It's so easy to say but it is true: anything can become a learning game. When I opened a box to find a dozen air bubble mailers, my daughter oooh'd and aaaah'd over the them. So I grabbed the sharpie and complied with her curiosity. "Letter POP" is the impromptu game that resulted.
Each bubble became a letter in Strawberry's name, plus a few other that I knew she could recognize. We called out letter and found them. Then we stomped on them to get the loud "pop" that made her squeal.
She loved it! She was playing with letters but she was also jumping and laughing as she waited for the POP. When we found another air bubble later that day, I suggested she pop it, but she said, "No, Letter, Mommy!" and of course, we had to add a letter that one too.
Note that I kept close to supervise this play. I hope it goes without saying that plastic baggies like this are not toys for toddlers: a watchful eye meant that these did not get close to her mouth.
I love finding ways to turn items destined for the trash into learning tools and games in our homeschool. One day, we rescued an empty tissue box and turned it into a silly ABC monster! This easy tissue box monster craft became one of our favorite alphabet recognition activities. Our monster loves eating letters, and
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We created our own mail center in our schoolroom and play room because my kids love getting the mail. They love to send letters to friends, teachers, and grandparents. I also created monster postcard templates to help them practice everything from early writing skills to addressing postcards and learning the parts of a letter. Of
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Ah! Fall! The weather is not scheduled up in the 80s and 90s, and we can anticipate the crunch of falling leaves. Fall always reminds me of apple picking. I’m not sure we’re going this year, but it has been a frequent tradition for our family. To keep my little kids busy when I’m busy with
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If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, you’ll know I love incorporating learning moments into familiar parts of our lives, especially reading favorite picture books. Here are some of our favorite preschool picture book lessons. Some of these book-inspired preschool lessons I’ve blogged about. To see the picture book preschool activities
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It’s never too early to nurture a toddler. Shapes is the perfect toddler learning subject. When I’m busy teaching, I set up a “busy box” that I can take with me when I teach as well as great picture books and other activities. A Shapes Busy Box ExampleWhen we are going out and about, I try
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In the book In the Snow by Huy Voun Lee, Xiao Ming and his mother walk in newly fallen snow and his mother shows him Chinese characters by writing them in the snow. They discuss how the characters look like the items they are describing. Despite our lack of snow in Chicagoland this season,we made our
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