For this summer week we will be focusing on the ocean and water in our preschool program, so come along and swim with us. Every week of our summer preschool we are having a game day. Game days are not just for fun, though children do enjoy them immensely. They are also for developing gross…
Some toys are designed for a specific developmental phase, but what are the toys that you can buy for your child that they will love and use for years, preferably 5 years or longer. Children can outgrow some toys in 6 months, or never really play with a toy if not developmentally appropriate or interesting….
Puzzles for young children are one of those toys that parents are starting to forget about or overlook. There are all these pieces, and they can make a mess, but from a developmental standpoint, puzzles are amazing for young children. Puzzles for young children are one of the best ways to develop their hand-eye coordination,…
German is a wonderful language but not well supported by American schools. Whether your family is German or you are drawn to the German language or people, here is a gentle way to teach German to your three- to five-year-old child.
This plan uses 6 books, 1 audio and 1 set of audible talking flashcards off of Amazon, but each resource is introduced in a different month, so you can buy them all at the beginning, or along the way, and surprise your child each month with their ‘new book’. We will start slowly and work up to learning German for 10 minutes 4 days a week. The focus is on exposure to the language and gentle learning of German words.
If your child has had moderate exposure to the German language, but is not really speaking it, or if your child has never heard German before, this slow language approach will work well for them. If your child is speaking more than 20 words or so of German already, another program would probably work better for them, or you may be able to adapt this plan for them. Feel free to adapt this for your specific child as I am for mine. If needed, use Google Translate to practice your pronunciation before teaching German to your child.
This German language plan is for 9 months, but a plan for prekindergarten will come out next spring, so if you choose, you can transition straight from the preschool to prekindergarten plan without stopping for summer. With learning a foreign language, continuous learning, rather than taking a 3-month break, would be best. Both a year-round (40 weeks) and a 9-month (36 weeks) option will be provided for the prekindergarten year.
For September, we will start small with reading Animal Counting Fun: Spaß beim Zählen (1-10). If your child is not counting from 1 to 10 in English, skip this book, then come back later. I would also suggest checking out my preschool math curriculum. Read this book to your child once a week for 5 minutes in German. Let your child count the animals in English while you count them in German. Laugh over the different sounds and have fun exposing your child to German without requiring them to speak any of the German words themselves. If they do try the words, don’t try to correct their pronunciation. This is all you will be doing for the first month and we will continue with this book for 2 months total before setting it aside to return to it in prekindergarten.
Animal Counting Fun: Spaß beim Zählen (1-10)
For October, we will be introducing some German children’s music. You can listen to Amazon music using your phone or computer. Try to listen for 5 minutes once a week to the music. Sing along if you can, dance with your child and start tuning their ear into another language. If they ask, you can explain that this is another language called German. You will listen to these same songs for the full 8 months. Down the line, we will translate and learn these songs. Music is a wonderful and simple way to teach German to children.
Amazon Music – Kinderlieder German Children’s Music & Nursery Rhymes
By month three, your child will most likely be losing interest in the number book, so we will be replacing it with the book Let’s Learn German Picture Dictionary. Look through this book together twice a week for 5 minutes. Set a timer, so you spend the full-time looking at German, but not so much time that your child loses interest. Look at each picture together and have your child guess the English word while you say the German word. Make this like a game.
Once again, there should be no pressure for your child to speak German. This is about making a foreign language accessible and fun for young children. This book will be used for the entire school year, so don’t feel like you need to rush through it. There should be lots of repetition and if your child wants to pretend to be an elefant along the way, have fun with it. If you are not already a German speaker, take this opportunity to also gently learn the words.
Let’s Learn German Picture Dictionary
For December, we will start with My First 100 German Words Coloring Book. One day a week have your child spend 5 minutes coloring, or scribbling, one of the pages while you talk together about what the picture is in both English and German.
For the first time, you will be asking your child “Can you say …. in German?” There should be no pressure if they don’t want to, but your goal should ideally be for both you and your child to each say the word 5 times. We want them to hear the word 5 times and we want them to try to say the word 5 times. Try to make this a game, either I say a word and you repeat after me (throw in random words or sounds with just the one German word) or who can say the word the fastest, slowest, loudest, or quietest. Try to be creative in what works best for your child.
My First 100 German Words Coloring Book
In January, we will start reading the book Where is My Little Elephant? Wo ist mein kleiner elefant? This is a search and find book, so read each page in German and then see if your child can find the elephant with no English prompts, just listening to the German. This should be treated as a game. For these ages, games, music and fun should be the focus for how to teach German.
There is a full series of books by this author, but the Elephant one is the easiest one. If your child is 5 years old, or older, you might want to pick one of the other books from the series. Also, if your child really loves this book, feel free to buy some of the other books and continue using them to supplement your German learning. At this point, change Let’s Learn German Picture Dictionary to 10 minutes once a week rather than 5 minutes twice a week.
Where is My Little Elephant? Wo ist mein kleiner elefant?
In February, we will be adding German Audible Talking Flashcards 5 minutes once a week so children can hear the correct pronunciation of words. Pick 5 words to focus on each week from your other sources to teach the German words. Listen to them together and see if your child knows what each word means. Practice saying the words together loud, soft, slow or fast. Try hopping around the room saying the words or clapping the words. Make it fun and try to say each word at least 5 times.
