More Play Dough Fun

   

Related post: Play-doh            Playdough : Making Little Hands Stronger

Sticker Book

   

I bought this sticker book from Border ( RM20 with more than 200 reusable stickers included). The quality of the book is superb - sturdy, thick, laminated pages with high quality graphics and color. The quality of the stickers are great too, and all stickers are reusable.

JX loves looking through this sticker book, he enjoys matching up the stickers with the various shapes on the pages. There are certain pages where kids can freely choose whatever stickers they want and use them creatively. This provides a good story telling opportunity for mommy too.

Below is the first sticker JX chose and placed down by himself (hmm..mommy was surprised to find out that he actually placed it down correctly, with the ‘Cookie Monster’ at the upright position rather than upside down). ^_^

Simple Game

I received 3 ping pong balls from my sister but it’s obviously not possible to play table tennis with JX, so I have come up with this idea….

JX and I worked together to build  a  structure using ‘Mega Bloks’,  mommy was responsible to build the base and little one was responsible for the sidewall.  The concept is to allow the ball to roll down from high to low with ‘mega bloks’ providing the friction to slow down the movement.

In order to encourage JX's curiosity, I decided to make this simple game more inviting by -

a. showing JX how I pushed the ball, 1 at each time but with different force applied. I use simple words like 'push hard/harder', 'gently touch' the ball to explain to JX.

b. pushed 2 or 3 balls at the same time and let the balls collide each other while moving down the track

c. applied a great force and let the balls bounce off from the structure and drop to the floor. Then we spent a great time chasing the ping pong balls.

JX seemed to love this ‘new game’ as he spent the next hour imitate mommy's previous act & also explored his own way of playing with it while excitedly watching the effect that he has made.   

Another good idea for mommy to sit back and relax.  ^_^

Little Feather Friend

 

 When JX first entered toddlerhood,  there was an evening,  I noticed that he quietly leaned on the wall and looked curious.  I  soon found out that he was actually listening to tones and pitches produced by some birds outside the window.  Hence I brought him near the window and introduced him to this little feather friend for the first time.

JX was fascinated by this ‘new friend’ as it’s so different from other animals – birds can fly. And, they are in different colors and flying at a different speed.  Since then, a late afternoon ‘bird watching’ has become one of our daily routine.  I am very lucky to have all these beautiful chirping birds always play,  sing and rest at my master bedroom’s balcony.  On a busy day, I will push JX’s baby cot near the window and let him enjoy his  ‘hobby’  safely in the cot,  while I can finish some house chores.

Sometimes, I will bring him to a nearby park (another popular spot where these birds love to visit) and let him chase the birds, which was another new experience for him.

I enjoy seeing JX exploring what is around him,  making connections between what is known and what is unknown, continually processing new information and making new links. The very simplest things/findings can cause stir up  excitement and joy to him.

And, kids have so many things to teach us. A simple bird watching can bring moments of inner calmness and freedom from obsessing thoughts.  I love this new hobby too.  ^_^

Experimenting With Art Materials

 JX was first introduced to art during his first birthday where LK and i bought him a water-based drawing set called – Aqua Doodle (Thanks Pit for your great recommendation).  The set comes with an Aqua Doodle Mat and an Aqua Doodle Pen.  It’s a very simple drawing set, all I needed to do was to fill the Aqua Doodle pen with water and JX can start to doodle on the Aqua Doodle Mat. When the water dried off, all pictures would fade away and the mat is ready to be reuse again.

For a very young toddler,  JX’s  initial response to a new creative medium was not about making art but instead was about exploring and experimenting with the materials. I had given JX plenty of time to just figuring out what this cool thing called Aqua doodle pen & mat can do. I let him discover the link between his hand holding the Aqua doodle pen and the lines/scribbles he made on the mat. I let him experience what is so called cause-and-effect.

I still remembered how exciting he was when he discovered his new ability to hold things in his hands and fingers then later  made a first  ‘mark’ on the world. And the first scribbles he made was actually more of the result of his large shoulder movement. He also tried to smell and taste the Aqua doodle pen.

As JX reached 18 months old, I slowly introduced him to more art materials like pens (of different colours),  pencils (mechanical and 2B) and also colour pencils.

This month, my top pick to welcome JX enters into 21 months old were crayon and watercolour. (Remembered to choose a non-toxic one for young children).

As usual, I just sit beside him (or draw alongside) giving him plenty of time to explore the material’s properties and capabilities freely without needing to ‘make’ something. Every marks he made didn’t have to be represent something, just let it be a mark created during exploration process. 

Art is about ‘free choice’ creating time, isn’t it?

 

 

 P/S-  I really think art is a great activity as mommy also gets the chance to enjoy some drawing while letting the little hand exploring.

