Modern Art Mondays

My two little artists were very busy this morning.

The pictures were taken with my cell phone because I was afraid to run and get the camera. (Hey, do you blame me?? Would you leave a 1 year old and a 2 year old alone in a room armed with paint and brushes?!)

Inspiration came to Marcus (2) while he was suppose to be eating breakfast. While eating he jumped out of his chair and said, "Mama, I need my paint."

Who am I to stop an artist or interfere with flash genius like that? So I quickly provided him some paints and he went to work. Soon after Sophia (1) started objecting loudly to the fact that Marcus was out of his chair painting while she was strapped into her high chair. I let her out and it became a joint collaboration.

Here is their final masterpiece. Enjoy!

Pre-Reading Skills: Building Print Awareness

Recently I attended a free program on early literacy skills for 2 year olds put on by the Westerville Public Library. It was part of the American Library Association's "Every Child Ready to Read" program.

The program summarized 6 important pre-reading skills for you child to have. According to research, these are skills that your child must have in order to learn to read.

The skills were:

1.) Print Awareness: Noticing print, knowing how to handle a book and knowing how to follow the words on a page.

2.) Vocabulary: Knowing the name of things.

3.) Letter Knowledge: Knowing letters are different from each other, knowing their names and sounds and recognizing letters everywhere.

4.) Phonological Awareness: Being able to hear and play with the smaller so

unds in words.

5.) Print Motivation: Being interested in and enjoying books.

6.) Narrative Skills: Being able to describe things and events and tell stories.

I would like to talk about the first of these skills Print Awareness. Print Awareness includes learning that writing in English follows basic rules such as flowing from top-to-bottom and left-to-right, and that the print on the page is what is being read by someone who knows how to read. (In other words, a child knowing that you are reading the words on the page and not just describing the pictures.) Print Awareness also includes knowing how to handle a book. For example, knowing which way to hold a book and knowing how to turn the pages.

There are several obvious methods to building Print Awareness. The first is taking advantage of read-aloud time.

When reading aloud to your child:

• Occasionally use your finger to point to the words that you are reading. (Don't over do this because it can get annoying!),
  
• Ask your child to turn the pages when you finish reading all of the words on the page, and
  
• Ask your child to help you hunt for a specific letter

Here are some other fun ideas on teaching Print Awareness:

Let your child be the teacher: Children love correcting adults when they do something wrong. Amber over at Because Babies Grow Up suggests this lovely idea to help teach Print Awareness:

"Hold the book upside down and begin to read. It's so fun to see little ones flip out because it's not right! Look for them to turn the books right-side up when they are exploring books on their own. "

Make your own books: If your child is the crafty type, they may enjoy making their own books. The Grand County Library District made this suggestion:

"If your story time includes craft time, make books with children about topics of interest to them (such as dinosaurs, trucks, or birds). It may take several weeks, but if your group is fairly consistent, the process of making a book will help children learn the parts of the book and how a book works in English (the story goes from front to back, the writing goes from left to right, and title goes on the front cover)."

Song Boards: Denise at Explorations, came up with an excellent idea of building Print Awareness. She uses song boards with her girls. Be sure to visit her blog for some great ideas!

"I introduce each song and sing it to the children while using a pointer to follow the print. We reread the chart several times over the course of several days or weeks. As we read and reread the songs, the girls gain valuable insights into how print works. They learn that printed words match spoken words, that print is read left to right and top to bottom, and they gain knowledge of letters and sounds. Most importantly, we have fun reading together!"

"No Cooties Allowed!": Joint writing is a great way to promote Print Awareness. Let your child dictate an email to Grandma. Or, help your child to make homemade signs to hang on their door. (Example: No Boys Allowed!) Teach them that print is a very strong way to tell people what you want.

I would love to see your comments. Please share with me your favorite methods of teaching print awareness. Also, if you have any great book recommendations that

help teach Print Awareness please share those too.

How do you introduce letters?

We are gearing up on our tot school this month, and I have been putting a lot of thought into how to introduce the alphabet to the kids. This seems to be quite a controversial subject among childhood educators. There are several different theories on how to introduce the alphabet. And, of course, there are pros and cons to each of these methods.

