The Letter C

At the beginning of April I started teaching Hailey her letters.  I pick one letter and concentrate on that letter for two weeks.  I do different activities with her about that letter during those two weeks.  Last week I started concentrating on the letter C.

For each letter we use Hailey’s toys to make the letter that I am teaching her.  Then I take pictures and print out a few of them.  I am using the ones I print out to create an ABC book.  Since we’ve only done A-C that is all of the pages we have right now.  I will continue to add letters to the book as I introduce them to Hailey.

At first I was going to use contact paper on each page, but that uses up an awful lot of contact paper.  So, I’m putting the pages into page protectors instead.  I put a piece of tape across the top of the page protector so that Hailey can’t pull the pages out.  We’ll see how well that works.  Then I’m using those metal rings to hold it all together.  I’ll post pictures of the actual book later.

Tags: free toddler activity, Letter C, teaching letters

Pig Craft

This week I have been concentrating on farm animals with Hailey.  She loves anything and everything that has to do with animals, so this is definitely a lot of fun.  There are tons of books about farm animals that we enjoy reading.  The other day we made a pig using a variety of shapes.  When I was teaching pre-kindergarten I always did this with my class.  It’s easy and cute and helps reinforce the names of the shapes. 

What you’ll need:

• pink paper in 2 or 3 different shades
• scissors
• glue

Because Hailey is too young for scissors I cut everything out ahead of time.  If you were doing this with preschoolers I would recommend letting them do the cutting.

I let Hailey do all of the gluing- which she loves to do.  She always cries when it is time to put the glue away. As she was gluing the pieces I talked about the shape of the piece she was working on and encouraged her to try to say the name of the shape too.

Once she had the glue on her piece I pointed to the place on the pig where the piece should go and she did the positioning of the pieces.  I try to let her do as much of the actual project as possible.

The finished pig

Tags: Pig art craft, toddler art activity

Toddlers and Solo Play

I was reading an article today about the value of solo play for children.  I found it to be very interesting.  Of course as parents we know that it is important to spend time with our children.  But, it is also important for children to learn how to entertain themselves.  The age of the child will determine how long you would expect your child play alone.  According to the article at 6 months old a child may be content by himself for 5 minutes; at 12 months, for 15 minutes; at 18 months, about 15 to 20 minutes; and at 2 years, for about half an hour.  Check out the entire article right here.

Tags: Toddlers and Solo Play

Umbrella Painting

In keeping with the theme of Spring I did an Umbrella Painting project with Hailey yesterday.

What you’ll need:

• -paper plate cut in the shape of an umbrella
• -card stock in the shape of a J for the handle
• -finger paint
• -smock
• -a place set up to put the project to dry when you’re done

Let’s get started!

Hailey had never finger painted before, so she was a little unsure of touching it at first.

Soon she was enjoying herself.

Finally she really got into it and got both hands covered in paint.

While Hailey was painting I kept a little dialog going with her.  I started out with some simple questions like, “What are we making,” “What color is this” etc.  And then I moved on to some more open ended questions.  Open ended questions are important because they enhance your child’s language.  Rather than a simple answer they have to think about their response.  Some good open ended questions to ask might include “What does it feel like,” “Why do you think the red and yellow turned orange” and “What do you see.”  With a toddler you aren’t going to expect complex answers but you are still helping to expand their vocabulary and thinking skills.

Hanging the pieces up to dry.

The finished umbrella.

Tags: finger painting with toddler, free toddler activity, umbrella craft, umbrella painting