Education

You know mama’s an English teacher if… ~ BabyLit Giveaway

Published May 10, 2012 | By Julie Kieras

…she oohs and ahhs over Baby Shakespeare books

…she tells you she’s going to have you “write that in your journal” when you do something funny

…she corrects your grammar before you’re even two years old

…she explains how words can function as both nouns and verbs when you are confused by her using “train” as a verb (and ignores the blank stare you give her)

…she happily recounts your quoting Alice in Wonderland when Daddy gets home from work

…she can’t wait to read more BabyLit titles to you at bedtime

Yes, it’s true, we’ve been immersed in a new set of classics over here, thanks to BabyLit!

This series is genius, and I wish I had thought of it myself!

Much like the previous two titles in the BabyLit series, Little Miss Bronte’s Jane Eyre is a “counting primer” that details the scenes from this classic piece of literature beautifully! The illustrations beautifully fit the time period of the story and are finely detailed. Your child will count through the basic framework of the story of “One Governess” and her Mr. Rochester.

I was pleased to see the Baby Lit Little Master Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland departs from counting into the world of colors! My son struggled recognizing certain colors, and I fully believe reading this book helped him recognize a the similar colors like black, brown, and purple! (He’s still figuring out yellow!). You can actually retell the Alice story right from the White Rabbit, through the colorful bottles Alice finds (my son loves when I read the labels “Blech!” and “Ick!”), and of course the Red Hearts. (And, I know, Wonderland can be a terrifying tale, but it’s easy to boil it down to just the fun details with this picture book!).

The other day, my son was playing nearby and I heard him quoting the Blue Caterpillar, saying, “Whooo are Youuu?” It was so funny to know he’d learned that from our reading!

Reading the classics to your child becomes exciting and refreshing with the BabyLit series, and will cultivate an interest for quality literature while they are young. Each BabyLit title is a heavy duty board book that retails for just $9.99, and is perfect as a gift item (I would’ve wanted these before I had children, honestly, they are that clever!).

What do you think of these classic literature picture books?

WIN IT: One reader receives a copy of each of these BabyLit titles! ARV $20! To enter leave any topic-related comment below! All generic comments like “Enter me” or “I want to win” will be disqualified.

GIVEAWAY RULES: Open in US only. Giveaway ends at 11:59 pm May 18, 2012. Winner will be emailed directly and have 48 hours to reply to claim their prize. Prize fulfilled by Gibbs-Smith.

Thanks to Gibbs-Smith for providing review copies and also offering a giveaway! All opinions are 100% my own.

Posted in book, Current Giveaways, education, Giveaways, review | 49 Comments

Tot Explorations: Counting with Stamps

Published May 7, 2012 | By Julie Kieras

I think my first Tot Exploration post was this one about Stamping on Target - developing eye-hand coordination.

Since my son has improved his counting lately (1-10 is down pat, and he’s pretty good with 11-20), I wanted to help him refine his skills, so I created a spin-off activity that involves counting.

One thing he does when we count items is jab his fingers fast at each item, so he usually over or under counts because he’s going too fast. Or, he’ll keep counting PAST the number of items, because he gets so excited, he can’t stop himself! LOL!

To slow him down, I designed this simple Counting Chart worksheet that adds a motor skill aspect to his counting. (Feel free to download and use as you wish).

He stamps one time in each circle to “count” the circles. I found the focused stamping slows his counting down considerably. When he hits the end of the row and there are no more circles to stamp, he learns to stop counting as well.

It’s fun for him to have this motor skill activity to do while counting. Also the visual stamp each time he counts a number helps him recognize which circles he’s already counted.

You’d think this worksheet would get old after awhile, but truly, we’ve gone through several of these sheets – one or two a day, and with my supervision. Next step, I’m going to try having him put a small sticker in each circle while he counts.

Have any counting activities to share?

Posted in 2 year old, education, free downloads, toddler activities, Tot Explorations | 3 Comments

Funshine Event! Backyard Safari Outfitters ~ Giveaway

Published May 2, 2012 | By Julie Kieras

We’ve got ants!!

No cause for alarm, they are all well contained. We are on an “ant-venture” with Backyard Safari Outfitters Antropolis set!

Antropolis is a build-able ecosystem where we can watch ants dig, tunnel, eat, drink, play and “bump heads” as they create a new “anthill.” We received the live ants via mail (frankly, I was a little creeped out and made hubby put them in the ant container – I’m not a bug fan but for my little boy I will try to be!!).

Within twenty-four hours the Harvester Ants started burrowing through the sand, creating passages! It is so cool to watch them carrying chunks of sand around, scurry down the tubes to eat or drink water, … and just be their little ant selves! Our little ants are shy though and decided to take all their sand and move it into piles in their feeding containers… we are trying to encourage them to “move back upstairs!” so we can see them at work a bit more!

