Upper Case and Lower Case Matching

First, raid your local hardware store for paint chip samples. You need 26 different tints/colors.
Next, write the upper case and lower case letter on each card.
Then you cut the upper case and lower case letters apart. I used my scrapbooking scissors to make it more like a puzzle.
The next step, which I haven't quite finished, is to find clipart or stickers for each letter so that children who aren't quite familiar with the upper case and lower case matches can still be successful by matching the stickers on the cards.

(I probably saw something similar on someone's blog and if I did and it is on your blog, please let me know so I can link it.)

Read more...

Story Stretchers

A few people asked about story stretchers.

Story stretchers are just any activity you do with your child to reinforce a story you have just read. For example, with The Very Hungry Caterpillar, retelling the story on our felt board was our story stretcher. Another example would be to sing "Old Macdonald Had A Farm" after reading the book Barnyard Dance, or to do the actions of the animals in the story. Eating a food from a story would also be considered a story stretcher.

They are also known as literature activities. The best way to find them is to Google "literature activities for ...............(insert name of book)."

Here are two sites to get you started on story stretchers:

http://www.youcanteach.com/storystretchers.php
http://atozteacherstuff.com/Lesson_Plans/Literature_Activities/

Read more...

Tot School

Nature Bear

Bear saw a moth that makes itself look like owl eyes to scare off predators. She also visited a goat farm and saw a miniature pony.

Math Bear

Bear practiced one to one correspondence by placing large beads in an egg carton. We put a Montessori spin to it by having her use tongs to transfer the beads. We counted them as she transferred them.

She matched colored buttons onto a strip of colored circles.

She completed a foam number puzzle and we counted quite a bit. We have the book Five Monkeys Jumping on The Bed so we are counting to five a lot lately.

Bear is really into puzzles - challenging ones that require much scaffolding from Mommy.

Fine Motor Skills and Gross Motor Skills Bear

She poked toothpicks into styrofoam and placed all those clothespins up in that top middle photo on the side of the yogurt container by herself. She chose this activity all by herself one day.

Bear has been using her slide every day and of course climbing everywhere she can possibly climb.

Language Bear

We read LOTS of books as usual. Bear had Mommy tell her many stories. We played with the felt board and retold stories with the puppets and felt board pieces. Our focus this week has definitely been story telling and not the alphabet!

Art Bear

Bear painted with sand and made monoprints. She drew and played with play doh.

Read more...

Monoprints

I finally got the art studio organized enough for Bear and I to make monoprints. I used the glass from a picture frame and taped the edges so that Bear couldn't cut herself. Then Bear rolled the paint onto the glass (we used some of my acrylic - nonwashable - paint because they are more vibrant than the Tempera paints) . Next, she drew her design with a cotton swab, rubbed a piece of paper onto the glass over her design.

Lifting the paper revealed these great prints. The turquoise one in the foreground is her best one because the layer of paint was the thickest.
Thanks to The Artful Parent for the idea.

Read more...

Morning Circle Time

Bear and I kind of do a modified circle time. We do circle time while she eats breakfast. We sing a few songs: "There are seven days in a week," "Today is _____," and then two more songs or nursery rhymes. Then I read or retell a story and we do a story stretcher. It starts out our day nicely.

Read more...

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Felt Board

While Bear slept on Monday morning, I cut out all the parts of The Very Hungry Caterpillar story for her felt board. I've been meaning to do this ever since I made the felt board. It felt good to finally get it done! She woke up a bit before I could sew/glue certain bits together, but she had a blast playing with this and having me retell the story while she ate breakfast. Bear's friend, Mrs. Sayuri, also has a wonderful Hungry Caterpillar Felt board. Go check it out!

Read more...

Sand Painting

Bear loved doing this.
First, you squeeze liquid white glue onto a piece of card stock. We reuse old file folders a lot for card stock. Next, you scoop some sand onto the glue. We brought a pail of sand back from our trip to the beach this weekend. I know that in the States you can buy colored sand. That would make this art project even prettier.

Last, you pour the sand off the paper.

Read more...

AppleCheeks Cloth Diapers Giveaway

Check out this giveaway here. It's to win an Apple Cheek cloth diaper. Seems like a great cloth diaper. I sure hope I win it. Then Baby boy will have at least one nice diaper that isn't homemade!

Read more...

