Toddler Play & Learn

Toddler Lessons for Friday - Books

2009-11-11T12:35:00.000-08:00

Today is snuggle-in-our-chair-with-our-book-bear day and read some wonderful books.

Our books today are:

Albert's Thanksgiving by Leslie Tryon (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, Simon & Schuster) - a great book all about how hard work pays off and helping each other has great rewards.

Clifford's First Autumn by Norman Bridwell (Scholastic) - features all the fun things about this time of year - pumpkins, autumn leaves, and football!

Toddler Lessons for Thursday - Music/Dance

2009-11-11T12:06:00.000-08:00

Today is our wonderful Music/Dance day.

Kids love music and love to move and groove. I know my 3yr old is CRAZY about ballet at the moment - all day it's "look at this move Mom", "look at this twirl", so our first selection is for her!

And why not a sing-a-long with the Chipmunks!

Over the river and through the woods,
To grandmother's house we go;
The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh,
Through (the) white and drifted snow!

Over the river and through the woods,
Oh, how the wind does blow!
It stings the toes and bites the nose,
As over the ground we go.

Over the river and through the woods,
To have a first-rate play;
Oh, hear the bells ring, "Ting-a-ling-ling!"
Hurrah for Thanksgiving Day!

Over the river and through the woods,
Trot fast, my dapple gray!
Spring over the ground,
Like a hunting hound!
For this is Thanksgiving Day.

Over the river and through the woods,
And straight through the barnyard gate.
We seem to go extremely slow
It is so hard to wait!

Over the river and through the woods,
Now Grandmother's cap I spy!
Hurrah for the fun! Is the pudding done?
Hurrah for the pumpkin pie!

Toddler Lessons for Wednesday - Video

2009-11-11T11:41:00.002-08:00

Today is video day.

Toddlers and babies love visual aids. As long as you are not sitting your child in front of the TV for hours on end, the occasional video or movie is a great way to stimulate your kiddos! And it is best if you sit with them and explain what is going on, and interact with them.

First, we have a brief history video (the images are nice even if the kids don't really understand what's going on). Also a helpful reference to refresh your memory of the origin of Thanksgiving. Communicate to your child the reason why you do things - talking to them helps their vocabulary and opens the communication path that will be so important in the trying years ahead!

Some Thanksgiving history - no one is too young to learn a little history!

http://www.history.com/content/thanksgiving

And, of course, the good 'ole Charlie Brown:

Toddler Lessons for Tuesday - Art/Craft

2009-11-11T11:41:00.001-08:00

Our Thanksgiving Art/Craft for kids today is a wonderful leaf picture!

Yesterday we collected some pretty Autumn leaves from our yard (we were lucky enough to have a huge collection to pick from LOL!). Today we are going to use the leaves in our Autumn picture.

We have some construction paper (yellow and orange), some leaves, a pen and a pair of scissors.

First we draw on our butterfly body.

Then we cut off the stems from the leaves.

Next we put some glue onto the paper where we want our "wings" to go.

And finally we stick on our leaf wings onto the picture.

Beautiful!

Our Autumn picture gets put up on our "drawing board" with our other Fall/Thanksgiving pictures. Here are some other great ideas - a Turkey picture using feathers (from WalMart in their craft section), a camp fire (using hand cut-outs as the flames), and coloring pages (ours was a turkey, but find others by google searching Thanksgiving coloring pages).

Have fun!

Toddler Lessons for Monday - Games/Activity

2009-11-09T21:27:00.000-08:00

Today is Game/Activity day and we have two great Thanksgiving activities for kids. Our second activity will tie in to tomorrow's art/craft project.

Our first activity is to create "thankful" notes. We have some pretty autumn/thanksgiving themed paper and a comfortable spot to sit and talk about what Thanksgiving means and figure out what we are thankful for. We have cut our paper into 3" squares.

The idea for this activity is to encourage kids to realize and be grateful for what they have and to put it in writing. As a family we will be doing this exercise together. Everyone gets four pieces of paper. Their name is written at the top then "is thankful for..." (you fill in the blank). All the pieces will be collected and placed in a bowl for our Thanksgiving table.

