Beyond the Book: The Little Engine That Could

 At the end of my first year teaching after S was born, one of my students who had a particular affinity for baby S included an end of the year gift for him in an end of the year gift for me--an abridged edition of Watty Piper's classic tale, The Little Engine That Could in board book form. The student's mother admonished me that this would someday become S's favorite book--the one he would ask to hear again and again and again...and guess what--she was right! For many months, S has pulled this off the family book shelf at bedtime to read together. Usually my husband does the bedtime routine; he has fun inserting his own little witty additions to the story. S has this book memorized. I sometimes lack that Little Engine "I think I can" mentality when it comes to rereading the same book over and over...but repetition is the essence of learning. That predictability and consistence fosters feelings of confidence and mastery. Beyond that, this story contains two elements that S really does connect with: trains and overcoming obstacles. I felt this story theme would be a fabulous one for the week before his 3rd birthday.

Our play at home story stretchers camp has been an evolving experience. Summer has come with its own rhythm and so many great activities and events around town. We have an amazing library system and parks and rec system here. We have taken advantage of the great weather and opportunities to get out and about. In addition, with his birthday an influx of new toys has made its way into our home via very loving relatives. One of the greatest benefits of being a play at home mom is the flexibility to adapt to shifting schedules and needs. S has needed more time for free, self-directed play and been less drawn to structured activities in the house. Moving some of our structured play outside or connecting out-of-the-house activities to things we're doing at home has been a great way to proceed. Some weeks we will do story stretcher activities each day. Other weeks, we may only do a few on one or two days. Story stretchers are a great way to incorporate learning and play through early literacy whether you wish to spend ten minutes, a few hours or even a whole week. This is one reason I love this approach so much! I try to follow S's lead with this. I may have a collection of activities set to choose from and if we get to them all, great. If not, great! Here's a peek at some of the themed activities S really enjoyed from last week:

S's Safta and Saba sent this great sensory table for his birthday. He's loved using it in the kitchen with water and water toys. We used it with kinetic sand and toy trains/props for a great, interactive story drama about The Little Engine That Could. Story dramas are new to S, so he was a little confused at first about what we were doing. I began by pulling up a chair and reading the book while using the trains, props and sand to act out the story. We worked together to build the big mountain out of kinetic sand. As we got further into the story, we felt more confident to continue without the book. After telling the story once through, S continued to play-act and even found additional props to add as he expanded the story line (like tools to repair the train engine)! Using drama and playacting is a great way to expand on children's literature, whether you use props, puppets, costumes or toys. It also helps to foster dramatic play skills in children. These are so useful in play as well as in coping with childhood anxieties and navigating conflict resolution.

As we move through our story stretchers this summer, I am including some review of core concepts we worked on in our home preschooling during the year. Some weeks we review a letter or number and this week I thought it would be fun to review shapes. Getting outside is a vital part of our days and we've had some fantastic, albeit, hot weather. I initially thought we would do some shape tracing with paint indoors, but the front yard was calling S's name, so I grabbed our trains, some sidewalk chalk, and we made shape tracks on the sidewalk. S loved tracing them with his trains and then drawing his own lines and doodles for the trains to chug along.

For some more shape exploration indoors, I set out this invitation to create a shape train. I provided a variety of colors and sizes of construction paper shapes for building trains, a glue stick and full sheets of construction paper for backgrounds. S loved setting up and creating his own choo choo train! He became a little frustrated with the glue stick as he couldn't see where the glue was on the darker background he chose. He asked me repeatedly to do the gluing for him. I was nursing Y at the time and also am balancing his desire to have me do art with him versus my desire not to do it for him. In lieu of gluing for S, I offered him liquid school glue and a paint brush instead of the glue stick. He immediately felt more confident and created a great piece of art to display on our art wall!

S loves the part where I hang up his finished work! He feels proud to see his creations on display and it also encourages conversations about what we've done when his Tatty gets home from work. I also printed out this great Little Engine writing prompt for S to complete and color. I thought it was a great way to incorporate the theme of his 3rd birthday as he is getting older and bigger and more competent at tasks that were once quite difficult. He chose to write about swimming in the pool, likely because we had just made our first pool visit of the season where he did, indeed, feel more confident about swimming!

We also incorporated learning aleph-beis [Hebrew] letters into our week by continuing and finally completing our aleph-beis choo choo train! It seems only fitting that this family project we began when S was just a baby (for him) was completed the week of his upshernish (by him)!

S loved this edible train! He asked for a bowl of cucumbers and clementine slices on the side and even after he ate this train, he took to building and eating his own version!

