Santa Sight Words

E has started recognizing a few sight words.  As such, I was looking for a fun sight word game that would fit into our Christmas theme.  I couldn't find one that I liked, so I decided to make one on my own.

I stumbled across some Santa Sight Words and thought it would be fun to make a house with a chimney that he could drop the cards down as he practiced them.

I took a box and wrapped it in wrapping paper.  I, then, took the scraps (flaps of the box) and made a door, windows,  roof and chimney.  The smoke is a white piece of felt taped to the inside of the chimney.

I cut out the Santa Sight Words and we said them out loud as we dropped them down the chimney.  E would then say "Be careful, St. Nick!".  It was too cute.

Check out more of our Christmas ideas by clicking here.

E is currently 29 months old.

Tree Cards with Corn Syrup Paint

E had so much fun with our Thanksgiving cards that I wanted to do something this month for Christmas.  I decided to have him make these tree cards.

I had seen this posting on painting with corn syrup and had been wanting to do it.  Since the corn syrup paint would dry shiny, I thought it would look good as ornaments on Christmas trees.

I painted some trees on cards using Crayola Washable Paint (all I had) and let them dry overnight.  The next day, I mixed corn syrup and food coloring and had E dip his brush in it and dot the trees.

The ornaments dried just as I had hoped.  They were raised and shiny and E loved them.

Hot Chocolate Math Game

This game was extremely easy to make and provided lots of entertainment for E.  It was, by far, his favorite this week.

I took a large mug, a small cup, and a scrap of brown felt and made it into fake hot chocolate.  I wrapped the small cup in felt and taped it in place.  I then slipped it into the mug.  Luckily, my cup fit perfectly inside my mug.  I added a bag of marshmallows and a homemade die (made out of a lacing bead) to the tray and we were ready to play.

Day 1, we simply rolled the die and practiced counting marshmallows as we placed them into the "hot chocolate".  E got to eat one after each of his turns (perhaps why he liked the tray so much).

Day 2, I made up a new game (on the fly) to make it a bit more challenging.  This time we took turns.  E rolled the die and counted out his marshmallows (without eating).  Then, I rolled and had to either add or take away (eat) marshmallows to make the new number.  We continued to go back and forth for quite some time.

I was amazed at how well this went.  E was very focused and actually got the concept.  He really liked the marshmallows and wanted to eat them.  It made him really think about whether he had to add or he could eat.

When he would add, I noticed him checking back to see how many he had and then counting on to the new number.  I really encouraged this.  This is a great skill for him to learn and was excited to see it happening so naturally.

As for subtracting, he would set aside the number he was supposed to keep and then look at me while pointing to the leftovers and ask "I eat these, Mommy?".  I had modeled this a couple times and thought it would be a stretch to expect it of him, but he surprised me.

I never dreamed the game would go this well.  I was going to be happy simply counting out marshmallows for the week.  The fact that it became much more made any guilt about marshmallow consumption melt away in my fake hot chocolate.

E blowing on his hot chocolate.

If you want to see some more of our Christmas activities click here.  I will be posting some new ideas soon.

E is currently 29 months.

Advent Calendar

Last year, my in-laws got E the Little People Nativity Scene.  I loved that he was able to play with the characters and we could talk about them in preparation for Christmas.  

This year, I had my eye on the Little People Nativity Advent Calendar that matched the nativity scene.  I talked myself out of buying it so I was thrilled when my in-laws surprised E and T with it for Thanksgiving.  

E and I started officially using it today, but I introduced it a few days ago and tried to explain how it all works.

We started off by taking all the pieces out and talking about who and what they represent.  Then, we practiced our numbers by putting them all back in the right spots.  I love that the numbers are on the back.

Now that December is here, we are going to keep it hung in E's room and remove one piece each morning after he wakes up.  This morning he jumped out of bed and proudly placed Mary on top of the stable (the pieces have velcro on the back and can be placed in the nativity scene at the top of the calendar).  I asked him if she should go inside and he said "No. She go on top, Mommy".

He can't wait to get to number 25 which is baby Jesus.  E has been planning His birthday.  He thinks Jesus would like a Mater and Lightening McQueen party and a cake with sprinkles.

Placing Presents

This was a tray I added this week to practice placement/direction words.  I bought a tree at the dollar store along with some presents that were meant to be ornaments.

I wrote the words "right", "left", "front", and "behind" on pieces of white card stock and folded them to make them stand.  I placed the cards in the appropriate spots around the tree as E and I talked about each word.