At this time, I would suggest increasing My First 100 German Words Coloring Book to 10 minutes once a week. Depending on your child’s speed with coloring and how they enjoy saying the words, this could be one or two pages. If your child does not enjoy coloring, trying using stamps or stickers in the book while reinforcing the words.
German Audible Talking Flashcards 510
In March, we will be replacing Where is My Little Elephant? Wo ist mein kleiner elefant? with the book Cousins Forever – Für immer Cousinen. This is a bilingual book, so English is on top and German on the bottom. I suggest just reading this book in German to your child. Exposure to German in a fun and engaging manner is the first step in how to teach German to a young child. Ask your child if they recognize any words. They might know a few German words but see if they can recognize the words that are similar between the two languages, like cousins and cousinen. This is about exposure to German and translation will happen down the line.
Cousins Forever – Fur immer Cousinen
In May, we will replace the cousins’ book with the book Am I small? Bin ich klein? Read this book once a week to your child. It should take less than 10 minutes. This can be during the day, or even at bedtime. This book will be just for reading and exposing your child to more German, rather than creating a game from it. Keep this book and the other books for prekindergarten and kindergarten, because we will return to translate these books.
I will provide a chart for parents to understand the structure of the plan for how to teach German better. Remember we are starting slow with our youngest of children so that learning a foreign language is not overwhelming, but fun and enjoyable. All of these books will be used again over the next two years, except for the coloring book, which will be used the first 4 months or so of prekindergarten to completion before starting a new coloring book. I recommend buying these books, rather than borrowing them.
Our goal at the end of this year is for children to be able to speak about 20 German words reliably, mostly animals, numbers, colors and food, while understanding around 100 German words. If your child is not there at the end of this year, that is okay. They may just need more time, or they may understand more than you realize. I would love any feedback you have about this plan as you navigate it with your child. I will make updates based on my experience with my child throughout the year, but this is my plan at this time for her and I would love to hear how it goes for other families as well.
| Months | Mondays | Tuesdays | Wednesdays | Thursdays |
| September | 5 minutes Animal Counting Fun: Spaß beim Zählen (1-10) | |||
| October | 5 minutes Animal Counting Fun: Spaß beim Zählen (1-10) | 5 minutes Kinderlieder: German Children’s Songs | ||
| November | 5 minutes Let’s Learn German Picture Dictionary | 5 minutes Kinderlieder: German Children’s Songs | 5 minutes Let’s Learn German Picture Dictionary | |
| December | 5 minutes Let’s Learn German Picture Dictionary | 5 minutes Kinderlieder: German Children’s Songs | 5 minutes Let’s Learn German Picture Dictionary | 5 minutes My First 100 German Words Coloring Book |
| January | 10 minutes Let’s Learn German Picture Dictionary | 5 minutes Kinderlieder: German Children’s Songs | 10 minutes Where is My Little Elephant? Wo ist mein kleiner elefant? | 5 minutes My First 100 German Words Coloring Book |
| February | 10 minutes Let’s Learn German Picture Dictionary | 5 minutes Kinderlieder: German Children’s Songs 5 minutes Audible Talking Flashcards | 10 minutes Where is My Little Elephant? Wo ist mein kleiner elefant? | 10 minutes My First 100 German Words Coloring Book |
| March | 10 minutes Let’s Learn German Picture Dictionary | 5 minutes Kinderlieder: German Children’s Songs 5 minutes Audible Talking Flashcards | 10 minutes Cousins Forever – Für immer Cousinen | 10 minutes My First 100 German Words Coloring Book |
| April | 10 minutes Let’s Learn German Picture Dictionary | 5 minutes Kinderlieder: German Children’s Songs 5 minutes Audible Talking Flashcards | 10 minutes Cousins Forever – Für immer Cousinen | 10 minutes My First 100 German Words Coloring Book |
| May | 10 minutes Let’s Learn German Picture Dictionary | 5 minutes Kinderlieder: German Children’s Songs 5 minutes Audible Talking Flashcards | 10 minutes Am I small? Bin ich klein? | 10 minutes My First 100 German Words Coloring Book |
Happy Learning
Beautiful Summer Preschool Plan Invitation – hummingbirdhomelife.com
For this summer week we will be focusing on the ocean and water in our preschool program, so come along and swim with us.
Every week of our summer preschool we are having a game day. Game days are not just for fun, though children do enjoy them immensely. They are also for developing gross motor skills, fine motor skills and executive functioning skills. Playing simple movement games allows children to practice their listening skills, following multi-step instructions, waiting for their turn and taking turns in an engaging manner. All of these skills are important to learn before kindergarten or any structured learning environment.
We use the resource Preschool Play: Seasons of Wonder Coursebook | Oak Meadow for our summer preschool.
Read the book Down by the Bay https://a.co/d/0i0ZgZ2T
If you don’t know this song already, go to: https://youtu.be/DWKVKfk6e40?si=twJv6rA1Yy4WtoQV
I encourage you to sing the song to your child as you go through the book and laugh at the silly animals. You can pause to ask your child, “Wait, do llamas wear pajamas?” or “I’ve never seen a whale with a polka dot tail!” Questions like these encourage your child to think about the book and compare the book to real life.
Next, we will move to our Preschool Play:Seasons of Wonders by Oak Meadow.
