Another Paint Chip Game!

I took eight of our spare paint chips which were the same size but different colours, and drew some basic pictures on them in pairs. I chose pictures that could lead to other activities, like singing or pretending games. We will be laying the paint chips out on the table, coloured side down, and playing the memory game as before. An alternative game is to shuffle the cards, offer them to your child coloured side down, and ask them to pick one. Sing a song that corresponds to the card. 

Our cards have pictures of:

• Rabbits: "Miss Bunny" or "Little Peter Rabbit"
• Ducks: "3 Little Ducks Went Out One Day" or "Ducks Like Rain"
• Frogs: "Mr Frog Went Out" or "Frogs Go 'La De Da De Da'"
• A Face: "Eyes and Ears and Mouth and Nose" or "If You're Happy and You Know It [touch your eyes/ears/mouth/nose]" - the latter adapted to include facial features

Another idea is to get your child to choose a two different cards, and you make up a (very) simple story about them. For example, your tot chooses a rabbit card and a frog card. You could say, "One day Mrs. Bunny wanted to make a cake, but she didn't have any flour left. So she took her basket and went for a walk to visit her friend, Mr. Ribbity, who lived nearby. Mr. Ribbity said, 'Of course you can borrow some flour, Mrs. Bunny!' Then Mrs. Bunny replied, "Thank you Mr. Ribbity! Would you like to come to my house and share some of the cake with me?" And so, the two friends shared a delicious cake for supper. The end." 

I'm really looking forward to playing these games with Eden. I hope you (whoever you are) are finding these ideas helpful! Ciao for now! ~ L.

Gingerbread Men

I'm going to have to make another batch of these up with Eden, they were a smash with her and with our family too! Before we began cooking, I told her the story of the gingerbread man (if you need a refresher, you can find the story here), and then told her that we were going to try making some.

She was so excited! When we were decorating the gingerbread men, I noticed that Eden was putting the choc chips all over the bodies, but not the heads. I asked her why, and she said "because Mummy, if they no have faces, they no run away"! Ha ha ha! Stuff like that just makes my day!

Incidentally, storytelling is really important. Books, of course, are a huge part of it, but also just telling your child a story with no pictures or books or anything is important. It teaches them listening skills and comprehension, and how to follow a storyline without visual cues. If you're a bit rusty on fairy tales, check out http://www.childrenstory.info/ for great versions to tell your kids. There's a link on the left hand side, 'Children's Stories' where you'll find nearly fifty tales to tell your tots.

See if you can link the stories in with an activity; colouring pages, puppets, cooking or baking, etc. Let us know what you come up with! ~ L.