I spy with my little hand

Isaac and I got this game for the kids this Christmas. It has been one of the most played with toys they received. So I had to share our happiness with it in case anyone else is trying to entertain their youngins' indoors lately. With Set around, I feel like I need to be much more intentional about spending quality time with my big kids. Not that I do it enough, but I'm working on it.

Love that this game is customizable. You'll see what I mean below.
You could also make this whole game yourself. Using a card board box and cutting out holes in the sides, or you could just use a sturdy gift bag and cut holes in the sides.

Here it is at Toys R Us if you just want to click and buy it. Not sold on Amazon right now, boo.

It comes with cards and little 3D objects and some cardboard objects. We don't use the flat cardboard pieces yet because my kids sense of touch is not that keen yet. The 3D objects on the other hand, like the dinosaur and the ball, are just right.

You COULD follow the rules exactly like they're stated in the instructions, but I came up with a way that we find even more fun.

                It's so simple that Charlie can play just as easily as Annette, which is very nice.

How we play....

First we make a stack with the playing cards. (I removed the cards that matched the cardboard objects since we don't use those.)

The first player turns the top card over, and then sticks their hand in the hole nearest them and searches around with their hand until they find the corresponding object. If it takes them too long, we start counting down from 10. (Great for counting backwards practice! If my kids didn't have counting forwards down pat, I'd be practicing counting forwards instead.)

If you pull out the wrong object, or don't find it by the time we've counted down, the rest of the players get to stick their hand in the other hat holes and try to find that object. Whoever finds it first gets to keep that playing card and the object. We don't usually talk about who wins because that causes Annette to get a little too competitive, but if your kids can handle it-- whoever has the most cards at the end would be the winner.

I love that this game comes with blank playing cards. You get to find objects around the house that would make good game objects. A and C helped me search the toy box for items that would work. They picked a toy french fry, a yo-yo, a car, and some other ones. I chose the letter 'B' and a couple of other foam letters :) Always the teacher. Charlie knows over half of his letters, but still needs practice learning the other ones. This is the perfect chance! I will keep adding one or two unknown letters every once in a while. It's already working.

It's a very fun spin on the I Spy game. 

I spy Set sleeping in the chair.

Pumped to have a new go-to game that we can play as a family.

I was getting pretty tired of PPP as Annette calls it. 

(Pretty, pretty, princess)

~morgan

Favorite Books for 2 year olds

Before I had my own kids, I'd just have used my best teacher-educated guess for which books would best suit a two year old.

They would have been pretty good choices, but now that I've had two very active 2 year olds of my own (my son currently in this range), I think I've got an even better list of go-to books for this age group.

Like I mentioned in the 1 year old book post, these books are also great for 3 and 4 and 5 year olds that aren't used to sitting still for a book. These are good attention grabbers and ones that will help build their listening perseverance/stamina.

Charlie is 2.5 and these are his current faves. It's amazing how his stamina has increased in the last 6 months.

1. Goodnight Gorilla is a fun read. This one is great for starting conversations about books. Charlie and I talk about the naughty monkey and all the colored keys. Whose eyes are those in the dark? Questions like that promote inferring and predicting strategies from even this early early reading stage. 

2. Go Dogs Go This one was one of my favorites when I was little. For many years. Annette (3.5) never tires of this one either. It's filled with opposites, prepositional words (under, over), and all kinds of other language perks.

3. Curious George (short) books. Some of the CG books are on the long side, so I stick to the short ones such as The Bunny one and the Opposites one.

4. The Farm Book at only 3.99 on Amazon, that's hard to beat! This is an oldie but a goodie. My kids choose this book over and over again.

5. What do we do with the Boo-Hoo Baby? This is a newer book that is SUCH a hit with little kids. Several farm animals try to figure out how to get a baby to stop crying. Genius idea to keep kids attention.

6. Wacky Wednesday  This one is probably better suited for older 2's. Charlie loves trying to find the shoes on the wall and all over the pages. Annette has a lot of this book memorized she's heard it so many times.

7. It Could Still be a Fish It's a bit more difficult to find non-fiction books for itty bitties that use real photographs. Ones that will keep their attention and aren't too wordy. But this one fits that bill perfectly.