3. The Sun on page 226 is a standing verse for your whole body.
4. A Sailor Went to Sea, Sea, Sea on page 227 is a fast-paced ending to circle time.
Some toys are designed for a specific developmental phase, but what are the toys that you can buy for your child that they will love and use for years, preferably 5 years or longer. Children can outgrow some toys in 6 months, or never really play with a toy if not developmentally appropriate or interesting. Let’s take a look at the toys with some of the longest use for young children.
Let’s start with the outdoors. A swing set is one of the most versatile and longest lasting toys you can buy for your child. Although they can get quite fancy and large, a simple one with two swings and a slide is perfect for 1 to 3 children to enjoy for years. This one is advertised for ages 3 to 8, but change out a swing for a baby swing, and children can enjoy this starting at around 6 months or so of age when they are able to sit up.
The next item for the outdoors is the humble sandbox. Really any sandbox will do, but for the longest use, something at least 4 ft by 4 ft will allow for children to sit in it and enjoy it to its fullest. You can build a simple sand box, or buy one, just remember a cover to keep it fresh longer. Children can enjoy a sand box from before they are even one to around the age of 7. Buy some simple sand toys to go with it or build a mud kitchen next to the sand box, and children will entertain themselves.
The next toy for the outdoors, or indoors if you have the space and flooring, is a water table. A slightly larger one that has the option for flowing water will be one of the toys your child will use for years. Adding a pump will also increase the usability of a water table. Little ones just learning to stand while holding on to something will love this water table, as well as children up to around the age of 6.
Rain Showers Splash Pond Water Table
The final item that can be for the outdoors, or the indoors, is a basketball hoop for young children. This one is for 1 ½ to 5-year-olds and can be adjusted to different heights. I would argue this is good till age 6 or 7, depending on your child’s height. A larger basketball hoop for big kids can then be bought for children ages 8 and up, but this one is perfect for younger ages.
How to Make My Backyard Better for Preschoolers – hummingbirdhomelife.com
Moving indoors, let’s look at imaginative play. Imaginative play helps children learn about real life and practice daily life skills. Imaginative play also sets children up for success with abstract concepts later on in their schooling. A set of high-quality toy animals can entertain children and be one of the toys your child will use for years. Toddlers will throw them, cuddle them, and make the animal noises. Preschoolers will build homes for them or knock them over with cars. Older children may use them to guard castles they have built or create a pretend zoo. Realistic toy animals that easily stand up can come alive in children’s imaginations and be used from ages 1 to 7.
Safari Zoo Animals Figure Toys
One of the most unexpected toys that appeal to a wide range of children is a cleaning toy set. All of the cleaning tools in this set are useable, so children can learn simple chores like cleaning up a mess with a broom or hand broom just their size. Children as young as one will enjoy mimicking the adults around them by pretending to sweep with a real broom, while preschoolers can start to learn how to clean for real and can have fun playing house with this set. These cleaning tools will appeal up to about age 6.
One of the most widely loved imaginative toys for children is a barn and farm animals. Farms that do not make any noise or use batteries will be played with longer as children use their own imaginations to make the animals make sounds and move around. Buttons and noises tend to focus the child on one aspect of play to the exclusion of others leading to limited play and moving on to another toy. A more open-ended toy can engage a child longer and a simple barn with animals can entertain children starting around 15 months up to age 6.
Big Red Barn with Figure, Animals & Tractor
The next imaginative play item is a dollhouse with furniture and small dolls. Although thought of as a girls’ toy, a dollhouse may appeal to boys as well as girls. Starting around age 2, children will enjoy making these dolls come to life. They can arrange the furniture and play out scenarios from their own life. They can give the dolls names and make stories for them. Children can play with a good dollhouse up to age 6 or 7.
Another classic children’s toy that has stood the test of time is good quality metal cars. Children will do best with cars that do not make noises and metal cars will last longer than plastic ones. These realistic cars will appeal to older children and are recommended for ages 3 to 12 by the manufacturers. I would say they are perfect for ages 2 ½ to 8. Although cars are sometimes thought of as boy toys, they may still appeal to many girls as well. Cars can race across the floor, crash into each other, roll down ramps, and be used in imaginative play.
Wooden blocks are a classic children’s toy. From banging blocks together as an infant, to knocking small towers over as a toddler, to building elaborate buildings and castles as an older child, a good set of wooden blocks can be used from about 9 months till age 6. Some children may use them longer. They are one of the best open-ended toys out there that can provide years of building fun and imaginative play. Blocks with colors may appeal to some children more than wood colored blocks, but both are a wonderful toy for children.
Kids Building Blocks with Storage
The next building toy that has wide appeal is Magna-tiles. Starting at age 2, Magna-tiles are an entertaining and engaging toy that children up to age 8, or longer, can enjoy building with over and over. They develop wonderful spatial skills as children figure out how to build a cube and use squares and triangles to build all sorts of buildings and structures. There are also plenty of add ons so that children can build cars and trains out of Magna-tiles as well, but the basic original set of Magna-tiles will engage children all on their own for years.
Magna-Tiles Classic 32 Piece Set
One of the areas that is most important for children is indoor movement play. Anything that allows them to use their whole bodies in play. This will depend greatly on space, but here is one option for smaller spaces. These stepping stones will appeal to children from about 18 months to age 6. They can be used as bowls or can be used to escape lava. These stepping stones are sturdy and stack into a tower or to have different height stepping stones. They are versatile and can be used as seats or stepping stools.
