Animal pet rocks

 This was an inviation to play that i set one this morning for both kids to create Animal Pet Rocks, keeping with our letter of the week A.

Paint,glue,pom poms,eyes,gems,crepe paper and plenty of rocks. Needless to say our house is now FULL of families of pet rocks :)

Montessori Almond Meal Tray

I found some almond meal in the pantry that was out of date by just a month so i decided instead of throwing it out we would use it in our activities. This was a Montessori sand tray which i made with a baking tray and plain almond meal. I put a pack of flashcards next to Tara and she copied the letter using her finger to move the almond meal.
Almond meal is also known as almond flour or ground almond. It has a similar consistency to sand so works well for this activity.

Baking tray magnets

Are you magnets on the fridge getting ignored? Grab one of your baking trays out and you will be amazed at the sudden excitement of a 'new' activity!

Spaghetti Words

While we don't usually allow playing with food at lunchtime, when i came back to Tara after giving her some spaghetti for lunch and found her name spelt out on the table i had to smile....
We spent the rest of the afternoon playing with our food :)

Letters,numbers,words,shapes, the imagination runs wild.....

Fishing letter bingo

The summer has finally hit us so lots of water activities are on our planner! This fishing game i set up for Tara to practice her letters with.
There are milk bottle lids that i have glued a magnet onto (make sure its the inner side of the lid so it floats) and on the outer side used permanent marker to write letters on.
She used a magnetic fishing rod to fish for a lid and then turned it over and told me the letter on it.
I made up some laminated cards with a photo and word on them that were meaningful to Tara and she used the lids to match the letters on her cards.




I played with her with my two cards and she had her two cards and we saw who could finish their card first just like bingo

Alphabet Gems and Rocks

These gems are from the dollar store that you use in vases but for this activity i used them along with some rub on letters from a scrap booking shop to make alphabet gems. So many activities these can be used for depending on the child's age. I asked Tara to help me line up the alphabet singing the A.B.C. song to remind her what comes next. Every little girl loves gems don't they???

Tara seemed to think they belong in her sand tray so she picked out one letter and placed in in the sand then she made that letter in the sand. "S"

I also made lowercase alphabet on tiny river rocks and although i don't think we will be using these yet as we are just concentrating on capitals this year I'm sure they will come in handy later on. Too cute not to make them!

Sand Tray Prep

I had planned on starting the Montessori sand letters tray next year when we start a "letter of the week" program but while in the sandpit today she seemed interested in drawing an 'X' and 'T' so i made up a tray to just get the idea of using her pointer finger in the sand.
I asked her to help the marble find the other marble only using her pointer and following the track.
She then did the opposite way going up this time

I gave her a blank canvas and she told me this is number one..

I guess this proves the point of following your child. I didnt want to rush into learning to print letters but if that is where the interest is im happy to go along and see where it takes us!

Alphabet pole

I made this activity one night and kept it on hand for when i had one of those important phone calls to make and needed a little someone to keep busy. A simple kitchen paper towel roll with the alphabet (we are using capitals at the moment) on it and stickers to match.
I was looking for actual alphabet stickers but found them hard to find without fancy cursive font but these were simple to make out of coloured dot stickers. She matched them up-took her a few days to get it finished but was great to have a quick activity on hand when we needed it. Great for fine motor, recognising letters and matching.

ABC Reading Eggs

Have another product rap! I stumbled across "ABC Reading Eggs"
http://www.readingeggs.com/
and thought we would take the 2 week free trial. Its the first real "game" i have introduced Tara to on the computer after reading conflicting advice about computers for under 3's but most preschools these days have them and this is a fantastic educational program

With the use of repetition, funny characters and rewards this program catches the attention and is Australian made so has English accents. It is marketed to 4yrs+ but Tara had no trouble with the single alphabet letters and sounds. Great way to start practising manuevering a mouse and keyboard too!