I am the mother of four busy children. I have two preschoolers and two toddlers (though one is only just a toddler). I have a bachelors in University studies with a minor in English and a cluster of child development. This means I was going for school as an English major but then decided that I really didn't want to be going to school until my oldest was two. My original plan was to go for a minor in child development.
My child development classes have helped tremendously with my family life. My oldest child has had some developmental delays, though they still have not diagnosed them.
My busy family life and busy life in general make it necessary that I take some time away to spend some time with my children doing something fun. I want to build a relationship with my kids, and this is done one activity at a time.
I have some children who are constantly seeking proprioceptive input. I pretty sure I have said this in a previous post but proprioceptive input is the input from joints, muscles and connective tissues that underlie body awareness. It can be obtained by lifting, pushing, and pulling heavy objects, including one’s own weight.
I have had this exercise ball for many years and haven’t brought it out until now. It has been hidden in a corner and I am regretting that I haven’t thought to bring it out before now.
The kids have loved playing with the ball and I don’t have to watch them too closely while they play with it. My oldest (the biggest seeker of the proprioceptive input) has especially loved exploring what she can do with the ball. It has been a great help.
With grandma coming for a visit we needed something simple and fun to do. With the weather being so nice I thought it would be the perfect time to go to the park.
My girls love the park, and had a blast. The best part about the park is that there are so many options on what to do. There is the slide, or swings, or even the splash park when it is warm enough. There are also fields so if we had brought a ball we could have played with that, or climbed trees.
Not all parks are equal, but the chance to get outside is always a plus. And like I said there are lots of options you can do at a park, even if they don’t have a playground.
My child has really been struggling with prepositions. Her therapist actually suggested this activity to help her learn the different prepositions.
To play all you need is a toy. Once you have a suitable toy ask your child to hide it. You can use any of the prepositions in any order. Examples include: hide the toy on something. Hide the toy beside something. Etc.
Once they have hidden the toy it is time to go seek.
My girls really enjoyed this game and did really well with the different prepositions. It is a great alternative to hide and seek.
Today I decided I was going to take a chance and make moon sand. Moon sand, for those of you who don’t know, is just flour and oil. These two items mixed together make a material very similar to kinetic sand.
The sand is fluffy, soft and fun to play with. My girls had so much fun experimenting with it.
The recipe I used called for 8 cups of Flour and 1 cup oil. I do not have the bread mixer that they suggested I use to mix it together, but I tried mixing it in a few different ways. First I tried to mix with a spoon, but it didn’t mix very well. Then I tried to mix with a blender, but It wasn’t blending very well. Finally I just decided to use my hands. This worked wonderfully.
The amount made would have been a great amount for all three of my older kids (Toddler included). Sadly the girls spilled about a third of it on my carpet. That is why I can tell you that it can be vacuumed up, though I wouldn’t recommend it for your vacuum.
You can change things up by adding a little color. It is suggested to use cake food coloring not regular food coloring because the cake food coloring is oil based whereas the regular food coloring is water based. Another option is to use colored chalk dust. I don’t like this option as much because it wouldn’t be as taste safe for littles.
I would suggest playing with the sand outside or on tile or hardwood floors, it makes for a much easier cleanup. It was relatively easy to sweep up the moon sand that had spilled on the concrete to be used again. I would recommend washing hands after use because there is a fine dust that will cling to the hands. Also it does coat the clothes too if your child is not careful, which mine aren’t.
To sum up: It is a fun homemade material that is like kinetic sand. It is affordable, made from things most people have in their homes already, and easy to make.
Initially I thought this was going to be an activity for my toddler but I wanted to include my Preschoolers because it has a skill they need to work on as well. Sadly my toddler just couldn’t get the handle on pinching the clothespin to open it up. It might have been that the clothespins I used were too small for her little hands to be able to do herself.
That is why this activity turned into an activity more for my Preschoolers. The idea is that the child works on her pincer grasp, which is important for the correct holding of a pencil, while hanging up some “clothes” (I used washcloths and fabric napkins for this).
The girls enjoyed it so much, they were playing on it much longer than I was expecting them to play. I honestly thought they would get bored shortly after we started, but they were playing with it for around half an hour.
As you can see from the pictures the “clothes” were well secured, which was good because the baby was coming and trying to pull them off the line.
I used a length of twine that came with my clothespins I ordered off amazon, though you could use yarn. String the twine or yarn between two stationary objects (I happen to have a perfect place with two doors). Gather your items to be hung and the clothespins. Let your children loose after showing them what to do. Finally just sit back and watch the magic.
My girls love to paint, and to play in the water. Combining the two is always fun because it means easy clean up and they have lots of fun. This was no different.
To get the paint all I did was put washable paint in a muffin tin then put shaving cream in and mix together. Once this is completed you will have a foamy bath paint that the kids will love. When your children are done playing with the paints all it takes is water to wash it off.
I have seen this done with food coloring as well, but I don’t know if you will get as vibrant as colors. We also have the washable paints so I thought why not use them.
My girls just painted with their hands and fingers but you could do paintbrushes as well. We don’t have paint brushes that would work so I opted for fingers. Either way it will be a lot of fun.
My children have been really rambunctious the last couple days. I have been trying to think of an activity that would help them learn their letters as well as get out some of their energy. And so Letter Stomp was born.
To play Letter Stomp place your letters down on the floor, preferably carpeted so that your letters won’t slip out from under their feet. Space them far enough apart that you can walk between them. Call your Kiddos over and have them take turns stomping on a letter that you call out, or if you want to have them call out the letter that would work too. Once they have found the correct letter stomp combination (have stomped on the letter you or they have named) they are allowed to pick up the letter and take it to a pile.
My girls loved stomping on the letters and picking them up to place in the pile. They still needed my help on some of them, especially my child who after a while just gives up and wants me to do all the work, but they still had fun and played a couple rounds. This is definitely one to repeat.
Letter recognition is an important step towards literacy. As my preschoolers near the Kindergarten age I want them to be able to recognize more of them. Right now the knowledge is limited in this regard.
This activity you can use either lower case or upper case letters. As your children get better you can even have them match the lower case to the upper case or vice versa, maybe even mix which is where (have some upper case on the paper and some be stickers and the rest of both be lowercase).
Once you have all the letters on the paper and stickers you start out by asking your child to match one letter at a time so that they are hearing the name of the letter.
This is an activity you will want to do one on one with your child. I made the mistake of having too many children doing it at once and one of my children decided to just place the letters where ever they pleased.
If you would like to see how I adapted this activity for toddlers see: Sticker Shape Match.
As a 2 year old my toddler is beginning to learn about different shapes. In order to help that along I decided to try this activity.
On a piece of paper I drew different shapes that she should know or be able to learn. She knew the circle, square, and the triangle but wasn’t sure on the name of the star. It is just a simple find the shape and place a matching sticker on the shape.
As you can see she didn’t always make it directly on the shape but she was able to get it near the shape. As she pulled off the stickers from the sheet she was working on her pincer grasp as well as learning her shapes.
If you would like to see how to adapt this activity for Preschoolers see this post: Sticker Letter Match.
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