Only a year ago he happily sat wherever we plopped him.

 
Now, his little feet take him where his curiousity wills, which has been to the art & craft table.

 
Set up the invitation to play with block printing:

 
Toddlers innately want to explore the world around them. They’re figuring out cause and effect relationships. When doing arts and crafts with them, expose them to as many different materials and processes as possible.

 
Place a variety of small dishes with different coloured paints and blocks on the table.

 
Vary the paints each day. Use different colours. Use paints with or without glitter. Offer thick or thin paint.

 
Use different kinds of paper. You can use plain, coloured or textured paper. Don’t forget to use three dimensional mediums like boxes or rocks for variety.

 
Helpful things to remember when doing arts and crafts with toddlers:

 
It’s about the process, not the product.

 
Step back and let him do the whole project himself.

 
Repeat experiences are invaluable so resist the urge to pack things away.

 
What about block printing for older children?

 
To extend the activity for Big Brothers N and M, we explored the beginnings of patterns and algebra with block printing.

The post Art for Toddlers: Block Printing by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

 
Macro concepts & core enduring understandings:

 
Children begin exploring number and pre-algebraic concepts by pattern making. Genuine algebraic thinking begins with the development of a child’s ability to:

• Recognise, describe, create and continue repeating patterns;
• Describe repeating patterns in terms of the number of elements that repeat;
• Understand that the equals sign means ‘is the same as’.

 
Set the stage for learning:

 
To begin, make patterns using only colours or shapes. If using colours, place a variety of small dishes with different coloured paint on the table and the same block shape (e.g. squares) in each dish. If using shapes to make the patterns, use the same paint colour in each of the small dishes and place different shaped blocks in each paint dish. To extend the activity, you may provide different paints and shapes simultaneously.

 
Provide each child with a large piece of paper with lines drawn either vertically or horizontally, well spaced from each other for the child to print their patterns.

 
Support learning:

 
Encourage a child to:

• Create a wide variety of patterns.
• Describe the patterns verbally. Eg. ‘This pattern is made from triangles. The colours repeat. They go yellow, purple, yellow, purple…”
• Label the patterns using numbers that indicate the number of elements that repeat. Eg yellow, purple, yellow, purple is a ‘two’ pattern.
• Determine if two groups have the same number of objects and describe the equality. Eg ‘The number of shapes in this pattern here is the same as the number of shapes in that pattern there’.

The post Kindergarten Math: Patterns and Algebra with Block Printing by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

One afternoon, we had some lovely guests over for lunch. While Hubby and I were cleaning up after the meal, our guests were playing with our kids; (I really enjoy having these type of guests over, even more so than our kids if that were possible). I returned to find that little E had built his own real lego person! It tickled my creative bone to no end.

Materials
Lego/Duplo blocks
A willing person to be the model

How We Played

 Stack duplo blocks onto your model.
Miss Cookie was kind enough to be E’s model.
E built Miss Cookie some pretty cool toes.

E also managed to stick an eye on.

 How’s this for a caption for the above:
“My, what a big eye you have Miss Cookie! Now use it to look at the huge toes I built you.”

Our habits, bits and pieces of our character form their imprints on our children. Some traits, like E’s budding creativity, amuse. Other traits are humbling. The trait that matters most is the state of our heart towards God, our creator and maker. Left on our own, our hearts are as stone towards God. We would not choose him. However, God has not abandoned us. In Christ, He loves us. In Christ, He justifies us. In Christ, He redeems us. In Christ, He restores us.

“..for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus..”
(Romans 3:23-24 ESV)

What a sigh of relief I can breathe, for me, and my children.

E: 1 year, 11 months

The post Real Lego People by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

Hanging Yoghurt Cup Waterfall by A Childhood List

Young Master Three (E) is going through a ‘devour-all-yoghurt-in-sight’ phase. This, coupled with all my three young masters’ love for water play makes this hanging yoghurt cup waterfall simply irresistible.

Home Made Toy Sock Blocks by Growing Play

My home should be named the Ministry of Missing Socks. This post speaks to me on so many levels.

Giant Puddle Paint Brush by Let’s Lasso the Moon

Puddles? Tick. Brush or broom? Tick. Enjoy your giant puddle paint brush.

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The post Weekly Kids’ Co-op: The Magic of Simple Everyday Items by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.