Our son is only two, and he’s always asking us ee the ants! He’s going to learn a lot about bugs this summer!

Another great feature of the Antropolis is that while many BYSO toys are designed for outdoor use, this can be explored indoors, which is perfect for rainy days!

It’s definitely a great time of year to check out Backyard Safari Toys to get your little explorers geared up for summer exploration.

They might want to chase storms with the Storm Chaser… use the portable weather pod to track and monitor rain, sleet, hail, snow and wind. The compass will teach kids to find true north, and the anemometer measures wind speed. You can collect and measure rainfall, or check air temperatures. This would be perfect for a tree house/fort, or taking on treks and camping expeditions!

Keep them hydrated with the Field Canteen… after sun protection, nothing’s more important than keeping kids hydrated in hot weather. A realistic canteen has a fabric holder to protect and insulate, and a “no lose” cap band and shoulder strap for transport! The perfect accessory for any field work!

Dig and explore with the 6-in-1 Field Tools – sturdy tools with hundreds of uses – gather samples, excavate, signal with the safety whistle, and also clip right onto your child’s vest or belt loop for easy access!

I love how sturdy and useful the toys from Backyard Safari Outfitters are. And, they each come with a “patch” that kids can earn when they complete their explorations! You can get a BYSO Cargo Vest to affix all their earned badges to, so these toys are a great “collectible” item to get for kids at birthdays, Christmas, and other special occasions so they can earn all the patches!

Find Backyard Safari Outfitters gear and tools online and at variou retailers like Toys R Us and Walmart! Keep up with the adventures on Facebook and Twitter!

WIN IT: One reader wins a Backyard Safari Outfitters Prize Pack of all these items featured here!! ARV $83. Enter in the Rafflecopter form below!
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Posted in 2 year old, education, Giveaways, outdoor, review, summer, toddler activities, toy | 7 Comments

Tot Explorations: Word Play with Magnetic Poetry ~ Giveaway

Published April 30, 2012 | By Julie Kieras

I really can’t wait to teach my toddler to read. It’s definitely early, but we work on pre-literacy skills all the time.

This week, we have been reviewing a Magnetic Poetry Kit, and I came up with a matching game activity.

I grabbed a few of the concrete noun words from the Magnetic Poetry Kit, and created a chart that had a picture of each word with space below for the magnet.

Then, I asked my son to “find the hat” and hand him the appropriate magnet. He stuck the magnet underneath the correct picture, labeling each one. He got excited to find the right picture to match the word. And even “tested” me by trying to put the word on the fridge upside-down on purpose. We played several times before he got tired of it.

I think this activity would be better for older children who already recognize sight words. Yet I think my son started to grasp literacy concepts that each image has a word associated with it, and that letters / words have to be upright in order to be read.

~~~

I have long used Magnetic Poetry kids in my classroom and home refrigerator to cultivate a love of wordplay… the word tiles are fun to move around, encourage creativity, and are educational at the same time!

We reviewed the First Words Kit by Magnetic Poetry. 140 tiles of the most common sight words and prefix / suffixes. The print and tiles are larger in this kit, making them great for small hands. Packaged in a reusable tin, you have the perfect container for taking your Magnetic Poetry on the go – kids can compose sentences and poems on the inside or outside!

At this age with my son, I found myself wishing for more concrete noun words in the kit, so I could make more little games like described above. This kit had many more suffix ending tiles than I would have expected for a first words collection. It’s intended for ages 4 and up, so we are definitely using it with our son young.

Regardless of which words I personally would have wanted (wouldn’t it be great to create a custom-words kit!!), this Magnetic Poetry kit is a fantastic way to develop your kids’ love of language and poetry! And I guarantee if you stick these tiles on your fridge, even the adults will be creating lines of poetry soon enough!

Magnetic Poetry sells a great selection of kits catering to different themes, ages, interests, including foreign language kits! They even have a magnetic chore chart set, and a few magnetic playset scenes:

All Magnetic Poetry items are well-packaged (perfect for gifts), and reasonably priced from about $8-20. Check their website for frequent discounts and sales!! Like Magnetic Poetry on Facebook too!

If you can’t wait to get your hands on some Magnetic Poetry – you can play online right now! Check out their virtual magnetic poetry games – sooo much fun and you can even email your finished poem to yourself or a friend!

WIN IT: One reader wins the Magnetic Poetry First Words Kit AND the Kids’ Kit set (which has smaller tiles and 320 words!) for their family! ARV $34. Enter in the Rafflecopter form below!
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