I think there's a basic need for novelty that we all have and more so with kids I feel! As wonderful as it would be to buy something new everyday, Yes yes, I know, that's as practical as it sounds ;-P !
But what about using something to help us see it in a new light.
So, here I have a few things that we've done at home(at least the few with photographs)
CLOTHESPINS/CLIPS
Buying new clothespins / clips turned into half an hour of fun play time for the little one! It really is true, we actually don't need to spend money on toys, when everything can be a plaything! It started with little one asking, what do we do with this? And I said we use it to pin the clothes to the wire so the clothes won't fly away if the wind is too strong. And she says how?
So, I put one on her shirt to give a practical explanation. And voila the Clips Game was born !!
I turned around to put away the other grocery items and I was back to see lines and lines of clips arranged on her shirt!
She used it to learn organisation, it was a repeat building block for learning basic color names and of course the dexterity required !
SKETCH PENS
Use Sketch Pens/Pens/Pencils to make car race tracks. The little one was fascinated that we could make the cars race inside tracks :)) After the newness wore off, she didn't want to be restricted by such small space, but hey, it was 40 mins of something new!
WRAPPING PAPER
Another fun find for me was a Gift Wrapping Paper with Alphabets on it. Got it for 10 or 20 Rs, put it up on the wall and voila!, the little one was figuring out what item was on each alphabet. It wasn't intended that she learn the alphabet through it, but I guess some stuff did trickle through. The vibrant colors and cartoon style images made a difference.
My next picture shows 2 activities combined together -
BALLOONS
1) Balloons, some string(I used satin ribbon as that was closer by to me if I remember right :)) ) and a doorway ! I tied up the balloons with the ribbon and cello-taped it to the door frame. I told her to tap them and see how the bounce back and she came up with her own spin on it . She would come through the door moving the balloons as if it were a curtain, it was a brilliant idea ! And also, she had a ball trying to catch them every time they moved as the wind blew - that was a benefit of being the doorway.
STACKING RINGS
2) I had a set of Chennapatna stacking rings with me that she would use for well stacking up. But with a shoelace in hand with knots and twists and turns through the iron grill on our balcony, the little one learnt to move the loops along the wire, through the grill - following the path, over coming any obstacles in the way. I thought she would learn a little bit of problem solving this way, but we ended up with a mini-lesson on Gravity ! She would let a ring fall from the highest point and it would settle down in the middle of the "rope" instead of climbing back up to the next loop around the grill and she would wonder why? And I was actually not expecting the question. So, comical expression on my face followed by Ah! its time for Newton and the Apple story!
P.S. As you can see the picture captures her focused on a piece of paper at her feet ! So, do take heart in knowing that as fantastic as some things we do for kids may seem to us, they will have their attention on something new as soon as they find it!
BALLS
We have bunch of balloons and balls lying around home at any given point. And they make for endless number of games, here, me and the little one were working on the concept of sizes. Organising all the balls in ascending order and descending order. It was fun to explain to her logically how to arrange things that are the same size. She quite like the idea of "Put all the ones of same size in any order" :)) She wanted there to be a system to organise the same sized ones too !
NETTED FRUIT CONTAINERS
Have you bought Groundnuts or Regikayalu in those orange bags that look like nets? They are a fantastic compact way for the vendors to stock items - fixed weight and fixed price for us! Turns out they are amazing at helping the little ones build dexterity ! Not to mention, patience building.
And it is true, once you take it out, it seems wondrous how much fit into the bag and it is a tough ask to put everything back in. Here, the little one was picking up groundnuts one at a time and packing it back in ! She like doing it for a while, then she started scooping stuff in with a spoon at first and then with her hands.
Well, that's all for today folks ! See you next time with more of these!
But what about using something to help us see it in a new light.
So, here I have a few things that we've done at home(at least the few with photographs)
CLOTHESPINS/CLIPS
Buying new clothespins / clips turned into half an hour of fun play time for the little one! It really is true, we actually don't need to spend money on toys, when everything can be a plaything! It started with little one asking, what do we do with this? And I said we use it to pin the clothes to the wire so the clothes won't fly away if the wind is too strong. And she says how?
So, I put one on her shirt to give a practical explanation. And voila the Clips Game was born !!
I turned around to put away the other grocery items and I was back to see lines and lines of clips arranged on her shirt!
She used it to learn organisation, it was a repeat building block for learning basic color names and of course the dexterity required !
Use Sketch Pens/Pens/Pencils to make car race tracks. The little one was fascinated that we could make the cars race inside tracks :)) After the newness wore off, she didn't want to be restricted by such small space, but hey, it was 40 mins of something new!
WRAPPING PAPER
Another fun find for me was a Gift Wrapping Paper with Alphabets on it. Got it for 10 or 20 Rs, put it up on the wall and voila!, the little one was figuring out what item was on each alphabet. It wasn't intended that she learn the alphabet through it, but I guess some stuff did trickle through. The vibrant colors and cartoon style images made a difference.
My next picture shows 2 activities combined together -
BALLOONS
1) Balloons, some string(I used satin ribbon as that was closer by to me if I remember right :)) ) and a doorway ! I tied up the balloons with the ribbon and cello-taped it to the door frame. I told her to tap them and see how the bounce back and she came up with her own spin on it . She would come through the door moving the balloons as if it were a curtain, it was a brilliant idea ! And also, she had a ball trying to catch them every time they moved as the wind blew - that was a benefit of being the doorway.
STACKING RINGS
2) I had a set of Chennapatna stacking rings with me that she would use for well stacking up. But with a shoelace in hand with knots and twists and turns through the iron grill on our balcony, the little one learnt to move the loops along the wire, through the grill - following the path, over coming any obstacles in the way. I thought she would learn a little bit of problem solving this way, but we ended up with a mini-lesson on Gravity ! She would let a ring fall from the highest point and it would settle down in the middle of the "rope" instead of climbing back up to the next loop around the grill and she would wonder why? And I was actually not expecting the question. So, comical expression on my face followed by Ah! its time for Newton and the Apple story!
P.S. As you can see the picture captures her focused on a piece of paper at her feet ! So, do take heart in knowing that as fantastic as some things we do for kids may seem to us, they will have their attention on something new as soon as they find it!
BALLS
We have bunch of balloons and balls lying around home at any given point. And they make for endless number of games, here, me and the little one were working on the concept of sizes. Organising all the balls in ascending order and descending order. It was fun to explain to her logically how to arrange things that are the same size. She quite like the idea of "Put all the ones of same size in any order" :)) She wanted there to be a system to organise the same sized ones too !
NETTED FRUIT CONTAINERS
Have you bought Groundnuts or Regikayalu in those orange bags that look like nets? They are a fantastic compact way for the vendors to stock items - fixed weight and fixed price for us! Turns out they are amazing at helping the little ones build dexterity ! Not to mention, patience building.
And it is true, once you take it out, it seems wondrous how much fit into the bag and it is a tough ask to put everything back in. Here, the little one was picking up groundnuts one at a time and packing it back in ! She like doing it for a while, then she started scooping stuff in with a spoon at first and then with her hands.
Well, that's all for today folks ! See you next time with more of these!