On the day of his upshernish, S requested to go to Chuck E. Cheese, where, sure enough, he took right to the train ride, now in his big boy haircut and yarmulke! Happy Birthday, S, it's so great to be three! There are so many things you can do now!

Community Helpers Theme: Teachers & Librarians

With some of our favorite school themed books and toys as well as an opportunity to decorate a cover page to the ABC book we've been compiling over the past several month, we were ready to begin a day of learning about two of our favorite community helpers: teachers and librarians!

It was time to kick off our teacher and librarian day here as we progress through our Community Helpers Theme. We've taken my son to the library from before he was even old enough to stay awake for a Curious George book (pictured left)! With a Mommy who teaches preschoolers and a Tatty who teaches college students, it is unlikely he will grow up with any questions about what teachers and librarians do. Our Teachers and Librarians day was, therefore, a great day to set up some fun play centers with activities to review some of librarians' and teachers' favorite topics: letters, numbers, colors and shapes!

We've been learning letters through multi-sensory exposure since the beginning of last summer. Whenever we did a project to go with a particular letter, I've saved it in sheet protectors a binder. Today my little guy used letter stamps, stickers and markers to decorate his own cover page (above) and now I've set our book-in-progress out on his bookshelf so he can access it anytime to go through the letters he already knows.

busy at work!

We are big fans of dry erase markers here! He has had a lot of fun doodling in this book about colors and shapes we found at the Dollar Tree, erasing it and doodling again!

We managed to coincidentally sync up again with our Mommy & Me playgroup that is also covering Community Helpers this session. They had Teacher day on the same day we did and my son LOVED this laminated shape page with playdough. He spent a long time naming his shapes and smooshing playdough over top!

He was literally dancing he was so excited by these felt letters, numbers, and shapes from Target's Dollar Deals section. Does the "R" and "N" mean he wants to be a registered nurse when he grows up??

We LOVE letter magnets here. I usually set out only one letter at a time as we learn our alphabet letters, but this time I set out all of the letters and was amazed at how many he knew/remembered!

This chalkboard contact paper makes a great vertical work station. He dictated a story about drawing our house, a shul "for Hashem" and a rabbi inside the shul!

I combined a felt number card set (also from Target) and some school-themed mini erasers for this one-to-one correspondence math activity.

He LOVED it!

At the end of our day, he grabbed his basket of felt letters, shapes and numbers and announced "I'm going to school! Bye bye!" That's either a homeschool success or failure, I'm not sure I've decided which! 😋

We finished our play-based day of learning about teachers and librarians with a fun waterplay activity in the bathtub I call "Alphabet Soup!" We'll be back next time with some fun and hands-on exploration of Construction Workers, tools and trucks! Until then...

He couldn't even wait to get undressed and for the tub to fill up before testing out our Alphabet Soup activity!

Happy Playing!

Think Outside the Box Thursday: When To Cling to Your Roots and When To Go Out on a Limb

And Other Life Lessons Learned from Trees

This lovely piece of group artwork was
created by a former preschool class of mine. It
is a lovely reminder that each individual plays a
beautiful and vital role in making a classroom
(or family) thrive and grow!

 Whether you are a parent or a teacher (or both), we all know the feeling: the feeling of having created the perfect lesson plan only to have it totally bomb! As a classroom teacher, while mildly unsettling, I never found it particularly challenging to restructure an activity in the moment or just toss it aside altogether and move forward. As a homeschooling parent, that is sometimes more challenging for me. Lesson plans are like brain children to me. They are a part of me into which I pour my blood, sweat, and tears. And perhaps the only thing I am more attached to than my brain children is my actual child! So when interactions between the two go less than smoothly, it is a feeling I can only imagine might be akin to the frustrations of sibling rivalry. And so, when things in our homeschool environment do not go as planned, I must play both the role of teacher and mother and decide when I should stand firm and dig my proverbial roots into the ground and when I need to bend with the winds and go out on a limb.

Yesterday our morning began with a Table Time activity. My son loved reading through this interactive booklet together (you can find and print your own copy here) as we identified objects in his collection from our Nature Scavenger Hunt the day before. He loved seeing how bark rubbings work and trying it out himself. We added a variety of stickers to the pages and doodles and dictations.

