Homemade Toys: Texture Cards

I made these texture cards for J sometime around 10 months to bring with us on plane trips.  I reserved them for those special trips, stored in a ziploc, so that they would keep their novelty.  J loved them.  He has since mostly lost interest in them at 23 months (though he does still like the one with buttons).  But they definitely served their purpose.   The cards are made of cardstock.  They survived pretty well, though I can see the benefit to laminating them (it would have to be done before the texture was added I guess).  You could even use thick cardboard to make them stronger.  There have been a few that have found their home in the trash. 

In choosing textures, I basically went through the house and found interesting textures (that would be fairly easy to attach to the cardstock… I was is a rush!).  I really didn’t get very creative with my textures, but J was still entertained! You’ll notice quiet a few cards with puffy stickers and foam stickers (especially easy to make!), buttons, sponge, styrofoam, post it tabs, duct tape flaps (I created windows and placed a sticker behind the window), fabric, clear plastic, net, …  The only one I can remember that isn’t pictured is the velcro card.  J still really likes this card too since it is interactive (he could remove and replace the velcro pieces).  It’s somewhere around the house, I just can’t find it for the picture!

The back side of the texture cards don’t look so pretty.  I covered a lot of the back sides with packing tape or duct tape.  In hind site, I could’ve created duct tape flaps on the back of all the cards so that they would be double sided. 

To create prettier cards, you could cut larger pieces of the cardstock, attach the texture, fold the card in half and glue them shut. 

Age attempted:  about 10 months -17 months

Teachable moments:  discuss what’s special about each texture/surface :)  (smooth, shiny, bumpy, squishy, crinkly, …)

Try Again?  At 23 months, I’ll soon be trying more advanced texture cards and make a game out of it (similar to this activity on Children’s Learning Activities)

Homemade Toy – Stringing Sponges

In one of my trips through the dollar store, in search of cheap, light weight “toys” to keep my toddler busy on planes, I came up with this version of stringing beads. 

I bought a couple packages of sponge curlers (the kind some of us slept in when we were little).  They came in black and pink in our dollar store.  I took them home and sliced some in thirds, some in half, and kept others the full length.  I keep them in a small wipee box with some pipe cleaners.  The sponges are perfect to string on the pipe cleaners.  I think it’s a little easier for them use the pipe cleaners than regular string, making this activity possible at a younger age.  Wealso make jewelry with them or link them together to create a chain (thought J needs a lot of help with that).

23 months

This makes a good plane/travel activity because it keeps them occupied for awhile, it reuses the same materials from other plane activities (so you have to pack less), and it’s lightweight.  The disadvantage is that the sponges can be decidedly fun to throw around on the plane (but at least they don’t hurt if they hit you and they’re cheap, so it’s not terrible if some are lost).  This works well for J now at 23 months; our first experience with this plane activity (at 14 months) didn’t go as well.   

Age attempted:  14 months (too young for on the plane), better by 18 months and good at it by 23 months

Teachable Moments:  We’ve worked on the meaning of push and pull with this.  You can make patterns with the different colors, practice counting by assigning a different number of sponge beads for each pipe cleaner

Try Again?  This is usually an activity I either bring on the plane or have in the hotel; it is saved for those events to keep it’s novelty but still gets used fairly often

Apple Shapes, Learning for J and a fun Challenge for Mom and Dad

I’m always looking for ways to incorporate our lesson of the day into any and all activities of the day.  J is having a difficult time remembering the rectangle, maybe because it’s similar to the square??  So today I cut his apple into rectangles.  I think every mom does this at some point.  It’s a simple way to help them learn and a simple way to encourage them to eat.  For some reason the apple-circles are much more fun to eat than just the apple slices! 

What I found interesting was it was kinda fun for me too.  I probably inhibited the purpose of my apple shapes because instead of keeping all the shapes rectangular, I started challenging myself to see what shapes I could create.  J rather enjoyed watching Mommy attempt octagons and stars.  The next night at dinner, we were having apples again and my husband got involved in our little game as well. 

I wish I took pictures of all the shapes we sliced, but J was pretty hungry (and Mom and Dady were distracted with the challenge at hand!). 

