I loved Jeanne’s comment saying the title of yesterday’s post sounded like a recipe, so continuing with that idea we today we have ‘take one child, add a dash of ribbons and swirl together with music.’

Children always have the best play ideas, don’t they? These pictures show B enjoying dancing with the streamers she made after . . . → Read More: Add ribbons and swirl]]>

I loved Jeanne’s comment saying the title of yesterday’s post sounded like a recipe, so continuing with that idea we today we have ‘take one child, add a dash of ribbons and swirl together with music.’

Children always have the best play ideas, don’t they? These pictures show B enjoying dancing with the streamers she made after discovering a forgotten bag of ribbons. She simply tied a one to the end of a stick and was ready to go. Both my girls love dancing but I’ve resisted sending them to an organised dance class for now, instead letting them explore their own dance style.

Create your own dance studio

Dancing is a wonderful activity to develop physical skills and balance and is great for lifting the mood if kids are feeling grouchy. (We love a kitchen disco on a gloomy, rainy day!) It’s a fun way to encourage children to be active,  needs no special equipment and so can enjoyed any time and any where.

To make an at-home dance studio simply create some space by pushing back sofas and moving tables, or even try some dancing outside.

Offer different styles of music for the children to try out and see how they move differently as the music changes. You could try this, this or this!

If you want you can provide some added extras such as B’s streamers or scarves and pieces of floaty fabric.

Then leave the children to it, to enjoy moving their bodies and choreographing their own dance routines.

Are your children dancers?

happily shared with smart summer challenge and  for the kids friday  happiness is and  it’s playtime and  made by you monday

Understanding the different parts of our language is important for children as they develop their own speaking, listening, reading and writing skills, and one of the parts of language is of course rhyme. It’s not necessarily something which young . . . → Read More: Pre-school rhyming game]]> A quick post tonight with an fun idea for a game we’ve been playing today all about rhymes.

Understanding the different parts of our language is important for children as they develop their own speaking, listening, reading and writing skills, and one of the parts of language is of course rhyme. It’s not necessarily something which young children understand easily. Pre-schoolers often think words which start with the same sound (walk and whistle) rhyme, instead of understanding that it’s the final sound of the word which they need to listen out for (as in walk and talk).

Little is switching on to rhymes now and will sometimes stop after she’s said something and say ‘hey, that rhymes!’. We’ve also been having fun thinking of rhyme chains, starting with a word and linking lots of rhymes. (bing, ping, wing, ling, sing, jing, ding…)

Building on this, and to have some more fun, we’ve been playing a game inventing couplets along the lines of…

I don’t like Mr. Melly, he’s too smelly.

I don’t like Mrs. Porty, she’s really naughty.

At first we had to think of the describing work first (smelly) and then have Little invent the rhyming name to go with it, as she found it too hard the other way round, where she had to think of the correct, specific adjective that could match.

Of course, using ‘rude’ words really appeals to a three year old.

We don’t like Mr. Blinky, he’s too stinky.

And as for Mrs. Fooey…….!

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If you’re trying to nurture a new skill in a child I think you should always take your cue from them. Think about what they love and enjoy and use this as the medium to teach the lesson. Little currently adores ducks. She . . . → Read More: Ducks: number line, song vlog, painting]]> ***FEATURING MY FIRST VLOG POST***

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If you’re trying to nurture a new skill in a child I think you should always take your cue from them. Think about what they love and enjoy and use this as the medium to teach the lesson. Little currently adores ducks. She got a little yellow duck in a party loot bag which is accompanying her everywhere – and she quite likes ‘being’ a duck herself. She’s also very interested in numbers – a skill which I’m keen for her to practise. Today she wanted to do some painting so, to encourage those numbers, we decided to make a duck number line.

I’ve blogged about number lines before and I think they’re a really useful way to incorporate written numbers into your child’s environment. Ours is strung along the kitchen window – a prominent position so Little is often looking at it. We refer to it most days, for example when we’re counting out spoons to set the table, so we’re gently reinforcing the number progression and linking the physical number of spoons with the written number symbols on the line. Of course, once things have been on display for a while they become a little stale and you walk past without noticing so I like to change the pictures on the number line to keep it interesting for Little. We’ve previously done ladybirds, autumn leaves and Christmas trees.

To make a duck number line: I cut out some duck shapes from pieces of card and Little set about paining them. Let you child be creative here and paint them any colour they like. Little was quite clear that she wanted pink and yellow ducks – so who am I to argue! Holding the paintbrush is good motor skill practice and the mark-making aspect paves the way for later writing. You can see from the vlog that she can’t resist swirling all her paints together – more experimenting.

Once the ducks were dry Little added eyes and numbers using a felt pen. She was determined to write the numbers herself so I encouraged her to have a try – are you impressed with how well she did them? As one reason for making the number line is to have her see the (correct) written form of the numbers I added a small (correct) version of each numeral too – careful not to make Little think that her version was in anyway not good enough.

Children learn in a multi-sensory way and adding other experiences to a lesson re-inforces what you’re teaching – so why not add in some song while you’re painting and counting. Hope you like her rendition of Five Little Ducks Went Swimming One Day!

We’re going to extend the play with ducks by adding them to the bathwater tonight – so Little can enjoy some small-world role play. And tomorrow we’re off to feed the ducks at the local pond – so she can learn about the real world and see some ducks in action.

And just in case you don’t know all the words and would like to sing with your child, the lyrics are here. If you’re not painting, you should hold up the corresponding number of fingers, and swim them off like the little ducks:

5 little ducks went swimming one day,

over the pond and far away,

when mummy duck said ‘quack, quack, quack, quack’

only 4 little ducks came back.

(and so on, until – in a sad voice- …

no little ducks went swimming one day,

over the pond and far away,

when mummy duck said ‘quack, quack, quack, quack’

ALL THE 5 LITTLE DUCKS CAME BACK!

This post is part of the 2010 API Principles of Parenting blog carnival, a series of monthly parenting blog carnivals, hosted by API Speaks. Learn more about attachment parenting by visiting the API website.

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When I saw this heart shaped ‘Love Pasta’ I knew I had to have some! (Guess what we’re having for dinner on 14th?) And I’d also been thinking about how to include a baby I . . . → Read More: Valentine music-maker shaker]]> This is a very simple idea to include even the youngest child in the Valentine fun.

When I saw this heart shaped ‘Love Pasta’ I knew I had to have some! (Guess what we’re having for dinner on 14th?) And I’d also been thinking about how to include a baby I know in the Valentine celebrations as she’s too young for any chocolate treats or to get involved in the other crafts we’re doing. One thing she is fantastic at however is making noise! She’s really enjoying finding her own voice and also trying out what sounds she can make by banging toys around, which gave me the idea of making her a musical shaker with a sprinkle of hearts inside.

It’s pretty much the easiest thing to make:

Take a clean, empty drinks bottle.

Fill with something to make noise when baby shakes it. I used the Love Pasta, but you could use dry kidney or borlotti beans (which keeps with the colour scheme) or rice or whatever else you might have in your storecupboard.

Add something to catch baby’s eye. I used some heart shaped foil confetti and some swirls of red shiny ribbon.

Fix the lid on tightly. I applied superglue around the rim of the bottle and them screwed the lid on top. I added a ribbon around the neck of the bottle, but if you’re concerned about baby chewing this you can leave it off.

Hand the bottle over to baby and let them shake away to their hearts content.

This post is happily shared with the Virtual Valentine’s Day Party