We went through our typical morning routines with all of his usual enthusiasm. He requested to sing our Parts of a Tree song and we had a lot of fun playing our roll-the-die gross motor tree game again. He was eager, as usual, to bring his school bag over and see what was inside. But when he pulled out a copy of Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree, he opted to put it away on his bookshelf instead of reading it together and doing the activity I had to go along with it. I tried to encourage and invite him back, but I felt that if I pushed too hard, it would be met with resistance and create an unnecessary battle in that moment. I tried to assess what my son's needs were in that moment and I felt he needed a break for some open play time. He had some fun playing in his kitchen area and while he did so, I also had a break to regroup and rethink. Perhaps he would engage in the story and activity if I approached it in a different manner. So rather than inviting him back to sit on my lap and hear me read the book, I invited him back to come watch it being read by someone else on YouTube. He loved it! 

 He spent some time engaged in vertical work at his tree mural hanging on our pantry door. While he was there, he noticed the Bird World sensory bin on his shelf. Its lid was still on but he peeked through the clear bottom of the bin and said, "Not scary!"
 If you spend a good chunk of time with my little guy, you will likely hear him say those two words about a lot of things--namely, the doctor, the vacuum cleaner, the food processor, the electric steam mop, getting his nails clipped, firefighters with their gas masks on, dogs and any number of other novel experiences in his world. "Not scary," in fact, is his way of communicating that he is afraid and in need of reassurance. We work with him on his anxieties and I am mindful not to say "no, it's not scary" when to him, these things really are! Instead, I use language like, "the doctor is someone who helps us stay healthy. He is safe." Or "the vacuum is loud, but it helps us clean the floor and it is safe." I focus on conveying to him that he is safe and we are there to support him. I do not want to invalidate his fears and anxieties but I also do not want him to be plagued and paralyzed by them.
So I took down the bin, opened it up and showed him what was inside. He was TERRIFIED of the birds. My internal reaction wavered between frustration and amusement. He was with me when we bought these bird figurines in the floral department of the Dollar Tree. I was feeling rather attached to what I thought was a fabulous small world setup--one he could really explore and abstractly expand upon. I explained that the birds were not real. They looked very realistic, but they were made of Styrofoam and plastic and even craft feathers like the ones we had used. I showed him that the pine cones were real and the wooden tree disks were real parts of a tree branch. The bird seed was even real and could actually be eaten by birds outside, but these birds were not real. They were not alive and never had been and never could be. We could only pretend with them and play with them and they were safe; Mommy and Tatty would not bring something into the house that was not safe. He wanted me to take the bin away, but I also sensed that in this scenario he needed support to overcome his obstacle rather than to avoid it altogether. I agreed to take it away if he would like, but first I wanted him to touch one bird with one finger. He was nervous and resisted at first, but then, with my hand holding his, he touched one bird with one finger, and then another, and then began playing--and then had a wonderful time. It definitely felt good to see him enjoy an activity I had put time and thought into--but for me, the big win was seeing his confidence after he overcame a fear.

We finished our morning with some play activities from the STEAM cart. He loved making shapes with the wooden tree disks. I modeled stacking them to make cylinders, how to create a smiley face and even set out his recycling bin as well to see what he might come up with combining the two in an impromptu building activity.

As parents and/or educators, we are faced again and again with plans that don't go as, well, planned. You made an amazing dinner guaranteed to satisfy everyone at your dining room table only to be faced with cranky and dissatisfied customers. You planned a fun family outing only to arrive and your kid wants to go home after five minutes. You created the perfect craft or project or activity--one sure to please the crowd--and instead, you lose them altogether. What do you do? When do you push forward? When do you pull back? And when do you just let go?

Building with wooden tree disks and recycled materials.

 I believe there are times we do one or the other and times we do all three. But before deciding how to approach it, there are a few key steps I like to take:

