Camping Activities for a Toddler...

With the summer quickly approaching, camping is right around the corner.  Taking a toddler is definitely more work, but can also be more rewarding, than I ever remember camping to have been in the past.  So, I have been collecting outdoors ideas I've come across (besides the typical nature walk) to use with our Little Man and figured now would be the perfect time to start sharing some of them.  Of course, I'm always thinking about how to make even our camping moments learnable!    

Activity Ideas:

-Rock collecting: Provide a container with compartments such as an egg carton for sorting the rocks by size, color, or texture.  Make sure to include some counting activities with the beloved rock treasures as well!

-Digging: This can be helpful when searching for a variety of rocks, or can add to fun in the sun on the beach!  Don't forget to bring a couple different digging utensils and buckets.

-Flashlight Fun: Make shadow puppets on the walls of the tent or the ground.  Or, shine the light on the ground and have the toddler chase it around trying to catch it.  For the older crowd, start up a game of flashlight tag!

-Light up/Glow in the Dark Play: Bring along bouncy balls that light up or glow in the dark bubbles and glow sticks for plenty of fun after the sun goes down!

-Found Object Sculpture: Use rocks, sticks, leaves, and branches to build a sculpture, tower, bridge or building. These can then be used for imaginative play during the rest of the trip.

-Writing in the Sand: Find a nice sturdy stick and a smooth patch of sand or soft dirt and get drawing.  Practice with letters, numbers, shapes, and words or simply have a blast drawing your favorite things around the campsite.

-Homemade Lantern: Fill a large clear container (such as a milk jug or two liter bottle) with water and secure the lid with glue.  Attach a headlamp to the jug (shining into the water) and watch it
glow!

-Beach ball Catch/Ping pong Ball Throw: Whether at the campsite, at the park, or at the beach, camping is the perfect time for a toddler to practice throwing and catching.  Bring along a beach ball for some fun catches and ping pong balls are perfect for tossing!  Neither will hurt anyone and both will float if thrown into the water. For older kids practice bouncing the beach ball in the air and count how many times it gets hit before it hits the ground.

Lots of fun to be had!  Next up...delicious and EASY toddler friendly campfire recipes.  Yum!

Check out more ideas at Carrots are Orange, Simple Homemade and here on Squidoo.

Discovering Colors: Breaking Down One Toddler's Process for Learning Colors

Recently, I had a conversation with a friend about how our Little Man learned to identify colors, and that got me thinking...How did he do it? What did his daddy and I do to support that? Are there things we did that I can draw on to help him as he continues to learn new and more challenging concepts?  I've been focusing a lot of energy on that: how to support LM's desire to be independent and do things for himself.  To that end, I came across a Montessori based book entitled: Teach Me to do it Myself.  How perfect?!?  I can't wait to get started!

After flipping through the book, I'm already in love and have a bunch of new ideas for ways to turn more of LM's everyday moments into LEARNABLE MOMENTS.  One of the activities that caught my eye immediately was Discovering Colors.  LM, knows the ten basic colors pretty well.  He recognizes, and can correctly identify them.   My question is, how did it happen?  So, I started from the beginning.  I know we did these things to try to support his understanding...

We talked and sang and read about colors ALL the time, but that's just not enough.  We added in a few techniques to boost his understanding.  We always made sure to use the word "color" when we were talking about them.  And we found objects like rubber ducks, cars and blocks he was already familiar with that came in  a variety of colors.  That way, we could say things like "The COLOR of this DUCK is green." or "That CAR is the COLOR yellow."  This seemed to work well because he already knew the word duck, car and block and since all the objects were exactly the same, the ONLY difference was the color.  He seemed to process that we were giving each object a new label called color. 

I also made my Little Man a set of homemade color sticks based on Montessori colored tablets.

To make this set, I simply wrapped embroidery floss tightly around a pair of popsicle sticks and secured each end with hot glue.  LM uses these sticks to practice identifying his colors as well as matching like colors together.

We are currently working on shades of colors!  I've learned a few different ways to use paint color samples to play with a crazy amount of colors and different shades.  We have slide games, matching games, gradient games and memory games...definitely more to come on that!  We will also be adding sets of Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue, Green, and Purple in a gradient of shades from Dark to Light.  I can't wait to get started so LM will have a new game to play when he asks to "Play color sticks!"

