Monday August 24th /Nature Walk / Rocks

Toddler and Preschooler
You need: to take a walk outside

Today you can find Rocks.

As you walk collect rocks.
Discuss their size, shape, color, textures, and if they are pretty.

Bring your rocks home and paint them to be pet rocks!
You can give your rocks hair, googly eyes, nose, and mouth.
You can let your toddler paint the rock and after it is dry, you can put the face on it for them.


Tuesday August 25th / Family and Friends Photo Album

Toddler

Buy a small 99cent photo album.
Take pictures of everyone in your family, friends, and pets.
Print and label each picture with the person's name.
Put the pictures in the album.

Sit down with your toddler and read the book.
Talk about each person and tell your toddler stories about each person or animal.

Next time you read the book have your toddler name the people and tell you about them.

Do they sit and read the book to themselves?


Tuesday August 25th / Feelings Photo Album
Preschooler

This is basically the same thing as the toddler idea, except instead of naming people you are talking about feelings.

This week I read a book called Touch Point: Three to Six, which described the preschool years as learning and becoming more aware of feelings. It is a time of frustration because they have feelings they never even recognized before such as; anger, jealousy, guilt, and more.

To help your child recognize and talk about these feelings, take pictures of yourself, them, and others with different facial expressions and put them in your album with labels. Sit down and "read" the book with your child and discuss these feelings. Make up stories about the emotional and why the person feels this way. Ask your preschooler if they have felt that way. Ask them to "tell me more about that." Be sure to use open ended questions that can be answered with yes or no.

What does it feel like to be angry?
What makes you angry?
What does it mean to be guilty?
Have you ever felt that way?
sad, mad, happy, loved, embarrassed, proud, joyful, silly etc etc.




Wednesday August 26th / Prism
Toddler

You need:
prisms
sunny day or flashlight

1. Hang a prism in the window where you have direct sunlight and watch the rainbows.

2. Direct rainbows on other objects and talk about it. "Look, there is a rainbow on your pillow."

3. Give the prism to your toddler (with supervision!!!) and let them direct rainbows on objects from sunlight.

4. You can also use a flashlight to make rainbows in any of these ways.

Wednesday August 26th / Counting Cards
 This is another preschool activity.

Make a few index cards with pictures of objecects in a room such as; windows, doors, books, shoes, dolls etc.

1. Have preschooler pick a room of your house, go there
2. Pick a card
3. Count how many of the object there is in the room.
If you draw a picture of a window, count the windows in that room.
4. Preschoolers choice. Go to a new room, pick another card or stay with that same object.
5. Remember zero can be an answer too.
6. Compare the numbers of objects between objects.


Thursday August 27th / Making Music Bags
Toddler and Preschooler


Make your own maracas.
You need:
Brown paper lunch bags
Small objects
beans and rice
small wiffle balls
use your imagination
markers
twist tie, tape, or hair binder

1. Take out paper bags and decorate them as fancy as you like
2. Walk around and find things to fill them with. I gave each kids two bags.
Preschooler: wanted to fill them with small balls
Toddler: filled one with littlest pet shop accessories
me: rice and beans
Anything will work
3. Fill bags, not very full
4. Twist tie teh bag shut
5. Shake bags
6. Sing a song, march along, be silly with your musical instruments

7. Shake bags one at a time. DO they sound the SAME or DIFFERENT??
Which one do you like best?
 
 

Monday August 10th /Nature Walk / Matching

Toddler and Preschooler
You need: to take a walk outside

Today you can finding matching things.
You find a car and ask your child to find another car.
Then tell them they have found a match!
You find a BIG house and they find a BIG car.
You find a pink flower and they find pink curtains.

Objects: cars, flowers, trees, basketball hoops, birds, street signs, etc

Discuss: same, different, alike, matching
You match objects, size, shapes, or colors. Find something else that is blue...
Find something else that is BIG, or small etc



Tuesday August 11th/ That's My Voice!

Toddlers love to see themselves in the mirror. (Some adults too)

Now let them HEAR themselves.

Your cellphone has a recording option, a cassette player, your computer, or the best option is the video camera.

Try to get lots of different sounds that your toddler makes: crying, laughing, singing, talking, babbling, kissing noise, and clapping.

Let them listen to themselves right away. Are they excited?

Ask them what they are doing or how they are feeling. Tell them laughing means you are happy and crying means you are sad. Repeat what words they say and have a conversation about their noises.


Tuesday August 11th / Static Electricity
Preschooler

You need:
balloon
sugar
tiny bits of paper

This activities objective is to introduce your preschooler to static electricity

1. Tear paper and put it on the table.
2. Put sugar on the table with paper.
3. Blow up balloon.
4. Rub balloon on your sleeve or shirt.
The effect is best if you are wearing wool.
5. Ask your preschooler what they think wil happen next.
Why are we rubbing the balloon?
What are we going to do with the paper and sugar?
This is a hypothesis and ANY thinking is GREAT, not just correct thinking.
YOur praise will encourage them to think and guess, put downs will do the opposite.
6. Hold balloon over paper and sugar.
7. WHAT HAPPENS??

