Toddler Activities for the Letter S

I found this book at the library called "Measuring Size" and decided that would be a fun topic to study for the letter S. For this activity, we made our own rulers and "Book of Size."



Materials:
cardboard
markers
string
hole punch
scissors
measuring tape
construction paper
staples


I cannot get this photo to stay rotated for the life of me. It's never been a problem before! Ah well.

Step One:
Measure and cut your piece of cardboard about 2" in width and, of course, 12" in length.


Step Two:
Cut out your ruler and mark each inch along the top. I held the measuring tape in place while my preschooler marked the inches. If you're doing this activity with a toddler, you'll have to do most of the work on this part.






Step Three:
Punch a hole in the ruler and thread your string through the hole. Tie it so that it hangs from their neck, long enough to hold it out and measure things.






Step Four:
Staple a few pieces of paper together for their "book of size." We went outside to find some items to measure such as a flower and our car. I followed her and helped her to hold the ruler and mark the end of it with her finger and hold it up again in the proper place.









I also showed her how to write the marking for inches and feet. We measured our trash can and one of our lovely little chickens.


This activity is geared more towards 3-5 year olds, but there's a way to adapt it to younger toddlers. You make a ruler that they can color and show them how you measure simple things on their body like their nose or finger or feet. They can measure things on your face or your hands or a favorite toy. Focus on words such as "big" and "small" and which things are smaller or bigger than one another.

Have fun with this!

What motivates a mom?

Today as I was tidying up the dining room, I reached under the table to pick up a small blue plastic cup that was upside down on the floor. As I tried to pick it up, it didn't budge. Now that's a new one for me. I pulled harder until it finally popped off the floor, leaving a sticky residue. It made me think about the cycles I go through with housework. Some days I clean up right after every meal before moving onto the next thing. Sometimes my attention is demanded elsewhere and that cup filled with one last sip of sticky strawberry smoothie fossilizes to the floor. When I read Kathryn Stockett's The Help, I didn't clean for about two weeks, which in my house is close to sanitary suicide. Sometimes I feel punished as I take the long walk into the kitchen to face my sink. I start throwing away toys that I've picked up countless times just so I don't have to see them again. I think of emergency errands that I have to run with the girls in order to escape the mess. Pinterest becomes my paradise and I could indulge for hours.

I've been putting together a mental list of small and simple "motivations" that keep me on my feet and incentivized to get things done.

1. Have a project that you enjoy that makes your house more attractive. Right now I'm in the process of painting and stenciling our stairs. It's been quite a process to primer, paint, and touch-up each stair and find the materials to make stencils and then cut them out. It's tedious, but I get giddy and excited every time we work on it because I've despised that staircase for about two years now. I've started to neglect my housework to paint or seal those steps, but lately (today), I've forced myself to clean up first. Then I have something to look forward to as I have my daily communion with the dishes.

2. Reward yourself when you do something good. Seems so elementary, but it sure works for me. I had a goal at the beginning of the year to stop yelling at my kids and use a calm voice, even when angry. My goal was to be successful at this for one week. It took me until May to accomplish my goal, but then I did it for two weeks (one was vacation...)! I rewarded myself with a beautiful new red leather handbag for my scriptures. Lovely. I'm still working on that goal and now if I can make it another two weeks, I get to buy a fresh set of "Touch and Feel" books for Eloise since all of our are half-eaten. Incentivize.

3. Invite people over. This can be more stressful than motivating, but I know when I have guests coming to my home, that I'll get it clean in time even if I sacrifice some sleep. And it's fun to show off that project you just completed and pretend that your house is always clean.

What motivates you?

Toddler Activities for the Letter S

Here are some toddler or preschooler activity ideas for the letter S. I thought I'd share my usual routine with teaching our letter of the week since some of these letter have endless options:

I typically introduce the letter on Monday. I write both uppercase and lowercase on our white board and have my four year old write her own uppercase/lowercase next to mine. Then I help my two year old trace over my letters. We sing "The S says SSSS, the S says SSSS, every letter makes a sound the S says SSSS." We typically sing the "Days of the Week" song and the "Months of the Year" song at the beginning of our Activity Time, so I have them JUMP or YELL out loud any day or month that starts with our letter (September!). We also sing the alphabet and listen for our letter.

Sometimes I grab 6-8 toys out of our toy box that represent things that start with our letter. I write the letter on a paper bag and put those toys into the bag. As they pull them out one at a time, we talk about those words and the sound of the letter they start with.

