Archive for July, 2008
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July 29th, 2008
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After a shopping trip the big guy asked for his own ‘bleep bleep’ machine. Once I worked out he meant a cash register we got right to making our own.
Materials
- Old amazon.com book box
- sheet of construction paper with markers
- computer with printer
- tape
- Coloured card
- Print program ( We used Printmaster )
We looked at a few cash registers online at toy stores to get an idea of what to make and how it looked. After the talking and observing I drew a rudimentary cash register outline on the paper.
- Fixed it to a flap on the box and lifted the opposite flap up. There a wrote a total price and an empty window.
- We chose the currency we were working in at the time ( euro and dollars) and found the symbols for them.
- My big guy’s wanted to name the cash register so it was named after him.
- Found some currency blank templates and inserted his cousins and new little brother to represent the different values. We chose green cards to represent the dollar colour.
There’s something exciting about using money that has your face on it. This cash register started ringing up a lot of groceries.
It was the perfect opportunity for me to unload all the receipts for groceries I have in my purse so the little guy could even give out receipts.
This cash machine comes out for pretend play all the time. See previous article stuck on pretend play.
Now………… 2 years later his little brother has discovered the cash register and his picture as a baby and is fascinated. The big guy wonders where the coins are and the stamps…….. guess we better start thinking of that one. Any suggestions?
Popularity: 100% [?] Technorati Tags: cash register, currency, pretend play
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July 22nd, 2008
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The little guy loves to pretend play. He started his pretend playing much earlier than his brother so we’ve found it a bit more challenging to find activities at this younger level. Recently, he’s shown a big interest in magnetic playsets like the ones found here and here.
Magnetic play toys are great manipulatives and help to improve hand eye coordination and hone those motor skills for those little fingers. Not to mention boost creativity and feed into storytelling and language. Naturally, he loves the LeapFrog Fridge Phonics® Magnetic Set ,but the fridge isn’t the only place for magnetic games.
He has a Thomas’ Magnetic Playbook  and a Muddle Farm: A Magnetic Play Book both of which you can move pieces around to help with the story or make your own up.
In the boys room we’ve just painted two long strips of magnetic paint on their walls so they can create their own stories and start assembling words.
Many people are put off getting magnetic play sets as they seem to be geared towards dolls, pink and clothes- predominately seen as girls toys. Whilst I don’t hold to that view, I’m sensitive to the need for boys to see things that are seen as boy toys partly for their dads, some of whom think boys should play with just boy toys ( A view I have to be sympathetic too  .
However, most boys don’t care that it’s girl toy or pink they just like the toy. But know also that there are a variety of magnetic playsets that will suit everyone from construction playsets and all inbetween to dolls houses.
For the truly mobile experience we love this playset which is totally unisex
Why we love it?
- There are lots of objects and people that allow you to create whatever scene you want.
- It’s an activity that’s totally open ended.
- encourages talking and using language in context.
- You can initiate stories from favourite stories or buy a specific playset.
- More than one child can play at at time or adults and child can play together encouraging cooperation ( Big skill for toddlers).
- You can move the playset to the table, kitchen, with you on a car journey.
- Nothing is permanent so the story/fun/activity changes every time you use it.
- Encourages creativity and concentration.
- Develops storytelling skills for the older child.
- creates questions about unknown objects.
Why the little guy loves it?
- loves to place all the objects in the different rooms.
- gets to be bossy moving the adult magnetic pieces around.
- talks and tells stories using the pieces.
- Names the objects and the people.
- Can bring grandma or any available adult to join in playing with him.
Magnetic playsets are an easy way of extending pretend play. The characters from the house can walk over to the catch the train. Thereby linking up groups of toys to have make a new play scene from all your available toys. This crossover of linking toys together helps build creativity and show the kids how to play differently with the same toys.
**What magnetic playsets do you use?**
Popularity: 18% [?] Technorati Tags: pretend play, magnetic playsets, storytelling, language, magnetic games, magnetic paint, toys, construction playsets
My children will be lucky enough to have their granny here to stay for an extended stay this year. We don’t live near either set of grand parents so it’s always a great cause for celebration when we can visit either set or they visit us.