At our Thanksgiving dinner we will draw out each "thankful" note and read them out aloud. Some are funny (my 3yr old is thankful for monsters! don't ask???) some are super sweet (she said to write one for her little sister that reads "thankful for her yummy milk and blankie"!), but all a good reminder that we are truly blessed.

Our second activity today, for the kids, is to go outside (and enjoy our beautiful weather) and collect some pretty autumn leaves for tomorrow's art/craft project. We look at the different shapes of the leaves, and the different colors. Talk to your child about the size, shape, color, and texture of the leaves.

Get the kids to scrunch up the leaves in their hands - what a great sound! Get them to help rack them up... OK, just dreaming!!

Leaves, leaves everywhere!

Weekly Bus Schedule - Theme: Thanksgiving

2009-11-09T21:05:00.000-08:00

Weekly Bus Schedule

The theme for this week is Thanksgiving.

We will have great games/activities for active toddlers on Monday.
Artistic art and craft projects for crazy kids on Tuesday.
A vibrant video for tots to view on Wednesday.
We'll be movin' n grovvin' with music/dance for delightful little ones on Thursday.
And on Friday we will snuggle in our chair with our book bear and read some wonderful books.

Have a great week!

Toddler Lessons for Friday - Music

2009-09-21T10:56:00.001-07:00

Today is MUSIC day.

Today's toddler activities are all about sounds and MUSIC. Kids love music - listening to it, dancing to it, singing songs, and making their own music.

Craft for Kids
Music Shaker
Today we are making a musical instrument - I'm calling it our "music shaker".

We are using:

streamers or ribbons
2 paper plates
white glue
beans, rice or pebbles
2 or more jingle bells (optional - we didn't have any)
supplies for decorating - pens, stickers, glitter etc
duct tape

Glue or tape a few ribbons onto the bottom of one of the paper plates (we are using duct tape to make it more secure).

Place the beans, rice or pebbles into the "ribbon" plate.

Glue the other plate onto the "ribbon" plate - we are also duct taping this plate onto the "ribbon" plate - I have a 1yr old - there is no way I want this thing to come apart and have my 1 yr old get hold of those little glass pebbles!

Allow to dry, then it is ready to be decorated!

Game/Activity for Toddlers
Xylophone
Today I am going to attempt (haha!) to teach my toddler how to play a song on the xylophone.

I found free sheet music at http://thesongswesing.wordpress.com/ . (After all those years of private piano lessons) I actually managed to remember how to play - boy, my parents will be so proud!!!

Books for Kids and Babies
The books on our bear chair today are all about MUSIC and sounds - "Wheels on the Bus" a Mother Goose story (Studio Mouse), and two Baby Einstein books, both by Susan Ring, "Music on the Go" and "Music around the House" (Scholastic).

Toddler Songs & Video
Our favorite song at the moment for both my 3yr old and 1yr old (she does the most perfect "E.I.E.I.O") is "Old McDonald had a Farm"

Old MacDonald had a farm
Ee i ee i o
And on his farm he had some chicks
Ee i ee i o
With a cluck-cluck here
And a cluck-cluck there
Here a cluck, there a cluck
Everywhere a cluck-cluck
Old MacDonald had a farm
Ee i ee i o

Old MacDonald had a farm
Ee i ee i o
And on his farm he had some cows
Ee i ee i oh
With a moo-moo here
And a moo-moo there
Here a moo, there a moo
Everywhere a moo-moo
Old MacDonald had a farm
Ee i ee i o

Old MacDonald had a farm
Ee i ee i o
And on his farm he had some pigs
Ee i ee i o
With an oink-oink here
And an oink-oink there
Here an oink, there an oink
Everywhere an oink-oink
Old MacDonald had a farm
Ee i ee i o

Add in other animals that you teach on the farm like :
dogs - woof-woof
cat - meow-meow
sheeps - baa-baa
horses - neigh-neigh

Remember, teaching your baby or toddler should be fun for both of you - it is a rewarding, enriching experience to be able to spend time together and help them learn something new. Have fun!

