Sustainable & Creative Living
My 3-year-old son is finally at an age where we can do crafts together. I have found that over the past 6 months while teaching him the alphabet, I have used crafts to not only teach him letters but to also connect with him. Over Thanksgiving, we took a break from the alphabet to just focus on fun holiday activities. One of which is this [Read more…]
It’s almost that dreaded time of year for parents….Daylight Savings! You know spring is officially here when moods are crazy, schedules are off, and kids are not going to bed or waking up on time! Ahh, the sweet taste of daylight savings. [Read more…]
The past few months I’ve been teaching my 3-year-old the alphabet. During the letter N week, we worked on numbers, specifically on how to call 911 in case of an emergency.
If your child has a clear understanding of numbers and letters, they’re probably at the perfect age to start learning what to do in the event of an emergency. In conjunction with learning how to call 911—on my smartphone—I’m also teaching little J how to call Mommy or Daddy in case of an emergency. [Read more…]
If you’re looking for some fun-filled crafts and activities for teaching your toddler the letter B, check out some of my ideas below in this Letter B Lesson Plan for preschoolers. I use the letter of week strategy to help teach my son the alphabet. Each day I follow a letter specific lesson plan, which you can print for free, and incorporate sensory and fine motor play to engage his senses. So far, it has been going great and little by little he gets more excited to learn his letters.
Reading, crafts, sensory, and fine motor play are all great ways to engage a toddler or preschooler when teaching the alphabet. [Read more…]
About 2 months ago I started teaching my 2 (almost 3) year old son the alphabet. At first, I thought singing the alphabet song over and over would get him interested but that was a big fail. Every time I’d start to sing he would say, “stop mommy, stop singing!” Ultimately, I decided on a different approach— the letter of week strategy.
Starting with the letters in his name, each week I concentrate on [Read more…]
Right now I’m teaching my almost 3-year-old the alphabet. Each week we concentrate on a new letter while introducing letter specific flashcards, crafts, worksheets, books, sensory, and fine motor play. I made this easy DIY Felt Magnetic Fishing Game the week my son was learning the letter F. It’s a simple game for kids that help encourage the development of fine motor skills. This catch and release game can be played with again and again while helping your preschooler develop hand-eye coordination. [Read more…]
For the past 15 years, our little family, along with my husband’s large side of the family, has been gathering on the white sandy beaches of Captiva Island for our summer ritual of fun and relaxation. One week spent in the same time share, for over thirty years, first began with my husband, his brother and sister, and his parents. A once small, but traditional family vacation, has now turned into a great gathering of friends and family where we share food, wine, laughs, game nights, ice cream, burgers, and more wine. [Read more…]
When I first started thinking about teaching my 2 and-half-year-old son the alphabet, I thought the easiest approach would be to just sing the ABC song over and over and he’d eventually catch on. Wrong. He couldn’t even stand to hear me sing the ABC song let alone sing it over and over again. I’d get about 5 letters in and I’d hear my sweet boy say, “Mommy stop, stop singing!” Ugh! After being thoroughly offended for about 2 minutes, I had to think of a different approach. I decided to try using the Letter of the Week strategy and after about 4 weeks he was hooked on letters and singing his ABC’s anywhere and everywhere! My favorite is when he sings at the top of his lungs while we’re in the stall of a public restroom…it makes my heart smile every time! [Read more…]
Potty training can be a dreadful time for toddlers and parents. I’ve heard horror stories from friends and family about the awful process. Some parents warned me it could take months or years to get my son out of pull-ups and into underwear full time.
So, before I started the potty training process with my son, I did a lot of research on what to expect and how to prepare myself (and him). After endless reading and stressing, I came to the conclusion that no matter how many blogs I read, my process and my experience would be different because no child or family situation is the same. I just had to dive in, expect the worst, and hope for the best. [Read more…]
When I first started teaching my son how to recognize different shapes, I would draw them on a piece of paper, point, and tell him what each shape was. Before too long he would get bored and move on to a toy with wheels or sound and leave me in the dust. It didn’t take me long to realize I was going about my teaching style all wrong. He needed something to touch and feel in his hands to be more interested in learning his shapes. So I turned my original boring shape activity into a reusable, hands-on, and very easy-to-make Shape Recognition Activity with colorful felt shapes that can be stuck on and peeled off over and over. [Read more…]
My 2-and-half-year-old son has gone through stages of loving bath time and hating bath time and now loving it again. When he was an infant, bath time was new to him and he was still discovering the whole water and bubble situation. Now, he knows bathtime signifies the end of play time which ultimately leads to bedtime. So sometimes getting him to the bath is tough. Sometimes it takes bribing and trickery. Other times it takes throwing him over my shoulder and hauling him upstairs. Either way, I was tired of the begging and pleading so I got a little inventive in my trickery and got him to remember how much fun bath time can be. [Read more…]
As a fairly new parent, I worry incessantly about my 2-year-old getting hurt, sick, bullied, abducted, or drowning. Sometimes I forget about how dangerous my own house can be. Chemicals, hot stoves, pools, ponds, electrical outlets, and heavy furniture are just a few of the looming dangers lurking in plain sight. As my son gets older and becomes more curious, I fear less about bumps and bruises, and more about ingesting chemicals or wandering to the pond behind our home. This is why I baby proof everything! [Read more…]