The Letter G

It is also helpful to write the letter on a piece of construction paper and have your toddler glue something that starts with that sound (such as Glitter for the Letter G) along the lines and curves of the letter. You could do sea shells or "soft" cotton balls for the Letter S.

Tuesday is our library day and that's when I pick up our books for that week. I find as much as I can on the letter of the week, trying to find one fairy tale, one science topic, one animal, and one or two books that talk about the sounds and uses of the letter we're studying.

And then I choose some crafts and activities that coincide with our letter as well. This is the part I love best about doing preschool at home with my kids; the options are endless and it leaves me a lot of room for creativity. I can also cater to the areas where I feel my kids need some more practice.

Here's our first activity for the Letter S:

We found some great books about the solar system and talked about how our Earth is spinning in a circular orbit around the sun. All of these words were new to my kids, so we just kept it simple. I wanted an activity that showed them what we learned, so this is what we came up with.

We used construction paper and sticky felt to make a sun and earth. I stuck the earth onto a pipe cleaner and poked the opposite end of the pipe cleaner into the middle of the sun.


We practiced rotating the earth around the sun. My daughter had a lot of questions about how the earth is always spinning and why we don't feel it. We talked a little bit about gravity.
I had a book about stars that talked about how the sun is a star. We used our star cutter from the 4th of July to cut out some stars for our mini "solar system."

There's so much you can do with the solar system!

Here's another favorite about stars:

Finding Balance with Toddlers

It's taken me a while but I've been learning that part of being a good mom is taking time out for myself. I've been getting up early lately. My main motivation is to have time to be alone. We have very loud wood stairs, so I step on the "quiet" spots and tip-toe down to the living room where I cuddle up on the couch and read my scriptures. I love this time. In the beginning this was difficult because I very much dislike going to bed early. I used to believe an early bedtime is for people age 60+. But now that I'm getting up early, I'm yawning like a seasoned 60 year old around 9 pm. And it's not so bad, climbing into bed around 10pm (instead of 11:30 or midnight) because I know that around 5:30 or 6, I get to work on something entirely by myself.

My husband has said, "In order to be a good mom, you have to be a good you." I recently pulled out my collection of old vintage picture frames I've been collecting to sell at our local farmer's market. I've had a blast packing up the girls and bribing them with SUGAR as I dig through the piles of frames at local consignment shops and thrift stores. I search for the ornate frames that have character and try to never spend more than $5 per frame. At home, I stretched out a huge drop cloth and went to work. I painted some of them and others I covered with fabric. I found a local glass shop and cut glass to fit those that were missing their panes. I poly-urethaned, I sanded, I cut fingers, and lost way too much sleep. But I finished them in time for the market.

And the result? I sold ONE frame. My total profit was negative nine dollars (booth fee).

But after feeling offended and frustrated, I realized that it was still worth it. I'd already earned far more than negative nine dollars. I'd earned another piece of ME. I learned a lot about refurbishing frames--where to find the good ones, what paint colors look good, how to get an even finish. I even started covering picture frame mats with cute fabrics to brighten a room. I am in love with these creations that are now sitting in a local consignment shop with my name on them.

And now that my fingernails are permanently destroyed and all my paints are lining the walls of my dining room, I'm motivated to discover more of what I can do. Today I finally painted the first coat of dark brown onto the tops of those loud wooden stairs I creep down every morning. They've been primed forever and now they're on their way to completion. I want them to end up something close to this:

(Aren't those Moroccan stencils beautiful?)

This week has helped me see that part of being a balanced mother is allowing my own needs to be a part of that balance. I've found that if I plan a daily activity time with my kids, I can make it through the day (mostly) guilt-free. I can give my kids the time and attention they need and still make time for those important ME projects.

Our routine is constantly changing to fit all of our needs. And that's okay. April Perry wrote a great essay on balance where she says: "I don't know why I feel like a failure when my life gets out of balance. It's usually not because I did something 'wrong,' but because the balance point has shifted." I usually stress when those "shifts" come along and worry that I'm not doing things right and that my kids won't be as nurtured and intelligent as other kids because those moms obviously have it figured out and I don't. But somehow we always manage to get back on track with what works for us. And never underestimate the power of chucking that routine out the window and doing what you need to to stay sane and nice. I've left my husband and two toddlers at home to eat dinner by myself at the Village Inn. I've driven past the library to go look at a new thrift store or have lunch at Great Harvest Bread because it made me feel better in that moment to know that I could take the reigns and do that for myself. I didn't plant a garden this year. I cancelled activity time the other day because everyone was driving me crazy. So what? If I allow myself a little serendipity, my routine feels more balanced. (A happier mom is better than one who checks off everything on her list).

