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favorite low tech toys and fun activities for your littlest ones.
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Fine motor skills: Cutting and sticking practice or just a bit of fun.
Kids are always interested in photographs. Like many others, we have our screensaver running with family pictures. The kids watch it like television. They talk and reminise about what they see. It’s great for them to have hard copies of pictures in albums to flick through and examine. With the little time we all have these days often photos don’t make it from the computer anywhere else or else they go into a box. Only a few manage to get them into albums…..Good for you.
Here’s a simple activity that involved me printing a few colour photographs ( reduced in size all onto one sheet of paper), a few labels and finding a marker and cardstock.
We did this together a long time ago and it’s still a favourite with both guys who like to look at it especially at bedtime. It’s often in the pile of books they take to bed.
We worked on this together with a lot of direction from me. It was one of those evolving projects sparked from a conversation.
All the cutting and sticking was from the big guy, when he was about 3 1/2 going on 4. I printed some family pictures and used the marker pen. Names and faces blurred to protect the innocent 
I remember I used a pencil to show where to cut but certainly not a ruler or worried about lining things up. I wanted it to be his project. He was very proud.
Sometimes cutting and sticking can be really boring but here was a practical, fun play-activity with a purpose. The flaps keep them guessing even though they know what’s underneath. They learn to recognise their names and family members.
The book is now a little ‘Loved up’ all the manipulation of two guys who can’t get enough of seeing their family. This is an album I don’t mind sticky fingers all over.
We’ll have to make a new one soon to add the new addition.
Who said cutting and sticking can’t be fun!
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Technorati Tags: Fine motor skills, photographs, pictures, play
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July 1st, 2008
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After a trip to the Garden centre to buy flowers we stumbled into the veggie section.
We tried to guess the veggie by the plant. The big guy and I then chose a few plants and decided to start a mini vegetable garden. It had to be manageable and easy…for both of us.
We planted 2 cauliflower plants, 2 courgettes, 1 aubergine, spinach and lettuce.
We missed potato season , maybe next year. But tried a child friendly tomato holder that arrived just in time.
We’ve tried herbs and bulbs before but in a climate where everything grows. So it’ll be interesting to see what happens.
I wonder if you can guess what else we are trying to grow?
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June 17th, 2008
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Even though it’s been a couple of days sitting on the side; I finally got around to reading the Sunday papers. After sorting into a pile of ‘to read’ and a pile of recycling, the pile to recycle seems huge- every weekend.
Today before the pile hit the recycling bin we started a project.
The big guy found and cut out all his favourite foods. Stuck them onto paper. This lead to an interesting discussion about food and drink.
He started to find his favourite clothes and that’ll be the next project to add to the large sheet of paper.
Often parts of the body are missing to get a good shot of the clothes so he’ll add legs and feet.
We then plan on moving onto the objects- gardening, patio, houses for sale etc
Eventually we’ll have a collage that we can weave a story together. I’m hoping he’ll tell the story with it.
Before you throw away recycle your weekend paper. Give your kids a chance to use the pages for other things.
Cutting and sticking isn’t just a random activity for toddlers but instead it can be defined and extended by preschoolers and older with a little imagination. Mixing media of magazine, newspaper, construction paper is a fun thing to try especially if you can sit with your kids and draw parts in with them.
He particular liked the freedom to choose what went onto the page and where it went.
Skills that naturally occur:
- Honing their fine motor skills
- giving them choices and letting them share their opinions
- creativity of what materials to use, how to place them on the page
- imagination to link the items into a story
- discrimination- accepting and rejecting objects from the many pages
- Sorting and controlling the environment ( Pile of cut outs? or cut, stick? or plan?)
Whenever planning a collage or large project, I’ve found it best to take bite sized chunks of time and allow the work to develop. They’ll be times when we have to jump in and times when they have a really good idea they need supporting on.
The perfect time for a project like this with summer almost here and all that time..
For more summer time activities try here.
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Technorati Tags: recycling, recycle, collage, story, fine motor skills, summer, activities
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May 20th, 2008
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Fun language game to try, especially when you are going shopping and have a list. But it’s good for anytime. We play this game together as a group of 3 or 4. If you have a group of kids in the car or on a playdate it’s a quick bit of fun.
Game
You: I went to the shops/store and bought a tube of toothpaste.
Little One: I went to the shops/store and bought a tube of toothpaste AND a Cookie.
You: I went to the shops/store and bought a tube of toothpaste, a Cookie AND a bag of apples.
LO: I went to the shops/store and bought a tube of toothpaste, a Cookie, bag of apples AND a…….etc
- This memory game is fun and easy to keep them thinking and guessing. You can buy ridiculous things like Elephants and unusual things like happy smiles or Hot summer days .
- Change the rhyme to a different shop ( Electronics or Toy shop) or try ” I went for a walk and I saw a unicorn, a green frog, a puddle etc”
- With a smaller child you can change the game to be a call and response rhyme between them depending on how many words to remember. E.g.
BG:…… a toothbrush
LG: a cookie
BG: , a bag of apples, a fish.
- Add in adjectives and make the rhyme shorter
- E.g. Smelly fish, green apples, etc
- Change the rhyme to ..” I planned my dinner and in it I put a…” We tried this for fun at the dinner table last night with the food that was in front of us and it worked well. The Big guy added some silly foods in and it was funny all of us collapsing into laughter. Great way to get conversations started at dinner and discuss the food we’re eating.
- My LG is using sign language alongside his ‘words’ He gets to sign and say and we get to say or we learn a few signs and play the game using sign language. We only use 3 or 4 signs and stop when we forget or it’s not fun anymore.
- Actions: Similar to signing try imitating the action.. “I went to the shops and bought a …football, a brush, an ice cream, a Kangaroo etc.” Let the children find a good way of showing the action.
Keep the activity light and varied according to your kids. It’s an effective and fun way to learn new vocabulary, practice what they know, perhaps learn sign and improve their memory skills.
What other fun play activities do you do with your little ones using language?
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Technorati Tags: language, playdate, memory, sign language, play
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