8. What Makes a Rainbow? This is that cool ribbon book that you may have seen before. It's GREAT for teaching colors.

9. Where is the Green Sheep?  by Mem Fox. I actually had the privilege of meeting this author at a teacher's conference and heard her read this book aloud. She gave lots of tips on how to engage kids during a read aloud....things like change up your pace, take sudden pauses, etc.    Great author and great book for teaching opposites and descriptive words to toddlers.

10. David Smells by David Shannon. Some of the other David Shannon books, like No, David! show some pretty unappealing behavior, like picking your nose. I haven't read that one to Charlie because I didn't want to give him any new ideas on how to get in trouble:) David Smells is one of the more 'innocent' ones in this series. I save the more bad behaving ones for older kids who think books are boring.

There are so many, many other great ones!!! Hard to narrow our faves down to just 10.

It will be even harder to choose my 3 year old book recommendations. By 3, they can really listen for a while :))

Any other books your 2 year olds love? 

Drops

We had some drops today!

Rain drops and vinegar drops.

With the glorious rain, we enjoyed some indoor fun today. We started out by going to the library this morning.... and had fun.... withOUT a single behavior issue from either of my kids! Which is just about as glorious and sparse (and desired) as this July rain has been. In my book anyways.

Then, we went to the grocery store with no major issues there either. Who were those two well behaved children on our morning outings? ;) As we were leaving though, we were a sight. Two toddlers and one growing mom under a smallish umbrella pushing a full grocery cart through a parking lot. I don't want to ever ever ever forget how awkward rainy moments can be when toting little kids.

Once the kids and I unbagged the drenched fruit and soggy cardboard items groceries, I started a soup that I've been wanting to try from Pinterest. While I chopped and cooked, I had the kids play with some droppers. Another Pinterest idea that I am so excited we tried!

First, I had the kids just play with plain water and the droppers. Showing them how to squeeze the top and release it, all while submerged in the water. That was the hard part for Charlie. He kept taking his dropper out before the water had a chance to get sucked in. He managed to get it right a few times, but he ended up just forcing the water onto the tip and then smashing it into the powder most of the time. Not quite as fulfilling.

I waited until they got a bit bored with just the plain old water (dragging out these types of activities makes them worth the clean up:), and then added some food coloring.

When they had just about lost interest in that, I gave them containers lined with baking soda.

After all that fun/mess/excitement, I added vinegar to the colored waters. We smelled the vinegar. Love the face Annette made when she smelled it :) Wish I'd caught that on camera.  I asked her what she thought would happen when we put the vinegar onto the white baking soda.  "I think it will pow at us!" she said.
Love that strong verb choice.

She quite enjoyed the bubbly reaction. Although, it wasn't quite a pow. More like a friendly fizzle.

Charlie lost interest about 3 steps ago, and so began making a train of pillows along the floor.

It was a calm and peaceful Monday. So Nice.

It was especially nice because this weekend my mind had started wandering down that fear road, 

for no real reason at all. 

My mind can get so caught up in the what-ifs when it comes to this growing baby. Which isn't too common a feeling for me, typically speaking. So, I don't do well going down that path. I guess no one does, really.

But all that to say....

Thank you, God, for the days like today. 

Where you help me see and enjoy all the blessings right in front of me.  

morgan

Dance pics, Reading Words, and Other Randoms

Our past week.....

Ballet pictures.

Annette's recital is next Thursday : ))

I tried the cheese zucchini roll ups from Pinterest. Pretty good, but wish I had added some more seasoning to the them before grilling them. http://realmomkitchen.com/7904/cheese-stuffed-zucchini-rolls/

Might be fun to try other types of cheese, too. 

Annette has figured out how to sound out (and blend) simple CVC words. (rat, pig, etc.)

She has known all the letter sounds for over a year, but has just figured out how to use that info to blend three sounds together to make a word. Her phonemic awareness skills are coming right along ; )

She can match the CVC words to their corresponding picture. I just hand-made this activity. I used some pictures from coloring books, and then drew the other ones. The pocket chart deal is from when I taught school. You can find them at Knowledge Tree and Mardel. The desktop kind, like this one, are easier to use at home in my opinion. And Annette likes playing 'school' with the thing. 

As long as she still thinks that learning reading skills is fun, I'll keep introducing her to stuff. But, I'd much rather her associate reading with fun and excitement than try to push more reading skills at this early age.

SO FUN teaching her.

Here we are at last night's Razorback game at Dickey Stephen's Park with some friends.