Another indoor movement toy that does not use up much space is a balance board. Balance boards are just curved pieces of flat wood for children to balance on, use as a slide off the couch, or use as a bridge. They can be used in a variety of ways, even in imaginative play as a castle wall. They can be used as a desk, or as a pretend bed. Children as young as 9 months can practice climbing up an incline and sliding down the other side, or may enjoy laying and rocking in it. These are generally good up to age 7, but if a child enjoys using it as a rocking seat or a desk on a bed, potentially much longer.
One of the next indoor movement toys that is versatile for smaller spaces is a tent and tunnel for children to play in. They will enjoy these from the time they are able to crawl to around age 6 or 7. These tents and tunnels can be folded up and stored when not in use, but they can be used in imaginative play for years. They can be caves, houses, or castles in your child’s imagination. The tents can be used as quiet spaces or reading spaces filled with pillows.
For indoor movement, nothing can beat a Pikler triangle set. They do take a fair amount of space. Pikler triangle sets generally have a climbing triangle, a climbing arch and a two-sided board with a slide on one side and a climbing board on the other. It can be used in different configurations with the board acting as a bridge between the two climbers, or the climbing arch acting as a boat. A pillow to help with turning it into a boat or rocker is sometimes included. Pikler triangles can also be used imaginatively with blankets thrown over them to create tunnels and homes. These sets will appeal to crawlers up to age 5 or 6.
The next indoor movement toy is the very popular nugget. You need the space for this, but the nugget play couch can be used to create obstacle courses, forts and imaginative play structures, as well as function as a couch or two chairs. Although there are imitation play couches now, the original remains the best option and can appeal to children from ages 1 to 9.
Nugget – The Original Play Couch for Kids
The last one that will last for years of play inside is an indoor jungle gym. This requires significant space, but it includes a slide/climbing rocks, climbing nets, upright ladder, monkey bars, round swing, regular swing, rope ladder and climbing ladder. It is advertised for ages 3 to 6, but I would say children as young as 18 months can start to enjoy the slide and practice learning to climb. Especially for very active children, this could be a great investment.
Sensory play is not just for toddlers. Children of a variety of ages can benefit from it. Having a sturdy set of wooden sensory bin tools can improve children’s sensory play. Use a large bowl, or a sensory table or bin, and your child from 9 months to 5 years of age will love pouring, scooping and playing with dried rice, beans, corn, or sand. This allows your child to practice their hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills while enjoying their play.
Sensory Bin Toys Scoops and Tongs
The next sensory experience for children is play dough. You can make your own or buy play dough from the store. Having a simple set of playdough tools can help your child create and smash play dough for years. Look for a set that has scissors, knives, and rolling pins for best results. Children as young as 15 months, with supervision, up to age 6 will love the texture and have fun with playdough.
The final sensory play item is also an art item, and that is fingerpaints. Washable, nontoxic fingerpaints can be used with fingers, paint brushes, potatoes or sticks to create wonderful art projects. The paint can be used with construction paper, a large roll of paper, regular computer paper, cardboard boxes, junk mail or paper packaging left over from shipping boxes. Children as young as 18 months can start painting and the desire to paint for many children never goes away. Many adults love to paint, though budding artists may appreciate more grown-up style paints starting around age 8 or so.
Crayola Washable Finger Paints
What toys did your children use for years?
Happy Playing!
Puzzles for young children are one of those toys that parents are starting to forget about or overlook. There are all these pieces, and they can make a mess, but from a developmental standpoint, puzzles are amazing for young children.
Puzzles for young children are one of the best ways to develop their hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, and visual spatial skills. They are enticing and enthralling when the puzzle is developmentally the correct one for a child and they have the skills to do the puzzle, but it is still just challenging enough to be interesting. This means that different types and difficulties of puzzle will appeal to different ages of children. Let’s look at the progression of puzzles for young children and what puzzles will be best for different ages, while remembering that all children are different and develop at their own pace.
One-year-olds will most likely start by banging puzzle pieces together and trying to put them in their mouth. They may dump all the pieces on the floor or throw them everywhere. Sturdy wooden pieces are best for this age. They may bring the pieces one by one to an adult to identify the picture. They may line all the pieces up on a table or pretend they are food in a play kitchen. Puzzles with large wooden knobs for pudgy hands that only have 3 to 8 pieces will be best. As one-year-olds get closer to two, they may start putting the puzzle pieces back into the puzzles, if it is modeled for them several times.
Parents can sit down and help their children complete the puzzles by using a hand-over-hand technique to show them how to rotate a puzzle piece. They can also use verbal prompts to direct a child to what they should be looking for or to remind them to turn the piece. It is best to start with puzzles with only 3 to 4 pieces. Having four pieces in a line or just one piece per small puzzle may be easier for some young children, but others may gravitate towards the animals with bright primary colors. Puzzles that make animal sounds will also be appealing to many older one-year-olds and help them learn the sounds themselves.
Two-year-olds have this magic ability to make sudden unexpected jumps in development where they go from hardly being able to do something to mastering it seemingly overnight. They may ignore puzzles for weeks or months, only to sit down one afternoon for two hours with a single puzzle and work at it over and over till they have mastered it, then never spend any time with it again. Two-year-olds also have a vast range of abilities where some of them may still be better suited for the puzzles recommended for one-year-olds and some may be ready for the puzzles I will recommend for three-year-olds.
