Fine Motor Fun!

Does your child need to work on their fine motor skills but all the usual skills such as: tracing, coloring, stringing beads, etc. seem to bore them?

Fear not I found a wonderful fine motor activity that I am sure your child will love!!

All you need are coins and a piggy bank! Make sure to supervise while they are doing this so they do not put any coins in their mouth!!

Gather all of your coins around the houes and have your child put them into the piggy bank one by one. This really takes some planning on there part and is some good fine motor practice!!! 

0

Winter Time Activities

I have included two fun Christmas themed activities that I have been doing with my little one at home, that I know your children will love!!

The first fun activity is a felt tree!

Felt Tree

Felt is extremely inexpensive and I had some left over from some classroom projects so I cut out a triangle shape and used command stripes and attached it to a door. (you can attach it to anywhere in your house).  I have seen people on Pinterest use different shapes, colors and even different objects as ornaments.  I choose to use plain circle to get language such as ball or specific color names out of my little one.  If you are working on colors or shapes you can cut out different shapes and colors and have your child request what color and shape they want to put on the tree. They can also tell you what color or shapes they are taking off the tree.  Feel free to get creative! This is just a fun thing your child can do and hopefully it will keep them away from your Christmas tree!  We also have a Christmas tree in our classroom and it is a big hit! 

Fun times

I pinned a Pinterest pin of doing this with circle and snowmen pieces, which I will be doing in January for sure!

Another fun activity involves contact paper!!  

Contact paper is new favorite thing! So I drew a Christmas tree on  the non-sticky side of contact paper and then taped it to my door.  I took the paper off of the sticky side and that is facing out. I then used pom pom balls as ornaments which will stick to the contact paper! (I get my pom pom balls from the Dollar store!) The contact paper will stay sticky for the whole month of December! (Wish I would have gotten this up sooner, sorry!)  Contact paper is VERY cheap and can be found at stores such as Walmart, Target, Meijer, etc. Typically it is kept in the house ware section of stores (where you find shelving paper).

Give these fun activities a try!  They will keep your little one busy for a little bit so you can get something done!

0

Christmas presents

Parents always asks me "What would you suggest I get my child for Christmas." Not having a child of my own until a little over a year ago, I would just randomly suggest things but now I am more strategic on what I buy or suggest for Christmas presents!

While putting together your Christmas list ask yourself the following questions!

What does your child:

Want

Need

Wear

Read

I'll give you some of my favorite things right now!

What does your child want:

This is one of my favorite parts but also the part I dread! I love going through catalogs and magazines with kids! The one thing I hate is all the commercials that come on and after each one, no matter what it is, our kids say "I want that!"   Let them make a list but go through and ask yourself will my child play with this more than a few times? Here are some things that I think every child can benefit from!

A Kitchen

Every child can benefit from a play kitchen. Having a kitchen gives your child the tools to expand there imagination. Help them learn to pretend play. Get down at there level and talk about what you are doing.  Make sure your child not only plays with the kitchen but also brings someone food once it's cooked! This will help with language development as you can ask your child questions such as "what did you make me?" This also is a great opportunity to label all types of food that you have and talk about what items in the kitchen do. The oven cooks food, I wash my hands at the sink, etc. 

Little People Toys

 

Little people toys are another great tool to build language and play skills 

 

Mr. Potato Head

Mr. Potato Head seems to be a very popular toy with the kids right now! While playing with them label the objects and teach them where to put the hat, boots, etc.  You can also talk about the color of the objects to get in some color naming! This is a great vocabulary activity!!

 

Leap Frog Letter Factory Video

This is a great video to teach letter names and sounds!  When I show my students this video they seem to pick up the letter sounds and names VERY quickly!

 

What will your child read?

I found the coolest books the other day! These books are not only great reads for preschool aged but they also have a great fine motor component! A great book to bring to the restaurant to keep your child busy! 

These  books have raised buttons on each page.  Your child can practice counting and fine motor skills at the same time!  It's like popping bubble wrap but the fun doesn't end!

0