Magnet School

I picked up this Magnet School set at the local consignment sale for $6.  I have ziplock bags full of magnetic letters, but I liked that these were big and chunky and came with cards.  It's just another cheap way to reinforce letters, letter sounds, and beginning reading skills.

 We have played with this a couple of times already.  Olivia really just likes to play with the magnets and talk about the letters.

Look at her tracing the letter B--makes this teacher Mama proud. :)

The back of the box is magnetic and looks like a writing paper.

This particular time, I put a few letters back there to choose from and then showed her a card.  The whole alphabet can be overwhelming at this point.  She did really well picking out the correct letter to use.

Then she would match it up to the card and we would talk about the letter name, the letter sound and the word it was spelling.

I'm still trying to figure out how many letter names she actually knows.  I know she knows some of them, but if I try to "quiz" her to count then she always ends up just telling me an animal that starts with that letter.  Smart, but not helpful.

 We usually make it thru a few letters and then she is ready to just play with them on her own, or she's just done all together.  At this point I want to make learning fun and enjoyable for her.  So when she's done--we're done.

The "S" card has a sun on it, so she likes to find it and sing "Mr. Sun". :)

I think we'll get $6 worth of use out of these. :)

Wordless Wednesday--HOOT HOOT!

A Picnic and the Park

Olivia is having a harder time adjusting to Michael working two jobs than we thought.  So when he had off last night, and I didn't have anything planned for dinner because a trip to the grocery store had yet to happen, and the weather was not too hot but not too cold, I knew it was the perfect time to hit the park.

I packed Olivia a dinner and picked up $5 footlongs from Subway for Michael and I.

We don't have patio furniture, so eating outside is something new for Olivia.  Despite the look on her face, I think she enjoyed it. :)

As soon as Michael finished his sub, she decided that she was finished with her dinner too.  She immediately insisted on heading to the swings.

Next up she requested the slide.

Michael obliged by putting her up and then helping her down the little slide over and over again.

Then she decided it was time to explore the equipment.

 She eventually made her way to the top (with Michael following behind) and we decided to let her try out the big slide.  She did pretty good and seemed to like it.

Her hair was crazy staticky every time she got up.

 Next, Michael decided to try to teach her to climb the rock wall.  She wasn't wearing the best shoes for that...

... but she reached the top!

I made sure that we did some practice hanging on the bars.  Miss Christi would be so proud. :)

That was a lot of playing, so it was time for a walk.  Olivia kept us entertained with her commentary.

We stopped to blow some dandelions, but once Olivia figured out that no bubbles were forming from our blowing efforts, she was not interested.

 The long walk wore her out, so she hitched a ride half way back.

She loved it up there.  She just kept saying "too tall" an her favorite phrase of "too funny!".

Happy Spring!

BLOCKS!

A small child's job is simply to play.  We all know that they learn through play.  Even though it may not always seem like it, I am generally pretty specific about the toys I choose for Olivia.  I like to have a mix of educational electronic/light up toys (and she does learn from those), toys that encourage imaginative play, and open ended toys that are both educational and encourage thinking skills.  Of course, then there are the toys that help with motor skills.  I suppose to some degree most toys could fall into one of those catagories.  But as all parents know, some are obviously better than others.

Olivia recently received a set of classic blocks.  You know...the kind every kid should have and most preschool rooms stock in abundance.  She likes to call them her shapes. :)

She is loving them!

Her favorite thing to do is build towers....and knock them down. :)

She also likes to point out the colors and shapes.  She even recognized the long triangles as a triangle all on her own.  She talks about squares and rectangles and calls the cylinders "cups".  I thought that was a pretty good association!  Yesterday she brought one of the semicircles over to me and said, "It's a crescent".  Close!

Michael opened them for her the first time and played with them with her.  He suggested using her table as a flat surface and now that's where she wants to play with them every time.  "My shapes at my table!"

Blocks are good for SO many different reasons.  They encourage problem solving, strengthens motor skills, encourage imagination, help with spatials skills and math skills.  They are great for eye-hand coordination, creativity, color/shape recognition, and much more!  We will be getting years of use out of these.

After cleaning most of them up--and she has just as much fun cleaning them up as she does playing with them--- she decided that while she was sitting at her table, it was time for some tea.

I  guess her pastry was a little dry. ;)

Felt Mittens Revisited

Olivia is learning at a rapid pace and I am doing what I can to keep up. :)  She has an interest in learning and likes to talk about and review what she already knows.  I am currently working on compiling an idea list of activities we can work on.  But for now I decided to revisit an activity we did not so long ago.