Most two-year-olds will be ready for small pegs or chunky wooden puzzle pieces rather than the larger knobs for young toddlers. Sound puzzles will appeal to many as will puzzles about vehicles. A puzzle is a concrete way to learn basic shapes and a personalized name puzzle can introduce a child to the letters in their name and help them learn their full name. Some basic puzzles where you have to figure out how the parts go together is a great introduction to harder puzzles and two-year-olds may need modeling to figure them out at first. Layered matching puzzles reinforce colors and matching.
Three-year-olds love to play dress up and pretend. One day they are pretending to be dinosaurs. The next day they may set up an elaborate farm scenario where they are the farmer and need to feed all the animals. Developmentally they are perfecting their fine motor skills through play to be able to start learning how to write. They are perfecting their visual spatial skills for reading, writing, and mathematics. Puzzles can help with both of these developments. Three-year-olds are on the verge of being ready for academics, sports, and so much more, but they aren’t quite there yet. All of their learning is done through play at this age and providing them a rich environment for play will facilitate their learning.
Three-year-olds will be ready for puzzles with pieces that need to be fit together, counting puzzles, and more advanced shape puzzles. They can have fun learning size vocabulary with this shape puzzle and practicing counting with this barn puzzle. They will love singing The Wheels on the Bus and learning about life cycles of caterpillars. As they become more comfortable putting pieces together, they can start to move on to floor puzzles. Puzzles for young children are wonderful for teaching a wide variety of concepts and skills.
Happy Puzzling!
Check out our other posts:
How to Encourage Inside Movement with Preschoolers – hummingbirdhomelife.com
How to Make My Backyard Better for Preschoolers – hummingbirdhomelife.com
Engaging Daily Activities for 2-Year-Olds – hummingbirdhomelife.com
24 Joyful and Engaging Books for 1 Year Olds – hummingbirdhomelife.com
Joyful books for one-year-olds can be an absolutely wonderful way to spend time together. As anyone with a one-year-old knows, there is a vast difference between a 12-month-old and an 18-month-old, much less a 23-month-old. This age is full of exponential growth and development as littles start to walk, then run and climb. Their brains are moving a mile a minute picking up information from all around them and slowly turning it into language. Books are a wonderful way to introduce new language for toddlers, reinforce routines and learn about their own daily lives. Books that are durable and playful are best for this age.
Although you can certainly buy all these books right as your little one turns one, the infant books that I had in my post Wonderful Age-Appropriate Books for Every Age of Baby – hummingbirdhomelife.com will still be wonderful for them. I’m going to break the recommended books into ones I suggest for 12-month-olds, 15-month-olds, 18-month-olds and 21-month-olds. This is to provide a progression for one-year-olds and parents, but also to honor the vast differences in the ages.
For the very youngest one-year olds, nursery rhymes are perfect and joyful for their little brains. They lay the basis of pre-reading skills and rhyming identification. They can be playful or sweet, but they appeal to this age and their developing brain in a way that almost nothing else does. Some nighttime books for bedtime are a wonderful way to help little ones calm down for bed. The last book is a beautiful seasonal book. Pick the one for the season you are in. One-year-olds are very much in the now and will connect best to learning about their current season.
By 15 months, most children will be walking fully and exploring their environment at a new height. Toddlers this age may not want to stop long enough to listen to a full book, but books with finger puppets inside are a wonderful way to catch their attention. These books are playful and reinforce daily life. If you are a single parent household, only buy the book for who you are in the child’s life. Similarly, if you don’t have a dog, wait until your little one is closer to 21 months before introducing this dog book. These other books are playful and repetitive in a way that appeal to little brains and help with language development.
By 18-months-old, most toddlers are ready to stop putting books in their mouths. They are also starting to have the fine motor skills for flaps, so these lift-a-flap books will be perfect for their little hands. This is a great age for learning animal sounds and positional words, like “in” and “on.” Your child may start to understand simple instructions at this age like “put the ball in the basket!” Littles this age are also often going as fast as they can in as many directions as they can and may only want a few pages from a book read at a time before they are on the move.
By 21 months, little ones are approaching being 2-years-olds rapidly. They may be expressing more opinions about their wants and dislikes, those often these will change rapidly from moment to moment. Introducing numbers and colors at this age in a gentle way can help them start to identify and use these terms. They may start to be able to hold up 1 or 2 fingers to tell people their age, or know which car is blue or red. Books with repetition will still appeal best at this age, but they will start to be able to follow simple stories.
Joyful books for one-year-olds are just one way to encourage your child’s development and growth. Playing outside. Learning how to do puzzles. Playing with developmentally appropriate toys. Bouncing to music. Banging on pots and pans. These are all ways for one-year-olds to develop new skills and turn into busy little toddlers curious about the world and wanting to learn more. If your child is turning two soon, look for my blog post about books for 2-year-olds coming soon.
Happy Reading!
Join us for our first week of summer preschool play. Have fun with bunnies and paint or play a game of shadow tag. Everyone with young children is welcome to try out this planned out week of circle times and activities.
Summer Preschool Week I
From Preschool Play: Seasons of Wonder Coursebook | Oak Meadow
This is a beautiful story to read out loud. It is repetitive, reinforces early counting, and involves a variety of animals, but it is on the longer side, and many young children may struggle to pay attention for the length of time needed. For those who can, I suggest breaking up the story by involving your child. This is Option A. Option B would be to read it in four parts with movement in between.
