Learning and Playing: Our week in review

Here are just a few highlights from Marcus and Sophia's week playing and learning....


Learning Trays:
I had the following learning activities on the learning shelves* for the kids--

1)  Animal Domino Set
Aren't these things cute?  I just love this toy.  These are made by Plan Toys and like most Plan Toys they are extremely durable and well made.   I love these dominoes particularly because they are extra large.  So even very little hands can be successful at stacking them and manipulating them.  Marcus and Sophia don't yet understand the rules of the classic dominos.  However, we played some matching and grouping games with these.   The kids also had fun setting up long domino chains and "huffing and puffing" them down like the big bad wolf.  The other activity that they came up with was using the dominos to build a train across the floor.   All in all this was a very popular tray that promoted basic math skills (matching and sorting); language skills (talking about the animals); fine motor skills (setting up domino chains); and creative skills (pretending to be the big bad wolf and building a train).  Not bad for a simple toy! 

2)  Nuts and Bolts Matching
I found these at a Once Upon a Child store near my house.  (That is where I buy most of our toys.)  These are old school Melissa and Doug Nuts and Bolts.  I can't find these on amazon anymore to link them up for you, so they must be pretty old.  The came in a wooden base that you can actually screw the nuts into, but that proved too difficult for Marcus and Sophia.  So, I took them out and put them on a tray instead so they could twist the bolts with their hand.  I like this particular nuts and bolts set because it emphasises both colors and shapes.  Each nut and bolt is a different color and shape.  The st is also self correcting.  (Only the yellow nut will match the yellow bolt.)

3)  Magnetic Dress Up Doll
Sophia really enjoys this toy.  It helps build vocabulary by teaching her to describe the dolls clothes.  It is also a good toy to practice dexterity as she has to manipulate the tiny little pieces to dress her doll.

4)  Star Counting Game
This was a practice in counting and math. Basically each laminated card had a picture of a spaceship a moon, and some stars.  At the bottom of the cards were three numbers.  (Different numbers were on different cards and they were not in any particular order.)  The child had to count the stars and then put the clothespin on the correct number.  I downloaded these cards for free from some site, but I now completely forget where I got them from. (I hate that!)   If anyone recognizes them, please leave a comment so I can give credit. 

5)  Lacing Cards
The kids see me sewing all of the time, so they were excited when I told them that they could sew with these cards.  However, they quickly lost interest in the lacing.  Instead they mostly pretended to eat the foam food.  :) 

6)  Fruits and Vegetables Cutting Set
You will have to forgive this picture.  As I type this, most of the fruits and vegetables are spread across the living room floor.  Very few got put back on the shelf like they are suppose to.  So I used the stock photo from amazon so you could see the toy we have. This is an ingenious idea for a toy.  The wooden fruit "components" are held together with strong velcro.  The child then uses a wooden knife to "cut" the toys apart.  Marcus and Sophia love pretending to cut the food and serve it to me.  This is an excellent fine motor activity.

  

(Photo courtesy of Amazon.com) 

*To see more information on how we use our learning shelves, please visit this tot school post here. 

Other fun learning and playing:

We had a light alien unit theme going recently.  Marcus was interested in checking out some books about aliens so we just kind of went from there.  (Hence the space ship math activity above.  I made that to tie in with our theme.) 

We made Letter A's in the shape of aliens...

....And we made Alien Masks.

We also played with Moon Sand.  (Speaking of moon sand, I also found a recipe for making homemade moon sand.  I can share that if anyone is interested.  The commercial moon sand is so expensive, so I was glad to finally find a decent homemade version.) 

Marcus and Sophia also experimented with their hanging monkey toy.  They learned a lot about weights and balancing a scale with this. 

The kids also brought out their beginner pattern blocks.  They each choose which pictures they wanted to build with the shapes.  They were very proud of their creations so they each wanted me to take their picture why they laid by their work.  :)

 And we also made a Batman Letter B to add to our alphabet books. 

Sophia also hung out in our listening center while she read her nursery rhyme book while following along to the CD.  She just loved doing this!  This is a great activity for building print awareness.

..And as you know, we love books at our house!  These are the books that Marcus and Sophia chose to read this week.

Learning and Playing: Our Week in Review

 Here is an overview of what we did this week.  We use the Sonlight P3/P4 curriculum supplemented with some Montessori based tot school.


Learning Trays:
I had the following learning activities on the shelves for the kids--  (Note:  You can see more information on some of these activities by clicking on the links.)

