Add-on feature (Mandarin) for counting apple tree learning aid

If you purchased the counting apple tree learning aid previously (as seen above), you'd be glad to know that I've included an add-on feature in the newest release!

Now counting cards are available in Mandarin (i.e.一, 二 etc.).! There is no need to purchase the full set of learning aids, just simply order the Mandarin word cards and you're good to go! :)
Cost: SGD$5.50

Alphabet fun with the foam mat!

Activities with tots and early pre-schoolers don't usually last very long and a simple activity could just take up say about 10min of your time. But while the actual activity may seem short, the child still learns from it and most importantly, both you and the child have fun!

Here are two activities I did with Alicia yesterday (one after breakfast and the other after dinner).

Matching lower and upper case:

(Alicia's familiar with the upper case but not so with the lower case so I focused on the lower case for this activity)

1) Remove some of the lower case alphabets from the mat: I got her to help out with that. :) I focused on 12 letters (pick less if your child isn't so familiar with the alphabets yet); try to avoid going for all the alphabets as the child would usually tire of the activity before it's over so just take your child's cue.

2) Explain what you want your tot to do: match the lower case to the upper case (place them back on the mat).  

3) Go through 1 example (or more if necessary): I got her to name the alphabet first then asked her what sound it makes before getting her to place it back in the right place.

4) Repeat the procedure.

5) Stop when your tot starts to lose interest.

Busy fitting the 's' back in

 

'b' and 'h'!

Figuring out where the 'r' goes...

Our after-dinner activity:

Identifying the alphabet

Since we were having fun in her room, I decided that I'd play another alphabet game with her:

I called out one of the alphabets and I quickly (and very enthusiastically - you need lots of this when interacting with a tot!) jumped onto the letter and repeated it a few times with different alphabets.

After a few times, she got a hang of what she was supposed to do and I'd say, 'Alicia, can you jump onto the letter (for instance), X?' We got through a few alphabets before she decided to call it quits so we moved on to other activities... 

On to the letter X!

It was so difficult to get photos of her since she was busy moving about looking for the alphabets! lol.

If you have such a foam mat at home too, do try out these activities! :) Have FUN!

Playdoh fun

While shopping for a birthday present for a tot the other day, we came across this set of playdoh and we decided to get it for Alicia.

Available at Tom & Stephanie, this snackbar playdoh set is retailing at $12.90 and I'd say it's really worth the money!

There are five bottles of different-coloured dough provided (white, blue, yellow, green and red) and you can mix the colours to obtain more different-coloured dough.

As with other playdohs, don't leave the dough exposed to air for too long as it will dry up, so make sure they are kept well in the bottles after playing. This dough is slightly scented but I'd say it's still within limits and not too over-powering.

Alicia was naturally excited about her new toy and she kept bugging us to open it up for her and we did so on Saturday night:

Wow!

Tot in action!

Alicia's played with playdoh before when she was attending class at Julia Gabriel but I think back then she was too young to appreciate it. Now that she's older, she tries to play with the dough:, kneading it, cutting it with various objects found in the set, making patterns from the moulds provided and basically just tearing it apart after awhile. :P More practice for fine motor skills :)

Naming colours has become part of her daily activity for a long while and with the recent focus on colours in both languages, I decided that I'd label the bottles of dough!

 

So the bottles of dough all get labels slapped on them and this time by using white labels, it really forces her to practise word recognition. Hee. Hope she gets a hang of it soon. She learns so fast these days...!

Apart from making a simple sunny-side-up (which Alicia kept trying to feed to her stuffed toys), here are some pretty little things you can make with the dough:

Alicia was role-playing birthday celebrations with these two cuties:

The dough in perspective!:

That's how small the little 'cakes' are coz the hand in the pic is Alicia's! :)

Note: Not suitable for kids who still like to mouth things.