This whole circle time should take 30 to 40 minutes. If your child loses interest at any point, feel free to stop, have a snack and try again later. Learning and circle time should be fun, not work, at this age.
Play the game as written, but you may want to change it to the backyard or your local park for younger children. Other children may enjoy going to a farm or a pond. Take turns so you can model how the game works. The words used in the book are too advanced for younger children, but you can talk about where each animal lives and maybe what they eat. You can engage your child in talking about if they would like to eat the same things. You might need to prompt your child and accept any animal they can think of. For each animal, you can act out moving, eating and sleeping like the animal inself.
This game needs a group of at least 3 children and would be best if most of the children are 4 or older.
Start your second circle time with the verse Funny Ears on page 219 as shown on day 1 to engage your child.
Then read the story Little Bunny Sunny, page 215-218 again, but just the first day, unless your child would like to read the entire story.
The rest of story time will be a repetition of Day One.
Set up an easel or paint table with the colors yellow and blue in two bowls. Take a potato and cut it in half. You can use a small cookie cutter to make a bunny, carrot or flower in the potato and then cut around it with a knife to make a stamp. Your other option is to use a knife to cut a design on both halves of the potato. Allow your child to paint with the potato, the cookie cutters and their fingers. Encourage your child to mix the two colors to see what they make.
Great for those who live where there are lots of flowers during the summer. This scavenger hunt would be best for children who are 3½ or older.
This game would be best with at least 3 people to play it and would be better suited for children age 4 or older.
Beautiful Summer Preschool Plan Invitation – hummingbirdhomelife.com
Happy Learning!
A miscarriage is like planning a beautiful vacation to the exact destination you have been wanting and begging to go to, only to be told you can’t go.
Devastating Emotions Around a Miscarriage
When you first find out you’re pregnant, especially if you have been trying for a baby, it is like fireworks and explosions of light that no one else can see. You have this little secret inside that you are bursting to tell everyone about, but also afraid to tell people ‘too early’. I don’t know what it feels like to find out you are pregnant when you don’t want to be. That must be a very different experience. All four of my pregnancies have been very much wanted, planned for and tried for. I only have one earthside child.
The initial grief of a miscarriage is one of shock, disbelief and a feeling of failure. It can start with physical symptoms, or with an ultrasound. I have experienced both. Going into an ultrasound so excited to see your tiny little gummy bear and the silence when it is a kidney bean, not a gummy bear. Wanting to hear that heartbeat, and the technician never offering to bring it up for you to hear or see on the screen. The technician’s flat expression as they say, “your OB will go over the results with you.” Trying not to cry. Trying not to break down.
Your body has failed to protect your baby. It’s only job in this period of time and it failed. What makes you a woman, and you failed. Your body holds a dead child and that grief is overwhelming. Your womb is now a tomb for all your dreams and expectations. Then come the decisions and the waiting for labor or surgery so you can be empty again. Flawed and empty.
You imagined your life in 6 or 7 months with this new baby. Bald, blonde hair, or brown curls. In your mind’s eye, they are real. You can feel the weight of them in your arms. Count their little fingers and toes. Maybe you imagine breastfeeding, or making bottles in the middle of the night. In those weeks, or even months, between finding out you are pregnant and finding out your baby is gone, you imagine so much. Maybe dance lessons, or baseball games. Maybe it is a sibling for your child and you imagine the two of them playing together, arguing, and growing up together.
Then it ends. Your future doesn’t hold any of that. You are left with an empty home, or with the precious child, or children, you already have. You clutch them tighter knowing in some part of you that they could be taken from you too. Maybe you beg with God to make it a mistake. To make it not true. Maybe the ultrasound was wrong. Maybe you aren’t as far along. These things happen. Maybe you will get the miracle. But you don’t.
Miscarriages are not talked about enough. So many women go through them, but we are still encouraged to wait till the second trimester before telling people we are pregnant, just in case. This might save other people the discomfort, but what does it tell women? It mostly tells them that miscarriages should be private between them and their husbands, maybe a close friend or two.
But this leads to isolation because no one else knows what you are going through. On the flip side, if a bunch of people know you are pregnant, then over and over you have to tell people as you run into them that you lost the baby. This can be painful, but also healing. These are the moments other women often will share that they too have gone through miscarriages or infertility. Neither option is easy.
Your body heals, but sometimes out of the corner of your eye you will see a shadow of another child just the age of the one you lost, or hear an infant cry and for a split second…
Homeschool preschool curriculums are a wonderful way to help littles learn about their world. Three-year-olds are at this magical age where they want to learn everything, question everything and get into everything. Their brains are developing rapidly, and they are ready for some early learning. If you want to provide some structured learning for them, remember to always put joy first. Joy in learning and joy in parenting. If a curriculum does not bring you and your child joy, then it may not be the right one.
Over the summer and this next year, I will provide a preschool plan Beautiful Summer Preschool Program Invitation for other parents to follow. You are welcome to join us as I post the details weekly, but you may not want to join us or can’t for one reason or another. Here are some other options for preschool curriculums that you can consider.
