Bonding Time: Tent Time

A few weeks ago, my husband celebrated his birthday. Unfortunately, he was out-of-town and could not celebrate it with the family. During this time, my daughter was crazy (and is still is crazy) about DreamWorks Animation's The Croods and so I decided to build her a 'cave'. We also call it a tent because we paired this activity with making S'mores.

She was really excited about this activity and when the time came to build her a cave/tent, all she could say to me is "I love you, mommy". I let her help me by getting the pillows and arranging them on the floor. When it was up, she just went inside and was very happy.

Don't be fooled if you think that we always study (hahaha) we also try to have some fun. I let my daughter watch cartoons, she loves watching animated films over and over again. This day was a marathon of her fave animated films. We watched "Toy Story 2" and "Tangled". I know this activity was based on "The Croods" but I had to ask her to watch other films because we have seen "The Croods" the other day.

While watching, we enjoyed making S'mores. I spent at least Php95 for all the ingredients. If you have some ingredients at home that will be awesome, you can save a lot for this activity. I prepared marshmallows, a bar of chocolate, Graham crackers, barbecue sticks, a candle and matchsticks, and some receptacle for our "bonfire".

It was a fun activity, she enjoyed putting the marshmallow over the flame. Mommies, let's be careful when working with open flames, I made sure that there were no flammable materials in the area. I also had to watch Z closely because if you put the marshmallow to long it will really  burn! It was cool but a bit scary. Hahahaha!

Z liked the cave/tent so much that she did not want to pack up. She even kicked me out of our cave/tent! The S'mores weren't enjoyed that much but Z enjoyed eating the leftover chocolate!

You just need to be attentive when spending time with your kid. Know what he/she is interested in and try to add some new experiences for him/her. Z did not enjoy eating S'mores that much but I know she enjoyed the time we spent together. I know this because she kept saying "I love you, mommy" throughout the activity.

Wrapping Up the Sense of Hearing Lesson...

The sense of hearing lesson was an interesting topic because you will see how kids are so into music. I am no singer and not really musically inclined but my daughter just loves the idea of playing with musical instruments and singing. She gets excited with the idea of playing with a guitar and exploring sounds…we’ll explore more when she starts her pre-k lessons in three months.

For now, here are three more activities that we did to finish the sense of hearing lesson:

1. We made a shoebox guitar

2. Paper cup telephone

3. Listening outdoors with eyes blindfolded

I can tell that Z had a lot of fun. She always asked her dad to use the paper cup telephone with her. We were all amazed that the paper cup telephone worked! Every time we will make something and her dad is at home, we encourage him to join in the fun; that is one way to involve daddy in our study time.

Aside from activities about the sense of hearing, we did other activities as well like telling stories using our felt board, spray painting, and camping (will be posted soon)!

The sense of hearing was a lot of fun. There are a lot of things to explore for this lesson but we will continue in her pre-k days…next lesson is the sense of touch. I’m still prepping materials for this part so posts will be a little late.

SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES:

1. Exploring wind chimes

2. Sound Safari

3. Book: “Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you Hear?” by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle

4. Making a shoebox guitar

5. Paper cup telephone

6. Exploring sounds outdoors

7. Mystery Bag

8. Egg Matching Sounds

9. Cooking Time: Pancakes, Egg Salad Sandwich

10. Art time: Spray painting

The summer season has begun so activities are a bit difficult to do in our place. But it will not stop the Preschool Mommy to spend some educational and quality time with Z. 

FREEBIE: Alphabet Pocket Chart Pieces

Recently, we started listening to the "Phonics Song" by the Hoopla Kidz (you can download the song on YouTube). We both enjoy the song and it has a nice beat to it.

So, I prepared our alphabet pocket chart to familiarize Z with the letters. I have not begun teaching her the phonics or the letters of the alphabet. We are just listening to the songs and familiarizing ourselves with the sounds.

Here it is, my first freebie for you mommies...the alphabet pocket chart pieces that I made.

Pictures were downloaded using Google Image Search...the size of the pieces are based on the pocket chart that I bought at Teacher's Pet shop behind Philippine Normal University.

If you don't own a pocket chart, you can use the pieces as flashcards. Make sure to print them and laminate to make it durable. You know how our kiddos are when playing with paper so make sure you print them on board paper or something better than paper if you do not plan to laminate the pieces.

Alphabet Pocket Chart Pieces
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4AlFN8-n9QwaTdHWEk0V1o0bTg/edit?usp=sharing

Sense of Sight

Here is an overdue post...it was supposed to be the first one before sense of hearing...but it is better late than never... :)

To introduce the Five Senses, we started with the song from the Australian group “Hi-5” and played the five senses song from their “All About Me” episode. She liked the song so much that she danced to it as well.

For this lesson, I prepared activities that would let her use her eyes.  The following are the activities that I was able to prepare with the help of online research.

1. Treasure Hunt

2. Eyesight Hunt Checklist

3. Exploring with her Binoculars and with her colored-telescope

4. Exploring with a magnifying glass

TREASURE HUNT: I took pictures of things I wanted her to look for around the house. I also included items that she is not familiar with so she would know what they are called. Here, I included a plate number from our family’s motorcycle. I printed out the pictures on board paper and attached it to a ring. She looked for the items around the house using her homemade binoculars.

EYESIGHT HUNT CHECKLIST: I prepared different eyes showing various emotions. This was another “hunting” mission. She likes to have mission activities. Here, she looked for the eyes hidden around our “study time” area. When she found the eyes, she attached it to the checklist and checked it.

EXPLORING WITH THE BINOCULARS:  We went outside for this activity and looked around the place. This is best if you live in a community where there are parks and areas for nature walks. You can go around and explore the area and use the binoculars to spot birds or even insects. You can do the same using magnifying glass. Here, we had daddy Gil tag along with us. She loves to do things with her dad and whenever he is around, I make sure to include him in the activities.  