Discovering Numbers: One Toddler's Real World Application

I had a revelation today that I just had to share.  After spending a decade in the classroom trying to find ways to make the content we were studying relevant to my students, I have experienced one of the most basic, true examples of successful Real World Learning with my Little Man.  We have been working on the recognition and identification of numbers in many ways for about a year.  His daddy and I are always talking about numbers, showing him numbers, counting objects with him, and singing songs and reading books with numbers in them.  For a while he has been successfully counting to 12, however, even with all of these learnable moments everyday, he still struggled with identifying the individual numerals correctly.

I'm proud to say, not anymore!  He is fast on his way to securing his recognition of the numerals thanks to Thomas the Train and his Friends.  We started a couple days ago, talking about the numbers shown on his engines in his Take and Play set.  While playing with his trains today, I decided to ask him what number was on the side of each.  With no hesitation, he answered: "He's number 3! He's number 1!" And the like.  I have to admit, he shocked me once again.  We had been working with numbers for quite a while, but as soon as they became relevant to him, they became important.  And it seems he now WANTS to know them. 

I owe Thomas a big thanks for his role in supporting LM's learning.  It would seem he and his friends ARE really useful engines (for something other than emptying my wallet!)  And, I will continue intentionally searching for ways to turn his play into learnable moments, as it proves to be very beneficial!

Sensory Box Puzzle Search

With a very rainy start to our day, I decided to turn our newly dyed rice into a sensory box for our Little Man.  He loves digging.  In dirt, in the sandbox, you name it, if you can dig it, HE WILL!  So, I poured all our rice into one large shallow container.  Of course, I had to take a picture before he dove in.  I could have left it this way...it's just so aesthetically pleasing!

Then I gave him some measuring spoons, cups and small bowls for digging, scooping and pouring.  It didn't take very long before he added his digger and dump truck into the mix.  The best part?  He had a blast playing with this box for almost a solid hour (only to be interrupted by the anticipated arrival of the garbage truck and Garbage Man Gary!)  =)  You can read more about how to make the rice here. 

So...getting to the best part...later in the morning LM asked to "play more rice box."  This time, I had a creative flash and decided to combine his favorite puzzles with the box.  We took his Melissa and Doug chunky farm animal and wild animal puzzle pieces and hid them in the rice.  This added a wonderful tactile aspect to both putting the puzzles back together and playing in the rice.  He had so much fun searching for the pieces, we did it three times! 

Sorting Rainbow Pasta

As a continuation of yesterday's post, I wanted to add a couple pics of Little Man trying a sorting game with his homemade rainbow colored pasta.  You can read about how to make it here. 

Recently, he has been into sorting all sorts of things by colors.  He especially loves sorting his letter magnets and his trains.  Today we attempted sorting six colors at once.  We spread the rainbow pasta out and designated a bowl for each color (red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple).  The goal was to pick up one, and ONLY one piece of pasta at a time and place it in the corresponding bowl. 

After some modeling on my part (I'm learning about and practicing application of the Montessori method) and some practice time on his own, he really started to enjoy it.  It was difficult at first, but also fascinating for me to sit back and simply observe him without intervening.

When he was successful with matching the right color pasta with the correct bowl, he was very proud of himself, clapping and squealing "I did it!"  And on the flip side, when he added a different color piece to one of the bowls, he would stop, concentrate on it and eventually pull it out and try again for the right bowl. I'm telling you, I could actually see the wheels turning as he tried to figure out where things had gone awry and how he could fix it!  I was a very proud mama!

Rainbow Rice and Practical Life Skills

My Little Man is always telling me he can do things himself.  In fact, he usually gets more upset if I try to give him too much help.  Even when he is struggling with something, he often wants to struggle through it on his own.  So, the hardest thing for me has been trying NOT to say too much...letting him tell me when he wants me to get involved.  Yes, typically, he will give in and allow me to help him, but not before he has gone it alone with sufficient effort!  So, recently, I have been reading quite a bit about the Montessori method. Specifically, how to encourage and support LM's desire to be more independent.  The answer...Early Practical Life Skills.

