PLAYhouse PreSCHOOL: Toddlers Exploring the Solar System Through Tots School

August 8, 2011 by

Unlike other three-year-olds who are now in preschool, my little girl goes to school at home, in our dining area. We’ve put off enrolling her since her immune system is quite weak.  Good thing there are now plenty of sites that provide ideas for toddler activities.  My toddlers and I have been using Starfall.com and Time4learning. I also prepare worksheets for them to do at home.  And, of course, we’ve got our music and movement activities and arts and crafts messy time.

However, there are days when I am unable to prepare worksheets for them especially now that school has started and I’ve put on my academic tutor hat. Thanks to Mommy Chris of The Mommy Journey, I found another site that is rich with resources for toddlers and preschoolers – 1+1+1+1 Tots School.

We’re using the Space-themed printables for this week’s Space Exploration. Today, we did the S printables which I used with the Solar System Pack.  I only print in draft to save on ink and laminating the cutouts are a bit costly so I just make do with board paper.

Here’s how our Space Exploration went last Friday and today:

I cut out the pictures of the planets and asked Jade to stick them onto the wall.  After naming the planets, we counted them, and identified the biggest and smallest planet.  Jakei counted with us and kept pointing at planet Earth.  I kinda miss Pluto though.

Lining up the Planets on our wall

Little boy proudly points to our own planet Earth

Jade was able to trace the letter S neatly and has shown improvement in coloring pictures.  Jakei still needs plenty of work on writing and coloring but he was able to name all of the pictures shown.  He even used the correct color for the star.

I printed two sets of the shapes with stars in them and gave each toddler one set.  Both of them were able to recognize and name all the shapes except for the hexagon.  We’ll be using them tomorrow for a matching game. The cards with objects found in space were used for vocabulary building and for sorting.  I asked Jade to group all those that begin with the letter S.  Two other cards, the space shuttle and space station, were also used for our counting activity. Jade is already able to recognize some color words. She read white, pink, yellow, green and blue correctly and was also able to use the correct crayons. (By this time, Jakei has lost interest in our lesson and chose to munch on some Koko Krunch.)

  

For our activity on counting, I placed a picture of a space shuttle at the foot of the wall and a picture of a space station a few feet above the space shuttle.  The S printables from Tot School came with star cut-outs with the numbers 1 to 20.  I asked Jade to help the space shuttle go to the space station by placing the stars in correct order.  She was able to do 1 to 10 without help but needed some assistance finishing the task.

All printables we used were downloaded from Tots School’s vast resources. We’re continuing our Space Exploration theme for the rest of the week. For our Thinking Tuesday tomorrow, we’ll be doing some worksheets.  I’m still thinking of a craft we can do for our Wonderful World of Wednesday.  Do share ideas if you have any.

Filed Under: Miscellaneous, PLAYhouse preSCHOOL Tagged With: , ,

Toddlers’ Interactive Learning Fun With Ed Mouse at Time4Learning

July 15, 2011 by

Time4Learning is an easy to use online learning system that can be used for enrichment or as a curriculum for homeschooling. We were given a free 30-day trial and were able to make full use of the program for an entire month. The toddlers love Ed Mouse and have learned much using the program that we are planning on continuing our subscription.

The animated story telling and interactive lessons keep my three-year-old in rapt attention. We started out at Pre-K1 but quickly progressed to Pre-K2 level for some lessons like alphabet, numbers, colors and shapes as my daughter has already mastered some of the basics. From the second week onward, we were shifting from Pre-K1 to Pre-K2 depending on the lessons we’ve scheduled for the day. I limit our computer use to a maximum of one hour per day. So after our learning session with Ed Mouse, we answer printed worksheets which I’ve prepared beforehand.

My two-year-old son’s attention is still quite difficult to hold for more than a few minutes but we’re able to go through several lessons at Time4Learning for about 15 to 30 minutes at a time. We’re able to work on some of the Pre-K1 lessons, but most of the time he’d just be guessing which one is the correct answer. He really does like Ed Mouse but would rather be running around than sitting on my lap in front of the computer.

I tried having the toddlers go through the lessons together but it just proved too distracting for my daughter and too wearisome for me so I just had them take turns using the computer. Of course, I was always with them during their respective Time4Learning sessions.

Although my toddlers are still unable to maneuver the mouse by themselves, they are able to provide me the answers to the online activities by pointing to the correct images. This program would be perfect if it works on a touch screen computer. That way my toddlers can just tap on the correct images.

The Time 4 Learning Parent Community and Forum also provides great support for those who need help with the program and with homeschooling their children. As a new user, I was able to find answers to my queries and also got plenty of ideas for additional learning from other parents. I was actually surprised to see topics about meals, nutrition, Christianity and special needs. It’s quite nice to know that you can talk about almost anything with other parents who are also using the Time4Learning program.

