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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!

Technorati Tags: Fine motor skills, photographs, pictures, play

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?

Technorati Tags: flowers, vegetable garden

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.

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

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?******

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

No matter what your tolerance level is for toddler painting; sometimes a different way comes along that you can just enjoy.

Roll-On Painters from Lakeshore Learning are easy to grip, minimum fuss and easy for your toddler to use. My toddler here was having fun taking the lids of everyone and making marks on the page. Whereas his older brother was busy making a picture.

I did have to get them going for the toddler.They are just like roll on deodorants

Easy clean up and set up. Perfect for those days when you don’t want to get out the easel and pour paint.

June’s radio show

** Do You Have an Oversensitive Child?**

Listen to the interview on Play activities radio to find out more ( top right sidebar)

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.

** Join us over at All about parenting blog carnival: Do it yourself day camp.**

Technorati Tags: recycling, recycle, collage, story, fine motor skills, summer, activities

It’s a place to share and find some new parenting podcasts from the podcaster and recommendations from those who listen to podcasts.

..Not sure about Podcasts? Try this ecourse.

Top 9

Send in your favourite podcasts of the fortnight.

• Red Hot Living Podcast presents Rebecca Marina, EFT Expert and Channel Discusses the Divine Feminine

• The Momstyle News Fingerprint Scanner Locks At Daycare and more.

• We Make A Difference Show 008: Volunteerfamily.org

• Momtomomradioshow: What Do You Want to KNOW That They Know???

• The Radio Mom show: Special Announcement From The Radio MomTune in for a special announcement from Kemi Ingram, Host of The Radio Mom Show!

• Madness of Motherhood Show 045: Reallygoodmom.com

• Mommy of Many Show #26: Women and the Military part-1.m4a
  Pilar Hari, military spouse, mother of 3 and co-founder of FocusFamilies.org.

• TheDivaCast: Pain Management 96 Dr. Lisa Lichota

• Thesatellitesisters: # Hear about Sheila’s Summer of Love
  # Liz reviews the News
  # Lab Rats test Stain Removers

Send in your recommendations to be included in the top 10 favourite podcasts of the week fortnight.

• What’s your favourite parenting podcast?

  Send in your favourite one. Podcasters submit your favourite shows. For more information see the introductory post.

• If you like what you hear don’t forget to tell them about it. Subscribe to their podcast.

• Next edition: Carnival of Parenting Podcasts will be taking a Summer break

Technorati tags: carnival of parenting podcasts, blog carnival.

Technorati Tags: Carnival of Parenting Podcasts, podcasts

Who would get these rewards?

Perhaps parents who spent time reading to their children, going to school parents evenings or helping out in their school, could get higher payments, she suggested.

She acknowledged it was a complex area and that there would always be some parents that would be hard to reach, but that did not mean it should not be tried.

Such a system sounds great but must be totally unworkable. How would you practically monitor who did or didn’t?Nevermind, what would constitute the ‘right’ amount of reading time?

Parenting is such a hard full on rush punctuated with bouts of tiredness and bewilderment. It’s no wonder we all have troubles from time to time. But being paid to do something through the benefits system would take away the pleasure of the fun things that parenting produces for me.

Punitive steps like fining parents for truanting children rarely worked, National Association of Head Teachers president Clarissa Williams argued.

I do agree that fining and pointing the finger at parents rarely helps but sharing good practice and giving support really does help parents. This is something much more worthwhile to do.

Instead of concentrating on opposites of rewarding good behaviour and punishing bad why not instead focus on injecting good practice through mentoring in parenting areas.e.g. through playgroups, play associations, Dr offices, schools. Showing, listening and helping parents is a much better approach than telling them they are good or bad parents.

What do you think? Have your say….

Technorati Tags: parents