So if you haven’t already, take a stab at the apple.   

Age Attempted: 22 months, yes it took me this long to make shapes with J’s snacks!

Teachable Moments:  shapes, that Mommy can have fun with J’s activities too

Try Again?  My next challenge will be carving cones.

**Edited to add – We made letters tonight!  It was actually J’s idea and quite a challenge to go through the alphabet.

The Visiting Zoo

This “game” has been on my list of activities since J was 7 or 8 months old.  It’s simple and I’m sure you’ve heard of it before.  It requires no prep work and kids love it!  The only thing you have to do is check your pride at the door. 

So what is the “Visiting Zoo”?  Just pretend to be any animal that pops into your head. Hop around like a rabbit and scrunch your nose (J always loves Mommy scrunching her nose!), slither like a snake, waddle like a duck,… you get it.  And you get why pride has to be checked at the door.  The more into it you are, the more your little one will like it (especially as a toddler!). 

Babyhood: J started out just in awe of Mommy (or maybe it was shock).  He would stare or smile or giggle or look at me like I was loony.  He quickly learned to make the animal sounds but couldn’t manage the movements.

Pretoddler: J started trying to imitate the animals with me, both in sound and movement.  This is great practice with gross motor skills (jumping, slithering, crawling on hands and feet).  Instead of me chosing the animal, I started having him pick the animal.  I was amazed at the animals he remembered.  Caution: They will chose animals that we have no clue how to imitate (like a giraffe, what does a giraffe sound like?)

Early Toddler: J is getting better with his imitations and can do more animals.  I sometimes have him chose animals or pick flashcards from a bowl.  He has gotten to where I can act out an animal and he can name it. 

Toddler and Beyond: Eventually you can add homemade costumes to look like the animal (have them get creative with household items to use); have them draw the written word out of a hat to read instead of using a picture or use animal categories/classifications and they have to name an animal in that classification before you’ll act it out. 

Age Attempted: maybe 7 months at first?

Teachable moments: obviously animal sounds, also physical traits of animals come up (like elephants have a trunk instead of nose, paws instead of feet, beaks, tails, …); gross motor skills, animal classification, animal recognition, lose some inhibitions (though toddlers have few, maybe that’s a teachable moment for mom/dad!)

Try Again? over and over

Homemade Game: Matching Blocks

J is really into matching his toys.  He is constantly finding ways to organize trains, tracks, blocks, beads,…  We have these Melissa and Doug wooden lacing beads and I noticed J was constantly turning the wooden tray over so that he could match the colorful beads to the pictures on the tray.  Unfortunately there were only a few pictures to match.  So I decided to create a matching board that included all the beads.  This was something I did quickly while J was playing nearby, so the final product certainly has mistakes! I just traced each bead and then added color to match each one.  You could probably create a board like this using powerpoint that looks much more professional.  J didn’t notice the mistakes at all.  He loved the board and went straight to work. 

Age attempted: 22 months

Teachable Moments:  label the shapes and colors, recognize color patterns, number recognition

Try Again? Yes, I pull this matching board out maybe once a week

You obviously could create a matching board for lots of different toys your little one already owns.  Letter blocks, stacking toys, flashcards, cars, trains, letter/number magnets, …  I’m sure you can come up with lots of ideas.  Please share your ideas!!

Follow the arrow!

I can’t believe it, the weather was absolutely gorgeous today! So gorgeous in fact that we got to play outside!  I forgot how wonderful it was to run around in the sun together! And such a perfect way to wear out a toddler  

I brought out the sidewalk chalk this afternoon and J made his usual requests (funny how he always asks Mommy to draw letters or shapes and Daddy gets the more intricate requests like a whale or a ship; do you think he’s already figured out who the skilled artist in the family is?).  Then I decided to reinforce a lesson we’ve been learning, the purpose of arrows.  He’s taken an interest in arrows and has a few books with arrows in the pictures.  He likes to point to them and say “way! way!” (meaning ”Go this way!”)  I’ve decided to just go ahead and teach him that arrows point in a certain direction that we should follow.  He kinda gets it. 