Homemade Puzzles

This is a very easy way to reuse greeting cards. Just cut them like a puzzle. You can cut them in as many pieces as you want to increase or decrease the difficulty for your child. The puzzles pictured are too easy for Bear now. I'll be making some 4 to 6 piece ones shortly. You can also put magnet behind each piece and have your child play with the puzzle on the fridge while you cook, or on a cookie sheet in the car.

Read more...

Keeping Bear Occupied in the Car and Plane

When Bear was in the infant carrier, she would cry nonstop. It was stressful and exhausting so we didn't really go far in the car. Thankfully, switching car seats helped a lot! Now she is happy looking out of the window and listening to music.

However, for longer car rides, here are some ways we keep Bear busy. Most of these are also used on airplane rides.

Books
I Spy board
Music - we listen to a lot of music in the car and sing along.
Story telling
Crayons and sketchbook
Felt board
Snacks - less in the car, more in the airplane.
Walking up and down the aisle of the airplane a lot!
Stopping for potty and walk breaks on car rides.

Check out ABC and 123 for more great ideas.

Read more...

Washing Dishes

Sometimes, Bear likes to help wash dishes with me at the sink.

Read more...

Cloth Diapers

We're going to do elimination communication with the new baby. Here is one mother's experience using EC with her 5 week old son.

EC is how I toilet trained Bear at 12 months. I had heard of EC when Bear was 6 months but thought it would be too much work. However, at 12 months, when Bear would NOT let me change her diapers anymore, I decided EC couldn't be that difficult. Now I have a potty trained 22 month old (though I still need to help her with getting her panties on and off and wiping).

Since we are going to be using EC from the beginning with the new baby, I have decided to also start this baby in cloth diapers. I'll probably still use some disposables when we are out, but very few. I have been sewing some newborn sized diapers using old receiving blankets and towels. I already have some diaper covers to use. I just couldn't justify the cost of all those beautiful, but expensive, cloth diapers like the ones that 'Lil Ladybug wears, although I'd love to splurge on them.

Does anyone out there have experiences with cloth diapering or EC?

Read more...

A Color Nature Walk

Inspired by this, Bear and I set off on a color nature walk and found something for every color but orange. This is so easy and so fun. All you need is a little paint and an egg carton and a sunny day.

Read more...

Water Activities

Bear is getting a water activity as her morning counter activity each morning this week. Monday, she transferred water with a sponge.

Tuesday she will transfer water with a spoon. The cloth is for Bear to wipe any spills. The pitcher is for her to pour the water into the container on the left.
Wednesday she will practice pumping water from a liquid soap dispenser and Thursday she will have a few dishes to clean with a sponge. Friday we leave for the beach.

Read more...

Felt Puppets

A long while back, I saw this post at The Whipples and was inspired to make my own felt puppets. Finally, I have some finished. I forgot to embroider the three bear's faces before I sewed them together. This batch will remain faceless, but I plan on making some of more of these puppets as birthday presents. Those new ones will have faces. I'm planning on making a set of puppets for The Three Little Pigs as well. And of course, I still have to make the grandma and woodcutter and the rest of the Gingerbread Man characters.

Read more...

Tot School

-Bear is 22 months-

This week Bear did the stereognostic bag.

This is what was in there. I place one of every pair in her pink bag. I show her an object (from the ones that are out of the bag) and have her feel it, then she has to feel for the match in her bag.
Bear played a lot with her dollhouse this week.
Free paint. She chose the tools she wanted this day. We did a lot of painting this week. Bubble wrap prints, stencils, and free paint.Making muffins. We love our carrot, zucchini, banana muffins. I know that sounds a little strange, but we've reduced the sugar a lot in the recipe so the bananas add some sweetness.

After making hte muffins, she transferred her snack of raisins back and forth for a while.Puzzles, but these knob ones are two easy now.

These 6 piece puzzles are a little challenging, but with a bit of scaffolding she does okay.

And for those of you who do themes with your Little Ones, here is a great site for ideas.

Read more...

New uses for color sort cards

Bear still doesn't want to sort the color cards. Oh well, why worry, she can at least tell me what color everything is. And she loves the cards and pulling them out and looking at them. I decided to come up with a couple more uses for them.


Story telling:Bear always starts with the card with the little girl in white pajamas. Then she hands me a card and I tell her a story. In the one above, the little girl woke up and had bananas and pancakes for breakfast. Then she put on her gloves and took her bucket for a walk in the grass where she saw her cat chasing butterflies...etc.