Toddler Lessons for Thursday - Letters

2009-09-16T20:10:00.001-07:00

Today is LETTERS day.

Today's toddler activities are all about the alphabet. We are so close to being able to sing the whole alphabet song all the way through - still need a bit more practice! One place we practice is when we wash our hands - the experts say you should wash your hands with soap for as long as it takes to sing the alphabet song all the way through, to help get rid of the germs. Talk about multi-tasking.

Craft for Kids
Alphabet Book for Kids
We are going to start our alphabet book (it will be an ongoing exercise as we continue to revisit this theme). The idea is to have one page per letter. I will write the upper case and lower case letter onto the page and then have my 3yr old copy them. We will also look through old magazines and cut out pictures that start with that corresponding letter (e.g. apples for "A", a car for "C", etc)

We are using:

construction paper (8 pages)
crayons and pens
single hole punch
yarn
old magazines (for pictures relating to our letters)
scissors
glue

We construct our book first. I am folding the construction paper in half, hole punching along the spine and tying the yarn through the holes to hold our book together.

Now we can start to work on our alphabet

This was a great rainy-day exercise for my toddler. I know we need the rain here in Fort Worth, Texas, but a whole week's worth?? Please share it around, we really want to go to the park. :)

Game/Activity for Toddlers
Magnetic School

We have this awesome Magnetic School from Parents (it was a gift so not sure of the $). It consists of cards, with a picture and the first letter outlined on them, and magnetic letters. The idea is to match the letter to the correct card.

We talk about each letter, the picture on the card and how the letter relates to the word on the card. It is great for letter recognition, and learning words.

Books for Kids and Babies
The books on our bear chair today are all about LETTERS - "Baby Animal abc's" illustrated by Shelley Dieterich (WJ Fantasy, Inc), "baby, look, abc" illustrated by Charlotte Stowell (Parragon), and "Do Your ABC's, Little Brown Bear" by Jonathan London (Weekly Reader Publishing).

Video
Goes with the song of the day! (US - I know they sing "Zed" - that's Australian! just sub in your "Zee")

Toddler Songs
What better song than the "Alphabet Song"

A B C D
E F G
H I J K
L M N O P
Q R S
T U V
W X
Y & Z
Now you know your ABC's,
next time won't you sing with me.

Remember, teaching your baby or toddler should be fun for both of you - it is a rewarding, enriching experience to be able to spend time together and help them learn something new. Have fun!

Wednesday - Seasons

2009-09-16T09:25:00.000-07:00

Today is SEASONS day.

With the weather becoming cooler this week I thought it would be the perfect time to talk about SEASONS to my 3yr old. She wants to know why she can't swim in her pool anymore (brrrr)!

Craft/Game/Activity
We are combining our craft and activity today. Our craft is going to be a leaf rubbing, so we need to collect some leaves for our rubbing. Even though our leaves haven't quite turned in color yet (although you can see slight color changes around the area) it is still a good time to get outside, enjoy this beautiful weather, and collect some pretty leaves.

Well, it started to rain, so we weren't outside for very long - just long enough to get our leaves and the mail.

We have collected about 5 different sized leaves.

Place the leaves vein side up on the table. Arrange them however you would like.

Place a piece of paper over the leaves.

With a selection of different colored crayons, pick out the first color. Gently crayon over the entire leaf - the result should be an outline of the leaf and the details of it's veins! Continue with the other leaves using different colors (or the same color if you prefer).

OK - it is little difficult for a 3 yr old to do anything gently, so here is a better method - pull the paper off a crayon and use the length of the crayon to rub (roll) over the leaves - much better results! Oh, and it also helps if you hold the paper steady for them.

We are going to tape our four pictures together, and glue our leaves on, just for an extra special Autumn picture ("Daddy's going to love this!").

We are using craft glue to glue on the leaves.

Oh, and why not a few butterfly stickers to finish it. What a pretty Autumn picture!

Books
The books on our bear chair today are all about SEASONS - "What Shall I Wear?" by Marcy Kelman - a Baby Einstein Playful Discoveries book (Scholastic), and "Rainy Day Friends" by Nancy Parent (Paradise Press).

