One Fun Reason to Put Little Girls in Dresses

If you should happen to come across a mulberry tree heavy with ripe berries (like the one in my parents' backyard) your girls will be tickled if you can shake them down into their skirts!



G caught a few with her dress, but mostly just enjoyed feeling them rain on her face. :-)

Alphabet Rug

Check out the fun alphabet rug and accompanying activities that my friend Christy at She Did What She Could did for her toddler!

(Christy posts lots of great content about green living,  DIY projects, her faith, and general domesticity)

School Time with Little G

I've had a request to write a post describing how I handle school time with my almost-two-year-old.   I'm afraid that lately we haven't been very faithful to have a daily school time.  (We been scrambling around to get ready for a summer vacation)  but I'll go ahead and describe what it looks like when I'm feeling on top of things.

1.  M and G have entirely separate school times.  When I am working with one of them on the couch, the other is having a blanket time on the floor of the living room. 

I like doing it this way for two reasons:

a.  Part of the reason they look forward to school time is because it means one-on-one attention from me.

b. School time at our house is mostly reserved for working on basic skills (phonics, math).  Since M and G are at very different levels,  if I don't separate them, inevitably, the one whose specific skill set is not being worked on finds ways to distract.  (e.g., M will want to answer all of the questions I pose to G) 

We do most other educational activities in a fun, relaxed way together (reading books, birdwatching, little games,etc).


2.  I keep G's school time to a minimal 7-10 minutes.  The girls know that I expect them to focus hard during this time and to not be silly.  M (my almost-four-year-old) is able to concentrate for longer now, but that increase in endurance has come slowly.

3.  We stop right away when I can sense G is tired.  When they have been having a good school time for a while and then G starts to get a little silly or is unable to answer questions I know she knows, I end school time right away.  I try to be tuned in enough to her mood and ability to be able to cut it off right before she starts to fade so we can end on a positive note, but I'm not always able to.

4.  We start each school time with singing an educational song together with G in my lap.  (The alphabet song or another simple song from this list) It seems to work well as a transition into the learning mode.

5  Posture.  I require G to sit up straight while we work together on the couch and to keep her hands on her lap.  Some days this takes a lot of reminders.

6.  Movement.  Lately, I've been increasingly aware that G is just naturally more physically active than M was at this age.  One thing I've been trying to do to help her focus is to work gestures into our drills.  (I'm planning to write a post describing some of these and asking for your ideas sometime soon).

Another time, I may write a post describing our learning content, but hopefully, this gives you some idea of the basic structure of our school time.

I'm definitely learning as I go along, and I would love your input.  What tips have you found to be particularly helpful when teaching two- year- olds? 

Grocery Store Game: I Love You More Than_______

A friend of mine plays a fun and simple game with her toddlers when she is at the grocery store.  As they go up and down the aisles, they point to things in the store and say, "I love you more than______!" (bananas, bologna, cereal, etc)  Cute!

Homemade Book: Surprised by Colors

M gave me the idea for making this book by her "rainbow style" of coloring.

I thought it would be neat to introduce her to the concept that the full range of colors is more varied than the list of basic color names she learned when she was a toddler.  The world is so beautifully complex; it is a privilege to be able to point that out to children as a demonstration of God's amazing creativity. 

M really took to this project.  She enjoyed helping to color the pages and learning new names for colors. 


Directions for Child: Take your huge box of crayons, and spread them all on the floor (even the tiny, stubby ones). Divide the crayons out into blues, greens, browns, pinks, reds, oranges, yellows, and purples. On each page use all the many different shades of the listed color to completely cover the page. Use whatever design you think is most beautiful. Now, read your colorful book!

Text:
The blue in the ocean isn’t just one kind of blue.
It’s azure and periwinkle, aqua and saphire.

The green in the grass isn’t one kind of green.
Oh no! It’s emerald and olive, pine, teal
and viridian.

The brown in the dirt isn’t just brown.
It’s sepia and chocolate, chestnut, mocha
and tan.