I'd hoped to finish the stairs today and clean up my mess and bake a beautiful lasagna (what was I thinking?) but sometime around 5pm, of course, everyone became a little stir-crazy and destructive. The backs of my legs were covered in paint because I'd accidentally SAT on my gallon of dark brown and doused my backside. The girls wouldn't stop tormenting one another and baby was AWAKE and needy, so we packed some snacks and went to a nearby splash pad. It was out of order, so we just sat and did nothing and played and then did nothing and ate plums and relaxed. Not planned, but critical to our sanity.

And those stairs will be waiting for me early tomorrow morning if I can get my keister into bed...

"The biggest challenge is finding the right balance. The amount of time we have to 'spare' changes with the different stages of our lives. There is no perfect day where we squeeze everything in. Something usually has to fall to the background while we focus on something else. It would be tragic to tip the scale so much that we forget to enjoy the stage we are in now. Find joy and learning in the simple things everyday."
-Suzanne Christensen (quote found here.)

Toddler Activites for the Letter R

For our study of the letter "R," we talked about the color red, the shape of a rectangle, and made the sound of "rain" by rubbing our hands together, snapping our fingers, patting our legs, and jumping (for thunder). There's a fun video on Youtube here if you want to try it out! We found a book about rattlesnakes and learned some interesting facts about those interesting creatures. We decided to make some rattlers of our own for our activity and here's what we came up with:



Materials:
construction paper
stapler
cotton balls
crayons
dried beans or rice

Step One:
Fold your paper in half lengthwise and draw your snake's shape on one side.


Step Two:
Have your preschooler help you cut out your snake, giving you two snake pieces.


Step Three:
Staple your two snake pieces together as your preschooler places the cotton balls in between them.






Step Four:
(I don't have pictures of this step because my 2 year old was DONE at this point).
Fold another smaller piece of paper in half and cut out a rattle shape. We drew the "buttons" onto the rattler (they really are called buttons because of the sound they make when they hit one another as the rattler shakes). Fill your rattler with dried beans or rice as you staple it closed. Attach the rattler to the snake with another staple.


You could host a RACE between your snakes when you're done!
A great classic story to share for this letter is Little Red Riding Hood.
I always look up the Sesame Street songs on You Tube as well.

Toddler Activities for the Letter Q

Quotable Quizzes
One of my favorite things about being a mother is recording all of the funny things my kids say. As we studied the letter Q this week, I wrote up these "quizzes" for my kids with simple questions such as "What is your favorite color?" and "If you could be an animal, what would you be?" It was really entertaining to hear their answers.

We first discussed what a question is and how questions are followed by a question mark. On the front of the quiz sheet, I drew a large picture of a question mark and asked them to trace and decorate it.

We even used Q tips to paint our question marks!

Here's my two year old giving me the stink eye for some reason.
Love these little girls.

Toddler Activities for the Letter Q

Last week we studied the letter Q. Here's one of the activities we did in celebration of this queenly little letter.

Queenly Q's
We drew, decorated, and cut out fancy Q's to wear.

Materials:
card stock
scissors
large popsicle sticks
markers
stickers, glitter, etc.

Step One:
Draw your Q's and a crown to accompany each one.


Step Two:
Decorate to your heart's content. (The only stickers we had on hand were math stickers).


Step Three:
Cut out your Q.


Step Four:
While my kids decorated their crown, I taped on the popsicle sticks.


Step Five:
Tape on your crown and have your kiddo peek through!

*A more heavily decorated crown proved to be heavier than I thought. I had to reinforce the Q with more popsicle sticks. That's why I recommend using card stock.

Toddler and Preschooler Activities for the 4th of July

Here's some last minute activities to do this weekend...

Star bracelets:
We made these out of the strips left over after cutting out our stars for the American flag. Cut your strip to fit your little one's wrist and tape in place. Easy!


Patriotic Counting Game:
I wrote the numbers 1-18 on the bottom of an egg carton. My girls had to throw a bouncy ball into the carton (I held the carton to make sure it actually landed inside). We looked at what number was at the bottom and counted out an equal number of stars to put into that little cup.



Starry Napkin Holders
My mother-in-law found this idea on Family Fun here.
You need blue napkins, cardstock, scissors and starlight mints. Instead of glue, my mother-in-law used the glue dots in the picture below.



Cut the card stock to fit around the napkins and tape in place. Glue the mints around the card stock and you're done!


And maybe have a little treat while you work...





Have a safe and fun 4th of July!