Video
Found this cute educational video about the seasons:

Also had to include a little Vivaldi!:

Songs
Today we have two songs about the seasons:

The Leaves of the Trees
(to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus")

The leaves of the trees turn orange and red

orange and red, orange and red

The leaves of the trees turn orange and red

All through the town.

The leaves of the trees come tumbling down

tumbling down, tumbling down

The leaves of the trees come tumbling down

All through the town.

The leaves on the ground go swish, swish, swish

Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish,

The leaves on the ground go swish, swish, swish

All through the town.

(by Irmgard Guertges)

The Leaves are Falling Down
(to the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell")

The leaves are falling down

School is here and fall in near

The leaves are falling down.

The leaves are falling down

Some are red and some are brown

The leaves are falling down.

The leaves are falling down

They tickle your nose and touch your toes

The leaves are falling down.

(by June Haggard)

LOVING this cooler weather - we had a fun summer, but there is something so nice about the seasons changing - ready to get all snugly, drink hot chocolate and play at the park! Have fun!

Tuesday - Shapes

2009-09-14T12:43:00.000-07:00

Today is SHAPES day.

My 3yr old is getting really good at recognizing the basic SHAPES, so now it is time to start teaching them to my 1yr old. Start shape recognition early and it will all fall into place for them much easier as they begin to start talking (and saying) the names of the shapes.

Craft
Today we are going to do a fun printmaking activity that you can use to discuss geometric shapes with kids. We are sacrificing 2 dish sponges for our stamps, or you can buy sponge squares or Miracle Sponge Sheets and cut out your own shapes or you can buy preformed shapes.

Use sponges in a variety of different shapes. Besides circles, squares, rectangles, and triangles, you could also do a hexagon (6-sides), octagon (8-sides), diamond, oval, and any other shapes you want to show them.

Pour your paint into a shallow container (we are using margarine lids). Use a different container for each color of paint. You might also want to keep a bowl or water on hand to clean sponges and fingers!

To paint with the sponges, dip the sponge into the paint. Dab it around to cover the sponge completely and wipe off any excess paint. Now, simply press it onto the paper to make a unique print.

Discuss the different shapes and point out other places you may see these shapes.

My 3yr old also experimented with the sponge by "painting" with it - it's always good to let you little ones experiment with the different mediums you use - this encourages their creativity, and gives them confidence in their own abilities.

You can do sponge printing on other products besides paper. You can use fabric paint to make personalized clothing, towels, or bedding. Use latex paint to decorate furniture or even to personalize your walls. Be creative and have fun!

Books
The books on our bear chair today are all about SHAPES - "I See Shapes" by Marcy Kelman - a Baby Einstein Playful Discoveries book (Scholastic), and "Spot looks at shapes" by Eric Hill (Putnam).

Video
Here's a great catchy tune about shapes (gosh, I know I sing this at least a couple of times in my head a day! LOL - this is what happens when you have kids.)

Game/Activity/Song
This is a great interactive song that gets the kids thinking about and recognizing shapes quickly, and participating in the song (therefore hopefully retaining interest). Cut out some shapes (basic for younger kids, more advanced shapes for the older ones). Sit everyone in a circle. Hide the shapes behind your back, then as you sing the song bring out one shape at a time (as cued in the song).

What Shape is this?
(Sung to: "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush")

Do you know what shape this is,

What shape this is, what shape this is?

Do you know what shape this is

I'm holding in my hand?

Have fun!

Monday - Animals

2009-09-14T11:24:00.000-07:00

Today is ANIMALS day.

My 3yr old loves a new show on PBS called Dinosaur Train, so since it is ANIMALS day today, we will make Dinosaurs our theme. For more information check out the PBS site
http://pbskids.org/dinosaurtrain/index.html

Craft
We need a new window banner -the 4th July stars are a little old now.

We are using:

construction paper
scissors
glue
ribbon
tape
stapler

We have a dinosaur puzzle that we are using to get the basic shapes for our dinosaurs from, but you could look up on the internet - just Google "Dinosaurs" images - there are lots to choose from.