I wrote letter clues on the bottom of each present (F for front, R for right, etc...).  E took the presents, read the letter and then placed them in the correct spot.

E loved this activity and asked to do it many times.  I am planning on taking the placement cards away later in the week to see if he can do it without the words.

Baby Basket Time

We have continued with Baby Basket Time this week and are still loving it (big brother included).  E and I have even come up with a song that we start with each time.  

E has been singing the Farmer in the Dell a lot so we changed the words to...

It's Baby Basket Time

It's Baby Basket Time

We'll do each one and have some fun

It's Baby Basket Time

I changed out most of the toys, but kept a few the same.  I added some finger puppets, a mirror, soft blocks,  color book, and a phone.

I tried to keep it simple for myself.  I didn't make a big point to plan what I would do with each one.  I really just explored each one with T.  By the end of the week, however, some sort of routine emerged with each.

For instance, the sock puppets were used to sing Old McDonald Had a Farm.  I would sing with them on my fingers and dance them around as T watched.  Then, I would let T pull them off my fingers and into his mouth they would go.

Mailing Letters

This week, we took the cards we made last week and mailed them to family members.  E had made five cards so we picked 5 people to whom we wanted to send the cards.  

We (I) wrote a note thanks to each person and then E worked on signing his name.  He then stuffed the cards into envelopes. 

I wrote the names and addresses of the people he picked on address labels.  I also wrote return address labels with his name on them.  We worked on placement of the labels and talked about their purpose.  E loved seeing his name on the labels and had fun trying to find his loved ones names as well (practicing those pre reading skills).

Finally, E put a stamp in the corner, sealed the envelope (he loved licking it), and walked them to the mailbox.  We got several calls of appreciation throughout the week and E loved it.

Clip Schedule

E is a kid who likes structure.  I try and provide it without being too scheduled.  Our sleeping and eating times are routine and Tray Time is usually done during T's nap.  But, I don't want to make his daily schedule too concrete considering he is still 2.

We do, however, use E's Clip Schedule.  It is something I made after a frustrating day of being asked to do the same thing over and over again.  

I took an old oatmeal container and stripped the packaging off the outside and wrote down the things I would like to encourage E to do each day.

I wrote things like Tray Time, Music Time, Help Time, Mommy Time, Play Time,  etc.  I then took clothespins and placed them in the middle of the can.

After E does an activity, he clips it and leaves it until the end of the day.  He is not required to do all the activities in one day.  In fact, I think we have only done this once or twice.

The goal for me is to give E motivation to try different things throughout his day.  I don't force him to do something.  It works more like a list of options.

At the end of the day, E will often take it and sit with Daddy.  He tells him about the things he has done that day.  It helps him remember everything and gives him a chance to included his dad on the activities of the day.

E is currently 29 months old.

Theme - Thanksgiving

This week, we continued doing some fun Thanksgiving activities.

We worked on patterning with a handmade felt board. The "feathers" are actually colored craft sticks and stuck surprisingly well in between the pieces of felt.

I would make a pattern on the right side of the turkey head and then he would replicate it on the left.

I have a felt board on my Christmas list, but made do this week by making my own.

I flipped over an old resume paper box to make it stand. I took velcro tab and attached it to the box and then stuck a large piece of felt to it.

I cut out a large circle for the body of the bird and and a smaller oval for the head. The details from the turkey face were cut from scraps.

The following is a color word activity I found on Making Learning Fun. E did well with this one. He recognized a few color words and then looked at beginning letters to help guide him in selecting the others.

We got the print out for this number book (called turkey sticks) from childcareland.com.

I brought in craft sticks to help make counting above 10 more concrete. I counted out 10 sticks with him and then bundled them together.

After that, we would lay the bundle down and say "Here is 10, let's keep counting. Another stick makes 11, then 12...". I will be doing this much more in the future.

This last activity was one made up by E. I brought in nesting blocks to use during our Tray Time. The first day, E played with them as expected. He built a tower, took it back down, and worked on putting them back inside one another.

Day 2, E asked me to get the turkey from his Little People farm set. Maybe he was bothered by the fact that I had added a tray that did not go with our Thanksgiving theme. Whatever the case, he had a blast creating new ways to play with the blocks and the turkey.

He hid the turkey...

and he made "houses" for the turkey to sleep in...
and he made stairs for the turkey to climb.

To see all of our Thanksgiving activities click here.