SNACK TIME: We prepared yummy crackers with cream cheese and raisins. We made creamy eyes for snack time since our lesson was about the sense of sight! :) 

We did not do these activities in a day…you can do activities for an hour and a half to two hours but if your children are still energetic and want more, then you can add a couple of more activities then let them take a nap! Hahaha!

Quality time should not be expensive and stressful. You can use what you have around the house to teach and have fun with your kids.

If your children attend a preschool already, you can extend their activities or add activities from the lesson they are learning using everyday items at home.

  

*I will copy the links next time and share it with you too mommies so you would know where to look for other activities. 

Sense of Hearing

Z likes exploring different kinds of sounds. So, she had fun doing the activities in this lesson.

I prepared activities such as:

- Guessing the sound in the mystery bag

- Matching sounds using plastic eggs

- Reading “Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you Hear?” by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle

We also did some fine motor activities. Z still needs to improve on the use of her small muscles – muscles in her fingers and that is why I try to incorporate some activities to strengthen those muscles.

I had her peel off some tape from her table. I drew some shapes using different colored markers on the tapes. She was able to complete the activity. The thing here though is I should have made a few...it is kind of a low-energy activity so Z got easily bored. So, limit the activity. You can also use stickers if you have them, especially those with the smiley faces, colorful ones or any low-cost stickers.

Aside from lessons on the sense of hearing, we also took the time to practice literacy. I prepared a felt board and its pieces for her. She enjoys telling stories with it. I have felt board pieces on “The Three Little Pigs”, “Little Red Riding Hood”, and “Humpty Dumpty”.

MYSTERY BAG: I let her guess some sounds that were coming from our mystery bag. We call the bag “Mr. Bag”. So, there were different sound makers inside like a baby rattle, small trumpet, a clapper (which we bought from a candy store), a tambourine, and her toy camera that makes different sounds whenever you click it. These materials were just around the house so be creative and look for toys and other stuff that would make sounds.

MATCHING SOUNDS: We explored sounds coming from plastic eggs. The eggs contained buttons, rice, and 10-cent coins.  We did not have a lot of materials available so I only made 2 pairs for each. She had fun finding the pairs…but she had way too much fun and decided to crack the eggs! I was not able to attach tape because I thought I can handle it and not let her crack the eggs. I did not know what I was thinking! And after a few minutes, the eggs exploded and rice was everywhere! I did not use a lot of uncooked rice because I don’t want to indirectly teach Z to waste food. I had to end the activity as calmly as possible!

There are a lot of things to explore and it can be overwhelming which to do first. Find out what your child is interested about and you can start from there. If your child is interested about cars, do activities that involves learning about different kinds of transportation.

For me, since Z is not enrolled in a preschool program, I had to start from the obvious lesson..."about myself"...I call this unit "Marvelous Me". More activities to come!

Sense of Hearing Day 2 (March 12)

Playing with wind chimes

For the past couple of months, I've started teaching Z the Five Senses. We started with the sense of sight but since I don't have my files for the sense of sight I'm going to share the sense of hearing first. I had to search for appropriate activities to do with Z. The following activities can be done using everyday items at home. I had to look for other materials online that I used for this lesson like a copy of "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?" by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle and sound effects on YouTube.

If you want some copy of the files for the sense of hearing activities, let me know. My files are just simple, I still have limited resources and experience in making my materials look cool, hahaha! Still, if you want them feel free to send me a message. I will be posting a PDF copy of the sound safari checklist pretty soon and will be including a zip file of the sound effects, though you can search for the sounds online.

Listening to the sound effects of a yelping peacock.

For the sense of hearing, we started reading "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?" by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle. Here, Z was able to listen to animal sounds that were found in the book. She wanted to retell the story to me and my husband. Z also requested to have the sound effects while she tells the story.


We also had a "sound mission" activity wherein she would listen to different sound effects and go through her checklist to see which object/thing made that particular sound. There were coins dropping, ball bouncing, baby crying, horse galloping and the thunder sound which she pronounces as "funder". hahaha!

She took interest in cooking too, I believe it is because of Disney's "Ratatouille". She's been watching it many times now. So, I started to include cooking as a special activity in our study time. For day-2, we made egg salad sandwich. We have done this before when we were still in Cavite and she had a classmate back then. We just did it again since we have to work with ingredients that we already have at home. 

Spending time with your child should not be expensive. I hope that the things I share here would also inspire mommies, child carers, cool aunts and daddies out there to spend some quality and educational time with their children.

About TPM

I have never thought of being a teacher to young children, let alone being a mom to one. I have always thought that I will be one of those women in an office working her butt off preparing marketing plans and attending events for the company. It never happened…well just a 10-month stint as a marketing officer for a roofing company and after that, I never thought of going back to that field again.  

Teaching was never in my mind. As far as I can remember, I swore that I would never become a teacher. I made this statement after seeing how crazy my classmates were in high school! (Hahaha!) But a very good friend (same friend who encouraged me to blog!) introduced me to teaching English to Koreans and after my first day of training, I fell in love with ESL (English as a Second Language). And five years later, I find myself sitting in a classroom learning how to teach young children.  

I had not planned to spend my life teaching young children but a former employer introduced me to it by taking a master’s degree in the university where she teaches. Although I have not formally taught in a classroom yet…I am currently dedicating my time, energy, resources and knowledge in teaching my own preschooler and that is how The Preschool Mommy was born.

Through this blog, I hope to inspire and encourage mommies and future mommies to spend some time teaching their own children as well as cool aunts to spend some quality and fun time with their nephews and nieces!