Loto game:
I made these game boards (but I actually have to make them again, larger, because our cards don't fit on these.) I made two boards, but you need as many boards as there are players. The cards are placed upside down between the players. The players take turns choosing a color sort card, turning it over and placing it on their board if they can. Whoever fills up their board first wins.

Read more...

Bubble Wrap Prints

Bear loved using the roller to spread the paint (I watered down some Tempera paint) on the bubble wrap. Then she placed a piece of paper over the paint and rubbed.
When she lifted the paper, she had a nice print.
We also tried this with a piece of ribbed card and made a print of lines. It was a good lesson on dots (bubble wrap) and lines.

Read more...

Lower Case Letters

I wanted to make a couple of tools to show Bear the lower case letters. Her fridge magnets, foam letters, and alphabet puzzle are all upper case, but children really should learn lower case letters first as most of what they will read is lower case.

The idea for the pipe cleaner letters came from Chasing Cheerios.
The idea for the paint sample letter board came from The Snail's Trail. I didn't have fancy scrap book letter stickers like she did, though, so I just wrote the letters with a Sharpie. I made upper case letter squares for Bear to match to the lower case letter.
I haven't used either with Bear yet. We played at reenacting Chicka Chicka Boom Boom with the paint sample letters before they were glued down and then Bear helped to glue them.

Read more...

Great Websites for Art Ideas

This post is for the Picnic Table Talk on ABC and 123 . I think I'm a couple days early with it, but oh well.

When I taught third grade in Canada, I had to teach my own art component. This was actually my favorite part of teaching. I firmly believe that art appreciation needs to be taught in conjunction to making art. I often turned to these great websites for ideas. These sites offer great art projects as well as ideas as to how to teach a bit of art history and art appreciation.

KinderArt
Incredible Art Department (here you can get lessons per age group or grade level and they have great middle school lesson ideas for those with older kids)

And don't forget this blog: Art Projects for Kids.

Read more...

Homemade Granola

I always thought granola would be hard to make. On Saturday evening, Bear helped me mix the ingredients together to make some. I based our homemade granola on the recipe here, changing things a bit to use what we had in our pantry.

2 cups of rolled oats (not instant)
1 cup of sliced almonds (I didn't have anything else, but sunflower seeds would be good to combine in here too. I can't find them here.)
2 Tbsp wheat germ (I actually forgot this ingredient but will add it next time)
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 cup honey
2-3 Tbsp olive oil (I didn't have canola)

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees
2. Mix all the ingredients in a mixing bowl until combined.
3. Place the mixture on a cookie sheet and spread it out until it covers the sheet. (I used parchment paper on my cookie sheet to keep my cookie sheets clean.)
4. Bake for 30 minutes.
5. The woman at Weelicious wrote to bake another 40 minutes, but I only baked another 15 or 20 minutes and then it looked ready.
6. Remove from the oven. Let it cool before stirring if you like chunkier granola.

We all taste tested it and love it. Couldn't wait for breakfast the next day!

Read more...

Tot School Update

-Bear is almost 22 months-

Even though I have been unable to contribute to Tot School updates lately, Bear has been busy.

Here are some of the things we've been doing:

Wooden Puzzles - shape puzzle, alphabet puzzle, animal puzzles
Matching games - matching numbers, letters, and initial letter sounds to objects
Rice pit
Walks - during these walks, Bear likes to walk across a plank of wood to practice her balance
Hanging clothes on a hook
Helping Mommy sort laundry
PlayDoh
Shape sorter
Stacking rings
Nesting boxes (she prefers to nest them than to stack them)
Alphabet Fridge magnets
Collages
Painting with cotton swabs

Playing endlessly with felt dolls

*Note: sharp scissors look extremely close to Bear, but I was cutting out more felt clothing for her as she played, then paused briefly to take this photo. After photo, I resumed my cutting.

(Helping) Baking muffins and a cake
Stringing beads
Counting marbles
Reading (her favorite this week is Are You My Mother? and Mixed up Magic)
Telling stories
Playing with her 15 month old cousin who was visiting from the States

Read more...

Raising a Tri-Lingual Child

Someone commented that I should write a post about how I go about teaching Bear Spanish, French, and English.

First, let me say that I am not an expert in this department. I am simply doing what seems pedagogically best to me.

