Our Favorite Preschool Apps

(43 Months)

We use our iPad as part of our quiet time activities (when Wild One doesn't nap or when Little Miss wakes up very early from a nap) and while I'm cooking dinner.  I am so happy with these apps, they keep the kiddos fully engaged, while learning- and I get to complete some never-ending housework.

The kids love using the iPad to do "work".  All of these games are fantastic learning tools, they don't even realize they are practicing - heh heh heh (evil laugh).  I've spent hours searching and playing with numerous learning apps.  These are the ones that the kids and I really like and decided to keep.

Handwriting
Letter School
Letter Quiz
Dora's ABC's
Wet Dry Try - Handwriting Without Tears

Math: Problem Solving, Puzzles, Matching, Sorting, Counting
Snake Tangrams
Amazing Shape Puzzles
Jurassic Jr. (Dinosaur Train)
Phonics Island
Candy Count
Teach Me (Toddler)
Countalicious

Reading and Spelling
Super Why
Phonics Island
BOB Books Lite
Sight Words
Word Family
Fun Rhyming

What are your favorite learning apps?

Learning is More Fun with Dinosaurs

(37 Months)

A few weeks ago we went on a Dinosaur Walk.  We knew that Wild One would like a land filled with dinosaurs, they're big, they stomp and they ROAR. I was surprised when my daughter began excitedly exclaiming, "I love Dinosaurs!"  She kept going on and on about how much she loved dinosaurs and that they love her as well.  So cute. I knew that we would start learning about dinosaurs sometime soon (after Dr. Seuss and St. Patrick's weeks, and right before Easter).

I'm so glad that there are so many wonderful moms out there that share all of the incredible things that they are working on with their kids.  I found a wonderful dinosaur preschool pack at Over the Big Moon.  It has dinosaur puzzles, spot the difference, tracing, coloring, sorting, counting, shadow cards, matching and more!  Wow, that sounds like an infomercial.  Thank you so much Over the Big Moon, the kidabunks loved working on your pack.

Spot the difference- we used pom poms instead of dot markers so that we can reuse the sheets.

 Patterning

Puzzle- with number order

 Leave it to Grandma and Grandpa to bring over a dinosaur puzzle during dinosaur week!  Thank you Grandma and Grandpa.  We love you! xoxo

Preschool Fun- Letters, Puzzles, Bath Math, Field Trip

(37 Months)

Little Miss asked to work in her schoolbooks, while Wild One read books with Grandpa.  I love the concentration on her face as she works.  I keep forgetting to pull out my sandpaper letters before we do a tracing activity.  At this rate, by the time I remember to take them out they will already have learned how to write their letters.

After we worked on a few pages, we pulled out our new favorite toy- puzzles!  I decided to try and challenge Little Miss by giving her two puzzles at once to see if she can still put the puzzles together.

Bath Math- we added numbers 6-10 (from our previous post).  Wild One decided to stay in the tub to continue working on ordering the numbers to ten.

We love Mr. Tommy!  He is an incredible performer.  He uses music as a way to teach children math, nursery rhymes and gets them dancing (while following directions).  Plus, the kids love every minute of it.  His CDs are available on his website.  This afternoon, Wild One pretended he was Mr. Tommy and did a reenactment of his performance.

Of course every trip to the mall requires a train ride with Grandpa.

Dr. Seuss Week- Easy Craft Stick Puzzles

(37 Months)

I saw Joyfully Weary's Dr. Seuss Puzzles and knew that we would absolutely have to include that activity into our week's plans.  We recently started playing with jigsaw puzzles and they love it!  This was a very quick project to put together.  I already had Mod Podge and craft sticks at home, now I just needed to do an internet search for a few of my favorite Dr. Seuss books and print the covers.  I followed her directions, and after the puzzles were dried I started slicing the craft sticks apart using a x-acto knife.  I discovered that if I just score the lines of the craft sticks and then bend the sticks back they will easily come apart.  This project was so simple and quick to put together.  I was eagerly waiting for the kidabunks to wake up so that we can play with them.

 At first they just stared, then they began recognizing what's on the sticks- "That's Dr. Seuss!"

 That smile just says it all.  I did it all by myself.

We recently received this Melissa and Doug wooden puzzle from one of our amazing friends, Mary.  I love how this puzzle only has 12 pieces per puzzle, it guarantees independent success.  There is just the right amount of challenge to this puzzle without the kids feeling frustrated.  The best part of course is how excited they are when they finish the puzzle, "I did it all by myself!"  I see an extension on this puzzle in a few months, we can add an extra level of difficulty by integrating two or more puzzles together to make it more challenging.

Favorite Puzzles

(30 Months)

Last week our Tangeos Jr. arrived.  If you have a toddler, this is a perfect puzzle for her (ignore the ages 4+ label).  When we opened the box, Little Miss and Wild One were so excited.  I didn't even get a chance to explain how to complete the puzzle before Little Miss started working on it, correctly!  She placed piece after piece in the right spot while I just stared at her dumbfounded.  When she finished, she proudly exclaimed, "I did it!"  Then, she started putting each piece back in the travel case (that's right, she put her pieces away).  After she put the last piece away, she chose a new puzzle and began working again.  She repeated this process again and again and again.  After the fifth puzzle, we tried level 2, but it was too challenging without the piece guidelines.  Little Miss tried several times, but then flipped the card over and started working on level 1.  "I like this one better Mommy."  Now, what about Wild One?  Well, he didn't get a chance to work on the new puzzle by himself.  She tried to let Wild One work on the puzzle by himself, but if he didn't place the puzzle piece fast enough, she would quickly point out where the piece belonged.  When I would tell her to let her brother work on it, she would reply, "Momma, he needs my help."  This is from a two year old.  Thank goodness for technology.   I quickly did a search on my phone for tangram toddler puzzles and came across Tangams Lite.  Wild One loves this one.  He especially likes "the boy" puzzle.  Finally, Wild One got a real turn using the Tangeos puzzle (Little Miss kept saying, "look Momma, we're sharing"  I'm so proud of her). He quickly found the cat puzzle and began working on it.  At one point when he needed to flip the piece over, he said that the piece was broken (how cute).  Then, he put the piece back and took it out again and "Mommy, it's fixed now."

Another puzzle that Little Miss has liked playing with is her knobbed cylinders.  This is a classic Montessori tool that encourages problem solving, spatial reasoning and develops the pincer muscles for fine motor development.  I love watching her solve this puzzle.  We place two or three of the blocks on the table at the same time (with the pieces already removed and mixed together).  She'll then work piece-by-piece identifying where each cylinder should go.  Wild One prefers working on them first thing in the morning, after that he's too awake to sit still and finish the puzzles (he has so much energy- he barely sits still even when he's eating).

 

I was going to put this shape puzzle away, since she completes it so quickly- I felt it wasn't offering a challenge.  However, I found her playing with it again and again, so on the shelf it will stay.  Months ago, we used it to sort pom poms by color.  I'm planning on trying that again, except instead of the kidabunks using tongs, they'll use their new chopsticks.  These are fantastic!  They have three little rings to hold the three fingers properly in place.  Plus, they even make it for left-handed tots like my daughter!