Month: January 2012

The 2nd Shareworthy Game from Casey’s Top 5

Hi! It’s Casey stopping by from Kidspired Creations once again!
Here is the second of my TOP 5 (scratch that) 6! games for Pre-Schoolers:
Recommended for Ages 5+ (according to the box)
This classic game is great for so many reasons! Not only is it great for your child’s development, but the timer doesn’t need batteries AND it has the perfect little compartment to store all of the pieces!!! Now THAT is my kind of game!
I know it says “5+” on the box, but if you don’t use the 60-second timer at first, I think you can start at the age of 3 (the parts are small, so I wouldn’t start younger than that because they are a choking hazard).
I even have yet to finish putting all the pieces in within 60 seconds, so James doesn’t use the timer. Eventually I may use a kitchen timer to set at 2 or 3 minutes, then we can work our way to 60 seconds. Right now we just have fun naming the pieces and finding out where they go. Some pieces we have made up fun names for like the “hurricane” that looks like an S, or the “macaroni noodle” that is different from the semi-circle.
Pre-School learning skills:
  • Hand-eye coordination
  • Fine motor skills (turning the shapes between the thumb and index finger)
  • Spacial awareness
  • Simple shapes (square, circle, triangle)
  • Complex shapes (trapezoid, parallelogram, hexagon)
  • Imaginary play (What does this shape look like?)
  • Time management – racing the clock (eventually)

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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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Build Onto Your Child’s Interest

Sean Patrick is OBSESSED with construction equipment (specifically backhoe’s, dump trucks, and bulldozers); so, I spend a lot of time teaching him the skills that he is ready to learn and to practice using his own interests. He also loves sports and animals, which I use to teach him as well, but today I want to focus on sharing some of the methods to my madness.

A couple months ago there was a construction crew working right outside of our house and after observing the crew operating the equipment and learning the names of the equipment and their functions (digging, lifting, dumping, etc.), he was hooked.

We have so much fun “studying” this topic while learning and practicing different skills:

We draw the machines with chalk outside and with crayons inside as I write the words – I name the letters and I emphasize the first sound in each word (just the beginning sound /b/ /b/ bulldozer!) as I write each one.

We have about 4 books about construction that I keep in an easily accessible book bin in the den.  He pulls them out on a regular basis and asks me to “Read please.”  Or, I pull the books out when we play with his toys or see construction workers to reference similarities in the books and in his real world. (Notice his shirt in the picture?…he has 4 different outfits that revolve around this interest and we even have a plate that he eats off of every day with a backhoe on it).

We play with the machines, rolling them along different surfaces – teaching him that they roll faster down a ramp than pushing them along the flat or bumpy ground (a science skill).

We count how many different machines we have or how many rocks his mini digger can pick up at one time.  We look for and point out the machines on the way to church so next time we can count out how many machines we see on our way.

I teach him how to operate the levers on his digger and bulldozer toys to develop his fine motor skills for pre-writing readiness.

And much more!

 Just yesterday, there was another construction crew two houses down from my house working on a leak.  I took him to observe and I talked to him about the construction crew by identifying the driver and the clothing he was wearing (a hard hat, vest, boots, etc.) – These are social studies skills for young children to identify community workers and to gain awareness of the world around them.

There are so many ways to make learning fun and interesting for your little one using what you already have on hand!

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