Related post: Drawing Is Fun!

C Is For Caterpillar

Activity to help toddler  identify and learn letter C !

Related post:  Sundaying

Aloha!

Last week, JX and I were at a restaurant. They always have balloons at their entrance, and  any kids going through get offered one.  Hence, JX received the first ever balloon in his life.  It’s the coolest gift for him,  he could play with the balloon for hours!

Led by JX’s interest, I bought him another Barney’s DVD which was Barney: Big World Adventure the Movie.  The story is about Barney & his friends traveling around the world in a hot air balloon.  The movie introduces new cultures and languages from different countries around the world. 

As usual, I watched the show together with JX. I was delighted to learn how to dance the hula dance from this movie (now only I know every movement, expression and gesture in the hula has a specific meaning, from representing plants, animals, and the elements to listening, searching, sailing and so much more) and I tried to dance it by following the scenes, so did JX (to be more precise, he only moved his hands and little body, followed by turn a round). 

Given our recent learning of Hula dance and JX interest in the hot air balloon, he recently got up from his daytime nap to discover this…

 

 

I purposely created this play scenario, intending to encourage more literature based play of retelling the stories related to ‘Barney: Big World Adventure the Movie’.  I wanted to encourage JX’s oral language and story comprehension abilities as I retell him the story. 

Don’t you think this is an irresistible ideas for play based learning?

 
Related post: Thomas the Tank Engine

Play Tent

I redeemed this colourful train play tent from Huggies (not sure if this redemption only applicable in Malaysia) .  I always love play tent and I think it’s an interesting imaginative play for children. Children can pretend they hop into the train and then the train will be ready to go! 

Besides, when children crawl through the tunnel, it will help them develop their abdominal and chest muscles. 

Even simple peek-a-boo will cheer them up very much!

Jigsaw Puzzle Fun

I love jigsaw puzzles. I first introduced JX to jigsaw puzzles when he was 11 months old. I introduced him to this before toddlerhood as he had shown great interest in playing with shape-sorters.

The first puzzle I bought for JX was a wooden jigsaw puzzle from Melissa & Doug. I chose wooden puzzles because they are sturdy and durable, it can withstand the everyday onslaught by the toddler.


Melissa & Doug Vehicles Peg


Beginner toddler puzzles should have:

1. big pieces.

2. a knob or peg (known as knob puzzles and peg puzzles) on each piece for ease of handling.

3. pictures on the board which correspond to the pictures at the jigsaw puzzle pieces ( for a young toddler, picture matching is easier than shape and size matching. )

4. subjects which suit the toddler’s interest (to motivate the toddler to be engaged in play)



At the beginning, JX needed lots of guidance, encouragement and support from me to solve the puzzle. I didn’t expect a 11 months old baby to spend long period of time play with the puzzles, so whenever JX has lost his interest, i would take the puzzle away.

After JX had mastered this set of puzzle, I bought him a more advanced set which was - 'Melissa & Doug beginner pattern blocks'. For this set of puzzle, the base of the hole in the board does not have any picture, so when you remove the pieces, there’s just a blank space with its own shape. It's good to encourage toddler to learn matching the puzzle pieces with the shapes on the board. Besides, it also introduces toddler to the idea of adding elements to one picture.


Melissa & Doug Beginner Pattern Blocks



















To my surprise, JX loves playing with this new set of puzzle (he still loves playing with it now). He could play quietly and tried to solve the puzzle by himself (there are a total of 10 different design patterns in this block set) and I managed to regain some time to do some household chores. There were times when he encountered problem to fit in certain pieces of the puzzles but with some encouragement and minimum help from me, he was able to overcome his frustration and continue to try.

So, from my observation, puzzles are excellent learning tools as they encourage children to :

1. Develop hand-eye co-ordination

2. Develop the manual dexterity and co-ordination of their hands and fingers

3. Use reasoning and analysis to find and match the correct piece with the correct space

4. Differentiate features of each different piece (shape, size, colour, picture)

5. Ability to concentrate, and emotional control in terms of how to deal with frustration.

I am delighted to see the joy on JX's face every time after he has successfully solved the puzzles. Hence, I decided to add more puzzles to his collections.

 

(left)  Melissa & Doug See-Inside Alphabet Peg Puzzle    (right)  Melissa & Doug See-Inside Numbers Peg

I also bought JX a '2-pieces per-picture puzzle' to increase his logical thinking ability.



















And now (at 21 months old), JX loves solving puzzle. For more fun and challenge, recently I bought him a 3-4 piece cardboard puzzles.



















Have you planned on adding a jigsaw puzzle for your toddler? If so, I highly recommend you to do so.