We are using two different colored paper, folding them in half, tracing the shape on one, then cutting out the shape to get 4 dinosaurs (all the same).

We are then selecting a section of the body to do in the contrasting color. I trace the outline onto the second color and cut out the shape and then glue onto the original dinosaur.

Once all done we tape up our string and staple the dinosaurs onto the strings - looks great!

Books
We also have a couple of dinosaur books to read - my 3yr old is fascinated with dinosaurs - old branches in the woods are "dinosaur bones" to her. Must get to the Science Museum soon! Our books for today are "Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs!" by Sandra Boynton (Workman Publishing), and "Dinosaurs" by Hannah Wilson, a Let's Look book (DK Publishing).

Video
Also found this cool educational video on YouTube (very cute!):

Game/ Activity
We had our dinosaur puzzle to complete!

Song
And to top it off - why not a Dinosaur song...

The Little Baby Dinosaur
(Sung to: Itsy Bitsy Spider - rather appropriate considering all the rain we have had!)

The little baby dinosaur, went out one day to play,

Down came the rain and that dinosaur ran away,

But, out came the sun and dried up all the rain,

And the little baby dinosaur went out to play again.

What a great day - and as a bonus one happy worn out toddler, who is now having a nap. Have fun!

Weekly Bus Schedule

2009-09-14T11:13:00.000-07:00

Bus Schedule - Week 8

Monday - Animals

Tuesday - Shapes

Wednesday - Seasons

Thursday - Letters

Friday - Music

Have a great week!

Friday - Craft

2009-09-10T17:39:00.000-07:00

Today is CRAFT day.

We are going to make a collage - that can be made into a placemat if you wish (get laminated for easy clean-up and to preserve the "artwork").

We are using:

card (choice of two sizes - 18"x12" or 8"x10")
scrapbooking paper (or any pretty type of paper like wrapping paper will do too)
photos of family members
pictures of favorite things (trains, horses, cats, trees, etc)
stickers to spell out name of child
glue sticks

Place the card down on the table. Cut out the photos and pictures you wish to use. Have a selection of different paper, pictures, stickers, etc for your child to choose from, and then let them decide what goes where (with just a little of your direction).

Assist with the glue stick, but also allow then to try to use it (depending on the age of your child). Glue sticks are pretty easy to use and have minimal mess - just make sure you get non-toxic, but still make sure it doesn't end up in their mouth!

As a final touch spell out your child's name with the letter stickers - also good for letter recognition.

If you wish to use it as a placemat I recommend getting it laminated. The 18"x12" cost around $7 to get laminated (at Kinkos), while the 8"x10" cost around $2. My 3yr old loves the one I made for her just after her little sister was born (although I tried to contact mine and it has not lasted very well - will laminate this one!). Have fun!

Thursday - Curiosity

2009-09-10T14:38:00.000-07:00

Today is CURIOSITY day.

We swapped Thursday and Friday as I really wanted to take my kids to a local farm to check out the animals - curiosity got the better of me. I also really want some farm fresh eggs.

The big hit song in our house at the moment is "Old McDonald" (even my 1 yr old does the "E.I.E.I.O"!), so what better way to make the song come alive than go to a real farm and see real animals.

Homestead Farms is located at 4072 Keller Hicks Road, Keller, TX 76248 and here is a link to their website - http://www.sbrowning.net/homestead/homestead-farms_005.htm

They have a small store on-site that sells their produce, and out the back you can go see some of the animals.

The kids loved seeing the animals, but were disappointed there were no eggs yet. My three year old did go up to the hens and say "Come on chickens, where are the eggs?"

Going to any farm is a great experience for kids and adults alike - have fun!

Wednesday - Numbers

2009-09-10T14:31:00.000-07:00

Today is NUMBERS day.

We are going to do something fun with numbers today and use up a little of that abundant toddler energy - we are going to play hopscotch.

We have a concrete patio out back and some sidewalk chalk - easy to set up a hopscotch board. Numbering our squares 1 - 10. Now we are ready for the games to begin!

