More Sensory and Motor Skill Play

Here are some of the sensory and motor skills play that JE enjoyed recently. 

These can  be short session activities but if she really enjoys it, she could play for quiet a long time. Sometimes, if we carry out these activities in the afternoon, JS would join in too. 

Most of the things we used are common items found at home and you can substitute them with other similar objects. 

For example, we can use rings or rubber bands for this activity. 

This "fishing" activity helps JE to practice her spooning skill.

For this activity (pushing and pulling objects through a hole) many other types of objects could be used. Here we used french beans.

Meal time is a good time to put their motor skills into practice. 

JE doesn't really like to eat eggs but this activity was a success. I made her peel her own egg and she happily ate it! 

Colour Play

Markers have been my top choice of art supply for a toddler's first experiments with colours. I like their vibrant colours that will definitely attract young explorers, not to mention that they are less messy compared to other choices. 

As pictures speak louder than words, I love to use them to depict the learning process of my children. 

Here are some of the pictures of JE exploring her new set of "toy".

She tries different ways to grip the markers.

She learns to open and close the cover of the marker. 

And when she got tired of scribbling with them, we played a little game with the colourful sticks. 

JE looking at the markers and decides which one she wants to  knock  down and...

it's the yellow one!

Sticker Play

Sticker is an essential item when it comes to doing projects with my children. They come in all kinds of sizes, texture, colours and design, easy to handle and most importantly, they are almost mess free. The kids love them and as for me, it is the perfect solution for a quick-an-easy project for them to work on when I do not have much time to prepare for more complicated activities. It is also one of the activities that I can do with both of them at the same time without having to worry about a messy workstation to clean up. 

While JS worked on his sticker picture, JE started by exploring  the collection of stickers we have. 

   

Then she joined her brother at the table and worked on her own little project. 

JE working on her little project.

JS started with a fruit tree and added fruits and animals to it. Then, he added numbers one to ten in a particular sequence among the animals and tree. 

The next day, we did another round of sticker play. This time, instead of sticking them on paper, they had to stick the labels on their bodies. I wrote the names of a few body parts based on a body chart. JS used the body chart as a reference to learn new words and then stick the labels on the correct body parts. 

JE also joined in the fun as JS and I stuck the stickers on her.

Fun with Food Sensory Bottles

I was doing some "spring cleaning" last week when I found these breastmilk storage containers given to my by my sister-in-law soon after I delivered JS about five years ago. I have stopped breast feeding for more than a year now and these containers have been in the storage drawer since then. I thought they would make good storage for spices but as soon as I took them downstairs JS saw them and asked me what I wanted to do with the containers. Hmmm... no harm letting the children play with the containers first, I thought and so they became food sensory bottles.

The first item that came to mind was adzuki beans but as we entered the kitchen, my phone rang so I told JS to put in some garlic cloves instead (the first food I saw in the kitchen) as I answered the phone. He happily filled two containers with garlic cloves and also put an onion each in two other containers. Then I took adzuki beans, mongo seeds and black beans from the fridge and he filled the rest of the containers with them. 

Here are some of the activities we did with the food sensory bottles. 

1. Identifying the items in the bottles. Since JE is still very young and tend to put things in her mouth, the best way to expose her to tiny objects is through sensory bottles. She gets to look at them, shake and hear the sounds they make and learn the names of these common foods. 

2. Arranging them in different shapes. 

3. Learning the meaning of "same" and "different". Surprisingly and sadly, I have to admit that JS still does not know the meaning of these two and I have to find different ways to teach him and hopefully this could help. 

4. The last game we played was the guessing game. I did not get to take any pictures for this since I played an active part in this game. I would hold one of the bottle behind me and shake it. JS would have to guess the item in it. 

More Cravings For Ice

JS is still very much obsessed with ice and a couple of weeks ago, I bought a popsicle mold with the plan of making some fruit popsicles for him. However, before I managed to find some time to make it for him, he already made some for himself. Not for eating, but for play. 

Well, here's what happened. There was this evening when he got hold of the mold which I had taken out earlier that day for JE to play with. He asked me if I could make some ice pops for him but I told him that it was too late and since Daddy and I were engaged in a conversation, he went away and started making it on his own, using drinking water. Soon after, he came to me to ask for more water because he did not have enough to fill up the mold. Since he could not eat the popsicle anyway (the mold has not been washed), I told him to use tap water instead. He happily filled up the mold and popped it into the freezer. 

When he woke up the following day, he immediately went to check whether it was ready and of course, it was. So he and his sister had an early morning ice play, even before breakfast.

Upon seeing how he craved for a popsicle that could actually be eaten, we made some soon after breakfast. 

First, I made him try squeezing some grapefruit juice but it was too  difficult for him so we decided to use the blender. 

He had to peel off the skin and pop the fruit into the blender. Next, we cut some kiwi and put them into the mold. 

Then JS poured the juice into the mold and placed the sticks in place before popping it into the freezer. 

Shortly after lunch, he was able to enjoy some self-made fruity popsicle. The only thing he does not know is that Mommy purposely made him add the kiwis because that would most probably be the only form that he would eat! (Mission accomplished!)

From Cobwebs To Towers

This is another activity we did using rubber bands, a long break after our first rubber band activity a few months ago which I shared in a previous post http://sotayoutlet.blogspot.com/2014/03/simple-yet-fun.html. 

This time, it was also an unplanned activity and we just went with the flow and ended up having lots of fun. 

I was searching online for things to do with rubber bands when a spider cobweb project caught my attention. So there was this day when JS was feeling bored and was not in the mood of doing some worksheets when his sister was sleeping. This cobweb activity came to mind so I gave him a bottle full of rubber bands, a box and a paper to work on. I hoped that it could be a quiet time activity that could keep him busy until his sister wakes up. 

Fortunately, he was very interested and indulged in the work for quiet a long time. I told him that he would be weaving spider webs for Spiderman but when he showed me what he did, he said: Look, Mommy. It's a condo! 

Indeed, it looked like a tower and so I told him to make more towers using bottles and boxes of different shapes and sizes.  

JS had fun trying to put on the rubber bands from different sides of the boxes and bottles. I also made him bind two bottles together, just to make things more interesting. 

After about 40 minutes, JS was ready to play with the new toys. Since Transformers is one of his all time favourite, his pretend play was all about them invading his mini city. 

Hmmm.... Isn't this supposed to be a city full of cobwebs for Spidy? Where is he? Well, we don't have a Spiderman toy so obviously he can't be here but... lets just pretend that he was here. 

Anyway, I should just let JS carry on with his play. After all, it was an activity meant for him to play, have fun, learn and master some fine motor skills. 

And Finally... I Am Going On An Excursion, On My Own!

Finally, JE reached another milestone. She started crawling on August 17. At first, she only moved a very short distance but by day 4, she was crawling all around the house. She was very excited with her new found skill and freedom and has been on an excursion all the time. She even started sleeping lesser (which is bad news, to her still growing body and to Mommy who has lesser alone time to finish up whatever chores needed to be done). 

In the morning, JS would usually take out a drawer of toys for both of them to play with. As the day goes by, toys could be seen all over the floor. It seems to be an interesting setting for JE because she could discover new things as she crawled. 

Hmm... What's this?

Lets see what's that under the table. 

This looks interesting!

Lets get out of here. I want to see the world!

And here we are, at Uncle's house.

What do I do with this?

Next stop. Aunty's house. 

My favourite thing to play with!

I enjoy watching her explore things around her and I hope she would never get tired of discovering new things.