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Early Morning Fun

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Early Morning Fun (1)

I’ve heard stories of magical children who wake up and occupy themselves solo before their parents come in to get them each morning. Does this sound like a fairy tale to anyone else? Certainly it’s never been the case for my son!

But Veronika has shown herself capable of waking up and chatting with her stuffed animals for about 30 minutes before she grows restless enough to call out for me. Right now, this collection of “friends” is the only thing in her crib at night.

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I hoped the addition of a few small toys might stretch our mornings even longer! So before she went to sleep, I chose a few toys with specific criteria:

  • They had to be soft, in case she rolled onto them in the night
  • They had to be quiet, so they wouldn’t disturb anyone else while she played
  • They had to lend themselves to solo play, meaning items she can keep busy with all by herself without growing frustrated or needing assistance.

To wit, I used a ribbon toy expressly designed for busy solo play. I also added a fabric book with lots of flaps and textural elements, and a few small bug toys that she really enjoys, like a butterfly and ladybug. I tucked these into the corner of the crib. Here was hoping…

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She noticed them as she lay down to sleep. Uh oh, now I worried they would keep her awake! But luckily she settled right down. In the morning, I peeked at her in the monitor. Ladybug and butterfly were in her hands!

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It was hard to tell if she had kept busy with the book and ribbon toy. Both were moved from where I had left them, but I wasn’t sure if she had really played or just tossed them.

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Either way, I intend to keep this up! The plan is to mix up the toys once a week or so to keep things fresh. Does your toddler keep busy solo in the crib in the morning? Please share any tricks in the comments!

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Super Quick Sticker Art

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Quick Sticker Art (3)

Looking for a quick way to occupy a toddler’s endlessly curious hands? Look no further than the top drawer of your desk for office supplies!

To wit, Veronika loves the stickers in her big brother’s home school workbook, but I can’t let her have them. Thinking quickly to avoid a tantrum today, I pulled out office dot stickers, the kind you can buy in bulk from any drugstore or office supply store.  And that was it!

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I gave her a few sheets of colored construction paper and just let her start sticking stickers all over.

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Older toddlers might want to be deliberate with their stickers, either grouping them by color, or making a pattern, or lining them up in straight rows. You can even encourage sticker piles, aiming to have your child place one circle directly atop another. For Veronika at a year and half old, this activity was just about pulling them off the sheet and pressing them onto the paper.

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She was so happy to do so!

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When she seemed on the verge of losing interest, I added anther office supply: pens and markers!

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At first I showed her how to draw right on the dots. But okay, this was too advanced for her coordination. Instead, she loved using the markers all around the dots.

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She even tried using two markers at once!

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And best of all, she was very busy.

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Sponge Bath

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Sponge Bath (5)

Veronika recently painted with sponges, and since we had leftovers from the pack, we decided to continue the fun in the water!

A sponge is the perfect cheap toddler bath toy. First there’s the obvious fact that it’s, well, a sponge! It will hold a large amount of water and toddlers love squeezing them out. Veronika delighted in the squishy sound that it made whenever she did this, as well as the bubbles that foamed up if she squeezed them under water.

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Then there’s the fact that they stick to the side of the tub. It’s almost like playing with big wet stickers!

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Plus sponges play right into your toddler’s love of cleaning. My tub was sparkly clean by the end of Veronika’s bath!

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For learning fun, cut the sponges into shapes before adding them to the tub. It can be a bit tough to cut into thick sponges, but luckily Veronika didn’t mind that my circle and heart were a little crooked.

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We also talked briefly about the different colors, but honestly I mostly sat back and let her play! An extra long bath never hurts.

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Kindergarten Home School Week 12: Monday

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Home School 60 a

Don’t let the big grin in the photo above fool you; it was one of those home school days that felt two steps forward, two steps back. But we got through it!

8.30-9: Letter Q/Quarters: After a workbook page focusing on letter Q, I seized the opportunity to play up q for quarters, since Travis still struggles with coin values. We reviewed the various denominations and then of course he wanted to play with all the coins in mommy’s wallet!

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9-9.30 History. His second workbook page focused on past and future. First Travis drew an imaginary future car. Then he had to write about how people used fire in the past.  I thought it might be fun to turn it into a mini lesson on the Oregon Trail, checking out his encyclopedia page on the American West and a video about cowboys, He wasn’t at all interested, leading to tantrums, meaning we switched gears and headed on to…

9.30-10: Math. After two Star Wars workbook pages about estimating, we estimated the number of dominoes in a pile. Travis provided remarkably adept at this for his first try. Since we had the dominoes out, we then played with them in two ways. First: could he make a math sentence about each one (i.e. 5+5=10, 6+2=8).

