Six Favorite Educational Toys

 1. Busy Bugs

Busy Bugs are all about math, including patterning, colors, addition, and subtraction. Both of my children have adored playing with them for years. Owning these darling and brightly-colored bugs means I sit back and wait for my children to ask me for math - er, busy bugs.

2. Rainbow Fish Lotto

I posted a short review of this game here! My three favorite things about it are: 1) It's based on a storybook, 2) the pictures are bright and beautiful, and 3) even a just-turned-two-year-old can play it.

3. Kumon First Steps Workbooks

These don't sound like toys, but the First Steps workbooks (for ages 2 and up) may as well be. There are Kumon workbooks for older ages, too. We have an ages 3-4-5 workbook which has been received with good grace but not the happiness with which the smaller workbooks were greeted. For ages 2 and up, we have tried Let's Cut Paper!, More Let's Cut Paper!, and Let's Sticker and Paste!

My son went from not knowing how to correctly use scissors to becoming a cutting expert! I have to stop him from finishing these books in one sitting.

4. Stringing Beads

Any type of stringing beads is a great educational toy, useful for fine motor skills and patterning. The Melissa & Doug set pictured below in the carousel has good reviews.

Fun & Engaging Activities for Toddlers, a fantastic toddler learning activity blog, has some great ideas for making your own stringing beads.

5. Magnadoodles

My children never got obsessed with these like they did with other toys, but they always liked drawing on them even when they didn't want to draw or write on paper. I have a hunch it's easier in terms of fine muscle strength, but that's just a guess. It also seems a little bit more like magic to them when the marks appear on the Magnadoodle board. My older son wrote his first letters on a large Magnadoodle.

A chalkboard, dry erase board, or yogurt on a baking sheet can all serve the same purpose, if your child likes those surfaces. They are interesting, somewhat unusual, and often easier than writing or drawing on paper.

6. Puzzles

Puzzles are simply classic. There are so many different types of puzzles out there, and levels of difficulty for any ability.

Something like the Melissa & Doug Jumbo Fishbowl Puzzle pictured below is great for babies, to get them used to the idea of puzzles and to increase their fine motor skills using the knobs on the pieces (manufacturer recommended age 1-3 years).

Other than the pick-up of 26 small pieces, we like the Melissa & Doug See-Inside Alphabet Peg Puzzle for toddlers and preschoolers (about age 22 months and up at our house, but the manufacturer says 3 years and up due to choking hazard).

The Crocodile Creek Jungle 123 7 Foot Floor Puzzle was a fantastic first jigsaw puzzle for our preschooler. It was an easier jigsaw, but just challenging enough to keep him interested for years:

I also highly recommend the Melissa & Doug Dinosaurs 48 Pcs Floor Puzzle for this level.

A high quality puzzle that was perfect for the next step was Ravensburger's 35-piece Dinosaur Playground (manufacturer recommended ages 4-15 years):

Storybook Week 12: The Snowy Day

The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats, is one of those books that resonates with my children. My toddler never gets tired of it.

                                     

It is challenging to write about The Snowy Day at the end of a southern summer when the high temperature today is 106 degrees Fahrenheit, but I think the current weather makes the story even more fascinating to children who have not seen snow in at least a few months. (I bet some people in the United States have seen snow this summer, but let's assume they're in the minority.)

If you are reading this post in the winter in a snowy region, this particular Storybook Week will be almost too easy. :)

1. Read The Snowy Day

Read-Aloud/Language Arts

You can choose from many versions of the book - we have the board book that I found at Goodwill one year -

                                    

or watch the storybook video


                                     

or both.

2. "Snow had fallen during the night."

Story Interest/Fine Motor Skills

How cool would it be if your child woke to snowflakes on the window panes? You could go crazy and cut out paper snowflakes to cover all your windows, or just choose one window. Or, if you have a child who sleeps heavily, you could tiptoe in and cover their bedroom window with snowflakes.

For those who haven't made paper snowflakes before, there are simple instructions here at Enchanted Learning.

So, now that you have a snow-covered window, point out the snowflakes to your children when they wake. Southern families may need to have a conversation about what snow is and what real snow feels like.

For advanced toddlers, preschoolers, and up:

Ask if they want to make more snowflakes. Follow the same procedures to help children fold and cut their own snowflake decorations.

