Schooling parents to support their children, one lesson at a time.
Watch the video below to hear a little bit about why I LOVE this book:
and all the books by these fabulous authors!
Here is an up-close shot of the pages I was discussing in the video:
As you can see I don’t have many apps in my iphone library but the ones I do have we like and use regularly. Sean Patrick loves the Starfall ABC app and so do I. It is entertaining, engaging, and it has been great for developing his oral vocabulary, phonemic awareness, letter recognition, fluency and more. I like to introduce apps and sit beside Sean Patrick as he plays and learns because I can articulate and reinforce skills that I think are important, but they could also be played independently.
So, now let me hear from you for a Mommy Teacher Share Moment….
“What Apps are in your iphone/ipad library?”
When 25 or more people “share” on by commenting on this post or on facebook I will pick a winner (at random) to “gift” the Starfall ABC app to, or a coveted app of similar value 🙂
I really love the Busy Bag exchange! Getting a bag full of age-appropriate activities is exciting, but, it helps to have some direction. A bag of activities will only take your little one as far as you LEAD them.
There might be instructions on some of the activities, but I wanted to add my step-by-step teaching tips because otherwise your little one simply has something to occupy their time (which isn’t all bad! I am a mommy too remember?) BUT you also have a great teaching opportunity….to meet your little one in his/her zone of proximal development. Wait what? Basically….a chance to tap into their prior understandings, engage with their working memory, and BUILD onto what they already know.
I joked with my girlfriends the other night at dinner about one of the activities in the mix because it seemed almost too open-ended to even figure out what it’s purpose was. But open-ended materials can leave room for some of the most organic learning experiences, and it has many purposes for more ages than the suggested age.
Lets begin with the Pom Pom Activity
1) I started by letting my little one investigate on his own so I could observe what observations he was making and so he could just get his curiousity out before I started something slightly more structured.
2) We talked about the colors (sorting them into groups for a better visual). We talked about how soft they were (texture). We talked about how they were little (size). We talked about how there were a lot of pom poms and tried to count them (one by one correspondence) as we put them inside the tupperware.
3) We pretended we were little crawfish and used our pinchers to pick up the pom poms. “Oooh, lets put the red ones in first!” (Pre-writing in mind….proper pencil grip!)
4) We practiced pushing them the pom poms in the hole with just our “pointer finger” and then just our “thumb” and later we were silly trying to push it in with our pinky finger.
5) Finally, we practiced taking turns and Sean Patrick had a blast racing me to push my pom pom in on my turn.
If you have older ones….accommodate and adapt the activity to fit what your little one is working on….estimation, graphing, or adding. You probably have the materials just lying around your house so it is too easy not to get it together.
So, my encouragement is not to take activities at face value EVEN IF the picture of the activity SEEMS self-explanitory.
There are A LOT of websites that give activity ideas for little ones, but my goal is to make teaching your little one such a natural part of your everyday routine….. and it helps to have some insight into the best teaching techniques.
Most parents who are “teaching” their little one spend more time “drilling” our kiddos (flash card style) than actually teaching them. This isn’t ALL bad and trust me, I am guilty of this at times!
We get very caught up in the idea that if our child has learned a skill (like letter naming) then we need to constantly ask them “What letter is this?” and then wait for their answer. Don’t get me wrong….this is a GOOD thing. You are helping your little one to recall the information repetitively for recognition and fluency’s sake! But I want to ADD that YOU still need to be reinforcing what your little one knows and not just leaving it up to them.
Here is my example of what I am trying to incorporate at home:
Sometimes when I am grocery shopping I see underlying learning opportunities in the products I buy (Alphabits, Fruit Loops for sorting or patterning, Familiar Print, etc.). But when I was picking up a box of waffles, I saw the opportunity to reinforce teaching shapes by buying a box of circular shaped waffles AND a box of square shaped waffles.
Instead of asking Sean Patrick, “Do you want the waffle that is a square or a circle?” (because I know that he knows his shapes), I talk more about it more to reinforce his familiarity with the shape vocabulary and help him make connections. “LooK! This waffle is shaped like a circle!” I said this as I held up a strawberry Eggo waffle. “It goes round and round and round like the wheels on the bus!” (I made it turn in circles just so that he would make a connection of another circular-shaped object) “And this waffle” (holding up the cinnamon toast waffle) “is shaped like a square. It has FOUR sides. One, two, three, four like a square on the floor!” Then I bent down and traced my finger on the outline of the square counting the sides. “Do you want the circle waffle? or the square waffle?”
He chose the “circle!” and he proceeded to tell me about it while he ate “I bite a circle. I bite a round and round” haha – I think he gets it.
Ignore the fact that his diaper is coming apart at the moment, we need to move into pull-ups because of all the “false alarms” that come with potty training. He cracks me up!
Rafflecopter randomly selected a Winner: Entry# 216 Jacqueline V whose favorite aisle is the “beads” aisle. Congrats!!!
My friend recently shared an AWESOME mommy teacher idea to start an “Activity Swap” for our little ones…..why didn’t I think of that?!?
We love our cookie exchanges, recipe exchanges, etc. And now, an exchange that is even more meaningful, the author of the blog Second Story Window came up with the perfect exchange that will benefit everyone involved.
Basically, every mommy buys supplies in bulk for one activity they choose or come up with. Then, each mommy places the materials and instructions in gallon-sized ziploc bags…. providing enough for the amount of mommies involved. Each mommy who provided an activity gets to take an activity from each mommy home too. Essentially, a mom can show up with ONE activity and leave with several for her little one. Click here for the blog that gives specific tips to organize the event!
I LOVE this idea and it put me in the mood to go shopping at Hobby Lobby for some materials. So, I thought I would supply a $25 Hobby Lobby Gift Card to one mommy (or daddy, grandma, teacher, whoever!) who is inspired today.
Enter below (giveaway starts today -march 5 and ends friday march 9) – winners will be announced saturday the 10th!
And don’t be confused by the first several comments….Rafflecopter didn’t update when I changed the “Leave a Comment” entry from my last giveaway; so sorry if that confused anyone! Don’t worry about changing your comment….just wanted to let you know it was my oversight! :
