Coloring with Young Children

I started giving Y&K crayons and pencils to color when they turned 14 months old. I let them scribble on blank paper for a start, then I started printing coloring pages from First School based on the theme or letter we are doing for the week for them to color. They progressed from banging the crayons/pencils to drawing circles but I didn't think they quite get what they are supposed to color and it didn't matter to me. I then bought a coloring book from the Popular Bookstore for S$3.60.

The pages had colored background and thick outline of the item with a sample colored item on top so older kids could follow the colors. I use this for my Chinese sessions. I will run through the name of the item in Chinese and the colors used in the picture but they are free to use any colors they desire. I actually regretted getting this coloring book as I later decided it's more economical to print my own. Also, I need to buy 2 books so both of them get the same coloring sheet to prevent any unnecessary fights. But when I see K recognizing the area he should be coloring, I thought the money was well spent! He was coloring with a purpose to fill the White area and I didn't expect that from him. So, a trick to let young toddlers understand the concept of coloring, use colored background so they could fill up the White space and do some real coloring.

Product Review: Do A Dot Art

I've been seeing many homeschoolers using these Do A Dot markers online. But what really made me want to buy these is when I saw the young toddler at No Time for Flash Cards using the dot markers making this pirate hat craft. The others were much older kids. So I went looking for this at many craft shops but was unable to find it. I finally found some information about the sale of this at local parenting forums and made a trip down to Thomson Plaza to buy this. It's costly, cost me S$37.50 for 6 tubes. But this is a great beginner craft paint for toddlers as the boys intuitively turned the bottle over and start banging hard on the paper to create the dots without any demostration of how to use it.

The paint, though indicated as washable are hard to wash off from the little hands and the sponge can't stand abuse, just a short 15 minutes of "banging" from my boys, I see some tear but it's still alright to use with no spills. They were thrilled to see the dots and Y started dragging the tube across the paper and created lines. I think it's a great craft tool, just that it's overpriced.

Disclosure: This is a personal review and opinions are my own.

Letter G Activities - Alphabet Crafts

Last week was a really bad school week as the boys were having very bad teething days. They were extremely irritable and fight over every single thing in sight. We have pencils and brushes flying all over the house. I got a brush right at my face from Y. So, most of the activities had to be stopped midway.

Letter of the Week: G
Vocabulary: Garden, Guitar, Go, Green. Grass
Nursery Rhyme: Mary Mary, Quite Contrary


Lowercase G Craft (see above picture)
I had shredded Green paper to resemble Grass to paste on the alphabet cut out. The didn't want any "grass" on their letter and threw a tantrum when I showed them how to paste the paper.

Uppercase G Craft
We had all things Green for the alphabet cut out, Green Colored Pencils, Paint, Do A Dot, Markers, etc. We stopped when the Green brush came right in my face.

Alphabet Coloring

 Check out K's grumpy face

As I was busy breaking fights the whole day, we didn't manage to go into the Garden theme that I had planned but we still read a lot.

I'm so glad the week has passed and this week seems to have started on a good note. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Letter F Craft - Rice Covered Fish

This is an impromptu craft on a rainy afternoon. It's so easy to put together the materials.

What You Need:

• Contruction Paper
• Marker to draw the fish shape or you can also print out a fish shape
• Rice (White or Colored)
• Googly eyes
• A small box to do the pour the rice 
• Spoon or scoop
• Glue
• Brush to spread the glue (optional)

Method:

• Draw or print a fish shape on a piece of construction paper
• Apply glue on fish body and spread the glue with brush
• Put paper in box and pour the rice over the area with glue
• Shake off excess gently
• Glue the googly eyes on
• Let dry and you have a fish with rice scales.

Y, playing with the rice

Montessori at Home - Encouraging Independence

I set up an area at our foyer for them since they were 15 months so they could get their own shoes and caps to get ready to go out. They have learnt to get their shoes from the rack and get their caps when we ask them to get ready. K will even get my shoes for me sometimes. We are still working on having them put their shoes back on the rack when we come home. At other times, when we are not going out, this is the scenario.

Y, helping K to put on his cap

Y: "I should put on mine too"

K: "Don't forget your shoes"

Y&K: "All set but where's Mum?"

And sometimes, they will go "Oh... we are not going out? Waaahhhhhhhhhh" when reality strikes.

Homemade ABC Book

There are many versions of homemade or DIY ABC books out there on the web. Here's a few:

Alphabet Mini Books from First School
Printables from Enchanted Learning
Photo version by Carina Gardner - I love this!

Here's my version.

I will print some words and pictures of words starting with the letter of the week. I try for 5 words per weeks but that's actually quite a lot and sometimes we take 2 weeks to cover the 5 words. I find 3 words per week to be more comfortable for their age (currently 18 months). I will paste the cards on their learning poster after introducing the words to them and we will review the words as and when they look at the board. 

At the end of the week, during the weekend, we will review the words again and I will cut them into smaller pieces for them to glue on to the page. I also have alphabet cut outs in Upper and Lowercase for them to paste on though they are really more interested in taking them off the page most of the time.

After we are done with the pasting, we will review the letters that were done previously. They are enjoying their ABC book so far, the tearing part more. So, if you have young children like mine, you have to print on card stock and print extras.

Sensory Sand Tub

I had been looking for play sand for the longest time and I was elated when I saw ELC selling them. So, I happily lugged the pack of 10kg sand home and couldn't wait to let them play with it. I think sand play is so fun but the boys don't get to play with sand very much. That is because there aren't any sand pits near our home and the beach is too far and dangerous for me to be bringing two toddlers alone.

I filled two tubs with the play sand and gave them their sand tools to play with. K was uncomfortable with the feel of sand on his hands (he is getting a little finicky about things on his hands). The funny thing is, he was alright when we were at the beach few weeks back but was uncomfortable with sand at home. The sand was moist enough and it's so easy to mould them into shapes.

My mum came over and the boys kept asking her for help with scooping the sand into the containers. 

This is Y

This is K

All was well and fun until Y accidentally got some sand got into his eyes and he started rubbing his eyes with his hands full of sand. He got very upset and started screaming when we held his hands to stop him from getting more sand into his eyes. We had a huge struggle trying to get him into the bathroom to wash the sand off his face and hands. K was a little shocked by what happened to his brother and got upset too when we got him to wash up.

And with that, their grandmother issued an ultimatum that no sand play is allowed at home.