Or, let children use a hole-punch on white paper to create small, falling snowflakes. Instructions: Punch, punch, punch that paper! They're guaranteed to love this activity; just make sure it is done in a place that makes for easy clean-up of tiny paper pieces.

3. Footprints

Story Interest/Gross Motor Skills

If you have a place that is easy to sweep up and you are willing to deal with lots of fine-ground stuff on the floor, then this activity is for you. I might even recommend the back yard for this.

 Lay down a walkway of flour, cornmeal, or a similar substance. Show children how to walk with their toes pointing out to make the kind of footprints Peter makes in the story.

Let them make tracks.

Lay down some more flour to make a new, track-free surface. Make sure they are finished looking at their great tracks first. Then have them walk with their toes pointed in to make the second type of tracks Peter makes.

The third time around, have them drag their feet to make straight lines. Add a walking stick they can drag to make a third line.

Ah, sticks. They make any activity better. In the mind of a small boy.

4. Snowy Ice Cream

Cooking/Sensory Activity

This recipe is from Merry Musical Treasury Pooh Christmas Stories, a favorite of my son's.

                                         

You will need:

1 large package fruit flavored gelatin
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 package frozen strawberries (or any frozen fruit)
1/2 gallon milk
shaved or crushed ice, about a half cup per serving - or snow!

Mix all the ingredients except the shaved or crushed ice. Pour the mixture until it fills a cup half full. Add shaved or crushed ice almost to the top, stir until it is thick and creamy, and enjoy.

If it is winter and you have (clean) snow available, you can use that instead of shaved or crushed ice.

5. Snowball Fight!

Story Interest/Sensory Activity/Gross Motor Skills

Crumple up paper. It's a satisfying yet harmless way for children to get out some energy or agrression through their hands. Aren't you glad you bought extra copy paper during the back-to-school sales? Oops, I didn't.

But any kind of paper, like leftover packing paper, newspaper, or wrapping paper works.

The rest of this activity is up to the discretion of you, the parent. Either you can all enjoy a mild "snowball" fight with your wadded-up balls of paper, or you can wisely redirect your children to trying to hit a target on the wall. (Just draw a big red-and-white target and tape it up.) Bulls-eye!

Storybook Week 11: Pete's A Pizza

This week's storybook classic is Pete's A Pizza, written and illustrated by William Steig. In this book, Pete is in a bad mood. Luckily, his dad is there to help.

Image courtesy of clker.com

1. Read the Story
Language Arts
 
Read the book Pete's A Pizza, or watch the storybook video, or both.

2. Cooking Your Child

Story Interest/Dramatizing/Gross Motor Skills

Did that heading catch your attention? The second activity related to Pete's A Pizza is to make a pizza out of your child, of course. Follow along with the book or make up your own process.

In the book, Pete's dad makes him into a pizza by kneading the dough (rolling Pete), spreading it (stretching Pete's arms), whirling and twirling (throwing Pete up in the air), applying oil (water), adding flour (you just want to pretend here - baby powder can be very dangerous for young children to inhale), and topping with tomatoes (checkers, for example).

This is a great activity for children who naturally need more large body movements. It might calm down some children who need lots of physical action. Research shows that it is good for children to have "wrestling" or other physical goof-off time with their parents, especially their fathers.

Babies gain so much - even in brain development - from touch, so this particular activity would be good for babies, too.

3. Drawing Moods

Arts and Crafts/Fine Motor Skills/Music

You and your child each get a piece of paper and drawing utensils. Both of you draw a picture of a sad child. Then a grumpy child. Then a giggling child. If you like, you can play different pieces of music that have different moods (lively classical, soothing lullaby, rock 'n roll, etc.) Try to draw the music or the mood that you hear or feel.

4. and 5. Cooking Your Pizza

Cooking/Fine Motor Skills/Pretend Play

You and your child might catch yourselves feeling hungry for pizza tonight after all this pizza-type activity.

First, set up a grocery store with any play kitchen materials you have. If you don't have kitchen and food toys, see how many empty boxes and containers you can raid from your real kitchen to set up the pretend grocery store. A plastic grocery cart makes this enjoyable, but any bag or basket will do.

Set your child on a hunt for ingredients you will need to make pizza. You can get into the grocery shopping trip as much as you want to, incorporating cash register and money and making change, or just let your child play a bit before making the real dinner.

Second, make the real pizza with real ingredients. Here is a super easy and delicious recipe I often use:

Ingredients:

whole wheat pita bread (2 packs)
pesto sauce
tomato paste (1 or 2 small cans)
sliced vegetables, any you like
shredded cheese, whatever type you like or have on hand

Instructions:

Spread pesto sauce on each pita circle, then tomato paste. Add sliced onions, peppers, black olives, meat, mushrooms, or whatever you like on your pizzas. Top with shredded cheese (cheddar is delicious; mozzarella gives it a lighter taste). Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 10 minutes. Take out when the cheese is melted. Allow them to cool and eat them as is or cut into wedges or strips for children.

Since this recipe is all about spreading and topping, children can help quite a bit.

Storybook Week 10: Make Way for Ducklings

Make Way for Ducklings was written and illustrated by Robert McCloskey. This is one of the classics that is a delight to hold in your hands while looking at the wonderful illustrations.

1. Read the Story
Language Arts
 
Read the book Make Way for Ducklings, or watch the storybook video, or both. Take your time and enjoy this classic book.

Although, in my opinion, there is nothing that can replace a book, the storybook videos in Scholastic's Treasury of 100 Storybook Classics are well-done. What I like about them are the slow pace, the animation in the style of the original illustrations, and the use of the original text of the books. Each of these videos is more like the experience of a read-aloud than any video other I have seen.

2. Nesting

Story Interest/Dramatizing/Science

With your child, explore the house for just the right spot to make a nest. When your child has found the exact right spot, mark it with a pillow or anything else that comes to hand.

Now, together you must collect the materials for your nest. Younger children will need your suggestions of using pillows, blankets, etc., for next materials. Older children will most likely have plenty of their own ideas.

Make the nest, and sit on it, of course. If your child wants eggs to sit on and to hatch, crumpled and shaped paper works well. If you have miniature bird figures at home, they can even be inserted into the middle of an egg.

Optional: After doing the activity, watch a video of birds making a nest. Discuss the things you did to make your nest that were similar and different.

3. A Second Breakfast of Peanuts

Story Interest/Fine Motor Skills

All who are not allergic to nuts and who are old enough to eat them can have a "second breakfast" just like the Mallards'. Raisins could also be used instead of nuts.

Get out a jar of peanuts and pour them into a container with a wider opening. Give your child a  bowl for his or her peanuts, and a pair of tongs or tweezers. With the tongs or tweezers, your child should practice transferring peanuts to the snack bowl. Depending on the utensils and the child, this might be a challenging activity. A small measuring cup or spoon can be substituted for the tongs or tweezers.

4. Make Way for Ducklings Interactive Map Activity

Social Studies/Geography

Use this amazing interactive map to take the journey the Mallards did!

5. Police Officers to the Rescue

Social Studies/Dramatizing

Using rubber duckies and a road made of blocks, car tracks, or a road drawn on a piece of paper, have your ducks try to cross the road. A line of Matchbox cars or other vehicles waiting to the side heightens the sense of danger.

Have your child, the police officer, stop all traffic with a commanding hand so the ducks can safely cross. This police hat and badge printable would help your junior officer(s) a lot!

Bubble Painting In the Great Outdoors

This idea was adapted from the book 2's Art Experience, by Liz and Dick Wilmes.

 

What we did was to tape up a few pieces of white paper on our backyard fence. I used duct tape; it stayed up for a few hours.

Before we started the activity, I opened two small bubble solution containers. I put 1/8 teaspoon food coloring in each container (one for each child, different colors for fun), put the caps back on, and shook them up. After pouring the colored bubble solution into the no-spill dispensers (which I love for my toddler and even my preschooler), we were ready to go.

By the way, if you don't have any bubble solution right now, here is a simple recipe.

Tip: Have your children wear clothes that can get stained. This is not the messiest of activities, but a bit of colored bubble solution will probably end up on their clothing.

The children blew colored bubbles onto the paper, making faint circular bubble splatters.

The bubble splatters do not make a very dark "painting," but my children enjoyed doing the activity and were proud of their results. Because we were experimenting, I used paper that had already been printed on one side (as you may be able to see). If cardstock were used, this activity could make some pretty, delicate, handmade notecards.

Perhaps my favorite aspect of this activity was the way it enticed my children outdoors.

 

Two Ways to Help Children Who Get Frustrated with Writing

Often a child has difficulty forming perfect letters and numbers due to the fine motor skills challenge it presents. This may cause emotions to run high. From the child's perspective the skill being attempted may seem impossible.

Working on the concept of perfectionism helps. See this wonderful page from the National Association of School Psychologists for more on this topic.

So does practice. The challenge is to give plenty of opportunities for practice but at the same time make sure it is fun, at least at first.

#1: Make it larger.

A child who struggles writing letters and numbers may need a bigger space to write them. This can also be helpful with very active children because it allows their bodies to move around a little bit, too.

Gather 8.5 x 11" pieces of paper, preferably white copy paper for ease of use. You will need as many pieces as the letters in your child's name. Draw dashed lines in the outline of each of the letters in your child's name, one per piece of paper. (Don't make the dashes too close together or it looks like the child's work is already done.)

Tape the pieces of paper on the floor or a table within easy reach of your child, in the order of your child's name. Ask him or her to trace the letters to spell the name. Give lots of encouragement and laugh with him or her if that's appropriate.

Note: If this is still hard and too frustrating for your child, allow him or her to practice drawing lines alongside a ruler, which will eventually, with practice, make very straight lines that a perfectionist-leaning child will like.

#2: Do Dot-to-Dots.

Dot-to-dots are a less threatening way to make lines from a specific place to another specific place. Children who feel threatened by the idea that they have to make a perfect letter may not feel threatened at all making lines that will reveal a fun shape. It is best to give a few dot-to-dots in a row, or as many as your child wants to do (within reason), in order from simplest to hardest.

Additional Activities:

My son also likes any activity better when it's done in a Kumon workbook. He has tried this one and this one and this one.

I also refer you to one of my favorite learning activities blogs, Children's Learning Activities, for their activities that work on fine motor skills.

Storybook Week 9: I Stink!

I Stink! was written by Kate McMullan and illustrated by Jim McMullan. The first thing to do for Storybook Week 9 is to get hold of a copy of I Stink! from your local library, amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, or favorite brick-and-mortar book store.

1. Read the Story

Language Arts

Read the storybook or watch the Weston Woods storybook video from Scholastic Treasury of 100 Storybook Classics. Or do both.

2. In Your Community

Social Studies/Story Interest/Arts and Crafts

Talk about your community: Do you see police officers in your community? Fire trucks? Where are the library, city hall, fire station, grocery stores, haircutting shops, and post office? Do you see garbage collectors in your neighborhood? What do they do? Where does your trash go?

Set up a play community using building blocks. Or, if you have them, use play sets. Here is one that we used for a while. And here is a great idea for building a Safety Town out of cardboard boxes, paper, glue, and markers or crayons. (The craft idea is at the end of part two of this great safety tips video. It is not step-by-step instructions, just a demonstration of what the children made. They use cardboard boxes of different sizes, glue white paper onto the surfaces, and allow the children to decorate them into whatever "safer buildings" they like.)

3. Parts of a Garbage Truck

Story Interest/Fine Motor Skills/Arts and Crafts/Language Arts

This eHow page describes types of garbage trucks and their parts. You and your child can learn vocabulary words like: cab, hopper, passenger cabin, compactor, packer blade, rear-loader, front-loader, hydraulic, and lift.

Here you can see pictures of actual trucks to apply your new vocabulary.

Here you can print off garbage truck pictures for coloring.

If you don't already have a garbage truck in your toy collection and your child is very interested, consider investing in a toy garbage truck with working parts (this one has removable trash bins and figures).

For an older child: This is also an investment, but you might consider buying the Melissa & Doug Mighty Builder Garbage Truck which requires a lot of assembly using a screwdriver. We have not used this product, but from reading the reviews, it seems like a big hit with young children. It needs assembly by an older person, so it might be a good fit for a family with both older and younger children. (I've included links in this post solely based on relevance; we have not tried these products and I don't receive any benefit from mentioning them.)

4. Your Own Alphabet Soup Recipe

Story Interest/Language Arts

In the story, the garbage truck gives his recipe for alphabet soup, made in the back of his truck. It includes apple cores, banana peels, and other trashy items. You and your child can think up your own alphabet soup recipe by going through the alphabet and finding words that start with each letter. It would be an added learning tool to use a chalkboard, dry-erase board, or Magna-doodle to write the words you come up with next to each letter. Your alphabet soup recipe-making could even extend across twenty-six days if you assign one letter to each day.

The very most ambitious among you might even come up with a food item for each letter and make that food with your child, although it would take some stamina to do all twenty-six letters this way!

 5. And Even More Garbage Truck Activities!
Arts and Crafts/Gross Motor Skills/Social Studies

This eHow page has additional fun and educational activities about garbage collection.


To see previous Storybook Weeks, click one of these links:

Storybook Week 1: Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3: http://schooloutofschool.blogspot.com/2011/04/storybook-week-1-chicka-chicka-1-2-3.html

Storybook Week 2: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom: http://schooloutofschool.blogspot.com/2011/04/storybook-week-2-chicka-chicka-boom.html

Storybook Week 3: Chrysanthemum: http://schooloutofschool.blogspot.com/2011/04/storybook-week-3-chrysanthemum.html

Storybook Week 4: Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type: http://schooloutofschool.blogspot.com/2011/04/storybook-week-4-click-clack-moo-cows.html

Storybook Week 5: Curious George Rides a Bike: http://schooloutofschool.blogspot.com/2011/05/storybook-week-5-curious-george-rides.html

Storybook Week 6: Diary of a Spider: http://schooloutofschool.blogspot.com/2011/05/storybook-week-6-diary-of-spider.html

Storybook Week 7: Harold and the Purple Crayon: http://schooloutofschool.blogspot.com/2011/05/storybook-week-7-harold-and-purple.html

Storybook Week 8: How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?: http://schooloutofschool.blogspot.com/2011/06/storybook-week-8-how-do-dinosaurs-say.html

Storybook Week 1: Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3

Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3 was written by Bill Martin Jr., and Michael Sampson. It was illustrated by Lois Ehlert. The very first step in the Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3 Storybook Week is to get a copy of the book and/or the video (Weston Woods Scholastic, 2005). The book is readily available in libraries, on Amazon.com, and in bookstores. The DVD is available on Amazon as well, and as part of the Scholastic Treasury of 100 Storybook Classics.

1. The Numbers of Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3

Read-Aloud/Story Interest

Read the book or watch the Weston Woods Scholastic story video. For the following activity, use a pack of number flashcards (about $2-$3 at a convenience store like Walgreens) or make them yourself.

To make number cards, simply type the numbers in a large font size in a word processing document, leaving spaces between each number. You may want to use different colors for each number or do every 10th number in the same color, or any other idea you think would be fun. Print on card stock. Cut the numbers out in squares.

Take from the pack the numbers 1-20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 99, and 100. Ask your child to put these numbers in the order that they appear in the story.

For a baby or toddler: Show the flashcards, one by one, and say the number out loud. 1-10 is probably plenty for this age group. For an older baby or toddler, hand the card to them so they can look at it more closely. Better yet, use the foam numbers you can find in grocery stores, Amazon.com, or the baby aisle of Target.

For an older child: After doing the above activity, have your child reverse the order and count backwards down to 1.

2. Counting by Tens

Sensory learning/Math concepts

Use this free ebook by Jim Erskine for Candy Math ideas to learn counting by tens with candy or colored cereals. It is part of the first activity in the ebook, titled Skip Counting.

3. Bumblebees!

Science concepts/Arts and crafts

Go on a bumblebee hunt outside. If the season or area is not a good one for bumblebees, read together a book or website about bumblebees, like this one. It is always fun to bring a magnifying glass or binoculars, if your preschooler has either of these.

For toddlers: Point to as many pictures of bumblebees as you can find and make the "bzzz, bzzz" sound. Together, pretend to be bumblebees and go buzzing around the house.

For babies: Make a bumblebee puppet and have it buzz over the pages of the book. If baby has older siblings, they could be in charge of making the puppet. This is a fun puppet that would be a good project for a preschooler. Be sure the baby is never left alone with it because the antennae, tape, and/or bag could be unsafe for babies. If you are a knitter, this is a cute bee knitting pattern that you could make with or without the cord.

4. Number Four

Fine motor skills/Number recognition

Ask your child to write a large block number 4. Or write it yourself or draw tracing guidelines for younger children. Have your child color it, then cut out the outline of the number. A child who needs an easier cutting activity can cut out the number in a square if you draw the guidelines.

5. What Happened?

Narration/Thinking about the story

Ask your child:
"Who was left out of the tree?"
"Why was zero crying?"
"What happened at the end?"

If your child needs more writing practice have him or her write out the answers. If your child is younger or does not yet write, write down the answers as he or she speaks to show the attention you are paying to their answers.