Everyday Teachable Moments

Displaying Your Little One’s Name

A friend of mine from Santa Cruz, Bolivia sent me a name plate for Sean Patrick that I have hanging on the headrest in front of his car seat.  Displaying words that are meaningful to children is key because children “study” the print after you have talked through it with them.  These images become input in their working memory and will benefit your little one’s ability to recall important information.  Don’t just assume that they know what the print is or says (even if there is a picture).  Talk about every feature. 

For this name plate we talk about the color, shape, letters, the ball, and that those are the letters in his name.  We sing our little song, and I ask him about it as we are riding along.  I know this may seem so “behind the times” because most people have a tv in their head rest these days, but if that is the case hang skill sets on the back of the driver or passenger seat because either way it is a great visual for concentration.

I really recommend making one WITH your little one, but if you want to buy a decorative one my friend is in the business of making them and she calls them “Name Plaques” so contact her if you want to buy an affordable, customized display of your little one’s name.

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My Little Songbird

The Day Before Yesterday I posted about coming up with a song that spells out your little one’s name, and I mentioned that Sean Patrick knew the first part of his song. I JUST started singing this song to him less than a week ago. Well, he turned 22 months old today and I thought I would share the video of his progress with his little diddy to date:

While I’m having a proud mommy moment, I’ll go ahead and share my videos of Sean Patrick counting as a 20 month old:

And my little one singing his “H-I-G’s” instead of his ABC’s at 21 months 🙂

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Singing Your Little One’s Name

Today’s video blog is to give you an idea of how you can be purposing transitions throughout the day to teach your little one the letters in their name.

We teach our little ones the ABC’s which makes learning the letters easier, but we seldom think to put the letters of our little one’s name to a tune (which is most likely the first work he/she will write!).

So, get busy and come up with a creative song to your little one’s name, video it, and SHARE it with me 🙂  I will share your video if I think it could help other moms whose little ones have the same number of letters in their name as yours.

Thanks!

Oh I forgot to mention a couple things….my son’s name is “sean patrick” which explains what in the world I am singing haha

Sean Patrick bubble name
And, the song for a four letter name is “The Farmer in the Dell” so ignore the way I say it… “dale” lol

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A Daily Agenda in Place of a Schedule

My friend came in town this weekend and we had a good mommy chat about what a typical day looks like for each of us stay-at-home moms, and even what our day looks like when our husbands get home.  It got me thinking…most of us just kinda fly by the seat of our pants when it comes to our agenda for each day.  If we don’t have a doctor’s appointment, a trip to the gym, or something penciled in, then we are kind of aimless with our kids.  We cross our fingers and hope that they will play independently most of the day leaving us room to tick off some “to do’s” from our checklists.

You may remember the post For Parents Who Like Routine and Sanity – well, today is a SIMPLE way to follow a daily agenda.    I have been making a mini “schedule” for Sean Patrick for some time now and I wanted to share it with all my mommy teachers out there who might find it useful.

In my classroom I had a time-segmented schedule similar to the example in For Parents Who Like Routine And Sanity but here, at home, I have a list of things on our “agenda” for the day, and I have no expectations for the duration of any one activity, but I PLAN activities ONCE a week that I will do every day for the whole week.  I will repeat the activities every day so my little one will really have time to process and practice everything he is learning.

Here is an OVERVIEW of all the things that Sean Patrick and I try to accomplish each given day in which I “plan” mini activities for (specific activities not included):

Here is a simple daily agenda from my Notes on my iphone to have at my fingertips all day.

A schedule seems rigid for a young one at home, but some form of routine is so nice in order for your day to be predictable and intentional; making room for tons of learning opportunities.

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The First of Casey’s Top 5

Hi! It’s Casey stopping by from Kidspired Creations! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas season like we did! I say “season” because with the amount of different families that we spend Christmas with, it doesn’t just last the one day for us. My boys got way too many gifts, as usual, and so we are still trying to find spots for all of them. (Sound familiar?)
While the boys got super excited to open all of the toys at each Christmas event, I got really excited about the number of GAMES my 4-year-old son, James, received this year! This Mommy goofed and thought James’ school started today, when it actually starts tomorrow. Oops! So we had to change our plans around and instead played games all morning! (Hence my inspiration for this post.) Yes!
Here is the first of my TOP 5 (scratch that) 6! games for Pre-Schoolers:
Recommended for ages 4-8 (and Mommy and Daddy too!)
This game is amazing and so much fun for all! On each turn, a player picks 3 cards numbered 1, 2 and 3 and when you piece them together, they create a full sentence with a fun, get-up-out-of-your-chair challenge!
The first card you choose tells you to jump, walk backwards, take giant steps, skip, crawl, etc. The 2nd card asks you to grab a specific prop from the box, and the 3rd card tells you where to put that prop (between your elbows, under your chin, on your stomach, on top of your head). James was sometimes better at the challenges than his 6-month pregnant mommy (though I was pretty good at the challenges that asked me to balance things on my belly).
After all the cards are chosen, each player counts the number of stars on his/her cards. Game 1… James: 35, Mommy: 28 (and he won fair and square!)
Pre-School learning skills:
  • Following 3-step directions
  • Knowing right versus left
  • Gross motor skills such as walking, jumping, skipping, walking backwards and balancing
  • Pre-reading skills (making complete, complex sentences)
  • Ordinal numbers (first, second, third)
  • Number recognition (1, 2 and 3)
  • Directional vocabulary (on top of, under, over, right, left, etc.)
  • Counting (to at least 35… that’s the highest score any of us have gotten. Good job, James!)

 

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