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Then we played War but with dominoes instead of cards. This part he enjoyed, and he grew very fast at tallying up the pips.

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10-10.30: Snack/recess. Much needed!

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We rolled balls downhill outside on a relatively chilly day, then detoured back inside to design a ball course. Could he lead a ball from the couch down to a box, without touching it?

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Success!

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10.30-11: ELA. Travis wrote an ‘Over the Weekend’ sentence, the first time he’s done this class assignment in weeks. He also did 20 minutes on Lexia.

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11-11.30: Specials. For Art, he drew his self-portrait, a monthly classroom activity. We can’t believe this is the last one for kindergarten! He also watched a video about Buenos Noches/Buenos Dias in Spanish.

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11.30-1.30: Lunch/free play.

1.30-2: Class Zoom. He was reluctant to sit for this group session again today, and grew very angry by the end. I diverted his mood with…

2-2.30: Games. We played a board game (Zingo), and then played “what’s my rule?” If I sorted something from the craft bin, he had to guess the defining characteristic of each group. This was hard for him to grasp at first so I was proud he stuck with it.

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2.30-3: Exercise. We needed to get moving to shake out his bad mood. A little Star Wars yoga was in order.

3-3.30: Cooking. We made mole sauce for dinner to round out a unit on Mexico.

At story time tonight (A Second is a Hiccup), we made sure to locate the title and author on the front cover before reading, and then searched for sight words as we went through the story.

I’ve forgotten to mention a few recent reads, including: The Very Hungry Caterpillar; Where the Wild Things Are; Beautiful Oops; Castle: How it Works; and Separate is Never Equal.

The day was overly busy, since I was trying to balance requests from his teacher with lessons I thought he’d enjoy. Perhaps tomorrow we will aim for less-is-more.

Canned Food Blocks for Toddlers

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Canned Food Blocks (4)

I had a rather ridiculous number of food cans after this week’s grocery shop, and when Veronika spotted them on the ground, she trotted right over. An instant toy! She immediately wanted to build with them.

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At first it was simply a matter of building towers up and I loved watching her carefully balance the cans. There were two single-serve oatmeal containers as well, along with a smaller tomato paste can, and she zeroed in on these as perfect for the top of the tower.

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Her expression was so intent and serious as she worked.

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Then she took everything apart and started over.

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This kept her busy for a while, until one of the towers fell over and she realized that the cans could…roll!

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Well then of course we needed to go “bowling”. I grabbed a few empty plastic bottles from the recycle bin to be our pins, and our cans went rolling towards them.

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Honestly though, she was less interested in knocking pins down and more interested in just chasing around a rolling can or two.

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Soon this involved throwing. She was very proud of herself, so I didn’t stop her right away. Definitely only allow this part of the game over a padded surface, if you don’t want heavy cans thrown on your floor.

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One note of caution: From the moment she started building, I was worried about her little toes, and yes, one can did fall on her. In retrospect, I would have put shoes on at the beginning!

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Luckily we only had a brief moment of tears before Veronika was up and building again.

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Bubble Wrap Roads and Runways

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Bubble Wrap Fun (11)

Having recently made a tape road, today’s giant road for Veronika was made out of bubble wrap instead! First, I taped a long rectangle of bubble wrap to the kitchen floor, securing it with painter’s tape.

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I encouraged Veronika to stomp on it with her feet to pop the bubbles, but she doesn’t weigh quite enough. Thinking quickly, we pulled out her heavy doll carriage.

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Now she got to enjoy hearing that pop pop pop! She zoomed the carriage back and forth a few times.

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Since we had moved on to vehicles, I pulled out additional cars and trucks for her to roll over the bubble road.

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Then, to add to her “city”, I cut a cardboard box into several pieces so we could make it into more of a parking garage, including a ramp along one side.

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She loved vrooming her cars off the road and into this garage. The empty roll from the painter’s tape made a great tunnel!

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If you want to get really creative, add additional boxes and have the bubble wrap road go right up and over them!

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When the car play was done, we went back to using the bubble wrap as a runway for our bodies. I showed Veronika how to crawl on it, and her little knees were rewarded with bubble pops.

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Next she sat down and tried popping individual bubbles with her fingertips. This is great for muscle strengthening!

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Big brother Travis wanted a turn running along our runway, too!

