Letter Sounds (of colours) Car Park

After the success of our first letter sound activity, I set up this second one for my little boy a few days back. This one too revolved around letter sounds but with a little twist. I set this game up like a fun car parking activity since my son loves parking his little cars and in fact just like watching actual vehicles being parked!

I used a long sheet of paper on which I drew a little track or a ramp. At the far end I added a few parking slots. On each parking slot, I added a sticky note and wrote a letter written on each. I placed a few of his toy cars at the other end of the ramp. 

He was to identify the colour of each car and then figure out the starting letter of the colour of the car, 'drive' it down the ramp and finally park the car in the corresponding car park marked with that sticky note letter! That is, Green car - G, Orange car - O, Brown / Blue / Black car - B etc. 

And so, he had fun with his little cars while practicing some letter sounds! :)

Guess the Letter - a Touch and Feel Game

I have been wanting to try a touch and feel activity with the Mini for a while now. An activity mainly focusing on his sense of touch. So, I had planned this particular game as a blindfold game initially, but turns out the little fellow is afraid of the dark and simply refused to wear the blindfold! 

Well...so, I had to DIY an empty cardboard box as plan B!

I cut out openings on the sides of the box and placed a bowl full of wooden letters inside. I made sure the Mini couldn't see the letters. He had to put his hands inside the box through the side cutouts and just touch each letter, feel it and try to guess without peeping! 

It took him a few attempts to understand the game and then he was on a roll! Honestly, it amazed me that he was able to do this activity way better than I had imagined. I did not think at 3 he would be able to get the concept and actually get going with the guessing. But he did! I am proud of my little guy and am glad I did try this with him.

The game was a huge hit with him, that he went on and on... Here he goes! :)

Popsicle Sticks - Upper and Lower Case Letters Match

The first activity that we did around upper and lower case identification was the one with building blocks. It was a fun little DIY that the Mini loved and I give that activity credit for actually helping him identify most of the lower case letters. 

So, ever since then I wanted to do a few more activities around the different cases and finally got around setting this one up. It is a simple DIY and can be easily made with items available around the house. I love cardboard box DIYs and this is one of the easiest of them all!

You can use simple plain coloured popsicle sticks for this, but I had fancy coloured ones and I loved the pop of colour they brought in to the set up as a good contrast to the brown of the cardboard box. So, its not a must that you use coloured popsicle sticks here, but if you like pretty things like me... try to get them! :D They should be available in most stationery supply stores.

This activity not only helps in upper and lower case letter identification and association, it also helps work on the fine motor skills of those little hands pushing the popsicle sticks through the slots on the cardboard. Mini had a lot of fun doing this over and over and after almost 6 months, he still enjoys playing with this DIY :)

Playdough Car Maze

I always try to keep a stock of my homemade playdough in the fridge for quick play set up when I am too tired to set up anything else for my boy or when I have nothing else planned or when he generally just asks to play with playdough! 

Playdough makes for a great free-play item. I have setup our simple playdough boards several times for him and it has always been loved. 

This time around too, we took out our stash of playdough and began making random shapes and forms out of the different coloured balls. Finally, we made them into long cylinders and shaped them into little spirals like chaklis or murukus! What a fabulous exercise it served as for our wrists and hand muscles.   

The bigger ones were made by me while the littler ones were made by the Mini. Once these spirals were made, I was just about pack them off back into their storage box when an idea struck me! I rolled out each spiral and made them into long pipes. I grabbed our white board and started placing these pipes on the board forming tiny roads.... I made a tiny maze for the Mini's toy vehicles!

I had real fun planning this mini maze for him with little dead-ends, bends and tracks. The riot of colours on the white board was just pleasing to the eye.

Mini had a riot of a time tracing the maze with each of his vehicles, exploring the dead-ends and turns along the way :)

Letter Sound and Object Match

Identifying the starting letters of words is one of Mini's latest favourite games. We play this orally multiple times a day, I just ask him 'what is the first letter of...' and he tries to guess the letter of the word. Of course I need to stress on the starting letter of each word, as he is just getting started on letter sounds.

So a couple of days back, I set up a game around his new interest. I used random stuff from around the house for this game. I wanted him to get familiar with letter sounds with everyday items first, before we move on to more complex words. I am very new to phonics too, in fact I am learning it along with him. I have no idea on how to teach him letter blending and so on... in fact for now, I plan to go slow on it and let his teachers at school take the lead, while just build a strong basic foundation of simple letter sound!

So, all the random stuff that I gathered, I put in a big basket and placed it along side a sheet of paper. I wanted to be able to quickly change the letters, so used sticky notes to mark letters on the sheet of paper and made little lanes. He had to pick one item at a time from the basket and place it in the corresponding letter lane based on the first letter.

Just as I expected, the little fellow wanted a variation in letters after playing it two times and I was glad I had used sticky notes, so I could easily change the letters for a new round of the same game. He did well on most items and needed my guidance on a few. Overall, he enjoyed it and I am sure we will be playing this a lot in the coming days.