The first curriculum I would recommend is the one I am primarily using. This is Oak Meadow’s Preschool Play: Seasons of Wonder Coursebook | Oak Meadow. It is packed full of songs, stories, verses and art projects to create a beautiful homeschool preschool curriculum. This curriculum is full of process-based art and learning. The early science and math are integrated within the songs, stories and verses. They focus on animals and the seasons, as well as counting from 1 to 10. The stories engage children and are wonderful to act out, while the songs and verses inspire dancing. But the downside is that it is not fully planned out, rather it is organized by season and month, so parents would need to decide exactly how they would use it. It is also a bit pricey but can be reused for multiple years.
The next homeschool preschool curriculum I would recommend is Early Years Vol. 1 — Blossom and Root . This is a secular Charlotte Mason inspired curriculum that is very affordable. It focuses on hands-on learning and is developmentally appropriate. Its nature study and art projects are wonderfully planned out with an emphasis on the process of learning. I would ignore the picture and composer studies though, as these are better suited for older children. I particularly love the kitchen science as it encourages parents to bake with their young children and learn through being in the kitchen. The other categories it covers are literature, early math, science, kindness and community. The math focuses on counting to 100 and using basic measurements but misses some important preschool concepts. Overall, this is a solid, well planned out curriculum that should be engaging for most young children.
The third curriculum to look at is Preschool Language Arts Course Set – The Good and the Beautiful which is an open and go Language Arts curriculum. This curriculum covers letters and their sounds, counting, shapes and colors. It is also worksheet heavy, involves sitting at a table and uses a question and response format for much of its learning. Question and response formats are used extensively within regular schools. It requires children to learn through listening and to respond appropriately with formatted responses. It does not work well in schools and works even less at home. This curriculum is not suited for any age children.
Of interest, The Good and the Beautiful does have separated curriculums with other subjects. They have Handwriting Workbook: Doodles and Pre-Writing for Littles Part 1 – The Good and the Beautiful which is a well thought out and beautiful handwriting option that would be a wonderful option for 4-year-olds. If your child is almost 4, or already 4, this would be a great option.
What I find they have done quite well is their science curriculum for preschool. Butterflies & Beetles Flip Books – The Good and the Beautiful and Mammals Flip Books – The Good and the Beautiful are wonderful for 2- to 4-year-olds. They are engaging and nicely introducing young children to different animals and the concepts of mammals, similarity, differences and matching. Their I Can Spy Mammals & Nature – The Good and the Beautiful is another wonderful science book for 3- to 5-year-olds to learn facts about animals and have fun finding the different animals on the pages. Insect & Spider Mazes – The Good and the Beautiful is perfect for 3- to 4-year-olds who need to work on fine motor skills and visual tracking before starting formal handwriting. I would highly recommend all four books.
The Good and the Beautiful also have 5 science sets for young learners that are very well done. Nests and Burrows: Course Set – The Good and the Beautiful would be ideal for 3- to 5-year-olds and would be the first one I would do of the set, while Fields and Flowers, as well as Bones and Stones, would need some adaptation to work well for younger 3-year-olds. These science books use stories, beautiful pictures and hands on activities to learn about science.
I would like to look at the Playing Preschool – You are your child’s best teacher Homeschool Curriculum next. This is another affordable, secular curriculum, but it lacks joy. Many homeschool and school preschool curriculums are similar. Every day has a song and an art project or experiment to engage in, but they are very simplistic and focus on product, not process. Younger children are often not ready for this step and still need to engage their sense through art. The literature study has parents read, or reread, a story every day to their child, which is great. Unfortunately, the book choices are poorly chosen, with over half being non-fiction. Books can engage and expand young minds, or make reading seem uninteresting. The math in this curriculum would be better suited for 4-year-olds and progresses too rapidly. This curriculum overall lacks playfulness and parents may struggle with keeping their children engaged. This curriculum is very similar to many preschool curriculums found in daycares and preschools. It is designed to be easy for teachers but is not best for children.
Overall, these are three preschool curriculums’ parents may consider for their preschool year. But all three fall short with their math curriculums. Oak Meadow only touches upon math. Blossom & Roots math is not sequential enough and children may struggle to retain the information at this age. The Good & the Beautiful is worksheet based. Playing Preschool moves too fast and is not suited for 3-year-olds. I would strongly suggest following my math curriculum for preschool that will be posted monthly for this upcoming school year. It will use songs, movement and manipulatives to teach preschooler’s math in a meaningful and imaginative manner that makes math fun to learn. Math is fun and should be fun for all ages and abilities.
Buying a preschool curriculum for home use is a wonderful idea for engaging young children and provides parents a plan for how to expand their child’s learning. Buying the correct preschool curriculum makes all the difference. If there are any other preschool curriculums you would like me to review, please feel free to reach out and I will be happy to look into them.
Happy learning!
Join us for a 6-week summer preschool plan to engage little minds and inspire the imagination with weekly circle times, arts and crafts, nature crafts and games. Everything will be planned out for you to follow along with us.
Development doesn’t stop with summer and doesn’t have to be boring. Summer is a great time for learning, both indoors and outdoors. Using stories, songs, rhymes, verses, movement, art and games, children can have a beautiful summer of fun and learning. I will post engaging activities, and it will allow families to have fun together. Weekly blog posts will be posted every weekend starting July 4th weekend, so that you can follow along with us. Everything will be all planned out with minimal prep time. This preschool session is ideal for ages three to younger fours, but can be adapted for other children or siblings to join in.
