I love using wood for learning materials because of their durability, their aesthetic, their versatility, but it can get costly very quickly. So I started making various learning materials out of these inexpensive tumbling blocks and have been so pleased with them. MATERIALS Jenga Blocks/Generic Wooden Tumbling Blocks Sheet of Adhesive Mailbox Letters INSTRUCTIONS Though it hardly seems necessary… Peel and stick. (If the sticker adhesive begins to fade I plan to seal these with a coat of Mod Podge, but so far they’ve held up just fine without it.) I began with just one sticker per block, but have since gone back and added a second letter to the…
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Free Alphabet Flashcards
Learning through play has become my preferred style of teaching for young ones and so at first the use of flashcards might seem a bit contrary. However, I don’t think that learning through play has to mean the exclusion of flashcards. There are plenty of ways incorporate flashcards to allow the learning to remain playful. During my time as a nanny and now as a mother, I was finding myself writing and rewriting letters on repeat for letter recognition activities, which don’t get me wrong, gets the job done just the same. But I was wearying from doing it over and over. In addition to that, I am always in…
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A Color Study in Yellow
This month we explored the cheerful color yellow. Soft butter. Singing canaries. Sunshine. Daffodils. Cheery sunflowers. Caution. Happiness. Tart lemons. Dandelions. Taxis. Cheese. There is no ‘right’ way to do this. It’s play and discovery and celebration of the gift of color. But these are some resources that we enjoyed through the process. For us, the transition to studying a new color usually begins here, with the yellow discovery tray. YELLOW DISCOVERY TRAY I hang bunting made from paint chips, tape, and string. I gather up all of the predominantly yellow board books we own and place them on the bookshelf beside this tray which we then fill together via…
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Introduction to Color Studies
When Graham turned four months old, we began to explore color together. It had nothing to do with speeding up his ability to identify and sort specific colors. It was simply about him discovering colors one by one and delighting in all the wild and wonderful places we find them in the world. I have plans of returning to and cycling through these color studies for a few years as he grows, suiting the objectives at each time for whatever stage of development he happens to be in. But mostly, we’re discovering. We’re exploring. We’re playing. And it’s a joy. I wasn’t expecting to find such enjoyment in the rediscovery…
