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March 19th, 2012
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The LO loves letters, counting and cars. He’ll line cars up all day; count everywhere and draw letters into everything. Colours are a different matter.
Not sure if he truly knows his colours as he’s a big prankster. He loves to call an apple and orange. Just because he knows someone will smile and laugh at him. I love his sense of humor. It’s a little troublesome though to know if he actually knows his colours. I don’t think he really does; well maybe one or two colours but not the basics.
Does it bother us?
Not really. We know that our children develop at different stages. It would help him though to know his colours and so here we are trying to have some fun with it to expose him to more colour activities.
Using some coloured lollipop sticks and mini clothes pegs, we coloured, we quickly assembled a game.
I left the sticks and the mini clothes pegs altogether on the table. As he came in from riding his bike he was curious, calm and alert. Immediately he started matching the yellow lollipop stick and the clothes pegs. Yes a result!. Then he started lining them all up ( sound familiar) and finally started making letters.
After a bit of play like this we played together.I’d deliberately chosen lots of one colour ( Yellow) , one of one colour (Red) and a few of another (Blue) to make the colour difference really obvious and hopefully cut down on the guessing.
Why the mini clothes pegs?
I can hear you all asking. No it wasn’t to stump and frustrate those little fingers. I wanted to do this activity together and we had to work together to create the plane. I could ask for his and he would give.
Here’s the most important part, as he gave me the lollipop stick or the clothes peg I held it a few seconds more and got him to look at me and repeat the colour name.
We have all versions of yellow from wellow, ellow, lellow and more and apart from the usual development path it’s part of his speech work is to slow down, focus on the speaker and repeat.
This activity gave that opportunity. For other children and him later on, we’ll use the normal sized pegs and this would be more of an independent colour matching activity.
Once we assembled our planes…….Brrrmmmmmm. Lined them up. We were off flying high!
We’re looking for more fun colour sorting or matching activities. Share one of your favourites in the comments.
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March 7th, 2012
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Cuddled up on the sofa is our best place to read aloud together. But as they get more wriggly and jiggly we’ve discovered some other fun places to read aloud.
- Bathroom- got to love the echo and the chance to ham up your story telling. Whether clothed and bringing in chairs or a bathtime treat.
- Local park- sitting on the rug surrounded by openness and a good book. Beware you’ll attract new curious listeners.
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Read More…
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February 13th, 2012
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- Toilet roll or bandage
- Soft toy
- Doctor kit ( optional)
Preparation: Carefully wrap up your soft toy so they look injured. Leave in an obvious place.
Set the scene using your surprised and concerned voice. ( Now’s the time to overact!)
We played out a scene of looking after our stuffed animal. Through lots of questioning we got to change bandages, lie down and sleep. Our toy also had a few cuddles and lots of blankets. We got him a drink and he ate a pretend cake.
By setting up the scene and the LO arriving upon it. Plus the surprise in my voice lead us to have quite time of play.
Setting up scenarios to start a conversation and begin the conversation about complex ideas like emotions are really important with children. They get a chance to try different ideas not just from the media and they’ve seen but they have the chance to adapt ideas and bend the rules.
Getting in there with them as they pretend play to encourage their play without dominating may take some time to master. But is well worth it.
Read More…
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February 6th, 2012
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During the toddler and preschool years the word, “No!” becomes a very powerful word. It derails the happy atmosphere, stops a quick exit on errands, means we scoop our little one off the floor in that shop and march out. They want an input. They want a choice.
As a parent you can allow for extra time for the No! We get all forceful and insistent. Neither of these work well overtime. Even we as parents need to practise what to do when we get that No. It’s hard to play with a child that insists on having things their way or you having it totally your way. Personal, social and emotional development is a crucial aspect of play. We need to be able to get along and well. This is the first of a two-part series.
{Image Credit}
Practice when you are calm and have a script
Think about what you will say when they are shouting and yelling at you. Replay times when you saw this or experienced this and work out what you could do differently and try it out.
Getting down to their level; looking them in the eye and smile. The smile is for you to calm down however brief. Watch how other people de-escalate their children and try it out.
Identify 2-3 activities at home to regularly give choices
Practise choice activities at home. Choose choices that you are happy with either option. Keep them simple. Children have very few choices so having the red counter or the blue counter when playing the board game may seem trivial to us but they don’t see it that way.
Choices like; clothes, food, activity, play.
- Scrambled eggs or cereal?
- Blue jeans or green trousers with Bob on the side?
- Pretend food or Dolls?
What’s your number one struggle with your under 5?
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August 31st, 2011
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On a recent visit to an Art Gallery in Prague, Czech Republic. I was delighted to come up against these wonderful collages or sculpture by Shalom Tomas Neuman.
Love how everyday toys, electronic items are used to create really zany pictures.
You can see more about the work here,
Art at home does not’ have to be about pen, crayons and paper. Hope you’re inspired from your environment too.
What art work have you taken your little ones to see that you would recommend?
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