We begin by throwing our pebble - the square it lands on is the square to miss, however try get a three-year old to actually do that is a totally different game! So we are just working on the numbers, counting as we jump through the squares. My 3 yr old can already count to 15, so we aren't doing too bad!

Math can be fun if you apply it right - have fun everyone!

Tuesday - Cooking

2009-09-08T15:32:00.002-07:00

Today is COOKING day. We have an abundant supply of not-so-nice-to-eat bananas (over-ripe) that are perfect for making Banana Bread.

I have my little helper, all the ingredients and a great old-fashioned recipe, so we are ready to make some mess and have fun.

Old Fashioned Banana Bread Recipe
(makes 1 loaf)

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup mashed very ripe bananas

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 F and grease loaf pan. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. In separate bowl, add shortening and sugar and cream together until light and fluffy, and beat in eggs one at a time. Add bananas and mix. Add one-quarter of dry mixture at a time, beating after each addition until batter is smooth. Add batter to loaf pan and bake 50 minutes. (I usually rotate my pans around about half way through so they don't burn on one edge).

My little helper greased the pans.

Poured the ingredients into the bowl.

Helped sift the flour.

Did some mixing (although all she really wanted to do was put her fingers in her ears!!).

Mashed up the bananas.

Did some more mixing (wasn't so scared of it the second time).

And helped pour the final mixture into the pans (we did a double mixture).

Then she helped set the timer.

This kind of reminds me of the "Little Red Hen" story - might be a good one to read while we wait for our bread. Smells SO good in here - making me hungry. Had better go check on it - have FUN!

YUM!

Weekly Bus Schedule

2009-09-08T15:32:00.001-07:00

Bus Schedule - Week 8

Monday - Labor Day Holiday (Family Day)

Tuesday - Cooking

Wednesday - Numbers

Thursday - Craft

Friday - Curiosity

Have a great week!

Wednesday - Dance

2009-08-18T10:10:00.000-07:00

WEDNESDAY - DANCE

Today is DANCE day.

We often have family dance sessions in our house - we put some of our favorite music on and all get together in the living room and just dance away! It is so much fun, relaxing and a big big stress reliever! Oh, and the kids love it too. :)

It doesn't matter what kind of music you put on, just all get together and bond for those few free moments - it's what memories are made of. Have fun!

Tuesday - Painting

2009-08-18T10:08:00.001-07:00

TUESDAY - PAINTING

Today is PAINTING day.

Just getting out the paint and letting creativity take over. My 3yr old loves to draw faces, but this is the first time I've seen her painting faces - pretty cool!

I'm thinking some of these would look great as wrapping paper or covers for books?? Endless possibilities...Have fun!

Monday - Nature

2009-08-18T09:56:00.001-07:00

MONDAY - NATURE

Today is NATURE day.

Our neighbor told us he has seen quite a few hummingbirds around lately and asked if we had seen any on our feeder. Oops! Haven't filled it for quite some time, so today is the perfect day to get out there and fill our feeder.

We have one in the backyard, and I bought another one for our front tree (since the girls love to look out from the playroom into the front yard).

The backyard one needs a good clean. It is really important to keep the feeders clean and change out the food every couple of days to keep the hummingbirds from getting sick.

We give the feeder a good soak and clean.

Next we mix up the food - one satchel mixes with 4 cups of water - the perfect amount for two feeders. My 3 year old helped stir the food.

Next we pour into the feeders, put on the feeding section and tops and now they are ready to be hung up outside.

Now we just have to watch and wait...Have fun!

Update - here are some photos of hummingbird feeding on the feeder! So beautiful!

Weekly Bus Schedule

2009-08-18T09:40:00.001-07:00

Bus Schedule - Week 7

Monday - Nature

Tuesday - Painting

Wednesday - Dance

Thursday - Craft

Friday - Curiosity

Have a great week!

Friday - Reading

2009-08-14T11:23:00.000-07:00

FRIDAY - READING

Today is READING day.

