Belinda @ Kids Matter
Have you ever found yourself with a bunch of balloons leftover after a party? Here are some ideas that might surprise you. You might even want to incorporate these ideas into your party. Let’s get crafty with some balloons!
Showing posts with label Top 10. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Top 10. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Top 10 Toddler to Preschooler Series
Top 10 Toddler to
Preschooler Series
Developmental Toys
(Part 4 of 4)
Belinda @ Kids Matter
A toy is just a piece of household clutter until in the tiny
hands of a child, where it becomes a significant cog supporting their world of imagination
and educational development. Toys that combine play with education can be used
as effective tools in teaching children social and cognitive skills as they
mature emotionally and gain self-confidence. Toys motivate fitness,
imagination, education, and increase ones skillset’s in life.
1. Fitness Dice – Toddler+: I absolutely love this
game concept. There’s nothing like rolling dice to get the fitness started.
Roll the dice to determine which exercise you must do and how many times to do
it. (Example: Jumping jacks x 4)
2. My Giant Busy Box – Age 3+ yrs.: This is a clever
idea! Just perfect for those days when the children are confined to the house
due to the weather. A box of crafts is a great place to learn and to be
extremely creative.
3.
Disney Planes U-Command Supercharged Dusty – Age
4+: This is an excellent toy to increase hand-eye coordination and to learn
about aeronautics at the same time.
4 Vtech
Innotab 3S or Leap Frog Leappad Ultra – Age 3-9 yrs.: If you click on the
link you will see a side by side comparison of the two and it would be up to
you to determine which better meets your child’s need and skill level. Either one
will be a great “first tablet” for this age range.
5. Leap Frogs Leapreader – Age 4-9 yrs.: This is a
very nice next generation tool to aid in the learning of reading and writing.
Children can learn to write the alphabet with interactive guidance.
6. Fisher Price Laugh & Learn Crawl Around Car
– Age up to 3 yrs.: Stimulate your child’s desire to learn and have fun with
this stationary car offering 75+ songs, tunes, and phrases. The child can sit
in the car or play from the outside. The shape sorter is great for building
motor skills.
7. Playskool
Sesame Street Big Hugs Elmo – Age up to 4 yrs.: Big Hugs Elmo sings, hugs, and
wants to play. Hugs are important, what better a toy than one that hugs when
you need a hug.
8. Hasbro Furreal Friends Cuddles My Giggly Monkey
– Age 4+ yrs.: It is a lifelike and engaging friend for your little one. The
monkey giggles and reacts with over 100 sayings when swung, rocked, tickled and
fed.
9. Wooden Blocks and Large Legos – Age up to 5 yrs.:
Building anything is always a great way to entertain and educate your children.
They are only limited by their knowledge and imagination. There is nothing more
exciting to a little child than when a parent plops down in the floor with them
to build a King’s castle.
10. GeoSafari Animal Eye Viewers – Age 3 – 7 yrs.:
This fun toy allows the child to see the world through the eyes of an insect,
chameleon, and shark. The eye viewers provide fun through exploring the world
with a different perspective.
Friday, January 24, 2014
Top 10 Toddler to Preschooler Series
Top 10 Toddler to Preschooler Series
Favorite Books (Part 3 of 4)
Belinda @ Kids Matter
“The more you read the more things you will know. The more that you learn the more places you'll go.” - Dr. Seuss, "I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!"
Open a book and go exploring with your child. Take your child to places money can’t buy, on adventures one can only imagine, and through time at your leisure. If eyes are the window to our souls then books are the window to our imaginations. The Literacy Company states, “Out-of-school reading habits of students has shown that even 15 minutes a day of independent reading can expose students to more than a million words of text in a year.” Exposure to words is a step to greater achievement in life. Read to your child, read with your child, and share happy experiences found only in a good book. Visit your local library and allow your child to pick out a book while you bring your childhood classics to the literacy party. Bring the book to life with great enthusiasm. Add character voices and sound effects to increase excitement. The book is just the foundation from which to build your imaginary world. Don’t be limited by the words on the page, but instead, use the essence of the emotions of the writer to create a reality within the covers of the book. Enjoy your imaginary world and the wonderful time spent reading to your child.