And this is our Ice Cream Truck Money Jar. Somehow it traveled safely on the back of my car all the way down busy University.  What luck?!?

Hoping for more luck as we head to Vegas tomorrow morning!!!

Not that I care a bit about gambling. I'll be spending my time reading 3 new books and a pile of magazines as I soak up the sun... After I sleep in and enjoy H&M and Zara and eating at fun restaurants with my hubs. 

Thank you, grandparents, for taking over kid duty while we get away for the next 6 nights :)

We are excited!

Homemade Learning Games

I work with kids on reading skills about 3 times a week. So, I'm constantly on the lookout for ways to make learning fun. I would just die if I thought the kids I worked with dreaded the time they spent with me. 

Some of the games I play with those elementary aged children, I will adapt to play with Annette. She begs for me to play games with her daily, so I try to figure out some that aren't frustrating or boring to a 3 year old. I wish I was good enough to play a learning game with her everyday, but that's just not how it goes. There are parts of me that want her to be that early reader, but a bigger part of me that want her to 'want' to read. Meaning, I don't want to push the issue. I just want to make reading look fun and desirable. It seems we are doing good in that department : ) 

Trying to capitalize on her current interest in learning some words, I decided to play some of the word games I've been playing with the kids I tutor.

I am a huge promoter of making your own games (instead of just buying them) for a few reasons. I know that if we make it together, she is going to be more interested in it and will learn lots of skills just in the creation stage. I can also tailor the game to her exact learning level because I have a pretty good grasp of what words she does and does not recognize yet. And it's cheap.

Charlie has his own side activity going on here. Water play.  You can see that I forgot to put the towel down under his cups at first. 

How we made and played:

I got two pieces of scrap book paper. It works perfectly for this activity because one side is white while the other has a pattern. I'll use a different pattern for future games, so I'll be able to sort the cards back into place if they get mixed up. Or if I find one under the table a few days from now and need to remember which pile it goes into.

I folded them up to create lines for cutting.

Unfolded them. 

Annette cut one sheet into cards, and I cut the other one. She has gotten pretty good at cutting on lines.

Then, we talked about words we know. I said "You know the word MOM" and she agreed, so we wrote that word on two different cards. (So they would be a 'match' for when we play memory)

Then, we wrote other words she knows. Mostly our family names. (mom, dad, charlie, granny, etc.)

Then, I added the word 'see' and 'go', because I wanted to throw in a couple of words that she has seen a lot in books, but doesn't really recognize out of context yet. 

We are working in her ZPD for all you teachers ;)

The first game we played with the word cards was Memory.

We lined them up.

She knows how to play this game already. From Nonnie's iPad and from other store bought memory games.

It's all going well, until I make the first match with the word DAD. She says she wants the Dad match to be hers. This is her pouting. I could have let her have it, but I felt like teaching her that she must play 'fair' or people won't want to play with her. I knew she really wanted to keep playing, so I told her that we couldn't continue playing the game until she stopped pouting. In a couple of minutes, and after seeing me move on to washing the dishes, she decided she could handle letting me have the DAD match.... if she could have it next time. oh my.

Now, we are happily playing again. Matching words and having fun.

We also played  a version of 'slap jack' with the cards. I put all the cards into one pile. I told her to slap the word 'go' when she sees it. I flipped the cards over one at a time and she slapped the word 'go' when it came up. She loved this, of course. I mean, who doesn't love slap jack??

We also played Old Maid with these cards by adding the letter I to a fresh new matching card. Since the I doesn't have a match, we call it the 'stinky ole I'.  If you end up with the stinky ole I at the end of Old Maid, you lose.

You could also put shapes or numbers, or even environmental print on the cards. Hey, I just thought of that. I might have to work on making some EP ones this week. Oh, how fun it is to teach and play with kids!

Ta-ta for now :)

A Week's Worth

Last Saturday, Isaac took Annette to see Beauty and the Beast 3D. They 'double dated' with Chris and Ruthie. How blessed is she to have such a cool Dad?!? Very.

That night we went to the Woman of the Year event downtown. Isaac's company had a table there, so we got to enjoy a date night and visit with some friends.

On Sunday night, Isaac and I cooked dinner at my parent's house. It was a great deal for us. My parents and sisters entertained the kids while Isaac grilled and I roasted. Cooking is much easier than toddler-duty in my recent opinion.

