Sorting It Out At the Farmers Market

Today Vada and I worked on the Alphabet. how do you do such a thing with a two year old? Well, today her and I sat on our living room floor and went through flash cards. Yes, she is a busy bodied little girl but she is also a sponge and I can keep her attention for quite awhile. So we went through the flash cards and then we sang and danced to the Alphabet song sung by no other than yours truly. Its pretty simple stuff here.

After working on the alphabet we broke out the Farmer's Market Sorting Set by my favorite place to buy toys, Learning Resources. My parents ordered it for her for her birthday. Such. a. perfect. gift! The suggested age is 3+ but it's completely safe with supervision and there are only a couple of smaller pieces to be concerned with in the first place.

Since this was our first time using the set I let Vada explore the majority of the pieces while I took everything out of their bags and put the color label stickers on the baskets.

There are five pieces of fruits and vegetables for each color and five colors total.

I started Vada off with one color, red and I just asked her to put the red ______ into the basket. After she did all five of the red foods I added a second basket, leaving the red next to the new one.

With the second basket (purple), I repeated the task that I had origanally gave to her with the red basket.

Finally I added a third basket (orange). The task was still the same as the first two baskets, nothing had changed other than the color and number of baskets sitting in front of her. I wanted her to hear me speak the name of the fruit or vegetable as well as its color and then I wanted her to be able to pay attention to the task that I gave her and to identify the difference in color. Well, that was my initial goal. Not being a teacher or having any real clue as to what I was doing, I think that it went really well. Vada is great at listening and visually paying attention. What I saw today was not Vada knowing her colors but her watching where I was pointing to and listening to what I was telling her to do. When I would point at a basket asking Vada to place the object that she was holding into the basket, she knew what I was talking about, even if she didn't know what exactly it was that she was holding. And to me, that's a great place to start!

After the third basket Vada had had enough color sorting and because I want this to be a fun and positive experiences I was fine with that! I did however through in a final learning lesson when I brought out the ziplock and asked Vada to help me pick up. not only was I teaching her to clean up and put things into something, as she was grabbing a fruit or vegetable I would say "Vada, you grabbed an purple onion, that's a vegetable. Thank you  for helping Mommy pick up, now can you please pick up another?" Oh yes, we are working on manners too! Isn't it funny how everything we do we teach? This all probably sounds so simple to everyone but to Vada, or any toddler, this is work and is a learning experience. It kind of amazes me. Anyway, I have found a lot of great learning ideas and I have had so many responses to my request for more ideas. Thank you to everyone who has shared their thoughts and ideas with me, these past two weeks have been full of fun learning activities!

And last but not least, thank you to my parents Augie and Suzan for this great learning toy as well as the other two that you sent for Vada! They will be well used and are greatly appreciated! We love you !

Making Learning Fun

It's been a busy weekend for Vada and I. Justin is on days and Jasmine and Kiliegh are at their dads, so that leaves me and Miss Squish. 

I have been on the search for some new learning activities to do with Vada and I have been in the process of making some of mine own to use with her but two days ago I read this blog post which lead me to this blog and then I became really excited with the new ideas that I had found! I also thought that reading how these other two mothers are teaching their children through play was not only interesting but really helpful as well. 

One of my favorite stores to shop for the girls (toy wise) is called Teacher's Aide. We actually have  two in the area, which is really nice. They sell one of my favorite brands of toys there which is called Learning Resources. Learning Resources is the makers of the Smart Stacks Count'em Up Popcorn that Vada is playing with below.  Smart Snacks Alpha Pops (the Popsicle) and the Smart Snacks Rainbow Color Cones that is also being shown are made from Learning Resources as well. We also have the Smart Snack Sorting Shape Cupcakes which is a great one to have but we didn't get those out today. The cupcakes and the ice cream cones have been a huge hit in our family and I want to say that we have had them for several years and they still look brand new.

Right now, with the "popcorn" I ask Vada to put the popcorn into the bowls. I count out loud while she does it. I also do the sign for "popcorn". I dont make her count only five for the number five bowl or four for the four bowl. Right now I am just focusing on counting and her doing small tasks thats being asked of her. Together we also try to stack the bowls (upside down) and then we put them away, which is one of Vada's favorite things to do (putting things into containers). While we are doing the popcorn activity I try to continuously count out loud to her, whether I am counting how many she is holding, how many is on the floor or in the bowl, just so she hear the number process. During anything we do, I also emphasis on sharing, manners and feelings, like saying "please" and "thank you", "I dont like when you do _____", "touch nicely", and so on. 

The "Popsicle" are a newer toy that I got for Vada. We have just started working with them recently. Each Popsicle has an uppercase letter and an lowercase letter, one on each side, making two letters total. They pull apart at the middle, kind of like those popper bead toys. 

Vada has to really focus at getting them apart, let along together! It takes muscles but she can do both. Later we can use them for color matching and letter recognition.  

These I made. Well, I bought two separate

 sets of color posters and I cut everything out, laminated them, added magnets, and there you have it, Vada's Color sorting magnet game. I can switch this game up a bit by using pom poms with magnets glues to them or I have Color Pet Counters and Fruity Fun Counters. (Keep in mind that my oldest is twelve and a half years old, I have been collecting this stuff for quite awhile.)

I put the magnets on the primary and secondary colors last night. I still need to finish with the others but today was the first try for Vada and she. blew. me. away!!! It was like she already knew the colors. I swear all this child needs is a little push and she will do the rest!

