July 4th, 2008 Creating a lift-the-flap book Posted by Melitsa in play activities, Homemade

***Hear my interview with Carrie Lauth on Natural Moms Talk Radio : sharing some of my
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 Easy gardening with kids Posted by Melitsa in play activities, Seasonal play, Homemade

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 27th, 2008 18 ways to develop a sense of place for the under 5s Posted by Melitsa in Articles, play activities, Education, Roundups, Thought of the week

Following on from the previous part on Where we live.

Developing your child’s sense of place is something that develops over time with a little input here and there.

Here are some fun play activities to try with your under 5 child.

1. When you go on your travels this summer, don’t forget to use a paper map to show where you are and where you are going.
2. Collect a postcard or two- there’s usually one with a map of the area.
3. Find a variety of wall maps, regional maps and your local town maps. Pin them up at home.
4. Find a kid’s atlas and let them flick through. Some kids like the satellite maps.
5. Collect bus maps, tube maps, cycle routes they make interesting reading for kids especially the colours and symbols.
6. Add the postcards to the map with string or be able to find and identify the place on the map.
7. Use map pins- colour coded if the children are older for family, holiday,where we’ve been, where I’d like to go etc.
8. Computer maps like Mapquest and incar navigation shouldn’t be an excuse to not know where we are but let the kids help program in directions and see too.
9. Using their favourite movies and books find where they are based on the map.
10. Map using fingers for the little ones where relatives live
11. Discuss how they get from one country to another when there’s the sea in the way.
12. map using masking tape
13. Allow your children to direct you in the car to familiar places ( school, bank, shops etc)
14. Try alternate routes so see new areas.
15. Make up names of places when pretend playing and include characteristics( on a hill,by a beach, in a city, on a farm, in a village)
16. Set up areas ( Malls, parks etc) on the Thomas the tank engine track.
17. Add people, trees, water etc to the sand pit and make up a place for the pretend play area.
18. Print photographs of different places, locally or holiday snaps compare windows, vegetation ( green, brown, concrete, lack of trees, lots of sand etc) doors, cars, roads, what you can see in the distance, to what they can see around where they live now.

What other practical ways do you use to start developing a sense of place in your little ones?

Would love to hear your suggestions.

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Technorati Tags: sense of place, play activities, under 5, map, pretend playing, Thomas the tank engine

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June 24th, 2008 Where we live Posted by Melitsa in play activities, Sites to visit, Roundups

This time last year we were getting used to a new town and country. We had fun investigating new things to see, smell and hear. If you’ve not walked in your neighbourhood what a walk might inspire you.
One year later, we’ve moved again. We have lots of comparisons. Having lived in a rural village, small town and now suburbs of a city it’s great opportunity for the kids to make these links. They are getting to know their local area by walking around and sharing old photos to develop geographic awareness. Where we live and what’s around us grows on us but sometimes you have to be explicit and draw your kid’s attention to it.

We found the book, Where Do I Live? and have enjoyed getting to know how to explain where we live using appropriate vocabulary.

The language is simple enough to lead the children from where they live in their home. Starting first in their bedroom and expanding through, home, land, street, neighbourhood, town, city, suburbs, state , country, continent, world, earth, planet, solar system, galaxy, universe and back down again. The pictures support the text giving the kids an idea of size and proportion moving from page to page.

My toddler loves to thumb through the book and look at the pictures whereas the big guy likes to substitute himself for the text as we read it together trying out the new vocabulary.

Moving need not feel so disorientating for kids if they start developing a sense of place and home. We have a placemat of the world that we regularly find family and identify new countries.

Two frequently requested books at the moment are Mr. Popper’s Penguins and Lost and Found; both feature penguins. Finding Antarctica on the map and the places mentioned in the story is a lot of fun. Understanding time, distance and scale makes more sense after reading the Where do you live? book as does looking at maps in general. I wouldn’t say they understand the concept totally but are getting the idea that we can’t go from Australia and swim to Madagascar ( no doubt to see the animals from the movie) in one day!

We just got a Peters Projection Map to compliment the Mercator map we’re used to seeing at dinner and everywhere. The Mercator map is the one Universal uses on their films, the one that spins. Representing a sphere on a flat piece of paper is not without its problems. Both maps when used together give a more accurate view of the world. I like the Peter’s projection as it gives a more realistic view of the world and the sizes of the countries.

If you’ve never done it before look at the continent of Africa on both maps. Knowing how big your country is compared to others is an important skill to develop to realise how small or big you are especially as you start looking at politics way way down the line. For more information & debate about the benefits of using different types of maps

We had a fun time finding the same countries on each map.

• Finding where we live.
• Identifying familiar places.

Developing your child’s sense of place is something that develops over time with a little input here and there. Children think of me, me, me and showing them how they fit in the world is an amazing thing to watch as they begin to realise there are so many things other than me.

See the next part to find out some practical play activities to try .

******What activities do you do with your children to promote awareness of their Where they live?******

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Technorati Tags: geographic awareness, penguins, Antarctica, map, sense of place, play activities

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