Another night we had some friends over for pizza. We picked up a couple of those take-n-bake style pizzas from the newish  Pizza Cafe place over by the McDonald's playplace. It was so good-- so good we were all eating seconds and thirds. Maybe even fourths.

During our days this past week, we spent hours playing with puzzles, lacing activities, drawing, dress up clothes, books, and all kinds of toys that encourage learning and play. All on this hard tile floor. I keep debating on whether I want to spend a chunk of money on a rug. It would be nicer on our knees and rears, but might make cleaning the floors more of a pain. Plus, I don't know what type to get. It would have to be extremely durable, yet semi-soft at the same time.

I like these pictures because they truly capture our typical day lately. Annette has changed clothes about 3 times already. And really thinks her outfit matches and looks great. I don't let her leave the house like this. Okay... I do sometimes. To Kroger or on a visit to grandma's. It's just not worth the battle every single outing.

Notice all that maker-messy-goodness? Evidence of a growing mind : )

Charlie is in that crazy-fast learning phase right now. He's putting all kinds of words together to make sentences. He can identify several shapes and can complete many puzzles on his own. He knows what the letter H says too. All before the ripe age of 2 : )

One last thing to document from this past week. Annette has been tough to parent lately, so, instead of documenting the many battles we have had this week, I am choosing to remember a couple of the non-troublesome things she did.

Lately, she has been my name tag helper. She knows who gets which one and is very proud of this well learned skill.

She has also learned to 'read' some labels around the house. Glad that Isaac doesn't mind that our house looks a little more like a pre-school every day.

And that's a week's worth.

Pin-spired kid activities

We've done some fun activities this week... Inspired by Pinterest.
(And if auto correct tries to delete or change that word one more time, I might crack this iPhone even more than it already is : )






I thought this shaving cream + food color activity looked like a fun idea. Plus, I had everything I needed already on hand. It was a really really big hit for several reasons.

First, it took place in our enclosed shower, so the mess was easily contained. Meaning I wasn't having to constantly remind/ prevent the colored mess from getting all over the rest of the bathroom surfaces.

The clean up was a breeze. I just ran the shower head water over the 'painted' walls. The mess came off with no effort.

The kids practiced some writing skills. Annette did shapes and letters. Charlie mocks everything his big sis does, and in doing so, he's learning how to hold and use writing utensils with ease.

They loved having a 'no rules' kind of activity. They got to make a mess and get wet and they loved it.



One change for when we do this for the third time: I'll use actual shaving CREAM, instead of the gel kind we had on hand. It worked, but the cream would have been better and fluffier to work with.






Today we did a simple counting activity. Annette has become (pretty) consistently accurate with counting objects up to about 10. (We love the book 10 Black Dots by Donald Crews and the m&m counting book, pictured below.)

So, when I saw this simple idea on Pinterest, I thought I'd see how well Ann could do this activity on her own.

When she saw the permanent marker I used to draw the fish bowls, she begged to use it herself, knowing that permanent markers are off-limits to her. This created a perfect 'hook' (or reward) for her if she completed the fish counting activity. Not that she even needed an incentive:)

Oh, how she loved getting to use that permanent marker for a few minutes. I'll have to remember to use it again as a reward.

After making the little sheet, I explained how she should read the number on the bowl and then glue the matching number of fish onto the bowl.

She was able to do 1-3 without help, and with 4, she had glued 5 fish. So, I showed her how to re-glue them into a straight line, instead of in a jumbled pile, so she could count them easier. Which is An important counting skill. As is starting from the left and counting with your finger as you move to the right. Such simple, yet important skills our kids learn when we 'play' : )

Charlie just ate the fish while we did this activity, but I'm thinking I'll buy the colored goldfish at the store so he can do color sorting while Annette practices her 'set counting' skills.

 She can write Dad and Mom now, without help. But still not her whole name. Our next child may have a 3 letter name for this very reason.

Obviously, there are thousands of little kid books on counting, but here are two of the ones we read over and over again to practice.

I'll do this fish activity again with her later, with numbers 5-10, and see if she remembers to line the fish up as she counts them. And while posting this, I remembered another activity to do with the 10 Black Dot book. I'll give Annette some black paper dots, and see if she can think of some creative ways to arrange them to create a picture, like in the book.

But until then, and while it's still nap time.... I'm going to go 'pinning' some more!





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