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I taped down a second rectangle, thinking the kids might want to race side by side. If your kids are close in age, you could even turn this into a competition to see who pops all their bubbles first, or whose runway is the loudest.

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However you play, bubble wrap is a great way to get out some energy inside!

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Fun with Balls

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Fun with Balls (3)

Today I gave Veronika a game with the easiest set up ever: balls + an empty muffin pan.

Having recently played with pom poms in a muffin tin, I knew she would like the concept. This time, I filled the tins of a standard 12 cup muffin pan with balls of various sizes. I included golf balls, tennis balls, and a few toy sensory balls.

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I deliberately left some of the compartments empty so she could transfer from one to another, making this almost like toddler whack-a-mole. She immediately got busy!

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I also placed a small box to the side so she could gather up the balls if she wanted to, but she preferred moving them either from tin to tin or directly onto the floor.

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She has never really played with tennis balls before, making these the most novel part of the game, and was delighted when she realized they bounce. So after that it became a game of chasing tennis balls all around the first floor of our apartment.

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What simple but pure fun!

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Lotion Smelling Sensory Activity

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Reuse Lotion (4)

Veronika has a current obsession with… lotion! I laugh when I think I might wind up with a girly girl, since she is certainly trending that way. Instead of saying no today to her requests for my lotions and creams, I gave her a few nearly empty bottles and let her go to town.

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There were several “learning” elements to this game. First, squeezing the tubes was great for strengthening her hands and fingers. I gave her a little container to aim for as she squeezed out the leftover lotion, though of course her aim wasn’t always spot on.

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Then there was the sensory element, both for smell and touch. We talked about the different scents, and I described each to her as I held a dab of up to her nose.

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Meanwhile she loves the way that lotion feels, busily rubbing it on her own arms and legs.

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Finally, there was the pure fun of making a mess. So before you toss a nearly empty bottle of lotion, consider building up a little collection for your toddler’s sensory play.

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Ring Fun

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Ring Fun (4)

Need a way to keep your toddler busy for a short while? Look no further than a few items you probably have in your kitchen cabinets: a wooden spoon, an empty container (or plastic bowl), and canning rings.

For set up, I cut a hole in the lid of a big yogurt container so the handle of the wooden spoon could fit through it. Press play dough into the bottom of the container and wedge in the spoon so it doesn’t wobble around, then secure the lid.

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I presented this apparatus to Veronika with the canning rings already piled on. So her first task was to slip one off!

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She loved this, and immediately pulled up the top three or four. She discovered that if she slid up one from lower in the pile, the ones above it toppled off the handle at the same time and made a spectacularly loud crash! This was a delight.

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Then she turned her focus to putting them back on the handle.

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“Circle!” she said, recognizing the shape, and started counting them as she slid them on or off.

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Like so many projects at this age, the game then veered in a direction I hadn’t anticipated. But sometimes toddlers know best! When she reached the bottom of the ring pile and could peer down into the container, she noticed the play dough holding the spoon in place.

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Well now she needed the lid off! She loved squishing the spoon into the play dough.

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Then it became a game of toddler field hockey, whacking the blob of play dough around the room.

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She was so proud when she could scoop the play dough up and drop it back into the container. Goal! So really, we got two games for the price of one.

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Kindergarten Home School Week 11: Friday

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Home School 59 b

TGIF! We can’t believe there are only three weeks of kindergarten home school left to go. Have a great weekend everyone.

9-9.30: Science. We started off the day talking about animal habitats. After a few workbook pages featuring animals of the night, in a meadow, etc. we went upstairs to raid the stuffed animal pile.

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I had Travis help sort these based on where they might live. Then he went on a flashlight safari for a few that I’d hidden around the room, a classic favorite game around here.

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9.30-10: Math. Next up was an overview of the foot as a unit of measurement. We talked about how this differs from a person’s foot, creating a standardized unit. Then we used a nonstandard measurement to compare items around the house.

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Travis wanted to use Lego heads, and we checked out how these “measured up” against a ruler. It turns out computer paper is 29 Lego heads long!

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10-10.30: Snack/recess. We played around with opposites outside.

10.30-11: ELA. Travis did a writing page that focused on the long e sound, and did a unit on Lexia.

11-11.30: Maps. We talked about common map symbols like those for a post office or hospital. His teacher had provided a few worksheets we could look at.

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11.30-1.30: Lunch/free play.

1.30-2: Weather. We headed outside to make rainbows! Okay this doubled as recess, too.

It was an early start to the weekend thereafter; little sister had a music class, and Travis got in social time with his high school buddy over Zoom.