I love this site for educational preschool learning games that I ran into the other day: Literacy Center.net - The Early Childhood Education Network!
My late-talker interacts most with me when he is having fun. Play is just a wonderful way for him to learn, retain what he has learned, and practice talking over and over again without getting tired of the activity. It has however been difficult for me to do the things HE enjoys.
It was hard for me to see that he did not like reading and crafting for lengthy periods of time. Twenty minutes tops. Technology is just what he enjoys, and so as long as it is a family activity, we allow him to enjoy a lot of it -- way more than other moms let their kids, but we've got a difficult situation here, and I think every mom can relate to whatever works, do it!
During the week, my son plays with a Apple computer, Nintendo Wii, an Apple iPad, and our iPhones. On the weekend, he can play with his Nintendo DS. I do limit his individual playing time to 30 min to an hour as well as his playing non-educational games. Everything else, he must be playing and talking with a parent. The husband is better at playing, I'm better at talking so we're still working this situation out - but the results are clear - he talks a lot more than he did a year ago when we kinda started this. It has been a nice family experience.
I do have some requirements to all this screen time though. He must eat meals at the table, he has to have a technology-free morning, he must run around and play with his sister for an hour or two running around and doing what she likes to do, practice writing, and he has to read 20 minutes with me before bedtime. And all that doesn't even guarantee his tech time if we have shopping or errands to do - it all depends and he knows not to demand or expect any game time. He's actually very understanding and tantrum-free, which is why I think we allow him to play as much as we do -- it seems like a lot of time to me, but maybe it's way less than others.
I love the learning games of course. Nick Jr. and Sprout. Scholastic and BBC have a few great ones too. The site we found through readquarium (and Gamequarium), is a wonderful site LiteracyCenter.net - I hope you check it out with your little one because it has a lot of games for teaching or reviewing the basics.
Other sites I've checked out a couple times are Funbrain and Funschool - although we have yet to fully explore these :)
Love,
Amanda and Cubs
Showing posts with label Indoor Activities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Indoor Activities. Show all posts
10/27/2010
Activities When I'm Too Tired Too Play with the Toddlers
I'm 20 weeks pregnant and poor Monica has to wean because the milk is finally gone. She wasn't able to go back to sleep last night for 3 hours. I even drove her around at 5:30am. Anyway, I'm a bit sluggish today and I can tell my poor husband and son are too (we have a family bed so the other members suffered a bit as well).
Monica is like the Jack Russell Terrier of our pack - she needs twice the activity to rest well and wakes up very alert at the slightest disturbance...it's been a far cry from my first who weaned soundlessly and sleeps every night through the night.
Today, I needed to tire out Monica (without upsetting or frustrating her) and I needed some sit-down activities for my tired Elijah. There was no way I was running after Monica to play today (I did for about 3 minutes) and Elijah wasn't in the mood to be outside for very long.
It snowed a little. :) Inspiration.
*** Made "snowflakes" and put them in various pie plates. Elijah liked throwing them from the couch, counting them, and Monica ran through them over and over.
*** Elijah had a wooden spoon. We balanced as many snowflakes as we could on it, counting and laughing when they fell. Then he let Monica hit it as she ran by. Then we grabbed anything we could to balance.
***We turned the wooden spoon, got a toilet paper roll and paper cup and made a "snowman" to balance on the handle. We used expo marker to draw and erase different faces, happy, mad, sad, etc. Monica thought it was hilarious to run around with the head after I made a "pop" noise when she took it.
***Put a little water in the pie plate and let them put in the scrunched snowflakes and watch them expand. Elijah pulled them apart and "pasted" them to an cardboard piece. Monica took them and threw them at an empty box to watch it tip, get wet, and change color.
***Ate "snow" with lunch - rolled up leftover white rice. Some were cold, some were microwaved, just to practice hot and cold. Elijah liked rolling some of them.
***Glued cotton balls and Q-tips to paper. Attached a little toilet paper to Monica and she spun.
***Children's music. Elijah pulled out cards of the things he heard and made the correct animal noises. Monica danced.
***Taped some "snowshoes" onto Monica - she frickin loved it! It was just a big paper foot taped around her foot. I would have done it to the bottom, but I didn't want her to slip. Then she wanted hands, then was entertained by the paper shapes and tape...another story. Elijah and I looked up pictures of arctic animals and native peoples.
It's going to be a rough week. Monica is going through a big change and I expect a lot of fits, tears, and whines. I figure I'll just keep cuddling and loving and kissing. I know she won't go on like this forever.
Love, Amanda and Cubs
Monica is like the Jack Russell Terrier of our pack - she needs twice the activity to rest well and wakes up very alert at the slightest disturbance...it's been a far cry from my first who weaned soundlessly and sleeps every night through the night.
Today, I needed to tire out Monica (without upsetting or frustrating her) and I needed some sit-down activities for my tired Elijah. There was no way I was running after Monica to play today (I did for about 3 minutes) and Elijah wasn't in the mood to be outside for very long.
It snowed a little. :) Inspiration.
*** Made "snowflakes" and put them in various pie plates. Elijah liked throwing them from the couch, counting them, and Monica ran through them over and over.
*** Elijah had a wooden spoon. We balanced as many snowflakes as we could on it, counting and laughing when they fell. Then he let Monica hit it as she ran by. Then we grabbed anything we could to balance.
***We turned the wooden spoon, got a toilet paper roll and paper cup and made a "snowman" to balance on the handle. We used expo marker to draw and erase different faces, happy, mad, sad, etc. Monica thought it was hilarious to run around with the head after I made a "pop" noise when she took it.
***Put a little water in the pie plate and let them put in the scrunched snowflakes and watch them expand. Elijah pulled them apart and "pasted" them to an cardboard piece. Monica took them and threw them at an empty box to watch it tip, get wet, and change color.
***Ate "snow" with lunch - rolled up leftover white rice. Some were cold, some were microwaved, just to practice hot and cold. Elijah liked rolling some of them.
***Glued cotton balls and Q-tips to paper. Attached a little toilet paper to Monica and she spun.
***Children's music. Elijah pulled out cards of the things he heard and made the correct animal noises. Monica danced.
***Taped some "snowshoes" onto Monica - she frickin loved it! It was just a big paper foot taped around her foot. I would have done it to the bottom, but I didn't want her to slip. Then she wanted hands, then was entertained by the paper shapes and tape...another story. Elijah and I looked up pictures of arctic animals and native peoples.
It's going to be a rough week. Monica is going through a big change and I expect a lot of fits, tears, and whines. I figure I'll just keep cuddling and loving and kissing. I know she won't go on like this forever.
Love, Amanda and Cubs
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