As part of this summer preschool program, we will be using a curriculum from Oak Meadow called Preschool Play: Seasons of Wonder Coursebook. This curriculum is available at: Preschool Play: Seasons of Wonder Coursebook | Oak Meadow. We will be using this curriculum throughout preschool, prekindergarten, kindergarten and the first third of first grade. It is a flexible curriculum packed with seasonal verses, rhymes, songs and activities. The activities range from art projects to nature crafts, from games to play to recipes to cook. It is developmentally appropriate and provides examples of how to adapt it for different ages. It is organized seasonally and we will be using the summer section. Although there are supplemental materials that go along with this coursebook, I do not suggest buying them. This curriculum is Waldorf inspired and will be necessary to follow along with our summer preschool program.
From an academic standpoint, we will be working on memory, pre-reading, fine motor, nature science, vocabulary, early math and gross motor skills. The preschool year is a wonderful year for learning math orally and through manipulatives. Numbers are wonderful for three-year-olds to learn because they can touch and count things with numbers. You can request three baby carrots or hold four rocks. We will be undertaking a full math curriculum this upcoming preschool year and will touch on a few early math concepts over the summer.
Most children are ready to learn handwriting around four years of age and, to facilitate this, we will be using art and song motions to increase fine motor skills. Learning the motions for verses, rhymes and songs is a wonderful way to increase memory skills, practice following multi-step directions and work on fine motor skills. Singing songs together also develops memory skills as well as familiarizing children with rhyming. My planned curriculums will include songs and music into 3rd grade with circle times into 1st grade.
My summer preschool program will be focusing on learning about seasons, animals and plants. Children will be encouraged to act out stories through play about a variety of animals. These early lessons in science are the building blocks for life sciences later on in school. This also helps children work on memory skills, as well as reading comprehension. Art projects will be looking at colors and seeing what colors make new colors, as well as engaging the child in sensory and fine motor development.
A comprehensive plan for the week will be posted every weekend for the following week starting July 4th weekend. There will be two circle times, a game day and multiple activity suggestions for each week. Each circle time is designed to last about 30 minutes, as is the game day. Each of the activities with set up and clean up time, should take 45-60 minutes depending on your child’s engagement. If you don’t choose to purchase the Oak Meadow coursebook, you will still be able to follow along with roughly a third of the curriculum, which I invite you to do.
Please join us!
Age-Appropriate books for baby can open up learning for babies that nothing else can. Books are a window into possibilities and provide an early opportunity to introduce new vocabulary and concepts. Rather than struggle with torn pages and books babies show no interest in, try some of these books instead.
Newborns won’t show much interest in books but will be happy to listen to the tone and intonations of your voice as you read aloud to them. During this early period, I would suggest reading what makes you happy. This may be romance novels or parenting books, and in fact this is a great time to read some inspiring parenting books. Babies up to about 4 months of age may also enjoy staring at black and white books or pictures as their eyesight develops, but after these early months most babies are attracted to bright primary colors. If you wish to buy black and white baby books, just know that your baby will most likely outgrow them rapidly. They are useful for giving baby something to look at during tummy time in these early months.
Black and White High Contrast Tummy Time Soft Book
Once your bouncing bundle of curiosity is about 4 to 6 months of age, they are going to start showing interest in books and having books that are age-appropriate for baby will make life easier. They will try to grab them and put them in their mouths to chew on and explore. This is a great time to get them a set of baby safe books. I suggest only a few because they will mostly enjoy mouthing or shaking the books. They won’t be interested in the pictures or words right away, just the textures, sounds and feel of the books. You can try reading the books to them but be prepared for them to grab the book and try to stuff it in their mouth. These are the books I would recommend for infants to play with from about 4 months up to about 18 months of age:
The next set of books are for our explorer babies that are 8 to 18 months old. This is when littles become mobile and start exploring everything. They will still be putting everything in their mouth, but now they will enjoy banging things on the floor, spilling toys all over the floor, pushing toys across the floor and tearing things apart. They will start showing interest in books’ pictures and words, but usually only for one to two pages at a time. You might find yourself reading the same two pages a dozen times in a day. I suggest books from the brand The Original Indestructibles. They are truly indestructible and nontoxic. I would recommend several of these books for your baby to explore and try to destroy, though you may pick other books from this brand based on personal preference, these are the ones I recommend:
Along with these indestructible books, I recommend for parents to have a collection of books to read to their baby that the baby does not have access to. This is a good way to teach early boundaries with some books being for baby and other books being just for parents. Pick one time during the day when your baby is relatively calm to read a few books to them. This could be before their bath as part of their bedtime routine or first thing in the morning. If you want a child who loves reading and books, having books be a part of their daily life from a young age will help establish this love. Here are books to read to your 6- to 18-month-old baby. Young children love routine and repetition, so rereading the same books over and over is good for them.
Reading books to your baby will help them develop a love for books and reading. It will teach them new vocabulary words and help them develop an understanding of how books work. Books can teach babies gently through repetition animal sounds, colors and other concepts in an age-appropriate manner. Early exposure to books helps children develop language skills, pre-reading skills, vocabulary, fine motor skills and a desire to learn how to read. Once they are about 15 months or so, they will delight in turning the flaps inside some of these books. The simple language, primary colors and beautiful artwork will appeal to young children and be some of their favorite books. Reading to your baby, toddler, and child will be a favorite time for everyone.
Happy Reading!