So back to my reinforcement lesson… I drew arrows in a block around our driveway, pointing a path that he should follow.  I thought actually marching along the arrows would reinforce their purpose AND help him recognize the direction that each arrow is pointing.  He loved it.  He followed the path over and over and over and wanted Mommy to follow the path over and over and over.  He did not, however, get the entire lesson.  I realize that I need to spend some time inside teaching him how to recognize the direction an arrow is pointing.  There were simply too many distractions outside to keep his attention long enough for this lesson.  He was way too interested in following the path (and sometimes backwards since he hasn’t quite grasped the arrow concept yet!).  Since our driveway is on hill, we could discuss going up and down the driveway and turning at the corners.

Anyway, it turned out to be a great activity and something that, with time, can be educational!  With older toddlers you could make the path they follow more intricate, introducing left and right or even north, south, east and west (for the especially advanced!). 

Age attempted: 22 months, needs a little more work before he completely grasps the concept

Can you see the arrows on the driveway?

Teachable moments: purpose of arrows, recognizing the direction an arrow is pointing, following directions, possibly understanding up/down, left/right

Try Again? yes, he loved this

One Fish Two Fish matching

This is one of the matching activities I made for J.  He loves fish right now, so this particular board quickly attracts his attention. 

These pictures were left over from an activity J did at church, but you could make your own with clip art.  I used adhesive magnets on the back of the board as well as on each individual card so that the pieces stay in place.  I also laminated (using contact paper) each card for durability. 

I did originally make another board that had double the squares to match but it proved too difficult for him.  He lost interest very quickly because there were simply too many fish to search through.  It wasn’t magnetic either so he kept accidentally moving the cards around the board.  This second board worked out much better.  I really think it’s the perfect level for him right now.  He has to be mindful of the color, number and type of fish to match each card correctly.  There are just enough squares to keep him busy but not frustrate him.  I will have to save my original board for when he’s a bit older. 

Age attempted: 22 months

Teachable moments: count the fish together in search for the perfect match, talk about the different colors, point out the size of the fish (small, medium, large)

Try Again?  Yes; as he gets older I can increase the number of squares to match; I can also add extra cards that won’t actually match the board so that he will learn to filter the unnecessary data and focus only on what is needed to complete the task.

** stay tuned for other activities I’ve created with these adorable fish!

This is the other board I made that will have to wait until he's a little older.

Why Didn’t I Think of That? Piggies in a Blanket

Check out this link http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2010/03/prodcut-review-piggies-in-blanket.html

This Piggies in a Blanket would’ve been perfect for J!  Had I only known earlier!  I was always so annoyed with how often J’s blanket would fall off his stroller. I ended up rigging his grocery cart cover to stay on a little better, but it took so much time to set up and was never completely successful.  So long to dirty blankets and cold toes!! My next little one will be so lucky!

Object Category Matching

I printed some pictures (from clip art) of items we have around the house.  I set out one at a time and asked J to first identify the picture.  Then I asked him to search the room to find an object like the one in the picture.  The first time (around 19 months) we did this activity I had already placed the items in the pictures within sight around the room.  I also helped him find the first picture to help him understand the goal of the activity.  He completed the remaining pictures on his own. 

J recently repeated this activity without any extra help from me.  I set out all four pictures at the same time and he searched the room for the matching items.  This was a great way to practice his knowledge of where items are kept (socks are in the top drawer, boots are in the closet, etc.).  There were a few items he had to be reminded their general location (in the living room) and then he could take it from there.  He found each match and then we did four more (this time using flashcard pictures).  This last set of cards, I did have to encourage him to finish.  He got distracted as he went looking for a few of the matching items.  I was so proud that he did finish the task.  This turned out to be great practice with finishing what we started (an important life skill to learn!).

Age attempted: 19 months, again at 22 months

Teachable Moments:  Matching (really you’re matching categories instead of exact item, since the boot in the picture may not look exactly like the boot you have at home; they are in the same category so they’re still a match), knowledge of house (rooms, storage locations; it would be a good activity after rearranging things to help them learn where things go), completing tasks

Try Again?  Yes, as he gets older I’ll make the items harder to locate; It’s a good way to emphasize where items are supposed to go (helpful in cleanup)