Name Recognition/Learning

I'm baaaaaaaack...finally settled in from the exhaustion of Disneyland last week!  I'll share all about that soon!

At the beginning of this year, B was so NOT interested in learning his letters or writing his name.  Even now, after working on letters for months, he has trouble remembering some of the ones we learned in the beginning...he just wasn't into it then. 

Now, he is 100% on board with learning EVERYTHING...especially how to write his name.  The past few weeks, on top of learning letters, I have done an activity involving his name.  I wanted to get him interested in it without forcing him to sit down and write.  He really enjoyed the name activities...I think it was because no "work" (aka writing) was involved.

These are all EASY little activities that you can throw together with things you already have at home.

1.  Stamps

2.  Rocket ship...This was an activity not only involving his name, but shapes and following directions (B had to put his squares in the same color order as my example...We wrote his name at the end.), as well as counting out a certain number of stars. 

This is from a few weeks ago and he had just started writing the letter B by himself...so cute.

3.  Foam letter stickers...This is when we were learning the letter N and discussing how it is part of his name.  I laid out a pile of letter stickers and he had to search to find each letter of his name and then put it all together at the bottom.

So, yesterday I decided that B needed to start trying to actually WRITE his name.  I wrote his name in a light color on card stock and stuck it inside a page protector.  **This is a SUPER cheap and easy way to get your kids (at home or school) to practice ANYTHING.  Put it in a page protector and give them dry erase markers and used dryer sheets (works perfect as an eraser!).** You're welcome!

B was a little wary at first about writing his name, but after I guided him through it the 1st & 2nd time, he was ready to go!  

Here is the picture of his 3rd and 4th time (1st & 2nd time ALONE):

Remember, this is the FIRST time he has EVER sat down to write his entire name...

Pretty impressive, right?!

Then THIS happened this morning...  

He wanted to write a "letter" to his grandparents and I told him to write his name on it, so that they could see what a great job he is doing.  (I did not expect that he would do anything past the B.)

His first reaction was, "I can't...there are no other letters."  So I talked him through it (showed him where to begin each letter and new line), but never touched his hand or the marker!

AMAZING.  I almost lost it, y'all.  I'm one proud nanny!!! Not only is it his whole name and he did it ALONE (no tracing, just listening and looking over at his practice sheet from yesterday), but we started this YESTERDAY and he is not even 4 yet!  Plus, look at the improvement on that B!

Painting with Kids

B loves to paint, but doesn't love it for long.  So, it's not my first choice for an afternoon activity...too much prep and cleanup for 7 minutes of fun.  However, right before Easter he found an egg painting activity and insisted on doing it.  I decided to give in, in the spirit of the holiday, and accept the fact that I would be wiping paint off of everything in about 8 minutes. 

And then IT happened.  My BRILLIANT idea.  The IDEA of a lifetime.

I had some tons of contact paper left over from the Easter activity B and I did earlier that day.  So, I cut a large piece and slapped it down on the table in front of B.  I then gave him the egg and paint and said, "Go!".  I told him it was OK to get paint on the table, but to try his hardest to avoid it.  (I didn't want him to think he could paint all over the table whenever he wanted.)

And this is what happened.  After his first stroke of the paintbrush on the contact paper (the table in his eyes), he looked up at me wide-eyed waiting to see if he could do it again.  I just laughed and told him to go for it.

He LOVED this.  He felt like he was painting all over the table and I knew all I had to do was peel it off when he was done. WIN WIN situation.   Bring on the painting projects!

Slap down some contact paper and let the paint fly! 

I'm sure many other awesome moms/teachers have already thought of this, but because I didn't see this on Pinterest (SHOCKER, I know!), I'm claiming it!  Here in my little world, I'm a modern day genius.  Thank you very much!

Easter Play Date

B had a play date yesterday and I was asked to plan the activities for him and his 2 little friends.  It's the week before Easter, so naturally that means an Easter themed play date full of Easter crafts and cuteness.  

All of these ideas I found on Pinterest...duh.  Here is the adorable website where I got all the printables from: http://BloomDesignsOnline.com/

ALL of these crafts are SUPER easy and quick...great for short attention spans!

