Month: March 2011

Homemade Dominoes

Every time I see dominos I think about my friend’s set of HUGE dominoes that she stored in a math bucket; she always seemed to find a use for them.

For us, as adults, when we play a dice game or domino game we don’t have to count the number of dots to find out how many spaces to move or what number of dots is a match.   This is mainly because we have stored the group of dots in our minds with a number that it represents.  And by knowing that, we can use this strategy to take shortcuts to counting, to compare sets of numbers, and much more.

So, it is important for children to become familiar with dominos and cards that have groups of dots that are consistent with number amounts because children can begin to understand number sets spatially after lots of practice.  Children need the same repetition when it comes to seeing groups of objects representing a number.  But, for the first several times using number set cards or toys, children will need to count them to learn why a number represents that many dots on the game piece.

A way to help children begin to wrap their minds around this subject is by seeing how a domino is made and by MAKING one on their own.

I used small blank index cards and stickers that I already have in my house.  Maybe you have cardstock and stamps or hole reinforcements.  Whatever you find to use, you will model how to make a domino FIRST by arranging the stickers and then allow your little one to make one in the same way you arranged the stickers.  I model my arrangements after dominoes because it makes it easier for consistency.

Excuse the photography, but here is a set I made with a 3 year old little friend of mine 🙂

 

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Spring Forward

The weather is warming up and it is time to get outside with your kiddos!

Definitely allow lots of time for free play, running around outside and playing in the dirt a bit, but today I want to remind you about a GREAT outdoor writing activity. Of course, chalking is a great writing activity, but one that I love equally as much is painting with water.

All you need is a Tupperware (bucket or even an old empty paint can) and a paintbrush!

Kids love to write and watch it disappear. It is also a mini science lesson because they are learning about evaporation! Kids watch the pavement absorb the water and then the heat dry it up.

Talk to your kids during the experiment “What is happening to the letter you wrote?” “Why do you think it is disappearing?”, model different letters and words and see if your child can paint what you paint. Get wild…paint with the water on the brick of your house and remind them that painting with water is the ONLY time they can do this.

This is a great family fun writing activity to enjoy the outdoors 🙂

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Trick For The Trade

My friend was telling me the other day that her kids have been getting in trouble at their moms day out for using words like “butt.”

She didn’t want to tell them that those words are BAD words because let’s face it….they aren’t BAD words. They are just not always appropriate in certain contexts and situations.

It is NORMAL for your little boys, and girls, to play around with A LOT of different words and to test their limits. And I agree with this Mommy Teacher….these are not “bad” words just not necessary for a young child, who doesn’t have a filter, to use them.

So, I shared with her one of my old tricks that I came up with when I teaching Kindergarten, and one that I still use when I work with kids.
When kids use words like butt, poop, etc., I call those Potty Talk words. Those are words that belong in the potty or the bathroom. So if a child uses one of those words, I ask them to please grab that word from their mouth (I use my hand to illustrate grabbing from my mouth and then turn my hand into a fist as if I have something in it), and then tell them to go put that word in the potty (I throw it in) and flush please (and flush).

This teaches kids that there is a place for this talk and it isn’t in talking to friends. If I hear them use it again at any point, I ask them “What kind of word is that?” (give them time to say “a potty word”) and then ask “Where does it go?” (“the potty”). And I ask them to go put it in there.
It worked for my friend Megan with her 3 and 4 year old boys too so try it and see if it works for your kids.

Here is a picture of Casey’s little boy putting the lid back down “like a real man” after flushing she says haha.

Another similar trick I use is when kids use a bossy tone or have an attitude I tell them to go throw that tone or hurtful words like “stupid” in the trash where it belongs because bossy tones can “trash” a friendship if you don’t get rid of them for good.