Olivia saw the box and got so excited.  I couldn't sit down fast enough for her. She just kept saying, "Oooooh!"  We did the felt mitten match up at the end of January. (I blogged about it mid February).  At that point she had about two to three colors down consistently.  Since then she has picked up every color except yellow.  This is sort of funny to me, because it's one of the first color words she said.  But for whatever reason she hasn't mastered it.

Since she had all of the colors down and the game I made was technically a matching game, I wanted to see if she could actually get the concept.  I've talked about matching other things before and have even heard her say, "it matches".  I thought, if nothing else, it would be a good color review.

She pretty much knew what to do without me even having to show her.  I just put 4 mittens on the board and said "Find the matches".

Looking for the red

She decided she wanted to add orange the board first

Found the red!

Then we took them off and I mixed up the mittens with some of the other colors

Clapping for herself! :)

After she completed the second board of mittens, I took them off and pointed to the board.  I asked her what color it was.  She said, "Black".  Then she pointed out that her hair is brown. :)

We were cleaning up the mittens and she asked for the snowman.

This is a good example of her memory.  We have played with the felt snowman a total of ONE time and it was seven weeks ago!  Yet, somehow she remembered and wanted to play.

She was still more interested in destructing than constructing, but she enjoyed it.

She was telling me this was green.  I told her it was a scarf for the snowman.

Then she said, "Put it on" and tried to wrap it around her neck.

Then she said, "It's too small" and "Snowman's green scarf too small"

That was the end of our felt play.

A Shoe Update

Alright.  Since y'all had to hear me complain about my shoe dilemma and my sweet girl's wide feet, I thought I better give you an update.  I have found the answer.  Go ahead.  Sing "hallelujah".  I know I did. :)

So we ordered three pair of shoes for Olivia.  One is a Mary Jane type tennis shoe from Stride Rite.  I was looking for something that could go with most of what she wears.  This is a cross between a dressier looking shoe and a comfy sporty shoe.  We went with silver so it matches more.  We got it in a 7 wide.  It works.  Olivia likes them.  They are plenty big on her, but it didn't  come in half sizes and I knew a 6 would be too small.

Next up is a slip on type ballet shoe.  It is also from Stride Rite.  It is a 6 1/2 wide.  It is big on Olivia, too.  The first time I put them on her, she took one very awkward lap around the room, came back crying and asked me to take them off.  The toes are hard and she's use to very soft shoes.  We've yet to figure out if something is hurting her or if she's just not use to them yet.  We put them on her again the other day.  She still walked funny in them, but kept them on for a bit.  We haven't worn them outside of the house yet, because I still haven't decided if we are keeping them or not.

The real find was Squeaker Shoes.  Now, here's the thing.  I've known about squeaker type shoes for quite  a while now. I think I first heard about them before Olivia was born.  I guess I just didn't pay much attention to the details of them. But in my long search for shoes I saw that it said they are made wide in the toes.  You don't have to order special shoes or get them 7 Wide.  They are just 7.  The soles are flexible, but also supportive.  They can squeak when worn, but you can also take the squeakers out.  The squeaker is meant to teach them how to step down correctly.  Olivia already does this, and we'd prefer not to hear the racket so we took them out.

(source)

Out of the three pair of shoes we got, these are Olivia's favorite.  Not only does she like them, but they fit the best. They were also reasonably priced.  She also walks the best in them.  For all of those reasons, I am a fan. I think the original squeaky shoes are from China and are just called "Squeaky Shoes".  Now days there are tons of different brands, but they all have the same general form to the shoe and concept behind them.

She will be needing sandals before we know it.  I am going to be looking for squeaky type shoes!  I will no longer be spending hours searching high and low for cute, affordable, "wide" shoes.  I am just going to go with what works.  I've already looked online and there are quite a few sites who have these type of shoes for decent prices.  Not only that, but I know baby steals has Wee Squeaks on sale for 50% off at times.

Age 9 months to 20 months--Pediped loyal
Age 20 months to ???-- SQUEAKERS! :)

"I Love You Through and Through"

by:

Bernadette Rossetti-Shustak

 

I love you through and through.

I love your top side

I love your bottom side

I love your inside 

and outside

I love your happy side

your sad side

your silly side

your mad side

I love your fingers 

and toes

your ears

and nose.

I love your hair and eyes

            your giggles and cries.        

I love you running 

and walking.

Silent

and talking.

I love you through and through.

Yesterday, today, and tomorrow, too.    

(Currently this is one of Olivia's favorite bedtime books.  She like to say "silent and talking" and then adds "yesterday... tomorrow too". :)