Play to Learn: blocks

From the time Girlygirl was first a toddler I gave her blocks to play with. I remember my mom talking about a workshop she went to (she is a preschool teacher). It was all about blocks she told me how great blocks where at teaching. I have now found the info she told me and I want to share some with you. They have so much to teach.

imagination and creativity

self-confidence by allowing a child to be in control and having a feeling of accomplishment

provide opportunities for dramatic play, sharing and cooperative efforts

responsibility for block care and clean-up

involves math and science pre-number skills ie. size, shape, matching and classification, problem solving is inherent in block play

visual discrimination, a pre-reading skill

insight into concepts of inside/outside, open/closed

development of language and vocabulary through discussion and description

mapping skills

color recognition, patterning

develop gross motor skills through lifting, carrying and stacking

develop fine motor skills with smaller blocks

refine eye/hand coordination

Remember the next your child picks up a block to play that they learning. So you can say you are homeschooling. Your child is learning a lot.

Toddler: Starting Table time

Table time is something I learned to do long before I became a mom. I have been a nanny for 3 years and my last Mom/boss had me do it with her girls. The oldest was easy like Girlygirl. I started when she was two and she would sit for over an hour doing whatever you told her to. The younger did not like it much. She started when she was a little over one. I would put her in her high chair with a few toys well I cleaned lunch. It took me 10 min top. For over a month she would cry before the time was up and all the toys would be on the be on the ground. By the age of 2 she could still not do table time for more than 25 min. Just go with your kid and start small and move to more time when you can. Remember you are the boss not your child.

Top 5 Activities For Toddlers

Top 5 Activities For Toddlers

1. Bag things up-it doesn't have to be a bag Girlygirl likes a her toy shopping cart and rolling bag best.
2. Ride in the Laundry Basket-just put them in push or pule them around. Be a bus, a car, or a train to make it even more fun.
3. A big box-to hide in, color, make a house or whatever they can do.
4. Glue-now this one is messy but they love it. You just need per-cut paper and glue. To help Girlygirl but paper in the right place I tell her to hide the glue.
5. Bubbles-no more needs to be said

Homeschool Preschool: The Jar part 2

Here are some pictures of Girlygirl playing with the jar.  She loves the stuff and it make her have to use her imagination.

Homeschool Preschool: Sticker Table time

When I posted last time I said that Grilygirl needs to help with the sticker so I took of the back ground well she no long needs help with it. She has learned to do the stickers all by herself. This is one of Girlygirl's favorite table time active. I give her a notebook or paper stickers and markers or crayons. She will do this for the whole 30 min. It is great when I am hurrying to make dinner.

Homeschool Preschool: The Jar

The Jar is just full of stuff found around my house that I thought Girlygirl could play with.  I got the idea from Guilt Free Homeschooling. Carolyn uses it as a math tool for children to do sorting. Look at her blog for ideas.  Right now Girlygirl really just plays with it at table time. I am sure it will later change as more of a teaching tool. I found a dog treat jar at the Dollar Store.

I filled it with all kinds of fun stuff. Look at the pictures and list for ideas. You  don't need to buy any thing.

In The Jar:

• fake followers
• old caps
• foam letters
• clothes pins
• pompoms
• paper clips
• an few old game pieces
• army men
• baby spoons
• small meal toys
• broken wand top

When making your jar just add things you have in the house if you don't have much to start that is fine things will show up later. I plan to add more and change ours as time goes on.

Mommy Time!

I have to been taking care of 5 kids all summer long. Let me tell you on the days I don't give me time to do what I want no one is happy. So a few times a day I have the kids do something that I can have me time. Here is what the kids do that gives me my time:

• tv-In the morning right after we get to work all the kids can watch tv. They do not always do it but they know for that hour I get a break. 
• quite time-most my kids are too big for a nap. We all do quite time in the afternoon. For an hour and half after lunch. The first 30 min I am getting Girlygirl down for a nap and cleaning up lunch.
• early bed time-When Mr. Man and Tomboy first got here I thought it would be good to let them stay up until 9 or 10. I soon saw I need that time for me.

There is nothing wrong with taking time for you. Sometimes I clean sometimes I read sometimes I blog. It is good for me.

Homeschool preschool: Table time!