Who doesn’t love Dr. Seuss and his whimsical enthusiasm in bringing characters like Cat in the Hat to life? One can’t help but smile just looking at that green ham. If you are a grandparent, you have spent years reading that story many times to many children. It’s just a classic fun story loved by millions.
Eric Carle not only writes this wonderful story, but also illustrates, animates, and provides insight into the life of a caterpillar. Children are always fascinated with caterpillars and butterflies and when they learn one becomes the other the search is on.
Karen Katz beautifully combines affection with counting and winding down a child for bed time. Hugs, kisses, and some serious sleep is nature’s cure for the cranky child. The book is handsomely illustrated.
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt is illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, and charmingly written by Michael Rosen. The book is a delightful comedic drama of a family going on a bear hunt.
Written by Ruth Krauss and cleverly illustrated by her husband Crockett Johnson. It details the life of an egg until one day POOF, it’s a bird and its whole life changes. Suddenly everything it couldn’t do as an egg it can now do as a bird.
Written by Judith Viorst and illustrated by Ray Cruz, this book is an inside look at how bad days can sometimes be to us and yes, to everyone.
This epic tale was written and illustrated by Leslie Patricelli. With fantastic illustrations the reader is captivated from page one. The book teaches the difference between things that are yummy and things that are yucky.
Friday, January 17, 2014
Top 10 Toddler to Preschooler Series
Top 10 Toddler to Preschooler Series
Educational Videos (Part 2 of 4)
Belinda @ Kids Matter
This week we take a look at the top 10 online educational videos for your toddler to preschool aged child. The following list was composed by choosing the most entertaining video from several different categories to illustrate the depth which learning spans. The most important thing to get out of the videos is that they are doors to open and go exploring with your child. There is no limit to learning. If one method doesn’t work, then another one will. Be mindful that learning must be fun; otherwise it becomes work that the child doesn’t have the mindset to continue. Always practice the four “Ls” with your child… Live, Love, Laugh, and Learn.
1. Preschool Curious George Book and Workout Video: This is an awesome video that promotes two very important venues for our children… literacy and fitness. Combining the two with a common theme brings new life to them. Just imagine how much fun your child will have following Curious George through a book and then exercising right along with him. Books can open up a whole new way of teaching as you carry the theme throughout the day. How about drinking a nice tall glass of grape juice like Curious George? The possibilities of exciting a child about reading and exercising grow exponentially when you make it a themed event.
2. For Toddlers - Learning Animals, An Educational Video for Preschoolers - This is an interesting methodology of teaching different animals. The video starts by asking, “What’s that?” directly followed by the name of the animal or insect then is followed by a cartoon image of the animal which transitions to a video of the animal in its natural surroundings. This is a good tool to show the little ones the difference between real and not real, i.e., one has the ability to move, eat, sleep, and make all kinds of funny sounds while the other is merely a pretty picture.
3. Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed Nursery Rhyme - Cartoon: This is a classic song about the five little monkeys presented in a colorful setting to a sweet tune. Little ones will love this version and parents will carry the tune around all day. This video teaches counting one through five in a whimsical manner that keeps the children entertained.
4. "Color Songs Collection Vol. 1" - Learn Colors, Teach Colours, Baby: This video teaches colors through sing song melodies, chants, and colorful animation. It is a little on the lengthy side, so you will have to remember to monitor computer time.
5. Phonics Song 2: This video is designed to teach children the alphabet through phonetics (sounding out the word), brightly colored pictures, and an alphabet song. It shows the child the letter (capital and lower case), a picture and its matching word, and places emphasis on the first letter of the word during pronunciation.
6. The Calendar Song - Kids + Children Learn English Songs: This video takes a unique approach at teaching children the months and seasons of the year as well as the days of the week through the ice cream song.
7. The Shapes Song: This video teaches children the basic shapes. What’s cool about this video is that it points out the shapes in everyday life. Take for instance a triangle… the roof is a triangle. This could lead to an exciting game of find the shapes in your own home.