When you look at the sunset do you see all the
pinks? Rose and salmon, blush,
coral- even magenta.

Roses come red, but it’s more exciting than that.
They’re scarlet, maroon, cherry, vermillion.

Fall leaves turning orange, but can you
say more? Rust, tangerine,
terra cotta, pumpkin.

Canaries aren’t just one shade of
yellow, of course. Their feathers are
chartreuse, buttercup, mustard, and crème.

The purples in an iris go deep, deep, deep.
There’s lavender, orchid, amethyst, indigo,
and sometimes eggplant.

God gave us much more than we think.  When we look we will find, and find, and find! 
To make the book, I folded several small pieces of cardstock in half, punched two holes down the center and tied the holes together with a piece of ribbon.  I covered the text and pictures with packing tape (for lamination) because it made it easier for M to color without messing up the words.

I've attached the page with the pictures I used in case you are interested in making a colors book with your preschooler. 

One Advantage/ Disadvantage of an Outdoor Easel

I came outside and found this...

Very happy campers- especially because it ended in running through the sprinkler.

Popping Posicle Sticks into the Oatmeal Can

I had the empty oatmeal container sitting on my counter for about 2 weeks before I finally figured out what to do with it (couldn't bear to throw it away!).

Using a knife, I slit about 8 holes into the top of the lid and gave G a handful of popsicle sticks to push through the holes.  It was definitely a hit!  They make a satisfying little "pop" when they slide in; plus- it's so fun to shake them around once they're inside. 

I didn't anticipate it being a fun toy for M, but she wanted to play with it too.  The nice thing about multiple holes is they can both do it at the same time if no one gets greedy and decides to pick up the container. 

Sprinkly Cheerios Bracelet

These are a smidge less healthy than the traditional Cheerio bracelet, but definitely more fun.

Yesterday, in the midst of turning ourselves into cupcakes, we smeared the outside of some Cheerios with plain white icing (powdered sugar and water), and then rolled them in cake sprinkles. The effect was a plate full of teeny, tiny sprinkled donuts!

After they had dried for about an hour, I let M string them onto a pipe cleaner for a bracelet. I really liked using the pipe cleaner; it was stiff enough to thread well, and the fuzziness kept the Cheerios from falling off.



This post is part of It's Playtime!

Turn Yourself into a Cupcake

The project we were working on this morning devolved into a game of "Turn Yourself into a Cupcake." I'm not sure why I didn't anticipate that direction for the morning, but I decided to roll with it when I saw they were so absorbed and I heard M tell G, "This is the most fun day ever!"

 

I'll have to wait until tomorrow to post about our main project because...well...I have a bit of cleaning to do.

Post-It Labels for the Parts of a Flower

We got to take home the big bouquet of flowers from the front of our church this Sunday.  It's being on our dining room table has led to conversations about the names and parts of flowers; so I thought it would be fun for M to have a chance to practice labeling the parts.

This diagram of a flower that I found was a little too advanced for M; so I simplified it down.  Then I cut a couple sheets of post-it note into strips (with a little sticky on the end of each strip)  I wrote the names of a flower part on each strip.   M used the diagram to help her place the strips on the right places.

The sticky notes don't stick great to the flower, but they did ok. 

A Lesson (Re) Learned on Father's Day

Well, today was Father's Day, and I tackled lots of  little projects to make it memorable and to try honor my wonderful husband.  I attempted so many  things though that I found myself stressed out and a little on the disagreeable side for most of the day.  Some Father's Day present- huh? :-)

Sometimes less definitely is more...a hard lesson for an idea person like me.   Whether it is planning a vacation, entertaining guests, or making dinner, in the end, I'm forced to admit that my family would be better off with a relaxed, happy me than with lots of interesting activities, foods, or presents.

So...if you didn't do that much for Father's Day this year and were feeling a little guilty, maybe wishing you had done more, be comforted:  at least you didn't run yourself ragged and consequently walk around with short nerves toward your poor husband on his special day.