1)  Cutting Practice (post coming soon!)

2)  Magnifying Glass Picture Match

 3)  Snake Counting Game

 4)  Melissa and Doug Magnetic Fishing Game

 5)  Lacing Beads

  6)  Pom-Pom Color Match (post coming soon!)

How We Use Learning Trays:
I keep the learning trays on a shelf in our "library".  When I first put out an activity I will show the kids how to "play the game" and how to put it away when they are finished.   Then, I leave them to it!  When they want to get out an activity, they are allowed.  If they are not interested, they can play with whatever they want instead. 

The green roll that you see in the top shelf is a rug that we use with the snake counting game.  I teach the kids how to roll it up and put it away when they are finished.  Sometimes that is more fun for them then the actual game. 

Some of these actives are repeats from last week.  I like to leave an activity out until I notice that they are no longer interested in it.  Why switch it out if they are still having fun with it?  Right?


Besides our Learning Activities, we had a lot of fun and playful learning moments at home and away.
Here is what we did this week.


Sunday
The kids went to Nana's house to play at the pirate fort.    They also played in their swimming pool and had fun pouring and dumping water.

Monday
On Monday, we went to a special tot school themed playgroup hosted by a friend of mine.  (For more information on our tot school play group, check out Barefoot in Suburbia.)    The kids read some books, played with sidewalk chalk, water, and various tot school toys.  Sophia enjoyed covering a page with stickers and Marcus found another little boy to play star wars with.  I enjoyed some GREAT conversation and company.  So all in all, it was a great day.

 (Photo courtesy of barefoot in suburbia) 

Tuesday
The kids got out their Learning Trays in the morning.  Sophia worked on sorting by color, and matching with her magnifying glasses.  Marcus was interested in playing with the fishing puzzle and stringing some beads on a shoelace.  (He said he was making a necklace for Nana.)

We also spent lots of time cuddling on the couch and reading books together.  My kids love to be read to and I strive to create a literature rich environment for them.  One of the great tools that I have found to do that with is the Sonlight P3/P4 book list.   You can read more about what we read this week here. 

We spent some time working in the garden and harvested our first ripe tomato, along with some GIANT habenaro and jalapenos.

In honor of our first ripe tomato, I read the story The First Tomato by Rosemary Wells. 


Wednesday
Wednesday is our library day.  We usually go to the library as a family and all pick out some new books to read for the week.  After the library, we had a picnic lunch at the playground and did some playing.  Then, we went to dairy queen and ate ice cream.  This has become a weekly tradition this summer.  The kids enjoy it and really look forward to it.  It is so fun to create special memories like this.

When the kids woke up from their nap, we met some friends up at the park for the local outdoor summer concert series.  This week they had a juggler.  It was Marcus and Sophia's first time seeing someone juggle.  Afterwards, they did a lot of pretending that we were juggling.  I packed a picnic dinner and we enjoyed it together as we watched the concert.  It was such a fun time. 

After the concert, we went followed our friends to another park and played until almost 9:00PM at night.  We are really enjoying these long summer days! 

I realized later that we had eaten every single one of our meals under the blue sky on a picnic blanket.  How wonderful is that?  We are very lucky to have such beautiful weather that allows us to do this. 

Thursday
The kids wanted to get out their learning trays again in the morning.   Here they are playing with the magnifying glass activity.

Then we read some more books.  After their nap, we went back to the park and played, played, played. 

Friday:
On Friday we stayed home and played with our toys and learning trays.   Here Marcus is working on the lacing beads.  He said he was going to make a necklace for his Nana.  He loves his Nana.  :)

 And here is Sophia with the cutting tray.

We cuddled on the couch and read some books together.

The kids also worked on their letter A crafts.

Sophia made an Alligator in the shape of an A.

Marcus made an Alien in the shape of an A.

Saturday
We went to the pool together as a family.   The kids enjoyed hot dogs, chips, and ice cream at the pool.  What is more American than that!?

In the afternoon, we were all very tired from swimming.  So, the entire family took a long relaxing two hour nap together. 

When we woke up, we made a special Independence Day craft.  You can read how to make it here.

 At night we went and watched the local fireworks together.  This has been a family tradition since before Doug and I were married.  It is even more fun now that we have some children to share it with.  We set up a place on the field with some lawn chairs.

 We also bring a blanket and pillows so that we can lay down and watch the fireworks together.

We got there early and played on the playground.

Then, we laid on the blanket in the field and watched the fireworks in the field.

 To see what some other kids are doing this week, check out: