Pumpkins

We did this last month, too.  We cut out a big construction-paper orange pumpkin.  We used other pieces of construction paper to give the pumpkin different shaped eyes, noses, and mouths.  We used tape so the pieces could easily be removed and replaced and put back on later.  We made happy faces and sad faces.  We taped on different combinations of mouths and eyes and noses to see what it looked like.  She loved it.  She especially loved changing the emotions of the face.  It was interesting for me to notice that when the pumpkin felt certain emotions - like, when it was sad - she wanted to put it in time-out.  It became quite a game for her.  The connections she made between emotions and 'time-out' were interesting to note.  

We also cut out a "p" for pumpkin and reviewed its sound.

Numbers 11-20

So we continue to work on numbers 11-20, but it has been hit or miss.  So today I took a new approach, the way she learned the letters - we focused on just two of the numbers.  We did the numbers 12 and 13.  (I picked 12 because when I showed her the 2, she said, 'That's not 12!" So I figured she was ripe for 12).  I made a card with the number 2 on it and one with the number 12 on it, and then I played a game of "shuffling" them behind my back, putting them in front of her, and asking, "Which is the number 12?"  and/or "Which is the number 2?"  Once she had done that correctly a number of times, we added two more cards, with the numbers 3 and 13.  She started getting bored and wanting to play with her Elmo, and so we taught Elmo about the numbers, which she really got into.  I think this approach might have worked better, although she was still misidentifying 3 vs 13 at the end.

Magnets

Today we discovered the wonderful world of magnets.  Of course my daughter has encountered magnets before on the refrigerator, but we focused on them today.  We have a little magnet stick, and we tried out different things - blocks, our tummies, scissors, etc. - to see what would stick and what wouldn't.  "That's a magnet!" we would say when we found something that stuck, and "That's not a magnet!" when it didn't stick.  We made up a little song about magnets, which she loved.  We saw that some magnets stick with other magnets, some repel each other, some are strong and some are weak, etc.  She had a lot of fun just playing by herself with the magnets after awhile, too.

The Dropping Game

So when you drop things in a vacuum, everything falls at the same rate.  Since no one actually lives in a vacuum, though, I thought it might be fun to let my daughter experiment with dropping things and seeing what falls fastest.  We have some stairs with a railing, and we went part of the way up with 2 items at a time - like, a book and a wadded up piece of paper; a wadded up piece of paper and a flat sheet of paper; 2 balloons of different sizes; etc.  We asked, "Which will fall faster?" and then we'd drop them and see.  By the end, she was able to predict that smaller balloons fall faster than bigger balloons, which I thought was actually quite impressive.     

More Water Fun

We took a small bowl of water and some paper.  We tore the paper and listened to the sound -" "rrrrrip."  Then we soaked the paper in the water, and ripped it again - no sound!  Oh, she loved it.  We "took the sound away" for days.

Then we put a washcloth into the bowl, and when we picked it up the water was all gone!  We rung out as much as we could and did it again.  And we talked about how this is why we dry ourselves off with a towel after bath time - the towels take away the water.

Recognizing 11-20

I taught my daughter to count 1-20 using the Signing Time Counting Time DVD, and the we solidified it by counting as we would swing at the park.  And she learned to recognize visually the numbers 1-10 using her little number board books.  But for the longest time I couldn't figure out a way to get her to recognize 11-20.  Nothing I tried worked.  But this past week I had a breakthrough.  Not that the idea was incredibly brilliant - it is kind of mundane actually - but I was startled at how well it worked.

I cut a few regular sheets of computer paper into small flash card size rectangles.  Then I got out her little colored pencils.  She would choose a color and hand me the pencil, and I would write a number on one of the rectangles.  We did them in order, 1-20.  She paid almost no attention to the numbers as I wrote them after awhile, and she got bored half way through it (which has been the problem - her attention span won't last past 10).  

BUT, then we put TAPE (and she helped) on the back of the rectangle with the number 1 on it, and we taped it to her chest of drawers.  Then we put tape on number 2, and put it next to number 1.  After around number 10, she started rocking her teddy bear.  So I suggested letting the teddy bear put the number 11 up on the chest of drawers.  She thought that was a fun idea, and so she helped her teddy bear do it.  We put the 11 directly under the number 1, and I showed her again "11 is a one with a one in front of it."  Then teddy bear put up number 12 under number 2, and I showed her "12 is a two with a one in front of it."  I pointed the teddy bear's paw - "2" and "12," "2" and "12," "2" and "12."  My daughter's little head bobbed up and down as she followed the paw - it was adorable.  This worked all the way through 18, by which time she was rocking the teddy bear again.

I didn't know whether or not she had understood what we did.  She went back to the numbers again after a little while and started ripping them off the chest.  But then - the magic of these moments! - she ran up to me with a little rectangle, saying, "Mommy!  14 fell down!"  And sure enough, there in her hand was "14."  =)  

ABC Puzzles and Play Dough

I've been trying to come up with a new way of reviewing the ABC's with my daughter.  She's learned them all, but I've noticed that she forgets if we don't review them.  She's gotten bored with all the old techniques.  So the other day I got out some play dough and her Melissa and Doug's ABC puzzle board without the actual puzzle pieces.  I started smushing the play dough into the letters on the puzzle board, reviewing with her the names and sounds of the letters.  She loved it!  We had a really fun ABC review time.