Dragons and Dinosaurs

This week was Tobias's first birthday.  He's really interested in dinosaurs.  With Chinese New Year happening this week, we decided to celebrate the letter D for his birthday making dinosaurs and dragons.  I cut some paper plates in half and some shapes out of construction paper like triangle plates and horns, rectangle legs, heads and necks.  The kids could glue or tape whatever pieces they wanted to try to create dinosaurs.  I also provided feathers and eye stickers for their dinosaurs.  If it hadn't been a crowd, we might have painted, but instead they had markers to color.  On our own, we talked about different types of dinosaurs and their traits like the plates of a stegosaurus, the horns and crests of ceratopsians, and the armor and clubbed tail of ankylosaurus.  We mentioned raptors and other dinosaurs that have feathers.





We ordered some dragon blowers from Discount School Supply.  They don't require any additional supplies, which was nice but don't expect them to last long.  Of course, with toddler activities, we don't usually expect them to last long.  Genevieve thought they were great fun though.  The flames are entertaining.

We created some fireworks art with glitter glue and black paper.  We also used some new scratch boards that we got for Christmas.  This one had glitter behind the black so made a great shiny picture.

We read The Birthday Box, which was a great book for a first birthday about the fun that can be had with a box.  We enjoyed Rexerella, My Dinosaur ABC, and Dinosaur Parade, hearing about different types of dinosaurs.  Our copy of Rexerella hasn't held up great, but what does one expect with a pop up book around two young kids.  Our Family Reunion is the touching story of a young girl who's father is a migrant worker and is only able to come home for Chinese New Year.  My First Chinese New Year introduces some of the traditions of Chinese New Year.  Red is a Dragon doesn't particularly deal with Chinese New Year, but discusses color, dragons, and some of the other things that might be seen during Chinese New Year like firecrackers and incense.  I love The Last Dragon, which is a little more wordy than the other books.  Your little one might need a little more patience to make it through this book.  But it's the story of a boy who is forced to stay with a great aunt in Chinatown.  He doesn't think he'll have any fun, but discovers a broken down dragon in a store.  He takes on the project of repairing the dragon and becomes friends with many of the people in the neighborhood.

Genevieve and Tobias enjoyed some time with Grandma Mohr.  We read How to Babysit a Grandma and Llama Llama Gram and Grandpa.  These are some of our favorites for when grandparents visit.

The library had a visit from the California Raptor Center, so we got to see some owls and hawks, feathers and skulls.  Tobias had two sign classes this week.  The first was about things that go like cars and planes.  This was great timing as he got some cars he loves for his birthday.  The second was about bath time, which meant there was water to splash in and bubbles to watch.  Bubbles are great as they help with eye hand coordination, tracking, depth perception, and fine motor skills when popping.

Martin Luther King Jr Day and Other Interesting Activities

This week honors the memory of Martin Luther King Jr.  As such, we have read a biography of the Civil Rights leader.  Genevieve also chose a book about women in the Civil Rights Movement, which we just began to read.

We started our week with a visit to the pet store and art store.  The pet store has long been a favorite stop for Genevieve as she can see all the animals there.  We use it as an opportunity to practice our animal signs and talk about animal's needs and habitats.  It's also interesting to note the differences between various animals.

We had an amazing opportunity after storytime this week.  Some local firefighters were training, so we got to hear about some of the things they do and watch them attach a hose and use the water cannon.  It was a wonderful chance to talk about community helpers and see a fire engine in action.

We read The Jellybeans and the Big Art Adventure, Bridget's Beret, and The Magical Garden of Claude Monet.  These were some fun books about different artists.  The Jellybeans learn that there are many different kinds of artists and that you can use your own interests to make art.  Bridget learns that she doesn't need her beret to make great art.  The end of the book includes some great example paintings by famous artists that inspired Bridget.  The Magical Garden of Claude Monet follows the imagined story of the visit between Claude Monet and Julie Manet.  The gardens are real, and the illustrations are meant to reflect Monet's style.  We spent the afternoon painting, inspired by these great stories.  We may have to try to find some of the other books by Laurence Anholt when studying other artists.

She played Hi Ho Cherry-o and the Hungry Caterpillar Game with Grandma.  She had great fun baking with Grandma and dad too.  Since she made strawberry muffins with Mom, she has been asking to make blueberry muffins, blueberry pancakes, and blueberry oatmeal cookies with dad.  So they had a fun baking day.