These pictures are not staged at all! I handed her a color and said what the picture was and what color it was and then I tapped on the color square. She did the rest. One time only, did she put the wrong color on a mismatch! When Justin came home from work I had to show him. Last night he kind of giggled at my excitement over this project so I wanted to show him how I was already using them. He was impressed and excited after seeing our girl in action. 

I have already gave examples on some extra ways that these magnets could be used but we will really be able to expand on it by adding the other colors, maybe some flash cards or even the Wooden Pattern locks which are also colored but for now, those things will remain in storage and in the back of my brain for further use.

Look at her go! Man, I am thrilled and so stinkin' proud!

We use the ice cream as pretend food (the same with all of the other food-like learning toys), color recognition and for stacking.

Today I sat the colors around Vada but still out of her arms reach and asked her to get them for me. So she would go get one, I would say the color "Great job Vada, you grabbed the pink ice cream." and then I would ask her to bring it to me and put it in the bag. We did this together for three whole rounds. She got quicker and more excited each time and then half way through the third time she was clearly pooped! It was fun though!

What do I have planned next? Well I will give you some hints... Three projects. The beans stay in the bags. The spaghetti is getting cooked. And I have three books and a to of laminating and cutting to do!

My Sunday Monkeys

 I like to meal plan. Every Sunday I pull out some of my cookbooks, figure out what were going to have and on what days, make my list of foods that I will need to buy and then on Monday's after I take the girls to school I go to the grocery store. Today Vada decided that she was going to help me plan this weeks menu.

When she was done with the first book she took it upon herself to get another.

***

Every night after bedtime and during each nap that Vada takes I try to always pick up her toys and put them back in their places. I think that she really enjoys messing them up because if I pick stuff up in front of her she will take it and mess it up as soon as I walk away. As soon as she wakes up she goes over and picks out her favorite toys and creates her little mess with them. I am picking up things with her though and teaching her about "pick-up time". Its just not really working, yet.

Each time that I have pick up I have been putting the blue chair on the right side of our front door. Vada likes to sit there and look out the window or to bask in the sun while looking at her books. She also likes looking into mirrors so I put my suction cup magnifying mirror there for her as well.

Apparently, I need to find a new place for the chair because she has become an excellent climber and shows no fear where heights or small standing and sitting ledges are concerned.

She has become quite the curious little kitten!

I think that she thinks she is getting away with something... and sometimes maybe she is.

***

Vada has had a cold that she graciously shared with her father and I, so we have been staying home and taking it easy the past couple of days. I can tell today that she is feeling better because her energy is back and she has been really adventurous.

Every time I turned around Vada was into or on top of something. I had just put my camera down when Vada said "Mama". I turned around to this...

If your not quite seeing it, you will...

Wait for it...

There it is... double whammy! Even Vada knew that she had goofed up with her choice in seating on this one. I wonder what was more uncomfortable, getting stuck in the upside down foot stool or getting stuck in the upside down footstool while sitting on top of the Leap Frog Alpha-Magnet...?

***

Shortly after  the stoop incident I hear more Mama's being called. This time they were coming from Vada's room and there was my little monkey...

 I took this as an early sign that she was ready for milk and a nap. (We rock and read together before she goes to sleep.)

One of the things that we are trying to teach Vada is for her to "put her cup down nicely". She has a tendency to chuck it in any direction and with some surprising force behind it if we don't remind her every once in awhile.

Truthfully, she is really good at doing things "nicely". In fact at times, like today, she was almost anal about it.

 It had to be done just right otherwise she would pick it back up and attempt to sit it down again and again, until it looked right to her.

I think that she was playing.

Or showing off for the camera.

But when I told her how good she was doing, she told me how big she was! (I love this expression of hers! I very rarely get to see it but I think it is fantastic!)

I like this expression too...

Ahh...yes, I almost forgot... the head band... I dunno..? It's something new that V like to play with. She grabbed it up off of the floor after one of her sisters dropped it the other day. She loves to put it on as a necklace. Sometimes I can trick her and make her forget that it's on her head and pull her bangs back. (I don't really do her hair much if were just hanging around the house.) I wonder if she will be embarassed and yell at me later when she is older for letting her wear it and sharing the pictures. She looks totally "retro 80's chick". If she doesn't yell at me then one of her sisters will for sure. I think its hilarious!

***

Vada and I worked a lot on her walking today. I tried to get her to walk with me everywhere and was pretty impressed that she didn't become a noodle as much as she usually does.

After Vada's nap I brought her blue into the kitchen. She likes to follow me around so I thought that she might like a place to sit. (I was in the middle of a project when she woke up and wanted to try to get it done. I thought her blue would help keep her occupied.)

Blue kept her occupied but not seated and that's okay!

 It doesn't have wheels but she decided to push it around and make "vroom, vroom" noises as if it were "her" cart.

Of course I cheered because these were huge steps in my eyes!

***

Kiliegh came home when Vada was still in the kitchen but they both went into the living room and Kiliegh made them a "arch".  Not a tent, not a house but an "arch" and they played while I finally finished my cleaning project.

***

I was able to check off two more things from my "To-do" list.

Bring down the "Little People" from the attic and clean them. Check and check.

Saving Jasmine and Kiliegh's old Cabbage Patch dolls may be something that I don't get to check off of the list however...?