Alphabetical Order:

As the name implies, the letters are introduced in order of the alphabet. This is the method used by several homeschool preschool curriculums (including very popular ones such as letter of the week). The pros of this method are that the order of the alphabet is learned at the same time that letter recognition is taught. The cons of this method are that a lot of instructional time must pass before students are ready to use their developing letter knowledge for reading and writing. Also, according to the authors the learning cooperative "abc and 123",

"The first five letters of the alphabet are 5 difficult letters to master. a & e are difficult to because they are vowels and make more than one sound. b and d are confusing because of their similar appearance. c is a consonant that makes more than one sound."

Phonics Driving Model:

This is the method utilized by most childhood educators to introduce the alphabet. This method is also called the "CVC" method since usually a consonant is taught, followed by a vowel, followed by another consonant. This method is thought to build early reading confidence since children are immediately able to start reading and spelling common three letter words with their knowledge. (CAT, PEN, HAM, etc.) In thi method, typically several consonant are introduced first, followed by a vowel.

So...tell me, how did you introduce the alphabet to your child? Did you follow one of the methods above, or utilize something different? What worked for your family and why?

Feelie Goop

Wow! This was a huge hit with the kids. But, I must warn you, this project is not for the faint of heart!  Expect a little bit of a mess.  However, the mess will be well worth it since this project is a lot of fun for moms and kids alike.  

I wanted to post this project before the summer is over because it is a perfect project to do outside. It takes very little preparation and clean up isn't too bad. However, I personally wouldn't want to do this in the house. (No matter how many rags I put down!)

Description: This is a great tactile, sensory project with tons of open-ended possibilities. Cornstarch mixed with water has some very unique physical properties that can not properly be described in words.   (You have to feel it to believe it!)  When clumped into your hands, the mixture turns into a soft solid.  When pressure is released it seemingly melts into a liquid.)  liquid as it pours from a spoon.

The Science Behind this Concoction:

If you are interested in the science behind this substance, see this article here.  

Materials:

2 cups Cornstarch 

1 cup water 

Heavy baking pan or dish tub (1 per child...tots don't like to share!)

plenty Spoons, Measuring Cups, and other kitchen tools (we used whisks and sandbox rakes)

food coloring

Preparation:

Set a table up outside for older toddlers. Or, for very young toddlers, you might just set up everything on the ground. (That way the toddler can walk around and really feel, see, and manipulate the goop.)

On the table set a measuring cup full of cornstarch, another measuring cup full of water. The author suggests that you pre-measure 2 cups of cornstarch (per child) and 1 cup of water (per child). The measurements don't have to be precise...so I didn't do this. Since I only had two toddlers, I let them help in the measuring and pouring part too.

Next to the table, the author suggest having a bucket of soapy water and a sponge for clean up. (Kids love to help out in the clean up process!) I just brought out a hose and a few old towels. Some kids will love getting their hands in the goop, while others are more tentative and preferred to have you clean them off throughout the project. Just follow the child's lead and let them determine how they want to "experience" the goop. You will also want to dress the kids in some old clothes that you won't mind if they get messed up.

Process:

1) Stand at the table and allow the child to feel the dry corn starch. They might enjoy measuring it, pouring it, feeling it between their fingers, "poofing" it into a cloud. etc.

2) Have the child help you pour the water into the dry cornstarch. Have the child help you mix the two ingredients using their hands or a spoon.

3) Feel the difference between the dry cornstarch and the new goopy substance. Allow the children to explore the substance with small "pouring" cups, spoons, whisks, etc. Basically, any other fun kitchen utensils you can find.

4) For added fun, allow the child to squeeze some food coloring into the mixtures. Slowly stir it up and watch the color swirl around. Allow the child to choose the color they want to mix into their goop. And, if they want, mix a second or third color in. Talk about how different colors mix together to make other colors. (Yellow and Red make Orange, Blue and Green make Teal, Red and Blue make Purple, etc.) And...mostly likely, you will end up with beautiful gray goop by the end of the process. :)

5) MOST IMPORTANTLY: Follow the kids lead and avoid trying to control the process. (I know! This is hard for us moms!) Some kids may not like getting their hands messy. That is fine. Respect that choice...and perhaps in a couple of weeks bring the goop out again and let them try again. Some kids will simply want to pour their pan of goop out immediately instead of experimenting enough for our taste. Let them do this and know that cornstarch cleans up VERY easily with a little water. Like all open-ended art, this project is impossible to do incorrectly or mess up.

Notes:

Cornstarch is non-toxic. It tastes terrible, but won't harm children who can't resist tasting the mixture.

This picture cracks me up because right when I went to snap it both kids snuck a taste.