Name - Fill in the Blanks

Mini's obsession of spelling his name continues and after our first game around name recognition, we played this one recently.  This one combines all his favourites - sticky notes, white board and his name! So obviously, it was a hit! :D

It required minimal preparation and was all done in just 5 minutes. I used a long strip of paper sheet and stuck it on our balcony wall - Oh, our balcony is our favourite activity hangout zone! We both love spending time there. 

This can be done in a smaller scale on a sheet of paper spread on a table, or directly on the white board or any other way that you can think of. He just loves the balcony space and I wanted him to enjoy running up and down in the process of this game, hence set it up larger scale.

Along with helping in name recognition, this game also serves the purpose of some fine motor skills as it requires him to carefully remove the sticky note off the white board and paste it just right in the appropriate blank space and press it at the right spot, to ensure it sticks well.

Artificial Grass Mat Farm | Sensory Play Ideas

This is a ready-made set up that has absolutely no-prep required! Well yes. I found this awesome inexpensive door mat on Amazon which is made of artificial grass. I felt it is just perfect for a simple fun farm set up for my little boy!

It feels just like real grass and has the similar character as real grass does. I loved the feel of it and from the number of times he ran his palms over the mat and smiled to himself, I can say so did the Mini!

He has a few of tractors, of all different colours and sizes and a few farm animals. We teamed them all up and set them up on this little mat of ours and.... Voila! Our little farm is ready! :)

Or you can just forget farm setup and just enjoy the feel of the artificial grass under your bare feet! :)

Number Game: Count - Match - Stick

After our first counting activity, the Pompoms and Muffin Tray Counting activity, I figured the Mini loves counting! So, to keep up with his interest, I planned to do more of such easy to set up and fun activities that involved counting.

So before we go over to the activity, wanted to share an awesome hack I found out recently. I have had an eye on the easel paper roll that is most commonly used for toddler art and craft work. I love the long roll of paper that can be cut to any size and spread over on the floor or wall. But honestly I found the easel paper rolls that are available in India a bit too expensive for my kind of use! I was on the lookout for something more economical. On a recent visit to a packaging and paper cups/plates store, I found this long roll of paper that he was selling. It was meant to be used a dining table liner at functions and parties. It looked longer than a regular easel paper roll only slightly thinner. Also, it was more greyish than white, but who cared. It costed only Rs.70! Without a second thought, I bought it and there you see is our very own easel paper roll for our very many activities and fun times ahead ! :)

So, coming back to this activity, I used a strip of my version of the easel paper roll, a marker pen, sticky notes and our favorite white board. It took me all of 10 minutes to set it up and kept the little one entertained and occupied for about 30 minutes! :)

Pompom and Muffin Tray Counting Activity

Transferring activities are a huge hit with toddlers. They love transferring things from one container to another, one place to another. My boy is no different and has always enjoyed moving things around. We have done a lot of transferring activities before. 

This time around, I introduced tongs to him to enhance his pincer grip. As a preschooler, he is gearing up to soon begin writing and the usage of tongs is one of the many little activities that help the little hands to get ready to start writing. They help strengthen the finger muscles and pincer grip that is needed to hold a writing tool, the right way.

Also, I gave a structure to the transfer activity this time by combining it with some basic counting. My Mini knows his numbers well. But associating the quantities to each number is something he is just about learning. So these days I try to give him a lot of simple fun counting activities to help him understand the association between a number and the quantity it defines. 

This fun transferring activity requires him to associate the number written on the muffin tray with the number of pompoms he is required to fill each slot with. All along while using the tiny tongs! It was a huge hit with him and he enjoyed doing this over and over again. Easy to put together and perfect for little ones just beginning to learn counting. Have fun! :)

Animals Bath Station | Sensory Play Ideas

How can you go wrong with water play, right?! Which child does not like slapping around and frolicking in water!

My little Aquarian boy is no different and absolutely loves the water. He loves his bath time and always asks for a few minutes extra after bath to play around just a bit. It always calms him down after a long day or a cranky tantrum and makes him happy.

My boy is a little person who loves when there is a procedure to follow or a structure in place. So when I set up this animal bathing station, I did not just let him go wild on it. I guess that would have been fine too, but I knew a little procedure would be loved by him, so I gave him a little demo with just one animal...

I asked him to first dip the animal in soapy water. Then place it in the little bath tub. Then, spray water on it using the squirt bottle to rinse off soap. Use the towel to wipe the animal, off dry. And finally place the animal in the other bowl!

...he followed this procedure meticulously and repeated it with the rest of the animals one by one, giving me enough time to go finish up my lunch prep! :)

Rice Bin - Construction Site | Sensory Play Ideas

Okay, so this post needs not much text really! 

A bin full of rice and an army of construction vehicles -  what really needs to be said here!? Just go play and have fun loading, tipping and dumping :)

Okay, before you get started, maybe just read up my post on Sensory Play Setup and Ideas for some basic setup tips to contain the mess, if any and to ease up the process for you! 

I always set up my bins in our balcony for the open space available and for the natural lighting. And I always lay out a plastic mat under the bin to help set a boundary for spillage and also for easy cleanup.

Now, am going to just leave you with some pictures of my Mini at play at his little Rice Bin Construction site :)