I made these the night before for all of the kids to take home as a little goody bag.  I couldn't help myself...too cute!

The first activity of the playdate: Easter Bunny Food.  The kids loved this and you probably don't even have to go the store for the supplies.  It's along the same line as the Reindeer food that we had as kids (straw & glitter to sprinkle on your lawn Christmas Eve, so the reindeers have a snack just like Santa).  So the idea here is the same...sprinkle on your lawn the night before Easter so the Easter Bunny will come and leave you treats.  

Ingredients/Supplies that we used: Clear treat bags, ribbon, bowls, spoons, uncooked oatmeal, random variety of sprinkles and candy pearls.  (Printable tags from Bloom Designs.)

Of course, we also had an Easter egg hunt outside after a quick snack.  In order to have the least amount of drama and make it fair, each child hunted for eggs of the same color.  We hid 9 yellow, 9 pink, and 9 green eggs and assigned each child a color.  Everyone had the same amount of eggs and the same treats at the end.  It was perfect!

Good alternative treats to put inside of eggs for an Easter hunt: bubbles, stamps, stickers, tiny toys.  Most kids will be so excited to find something new and different in each one that they won't care about not having candy.

The play date was a huge success and a ton of fun for the kids...and me!

Easter Egg Letter Hunt

I love holidays.  EVERY holiday.  I love doing "normal" everyday things inside of a holiday theme.  Who doesn't love eating their PB&J in the shape of a bunny instead of a square?  Or playing a letter matching game after having to hunt down the letters inside of eggs all around your playroom?  HELLO.  FUN.TIMES.

This week I decided not to introduce a new letter to B, but to review the 7 letters we have already talked about.  He loves hands-on activities (what kid doesn't?!), so I decided I had to think of something that would get and KEEP his attention.  And since Easter is approaching, there is only one answer...an Easter egg letter hunt.

I put this activity together in about 8 minutes, right before B woke up from his nap.  All you need is:  paper, markers, alphabet letters (I used letter magnets from the Dollar Store), plastic Easter eggs, and an Easter basket.

I started by taking out the letters I was going to use, because using all 26 would be too much too handle at once for a 3 year old.  I used the 7 letters that B and I have been working on: B,M,S,A,H,T,C plus E and N (to finish out his name) and P (a letter we will be learning in the near future).  I chose these letters so that when matching them, he would have immediate success naming most of them, and excitement over a few new ones.

I put each letter in an egg and hid them around the playroom.  I also hid a piece of candy (that B had been begging for all day) inside another egg before hiding it.

B was psyched from the second I told him what we were going to do.  He wanted them to ALL be filled with candy and was initially disappointed when I told them they weren't.  However, I told him that once he found all of the letter eggs and matched them up, that we could play again and I would put some yummy treats in a few more eggs and use fewer letters.  He loved that idea and set out on a mission to find all the eggs.

He LOVED opening each egg to find either a letter or a treat (2nd round) and enjoyed naming all of the letters as he matched them on his sheet.

The sheet I made had each letter I hid written on it in the same color as the letter magnet.  That way it is a matching game of colors and letters.  Also, very helpful for the few letters he is not familiar with.

This activity is so much fun and so easy to just throw together any time of the day or year!

B was obsessed and wanted to keep doing it over and over again.  I will probably do it with him again right before Easter with some new letters and a few objects that correspond with the letters.  

I made each letter the same size as the magnet and B loved that the letter "disappeared" when he covered it with the magnet.

Letters

B is very smart and learns quickly, but he hasn't quite mastered all of his letters when they are out of order.  B's mom asked me to work with him and so we have been learning one or two letters a week.  It's nothing formal and he usually only stays interested for a few minutes.  But he catches on quickly, so it all works out.

To reinforce each letter we learn, I decided to cut each letter out of construction paper and then fill it with corresponding pictures (stickers).  I also find magazine pages with big words (so he can find the letter himself) that he can cut out and glue on each letter.  He LOVES to use his "red safety scissors" ALL THE TIME.  

None of these happened in one sitting, we keep them out and everyday we will kind of talk about them and add something to them when we come across it.  We started out doing one letter a week, casually.  And this week he asked if we could learn 2, so I guess I was moving too slow for him!