a category that each of these objects falls into. She loves this one & is starting to get pretty good at it. I decided to use this idea to create a similar game that she could play sorting various pictures & matching them to their coordinating category.

What you will need:

Paper bowls or another bowl shaped container

Old magazines or computer print-outs of clip art

Scissors

Glue

Posterboard

Directions:

Figure out what categories you would like to use. I chose animals, clothing, toys, food & transportation.

Flip through old magazines and cut out various pictures.

Cut out pictures that fit your various categories.

Put your pictures in a container.

Make a sign for your category with picture examples of the category. Glue it to the inside of the bowl.

Line up your sorting bowls & spread out the picture cutouts in front of them.

Match up your pictures to the appropriate bowl. Here we have a dog, cat & horse matched up to the animal sorter.

Hmm…Where does this go?

Right there..right there

My daughter loves anything that has pictures that she can sort through. She named off all of the cut outs and we sorted through them together. She did the best on her own with the animals and the food. I love this activity. It is cheap & easy to make and it is something we can do together or she can play with on her own.

Who Needs Toys – Playtime Made Easy

Posted by Pinparent — 23 Comments

You always hear people joke that you don’t need to buy young children expensive toys because all they end up wanting to play with is the box. This is no joke. There is no truer statement. Toddlers are easy; they can find the fun in anything. Their little spongy minds are absorbing and exploring everything. Things as simple as the box, are still new and fascinating territory for them. At 2 years old, my daughter is past the excitement of the box, but still has a taste for the simpler things in life.
We have more toys in this house than we know what to do with. Between the play kitchen, Little People Villages & Twisty Tracks, she should have enough to keep her occupied until she is in her teens, but as kids tend to do, she gets bored of these things very quickly. There are many things that you can do to occupy your child’s day without the use of fancy toys.

Here are some simple and fun things for your child to do.

Water play

It doesn’t get much simpler than this. This is one of my favorite activities to give my daughter while I am cooking or doing dishes. Lay out a towel & fill a large container half way with water and add some measuring cups & spoons. Here my daughter told me she is making coffee.

Chick Peas, Beans & Rice

Similar to above, I have a container of chickpeas & colored rice set aside just for play. It is amazing how long my daughter will play with them. She will count them out & transfer them from cup to cup.

Couch Cushion Fun

My daughter has a lot of energy. She loves to jump & is always throwing herself on the ground for some odd reason. Take your couch cushions off the couch & place them on the floor & let your child roll around on the pile of pillows.

Stringing Pasta

Pasta necklaces are an old classic. This requires a little bit of hand – eye coordination. Mai strung up the 3 shown below & told me that it was the mama pasta, daddy pasta & baby pasta.

Read, read & read some more

We spend about a half hour before bed reading books every night, but books are not just for bedtime. We often read to our daughter while she is eating to keep her firmly planted in her chair during her meal. Many times even if my daughter insists that she does not want a story, if I just start reading she will eventually jump up on my lap.

Bubble Wrap

We order from Amazon a lot, I mean a lot. Bubble wrap comes with most of these packages. I think that bubble wrap is fun for small children and adults alike. Who doesn’t love popping that stuff?

Blanket forts

Being that mommy is always cold, even in the summer, we have blankets all over the house. Mai loves it when we make forts over the couch. “Mommy, play in the fort toooooooo?” Definitely! Here she is reading with a flashlight under her fort.

Song & Dance

My daughter loves music. She has been dancing as long as she has been walking. She also loves to sing songs with mommy & daddy. Don’t underestimate the power of music.

Red Light, Green Light & other games

My daughter loves running around our house in circles. I had to teach her Red light, Green light just to catch my breath in between chases. Pheeew! Also try Simon Says or Hide and Seek.

Get outside

If your toddler is like mine, then he or she loves to run free. Take them outside, weather permitting & let them run & jump and play. Here is Mai walking the track at the Relay for Life in memory of her grandmother & namesake.

Color & Draw

I have an unlimited supply of poster board in our home. My daughter loves to doodle & color. She also loves when we draw for her too. She & I will lie on the floor and she will ask me to draw pictures of caterpillars & horses. She has a vivid imagination. She creates different scenarios for these pictures. Here Mai asked Mama to draw a mama & dada spider. She said that they were both sick & needed medicine.

Stacking boxes

I love stacking boxes & have quite a few sets strewn all over the house. My daughter shares my love for them. She likes piling them up & placing them inside of one another.

Styrofoam & Yarn

Seriously! Yarn sticks to styrofoam. If you are like me & have styrofoam cones laying around this is a great busy activity.

What easy & simple activities do you have for you & your toddler. I would love to hear.

Mon
03 ^rd

Dinosaur & Fossil Finding Sensory Box

Posted by Pinparent — 22 Comments

My daughter likes dinosaurs. She really likes them. I think this is largely because of the book ‘How do dinosaurs say goodnight?’. I am not sure, but regardless, she loves those crazy creatures. A few weeks back I took her to a dinosaur exhibit.

She of course loved it. There was a wide range of dinosaur related displays, rides & activities. One of the kid’s activities there was a sandbox with fossilized rock at the bottom. It had paint brushes to brush off the sand to uncover the fossils. Mai really enjoyed this. I thought this would be an easy enough activity to make a home. It took a few weeks, but today we finally tackled this sensory box & the results were great.

What you will need:

A large Rubbermaid container

Hardening modeling Clay – I made my own off of this recipe from Wiki- http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Modeling-Clay-at-Home

Play Sand

Paint Brushes

Corn Starch

Dinosaur figurines

An old sheet or a drop cloth

Instructions:

Get your molding clay ready. Knead & roll out to the desired shapes.

Using your dinosaurs make imprints into the clay with their feet & their bodies.

Let your clay harden according to it’s recipe directions or package directions.

Once your imprinted clay is hardened & cooled, place at the bottom of your Rubbermaid container.

Pour play sand on top of your clay imprints. I mixed the sand with cornstarch to lighten the texture of the sand.

Add your dinosaurs and paint brushes. Lay down an old sheet or drop cloth to collect any sand that may escape.

Dinosaurs!

Brush the sand & reveal your fossils.

My adorable daughter is showing me the mama dinosaur holding her baby dinosaur. So cute!

This is fun!

Mai loved this activity. We played with it after supper & up until bath time. She was so deep into her new role as archaeologist that mommy was able to bake, do the dishes & pick up all of her toys. It was a good night. Mai even helped mommy sweep up after.

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