Our Experience:

The kids loved this process. While the pictures might not convey this (because of all of the sloppy, fun, mess!) playing in this dough was a very calming thing for the kids. They both were in full concentration mode as the played with the goop. This project kept us busy for a LONG time.

Feeling the Goop in his palms:

Feeling the Goop with his feet LOL (gotta leave it to a little boy to think of this!):

Sophia makes orange:

Mixing:

Pouring:

See These Other Related Posts:

Goop Playgroup

Playful Learning-Tot School

(Sophia is 15 months old and Marcus is 32 months old.)

We had a great week of playful learning at our house this week.

First, we had a little "life school" when we visited the zoo. We are very blessed to live 20 minutes from the world famous Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. Which, by the way, was recently rated the number one zoo in the USA thanks largely to Dublin, Ohio native Jack Hanna! (Go C-BUS!!) Sorry, I just had to plug our hometown!

Last weekend we made a trip there to visit the newborn baby elephant. The baby elephants official name is Beco, but Marcus told me that he wants to call the baby elephant Jumbo Jr. (I personally think that he came up with a great name too!)

And...of course, the kids favorite, the MERRY GO 'ROUND!!!

Today, we did our first official day of Tot School. A big hit today were our Alphabet Nesting and Stacking Blocks. I love this toy. It teaches the kids so many things. When I first brought this toy out (several weeks ago), I have to admit that it didn't really hold Marcus's attention. But,I didn't give up and kept just bringing it out and now he loves it. He is too young to really understand sequencing the letters or numbers. But, he is learning about basic architecture (straightening the blocks to make the tower more stable) and also about size differences.

Sophia also enjoyed the blocks. I am noticing that both of the kids are making leaps and bounds in their hand eye coordination and fine motor development.

Another big hit was stacking up the blocks, and then having our stuffed spider man tackle the tower to knock it down. We had a couple of sibling fights over this when Sophie tried knocking down Marcus's tower with Superman too. Finally we had to make a rule that you were only allowed to knock down towers that you had built. :)

After the blocks Sophia had some fun lacing the beads.

She still needs a lot of help with this. But, I know from past experience with Marcus that one day she will just amaze me and be able to do it on her own.

Marcus played with his dress up bears. He still needs some guidance to get the pieces into the proper places. But, he loves to tell stories using the puzzle which I think it very fun. I love that it encourages narration because is so great to hear the different things he makes up about the various outfits, facial expressions, etc. This toy also teaches different emotions. (We work on labeling the faces as happy, scared, sad, angry, sleeping, etc.) And it also teaches about weather and dressing. We talk about why the bear might want to wear his rain coat vs. his PJs for example.

Next we pulled out the stack and sort board. I can't say enough good things about this toy. First of all, it is wildly engaging. The kids LOVE it. Secondly, it is so easy to learn from. It teaches colors, shapes, counting, sorting by color and shape, etc. I would even go as far to say that this is probably the best toy you could buy for 10 bucks!

Sophia doesn't quite understand sorting yet. But, she was VERY good at lining up the pegs into the shapes holes. She did that like a pro.

I was also proud that her big brother was trying to teach her how to sort by shape and color.

And here is Marcus doing the puzzle for the 11th time that morning! He loves this toy.

Another favorite in our house is their pound and roll tower. Marcus loves this toy. And Sophia is just now catching the "pound and roll fever"! We use this toy to discuss colors, "Hand me the blue ball Sophia!" and to practice our hand eye coordination.

After naps we went outside and made some "feelie goup". This was a BLAST. I probably enjoyed this as much as the kids did even though it made a huge mess. We all had so much fun! Here is a picture of the messy fun!

About Us

Hello and Welcome to The Attached Mama!

My name is Cathy and I am an attached mama to two wonderful children born 16 months apart.  Life here can be hectic at times, but I wouldn't trade a minute of it!  This is a blog all about my adventures as a home maker and an attached parent.   I hope you enjoy reading it.


Have a question for The Attached Mama?   




This blog is organized into several main categories:

1)  Playfully Learning -  A highlight of some of the ideas and tools that we use to create a fun, exciting, and rich environment for my children.  My main goal is to help foster an early love of learning in my children.  To do this, we use a follow a very gentle learning path based mostly on rich  literature, child-led activities, creative outlets, and lots and lots of sunshine and fresh air.  I don't follow any particular method.  However, I do draw ideas and inspiration from some of the teachings and writings of educators like Maria Montessori and Charlotte Mason. 