Spanish is covered by my husband. He speaks to her only in Spanish and since we live in Costa Rica, almost everyone around her also speaks to her in Spanish.

French and English are my department and these are more challenging. Challenging because I find it confusing for myself to switch back and forth. When Bear was born, I would alternate singing and talking to her in French and English. But I seemed to use French more. Now I speak to her mostly in English. Starting at around 12 months I wanted to focus on one language until she had started talking a bit. I felt the three languages would slow her talking. I am still speaking French, but a lot less of it. However, now that she has acquired quite a lot of words in English, I have started increasing the amount of French.

What I find works best is to say everything twice - once in French and once in English. She can tell when I switch languages because my voice sounds different in English than it does in French. Something to do with inflection.

In the car we listen to a lot of French songs. At home we listen mostly to English songs. We read a lot of French and English books. (Interestingly, we own hardly any Spanish books.)

When we start homeschool preschool next year when Bear is three, I plan on following the method of the Atlanta International School. Monday in English all day, Tuesday in French, Wednesday in English, Thursday in French, Friday in English, and then the next Monday in French...etc. The theme-based lessons continue from each other, but alternate in language, so you are never repeating the lessons. My husband will continue to speak to her in Spanish and she will have formal Spanish instruction when she starts kindergarten here.

Right now for letters and numbers, I focus on English. With colors and shapes, I waited until she had the concepts down fairly well in English then I talked about colors and shapes in French. Now she knows her colors in all three languages, and her shapes in English and French. She understands all three languages, but probably understands best in English right now.

For those of you who aren't bilingual but would like to teach your child a second language, I recommend reading them those bilingual board books and picture books and having them listen to children's music in the second language. Label the things around the house in the second language. Those of you who do letter of the week, you could talk about words in another language that also start with that letter. These are just little ideas, but they open your child's awareness to other languages.

Read more...

A New Alphabet Book

I mentioned in a previous post that Bear and I were going to start a making a new alphabet book - an Animal Alphabet for which I am in the process of finding all the pictures to put in it. For anyone interested, here is our animal list:

Ant
Bear
Cat or Cow
Dog or Duck
Elephant
Frog
Goat
Horse
Iguana
Jaguar
Kangarou
Lion
Monkey
Newt
Octopus
Penguin
Quail
Raccoon
Snake
Turtle
Urchin
Vulture
Whale or Walrus
X - foX (words that end in x are better representations of its sound)
Yak
Zebra

Interestingly, after I compiled this list, I saw this in my Google Reader. (A very similar list compiled by Letters, Numbers, and Books, Oh My.)

Read more...

New background:)

Thanks to DebsCraft for such beautiful free blog backgrounds!

Read more...

More letter sound recognition ideas

Today, Bear started putting her parrot magnets all together on the fridge and saying "p" (letter name, not sound). I was a little astounded because she initiated this and actually said the letter name. I hardly use letter names (I use the letter sounds) with Bear as she is learning three languages at once and there is more consistency in the letter sounds than in the letter names among those languages (French, Spanish, and English). So this led to a game in which she found the initial letter to go with each of the animal magnets on the fridge.

Another game I tried with Bear today was to hold three to four fridge magnet letters in my hand so she could see them. Here is a sample of what was said:

"Bear, if Mommy says "cake" what letter do you hear first?"

She then chose the letter "c" from my hand. I was using words I don't normally use when we do letter sounds just to see if she actually knew the letter sounds as opposed to knowing only certain word-letter associations. We didn't do all the letters, but she correctly answered the few I asked her.

Read more...

Number recognition and matching

I created a simple number matching game for Bear using jar lids and a piece of cardstock. Bear enjoyed matching the lids to the circles on the board as I named each number she chose. After she had placed them all, we counted (well, I did mostly). She asked to do this a couple of times in a row (which she did NOT for the pompom size sorting) so I've left it out on her shelf for tomorrow.

Read more...

Size Sorting

Bear loves pom poms. Today I had her sort some into three sizes of plastic bowls. We were working on small, medium, and big. She had an easy time putting all the big ones in the big bowl. However, although she liked trying to say the word medium, she kept mixing the small ones with the medium ones. When asked what size particular pompom was, she was able to tell me, so it wasn't that the small and medium pompoms were too close in size. Perhaps she was just bored with the sorting by this point and was acting goofy as a result.

Read more...