Anybody else have to learn this lesson over and over again?

Duplo Puzzles

Jeanae from I Can Teach My Child has such good ideas!  The other day I was inspired by her post about making animal puzzles made out of two duplos.   I love this activity- especially for very little ones.  It got my mind to thinking though about all the other possibilities for duplo (or lego) puzzles.

The version I tried today involved stacking duplos into a tall tower, gluing on a picture of a tall giraffe and cutting the pieces apart with a razor blade.  It was just the right level puzzle challenge for M.

My second idea was to write a message on a blank piece of paper glued to a duplo tower.  I love projects that involve mystery messages, but we may have to wait a couple of years on this one.  It was definitely beyond M's abilities to figure out how to put it together.


(The surprise was a little bag of craisins in the toy chest, for those of you, like me, who can't stand to leave a mystery hanging :-)

Simple Songs for Memorizing Lists and Facts

I'm not a big fan of using entertainment (DVDs, computer games, Leapfrog, etc) to teach basic skills even though sometimes these things can be amazingly effective. Aside from just a gut feeling that I'd rather find another way, I guess my reasons are:

1. Someone told me once: "Whatever you win them with you win them to." Rather than fostering a love of learning with these tools, I wonder if what is being nurtured is an appetite for TV and prepackaged entertainment. To me, building that attachment is not worth the possible educational pay- off. Kids can catch up in learning phonics and math facts; it's a lot harder to undo an addiction to media.

2. The second reason is related to the first. I don't want my kids to need to be entertained in order to learn something difficult. Eventually, in their educational career they will have to learn something for which no appropriate Sesame Street episode exists. I don't want them to balk against actively applying themselves because it has rarely been expected of them before.

3. Most educational media for children involves rapid fire stimulation with lots of moving images, sounds, and action. The studies that link media consumption to shortened attention span are pretty dramatic. I feel like a loss of attention span in children is a big problem for both the child's character and his trajectory as a life-long learner. In the long run, I would rather have a child who can diligently and happily concentrate for extended periods of time than a child with precocious academic skills.

All that being said, I'm not necessarily against making learning easier or more fun. I think though that there are ways to do it that empower children as learners rather than create an unhealthy dependence.

One of those ways to to set information to music. I've been amazed at the difficult things M and G have been able to learn after they have been turned into songs. At the beginning of every 15-20 minute school time that I do with the girls, we sing an educational song or two together. They enjoy it, and it painlessly transitions them into the learning mode.

To me, it's significant that we are actively involved with this learning tool rather than just listening to the songs on a CD as background entertainment. I want the girls to understand that singing can be a good mneumonic device- but that it is not just something that they have to wait for far-off people to serve up to them. They can make their own helps in learning- including maybe a song or two sometimes.

I've made up a few songs to go along with our lessons (e.g. I've taught the girls to spell their names with a song, and I have a short song for the names of the vowels) But I've also been able to find a few songs on the internet that have been very helpful for more involved memorizing. I thought I would share them with you in case you are interested in doing the same kind of thing.

They are not, for the most part, polished or entertaining links. They are simple, singable songs. I just use them to help me learn the tune and words so I can teach the songs to the girls during school time.

Days of the Week
Books of the Old Testament
Books of the New Testament
States and Capitals
Counting up to 20

The following songs are all on one CD by Montesorri singer Shelly Murley. I don't own the CD but instead learned the songs by listening to the song samples.
Oceans of the World
Continents
Months of the Year
Increments of time (how many seconds in a minute, etc)

I have also used a webpage that lists familiar tunes to use in skip counting, but I can't remember where that went.

(For the geography songs we sing the song while we put together an appropriate map puzzle. As each place is named, the child puts the piece of the puzzle in the right place or just points to it. By the way, I have a simple world map puzzle that I LOVE, but I can't seem to find it online, but here is a link to a very similar Montessori puzzle)

Please let me know if you know of any other simple, singable education songs so I can add them to our school time singing rotation!