Shape-sorter

Chicco Animal Cottage Shape Sorter is one of JX's favorite toy. It's a small cottage with rooms and doors for 5 animal characters and 5 shapes, which can be inserted into the corresponding slots.

I bought this set of shape-sorter in Chicco's warehouse sale and I introduced it to JX when he was 9 months old. At first, I took some simpler shapes, like circle and square, and showed him how they fit into the holes. JX seemed to be mesmerized by this small cottage, everyday he was busy figuring out how to drop each piece into its proper hole and also found the correct key to open the cottage's door. I think this is good in assisting the children to develop their hand-eye coordination and fine motor skill.

Besides, this set of toy also teaches JX cause & effect and object permanence. When he put the shape through the hole, it disappeared (cause & effect). But when he looked in the container, it's still there (object permanence).

Anyway, there was a design flaw for this set of shape sorter- some animal pieces can be inserted through the shape holes. This means kids have put through the incorrect hole but they will still think that they have done it correctly.

My 100th Post

 

 How exciting that I have reached my 100th post and you are still here with me!

I hope you enjoy our journey together. Thank you for the time you have taken  to read, leave comments and share your own stories.

And not to forget, I would like to thank my sweet, lovely and beautiful friend Chloe who has inspired me to start this blog.

For the next 100 posts, I hope you continue the journey with me!

Image courtesy of Martha Stewart

 

Playdough : Making Little Hands Stronger

Playing playdough is a wonderful sensory activity for toddlers.  Squeezing and kneading the playdough helps toddler develop muscles strength in their fingers and hands.  Those are the same little muscles which toddlers need to be good and strong at in order to hold a pencil and write. 

                                          

Poking and pinching: is great for strengthening finger muscles.

Rolling: Strengthen both the muscles in the hand and in the arm.


















Pressing: Don’t always give your child tools (like roller and cookie cutters) to work with. It is important for children to also learn to use their hands to flatten and shape the playdough.
















Cutting: Cutting playdough with a plastic knife or a pair of child safe scissors provides another way to strengthen toddler's fingers and hand muscles.So mommy, let's encourage your toddler to work with playdough today!

Another Way Of Watering Fun

 

This is another fun way JX and I water the plant. In order to make it more interesting,  I recapped the bottle  (or cover the top of the bottle with my hand) and let JX watch the immediate slowing down of the water flow which would eventually stop. Next, I blew hard into the bottle to increase the rate of the flow .

Since JX is too young to understand what is air pressure or Pascal's Principle (and mommy is not going to teach him yet at this age),  so I just let him think mommy is  putting up some ‘magic show’ for him.

Related post: What Does Toddler Learn From Water Play?

What Does Toddler Learn From Water Play?

Today, when JX and I headed to the yard to water the plant as usual, I realized that the act of pouring water is a great way to  improve toddler’s physical dexterity and hand-eye coordination.  Since JX shows great interest in water play, I decided to let him explore the concept of sink and float.

First of all, I prepared a basin which was half-filled with water. Then I offered him some natural (stone, green beans, sticks) and man made (plastic toys, plastic spoon) objects for him to explore why certain objects sink in water and others float. I asked him questions like '” Why do you think the plastic ball, spoon all float but not the rock?”  '” Why the green bean is so small but it sank?”  The most interesting was the toy car which was first floating but then sank as it filled with water! 

Children learn concepts such as empty/full, before/after, and heavy/light in a hands-on way. Small objects can be heavy and we shouldn’t judge the weigh of an object by its size.  Besides, children learn new words that go along with water play, such as surface, bottom, float, sink.

Water play is fun and it delights toddler’s senses. There is no right or wrong in this kind of sensory play. Keep it interesting, active and hands on, especially for little kids.

Magnet Play

This set of magnetic board+ magnet ABCs’ was hubby’s childhood toy.
He passed the set to JX and JX loves it. The slight resistance from the
magnet while pulling off from a metal surface or the way the magnet
jumps back to stick onto the metal really fascinated JX.

