O is for Ostrich

Little One has been introduced to the alphabet via the Letterland program at his school this year - a super program that I like very much. I, on the other hand, haven't focused much on alphabet activities at home, but recently decided that we should. Added to that, Big One gets homework every day and Little One also wants to have homework, just like big brother. So I thought I'd prepare some things for him to do in the afternoon while Big One is busy. 

The first letter I chose to focus on was "o" - it's so easy to identify and it's a great first sound. 

Just by the way, here in South Africa we teach lower case letters first and we teach the phonetic sounds (as in "a" is for apple, not ape). 

I chose ostrich as our first "o" activity and we started with identifying the letter using our fantastic magnetic alphabet. (Available from Little People's Products)

I added some ostrich handouts from Carisa's  Tot School Printables @ 1+1+1+1. (If you don't know this site - it's amazing!) 

We did some colour recognition and colouring in.

Little one then cut out each ostrich (Each ostrich is in a square, which makes this a nice cutting activity).  He helped me staple all the little squares together to make a small book - a nice reminder of the activity.  I also added in some maths language, by asking him which picture he wanted in the book first, second, third, etc, as I put the small pages together, before we stapled it. 

I also made a copy of the "shapes" page and asked him to "show me the ostrich in the oval, triangle etc." He used his dot markers for this one. These were very kindly sent to us awhile back by Donette from The Journey. They are a favourite during homework time. These ostriches can also be cut out to make a book... or flash cards.

There are lots more ostrich pages available from 1+1+1=1. 

And a  bottle top ostrich craft...

The boys and I visited the National Geographic website to get some extra information about the ostrich and we watched a You Tube video of an ostrich running - something they do rather well. (We actually ran around like ostriches - using our "wings" to steer and make sharp turns - this got some giggles). And we learned that an ostrich can cover up to 5 metres in a single stride - that got us measuring and estimating - it's about the length of our kitchen!

Little One calls it "fun homework". This must mean I'm doing something right ;). 

Till next time - happy learning :)  

PS. Little One is 4.2 years.
PPS. Sharing this at It's Playtime.

Christmas Memory Match {from simple as that}

Remember a few posts ago, I wrote about some great Christmas links, including a memory match game from simple as that , that you can download for FREEE. Well I did, and I created this version using bottle tops (of course!).

I quickly realize that I'm not a pro-crafter when I tackle projects like this and make such silly mistakes. Like printing the pictures on a basic inkjet printer and them painting modge podge over it. It (obviously) caused the ink to smudge and the paper to bubble. I almost thought I would have to throw it all away and start again, but somehow I managed to remove the paper from the bottle tops and re-apply. I decided to live with the bit of smudging - it's not too noticeable.

Just a tip - I would not have tackled this project without my circle punch. I like my circles to be perfect :).

Big One and I have played a few times already (when Little One is occupied). I will be packing this up with the Christmas goodies to be enjoyed in years to come. Thanks Rebecca for sharing such super stuff :).

PS. Need a punch? Locally, PNA stores have a great variety. Otherwise, there's always Amazon.

Till next time. 

Make a Colouring Book

Have you ever made your child a colouring book? I recently made one for Little One and he loved it. In fact, when he was done colouring, he said, "That was so much fun." I smiled from ear to ear. For this book, I printed only pictures of
"Things that Go".

I found nice pages at these websites:

DLTK

Printable Colouring Pages

COLORING PAGES FOR KIDS

Kids Color Pages

These very nice chubby triangular crayons were given to me a few years ago by an occupational therapist. I have never seen them to purchase anywhere, but they are wonderful for little hands. It got me thinking about the best first writing tools for toddlers. In my search for more information, I found a wonderful website called The Motor Story. There is a great article on drawing here, where it is recommended that large markers are used as first writing tools. The reason given, is that the markers glide easily over paper and the thumb moves away from the palm of the hand, thereby enhancing the thumb strengthening process. In comparison, crayons write with more resistance. If you do give your toddler crayons though, preferably give them the chunky larger size. I would love to here any comments on this subject.

Till next time...

Let's Build it! {Tot Packs and Puzzles}

One of my favourite things about blogging is the wealth of wonderful ideas shared by other like-minded Moms. I also love finding free resources and today I am going to share a few great spots to find Tot Packs.(These packs are also called  File Folder Games or Lapbooks.) What are they? In a nutshell, the idea is to take a flat cardboard folder or file and to glue a variety of activities, centered around a particular theme, on the inside of it. You can really create a pack about any subject under the sun! My apologies for not having a photo of the pack we created, but if you visit any of the sites below, there are lots of pictures available.

First stop is Carisa from 1+1+1=1. Carisa creates wonderful free printables for homeschooling Moms, including Tot (and Preschool) Packs. In her packs, she might include colouring pages, shadow matching, sequencing, patterns, and alphabet and numeracy activities.  Carisa has created a Handy Manny Pack and a Big Machines Pack, both perfect to include in our "Let's Build It!" mini theme. To print out both of these, click here.

In my search for more packs, I also found a fantastic Tools Tot Pack at Our Little Monkeys. I printed out the puzzle pieces (see photo)  and decided to stick them onto some Mega Bloks. I wish I could say that this was my idea, but it is simply my version of lego puzzles created by Jenea at I can teach my child. (Great idea, don't you think?)

If you like these packs, be sure to also check out these from Homeschool Creations. A big thank you to Carisa, Dawn and Jolanthe for creating these wonderful resources and sharing them.

This was the last of my Let's Build It! theme posts. Knowing my little boy though, I'm sure that this will not be the last about construction related and tool time activities. :)

Till next time...

Easter Printables

With Easter around the corner, there are some super Easter ideas around the net and some of the nicest free printables can be found at We love to illustrate for children. I got so excited when I found this site and went to visit all the individual blogs involved. This is one group of super talented ladies and they are so kindly sharing some of the most amazing free Easter goodies. 

Wouldn't this just make the prettiest  Easter bunting?

 And this printout lets you play dress-up with some large sized eggs!

  

To see more, be sure to visit the site. They also share these fantastic free back-to-school printables here.

Have fun!

Colour Fun #2 - "Red Car, Red Car, What Do You See?"

I love to share good things and the website that I'm sharing with you today is GREAT! Shelley at childcareland.com has created wonderful learning activities for early childhood educators and the best of all is that she has lots of free printables here.

To continue with our colour fun this week, I want to share a free printable that I downloaded from Shelley's site. Now in my previous post on Colour Fun (which you can read here), I told you about the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?". This printable is based on the book, but instead of animals, there are different colour cars. The little rhyme becomes "Red car, red car, what do you see? I see a ____ car looking at me."

Here is the link for you to make your own set.

Red Car, Red Car, What do you see?

If you have a little girl and don't want to make a car set, there is a bird set available too.

Pink Bird, Pink Bird, What do you see?

I printed these out, stuck them onto cardboard (recycled boxes) and then covered them with clear sticky plastic. You could also laminate them. My first intention was to turn this into a felt board game for Little One, so I stuck sandpaper on the back of the cards to make it stick to the felt. Little One showed no interest in this, so I added magnetic strips to the back and converted them to fridge magnets. That definitely got more of his attention. I must tell you that he ruined a few of them very quickly. I only turned my back for a minute or so and some had been bent rather badly. The best part is I can simply remake them.

Some colour fishy fun coming up in the next post.