• Assess the reason for resistance: What could be contributing to a child avoiding or resisting an activity? Is he bored? Is she hungry? Is it too difficult or too easy? Is he afraid or anxious about something? Is she feeling ill? Did you give an adequate explanation of the activity and what to do? Did you use too much language or not enough? Does the child need more support and involvement or more space and autonomy?
• Assess the child's need in the moment: Does he need a break to play? Does he need a snack? Does she need more attention or support? Does she need an opportunity to get moving or get outside? Does he need a change of scenery? 
• Assess your own role and reactions: Do you need a break? Do you need to eat? (Sometimes these two sneak up on me!) Do you need to accomplish this right now or can you come back to it later? What is the goal and intention of the activity? What would success look like? 
• Decide on an approach: Now it's time to decide on an approach. Note that you may need to try more than one--this is kind of the troubleshooting stage. Perhaps you explain the activity again. Perhaps you opt to take a break and return again later. Sometimes a tweak in your tone or expression can make a difference. Sometimes naming your frustration can be a huge asset in being able to let go of it yourself while simultaneously modeling this skill for young ones. On the other hand, there are occasions when it is beneficial to push through and firmly encourage participation. You must weigh the risks and benefits. What would the child(ren) get out of completing the task at hand and what would be the detriment of not doing so? On the other hand, would the expense of pushing forward outweigh the reward? There are times that you will be able to tweak and adjust and adapt toward success and other times you may have to abandon ship altogether.
• Evaluate the scenario: When all is said and done, I think it is important to evaluate the scenario again. What might have contributed to the challenge? Was it something avoidable (like waiting too long to eat or take a break--and this goes for both the kids and the grownups!)? Or was it something that was unpredictable (like a newfound phobia of toy birds)? This is not an invitation to be hard on yourself, but rather an opportunity to see your successes. What did you do well? You had great intentions. You put in astounding levels of creativity, productivity, and flexibility. Pat yourself on the back. Stand tall and proud like a tree, be content with your natural beauty and enjoy the view!

He decided this was a blender and he was mixing a smoothie!

Happy Playing!

Chanukah, Oh Chanukah, Come Play, Learn and Create!

The excitement is building as we continue learning and playing about Chanukah. And a lot of learning is happening, too! I sometimes feel like the Sneaky Teacher--and rather than hiding vegetables and protein in my child's favorite foods like my culinary counterpart (don't get me wrong, I do plenty of that, too!) I am constantly finding creative ways to sneak educational content into really fun play activities. This is a lot easier than you'd think--so much of the way children learn about the world around them is through play. Early childhood years are vital for this, and truly, play should be a part of life throughout the ages and stages! (Yes, even grown ups!) Some skills and areas of development come more naturally to a child and are more appealing while others may need a little nudging and creativity to foster. Getting creative and playful can help inspire interest in areas where a little learner may be hesitant or reluctant. And even the most eager little ones benefit from learning content through a variety of methods and experiences.

My little guy happens to LOVE talking about and identifying shapes. Whether it's in books, toys and manipulatives or experimenting with his doodles and scribbles, he is very drawn to geometry! But an interest in geometry and other mathematical concepts needn't mean all work and no play--check out this very simple invitation to create a dreidel shape out of magnets! The same activity can be done using paper and collage, blocks, or even sponges and paint. My toddler had a lot of fun copying the dreidel shape and exploring his own geometric creations with triangles, squares and these skinny little rectangles!

We continue learning letters in both English and Hebrew even as holidays approach. Learning the Hebrew letter YUD included some hands-on fun (literally)! We start our alephbet lessons with a familiar routine no matter what our activity is. Repeating songs and routines helps to set the stage for what we are learning and supports comprehension of new material as well. After singing our introductory songs and meeting our new letter, we learned a Hebrew word to go with it--YADAYIM, or hands. My son had fun doodling on this coloring page--and even coloring pages and coloring books have educational value! He is practicing lines, squiggles and fine motor movements that will lead to drawing shapes and eventually letters. He also had a lot of fun using his yadayim in washable ink-pads to make a hand-print menorah in his journal. 

Hand-print menorahs can be a great hands-on play activity for the whole family, as seen here in a
family art project we did last Chanukah!

And speaking of art, in this process art activity the world of painting and science came together as we explored painting with water colors and oil! I set out liquid watercolor paints and some vegetable oil in an ice cube tray. We do not have fancy liquid watercolor paints! I actually just found a liquid set at the dollar tree and figured I couldn't go wrong either way. They are not an amazing quality art product but definitely served their intended function here! Prior to beginning, I cut a dreidel shape from white cardstock. If you have watercolor paper on hand, that would be great, but it is not a necessity. I chose a thicker paper since I knew this would be a wet project! It would be a good idea to use a tray or foil pan beneath your paper to collect splatters and excess and to cover your work space. Some painting activities capture my son's attention for a few minutes, but this one kept him busy and engaged for almost half an hour! He loved exploring the paint colors and mixing them/transferring them inside the ice cube tray. He loved experimenting with different types of brush strokes and two different brushes on the paper. He loved the element of seeing how just like in some of our other experiments with oil and water (and stay tuned for more on that in the weeks to come), that on paper, oil and watercolor paints do not mix. 

Even cleaning the brush between uses in a glass filled with warm, soapy water (to help cut the grease of the oil) and dabbing it on a paper towel was a great learning opportunity and helped develop an important practical life-skill. Learning happened all around and play was at the forefront.

