Structured Play

Joey enjoys turning his sensory box into a make shift kitchen. This month their are beans, a toy pumpkin, gords and counting blocks. He poured and stirred the beans making sure all other items were out of the box. He used the pumpkin to make pumpkin pie and we pretended to eat it. He also spent time counting the blocks and the beans. Remember the purpose of a sensory box is to explore texture, pouring, scooping. From there it is up to their imagination! Let them explore and pretend!

Today Joey and I read Five Little Pumpkins and acted out the story with some props: felt pumpkins and a toy fence.  This is a great way to build reading comprehension. By acting out the story with props you must first listen to the story and look at the pictures carefully. Then you must remember what was read. These are all skills needed for comprehension. Building the foundation for comprehension during reading aloud time with your child will help tremendously once they begin reading on their own.  Acting out stories is a fun way to make stories come alive for children. You will find the stories you read and take a step further become your childrens' favorite books. Allow them to change the story after acting it out a few times. This away they are creating their own stories by making connections and using their imagination. Find a story to bring alive today! 

We headed to the country to an apple orchard for a morning of picking. My boys love "farming" so we hit up www.pickyourown.org every season to find local farms.  I feel like they learn so much by getting out and doing, just breathing the country air and seeing wild turkeys on the road. I sometimes wonder if we should move to the country for our boys but this mama is a city girl!    We pick and we sample. We learn the best apples to pick and the best way to pick the apples. We work hard and sweat but no one notices because it is fun to work when you are learning!  Check out pickyourown.org to find farms in your area. We pick: strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, peaches, apples and pumpkins.

My little joey is a great counter but we are working on identifying the digit that represents the number. We started by drawing a tree on a large sheet of paper. I knew to include him in this process. If I had drawn a cute tree and had apples all set up he would not want to participate but including him in the process ensured his willingness and excitement.  We drew the tree and some apples, his name and some numbers . At the bottom I drew "baskets" with numbers in them. Then I pulled out the apples I had ready with numbers on them. I told Joey we were going to pick the apples from the tree and put them in the basket on the matching digit. At first he said, "no, you do it." To which I complied. I did it from number 1 to 3 when he stopped me to finish for me. He is very much an observer. He needed to see what I wanted not just hear directions. He happily matched the numbers from the Apple to the basket time and again. Then he told me what to do and praise...

The two little guys enjoyed playing with dry rice, foam apples, red cotton balls, acorns, silk flowers, walnuts, etc. They used spoons and bowls from our play kitchen taking the sensory box a step further in play- making Apple pie and Apple sauce.  I have had comments asking about how I control the mess of sensory box. My answer is I don't. Yes, my kids make a huge mess but hey they are kids when don't they make a huge mess? I am sitting and playing with them so I do not let them purposefully just dump but you cannot expect them to Keep every grain of rice in the box. I put the box away when we are finished and reserve the sensory box for Structured Play time.  Pouring and dumping, feeling different textures their hands that is what Sensory Play is all about. You do not have to be too creative in setting it up, leave that to the kids. They will quickly figure out how to play with the box. 

This month we read Ten Apples Up on Top and practiced tricks with a foam Apple on our head. This is a fun and silly story but helps to illustrate what is real and what is pretend. This is something important to start presenting to children at an early age: could that really happen? Discerning reality is a critical thinking skill that is never too early to instill.  We had a lot of fun being silly with the apple and trying to out trick each other. If you can find the book it is a a fun early reader. It is hard to find as it is out of print. This is one of Dr. Seuss' first books before he started using the pseudonym, Dr. Seuss. It follows his format of easy reader/rhyming words.