Table time is something that I have start to bring into Girlgirl's day. I do it most the time when I am helping the big kids do work. We are all at the table then and she enjoys being with us. I give her a quite thing to play with. She will sit at the table for 30 min. She does two different things at table time things everyday. I don't just put something in front of her and walk away. I help her get started and show her what I would do. I then for the most part let her do her thing. There is no right or wrong way to play. Here is a list of things she does:

• bean & rice bucket-I just got a small plastic bin from the Dollar Store and filled it half way  dried beans and rice. I put a few little cups, old caps (like from the milk) and a few brushes.  Some times I do add small toys in it too.
• letter and number magnets- Again I got a small cookie sheet from the Dollar Store. I got a hug bag of letter and number magnets from a garage sale. With this one I often ask a big kid to sit with her and tell Girlygirl the letter and the sound. (this has helped Five learn her letter sounds)
• other magnets- when at a toy store on our last vacation I found some old ball magnets Grilygirl loved them. I have add more to them now. I give her the container (a small cream cheese container) and the cookie sheet and let her play.
• puzzles- We have gotten them as gifts, and passed down to us from friends with older kids. Girlygirl loves them. I give her one at a time and try to change them before she gets bored with it. When we do puzzles it is for the whole 30 min. but she gets about 5 different puzzles. (if you need to just go between a few it works good too.)
• the jar-I will do a post  about what the jar is soon. But is a cookie jar filled with stuff I found around my house. No toys.
• color-I sometimes just give her one pen and one paper and let her fill it up. Other times I give her a coloring book and her box of crayons. When she is really lucky I give her makers. (be ready for a mess with them)
• books-I just give her two or three books to look at and play with. Hey maybe she will teach herself to read. (lol)
• play dough-I use a place mate and try to get her to keep it on the mate. 
• stickers-I don't do this much because of the cost buy Grilygirl loves it. I give her a few sheets of stickers and let her put them in her note book. Girlygirl is still young and can't get the stickers off if the background paper is still on. I take the background paper off all but one sheet. That way I can see when she doesn't need me to do this any more.
• cards-I use a few different Sesame Street cards we have as well as a real deck of cards. It is fun for her. I am not sure why. We keep cards in her pack back too for when we are out.
• beads-I bought a some big beads (made for kids) she can string them. Girlygirl is not really ready for this. If she does something for a long time I will bring them out for a few min (5 max). She gets mad because she can't do it.
• lacing cards-we have truck ones that where given to us. I have not used them yet. I will let you know how it goes when we do.

I am sure there are many more things you can do. I will be adding to the list later in latter post if you add more things.  I will also be adding picture of Girlygirl at table time in the next few weeks. Keep you eye out for them.

Discipline from the Bible

Proverbs 23:13 Do not hold back discipline from the child, Although you strike him with the rod, he will not die. Ah, how is it when you need to hear something you find it. God is a great God. I have been wondering if I am to hard on the kids. I have been letting Girlygirl get way with more and thinking it is making my life harder. Then I read this. I need to remember that I need not hold back on discipline her. Then, today the big kids (Tomboy & Mr. Man) would not listen to Sweet dude. When I got home I went crazy on them. I took the Tv away for the week and yelled like no tomorrow. I felt bad and like I was to hard on them. Ah, but God then knew what I needed to hear and brought it to my. So remember this verse when you feel like what your doing is not right.

Car Games

In two short weeks I will be driving Tomboy and Mr Man home. I can't believe it. It will be hard to say goodbye to these guys and send them back home. With driving them home I will be in the car from Chicago to Dertio. That is a drive with a boy who has ADHD. I am sure we will do lots of the things from that I wrote about in the claiming your car back post but I fear I will need more. So today I have been looking for idea. I like to write them here to keep them safe when I need them again.

• Games

1. Buried Your Cows-You slept the care in the midle long ways. Esch side counts all the cows one their side.  However if the other side see a cemetery on their side they call "Bury your cows", then you lose all your cows. The team with the most cows when you get home wins.
2. Copy Me-Each player takes turns making a gesture. You must repeat all the gestures that have been made and then add your own. Eg. player one squeezes their nose. Then player two squeeze their nose and pats their head. The third player squeeze their nose, pat their head and add something new. Keep going until a person messes up.
3. Find 100-everyone needs to look for 100 of pick anything. Trees, trucks, cows, buses, ect. Work as a team to find 100 of whatever you pick.
4. The Queen's Cat- This sounds like a great game. Each person takes turn descripeing the Queen's Cat. It must go in alpabetical order.  
5. Three Words only- tell a story with each person only saying three words at a time. For instance, person one word say "I knew a" person two would add "tiger that could" person three could say "only walk like" and then go on until all are done with the story
6. Related words-take turns saying a work that is related to the last word said. For example words could be hot, cold, ice, tea, sweet, girl, ect going on until all are ready to stop.

Girls night In

Play with you kids. I may mean that your house is a mess but playing with you kids i a great thing you can do. When playing a game try to let the little ones join. Girlygirl doesn't realy play but we let her roll the dice and move her own guy. She come and goes thought the game. We had a girls game night with Mr Man and Sweetdude gone. We ate dinner and played a few games.