Stickers for motor skills of your toddler

Yesterday I bought some stickers for Karolina with different animals, flowers, butterflies- everything she is interested in for the present moment. It was funny time for us to play together with them, at first we looked for animals she knows, or we tried to count tigers, pandas, kangaroos there ( right now I am trying to teach her to numbers from 1 up to 5, to see them and recognize, we do have some puzzles with numbers too and we try to count on fingers. It is very sweet to see how Karolina is trying to fold her fingers, and when it is not successful she switches to mine-))).

In one of the stickers there was a sticker album where later appeared already some tigers, pandas, elephants, giraffes, etc. with the help of Karolina and me of course. But let me tell you how everything started. It was about 3 months ago when my husband brought a sticker album with LION KING story for our daughter where you can read a text and stick characters form the cartoon, following the plot. Of course it was too early for Karolina to do it herself, but it was a new experience for her to see how it works. She was rather suprised: WHAT IS THAT??? At firts we found some lions, monkeys, zebras in that album and then stuck them to the page, may be sometimes it didnt coincide with a story but the most interesting was the process itself for both of us.

I saw how Karolina was trying to work with her hands and at this moment I thought- wow, these stickers are really good for her motor skills,  it looked a little bit awkward how she tried to manage with them, that is why I decided we must improve that thing, we only need to wait a little bit.

The time when my girl is already old enough to understand "the process of sticking" has come and I decided to continue that experimental game with stickers.

Karolina is choosing a sticker

The first thing Karolina  stuck herself was a palm tree, which was done upside down. This is also a point that kids must know in which way they must stick the item, but it will come later. After that we fill in the page with different animals, again voicing them and counting (as usual everything works in a circle). And here is the result:

palm tree is upside down, some animals are sitting on each other, but it was fun

Of course it is still not perfect with turning the sticker in hands, sticking them exactly to this side  of the page, but we are working on it and will kepp on till the whole album is full. Later I want to create for her other sticker album with different thematics on each page, like here only domestic animals, or here safari animals, or each page with different colour, etc.

Today I also checked in the internet what kind of exercises I can do with stickers else and found a very interesting article, which gives lots of ideas of using stickers as learning tools. For example, you can use stickers

-  as counters

-  as cards in memory game

- for letter and number recognition,

- for sorting colours and shapes

- in story telling

- creating mosaics

- etc.

Just have a look at this article, click on the link above and you will see how many variants of activities they have there.

And have a nice sticky time-)))

How to switch attention of your toddler or a cushion tower activity

This week was quite hard for both of us - Karolina and me - since something is bothering my baby and her mood is changing quite fast and quite often.  When she is playing with her toys, she switches to other thing, and again, and again, and again. In these situations mummies must be so patient and creative, and do any activity from just what they have under their hand. In my case cushions from the sofa helped me a lot. 

Some days ago I was reading one german magazine about babies where found interesting ideas how to spend time with your little one.  There was a page with posts suggesting different games you can play with a baby, starting from 9 months. And one of those gave me a tip  how to switch Karolina's attention  and to make my girl smile, keeping her in this mood a little bit longer. It was good that I had this "deposit" from the article in my head  at that very hard moment. 

We had lunch, and Karolina was pointing on my arm asking where the watch is (actually she did it in her language, and the only thing i understood was the word "tak-tak" which is partially correct from russian "tik-tak" for showing a watch). So, here I offered her to find it after we finish with lunch, what was useful for her motivation. Karolina wanted to help me as usual, when I look for something  she does it with all her heart and passion.  As soon as we came in the living room , I gave Karolina a task to bring a towel back to the kitchen just to have a time to prepare cushions and drop them on the floor, hiding my watch under them. A minute later Karolina came back and saw a hill from pillows which she registered as something new and something not on its place. I asked her if she saw my watch somewhere here and if she can look under the cushions. Karolina started doing this and after the 6th one she found my watch. What a suprise she had on her face! Eyes are like big apples, mouth is in the shape of letter "O". At once, my kid gave me accessory and clapped "Bravo" in order to be appreciated by mum. A kiss didn't wait for a long time. 

searching fora pocket lamp, I guess

Then I hid my phone,a pocket lamp, keys, nd one of her toys. 

"BRAVO,Karolina!" after my girl gave me keys

She was interested by my phone, of course, all the time opening it and pushing the buttons (I must have hid it the last one probably) and I understood that must change it fast again. And then we started to build a tower from pillows, which was all the time destroyed by an imaginary airplane, or a bird, etc. Karolina liked that a lot. Then I offered her to destroy it whereas mummy must build it again...ohhh..and her is the time to go to the group.

Cusion tower, made in Cyprus-)))

Karolina was happy and involved in this short activity which cannot be long, of course, otherwise baby can get bored fast. However, such kind of "switchers" of activity must be always in mummie's pocket. 

And what do you use in such moments? I would like to read your comments and know what else I can do with my kid to have fun at least for 5-10 minutes, it doesn't matter. The most important is her charming smile-))))

Kindermusic with Anja, our Experience

Dear friends, I would like to share with you our experience with Kindermusic which Karolina enjoys a lot. This is a an excellent music course which affects development of your baby from the first sounds of music.  Take your time to have a look at my new article which was posted in Larnaca Parents Network Blog and take a time to visit us during the class too! The first try out is free!!!