Granny plays with the kids in a different way than I do and similar ways too. It’s great to see another way of doing things with the same old stuff we have here. She has all these ideas to try and gets right into the play. She’ s much better at distracting the toddler and redirecting the big guy who’s developed a huge appetite for bingo and snakes and ladders.
Since she’s retired she’s able to spend an extended time here but she’s away from husband, home and her normal everyday life. Grannies really are special.
Then I read this report
Grannies fight back: Let me be a grandmother, not an unpaid childminder and wondered if as a generation we take too much of an advantage of them.
Our Granny is fit and well enough to come stay and play when the rest of us are flagging. She can whip up a great meal from the measly contents of the cupboard in minutes and still remember songs I’ve forgotten from my childhood. She has this never ending patience that we, mum and dad, run out of come the evening but never slows like recently helping both kids plant out a garden.
For more ideas about planning a garden with kids listen to this great podcast from my friend Cara of the Household Helper.
The boys are loving her here.
So am I.
The big difference between us and this article is distance. We can’t take advantage of her even if we’d wish to as we live on different continents. I totally see the catch 22 of families that work outside the home and needing to rely more on Grandparents.
Although sometimes grandparents seem to get the raw end of the stick with children dumped on them- because there’s no one else etc they are great resource……..well, usually, for the family.
The big guy has 100 questions it seems for her everyday about her house, job, garden, weather, what’s Grandad doing? etc
The play they have between them is different. The cuddles they share special. The things they allow them to do…..sometimes scary but totally safe.
Whilst they are often seen as just a childminding service- sometimes we have to encourage them and remind ourselves to just let them be Granny.
Popularity: 16% [?]
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July 8th, 2008
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Once your child starts having print awareness try this fun game. It combines movement, creativity and concentration.
We generally use our names to play but other familiar words work just as well. With Kindergarten starting tomorrow for the big guy I felt it was appropriate to use the word “School”.
This form of pretend play is exciting as it encourages them to see ordinary objects in different ways. They get to appreciate the straight parts and curvy parts of letters when they try to reproduce them.
How to play
- Write out a familiar word on a piece of paper.
- Sound it out, look at the letters, let the child guess, allow your child to choose are all options if you wish to extend the activity.
- What’s the first letter? “S”
- Can you find me something from( around the house, this room, the kitchen, toy chest etc) that could make this letter? You may need to encourage them or even show this one yourself.
- Continue for all letters.
- Encourage your child to check the letter order and make sure it really does spell what you expected.
- Take a picture of the end result.
Ways to extend the game
- by making the letters lower or upper case.
- introducing a time limit for each letter. ( 10 mins or more)
- reducing the scavenger hunt to just the garden or two rooms.
- adding more words
- using the same material ( string, spaghetti, scarf, playdoh, etc) to make the entire word.
- limiting the word size to the common 2 letter or 3 letter words only.
Why we like it
- Expends a lot of energy running around the house getting in that gross motor movement trying to find the items.
- Great rainy day activity.
- increases alphabet awareness.
- encourages creativity by looking at one thing that can be used as another thing.
- Focus is on a letter at a time and skills of discrimination, ( That won’t work!) trial and error( maybe if I try this for the bendy bit- no! that’ doesn’t fit right)
- Fabulous for heavily pregnant mum who needs to sit down a little more than usual
- Another activity to try to add to the arsenal of tracing and copying letters
- The significance of the word usually means they are happier to do this than the rote book/worksheet.
- It’s fun to compare different photographs of the words.
- your children will start to see letters in things like clouds, notice them drawn on the pavement, patterns in the grass etc.
Some children are naturally creative and some can’t see beyond the concrete. This activity is great to encourage creative play in your child by giving them something familiar ( a letter) and getting them to reproduce it in a visual way that anyone will recognise. We don’t have to say is it right or really critisze you can just show them the original you wrote and ask them to compare it.
Does it look the same?
How can we change it?
Do you need some help? I
have an idea can I show you?
What would happen if you moved this part down?
Popularity: 22% [?] Technorati Tags: movement, play, Kindergarten, pretend play, letters, scavenger hunt, rainy day activity, alphabet
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