Showing posts with label sensory learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sensory learning. Show all posts
Monday, August 20, 2012
Learning Letters Using Rocks
When my daughter was about 18 months, we were at a party with a bunch of kids. One of the kids was only about two years old and he was going the room, pointing at everyone's shirt and identifying each letter. He would yell, "T! O! R!" Everyone was very impressed, including me. I will admit that I filed away that image for later use. I really wanted my daughter to be the "trick pony" at a party someday and be able to impress everyone with her knowledge of letters. I asked the Mom how her little boy already knew all his letters. She laughed and said, "Because I make him do flashcards every day!"
As a new Mom, I didn't know any better. This seemed perfectly normal and wonderful to me. I went out that day and bought a bunch of flashcards and started trying to drill her. The only problem was that she wasn't interested. At all. I waited a few months. She still wasn't interested. I didn't want to force her so I eventually put them away, but I was puzzled. Why didn't she want to learn letters? Isn't that what little kids do?
A few months later, I met a wonderful former Kindergarten teacher, named Susan Case. She explained to me that my thinking was totally wrong. Flashcards weren't the answer. Here are her thoughts:
Young children love to learn by using their five senses and movement. Sensory integration is the ability to take in information through the senses of touch, smell, taste, vision, hearing, and movement, and to combine the resulting perceptions with prior information, memories and knowledge already stored in the brain. In other words, children learn by exploring and discovering using their five senses and movement. You don't need flashcards or expensive products to teach. Of course, flashcards can supplement learning. And it is very important to read books every day possible with your children. But young children may be more interested in the pictures and movable gadgets than focusing on squiggly lines and circles that make up letters. However, there are ways to grab a child’s attention to help them learn the letter sounds and names:
Begin with a child’s name – which is the most important word to them. Help your child form the letters in their name using interesting materials such as beans, pasta, rocks, marbles, buttons, PomPoms, playdough, and pipe cleaners. Always supervise young children when they are using small objects.
As my daughter got older, I took Susan's words to heart. I found these colorful rocks at the Dollar Store and we use them for lots of different things but this is my personal favorite. I love it because I feel like I'm doing my job, helping her learn her letters, and she loves it because it's fun! All I had to do was draw out some letters using circles. Then I gave her the colored rocks and we talked through each letter as she did them, so she knew what letter she'd made. I found that she was more interested in letters that spelled words she liked, such as her own name, Mom, Dad, or her friend's names.
If you enjoyed this post, you will really enjoy reading my newly-released book! I teamed up with Susan Case (who is also the one who commented above) and we wrote the book together to give a Mom and a Teacher point of view. You can watch a video that explains more here:
We give you dozens of other ideas on how to keep your kids busy, but in a productive way, so they are actually learning while they are also having fun! Here is what one of my readers wrote on Amazon after she read our book:
This book seriously saved my sanity. I've read a bunch of parenting books but this is literally the only one that actually gave me real and specific advice and ideas for things to do with my daughter. I'm a stay-at-home mom to a 2-year old and I was at my wits end trying to come up with ideas of fun, easy, creative things to do with her that will keep her busy and occupied and help her learn. I wasn't very good at following through on ideas that I heard about from friends or read in other books or online because they seemed too complicated (aka: messy!) but this book broke it down and made it so simple. I highly recommend it!
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Monday, March 19, 2012
Learning Letters With Puff Paint: Teach Kids to Read With Fun Activities
As usual, I tend to stress and Hubby tends to tell me to simmer down. Lately, I have noticed a strange tendency in my daughter when she writes letters and numbers...they are backwards. I write a 3, she writes an E. The problem is, that she doesn't seem to know the difference. Of course, my mind immediately goes to....What's wrong with her? Is this normal?
Hubby (who is a doctor, but an orthopedic surgeon so what does he know?) told me to ask my very smart friend and co-author, Susan Case, about it. Susan is a former Kindergarten teacher and author and we are currently writing a book about activities and crafts to do with preschoolers. She responded with:
It is normal for children to print letters in strange ways including backwards, upside down, and sideways when they are learning to print. Fine motor control comes after much practice and time to strengthen the finger and hand muscles and to develop a proper grip. Children begin experimenting writing letters with encouragement and praise. Their first and favorite word to learn to print is their first name. Help children learn to print their first name with only the first letter in upper case (this will make their teachers happy). Teach them to start at the top and go down with letters. For more information on teaching children to print their first name, you might enjoy this post.
Please do not stress yourself out, or your child, if they are not printing or learning letters correcting or reading before they enter Kindergarten. Jean Piaget, respected theorists on the stages of child development, believed:
1. Not all children are ready to read at the same age and in the same manner,
2. Not all children are ready to read before first grade,
3. Not all children learn in the same manner, and
4. Reading is a great deal more than decoding printed symbols on a page and mouthing words.
The most important role a parent can do for their child is to love them, fostering their self-esteem, and encouraging their natural love of learning. A parent’s responsibility is to provide opportunities for growth, respecting children as individuals capable of learning at their own pace, in their own time, and in their own way. Of course, it's always possible that your daughter might have a learning disability, but she is too young to worry about that now in regard to letter formation. Her kindergarten teacher will spend much time on the proper formation of letters. Children will be tested in school if a parent or teacher has concerns. Instead, I would just encourage you to gently introduce some simple ways to help your child learn fine motor control and reading skills.
I was very relieved to learn that this sort of thing was normal. I told Susan I was game to try anything and she gave me a simple idea to try the next time I needed a rainy day activity. I used my squeeze bottle paint recipe, which we like to do often. It is simply 2/3 cup flour, 2/3 cup water, and 2/3 cup salt. You can get your child to help you mix them together and then you fill up squeeze bottles with the mixture.
Then add some dabs of paint to the top of each one and volia! You have very fancy pens to practice writing! I wrote various names lightly in pencil first and then she used the squeeze bottle to write them out. She really had a lot of patience for this project and enjoyed doing her name and her friends' names.
Then add some dabs of paint to the top of each one and volia! You have very fancy pens to practice writing! I wrote various names lightly in pencil first and then she used the squeeze bottle to write them out. She really had a lot of patience for this project and enjoyed doing her name and her friends' names.
Even Little Buddy (almost 2) enjoyed himself. He couldn't do the names of course, but he worked on his muscles while he squeezed out the paint and benefited from this sensory learning.
We are making progress and having fun while we do it. Of course I want smarter kids, but really I just want cheap and easy crafts and this was it! Thanks to Susan for the ideas!
If you liked this post, you will LOVE my new book (which is currently ranked#4 on Amazon in the category of Motherhood!). If you have ever asked yourself questions like, these, then this is the book for you!
This video might help you understand a little more:
Did you enjoy my post? Don't forget to vote for me by clicking here pretty please!!
If you liked this post, you will LOVE my new book (which is currently ranked#4 on Amazon in the category of Motherhood!). If you have ever asked yourself questions like, these, then this is the book for you!
- Why do my kids drive me so crazy sometimes?
- Why do they just want to watch TV all day long?
- How am I ever supposed to get anything done when my kids won't stop pestering me?
This video might help you understand a little more:
Here is what one of the reviews says on Amazon:
"This book seriously saved my sanity. I've read a bunch of parenting books but this is literally the only one that actually gave me real and specific advice and ideas for things to do with my daughter. I'm a stay-at-home mom to a 2-year old and I was at my wits end trying to come up with ideas of fun, easy, creative things to do with her that will keep her busy and occupied and help her learn. I wasn't very good at following through on ideas that I heard about from friends or read in other books or online because they seemed too complicated (aka: messy!) but this book broke it down and made it so simple. I highly recommend it!"
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