And a GREAT THANK YOU to Sharon Mckinley for posting it and possibility to let other mummies know that here in Cyprus, Larnaca, you can do so many activities with your little gem.  Join our parent newtwork on facebook too. You can follow all news in "kid-dy life".

A game for your toddler with a pocket lamp

One day Karolina was going out from bedroom and saw a pocket lamp on the table which we had used for some reasons and forgot to put it back. Karolina paid attention to this yellow-black new item and asked me to give it to her, what I actually did. She was exploring the lamp with great enthusiasm, looking at it from all sides, and THEN SHE FOUND A BUTTON... So, as you can guess I had to switch it on, otherwise Karolina would do it and it could be worse-)

Here Karolina’s face changed and there was a big surprise in her eyes which said: “What’s that? So small and has light?”. About 5 minutes my daughter was occupied not even remembering about me, that I could continue doing my things. Later when she understood how it works, it became already not so exciting and she came to me with a question in her eyes if we can do anything else together. And here came the idea. 

I remembered how much we loved to play in shadows with a pocket lamp in our camp when I was a small girl. It had brought us so much joy. And here I decided to make such kind of experience with my little explorer- professor. I call Karolina sometimes like that: “Ohhh…professor is going to check it now” because she has such a serious face sometimes when she is interested in doing something or watching how someone else is doing this or that thing. It looks really funny when I assemble let’s say a toy for Karolina (kitchen or anything else which demands really mental work) and Karolina stays beside with the same expression of the face like me as if she knows how to help a mummy, only needs time to think-)))

 

So, I showed my toddler how you can play with the lamp, just dropping light on the wall and then simply with a hand in front you make different animals or figures. Karolina was laughing from it and asked for more and more entertainment. Moreover, I made voices for animals, what reminded a movie in black and white colours. It was a nice time spent together.

About 4 months passed since our first experience like that and Karolina still remembers that game. Today she saw a pocket lamp and asked me again to give it to her though she was playing already without my help, trying to make something herself (what was also funny to see because she made it only in front of the light of the lamp but not showing on the wall, plus voicing her favourite animal cat as if she saw it there). This time Karolina needed only audience-)))

something what reminds a dog-)))just don't forget to voice it-)

P.S. Don't forget to subscribe and share it with your friends if you like it. I am always glad for any comment too-)))

Butterfly collage craft inspired by Emma's Lunch

We tried to create a butterfly collage with Karolina last weekend which was done after I read Vanja's post "Lady Bug Collage Craft" in Larnaca Parents Network. This is a colourful, creative and very simple actitivity brought us lots of fun. Thanks to Emma's Lunch for such a nice idea.

 Here is the result

we made 2 different butterflies

Funny was to see how Karolina liked to tear up the paper, she was laughing every time we did it. I think for her age it was the most fun and of course to spread the glue over the cardboard,i.e.butterfly-)))

What can you do with your kid at the age of 12-18 months

From the age of 12 months Karolina likes to do more and more different things as she learns something new, discovers something inetersting, explores something unusual and suprising for her. However her favourite things to do stay still unchangeable. She likes looking through the books, pages with pictures, or she likes to get in a basket or a box,or a suitcase from papa, to sit there and to go out from this, which repeats about 20times and can take about half an hour. Then she will add together some toys there, different items, newspapers- everything she sees around or what catches her attention. But what she enjoys most of all is when we play together in following things:

play-doh

She loves  PLAY DOH, though right now it is functioning not like it must be but it is never early to know and learn new materials, see that you can do sth from this dough (of course with the help of mum and under her control) and then being suprised how it was made, plus recognizing the figures of animals or other objects (like star, for example, she knows where she can show other stars in the house which hang on the wall).

                           ******************************************************

puzzle

We started to play wooden puzzle around 12 months, when Karolina only showed me which animal it was or where it must be. 5 months later she already plays this big puzzle (where around 30 items), not only answering on my "WHERE IS?" question, but also inserting them to the correct place. Moreover, she learnt already how to turn them, of course not always it is successful (since it is still difficult for this age to understand such kind of orientation of objects in space) and she asks me to help her. But what wonderful is that she remembers where the puzzle must be. 

                              ***************************************************

PUZZLE from 2 parts

Right now Karolina can find both parts of each animal, voicing them at the same time, and tries to put them together, the only problem is that she makes it like with LEGO in the air, and doesnt understand how it works when we must do it on the table, floor or sofa.  I believe it will take not so much time as she already makes it 1 month and with such result.

***Puzzles from 3 parts are already waiting for their minute, they stay on the shelf and waiting...waiting...waiting...Must think when Karolina will be ready

                                *************************************************

PAINTING WITH WATER

Karolina enjoys painting. She likes to do it with pencils, or with finger paints, or with WATER and BRUSH. There is a special colouring book which allows kids to paint with just water. It is safe, inetersting (because the colours are changing at once after the baby touches it with a brush) and less problems for mum later to wash furniture or walls from finger painting, lol :-)

Of course I didn't open America with these things, they are not new, but anyway I wanted to share it with other mummies because I find all these things  educational,entertaining, developing and making lots of fun and smile on the face of kid. You can do it every day and make it various.

Share what else do you do with your toddler?

P.S. I already prepared for Karolina other developing games which I will write about later, after we start doing it.