Snow Fun!

There are many things about winter that my children love.  Building snowmen, tobogganing, skating.... let's just say they love winter!  Two things in particular that they love to do are painting the snow, and making snow lobsters.  I know what you're thinking, "Snow Lobster?!"  It's really simple.  Instead of lying down on your back you lay down on your stomach.  Move your arms and legs the same way you would if you were making a snow angel except that when you get up ..... you'll see a snow lobster.  This works really great in the summer too!  Next time you go to the beach have your monkey children try making sand lobster!  For painting the snow you simply fill empty plastic bottles, like a ketchup bottle, with water.  Put a few drops of food colouring in the water, screw the lid back on an let your monkey children squirt the coloured water on the snow.  They can make a whole rainbow of colours!  Try it!  It's soooo much fun!

Another fine motor activity

This is another one of my favourite fine motor activities.  The object is to get the child to scoop the contants out of one bowl into the other.  This time we used maccaroni but you can use anything, dry beans, rice,  even pine cones.  You can use tongs or spoons.  The bowls I picked up at the dollar store.  My kids can spend hours doing this activity!

Goop!

Goop!  What more can I say?  Goop is so much fun for adults and children alike.  It's a great science experiment and fine motor activity.  The fine motor will help your children with writing letters and numbers down the line.  The Goop is a ball when it's in your hands but when you open your hand the Goop becomes a liquid.... great science!  The recipe is simple:  Corn starch, water, and food colouring.  When you make your Goop try not to make it too runny.  I let my children play with scoops, spoons, funnels, cups and bowls, or just about anything.  Let your children experiment!  This activity will be messy! 

Coffee can painting

My monkey son gave me a great idea the other day.  He saw a coffee can in the recycle bin, picked it out and asked, "Mommy can we make a craft with this?"  That's when I got the idea to put some marbles in the can along with some construction paper, and paint.  The kids rolled the can the table.  They picked it up and shook it.   They did this for about 45 minutes!  It turned out to be a great activity.  And we ended up with some pretty cool designs!

Sewing Fun!

My monkey children love to sew.  It's a great fine motor activity.  You'll need felt, a sewing needle, thread, and stuffing.  I tried using plastic sewing needles in the past but found that they don't really work, sewing needles work better.  You can use stuffing or try using some large dried beans, such as kidney beans.  My children really like the teddy bear stuffing because they like to take their little creations to bed with them.  The one thing that my children can't do is trace a shape onto the felt and cut it out.  Even I find it a little tricky.  You will have to watch your children while they do this activity, don't walk away and let them do it on their own.  Fine motor activities will help your children down the line when they are learning to write. 

Teaching Quantity

My children were very good a counting from a young age.  They could rote count very well.  I made up an activity to teach them quantity using foam shapes and clothes pins.  This worked well because it was something they could do on their own at anytime by themselves.  For my daughter I made flowers and for my son I made yellow school buses.  I cut out the shapes out of foam pieces and then drew numbers from 1 -10 on them.  The first time I did the activity I did it with my children.  I would ask them questions along the way like, "How many clothes pins do we need for the number 2?,"  or "We have 4 clothes pins on the bus we need to have 5.  How many more clothes pins do we need to clip to our flower?"  This is a great activity that will help your children in both math by figuring out how many pins they have and how many more they need to get the right amount, and it's a great fine motor activity as well.  They'll have to hold shape in one hand and use the other hand to open the clothes pin and place it on the shape.  Before you know it your child will understand how much 5 is, and they will have fun with putting the clothes pins on the shape.

Treasure chest and sight words

My monkey children were invited to a pirate themed birthday party a few months ago.  What a great party!  There was treasure to be found, a real pirate, and a pirate boat pinata!  As their craft, all the kids got to decorate their own little treasure chest.  This gave me an idea for an educational game.  I made several keys out of construction paper, and printed out some simple words to teach my monkey son to read some sight words.  We called it the "Treasure Chest Game."  I told him that if he learned how to read the words on the keys they would open up the treasure chest and inside was a treasure.  He thought this was great.  He knew all his letter sounds and now it was time to teach him how to put the letter sounds together.  At first I would point to all the letters one at a time and then I would speed up saying the letters and then say the word.  Then I would get him to repeat with me both the sounds and the words.  I would only do about 5 at a time not to overwhelm him.  When there was a word that he had mastered, we would learn a new now.  After each session, when all 5 keys were read, he could open his treasure chest.  The first few times he got a small handful of smarties and when he learned 10 new words he found a new Hot Wheels car inside his treasure chest. I now have to make up some new keys for him with some new words.