On Fridays we usually go to our local library for story time, but we went to play with friends this morning, so we didn't get to go. Each week we check-out 7 or 8 books from the library to read during the week. Reading is a bedtime ritual in our household - my kids won't go to sleep (without a fight) without two books being read to them.

Often, during the day, my 3yr old will have quiet time reading on the couch, or in her bedroom (and, if lucky, maybe a little nap after).

Reading to my 1 yr old is fun too. She loves to look at the pictures, especially of other babies. She has also just started saying "baby" when she sees one - too cute! This is really her first word outside of all the family names ("Daddy" was first, then "Gigi" for her big sister, then "Mama" and "Dixie" for our cat). It is so funny watching a language progression. My 1 yr old can pronounce "Daddy" as clear as a bell, but any kind of audible "Mama" is reserved for those special 2:00am wake-up calls, or if play gets a little rough.

I love to read too - just wish I got more time. I think I'm going to reserve a time for it, starting tonight. Reading is so rewarding, relaxing and replenishes the soul! Have fun!

Thursday - Drawing

2009-08-14T10:53:00.000-07:00

THURSDAY - DRAWING

Today is DRAWING day.

My 3 year old loves to draw faces at the moment, and pen is her favorite medium. So today she created some awesome drawings of her family. Using a pen also helps improve her dexterity, an important skill to develop for future writing (and artistic adventures). The other nice thing about this exercise is it kept her entertained for quite awhile - ahhh, a little peace. :)

So here is her portrait gallery:

Mommy

Daddy

Nanny

Poppy

Grandpa

Grandma

Nana

And some more of her "peoples"...

And some ghosts...

Have fun!

Wednesday - Playfulness

2009-08-14T10:00:00.000-07:00

WEDNESDAY - PLAYFULNESS

Today is PLAY day.

The kids pulled just about every toy they have out onto the playroom floor to play with today. My 3 yr old loves to line things up, and loves to make towers, so she commanded the blocks. My 1 yr old loves to mess with anything the 3 yr old is playing with, so it becomes an umpire's game - negotiating with each side, trying to get them to meet in the middle.

The biggest challenge we are facing is how do we get these two beautiful girls to play together nicely? How can I help stop sibling rivalry? How do I encourage them to share their toys with each other? Some sisters/brothers just play together so nice and sweet right from the get-go (or so the parents say) and some don't! Mine are in the "don't" pile!

I'm reading a great book (when I can manage to find a spare 5 minutes in the day) called 'Siblings Without Rivalry' by Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish (I bought my copy from Half Price Books).

In the younger kids section it talks about this and gives great pointers on what to do to help them develop a good relationship with each other. Encourage good feelings between the kids by talking about them, and what they have done together, positively. Encourage them (especially the older one) to help each other accomplish something (I know my 3yr old loves helping me teach my 1 yr old how to walk). Encourage them to work together as a team - this doesn't encourage rivalry, helps them work together and builds their relationship in a positive way. And concerning the dreaded "It's MINE!" toy snatching scenario - explain that your household has a general policy about property - most things in the house are for sharing (but there are some special things not for sharing and you must ask for permission to use them). I think the best quote in this chapter was "accept the feeling but reject the behaviour". So often I'm too quick to stop the behaviour that I forget to ask why it happened. Communicate with your kids, and listen to what they have to say. I must read more of this book.

It's challenging raising kids in some many ways, but raising kids who get along is one of my core goals. The message just has to be constant and consistent (and fun). I know many examples of where I have diffused a difficult situation with humor (and a goofy face or voice). Whatever works, huh! Have fun!

Tuesday - Music

2009-08-11T09:14:00.001-07:00

TUESDAY - MUSIC

Today is MUSIC day.

We have drums, some echo microphones, a keyboard, a xylophone, and some paper towel cardboard rolls - all excellent music makers.

When I was little I had piano lessons, but I was horrible and consequently cannot remember how to play anything. But I do remember the basics and can read simple music. So I googled some simple tunes, like "Old McDonald" and away we went on a musical adventure!

OK, I'm the first to admit I can not sing in tune to save my life, but kids don't know that (yet), so we all had fun. Have fun too!