Finally, if kids are too loud inside, I ask them to go throw “outside voice” outside where it belongs.
All of this teaches children how to behave appropriately in an age-appropriate way 🙂

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A Careful Look At Speech

Chatting with so many moms of 3 year olds I realize a lot of moms have concerns about their child’s speech. They say “I can understand her but I know that she doesn’t say everything clearly.” Well, I speak VERY little Spanish but I can tell you, I know I don’t articulate the sounds correctly. There are so many sounds that I say incorrectly and inarticulately, but if I had someone consistently working with me, one sound at a time, for a period of time, I would eventually get to a point where you would think that I was raised in Mexico.

I am NOT a speech expert by any means, but I will tell you that I have seen what skilled speech therapists can do to help a child’s verbal communication grow to a place of confidence, and that is something worth fighting for when you have seen children so frustrated that they can’t be understood.

Not only is speech therapy beneficial for children who might have trouble with deficiencies in their speech, speech therapy is GREAT for ALL young children to develop clear, articulate oral language. And on top of that, the way that speech therapists work with children by “studying” letters is a great way to STUDY letters in line with nurturing brain development like we talked about yesterday.

Okay, okay, I know what you are thinking: are you telling me that I need to go hire a speech therapist?
Not necessarily, FIRST you should READ about one and learn a thing or two from an expert:

Here is her archive I think is the best place for moms to start!

For a glimpse into this site, start by reading this post:
It was the first one that I read and it hooked me all the way!

In this post, Mommy Speech talks about using a lollipop to elicit the “l” sound.  I have a feeling your little one wont complain about this activity.

Heather Burbrink Photography captured this sweet picture and I had to share!

So, Today’s activity is to choose one of Mommy Speech Therapy’s “Improving Articulation” letter-sound lessons with your child just to see what fun it can be to focus on one letter-sound at a time in an age-appropriate way.  This is such a good pre-reading and pre-writing experience.

Start listening carefully to your child’s speech and try to observe if they are omitting any sounds and where in the word the omission occurs (beginning, middle, or end). For example, I was recently working with a three year old that had a hard time saying the “L” sound, another who was having trouble saying the “P” sound (but only as the end of words), and many kids that have trouble with the “S” and “R” sounds. Mommy Speech has activities for all of these sounds 🙂

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What’s Normal?

I was talking to Casey the other day about the reality of reversals that children have when learning letters, learning to read, or writing words like their name.  I know, how many people talk about this kind of stuff on the phone?  I can name two.

But the truth is that when children are writing their letters backwards when they already “know” the “right way”, it can be very frustrating for parents and even teachers who are not aware of typical brain development. Reversals such as writing “b” when trying to write “d” or writing the name Jessica “acisseJ” or some form of mirroring the name is NORMAL. Why is that normal? Because the brain makes some of the greatest changes in children throughout their early years. The brain has a lot of maturing to do in the way that children process information, store it into their brains, and recall the info from memory.

But there is hope…here are some of the ways that you can help your kiddos get through this process: 1) teaching pre-reading skills in sequence, 2) teaching letters and numbers using hands-on forms of the letters so children can use more than one of their senses, 3) repetition of one letter at a time instead of introducing “d” and ‘b” together, etc., 4) NOT getting frustrated when they make mistakes or have reversals 5) helping the process of maturing the brain through exercise and interactions. 

You want your little one to enjoy the process of learning and a big part of their brain development includes your POSITIVE GUIDANCE.  I want you to imagine if you were in China tomorrow, with no one who spoke English. As different as the oral and written language is from your own, can you imagine if your teacher was getting frustrated with you while you are trying to learn such a foreign language.  You will naturally have to study the basics over and over again, and even after studying, you will still mix things up a bit when you are writing. 

So, I hope this gives you a little more insight into your child’s learning struggles that are natural and normal and all that good stuff. 

Today’s “assignment” is to be gracious as you practice the basics today!

 *This article shares about some typical writing behaviors to expect from a young child. but if you have serious concerns about your child’s learning abilities then consult a specialist.

 

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