Finally, we played Red Light, Green Light and talked about the inventor of the traffic light and a gas mask used by firefighters, Garrett Morgan.  Garrett Augustus Morgan was born in 1877 in Paris, Kentucky to two former slaves.  He was the 7th of 11 children.  He left school early to find work, but when he found a job in Cincinnati he made enough money to hire a tutor.  He moved to Cleveland at 18 to continue work.  In Cleveland, he started in the sewing machine repair shop.  He was so inventive that he made all 32 machines his employees used.

With all his success, he bought a house, got married, had 3 boys, and even bought a car.  He took time to run a newspaper called the Cleveland Call that reported African American news from around the country.  He also invented some smaller items – hat and belt fasteners, a friction drive clutch, a zig-zag attachment for manually operated sewing machines and more.  He died in 1963, and was honored 1 month after his death at the Emancipation Centennial celebration.
   
Some of his inventions were inspired by his desire to save lives.  One invention was motivated by the tragedy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.  He created a gas mask hood.  It was put to the test in 1916 when a group of men tunneling under Lake Erie were caught in a gas explosion.  Garrett put on the mask and saved several men.  Orders for the mask poured in from police and fire fighters, and the mask inspired the gas masks used in World War I to protect our soldiers.  He was awarded Medals for Bravery and made an honorary member of the International Association of Fire Engineers.

After witnessing an accident between a horse-drawn carriage and an automobile, he realized we needed a new kind of traffic signal to deal with all the traffic from cars, carriages, bicycles, and pedestrians.  The current stop light was operated by a person who sat for hours, switching between stop and go.  His invention had a “move with caution” signal to give warning to traffic and also had a 4-way stop position to allow pedestrians to cross safely.

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/gama/gamlife

http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/articles/ushistory/garrettmorgan

If You Give a Moose a Muffin

After recovering from our bout with the flu, we've returned to our regular routine.  The holidays are finished so the classes are back.  We've returned to our storytimes, Music Makers, and soccer.  Tobias has started his own gymnastics classes and Genevieve has graduated to the next level, where she's excited to learn cartwheel basics.  Tobias has started sign language again too.


At home, we've been reading Mouse Cookies and More.  Genevieve loves the books by Laura Numeroff, and this collection contains four of the stories as well as recipes, music, and activities.  Genevieve asked to make strawberry muffins.  We've sewn some buttons on colorful socks to turn them into puppets.  We also enjoyed some time playing Hi Ho Cherry-o and the Hungry Caterpillar Game, which fit both the theme of food and are fun games with some easy math.  We also read The Lion's Share, which dealt with baking and math.

Three King's Day and Rest is Best

This week was Three King's Day or Epiphany, which was on January 6th.  Those that celebrate this holiday often choose to exchange gifts then rather than on Christmas.  This is appropriate as it is a celebration of the day the Three Magi arrived from the East and gave gifts of gold, Frankincense and myrrh to the baby Jesus.  We read The Third Gift.


In many Spanish speaking countries, the Wise Men or Three King's are said to be the ones that deliver gifts to the children.  In Italy, however, La Befana is the one that delivers gifts.  The legend says that the Three Wise Men stopped by her hut to ask directions on their way to Bethlehem and invited her to join them.  She was busy cleaning her house and said she would catch up.  When night fell, she saw the great star in the sky and lamented her decision to stay behind.  She gathered some toys and left to find the Wise Men.  She could not find the stable, but continues her search every year and leaves presents for the children she finds.

In celebration, we decorated crowns.  The rest of the week was quiet books, workbooks, coloring, and games as we had a bout of the flu working its way through the family.  We read My Robot and I gave her a cardboard tube to create her own robot.  She decided to color it.

Sacramento children's museum

We visited the Sacramento Children's Museum recently with some family.  It's an interesting place.  Having worked at the Duke Energy Children's Museum in Cincinnati gives me a different perspective when I visit these types of places.

It's not exactly in Sacramento, but in Rancho Cordova.  Parking was relatively easy on the weekend.  It shares the parking lot with City Hall.  There is a tiny shopping area at the entrance, but not a full gift shop and no cafe.  But it isn't far from a number of restaurants if you do need food.

The price itself was reasonable.  They offer military and other discounts and are with ASTC, which means it won't hurt to ask about a discount if you have a membership to a museum.  Another great thing is that kids under 1 are free.

Once past the front desk, Tobias and Genevieve went straight to the train table.  It's a great height for them although they couldn't reach the boats well.  They weren't there long before they were called to the side where there was a large tower of foam blocks for Tobias to try to knock over and a giant light bright to distract Genevieve.  She wasn't quite sure what to do with the pegs, but was fascinated by it.

