Reading To A Dog

The other day we agreed to the responsibility of watching a family members dog for them for a little while. I thought this was great in itself because my daughter is always eager to take on responsibilities and I love teaching her to be a responsible person. One of my greatest hopes for her is that she grows up to be an accountable person and I'll do my best to make that happen. She got really excited and told me about an episode of Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures she watched where she learned how to watch a dog. 

While we were watching the dog I remembered how the library had a program where kids could come read to dogs but the kids had to be ages 5 and up and my daughter was bummed that she couldn't participate, so I made sure she got her chance! We got out a book called 10 Tiny Puppies to read to the dog. I think they both enjoyed it!

This is a great activity to encourage kids to read because they will want to do something nice for their own pet or, if they're animal lovers like my daughter is, someone else's pet too. Many kids will find this to be a fun change up from how they might normally practice their emerging reading skills.

Morning Message in Preschool

In the beginning of our preschool day I have added a morning message. I write a simple sentence on our big dry erase board and then my daughter reads it and copies it down. This has also been the start of us discussing end punctuation and her learning that, as well as the obvious honing her writing skills. Here's one we did the other day.

So I wrote "Yoda is cute" and then we read it and I told her I was going to put a period as my end punctuation and explained why, I also showed her what it would look like and what it would mean if I did a question mark or exclamation point. So then she copied it and decided to put an exclamation point at the end.

Here's a few other simple sentences we've done to give you ideas:
"I love you!"
"The fish swim."
"Baby likes to swing."

etc etc.

Princess Story Time Bath

Sometimes it's fun for the kids to have a story time bath and listen to a tale or two while they splish splash and get clean. I created this Princess Story Time Bath for my daughter to enjoy a few nights ago. 

I used:
- neon pink food coloring
- shaving cream
- crown craft foam shapes
- a plastic bowl
- a paint brush
- Disney Princess The Essential Guide book
- two plastic princess cups
- an Elsa balloon
- a dress up tiara
- Ariel bath/pool doll
- princess ball

You could create a very similar bath and not have most of those things. Just the pink water, bath paint, and story would be enough for many little ones to enjoy. We just have a lot of princess odds and ends around here of course, and the craft foam crowns can be found at Dollar Tree. Everything else was just something we had on hand. You might not have a princess ball to add to the theme, but that's not really the point. Do what you can and your kids will really enjoy it.

So, for my step by step process first I started to fill up the tub and then added in the neon pink food coloring when it was about half way full, swished it around with my hand to spread the color around.

Then I made the bath paint by just squirting from shaving cream into the pink plastic bowl, adding a few drops of neon pink food coloring and mixing it together with the paintbrush.

Once that was done I added in all the extras, and sat the book on the ledge of the tub for the picture, but then moved it right off. We don't want that getting wet!

I got the cutest picture of my daughter in the tiara enjoying the bath, but she wasn't wearing a swim suit for this themed bath, so I'm not going to post it.

Halloween Spiders Jello and Literacy Sensory Play

Here's some more Halloween sensory play! This one involves literacy learning. You can use it to teach the alphabet, phonics, and spelling with this jello while having some Halloween fun.

To make this you'll need to prepare a box of orange jello and put it into a plastic bowl. Before you put it in the fridge to set you need to add in some magnetic letters and some plastic spider rings.

I like to make this before bed, and then let it set in the refrigerator all night. Once it's ready you just take it out of the fridge and present it to your kid to play with. We take it outside with an outdoor blanket, or we do it on the kitchen floor on a plastic sheet from Dollar Tree.

My daughter loved this particular sensory play!

 

As she played I pointed out which letters were which since she was not even two yet. This year we're working on what sounds each letter make and putting them together to make short words.

Name Caterpillar Craft

This is one of my favorite crafts we've ever done. It was so educational and fun for my daughter! Not to mention all of the fine motor strengthening parts of it. We did it when she was about 18 months old. Here's what the finished product should look like.