Ext: Draw a picture and/or write about your experiment.
Wednesday August 12th / My Shoes At Night

This is a rhyme to say before bed with your child. Make sure to do the actions.
Highlight this section and print it our for yourself to remember.


Before I jump into bed at night   Jump
Before I dim the light                  switch off the light
I put my shoes together              put shoes together or move hands together

So they can talk at night               make hands or shoes talk
I'm sure they'd get lonesome        shake head like yes
If I left them here and there          toss hands or shoes

So I put them close together          put shoes or hands together
For they're a friendly pair              


Wednesday August 12th / Chair Maze
 This is another preschool activity.

You need:
chairs
lots of space

I suggest making the maze while they are not in the room and then make a big deal about coming into the room and showing them the new game of the day!

Place a bunch of chairs around the room for your preschooler to climb and crawl over and under. If your up for demonstrating this activity, go for it! Clear other furniture from the room. You can number the chairs or let it be a free for all. This is a great rainy day pent up energy idea. I do not recommend this for toddlers because they are not coordinated enough yet.

Once they are bored with the maze, take the same chairs and make a train. Add stuffed animals and dolls.


Thursday August 13th / Kitchen Chores
Toddler and Preschooler

Are your kids always wanting to cook with you and "help"?
Have them clean vegetables and shine apples today.

You need:
two large towels
large bowl
veggies or apples

Place a large towel on the floor and put your bowl with water on top of it.
Show you child how to dip the veggie or apple in the water and scrub it clean.
Take the veggie or apple out and dry it with the other towel.
Place it on the towel or another plate.
If you are using apples, show the how to "polish" the apple with the towel.

I was skeptical of this one, they loved it!


What To Do After You Turn Off The Tv
Frances Moore Lappe and Family

Book Review
As This book and it's title was an easy sell for me. While my children do occasionally watch channel 2 (Sid the Science Kid and Super Why) we do not generally watch TV at all. The ideas in this book for preschoolers and toddlers were pretty limited but I am recommending it for any one with elementary aged kids. There is a national TV Turn Off Week in April every year. You could use this book as a catalyst to try your own TV Turn Off Week at home.

The book is a collection of one families activity ideas. I liked the idea of keeping a collection of our ideas, which first turned into an accordian folder of index cards, and secondly turned into the website PlayisEssential.net. It is my personal collection of games, ideas, and activities I do and want to do with my children. I still keep each activity on a separate index card so I can easily thumb through them and figure out what to do when we need something to do.


Friday August 14th / Sensory Table

Toddler and Preschooler:
You need:
Sensory Table
(or two bins, look in previous sensory table post)

Idea #1
beads and string
I use empty thread spools, actually string beads, buttons, and string. My toddler needs help to string the beads still. I hold the string and she puts the beads on. My preschooler can do this by himself.

Idea #2
poker chips
They make a great sound when you pour them or drop them out of your hands. You can also talk about colors! They stack and tip over too. It will be more fun than you think, I promise!

Idea #3
stretchy bugs, tiny bugs, plastic spiders etc.
Hey, if your up for the real thing give it a try too! :-)
I was not up for the real thing, but we did use lots of plastic bugs. We named them(spider, roach, fly, ant), made them talk to each other, poured them, touched them, and them named them again (Bob, Sam, Jill).


Idea #4Worms and Dirt
Put a thin layer of black dirt in your bin and then add worms. You can get worms at a bait shop or by laying a board on the grass and running the hose over it for 5 minutes, then lift the board. This is how my grandma and I used to get worms for fishing when I was little. be sure to teach your child about being gentle with nature. They will try to pull the worm in two pieces. Also teach them about nature by returning the worms to outside soil when they are finished exploring them.

Saturday August 15th / Fruit Smoothie

Toddler and Preschooler

1/2 cup fresh or  frozen berries
1 banana
1 cup milk
1 tbs sugar
1 8oz plain yogurt

1. Wash or drain berries
2. slice banana
3. put fruit in blender, add milk, sugar and yogurt
4. blend until smooth
5. Pour and drink

I have added crushed ice or ice cream too.

We froze our left overs and had popsicles the next day.

Sunday August 16th / Shape Slap

Oh how appealing!
Slapping things!

Today play the slap the shape game. You ask your child to "Slap a circle!" Then they have to find a thing that is a circle and slap it. This worked with my toddler too. I modified it a little for her turns. I said we are going to slap a circle and then I helped her or showed her what to slap. Both enjoyed slapping things and thought it was hilarious!

Circle: clock, plate (tea set), ball
Rectangle: tiles, window, dresser
Square: fan, TV,
Triangle:




      Remember to READ 15 minutes a day to your child!

“The essence of childhood, of course, is play, which my friends and I did endlessly on streets that we reluctantly shared with traffic.” Bill Cosby quotes