Bath Math

(36 Months)

I found this activity on Pinterest, it's from In Lieu of Preschool.   I love her idea.  We made it our own by using the third board for word form instead of tally marks.  This learning activity met all of my qualifications for a homemade activity: it's cheap (one dollar), it takes less than five minutes to create, it's no mess, it's a fun learning activity, it's a hit with the kids!

At the dollar store, pick up a pack of rectangular foam sheets in a variety of colors, we chose one color for the number form, a second color for the count or domino, and a third color for the word form.  Number the sheets 1-5, next create dominos for numbers 1-5, then write the number in word form.

I was so happy when the kids got excited about playing with the number cards in the bath.  I let them first explore sticking the foam sheets to the bath wall, then I watched as they began ordering the numbers on the wall.  I let them work together, while I clutched my hands together to prevent myself from interrupting and correcting them that the numbers go from left to right (not right to left, the way the kids had ordered the numbers).  Once they had all five numbers ordered (in descending order), I asked them to use their favorite pointer finger to show me in the air which direction we read.  They did it.  Then I reminded them that that is the same order we place numbers on the number line.  Wild One and Little Miss worked at ordering the numbers again.  They worked together to place the domino foam sheets on top of the corresponding number.  Lastly, we worked together to identify the word form of each number, we started with five -since that was phonetically correct.  They easily placed the five on 5 (thanks to being phonetically correct).  Next we worked on four, three, two and one.  I was surprised that they just accepted that o-n-e spells the word one, even though there is no "w".  It saved me a conversation about learning how to read though.

They really like this one.  I definitely recommend it.  Easy, cheap and the kiddos love it!

Foam Window Art

(26 Months)

I picked up a pack of foam sheets from the Dollar store awhile back thinking, I'll probably need these one day.  Months later, I'm looking online for fun outdoor activities for the kids and I came across this foam window art activity from The Imagination Tree.  Perfect, all I need to do now is cut a bunch of shapes and we're all set.  During nap time (which is still anywhere between 50 minutes to an hour), I decided paying bills can wait and I'll cut some shapes for us to do today.  After cutting basic shapes, including face shapes, flower shapes and train shapes, we were all set.

Little Miss worked on adding eyes to a face, finding the big and teeny tiny of similar shapes and asking me to make her a train.  Wild One worked on wetting each piece and randomly sticking it onto the window and then knocking them all off.

They had fun creating a few art pieces on the window wall, but the other toys we had outside captured their attention more.  Oh well, we'll keep it around for another time or maybe to play in the bathtub!

They love playing with these orange cones.  The last picture shows Little Miss placing the cones in a line and Wild One stealing one at a time and moving them out of order (he's such a little skutch).

We love playing, we spend almost all day playing!  One of our favorite places (other than our home - of course) is our local community center park.  They have musical instruments, things to climb on and through, a wide open field to run and chase Grandpa, plus it's mostly shaded.