Basically, it boils down to this: allow the child many opportunities to practice any skill that will help him in his daily life.  Any activity that promotes, hand eye coordination, motor skills, organization, self-concept, and independence would be appropriate.  So, as it turns out, every moment of our day is an opportunity for Little Man to tackle these life skills and gain more of the independence he so desires...choosing clothes, toys and foods, dressing, playing, and eating, as well as, cleaning up and organizing his toys (I've also started our Montessori style organization for all of LM's toys and activities.  I'm sure I will be posting lots of pics once I finally have it all completed!)

Today, I decided to try something completely new with my Little Man. I made rainbow rice and pasta for him to practice basic hand-eye coordination skills. It was simple and turned out so beautifully, I almost didn't want anyone to touch it!!  =)

In a bowl, combine 1 C of rice or pasta, 1 tsp rubbing alcohol, and at least 5 drops of food coloring*.  I used a 10 lb. bag of rice and got 4 cups of each of the 6 colors in the picture.  Spread each color on wax paper for at least 5 hours to dry completely. 

*The red and blue pasta required double the amount of food coloring to get the rich color I was looking for.

SPOONING EXERCISES

Today we simply started with using a spoon to scoop the grains of rice into a small bowl.  Little Man has been practicing with using a spoon for a while now with his meals, however, as you can see from the picture, getting the rice INTO the bowl was much more challenging!  In the next couple days I plan on moving on to this activity.

 STRINGING BEADS

After dinner, Little Man and daddy sat down to explore with the new rainbow colored pasta.  Using the Montessori modeling methods, LM's daddy showed him how to use the shoelace and string the noodles on one at a time.  LM watched intently and when he tried it himself, he was very serious about it!  He definitely struggled at first, but I think it won't be long before he's picked up speed and even realizes he can string the pasta into color patterns.





This is our celebration of the success Little Man had with stringing the noodles on the lace! 

When LM was finished with the stringing activity, we cleaned it up and added the container of pasta to his activity shelf.  Now it is accessible anytime he or I decide to try it again.  I have to say, so far...I'm totally loving these methods!

Grab a Toy and Play with Prepositions!

About a year ago, in a moment of desperation to keep our Little Man happy and occupied, a friend of mine taught him a game that he continues to ask for today.  It is a simple game.  A refrigerator magnet, shaped like an egg (of course) hops willy nilly around our house landing in precarious and funny places.  Every time it lands, LM laughs his head off and waits anxiously to see where it will land next. 

Last night, LM's dad was playing our game with him and quickly realized it was the perfect opportunity for him to practice his understanding of prepositions.  As the magnet landed, LM began to hoot and holler and then tell us WHERE it was.  The magnet landed in a variety of places, including, UNDER a blanket, ABOVE the television, ON the doorknob, and BESIDE the train.  LM loved it and the game went on for quite a while.  He learned quite a few new words!

Like I said; simple....but sooo effective!  It's nice to find something fun that doesn't require any prep work, supplies, or money.  Plus, the game is never the same twice and new words can be added all the time.  Check out this list for endless fun with prepositions!  Then, grab a toy, a favorite stuffed animal, or your own fun magnet and you're set!

The Tiny Seed: Making Connections

I don't believe one has to schedule every minute of the day for experiences to be true and meaningful, however, I do believe that the most powerful learning stems from intentional planning.  Planning opportunities for learning, planning ways to ask questions, and questions to ask, planning assessment activities, planning activities that touch on all of the learning styles and Gardner's Intelligences and planning independent activities as well as those that fall in our "zone of proximal development".  All of these things were like second nature to me in the classroom.  I absolutely loved creating plans like this for my middle school math students. 

Using the same processes, I have begun to put together theme studies for my Little Man.  I have to admit, its more of a challenge than I expected, but its turning out to be quite rewarding.  And in the process, I'm learning A LOT.  I'm realizing very quickly, toddlers are not too young for this type of planning and learning.  My next few posts will follow my process as I continue to brainstorm ideas that will complete it.  My first step: identifying books that highlight LM's daily experiences so I can foster more "text to self" connections in our daily activities.  If you're reading this and you have a book you'd like to recommend, please, please do!  I've learned all too well, the best books are the ones recommended by others.  They come pre-approved!

I realized how important these connections are today while LM and I were visiting Brother Nature's Farm in Detroit.  One of LM's current favorite books is Eric Carle's The Tiny Seed.  He is fascinated by what happens to each of the seeds as the story progresses and the Tiny Seed continues to survive the harsh weather and hungry animals.  While we were visiting the farm, LM was running around picking all of the dandelions that had turned to seeds, and was blowing them and watching the seeds drift off in the wind.  While watching the seeds of one flower in particular fly away, he pointed to them and squealed "The Tiny Seed!"  I was shocked.  I hadn't even made that connection myself.

