Frugal Baby Play

Today I'm feeling tired.

And a tired mummy is not a very creative mummy.

So to keep Mr T busy and stimulated, I came up with an activity that taught lots of skills, cost nothing, and kept him entertained for a VERY long time!

All I needed was a ball and a bowl.

My goal was for him to explore the sound of the ball rolling around in the bowl. Boy was I wrong! Mr T was not particularly impressed with my plan of events. He picked up the balls one at a time and threw them away, then turned the bowl upside down.

 

Mummy fail.

Until I had a brilliant idea. Why not hide the balls UNDERNEATH the bowl???

Bingo!

After showing him where the balls were and how to lift the bowl up, I stepped back and let him create his own learning.

I almost needed popcorn. The entertainment was priceless.

First, Mr T circled the bowl, pushing it around and growling when he was unable to flip it over.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next he tried banging on it.

He then spent almost 5 minutes pushing the bowl backwards and forwards, enjoying the sound of the ball hitting the bowl.

 

 

And repeat. Many times.

Eventually he just sat back and gave me this look....

 

 

So before you think that you need high tech, expensive toys to keep your little one entertained....look no further than your kitchen!

 

 

What items from around the home does your little one like to play with?

Counting Clouds

During the past week, we have been learning about weather (espeically clouds).

 

For maths, the children enjoyed this activity the most.

 

Again, to ensure total focus, I ensured that the materials were all available and organised in containers for ease of use.

 

There were a lot of skills that the children learnt in this activity, from fine motor skills, to number, and basic school readiness skills such as using the correct amount of glue.

 

Cupcake

 

• Is already able to recognise numbers 1-10 and count one-to-one up to 10.
• Needs to learn how to use runny glue (PVA) and show restraint with materials
• Struggles to show focus and follow instructions. This will be the lesson focus for her.

 

• She was able to use restraint with the glue up until the last two numbers.
• Because she enjoyed the activity, her focus was excellent again, up until the last two numbers.

 

Tinkerbell

 

• Can rote count (using her memory) up to 6.
• Is beginning to count 1 and 2 items.
• Needs to develop one-to-one counting up to 4.

 

• To take the focus off school readiness skills, I squeezed the correct number of glue dots onto her page.
• She was able to count (with assistance) each cloud as she put it on the glue dots.

This activity was a great success. The girls both wanted to put their cloud pictures up on the wall to show Daddy when he got home. This is also teaching them to take pride in their work.

Book-making - Part 1

My girls love books. They love to read books. They love to make books.

I have lately found that Cupcake is struggling to cope with boredom when at home. This struggle is usually expressed through misbehaviour. So I decided to teach her some sight words and challenge her in an area she seems to excel - reading and languages.

Firstly, I chose four sight words for her to use from the Ready to Read series taught in New Zealand schools. The sight words were from the Emergent/Red level books and were words most likely to be used by Cupcake in everyday life.

like                     it                       the                      I

 

I then thought about what Cupcake liked that I could apply to colours. At the moment her passion is eating apples. She would eat them all day if she could. So "apples" was the chosen theme. Its important when teaching children to make the learning relevent to them. If they do not see a reason for the learning, they often put less effort into their learning. It must be real to them and contextual.

 

Thirdly, I needed to make it easy so that I would not turn her off learning. I did this by typing the words and printing them out. They were then sorted into a partitioned plate. If the activity contains not enough challenge, or too much challenge, a young child is less likely to take risks with his or her learning.

 

Lastly, I needed to make it her own. To do this, I taught her how to draw a simple apple and helped her to colour it in.

 

Here she is writing her first sight word book:

 

 

Everything was prepared and ready to use. If you are fumbling around for materials, younger learners are more likely to 'tune out' and lose interest in the learning activity.

 

She loves her new book so much, that she chooses to read it at least once a week during our bedtime routine. She is now reading it - not just to me - but to her siblings.

 

Success!

Exploration Baskets

What is Heuristic Play?

 

Heuristic play is a term that was introduced in the 1980s by child psychologist Elinor Goldshmeid. In a nutshell, it allows babies and toddlers to explore the properties of a range of objects in everyday life. The objects are from real life (not the plasticy purpose-designed toys we buy from shops).

 

Heuristic play allows children to engage all of their senses in a rich learning activity. They are able to make decisions about what object to explore further,

 

I'm a big believer in Heuristic play through treasure baskets and sensory bins. Up until now, I've not given Toto organised playtime, just allowing him to explore the world around him as he learns to move around the house. But now it is time. I'm secretly jiggling with excitement!

 

Here is Toto looking through his first exploration basket:

 

 

What is the Adult's Role in Explorative Play?

The role of the adult is to give their full attention to the baby during this playtime. You are there to extend them if necessary, but primarily remain as unobtrusive as possible. An exploration basket should never be available 24/7, as this does not encourage baby to fully engage in the activity. I like to bring the exploration basket out 2-3 times a week for no more than 15 or 20 minutes at a time. This means that baby will not bore of the objects in the basket, and are given free time to explore at their own speed.

 

What Baby Learns

make choices

how objects feel, taste, sound like, and look like

develop concentration/attention span

how to pick up / move an object

developing fine motor skills

strengthening hand muscle tone

object manipulation - pushing, pulling, up/down, in/out, scrunching, tapping, shaking, etc

and lots more......



 

What Objects Can I Use?

Paper/cardboard - egg cartons, boxes, books

Metal - large screws, measuring cups, teaspoons, curtain ring, tea strainer, whisk,

bells, small bowl, jar lids

Textile/Fabric - cloth book, small teddy, leather, knitted toy, ball of wool, bags of herbs/lavender,

ribbons, feathers, carpet pieces

Natural Objects - pinecones, raffia, wooden blocks, wooden spoon, flower, driftwood,

loofah, large stones, sheepskin, wooden beads, rope, coconut shell, etc

 

And many more!!

 

How do I Organise Them?

You can put them in the basket/bowl according to type of material or choose a theme. This week, our theme is "kitchen objects" so Toto is exploring teaspoons (metal and plastic), whisks, measuring cups, rubber pastry brush, cardboard boxes, etc.

 

What do you think you could use?