E is currently 29 months.

Thanksgiving Cards

We decided to get a bit messy the other day and make some Thanksgiving cards.

I painted E's hand and he stamped it onto a few blank cards I had at the house.

I took markers (after the paint had dried) and added details to one turkey and then let him finish the rest.

E asked if he could use some eye stickers that we had left over from an old project. These turkeys make me smile.

Baby Basket Time

This week we started, what we are calling, Baby Basket Time.

T is currently 5 months old and not ready for Tray Time, but for a while now, I have been trying to decide what I could do to make sure I am giving him the attention he needs.

I filled a basket by going around the house looking for age appropriate toys and books. I tried to find things with which I could sit and spend time "teaching" T to play. I remember how I used to do this with E naturally, but with the second child I am finding the need to be more intentional.

E's routine is established and it is sometimes easier to default to his activities rather than start building routines that are appropriate for T.

I decided that sometime before each nap and bedtime (roughly 3 times a day), I would sit and go through the toys and books one by one and investigate them with T. I talk to him about the toys, make up songs, point out things of interest, or simply show him the possibilities of what he can do with them.

After we are done, everything goes back in the basket and is left alone until the next time.

E is joining us for now (by choice). He sits next to T and has been told he can look at each item after T is done with them. I am finding it is good for him to learn new ways that he can interact with his brother as well as practice patience.

Repurposed for Learning - Ice Cube Tray Patterns

I have used an ice cube tray for several different patterning activities. This was one we did during our apple theme.

I used poker chips (dollar section at Target) as "apples" and placed them on a felt tree that I had cut out.

I also repurposed paint samples as pattern rule cards (see very bottom of picture) to help E complete the pattern on his own. He followed the cards saying "1 yellow, 1 red, 1 green....start over...1 yellow, 1 red, 1 green".

I played with him completing the side of the tray closest to me so that he could check his answers as well as see me modeling how to use the rule cards.

Theme - Thanksgiving

At the end of this week, we started a couple of Thanksgiving activities. Instead of focusing on anything historical, we simply talked a lot about being thankful.

We began by reading the book Give Thanks to the Lord: Celebrating Psalm 92.

We did an activity using Mega Bloks (inspired by a previous activity) to build sentences about being thankful. I let him tell me what to write and I would add it to a block.

He played with the blocks for a while making new sentences by changing out the last block. He also added them all together in a long chain. I liked that E could visibly see how blessed we are.

I had a couple of old photo albums that have long gone unused and I decided to take and make them into books for E. This is one I made for Thanksgiving.

It has a family members photo on the top part and an index card with a repetitive text on the bottom. There was also one page with his picture and the text you see in the picture below. E was so excited about the book when I brought it out for him to read.

E is currently 28 months old.

Make it in Minutes - Number Line

I found myself with a large collection of foam stickers (from the Dollar Tree) and was trying to find a way to use them for E's Tray Time.

I decided that I could write numbers on the stickers and we could make a number line.

I cut card stock sheets in half and taped them together as we went along. Each day, we added 10 stickers. I would write the numbers and set them all on his tray. E would count and pick the next number to put on.

I was planning on only doing this for a few days but E wanted to keep going. It now stretches across one wall of his room. He also keeps counting it over and over, telling me he needs to "check it".

Repurposed for Learning - Flashlight

E gets the credit for this post. His grandparents bought him this flashlight/glowstick for Halloween and he decided it could be repurposed as a pointer while doing some pages in a workbook. We first do the page with the light and then use a marker to go back and finish it a second time.

I was glad for this addition. For some reason E loves to do workbook pages. I avoided them for a long time because I didn't want to make our Tray Time to much like school. Nonetheless, he asks to do them all the time.

Repurposed for Learning - Perfection

I love to go our local consignment sale and look for random items that I can make into learning tools for E. This one was simple. I found the game Perfection and thought it would be a great tool to work on not only naming shapes but working those little fingers.

We don't use it as a game. He just likes to put the shapes in without the pressure of the timer.

I didn't give E a name for the one I am holding in front. He asked me where the skateboard went. It took me a minute but I figured out what he meant and we now have a new name for one of our shapes.

Make it in Minutes - Word Family Blocks

This idea was big hit and was very easy to make. I saw a similar idea on Filth Wizardary where she used labels and legos to make letter blocks.

I had Mega Bloks and thought I could use them to make word families.

Here E is making _an words. I paired this with some time on the computer where he explored word families on Starfall.