I made this set of alphabet cards for JX to play with, the purpose is to let him be familiarized with upper & lowercase alphabets. JX loves this set very much, he flips through the cards one by one again and again. A cost effective and attractive way for toddler to learn alphabets without needing to invest too much on expensive electronics toy.
I came across some colourful pom poms at Daiso store last week and decided to grab two packs home. Below are a few activities which I set up for JX using these beautiful pom poms-
1. Simple colour sorting
I sat beside JX, gave him some simple instructions like ‘ Pick all the blue pom poms and line them up’. When he finished this task, I will give another instruction ‘ Place all the blue pom poms into the bin’ then follow by the last instruction ‘Close the bin’. After he closed the bin, I will repeat these instructions again, starting by ‘ Now, open the bin. Pick all the green pom poms and line them up’.
I think JX really loves these pom poms as he was very eager to listen to my instruction and progressed with this sorting game happily.
2. Colour matching
I asked JX to match and put the pom poms into the respective coloured box. However, he always got confused whenever he picked a pom pom which was none of the 4 designated colours. So, I ended up removing those pom poms which their colour didn’t match any.
3. The last and most exciting pom poms activity for JX was to use a spaghetti clip to clip these pretty pom poms and drop them into the bin.
I think this spaghetti clip is a bit oversize for JX but luckily it’s easy to squeeze and can hold the pom poms very well.
At first, I held JX’s hand and demonstrated to him how I clipped the pom poms (I picked the larger size pom poms) and then dropped it into the bin. After many rounds of demo, JX managed to gain some confidence and (with minimal help from mommy) he has successfully clipped a few large size pom poms and dropped them into the bin . This activity is good at training small muscles at toddler’s hand and also hand-eye coordination.
We spent a great afternoon playing with these pom poms and later while mommy heading to the kitchen to prepare dinner, little one continuously entertained himself (and quiet at the same time) by placing the pom poms into the bin one by one, then poured them out later.
What a great toy!
JX loves this set of ‘Play-Doh Cookie Monster Letter Lunch ’. He enjoys making alphabet soup along with lots of delicious treats. Besides, he was fascinated and amused by Cookie Monster who really ‘ate’ the ‘play-doh’ cookie he fed into his mouth. I would highly recommend this for the 2-4 year old age group. Fun and educational, you can't beat that!
Photo below: I decided to add some literacy into play-doh by introducing JX word matching.
Sharing- I found 2 great parenting tips from Whole Hearted parenting, enjoy reading!
Suggestion #1 is Notice and recognize your child’s improvements.
Sometimes it is easy to only notice – and point out – a child’s misbehavior, mistakes or shortcomings. If a child makes A’s and B’s on his report card along with one C, the C often gets the most attention. Begin to notice even small improvements. A challenge in our house is my daughter getting ready for school in the morning. That is my challenge. She is happy not getting ready for school! Part of her job in getting ready for school is turning off the lights, radio, and the fan in her room. Another part of her job is putting all of her dirty clothes in her hamper. Rather than feedback being about the things she did not do – You forgot to put your clothes in the hamper – it is more encouraging to recognize the things that she did do – You turned off the fan and radio. That’s great! Focusing on your child’s successes and improvements is not only encouraging for your child, but for you as well. What we focus on is what we get, so the more we focus on improvements, the more improvements we will see. Notice how you feel and what you are thinking when you shift your focus in this way. If you are thinking “Man, how many times do we have to go through this before she cleans up after herself?” you will most likely feel frustrated or angry. Your frustration and anger will be reflected in your tone of voice. If you are thinking, “She is getting it! The clothes are in the hamper!” you will feel encouraged. You will feel better AND be more encouraging with your child.
Suggestion #2 is Eliminate “don’t”, “share” and “be nice” from your vocabulary.
Let’s look at each of these. The curious thing about “don’t” is that we don’t really recognize it. For instance, if someone said to you, “Don’t look at the person on your right. Don’t look!” you will probably (and immediately!) look to your right. Our brains do not process the “don’t.” The choices are overwhelming! To create clarity for your children, tell them specifically what you would like them to do rather than what not to do. Instead of “Don’t jump on the bed” or “Don’t put your feet on the couch” say, “Sit on the bed” or “Feet down.”
“Share” and “be nice” are used frequently with younger children. Children learn to share on their own without parental intervention. In fact, when parents request that their children share, most of the time their children are too young to understand what it means. Have faith that your child will willingly share and will learn to do so through his own social relationships.
Saying “Be nice” has a double whammy. First, children do not understand what it means so they are not clear on what to do to be nice. Second, it gives the message that unless we tell our child to “be nice” that they are unkind, bad or whatever their view of “not nice” is. To avoid this double whammy, tell your child what you want him to do. If your child is grabbing toys from a friend say, “Toys are for picking up gently. Use toys these toys on the floor. Mary is playing with that one.” You can also say, “Ask Mary to hand you the toy you would like to use. Grabbing can hurt.” Talk about these skills in terms of “friendship” or “teamwork” skills. If your child is going over to a friend’s house say, “Have fun! Use your friendship skills.”
I found that JX shows great interest in playing with card board puzzles. So, to add to his collections, I bought him another 2 sets puzzles which are -
Related post: Jigsaw Puzzle Fun
