Structured Play

Today we spent some time playing with sea shells and play-doh. I had Jake roll out the doh and use the shells to make some imprints. I had some shells from our last beach trip but I bought some at Michael's Craft Store as well. I wanted to do some projects with shells in addition to this activity.    We made some observations of the imprints using our senses. We then talked about what we liked or thought was neat about the shell imprints. Lastly, we made predictions about what a shell imprint might look like before imprinting it based on other shells we imprinted. Little brother tried some as well. He is much different than his big brother. Jacob was doing Structured Play Activities starting at 13 months old. Joey was NOT ready at 13 months! He is just a different kiddo but he is now slowly showing signs of readiness.  Look what I made!

I have switched my organization process a bit to make things easier and faster for me. I found these 5 plastic boxes at Costco for about $30. I thought they would be a perfect way to organize our monthly activities while all the while keeping them neat and out of the way. I have 5 labels for the boxes including; Reading, Pre-writing, Arts and Crafts, Motor Skills and Math. These are the areas in which we have activities every month. You can download the labels here . I print them as notes so that they are small and fit on the front of the box. They could also be larger and on top of the box. What I am doing is preparing all of my activities for the month and placing them in the appropriate box. Each day when it is time to do our Structured Play Activities I ask Jacob to grab a box he would like to work on today. It has to be a box he has not done for that week. I have found that by letting him choose the box and the activity it cuts down on his lack of cooperation. Then onc...

We are back on track, I hope! This month we are doing a Beach Theme. Please remember these important points: I want to reiterate a few points before the download: 1. My plans are not meant to be completed in any specific order. Each day is different and Structured Play time should be a fun learning experience. Pick an activity or activities that fit the mood of your child for that day. 2. Practice activities more than once because repetition is key to gaining new skills. 3. READ, READ, READ- Read everyday and reread stories to allows your child to "read" the books themselves. This is a first step in literacy. 4. Walk Away- Try to keep Structured Play time FUN. If things get frustrating to you or your child, walk away and pick up where you left off the next day. Remember it is Structured PLAY, you are not preparing for SAT Exams. Enjoy every minute! Beach Theme Documents

Sorry I have been MIA. One thing after another has come up but the best news is the announcement of a new baby boy coming in August! I am trying to get back on track before  baby comes! Here is our summer schedule: Summer Schedule I find having some kind of schedule really helps keep ME  on track. This is more for me than for the boys, although they will enjoy it as much as I will! The guide above is a baseline for our mornings. We will be flexible and do what we can when we can do it. 

Mystery Letters is a fun activity to practice letter recognition. What you do is write letters on paper with a white crayon. Then have your toddler use water colors to paint the paper. And watch to see their excitement! Jake thought this activity was "Magic!" He really enjoyed painting to find the letter. The papers were stacked in alphabetical order. I did not expect him to finish them all in one sitting but he did finish in one day. He took a little break to play but came back to finish up. We will use the papers to spell his name and other common words. As well as putting the letters in order. 

Hard to believe it is December already! We are spending December talking about Christmas. I hope you join us for this busy month! Remember repetition is key so activities should be repeated throughout the weeks. December Activities

This simple Story Board was created two years ago for Jacob to work on putting together a turkey. It was an easy little way to introduce story boards. Now a couple years later, I decided to take this to the next step. I had Jake put together the turkey and then tell me a story about the turkey. For a pre-writing add on I wrote the story as he told it to me. I did have to prompt him slightly to extend his story and include story elements. Of course, as a pre-writing activity, it is a very simple story but one just to get the idea started that this is how to write a story. By using the Story Board it helps spark inspiration and can be used to stretch the story by adding more detail.