Love Is In The Air... And In Our Sensory Bin!

Valentine's Day Sensory Bin

Now that my son is almost 3 years old, I want to introduce him to different holidays. I started with a Valentine's Day sensory bin. This was so much fun to put together. I decided to use a bigger bin with more surface area for each holiday bin that I create this year. It was so inexpensive to walk around the dollar store and collect all of the items for this bin. 

Here are the items I used: dry bean mix, plastic heart containers, foam glitter hearts, pipe cleaners bent into hearts, sequin mix, plastic rose petals, red cups, small red scooping cup

The cups were great for scooping and pouring. The small plastic heart containers were so much fun to fill with dry beans and we ended up shaking them like maracas. My son had so much fun with this bin. He enjoyed it so much that he actually sat inside the bin a few times! See photos:

It was so exciting for me to watch my son explore this bin with all of his senses. There are SO many ways to play and learn from this bin. For example, my son explored by scooping and pouring beans, watching rose petals float into the bin like a feather, touching the soft texture of the pipe cleaners on his face, exploring a tiny bean in his hand, digging his fingers though the beans, shaking and listening to the plastic hearts filled with beans, practicing opening and closing the heart containers, identifying and saying "heart" while holding one from the bin, etc.

Exploring sensory bins definitely beats playing with a battery operated plastic toy any day. It is amazing what can learned through play. I look forward to creating a sensory bin for each holiday of the year for my son moving forward.

-Deborah

Identifying Numbers, Ordering Numbers, and Counting Numbers- A DIY Assortment of Math Activities

Besides working on our ABC's, I have been trying new math activities with my son at home. In the above picture, my son was working on identifying numbers. The activity is to match the number on the card with the number on the bowl. This is a simple introduction to number recognition. It was so easy and inexpensive to create as well! The pack of cards was $1 at the dollar store and I had the bowls in the kitchen.

The above photo shows an easy ordering numbers activity. I used a plastic kitchen spoon and a pool/fun noodle I had from the summer. I cut the noodle into pieces to make counting beads. The result was a great activity for his little hands to easily manipulate and learn from as he ordered the numbered beads onto the spoon. When I thought my son was ready to order numbers past 5, I had him string 10 noodle beads onto a piece of ribbon in order. I made a knot and a bow at the end of the ribbon so that the beads would stay on. See the below photo:

Another inexpensive idea for teaching numeration is to use clothespins and a bucket. It is so much fun for children to manipulate objects for the love of learning. I created another number ordering activity for my son with these items and simply numbered the clothespins. He takes the pins from the center of the bucket and pins them to the bucket in number order. This was a fun activity for him. See the photo of the activity below:

There are of course so many items that can be used to learn counting. I set up an activity for my son to use pom poms and craft sticks as counters. He starts with pom poms then counts a second time with craft sticks. I wrote a number in each bowl for him to match to the counters. This is obviously a more complex math activity that we are still working on grasping since my son is 2 1/2. See the below photo:

All of the math activities shown here cost little to no extra money. There are so many different ways to create quality math activities at home on a budget. The most important part of these activities is that my son has fun doing them. That is the most rewarding aspect too and exactly why I create learning activities for him. 

-Deborah 

Fifteen Minutes Outside

Today it was about 30 degrees outside and sunny where I live. As the afternoon grew long in the house with my son, I kept thinking about a book I'm currently reading called "Fifteen Minutes Outside: 365 Ways to Get Out of the House and Connect with Your Kids" by Rebecca P. Cohen. I was inspired to bundle us up and head outside. It was cold, but so worth it! We touched snow on the table, pushed cars down the slide, and watched an airplane fly overhead. We were back inside warm and refreshed 15-20 minutes later. The book is a great read that gives specific ideas on what to do with children outside each month out of the year.

-Deborah

For The Love of Learning Is Featured In An Article...

I'm so excited to share that my Velcro craft stick shapes post has been featured in an article by one of my favorite blog sites - hands on : as we grow. Thank you Jamie for the support! Click the title to open the article:

14 Learning Activities For Toddlers

More Fine Motor DIY Activities

There are so many different and inexpensive ways to create activities that work on fine motor skills. I started making toys for my son that involved pushing or dropping items into a small hole or slot when he turned one. The above photo shows one of my sons favorites. I upcycled a shoe box and poked holes into it. The activity is to push the marker into the hole. He loved doing this over and over when he was younger.

The second picture shows another activity to work on fine motor skills. I purchased the plastic paint can and the craft sticks at Michaels craft store. This activity was more of a challenge for my son because he had to hold the craft stick in the correct position to get it into the slot. He enjoyed this activity too because he could watch the colorful sticks collect into the can. 

When my son turned two, I wanted to create fine motor activities on a smaller scale that took more concentration and effort to complete. I cut up colorful pipe cleaners for my son to drop into a plastic drink container and into a plastic creamer container. Both have small round openings so these containers worked out perfectly. My son did a great job with these activities as well. I like these toys because it is so easy to just open the containers, dump out the pipe cleaners, and start up again!

It is so simple, quick, and inexpensive to create any of these activities for children. Working on fine motor skills is so important. Besides being important, working on fine motor skills can be so much fun for little explorers too!

-Deborah 

Thank you Pinterest! So true...

Upcycle That Paper Towel Roll Into a Counting Activity

This activity was a huge hit with my son! I created a counting activity by simply upcycling a paper towel roll. It was so simple to cut the roll into ten pieces to make ten counting rings. I let my son use the paper towel holder from our kitchen to stack the rings and count. The result was a great number sequencing activity that even works on fine motor skills. The best part...I did not have to spend any extra money to create it!

Putting the number rings in order is still a work in progress for my son, but he loves doing this activity. The smile on his face in the picture shows how proud he was when all of the rings were added to the holder. My son also really enjoys dumping the rings off of the holder when the activity is complete.   

He goes to this activity everyday! Here he is in action again:

There are so many ways to upcycle paper towel rolls into amazing activities for children. Think twice before throwing them away...I always do now!

-Deborah