Friday, May 31, 2013

Look, Listen, Touch, Feel, Taste

As a teacher I was always asked, "What can I do with my child at home to help them develop these needed skills". Kids need and desire that one-on-one time with their parents. As a previous teacher and now as a mother of three little guys, I see the importance of working with your children.
Sensory tubs allow for imaginative play & brain development by using all their senses.  Not only is it fun to see your children using their imagination with these (cheap) tubs, but it's good to join in with them yourself!

A great article on sensory play is @ http://www.highscope.org/file/NewsandInformation/Extensions/ExtVol25No5_low.pdf

As a beginner I got the basics:
-a plastic tub or sand/water table
-water
-bath tub toys that we already had or some toys from the Target $1 bins
(How cheap is that!!)

The boys had so much fun just dumping water out of buckets!
 
 
My next step was to make something for indoor play. I didn't want it to be very messy, especially with an 18 month old. After doing some research and looking on Pinterest I found some great ideas.
 
This is an example of a "Dinosaur" themed tub I made. Again, I went to the basic materials:
-bag of pretend rocks ($2-$3 at Joanne's)
-bag of blue beads (these will be used later in the Ocean tub as well!)
-bag of small dinosaurs ($2 at US Toy)
-leaves/sticks/pieces of mulch from our yard
 
 
 
 
I had to watch Brock bc he kept wanting to eat the beads. He does much better now!
 
 




Thursday, May 30, 2013

All Planned Out



As a stay at home mom and previous teacher I want to use my skills to help my children learn and have fun at the same time! We try to do different themes every 1-2 weeks. 

 I used lots of resources from other blogs I've been following. Some of my favorites are:
-3dinosaurs
-1plus1plus1equals1
-Fun at home with Kids
-Happy Hooligans
-Fantastic Fun and Learning
-123homeschool4me

I will be pulling a lot of resources from these websites as I work on this blog. My plan is to do the following themes throughout the summer...

-Oceans
-Space
-Bugs
-Doctor
-Dinosaurs
-Zoo
-Pond
-Camping