Happy Valentine's Day Activity

This activity can be used with both my kids with some adaptions, so just make changes based upon your child's age.  For Cole, who is two, we talk about the colors of the conversation hearts and the colors of the bowls, the shapes, and work on counting out the little numbers (for example 1-3).  He enjoys doing the game with Lillian who is 4 even though they aren't doing the same activity.  Lillian plays the game multiple ways depending on her mood (game always sounds like more fun I think!).  Some days she just chooses a card (one of my previous post tells how to make them) and puts that many conversation hearts in the bowl.  Other days she'll put the number cards in ascending order by their value.  Today she was going to "guess" how many hearts were in the bowl.  Of course I jumped at the chance to remind her that she could also use the word "estimate", which she did then.  Another day you may want to play the game and change it a little; don't even use the bowls or cards, but count the hearts by two's to see how many you have in your hand.  Watch your child for cues and see how THEY want to play today.  They'll have more fun and will likely play longer than if we tell them how they are going to do it!

Sensory "table"

Lillian and Nicole love it when we get out the sensory tub.  At school I had a $300 dollar sensory table, but of course here at home we don't have such luxuries so I created my own tubs!  I use two different kinds depending on what we are going to put in it.  During the Fall I used a long, heavy duty card board box that my sons train table came in.  For this activity we got out our clear plastic tub.  You need one shallow enough that the kids can reach in easily, but with high enough sides the items don't come out as they sift through the treasure.  Today we put "rocks" in the table.  I don't just have rocks in it though, there are also marbles, flower deco's they put in vases, etc.  Some are round (good opportunity to teach the word sphere!), and others are round on one side but flat on the bottom.  It goes with out saying that they are all different sizes and, of course, the colors vary.  You can pick all of these, even the rocks, up at dollar stores so they can be obtained pretty cheaply.  When we get done with a sensory item I store it in a clear container; plastic shoe boxes work well.  Of course if you have young children who put items in their mouths you'll want to use larger items in your sensory tub until they out grow that stage.  There are an endless number of possibilities for your tub: bows, ribbon, dry pasta, dried beans, and buttons are just a few ideas you might want to try.  Don't hesitate to put an item in; what seems simple to adults children may spend hours exploring!  Lastly, you might notice in the picture that I have provided the kids with measuring spoons, measuring cups, a bowl, a spoon, etc to use in the tub too.  This helps them learn about volume and size and can help them develop large motor skills (filling the cups and dumping them into other containers).

Fall

We did this fun activity in the fall, but due to the busy holiday season I failed to get it posted!  However, you can either keep it mind for next year or use it during another season using different "props."  We began the activity by having "an adventure" as my children call it - going off to explore is another way they refer to it.  No matter, we grabbed a couple buckets and trecked out into the fields and woods surrounding our house and our families and gathered Fall items; field corn, fall flowers, branches, leaves, nuts and I even bought a couple yams from the store!  Next, I put all our "treasures" into a box or tub and just let the kids explore it on their own.  The only rule was they couldn't take it away, it had to stay with the box.  Then a few days later I layed down our painting mat (plastic table cloth), and got out paper, paint, and brushes.  I demonstrated to the kids how each item made its own unique pattern and then they spent time painting with the items we had found.  Later, they painted the items themselves.  This is a wonderful activity to teach about patterns, shapes, soft/hard and to explore with.