Printables:
Blog Posts:
Book Ideas:
Just Ask: What is a Wave?
Just Ask: What is the Ocean?
The Magic School Bus and the Shark Adventure
Younger Kid Ocean Books:
*=Favorites
Wednesday, September 7, 2022
Wednesday, August 31, 2022
Ocean Themed Math Printables
It has been a little while since I've been able to make new materials. I enjoy doing it and Archer enjoys new things to do, so it is a win win. Recently, I made these ocean themed math printables.
Greater Than Less Than Bubbles. I used a wet erase marker to write numbers on some sea life pony beads. I'd randomly have him draw two and then put them in the bubbles to make the inequality correct.
Money adding practice sheet. I found these adorable little buckets on clearance at the craft store. I put various amounts of coins in each one for him to sort and add.
Pattern making. I used the same star pony beads to have him make patterns on the seaweed.
Friday, August 26, 2022
How To Help Your Children Create Healthy And Positive Habits
It's crucial that kids develop healthy eating and activity habits as they grow up. A child's mental and social development may be hampered by being overweight or obese in addition to the risks to their physical health. According to research, kids who have a healthy weight tend to be happier, fitter, and have more self-confidence, which aids in their academic and social growth. Additionally, they are more likely to develop into healthy adults who have a lower risk of developing a wide range of illnesses, such as type 2 diabetes and numerous malignancies.
To offer children the best opportunity of living a long and healthy life, it's critical to work to ensure that they develop healthy behaviours at a young age. This holds true regardless of whether your child is already a healthy weight or is now obese.
Children's personality and behaviour are established and shaped in large part by their good habits. Parents who want to raise their kids to be decent people often think about ways to help them form positive habits. However, since kids pick up things from what they see, parents need to set a good example for their kids. Additionally, give them motivation to adopt excellent behaviours by outlining the benefits of doing so.
Keep a positive attitude
In the early years of your child's life, it is crucial for you as a parent to maintain a positive outlook. Everything you educate them today will affect the way they think in the future. The last thing you would want is for your child to grow up to be a pessimistic and depressed person. Adopt a positive outlook on life and ensure that your home is a joyful and pleasant place to be.
The core cause of a child's suicidal disposition and tendency to harm themselves is frequently found at home. There may be numerous of these, like not feeling safe or at home where you were raised. Therefore, make sure that your home is a place where your child feels safe and at ease.
To ensure their children's academic success, parents should also keep a library at home and provide them with learning resources. Encourage your children to use dictionaries to look up the meanings of new terms and encyclopaedias to find the answers to their questions as parents. Your youngster will learn how to conduct research from this. Books promote discipline and order in the household.
Keep Your Expectations In Check
Realistic expectations are one of the most crucial things to keep in mind when raising your child. Your child will inevitably make mistakes at some point, and you must handle this with grace and patience. Keep in mind that your child is still young and impressionable, and that they will probably imitate what they see.
If you have reasonable expectations for your children, they will learn to live up to them. Parents need to understand that kids don't all learn at the same pace, in the same amount of time, or with the same ease. Even as adults, they are unable to achieve all the same levels of success.
Sometimes having high hopes can motivate parents to spend meaningful time with their kids and provide them with the resources they need to reach their full potential. However, it can be detrimental to a child's growth and self-image if excessive expectations surpass the child's potential. In order for a child's skills and interests to grow during their formative years, parents must therefore exercise patience.
Parents who are exceptional achievers anticipate that their kids will follow suit. However, you should be aware as parents that children's jobs are to play and learn. So don't burden them with your expectations and instead let them enjoy their childhood. Little kids can't be expected to behave like adults! Children's behaviour frequently aggravates parents, but all they want is your attention, and it is an example of typical kid behaviour.
Promote family unity
Family time is crucial for a growing child. Introduce them to each member of your family and explain their ties to them as well as how they should be treated. In this manner, kids will develop a sense of respect for those around them and an early appreciation for the significance of family.
To promote close family ties, you can set up indoor and outdoor games, family picnics and get-togethers, potlucks, and other enjoyable activities. Children from broken households have social maladjustment, whereas kids from homes with strong family ties develop into self-assured adults with a positive attitude.
