Learning

I am always amazed at what my little girls (I guess not so little anymore) are learning every day. They are always showing me something new. 

Both girls love puzzles, and for awhile now, have been challenging themselves with turning the pieces upside down on a puzzle they have already mastered. It's something they decided to do all on their own quite some time ago. Both girls can easily master a 48 piece puzzle now. It's amazing! 

We've also been practicing our names. They know their letters and sounds, know the letters in their name and can usually correctly spell their own, and each other's, names. They have also written letter "Es." Yesterday Ellerie tells me, "I wrote my name!" I walked over to see her in the process of writing the last couple letters. I quickly grabbed my phone to snag a photo as she finished. The "Ls" are upside down, and the "R" looks like a 2-year-old version of a stick person, but she did it and I was/am proud!

Spelling Practice

I walked into my girls' playroom the other day to find them practicing their names. I was quite impressed (even though we sing songs about their names regularly). They even had to point out that we need more letter "Es" to finish Ellerie's name. They're not into writing as much, but will/can write an "E" with far more than 3 lines. :)

Fall Fun

We've been doing all kinds of fun fall activities around here. Many have centered around pumpkins. Here are a couple activities we've done in the past couple days.

Roasting pumpkin seeds...in "princess" attire of course...YUM! Wash the seeds, let dry, add a little oil and seasonings (I used sea salt and a sprinkle of garlic powder and paprika) and roast at 350 degrees (stirring occasionally) until golden brown. Scooping the seeds out of the pumpkin was a great sensory activity. Esme wasn't too fond of the slimy texture. Ellerie loved separating the seeds and putting them in a bowl.

Painting pumpkins...They sprinkled glitter on the wet paint too!

Reading?!?

Wait...What? Where did this come from?? They're 2 and a half!!!

Both Esme and Ellerie have been able to identify a few words here and there for awhile. But now, out of the blue, Ellerie (especially) has developed a whole new confidence in her abilities and has completely taken off. This video was taken a few days ago, and I have already seen a lot of growth since then! She grabs her pile of books, sits on the couch and just starts reading her way through them...asking help on words as needed.

Ellerie is my girl who would sit and look at/read books for hours...or put together puzzles (she easily puts together 50 piece puzzles). Esme loves books and puzzles too, and is equally as gifted, but her attention span isn't near Ellerie's...but still longer than most 2-year-olds. Esme can read most of the same words, but she just won't sit and read a book on her own like that for very long...especially if the camera is on her. She'd much rather be read to, and that is completely fine by me.

I haven't pushed reading at all, but I have exposed them to lots of books, and reading/listening to stories is their favorite activity. They have learned to recognized a variety of words through me reading and playing games..."This is the word 'the.' Let's see if we can find the word 'the' in this book." This is also a fun game for learning letters. Or, play "hide-and-seek" with letters/words/shapes/numbers (anything). I'll write the word on a couple index sized cards, hide them in the room and ask my girls to "find the _____."

They have also started learning how to sound out words. Phonics is important too! Their little brains are amazing!

Check out this video of Ellerie reading one of her books. This particular book is from the library and I believe this was only the second time she had read/heard it.

Toddler Writing Practice

Today, we practiced "writing" in chocolate pudding. Once Esme and Ellerie got done licking their fingers, they had fun drawing shapes in the pudding. We used cookie sheets with white paper taped to them for our pudding writing.

This a great sensory activity for little ones. It's also great writing practice. It's easier to write with a finger in pudding (shaving cream works well too...try adding glitter for an added touch) than it is to hold a pencil to paper...there is less resistance. Have your toddler/preschooler practice drawing lines, circles, triangles and squares before letters. Once your child has mastered those shapes, they will have enough fine motor control to begin writing the letters of the alphabet.

Stay tuned for more writing practice tips...

"Aa" is for Apple

Esme and Ellerie have been able to identify all their letters (both upper and lowercase) and letter sounds for quite some time. Their new favorite question is "What does _____ start with?" I'm not one to "push" learning, and I know that isolating the beginning sound in a word takes practice, but I do listen to their interests and go with it. We talk a lot about what we see when we're out an about...even while grocery shopping. It has almost become a fun game to try and listen for the letter sounds we hear in different words. Learning can happen anywhere!

I'm starting to pull out some more projects for the girls. I'm going to try and start sharing some of them here. With over 9 years experience teaching early childhood prior to having the girls, I have a lot of plans in my head.

This morning, we peeked out the window in the playroom (it was pouring rain outside) to take a closer look at the apple tree in our backyard. It's been dropping apples, and we've even tasted a few of them (they are a little sour still, but the girls don't seem to mind). I asked them questions about what the tree looked like...what they saw. Then we came inside and decided to replicate the tree on paper. I had an idea in my head, but I let them "come up with it" through questions I asked.

They wanted me to make a tree and leaves out of paper so that they could glue it on. I let them glue their pieces wherever they wanted (it's the process, not the product), but I was surprised at how straight their trees ended up! To make the apples, we cut a couple apples from our apple tree in half. We dipped the halves in green and red paint (the colors they chose) and stamped them on the tree. While stamping, we talked about the apples...what they look like, how they felt and what sounds we heard in the word "apple." Once their paint is dry (I forgot to write it before), we'll go back and write the word apple on their pictures. For now, they're hanging in the playroom with their other recent artwork.