Happy Playing and (Sneaky) Learning!

Exploring Shapes & Colors Through Play

We're back from our Thanksgiving weekend family vacation and ready for more school! With a few days left of this month before both the Jewish month of Kislev and the month of December begin, we're focusing this week on the themes of families, kosher foods, and on some catch up from things we didn't quite get to yet over the last few weeks. In addition to the Jewish and secular themes I plan for us, I also try to incorporate learning about letters in Hebrew and English, shapes, colors, and numbers. A lot of this learning can be done through the lens of topics we're already exploring and a lot more happens through exposure and play.
Teaching about shapes and colors can be daunting when we focus on what we feel a preschooler "should" know. Awareness of shapes and colors happens for different children at different times. It is something that they are inherently exposed to in their environment whether we teach it intentionally or not. My strong feeling is that fostering a love of learning and exploring as well as confidence in this process is more important than being able to rattle off names of shapes and colors as well as letters and numbers by a certain age. For children who do love worksheets and classic/traditional activities, these are fabulous! For those who are more reluctant, a measure of creativity and playfulness is due. Using shape and color names to describe every day items and experiences is a great way to incorporate this concept (not to mention a great way to distract from other challenges at meal/snack times or when getting dressed). Color or shape scavenger hunts can make an every day visit to the park or grocery store a little more fun. Even very little ones can be exposed to colors and shapes by using discovery baskets prepared with toys/materials infants can manipulate and explore all in one color or all in one shape. Toy aisles are stocked with puzzles, sorters and manipulatives that encourage development of shape and color awareness. Library and bookstore shelves are loaded with great books on these topics and early readers often love these as they can "read" the words based on recognition of familiar colors and shapes.  Here's a peek at some of the ways we learn and play about shapes and colors here:

I've pointed out in previous posts how we make use of all of our somewhat limited space here. This is an invitation to create set up on our deep freezer with Magnetile triangles. The same activity can be done with any type of magnetic shapes on a refrigerator, magnetic door, cookie sheet or using felt shapes on a felt board. For a great process art activity, use scrap paper to cut out a particular shape and create a collage. Older children can practice cutting skills and even tracing a stencil to prepare. Want to mix it up again? Using a variety of shapes, create an invitation to create shape creatures!

We love our journals here! While some schools of thought might shy away from teaching both colors and shapes at the same time, I mainly aim to teach my toddler through continued and varied exposure. Each month I give a journal prompt with one color and one shape. I provide coloring materials in that color (often in a variety of shades and mediums) and stickers or pre-cut foam/paper in that shape and color to glue on. I particularly like adding an element to glue or stick on so my little one can manipulate the shape in a more 3-dimensional form to get tactile recognition as well as visual. Blocks, magnets and puzzle pieces also provide this opportunity.

 Cookie cutters with playdough or paint, rubber stamps and ink and sponges cut in different shapes with paint are also great ways to play with, explore and manipulate shapes while simultaneously introducing colors. Older children can also manipulate hole punches in different shapes and practice with stencils and tracing.

You can also play and prepare some fun games right at home to encourage shape and color recognition. Here are a couple of our favorites:

Color Scavenger Hunt
You will need:

• a box, container or bag in your color of choice (I'll use blue as an example). If you don't have one, you can use a brown paper bag and color/paint it ahead of time.
• a magnifying glass (optional but fun!)
• household items and/or toys either already set in "hiding places" or in their usual spots for your junior detective to scout out

Let your junior detective know you are going on a Blue Hunt today. You need to find as many blue things to fill up your blue box/bucket/bag. You may want to have a few blue items already set out to demonstrate and perhaps even a few that are NOT blue to give an example of an incorrect response. Have fun walking around the house to search for things that are blue--you might be surprised at your little one's keen eye! For an added element of fun, put on some playful music and encourage your little one(s) to find as many things in blue as they can before the music stops.

Shape Monster, Shape Monster

Shape Monster, Shape Monster

Munch, Munch, Munch

Feed me a ______ [shape name] for my lunch!

We love this rhyme/game! To play, you will need a "Shape Monster" puppet and a collection of shapes to feed it. You can either use a puppet you already have as your Shape Monster or you can have fun making one from a brown paper bag, a sock or felt. To prepare your own set of durable shapes for feeding your hungry Shape Monster, you can laminate a set cut from construction paper, or use craft foam, felt or even just use blocks/toys. For a fine motor element, you can create a DIY toy using a recycled baby wipes container and have your little one(s) feed the desired shape through the top slot!

Have fun and happy playing!