What you'll need:

- A piece of white card stock paper

- Orange construction paper

- Green construction paper

- Scissors

- Sharpie marker

- Glue (Elmer's makes great glue pens, you could also use regular glue bottles or sticks)

First take your orange sheet of construction paper and draw a circle on it for the caterpillars head and write the first letter of your child's first name in it. Next, use the green construction paper and repeat for the rest of the letters of your child's name, with a bit smaller circles.

Next, help your child cut out the circles or let them cut them out themselves depending on where they are at with their scissor skills. At 1.5 here I was doing a lot of the cutting with my daughter, and now at 2.5 she barely needs my help at all.

After all the circles are cut out instruct your child to put glue on the backs of them all. This is great for their fine motor skill development, as was the cutting.

Last, give your child the white sheet of paper and show them how to put the circles down on the paper. Help them to put them all in the right order. During this time discuss all the letters and how they are the letters that make up their name. Sound them out individually, together, and say the name a few times. Ask them to repeat after you. Very educational!

Learning Bones With Dolls

I think that using a baby doll is a really easy way to make learning the parts of the body fun. We did this last fall when we were doing a unit study on bones. My daughter got a kick out of it and definitely retained the information. It's a little hard to show all the bones on a doll (such as the clavicle) but some bones can certainly be taught with one.

We used our Cinderella baby doll. Other than a baby doll, you'll need some Post-it Notes, scissors, and a Sharpie. We decided to focus on some bones in the leg. I took a few Post-it Notes and wrote down the names of the bones on the top (where the sticky part is,) cut them down to size, and then stuck them on the doll with my daughter.

As you can see we did the femur, patella, and tibia on the front side. This is a great way to learn the names of the bones in a fun way, like I said. But it is also great for kids in the emergent reader or even reading phase. This activity helps improve vocabulary and early literacy skills because it has the words written out to be read and seen.

Our Favorite "I Love You" Books

It's no secret that we love books at our house! And what could be better for building a toddlers sense of self, and helping develop a strong bond between parents and children than books about the love you have for them? I gathered up our favorite ones here for you, and am providing links so you can look into purchasing them if you want. 

Now, these are ordered in the way they are in the picture from left to right, not by which one I like the most. I will say that my absolute faves are Yummiest Love and You Are My I Love You.

1. I Love You, Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt  This is a little board book where a little boy asks him mom if she'd still love him if he was all these different atrocious things, and of course the mother would love him no matter what.

2. Wherever You Are: My Love Will Find You by Nancy Tillman. This book is just lovely and heartwarming. It makes children know that no matter where they are, no matter how old they get, under any circumstance their parents love is with them always.

3. The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn. This is a very good book for a child who may be going off to preschool, or daycare, or starting a new activity where they will be separated from their parent for short amounts of time. I've seen many corresponding activities to go with the book to take it a step further too and make kids feel even more secure. The best part is, you can give your little one a kissing hand of their very own to use!

4. I Love You More by Laura Duksta. We just got this book recently and I was so excited to finally have a copy of our own! It's a flip-sided book and one side is a mother describing her love for her son in cute little ways that toddlers and preschoolers will delight in hearing. The other side the son describes how much he loves his mother, again with really cute comparisons using things kids are aware of in their lives. It's very cute to have this book include a lot about the parent child relationship and how the child loves their parent more than anything as well.

5. Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney. I think all of you probably know this book already! It was mine when I was younger. The characters are lovable and the illustrations are cute. Kids will crack up about trying to love you as far as they can reach, and hop, etc. after reading this book. And then you can always tell your children that you love them to the moon and back, and they will remember reading this sweet book with you.

6. You're My Little Star by Julia Hubery. This book has a touch and feel soft star on the front cover, and then adorable illustrations throughout. Read this to your little one to make them feel like they are the light of your life, since they are!

7. You Are My I Love You by Maryann Cusimano Love. This is a very close favorite of mine with Yummiest Love. Reading it to my daughter made me tear up a bit and made me laugh a lot too. Every word of it is so true. Phrases like "You are my quiet place, you are my wild" every parent can relate to in the most loving way. Each phrase is better than the last!