2)  Just for Mama -  This is a section dedicated to all of my adventures (and misadventures!) homemaking.  It contains articles specifically dedicated to things like meal planning, recipes, sewing, crafting, gardening, and all things in between.

3)  Attachment Parenting -  As co-leader of the Columbus Attachment Parents group, I discuss some of my experiences raising two children as an attached parent.  I also discuss articles and research relating to attachment parenting that I find interesting. 

4)  Ask the Attached Mama -   This is a fun weekly feature where you can talk directly to me.   Got a question or want to hear my two cents? You can submit your questions here.  All names and addresses will be kept strictly confidential. 

Frequently Asked Questions:

What does "Playfully Learning" mean?

I believe that for young children, playing and learning go hand in hand. In other words, it is impossible to do one without the other. I believe that the best thing I can do to encourage learning through play is to fill their environment with fun, engaging activities, books, and toys---And then step back and let them decide how they want to explore those tools. For that reasons, 99% of the activities you see described on this site are child led. When my children show an interest in something, I do my best to support and encourage their interest. If my children are not interested in an activity, I STOP. Nothing we do is ever forced.

How are the "Playfully Learning" activities organized on this site?

I have tried to organize our activities two different ways:

1) By Age- In order to help you find ideas that may be most appropriate for your child's skills and abilities, actives can be sorted by age. I stress, however, that all children are different and learn at their own unique pace. Do not fall into the trap of comparing your child to other children. What may be easy for your 2 year old, may be extremely difficult for my 2 year old. Some children excel in verbal communication while lagging behind in fine motor skills. Some children begin reading at 3 while others do not learn until 7 or 8. The age references given on this site are meant to serve as approximate guidelines only. They are certainly not an indicator of what your child should or should not be able to do.

2) By Skill Focus- This is a tricky category to organize activities into. Mainly because many of the activities my children enjoy cross over into multiple subject matters. True 'playful learning' activities will help build skills in multiple areas. For example, how could one categories the learning potential of playing in a sandbox? It could potentially teach a child so much depending on the direction they decide to go in. For this reason it is impossible to list all of the skills one particular activity might build. Still, I know that this would be a useful search tool for parents to have, so I will do my best to organize the activities in this way.

What is Attachment Parenting?
Attachment parenting is a term first used by pediatrician and author Dr. William Sears.  It is based on the idea of using sensitivity and emotionally available parenting to help foster a strong bond or attachment with children early in life.  It is his theory that a strong bond can help children develop the  emotional intelligence they need empathize with others, connect with their peers, and succeed in life. 

See also:  The 7 Benefits of Attachment Parenting,
 

What regular posts can I expect? 

For now, these are my regular features. I hope to add more in the future.

Tot School-A weekly wrap up of what we did that week playfully learning. Tot School is a weekly feature on the 1+1+1=1 blog. I highly recommend you check it out.

Ask The Attached Mama - Got a question about parenting, homemaking, sewing, or lesson planning?  Ask it here.   I will choose the best questions each week to answer. 

Ideas by Subject

Welcome to The Attached Mama's Playful Learning Idea Box!

I hope that these ideas will inspire some fun and creative 'playful learning' at your house.  If you would rather view ideas by age, you can click here. 

View Ideas by Subject:

Language Arts (See all Language Arts Ideas by clicking here)-

• Learning with Literature
  
• Alphabet and Phonics Activities
  
• Pre-Reading Skills
• Handwriting
• The Ultimate Alphabet Craft Collection - be sure to check out this section to see a MASSIVE amount of totally wonderful and awesome ideas for learning letter identification and phonics with your child. 

Activities for Physical Development-

• Gross Motor Activities-This section has ideas to develop the large muscles, such as those in the legs, arms, and back. These muscles help children to walk, run, balance, and climb.
  
• Fine Motor Activities-This section has ideas to develop the small muscles in the hands and fingers.
  

Creative Activities-

• Handicraft and Art Creation for Preschoolers
  
• Blocks
  
• Dramatic Play
  

Activities for Learning About the World Around Them-

• Nature Study
  
• The Senses or Sensory Play Ideas
  
• Life Skills or Practical Life
• Artist Study
• Music Study
  

Math (See all Math Ideas by clicking here)

• Size
  
• Shapes
  
• Colors
  
• Numbers and Counting