pattern blocks/ matching numbers; early counting

Cos everybody knows... you cant jump on a trampoline without being fully kitted out with a "nummy" a "buggy" ( dummy and blanket), a biscuit and your goggles.... crazy kid you make me smile :)


Today I got out something new I bought a few weeks ago, Pattern Blocks.

Jumeirahs school has these out alot and I thought they would be good for a whole heap of different things. Today was a simple one, matching the shapes to a printable pattern block sheet I found over at Prekinders. I printed them out ( actually no, my printer has no ink, so my wonderful husband did it for me) and I laminated them ( so they will for longer than a day) in both black and white and also colour.
I put them out this morning, beginning with the colour ones, so Jared could match the colours up which was easier than matching the shapes to start with. He did really well, only needing encouragement to keep going.







Jumeirah took off with the black and white ones and had a great time doing those.




Amahli did try very hard and actually did match a few... she was more keen on putting the blocks in the appropriate body part place ie: head, tail and legs which I thought was pretty clever.



Jumeirah then got all tricky and smart by making these two designs

the running eye ( it took me ages to work out what she meant but its eye with legs and a hat) ( Im not as clued in as she is quite obviously!)


And "Mummy"




These blocks will be used for shape recognition, sorting, counting, matching and general pattern building so it was a really good buy!

sciencey stuff for young kids: balancing butterfies

A few weeks ago, Miss J came home so excited and full of ideas... she had seen the school science fair and wanted to do " experiments". Like, RIGHT NOW. And so I got notes written to me whilst on the phone. And then I got asked at 3am one morning because it needed to be dark. And then one afternoon when I had a million things to do she looked at me and said " lets start with something easy then". The first word in my head was "No" followed by "how about later?" but my brain actually stopped and thought now hang on. Why not now? Washing,vacuuming and folding can wait. She wont. Quite obviously :)And so I told her we would do SOMETHING experimenty and went to find the science books I had. She in the mean time, found a magic book and found a cool magic trick that was also based on balance and weight and decided that this was perfect to start with.



And so, I drew her a perfectly symmetrical butterfly which she coloured and decorated with pencils. We then got two 10c pieces and glued them in the exact same position on either tips of the wings. ( actually we used Fijian money from my honeymoon... *sigh*) The photo has three coins but you only need two.. we just had to test that the bigger coins worked better.

And now for the magic!

You can now balance the butterfly on your finger!


On your nose!


On Daddys beer bottle!!


And so talked about how its based on weight and balance which she was semi interested in... but she was more into finding out what else she could balance it on :)

And she has lots more plans... just hope I can keep up :)

encouraging the "What if??" in kids

These are the new most favourite thing to draw with in our house, Twistable Pencils by Crayola. Sort of a cross between a pencil and a crayon, they are bright and easy to draw with, but also have a fine point for more detailed drawing. I love them!!

Lately, Jumeirah has been "thinking outside the box" for want of some way to put it! We will be sitting in the car and the question comes " Mum, if you could have a super power, what would you like?" Hmm tough one... would I freeze time? Read minds?? ( hubbin tells me I wouldnt like this one which makes me want it more!) Click my fingers like Mary Poppins and have all sorts of wonderful, cleany uppery stuff happen?? Whilst I was wishful thinking away, she told me " I would like to fly". Oh yeah that would be awesome too :)

When we got home, we read a princess book, I gave her the question, " If you were a princess what would you be like?" and she raced off to draw a picture of herself as a princess for her " project".






Its such a great picture and I love the way she sees herself as a princess, kind caring and a great sharer. She'd be a wonderful princess :)

Over the weekend, she talked about what she had done in school that week which was Aboriginal stories or "Dreamtime stories" (How the birds got their colours, How the kangaroo got its tail etc) and seeing as shes been in a creating mood, I suggested she write her own.
I asked her to pick an animal she wanted to focus on, and then to pick something about them eg a body part, a particular ability of that animal etc. I gently suggested a Giraffe and his long neck, but she said "a starfish". I had no idea where she was going with this one and she would not be persuaded to pick a different she set to working out her story.

This is her story of how the Starfish got its suckers.










(this page is my writing as she couldnt write fast enough and was getting frustrated)







Kind put me to shame really. But it was a fantastic activity for her to stretch that incredible brain of hers.

Story writing, make believe and "what ifs?" give a child a great opportunity to really "think outside the box", and allows them to explore and create from their own imagination. I was totally surprised at how limited my own imagination has become in comparison. I loved being a part of this whole process with her, watching her story unfold, amazed that she was able to work out the plot and ending for herself, and blown away by her ability to create a story that was interesting and clever.