Tag: dominoes

Dump Truck Domino Counting

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Here was a fun way to combine Veronika’s truck play with a little early counting! She can count by rote up to about 20, but it’s still early for her to connect the idea that those rising numbers correlate to one more thing added each time.

We chose dominoes for the activity because we have lots of them and they fit easily into the truck bed. My hope was that physically them out would help her make the link. First, we just started filling up the truck randomly:

She eagerly counted along as we placed each domino in, and we made it all the way into the teens before she was too tempted to… dump!

For the next round, I challenged her to fill the truck with only a certain color. This meant we only counted as high as ten, and then it was time to dump. We repeated with the remaining colors.

For older kids, you can even make predictions about the point at which dominoes will start to spill out, without having to tip back the bed of the truck at all.

We played this version toward the end, piling in all the dominoes (confession: we stopped counting!) and watching them spill out. Chances are your toddler will stay happy with trucks and dominoes for some solo play after the lesson, too.

Beginner Object Line Tracing

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Object Line Tracing (5)

Here’s a neat hack that allows a toddler to practice following lines like tracing, but which doesn’t require holding a pencil or marker: “Trace” with objects instead!

Great first letters for toddlers are always their name, since this is often the first world they’ll have to write. I like to use Veronika’s nickname so she’s not overwhelmed too many letters, so I spelled out V-I-K-A in blue painter’s tape.

Object Line Tracing (1)

Next, I showed her how to arrange our set of colored dominoes along these lines.

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She caught on quickly, and although her focus often wandered (she was very interested in talking about the colors of the dominoes, too), she was easily redirected to the task and followed along as I helped her fill in all the letters.

Object Line Tracing (4)

This was a great chance to say the name of each letter, too, and the sound it makes. The giant size of the tape letters definitely invited interaction! She loved standing in the empty space of the V…

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…or walking along the lines of the A. In fact, you could encourage your toddler to trace the letters with his or her feet!

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Just to gauge where she’s at with pen control, I did give her a marker at the end of our play to see if she wanted to follow the big lines of tape with it. She preferred drawing small circles or loops on the tape instead, so we’re not quite there yet!

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Summer Boredom Bucket List: Day 6

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Boredom 28 a

Welcome to the final installment of boredom busting ideas for your summer. I’d love to hear how any of these suggestions have gone for your family. Or, you can share additional ideas in the comments, because uh oh… there’s a full month of no-camp summer left.

Idea 22: Make a Mini Sundae on a Spoon. Want the best way in the world to cheer up kids who are complaining that they are hot and bored and tired? Tell them you’re going to make sundaes. But not just any sundaes. The smallest sundae in the world. Travis was gleeful as we pulled out tablespoons to use as the “bowls”.

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We scooped a tiny portion of ice cream onto each spoon. Top with sprinkles of course, or cherries or any other favorite sundae toppings. Then repeat, because these are so small you can tell the kids they get to have three sundaes. Seriously, the trick will work every time. Cue up the cooled off and happy kids.

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Idea 23: Play with Dominoes. If I had to pick one activity from all 26 of these suggestions to occupy my kids, this one would be it.

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A set of domino blocks in all the colors of the rainbow was so worth the purchase. The kids can literally play with them for hours!

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Veronika is in her own world when I set them out. “Let’s build!” she says. “Rectangle!” She’ll build up a stack of them, then knock them down and scrabble them across the floor, and then start over.

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Travis, meanwhile, loves the challenge of copying designs from the box, as well as seeing how long a line he can make.

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By the end of his first night trying, he could line up 20 or more before an errant fingertip made the line come tumbling down.

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Idea 24: Make a Mini Town for Trains and Cars. This was another Highlights prompt that went from simple suggestion to loads of play. First we pulled out the toy trains and a box of blocks. Both kids were immediately building.

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Travis designed a “farm” as little sister set to work on a tall tower. Then we added a few construction vehicles to the farm site, so now it was a construction site! Travis moved the blocks like rubble and began making his design more sophisticated.

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We needed a residential neighborhood down the road. Magna-tile houses soon followed!

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Then we needed a train station for the train to pull up to.

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Then all the toy cars came out, so we needed roads! Masking tape did the trick.

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Pretty soon it was a thriving city.

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It’s a good thing I got pictures when I did because you can guess what happened next to a 6-year-old boy’s city. It was destroyed by evil Lego snakes of course.

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Idea 25: Make a Time Capsule. This was a suggestion we worked on over the course of a few days. First, you may need to explain the concept of a time capsule to your kids, something you’ll create now and then seal up to open at a later date. Travis was in charge of taking pix with our instant camera!

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The Instax was half the fun, though I had to direct him towards photos of things that exemplified our summer, not just silly shots of his toys.

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When we had enough photos, we decorated a shoebox. Travis proudly wrote Summer 2020, and drew flowers and bugs, and then we tucked all the photos inside.

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I asked him if he wanted to add other summer mementos, but his answer was no. Your kids might consider tucking in newspaper clippings, tickets from museums, or anything else that reminds them of this time period. Now the shoebox is tucked on a closet shelf to open in Summer 2021!

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Idea 26: Make Up Your Own Boredom Buster. Well after all that, it was now up to Travis to think of an idea! His answer? He wanted to chew bubble gum, a rare treat around here. If you have proper bubble gum, you could even turn this into a bubble blowing contest! Unfortunately, I’ve never found a vegan brand that works well for this. But wouldn’t you know it, just chewing gum kept him happy long enough for me to have a little moment of summer peace and quiet.

Parents gum

 

Domino Steal Game

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Domino Steal (3)

On the heels of our starfish counting game, here’s another great way to reinforce numbers and number recognition before back-to-school. Dominoes lend themselves to any variety of counting games – including just matching up the pips! – but this version involves stealing from the other players. An instant preschooler hit!

To play, you need two players, whether two kids, or an adult and one child. Pull out two dominoes, and each player counts the number on theirs. This is great not just for learning to count the dots, but also learning to recognize the arrangement of the pips by sight.

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Whoever has the higher number on his or her domino wins that turn, and gets to “steal” the other players domino. Stealing was a big thrill of course! Here’s the thief in action:

Domino Steal (1)

I swear I didn’t rig the game, but Travis ended up with quite the collection.

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When you’re done playing, I recommend leaving the dominoes out… They are a fantastic prompt for kids who want to arrange them, or play make-believe with them, or practice numbers on their own.