Overall, the program would greatly benefit children who are already in school or are being homeschooled. Time spent with Ed Mouse is definitely more productive than time spent playing videogames or watching TV. Those who are interested in home schooling would also find that Time4Learning could be used as a core curriculum.

As for those who have toddlers like me, Time4Learning is also a fun way to bond with your tots. My little ones have been missing Ed Mouse for a couple of weeks now so I really need to renew our subscription soon. My husband and I are going over our monthly budget to include the monthly subscription for this program.

Filed Under: Kids At Work, PLAYhouse preSCHOOL Tagged With: , , ,

Building Words With Speller Jr.

June 23, 2011 by

Learning toys always have room in our home.  With their help, we are able to teach the toddlers new skills without them realizing that they are actually studying.  Learning really doesn’t always have to happen in a classroom setting with only lectures and paper-and-pen tests.

 

check out my new toy!

One of the most recent additions to our growing collection is the Speller Jr. which I got for a steal at only P200 at a nearby toy store.  It targets skills such as object and word recognition, letter recognition, letter matching, and of course, spelling.   It also teaches sorting and grouping while enhancing concentration and memory.  Since it is a game that can be played solo or in groups, it is also a great tool for teaching the toddlers to take turns and to share.

We are now using it to make our Thursday Talkies sessions more fun. Jakei is still working on mastering identifying the alphabet and building his vocabulary so the Speller Jr picture cards are mainly used for vocabularly building.  Since Jade can already identify all the letters of the alphabet and match similar letters, she’s able to build the words by herself.  We’re able to use the letter blocks and the picture cards to pratice reading and spelling at the same time.

 

 

Filed Under: Kids At Work Tagged With: , ,

Reading and Writing Books

May 26, 2011 by

Right after breakfast, the toddlers started our Thursday Talkies. We started off with a couple of their reading books which I read to them. To check their comprehension, I would ask them some questions after a couple of pages. Jade is usually able to answer my questions while Jakei often just parrots what his sister says.

We then moved on to our workbooks.  I bought three different workbooks fo Jade to use: English Workbook for Kindergarten, Learning Horizons Beginning Sounds, and Little Genius Learning Writing for ages 2-4.  She can already identify all the letters of the alphabet and their corresponding sounds.  She’s able to match the pictures with their beginning letters in The Learning Horizons Beginning Sounds workbook.  She can write yet though so I write letters on sticker paper which she uses to fill in the blanks in some of the activities.   Both the English Workbook and the Little Genius Workbook have great activities for practice writing although the toddlers love the latter better for its colorful pictures. The English Workbook has the most varied activities which include writing skills, phonemic awareness, matching words with their beginning or ending sounds, comparisons, and vocabulary building.

I just usually print out some worksheets for Jakei to do as he doesn’t really have any interest in answering the acivities in the workbooks yet.  He’s quite happy just doodling or smashing crayons onto his sheets of paper. Sometimes, he asks for the Little Genius Workbook and names the pictures he recognizes or asks for the names of the ones he doesn’t recognize.

We’ve been trying to practice his pencil grip but he’s really quite stubborn about it. Since he’s not yet even two years old, I just let him do what he wants anyway.

Filed Under: BookWorms, Kids At Work, PLAYhouse preSCHOOL, Products We Love Tagged With: , , , ,

Finger Painting

May 25, 2011 by

Cornstarch + Water + Food Color = Fun Messy Art Time

Icky, gooey, squishy, ooey…we had our hands sticky and messy this morning!  It was our first time to try finger painting for our Wonderful World of Wednesday and Jade had so much fun.  She finished painting after painting after painting.  She didn’t stop until she run out of the paint mixture.  Jakei didn’t like getting his hands sticky and messy so all he has to show for this morning’s art session is a sheet of paper with a few scribbles on it.  Oh, but he did enjoy scooping and spreading the paint mixture from the cup to the sheets of paper.

I don’t have pictures of the toddlers at work though.  You see, my hands were full of gooey paint and could not possibly hold the camera.  I’ll be posting pictures of their finished art work instead.

If you would like to try this activity with your toddlers or preschoolers, all you’ll need are

  • cornstarch
  • water
  • food color (we used red, blue, and green)
  • paper
  • newspaper (to make clean up time less tedious)
  • great imagination

Heat the cornstarch and water in a pan until you reach the right consistency.  It should be a little runny but still thick enough to adhere to paper.  Separate the mixture into small containers, add a drop of your choice of food color to each, and mix thoroughly.  Spread the mixture evenly on a sheet of paper.  Get your fingers ready and paint some pretty pictures on the paper.  Lastly, make sure you have lots of fun with your kids!

Filed Under: Arts & Crafts, Family Fun, Kids At Work, PLAYhouse preSCHOOL Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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