When she pulled herself away from the wall, she ignored the small sand area as it was slightly hidden and the play house.  Instead she went straight to the tubes on the wall which used air to create vacuums and propel scarves or foam balls about.  She loves these types of activities.  It was a little tough for her to move the pieces herself but she kept trying.  She experimented in rolling balls on the ramp as well.



On the other side of that wall, they created a sensory experience by hanging pool noodles from the ceiling.  Genevieve enjoyed traveling through the area but it didn't last long.  My main concern with this area was that it is difficult to watch your child through the hallway, which means you are either going through with them, which means they are missing out on experiencing this independently and you are getting hit with pool noodles, or you are going back and forth to keep your eyes on both sides.  Not as much of an issue with older kids when you can stay back further, but since this was new for Genevieve we wanted to keep a closer eye.


While she played there, Tobias went to the baby area with daddy.  It's a safe crawling place but he quickly bored.

Meanwhile, Genevieve headed to the art room.  She didn't really join in with the activities at the table but delighted in being able to paint the window.  They do a pretty good job of cleaning up space for new kids without making the area to wet.

Finally came the highlight of Tobias's day.  In the back corner, they have a water area.  There are several different tables at different levels and with different designs.  Tobias spent most of his time at a table by a Duplo wall.  The Duplo were meant to play in the water and on the wall, and the table was the right height.  The other tables had flowing water, to play with currents, control flow with pipes, and experiment with fountains.  Genevieve tried these out.  They have a few jackets to keep clothing dry, but I would definitely recommend extra clothes for little ones.

Genevieve tried those other tables out but left to play in the town before Tobias was done in the water.  She ended her day on the stage, admiring the fact she was also on TV.

Descriptive Words and Other Language Activities

We have been enjoying our new gifts from the holidays this week but have been missing our usual classes and time with friends.  We are getting ready for the new year with a new schedule of activities though.

Genevieve has really been enjoying these Water Wow books by Melissa and Doug.  She has been practicing her letters and numbers and playing with animals in these books.  She is really trying to figure out what letters words begin with.  She also loves counting.  The animal book is just fun for her to play with.  So far she has really enjoyed these books, and they are very reusable.  The water board she had before was similar, but tended to collect dirt which was really difficult to clean in the end.  These brush markers are great, but your toddler may press to hard and slowly scratch the pages.

Since there aren't any storytimes this holiday season, we have just spent some time playing at the library and picking out new books.  It's actually really interesting that she seems to be ignoring a lot of picture books and choosing board books and chapter books.  She also really enjoys the puppets.  Tobias wants to play with beads and peek-a-boo with the puppet tree.  Because she has been having so much fun with puppets, and got some great new ones handmade by her grandmother for her birthday, we used a leftover cardboard box from Christmas to make a puppet theatre.  She started painting it this week.

 One of ABCmouse's newer activities is a song about using more descriptive words, like drizzle instead of rain.  This inspired us to look at some other sources for descriptive words.  We read Rhymoceros and Hippopposites by Janik Coat which were filled with great descriptive words and simple illustrations to demonstrate each word like blurry and furry.  Over in the Jungle uses great verbs to describe the animals motion.  It also follows the rhyming song she loves, additional learning activities, and interesting illustrations.  The illustrator, Jeanette Canyon, uses different techniques in clay to create the images.  We followed up our books by making a texture collage and discussing the way the different items feel.

We ended the week with some puzzles.  I love puzzles, and have great memories of putting puzzles together with my dad.  Melissa and Doug make some great wooden puzzles.  Some have chunky pieces.  Others have large or small knobs for picking up pieces or even magnet poles for lifting the pieces.  But why do puzzles with your little ones?  First off, they are a great starting point for dialogue.  Sometimes it can be difficult to try to talk with your infants and toddlers.  You know the more words they hear from actual people, the better but what to talk about?  Puzzle topics are a springboard.  From shapes to colors, animals to letters and numbers, puzzles cover a range of topics.  Puzzles can help improve fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and spatial reasoning as they maneuver pieces into their place.  You and your toddler or infant can work together, building teamwork skills, or they can build self-confidence completing puzzles on their own.  Plus Tobias will tell you puzzle pieces make excellent noises as you crawl with them.

For more information about puzzle benefits in early childhood education:
Learning for Kids
Teach
Child Development Institute
University of Chicago