We have always had ABC foam letters (and numbers) in the bath tub, but my mother-in-law didn’t know when she bought Sean Patrick a little fishing net that it would end up becoming a little teaching tool for the bath AND the backyard plastic pool…
Here are a FEW things you can use with just a little fishing net, letters, and bath toys whether you are in the tub or outside in the plastic pool…
1) Can you catch the letter “S” for me? {letter recognition}
2) Can you catch the letter that says /s/ (make the sound of a letter)? {letter-sound associations}
3) Can you catch the animal whose name has the sounds /fr/ – /og/ ? {phonemic awareness}
4) Can you catch the toy that rhymes with “moat”? (boat) {Rhyming}
5) For older kids… can you catch the d-o-g? (say the letters or spell it on the bath wall with the letters and they have to sound them out)
6) For younger kids… can you catch the green animal? {color recognition}
We are also having a blast making letters with the water shooter toy thingy (what is it called anyway?)…
Sean Patrick has really just lately taken an interest in writing.
Compare his grasp here to the ones in the following picture and you will see that he is just getting used to the “alligator chomp.”
We have done lots of pre-writing activities to work out his little muscles in his hands to ready him for writing…with Playdough, drawing in the dirt with sticks, driving his little cars all over different surfaces, chalking outside, coloring, tearing paper, etc.
But only lately has tracing HIS letter “S” really become a priority.
When I introduced him to holding his crayon with the “ALLIGATOR CHOMP” he became obsessed with it… he would literally tell random receptionists in offices that he could hold his crayon with the alligator chomp too.
This grip has to be modeled and you may have to take your little one’s hand to get them to have a feel for it, but first we did the alligator chomp without holding anything in our hands.
I have really started to take advantage of the love of his pencil grasp and his love for his letter S by trying out lots of different tracing activities.
I always model what he is going to do first, then I take his hand and we do it together (if he will let me – independence is important to him too), and then see what he can do on his own.
1) I wrote out his name while singing his song (I always do this first…. he knows his song).
2) Then I showed him how to trace his S with a little saying “Make a ‘c’ and then back around” (talking out the process of making the letter is important).
3) He then traced his “S” in every color … also called “rainbow writing”
His little sister scribbled all over it but you can see that he had fun with his “S”
4) We then put a paper over his name written in black marker so he could trace his name that way.
5) Since he mostly focused on “S” we made an entire page of just “S” and he had so much fun with this. He finally took off the top paper and started tracing his “S” with all the colors again, but side by side as shown in the following picture would be the next step after he masters tracing 🙂
If you try this and it is not fun for your little one… then go back to some of the pre-writing activities I mentioned earlier. You don’t want writing to be stressful for your little one… your little one will write when he/she is ready 🙂
Here is a short video demonstration:
If you have any questions or tips to add then please message or share them here in a comment on this post!
Wow…. What a cause! The company was founded to rescue women around the world who are such victims of poverty that they are in the midst of trafficking or they orphan their children because they cannot feed them and they believe that is it their only way to survive…. What hope is there for people enslaved by their poverty ?
Unless, organizations like “Trades of Hope” are founded to step into communities to empower women out of hopelessness and into a promising future of honest work.
“I was able to go to Haiti in February and visit/work alongside our 3 groups of Artisans there. It was beyond amazing to experience the various workplaces, meet them and get a glimpse of their culture. We believe people want an opportunity, not charity. By teaching them a skill that helps them make a living, we believe they will succeed longer, both financially and emotionally. These women get to be the heroine in their family, instead of teaching their children to beg, they are modeling for them that they can work, be proud of themselves and have self esteem (that doesn’t come when you are forced to beg or sell yourself to survive).”
Stephanie learning to make beads for the Trades of Hope bracelets while in Haiti.
When I hear about organizations like Trades of Hope, I think about the children who will no longer be witnesses of and products of that lifestyle… thanks, in part, to all the people who support the cause.
So, support those women, and moms, by entering this week’s giveaway!
There will be two winners!
One winner will receive the beautiful Aqua Nepal Scarf…
1) I read / summarize a story from “The Jesus Storybook Bible” in my most expressive, kid-friendly voice that engages my little ones’ attention.
2) I sing a song about it (sometimes I make it up) but other times I use songs I grew up learning OR a YouTube video.
3)We act it out with little toys we have (We choose the characters that seem fitting from our “little toys” cubbie).
4) We “write” about it. This is the time I model a draw on my clipboard the main idea from the story while I talk about what I am drawing to model the drawing process.
God Parts the Red Sea Reenactment
5) Then I write my kiddos names on their papers and I write the date, name of the story, and I write in quotes anything that they tell me about their picture.
That’s it!
Then, I read the same story for the next day or two because it is still fresh, repetition is better for memory recall, & they always want to sing the song they learned the day before again.
Here is one more…
Sean Patrick helped me pick out the toys that would represent David and Goliath for our reenactment.
I really cherish this time with my kids. It is a very quick and easy but meaningful time shared with them.
Casey and I were pumped up about The Mommy Teacher being nominated as a Top 25 Teacher Mom Blog. We would love if all Mommy Teachers would VOTE every 24 hours ! It takes TWO clicks…. you don’t have to sign up. Just CLICK the link and ClICK “VOTE” under The Mommy Teacher! Thanks for the support!