I was thinking we were killing time on the farm until our vegetables were ready for pick-up.  And he was thinking about his book and how what he was doing at that very moment was so much like what happened in the story.  Another reminder to me of how important those books we read REALLY are, as well as, that I need to remember to be intentional about supporting his constant desire to learn and grow.  No matter where we are, or what we are doing, I can help him make more of those connections, and build on that understanding.  So, next week, when we are back on Brother Nature's Farm we will be intentionally watching the birds and squirrels as well, to see if they behave the same way they do in Eric Carle's story.

Make Your Own Playdoh!

So, every moment offers us an opportunity for learning...all we have to do is see it that way.  We had one such moment this afternoon, when I began to wonder how LM and myself were going to make it all the way to dinnertime without being able to head outdoors!  What to do?  What to do?  Off to the activity cabinet!  For his recent second birthday, one of LM's friends gave him a set of cookie cutters and everything we needed to make our own playdoh (Thanks L & E!).  I'd heard from people how cool this recipe is, but had never attempted it myself.  It turned out to be the best playdoh I've ever used!  LM loved it, and he immediately impressed me with his skills! 

We started by mixing the following ingredients until we had a "playdoh like" consistency:

     2 C flour, 4 Tablespoons cream of tartar, 2 Tablespoons cooking oil, 1 C salt, 2 C boiling water

Once we had our playdoh, we divided it into thirds and used Kool-Aid packets to dye each section.  The blue and green colors were the most vivid.  We tried red and orange as well, however, I would suggest using two packets for either of those colors, as they were much more subtle.

Little Man started by practicing with the heart shape cutters.  He had so much fun learning how to use them!



He was very excited each time he successfully added a new heart to his collection.






Of course, we count anything and everything around our house, so we made sure to count all our blue butterflies too!  After we had counted the blue butterflies, we moved on to something a bit more challenging. 


LM cut "propellers" out of three different colors and then I asked him counting questions involving each of the colors.  He really impressed me when he answered my questions that required him to identify colors AND count the objects: "How many blue propellers do you have?". 


After we were done counting, of course we had to play with our new letter cutters as well.  LM had fun putting the letters of his name in the right order.

And, of course, before we put the playdoh back in the fridge, we had to play with the "biggie worms" and make them into circles!  The recipe I was given said we could keep our playdoh in an air tight container in the fridge for up to one month!  YAY!!

So, the moment came and went...we had a fantastic time, and learned all the while.  Me, I learned how to make playdoh.  And my Little Man, he practiced his colors, counting, letter and shape skills, learned what playdoh is, and how to use the shape cutters.  Yep, brand new skills for us both

today!  :) 

 

The Mission Begins...

Our Little Man is officially 2 years old and my deadline is finally here.  It's a self imposed deadline.  The kind that makes me get my butt in gear and actually do something I've been meaning to do.  This particular item on my lengthy to-do list: start writing about all we do as a family to allow LM to find and nurture his passion for learning as he grows (way too quickly, I might add!)  So, tonight I'm making the commitment to document all of our learnable moments here. 

You may be wondering, "why learnable moments"?  Well, I'm sure I will discuss it again in my upcoming posts, but let me just say for now that after a decade in the public education world, I'm not sure I totally appreciate the idea of a "teachable moment".  At least, not in the way it was always used in my experiences.  You see, a teachable moment implies the roles of learner and teacher.  One person accepting knowledge imparted from another, assumingly more knowledgeable.  Whereas, the idea of a learnable moment is much more fluid.  In a learnable moment, every person involved is gaining something new; learning from one another AND their environment or resources. This, to me, seems much more productive in building the "life long learners" we always talk about as educators. 

Anyway, I will leave it at that.  The details are better left for another day and another discussion. Hopefully someone will find something useful in all these ramblings of mine.  Maybe an idea, an activity, a plan, a product: whatever it may be, I'll be glad I had something to do with it.  In the grand scheme of things however, I'm mostly excited about getting organized and finally keeping track of everything we are doing to foster that passion for learning in our home.  So, here's wishing our little man a joyous third year filled with investigating, exploring and discovering.