Pay Your Child Back
Rewarding your youngster for good behaviour is a terrific idea. This will help them maintain their motivation and commitment to acting in the best possible manner at all times. However, it's important to remember that you shouldn't give your child materialistic rewards like chocolates, TV time (with the help of Optimum internet and TV packages), or the like. Make the benefits intangible, such as a hug or a word of thanks. Rewarding your child with positive experiences will help them understand that true happiness comes from life's rich experiences rather than superficial pleasures.
Boost your physical activity
Unbelievably, lifestyle-related diseases including childhood obesity, diabetes, and even high blood pressure are more prevalent among today's children. In order to prevent your child from being a couch potato in their early years, start by encouraging physical activity. Join your child in the park and play there. Additionally, enrolling them in swimming lessons is a great method to keep them active and fit.
Stay Involved
No matter how busy you are with your regular responsibilities and employment, you must make an effort to be present in your child's life. Keep yourself informed about their whereabouts, the friends they hang out with, and their academic performance. A brief conversation with your child when they get home from school is an excellent idea because it will keep you informed of their emotional state. You can get a lot of resources to help you help them with learning and anything they may be struggling with like letter tracing worksheets.
Community Initiatives
Participate in community projects with your child to help them understand their responsibility as a citizen. This will motivate people to take action for the benefit of society. Your child will experience great satisfaction from lending a hand and doing good deeds. Helping them plant trees or taking part in a social campaign are also excellent ideas. Social responsibility is a fantastic approach to make young people aware of important issues and inspire them to support worthy causes. Your child should grow up understanding the importance of volunteering. Try to bring your child along when you visit an elderly home or teach orphans so they can engage with each other and you.
Organise spending money
This is most likely one of the crucial elements in most houses. Fortunately, it's not that difficult. Try to estimate the amount of money your child will require. Give them a set sum each month. Additionally, get your child a "piggy bank" and instruct them to attempt to save money for any future purchases they might want to make. They will develop the habit of saving as a result. Nowadays, banks are offering opportunities for opening accounts for minors. You can suggest that your youngster open a bank account and take charge of their own spending.
Be accountable
Although teaching your child to be accountable is not always easy, there are several effective methods you can use. If your child is old enough, think about acquiring them a pet because it will teach them responsibility. Give your child something essential and urge them to keep it secure; then, observe their approach. These simple techniques will help your child develop responsibility.
Say No
Your youngster should understand that when you say "No," it's the end of the line. The last thing you want is for your child to develop a harsh and arrogant mindset where they can always get away with making up reasons. Remind them that you are in charge and that until they are adults, you will be the one making decisions on their behalf. Make sure they understand that they will always have the opportunity to express their views and defend their positions, but that your judgement will ultimately prevail.
Say Yes
Knowing when to say "yes" is just as important as knowing when to say "no." Allow your child to participate fully if they must attend a birthday party, even if it requires rearranging the itinerary. Everything you do to improve your child's social skills, no matter how small, is okay.
Cook with them
Cooking together with your child is a wonderful way to relax and decompress. Ask them to assist you in making salad dressings or decorating cupcakes. Additionally, you can assist them in selecting the ideal mixture of culinary items.
Them Speak, Please
Make sure your youngster has the freedom to express their opinions. Give children the freedom to express themselves honestly about any situation, and attempt to understand what they are thinking. You can also get your child's opinion on minor issues involving the house. In this way, individuals are more inclined to follow your instructions, comprehend your decisions, and even respect your judgement.
*This is a contributed post
Monday, July 25, 2022
Early Learning with Newborn Number 3
Hello! It's been a while, and it will probably be a while yet before I post regularly again, but I thought I'd do a quick newborn update.
Baby Juniper has now been with us for almost 6 weeks! Having a c-section this time was definitely a different experience and did affect how quickly I could do much with her. In general, she's still an unpredictable little newborn, so we never know how long she will sleep or be content. She's still tiny and our true focus is just keeping her healthy, happy and loving on her, so our "learning" goals are pretty loose and simple.
Newborn goals:
- Face to Face Time - we try to make sure we spend some time making eye contact and talking to her (and how could you not want to have lots of chats with your new baby?). We smile at her often and she's starting to smile back, especially if I use a silly high pitched voice. Her brothers love getting in her face (probably a little too close) and chatting with her. Surprisingly, she particularly seems to like when Archer chats with her, despite Xander being much calmer and gentler with her.