8. Adventures from the Book of Virtues: Respect: It’s never too soon to introduce manners. This is a great series for teaching children how to be good people. Remember, pointing out bad behavior isn’t enough… they need examples of good behavior. “The Adventures from the Book of Virtues” series ventures into responsibility, honesty, self-discipline, and courage to name a few.
9. Opposites - Opposites Songs for Children - Kids Songs by The Learning: This video is a very cute introduction of opposites. Children are entertained by the song while seeing why and how something is opposite. The idea of seeing how something (up) can have an opposite (down) is very thought inspiring.
10. Milk Explosion Toddler Science Fun: Who doesn’t love a good science experiment? This video is just the door you need to open for scientific exploration. Notice how the effects start to happen quicker when the child shakes the third tin? Or how the reaction time with the color red is much quicker? Science is so fascinating and your child will just love doing experiments.
Friday, January 10, 2014
Top 10 Toddler to Preschooler Series
Top 10 Toddler to Preschooler Series
Educational Websites (Part 1 of 4)
Belinda @ Kids Matter
Is it time to introduce your toddler to the World Wide Web? Don’t be afraid. It’s the age of technology and you knew this day was coming. The first thing you have to know is that you will need to be heavily involved in computer time… for the safety of your child and your computer. Establishing time limits on the computer or gaming system is important and essential in the development of your child. Children need access to many educational activities such as exploring a book. Delving deep into how a book is made, who the author and illustrators are, and who the characters of the book are can help excite the child for the world of reading.
Below is a list of sites that fit the established criteria for this age. First, it had to be user friendly and easy to navigate. Second, it had to be age appropriate. Third, the site must be colorful and exciting with lots of great sound effects. And, the fourth criteria was a big one… the site had to be FREE.
Top 10 educational sites for toddlers and preschoolers
1. Poisson Rouge - Poisson Rouge is an artistic creation allowing intellectual stimulation through exploration. This site is phenomenal for encouraging the imagination of a child and their desire to learn and explore.
2. Happy Clicks – The site starts with basics by teaching toddlers how to use the keys on the keyboard and advances up to how to direct the mouse through movement, drag and drop, and point and click.
3. Owlieboo – This site is extremely simple for the beginner. It’s very colorful and has great sound effects. Little fingers quickly learn how to move the mouse, press the keys, and do simple click and drag tasks.
4. Starfall – Starfall is, “Where children have fun learning to read.” Starfall describes it best, “Starfall.com opened in September of 2002 as a free public service to teach children to read with phonics.”
5. PBS Kids – A place where kids can watch videos and play games with their favorite PBS character like Curious George. The site is very user friendly and colorful, but the main draw is the characters your child will love.
6. National Geographic Kids – Excellent place to teach your child about the great outdoors. Explore countries and animals through pictures, videos, and games. During the days when you can’t take your child outdoors, this is the next best option to introducing nature.
7. Fisher Price – With feather like introduction to piano this site is a good place to introduce your child to the alphabet, through animal sounds, and to numbers with rhymes.
8. Sprout – Spend some fun time with Caillou and the Sprout friends watching videos, coloring, playing games, and opening up a new world of crafts and fun recipes. There is nothing better than being hands on with the fun.
9. Nick Jr – Go on adventures with Dora and crew through games, activities, videos, and coloring sheets. This site has great preschool activities which are infused with abundant energy and sing song lyrics.
10. Babygamer – Basically, this site is a list with links to a lot of great sites, some educational, some just plain fun such as SNM#1. This is a good place to help you research sites to explore with your child.
“It’s not so much what children learn through play, but what they won’t learn if we don’t give them the chance to play. Many functional skills like literacy and arithmetic can be learned either through play or through instruction – the issue is the amount of stress on the child. However, many coping skills like compassion, self-regulation, self-confidence, the habit of active engagement, and the motivation to learn and be literate cannot be instructed. They can only be learned through self-directed experience (i.e. play).” Susan J. Oliver (author, Playing for Keeps)
Always remember… education matters because our kids matter.
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