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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Interactive Books

For Christmas, Sean Patrick got some great toys for cognitive and gross motor development.  The teacher that I am was excited about everything he received from friends and family because I could picture exactly how I was going to teach to that toy/book.

I know I am a nerd and I am probably sucking all the fun out of Christmas, but I was genuinely excited about the things that he got that would maximize our time spent at home.  I was also excited about the gifts that were geared around his current interests (like his dump truck) because dramatic play is such a necessary part of his social development as well.

But one thing that I have incorporated into his “schedule” (that I will share soon!), since Christmas, is INTERACTIVE book time.  We have reading time a couple times a day, but now I have a purposed time for books like the following, and I will share some ways I am using them now, and how I plan to use them in the future:

1) A counting book that comes with a writing tool

Before reading this, I take a little picture walk with Sean Patrick and we talk about all the things on the pages that are familiar to him, and I point out things that I know are not and name them.  Then, I trace each number with my finger and say it’s name, then take his finger and do the same, and then write the numbers on the etch-a-sketch.  In the future, I would have him draw or write a number story about each number and take a picture of each and make our own book out of the pictures.

2) A musically interactive book with a “legend”:

I love this book because the selection of shapes is the legend that you will use as you turn the pages to identify the shapes and then select the matching shape to play the coordinating song.  Sean Patrick and I sing the songs with hand-motions that I make up and then I follow my finger along the words to model reading (even though he doesn’t know that words represent meaning yet).

3.) A personalized book:

My dad gave Sean Patrick this book and it has a place on the inside back cover where you place a photo that is used as the face of the child on every page.  Personalized books are so meaningful because children are egocentric (even more than adults haha).  So books like this make reading comprehension so realistic and applicable.

There are many other types of interactive books but I wanted to share a few that were a part of our Christmas.  Enjoy your interactive reading time with your little ones!

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Crafty Christmas Clipboard

I love making my niece’s Christmas gifts because it gives me the chance to make them something they can use for their learning adventures.  This year I decided to make personalized clipboards because little ones feel so grown up using a clipboard and it encourages writing practice.  My niece’s get so excited about the handmade gifts which makes it so worth my time!

It was as easy as this….I bought a wooden clipboard from walmart:

 

 

Bought an alphabet stencil at Hobby Lobby and painted my little niece’s name on the front:

And I painted the entire stencil of abc’s and 123’s on the back:

Finally, I put a little paint on one of my baby’s wet wipes and brushed it over the surface to give it the distressed look I wanted it to have:

 

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In the St. Nick of time!

Bah humbug! I definitely bit off more than I could chew!  I planned to share my “schedule” in the making for my little one and even more Christmas activities this week, but the dash to get things done in time for Christmas has completely consumed my time and energy!

I have been MAKING most of my gifts because I am in the house a lot with my little ones, and so all of my nap time minutes have gone to use.

Here is part of daddy’s gift that I have spent a lot of time on:

16 x 20 canvas with three vertical 5x7 pictures and two 4x6 horizontal pictures

Sean Patrick knows a lot of letters but the letters “D” and “A” must be ENGRAVED on his mind after an hour’s worth of pictures trying to get a good “D” and “A” shot of all the different possibilities to assemble for the D-A-D Christmas shot.  I am still not sure that it turned out the way I pictured it, but it is the thought that counts.

I will share my niece’s gifts tonight or tomorrow….they have turned out so cute.

 

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