- Stimulating both sides - she's too little to truly do a lot of activities that cross the midline, but I do make an effort to stimulate both sides of her body and encourage her to practice turning her head. I rub her head, arm and leg on while I'm nursing, and then do the opposite side when she nurses on the other side. We shake rattles on one side of her head until she will turn towards it and then try the other side. She's not ready to follow with her eyes directly, but we will get there.
- Tummy Time - We do a lot of tummy time on a family member, which she seems to prefer. We also get some tummy time in on the crawling track or just on the floor. The amount of time she will be content there varies, so we just follow her lead. Also, she has started rolling from front to back, so it is now harder to keep her on her tummy. I also try to make sure she is barefoot, if not barelegged so she can get that sensory input and grip into the surface better.
- Visual Stimulation - we try to provide lots of high contrast "interesting" things to look at. She has various black and white cards and toys to look at. She also really seems to like looking at windows or being walked around the house in the evening to see the different light fixtures.
- Freedom of Movement - so this is where we are kind of mixed as far as early learning goes, at least for this age. Ideally, she would always have freedom of movement for her arms and legs. While I do avoid "baby holders" for the most part, we do swaddle her at night. Without it, she just can't stay asleep and she's too cranky to enjoy her awake time (and so am I). She also really likes being worn in a wrap, which holds her pretty snugly against my body. I tend to wear her when we are out and about, since it is safer than keeping her in the infant car seat. I also wear her during the day if she's cranky and can't seem to calm down for very long. To me, it is about balance.
Tummy time on the crawling track. We don't put her on as often as a full Doman program would recommend, but we do try to get her in there at least a couple of times a day.
She prefers tummy time on a family member.
She really seems to like being outside, so I've brought her mats out there for her.
Lots of high contrast stimulation available for her (and some big brother snuggles). We also have a couple of mobiles for her, but I don't think her eyesight it quick good enough for them yet. She definitely prefers her cards down at her level.
I'm definitely looking forward to doing more activities with her as she grows. For now, we'll take it slow and try to enjoy the snuggles and newborn noises.
Wednesday, June 8, 2022
Spring Theme: Plants and Garden
A few weeks ago I posted on how we were doing so many spring themed activities that I divided them up. You can check out the post on Bugs, Bees and Butterflies Activities Here. This post will focus on Plant and Garden activities.
We have been working on counting money, so I put coins into tiny flower pots from the craft store and added some cheap flowers. You can print the recording sheet here.
I used the same little flower pots and some letter flower beads to do a sight word scramble.
We did some raindrop word family sorting.
I made a garden playdough kit for him. I made some cocoa powder play dough (recipe from The Imagination Tree) which made the whole playroom smell very yummy. I included little pots, flower buttons and cookie cutters, fruit buttons, the flower toob and the food toob and some general tools.
Archer planted some veggies with Daddy at a relative's property.
Working on his vegetable garden addition and subtraction activity.
Flower hole punching activity from Early Learning Ideas
Garden Vocabulary Cards. While he has been able to read these words for years, I hadn't had him match them in a long time, so he enjoyed it.
Flower vocabulary cards. I showed him a Little Reader lesson I made to go with it a few times first. Then I gave him the cards and the flowers to match. It was tougher than most of these activities for him, partially because several flowers look similar.
Some plant and garden books. How do Flowers Grow? is his favorite of this group.
I got out this Spanish Mini-Book for him to read and color.
Parts of a Plant Worksheet from Amanda's Little Learners
We also watched several YouTube Videos on Plants
Check out some other Spring and Garden resources:
Friday, June 3, 2022
Flower Math Printables
I decided I needed some themed versions of some of our common math activities to go with the plant and garden things we have been doing. Because I used the Vegetable Garden Addition and Subtraction Printables to cover those skills, I only made two activities with flowers.
First, I made this patterning sheet for to use with flower beads. The top has different types of patterns for him to make and then he uses the beads to make the patterns on the pots.
Digging flower beads out of therapy putty to make a graph and answer question. I changed up the recording sheet just a bit this time. I also still have a sheet for answering questions.
Check out some other Spring and Garden resources:
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