8. I Love You Through And Through by Bernadette Rossetti Shustak. This is such a cute book that my daughter absolutely loves. It's got glossy board book pages, and such cute illustrations. It's also educational and teaches some opposites and body parts in a fun way that kids aren't suspecting, all while making them feel loved!

9. On The Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman. This book is by the same author as Wherever You Are My Love Will Find You. It's a great one to read to kids every year on their birthday, or when just reminiscing about when they were born and were babies. It's sure to make kids feel special with the descriptions of how all the animals and the moon were doing things just for them on the night they were born.

10. Yummiest Love by Lisa McCourt. You would never know that the author of I Love You, Stinky Face is the same author of this book, they are very different! I saved my favorite for last. It's the absolute best book I've ever read. It's very humbling and a book that reading to your children makes you feel even more thankful for them than you already are. It makes you feel so lucky to have a little bundle of joy, and I can tell when I read it to my daughter she's feeling all the love that I am. It's just a marvelous read that words can't really describe. I definitely recommend it more than anything.

Finding Nemo Name Matching Tot Tray

 This tot tray was part of our ocean theme. It's very simple, great for babies, and a fun way to make toddlers feel proud to complete something all on their own. It also helps toddlers to learn some literacy skills, and labeling.

To make this tot tray you need to print out this tot book (or at least the part of it with the names of the characters). You'll also need to purchase the Finding Nemo characters from Dollar Tree. Set up is easy once you've printed the tot book. You lay out the cards with the names of the characters, and you lay out the characters as well. Then you show it to your child and tell them to match them up.

Once they've got them all in the right places, read the names to them and point out the letters to your toddler. Spell the names out to your child and have them tell them back to you.

Name & Erase The Letters - Dinosaur Edition

I came up with a great idea today to do on our dry erase board! I love doing lessons on the dry erase board, especially those that can be interactive. Don't worry if you don't have a dry erase board this could also be done on a chalk board. It's a great alphabet/literacy activity. 

Since we're in our dinosaur themed week this week I made it dinosaur themed, but you could make yours any words you wanted! 

So, I would write a word on the dry erase board, and then give my daughter the eraser and tell her to name and erase the letters that she knows. Even if your child doesn't already know their letters and isn't just practicing you can point out letters to them and tell them to erase whatever they are. 

Z is for Zebra Craft

Crafts can often be a big help when you're teaching something to a toddler or preschooler. It's a hands on way to bring the information learned to life. If your child is a visual learner crafts can be especially helpful to make a new subject or lesson click. 

For this craft, we were doing letters of the week. This is obviously a craft for the letter "Z" and I choose to make it Z is for Zebra! 

I cut out a capital letter Z from some thick white paper. I also cut out some small strips of black paper, small enough to basically fit on the letter Z. Your kiddo can help with the cutting if they'd like!

I set the Z and the strips out for my daughter, as well as some glue. I helped her make dots of glue all over the letter Z and explained that she'd put the black strips on those spots. She then did just that! Squeezing the bottle of glue, and placing the small strips of paper down on those precise spots was great for her fine motor skills.

Medieval Times Lapbook

So this week we're beginning our medieval times study. It'll be a one week unit just like all of our other themed studies are. To kick things off, I put together this Medieval Times Lapbook for my baby daughter. 

It would have been a lot better with pictures added to it, but our printer is on the fritz and I wasn't able to go print at the library before this lapbook needed to be made. I used a manila folder, white paper, black sharpie markers (fine tip and regular), scissors, and a glue stick.

I used the regular Sharpie marker to write "Medieval Times" as a title for the lapbook. For each section I wrote on the white paper, then cut it out, and then glued it onto the manila folder. 

The information I have on each section was found on a few different websites about medieval times and the middle ages. 

I made sections about hobbies, weapons, heraldry, women's fashions, Marco Polo, cooking, foods, knights, instruments, sports, art, famous castles, centuries, and general idea about the time.