Displaying alphabets magnets on the board is fun but sometimes I think
it’s also fun to place it somewhere else e.g. cookie tin.

I wonder what was in JX’s mind when he saw this anti-gravity magnet?

 

中秋节快乐！

中秋吃汤圆，年年团团圆圆.

Let The Little Body Move

Children love music. When JX was a baby, I found that he moved to music naturally. I started playing him 'Barney - Moving and Grooving 'DVD when he learnt to pull up and cruised. The clapping game led by Barney in this DVD is simple and fun. It encouraged JX to get up and try to clap along with Barney.

After JX has learnt to walk, I played him another two music videos - ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ and ‘If You’re Happy & You Know It’. Toddlers are interested in body parts. I found that these songs provided a great way to help JX learnt the name of his body parts. The little one was very eager to act out his newfound knowledge whenever the music was on. I think this is good in assisting toddlers to learn control over their body.

There are lots more songs which can be encouraged toddlers to follow the act e.g. ‘One, Two, Buckle My Shoe’, ‘I'm A Little Teapot’. Or some finger-play song, e.g. ‘Incy Wincy Spider’.

Sometimes, without turning on the DVD, I would sing and act along the song ‘If You’re Happy & You Know It’ a bit differently and let JX follow.

"If you're happy and you know it clap your hands. (physically clap my hands)
If you're happy and you know it clap your hands. (physically clap my hands)
If you're happy and you know it and you really want to show it, If you're happy and you know it clap your hand. (physically clap my hands)
(shout hooray, knock your head, pull your hair, pull your ear, turn around…)"

So, mommy remember to get up and dance together with your toddler!





JX was enjoying the clapping song led by Barney

Thomas The Tank Engine

Yes. That's right. I let my 20 months old watch some TV. I know that experts' advice is to keep toddler aged below 2 to stay away from TV. I do have mommy’s guilt about the limited TV that JX watches. Hence, I always try to watch TV together with JX. I will ask him questions about what's going on and attempt to incorporate a lesson of some sort whenever possible.

I was first introduced to ' Thomas & Friends ' by hubby. Hubby was a fan of ' Postman Pat ' and ' Thomas & Friends ' when he was a kid. I found out that there are not a whole lot of numbers, letters, shapes etc to learn in ' Thomas & Friends ' but there are plenty of emotions & feelings found in this show. Anger, jealousy, pride, excitement, fear, disappointment and confusion all make regular appearances in the show.

So I've been making a concerted effort to talk about these emotions and feelings with JX while we watch ' Thomas and Friends '. E.g. Thomas felt left out {feeling} by friends, so anger and disappointment {emotions} took over him. He decided to isolate himself from his friends. So, what do you think of Thomas’s act? How do you feel after watching this? I will find words to label each emotion that we see in the show.

In a normal day, I will recap incidence that has happened in the past (usually the last 5 minutes) to JX. (E.g. You were sad just now but now you are excited). I hope this will slowly help JX to identify different emotions in him and others.

Anyway, one thing to keep in mind is - Thomas seldom suffers any consequences for his wrongdoings. (I don’t remember seeing him apologize for his bad behaviour). So, it’s the caregiver's responsibility to explain to the kid on the Dos & Don'ts.

Go Organic!

I love the fragrance of pandan leaves. I love to use it for desserts such as sweet potato soup. When I was a teenager, my mum used to ask me to cut pandan leaves from our garden for cooking purpose. I miss those moments and have decided to grow my own pandan leaves.

As I am living in an apartment, there is no room for a vegetable garden. So, I have decided to try container gardening. We chose to plant seedlings rather than seeds so that we could see results more quickly.

Growing vegetables in pots is fun and easy. Everyday JX and I will check our plant and JX is very enthusiastic in watering the pandan. I am so happy that my pandan grows with minimum supervision. Yesterday, I was able to cook one of my favourite desserts (white fungus, longan with ginkgo fruits and lotus seeds) with my home-grown organic pandan leaves. I showed JX how I cut the leaves and cooked it so that he can make connection that we eat something that we grow.