I didn't include EVERYTHING from every subject or even all the subjects there could possibly be since there's so much information about the middle ages. I just had what I wanted for my daughter to learn this week right now in our study.

Instruments:

- church organ

- harp

- fiddle

- rebec

- psaltery (cross between harp and guitar)

- dulcimer

- hurdy-gurdy

- flute 

- trumpet

- shawn

- recorder

- bagpipes

Knights had to know how to fight and play instruments and dance.

Hobbies:

- hunting

- hawking

- gambling with dice

- backgammon

- chess

- story telling

- dancing

Foods:

- barley, oat, rye for poor

- wheat for the wealthy

eaten as bread, porridge, cruel, and pasta

- fava beans

- veggies: onions, garlic, beets and carrots

- pork, chicken, beef

- cod, herring

- food preserved by drying, salting, smoking and pickling

- almonds to thicken soups, stews, and sauces, almond milk

- two meals: dinner big midday meal, supper in evening

- everyone ate together (including servants)

Weapons:

- bow and arrow

- mace

- axe

Time of violence. Power and wealth were sought after.

5th - 15th centuries. "Middle ages."

Famous castles:

- Tower of London

- Warwick Castle

- Windsor Castle

- Cooked over open fire

- ovens only at bakeries

- kitchens in the middle of living area to provide heat

Showed off with heraldry.

Sports:

- form of soccer

- wrestling

- archery

- early form of bowling

- ice skates were cow shins

Marco Polo

Italian merchant wrote detailed journals of his travels to China, India, and Japan. Giving Europeans their first idea of it.

Art:

- church mosaics

- women became artists 

- illuminated manuscript

- sculpture

- stained glass

Women's fashions:

- long cloaks

- closed and pointed shoes

- gold, silver, pearls, and precious stones were lavished onto clothing.

- hats were of wire framework covered with embroidery or lace

- long trains on dresses

- long sleeves, hanging and fringed. 

Comparing and Contrasting Stories with Venn Diagrams

Venn diagrams are a very useful tool to help kids learn to compare and contrast. Since we're in our fairytale themed week  we've been reading lots of stories! We've got a book called Once Upon a Time with some great versions of many popular tales that we've been sticking to for this week, but we've also got some Disney books with collections of some tales as well. I wanted my daughter to see that there can be multiple versions of one story so we read both books version of "The Little Mermaid."

After we finished reading I decided that we should make a venn diagram so we could list out the differences and similarities together. Yes, Charlie is only two years old but it's very important for kids to get used to seeing that things are written out a lot in life. It helps with literacy skills overall, expanding vocabulary, spelling, sight word recognition, and like I said just getting used to the fact that we live in a print-rich environment. So, we did this on our big dry erase board.

Note: Not claiming that my handwriting was perfect, as I was writing pretty quickly.

It was actually a fun thing to do as well as very educational. I asked my daughter provoking questions about the stories to get her thinking. I explained how when you list something on one side of the venn diagram it's good to list something similar that's different/the opposite on the other side. And of course how the things that are in the same in both cases goes in the middle. Doing this also helps with reading comprehension skills. You might be surprised at how much your little one will remember from stories you read to them.

Alphabet Soup Water Play

This was a HUGE favorite on my previous blog, and it's a big hit here in our house as well! Kids love water play, and parents love it to when it's a way to help them beat the heat outside in the Summer sun. Another super bonus is there's learning involved! You'll need two big bowls, water, a ladle (or two if you're my daughter lol) and a pack of magnetic alphabet letters. Fill one of the big bowls up with cold water and all the letters. Take it outside in the yard or wherever, then bring out the other bowl and the ladles.

Charlie dug right into it! I bet your child will too! As they enjoy the water and the scooping and pouring, work the learning in. Tell them what letter they have in their ladle or hands. You could also talk about the colors of the letters and how many their are in which bowl. The opportunities are pretty plentiful. 

You can even get some greater pretend play out of it than just the "soup" aspect. You could bring out some little plastic bowls and have them serve you up soup! You could order up certain letters in your soup!