Tales of the unexpected with The Boy, my pride and joy.
I'm very fortunate that I have a fabulous sponsor for Britmums Live! in Orchard Toys, and as a result we've had a chance to review some of their amazing games and puzzles this year. Their latest game, entitled 'Baa Baa', is another excellent resource, and as always is incredibly fun.
I have never understood the appeal of pipecleaners. They bend and make cool shapes, but for a pre-schooler I've always thought they were a little pointless and hard work.
And then I discovered (via Pinterest) a few activities which suggest that they can be used as a tool in threading and beading exercises.
I set out a tray of materials for The Boy as an invitation to explore and play.
We used:
The pipecleaners are much easier to use for threading than a shoelace as they stay rigid and don't flop over while trying to fit the beads onto the end. This also makes them easier to shape when creating a design. One more bonus is that the metallic fibres covering the wire enable beads to stay in place and not slip down to the end.
We started by poking the wire end into the sieve and bending it over 'inside' to prevent it from being pulled out. Then The Boy was keen to have a mismatch of buttons and Hama beads on the pipecleaners, alternating and contrasting the design. Buttons that have multiple holes are really useful to thread two pipecleaners through. To ensure the buttons and beads didn't fall off, we tucked the loose end back into the sieve and bent the end over again.
Threading is an excellent activity for pre-school children as it helps to develop fine motor skills, hand to eye co-ordination and the pincer grip; all of which are needed to develop pre-writing skills. Pipecleaners are a very useful tool for threading because of their rigidity.
And it's great fun too!
Before you can write you need to be able to read, and before you can read you need to be able to speak.
Developing oracy in young children is essential: it helps them communicate with the world, express their emotions, desires and intentions, and encourages social interaction.
"Mummy, I'm trying to concentrate!"
"Actually mummy, that's a hexagon not an octagon."
The Boy talks. A LOT! And yes I'm aware that I sound like every other mum out there who's proud of their child and wants to 'show off', but that's not my intention. I talk a lot, and I have always chatted to The Boy no matter what we're doing. It shows because he chatters away nineteen to the dozen, and is quite confident to start a conversation with someone and explain his thoughts. I put a lot of this down to the parent-facing pushchair that we used to use and the fact that his baby car-seat was next to me on the front seat. We were able to communicate all the time.
Last week I spent time in the nursery unit in school, and it was an eye-opener for me to see 'elective mute' children, among other children who had difficulty articulating the most basic of needs and thoughts. It made me realise that just because The Boy has difficulty pronouncing 'l' or 'r' correctly, it doesn't mean that he has difficulty with his speech. My time there compounded the research conducted which shows that in some areas of the UK, over half the children starting school don't have the skills they need to learn, make friends and succeed.
I was sent a fantastic activity set a few weeks ago called 'Chatting With Children' by I CAN (The Children's Communication Charity). The pack contains a parent guide to the enclosed games designed for 3-5 year olds to support speech, language and communication development. The guide describes why oracy is so important, and that there are specific key skills needed for learning to talk:
The games are on a set of cards (about the size of a paperback) and can therefore be used at home or out and about. The set allows for games to be dipped in and out of, as required, but they are designed to be used every day and a six-week programme has been included. I really like the programme (and cards) because it is split into an activity for each area of Oracy skills, one for each week with a theme assigned like food, animals or clothes.
This set of cards above are some of the activities suggested for the week on 'Animals' and include: 'Name The Animal' (applying information to previous knowledge), 'Guessing Game' (listening to information and drawing conclusions), 'Let's Draw' (learning positional language), 'Story Relay' (linking sentences to make stories), and 'Secret Action Signal' (encouraging eye contact).
I think this is an excellent set of cards to help prompte Oracy with young children. Even though The Boy talks for Britain, we still love having a go at the games and it has helped him to develop deeper Oracy skills; essential to help him when he starts school next year.
The I CAN Chatting With Children pack is available directly from I CAN for £7.99.
I was sent this product for the purpose of this review. My opinion is honest and unbiased.
With our decision about The Boy's pre-school provision firmly in place, it's now at the forefront of my mind that I need to make sure his language and mathematical development is up to spec for when he starts Reception class in a year's time. Keeping him in private nursery for just a few sessions a week will ensure he is having the social development along with helping him to learn the routine of sitting down and listening, but I can't guarantee that he will receive the same input as he would in a state nursery (where I know the assessments that take place).
The Boy is good at his shapes, he knows the basics of square, rectangle, circle and triangle and has done for quite some time. Thanks to a few iPad apps he's also able to identify diamonds, semi-circles, crescents, hexagon, pentagon and surprisingly an octagon. It might seem excessive but he can recognise them easily and why not teach him the right names for a shape?
And so it was with that in mind that I was happy to receive the Triqo system for him to try out.
Triqo is a collection of fifty plastic shapes which click together. They come in either a triangle or square form which when combined can create a range of other shapes, and the ten different colours are bright and cheerful. Made of a strong and flexible plastic with a tab on each of the sides; these tabs fold and have two poppers on them which click together with one of the other shapes to build up into a three-dimensional shape.
The Boy found it easy enough to click two pieces together (although quite some pressure is needed initially) but did struggle when trying to join them in anything other than a straight line. That ball of triangular pieces in the photo is my handiwork, not his.
However, we played with them for forty-five minutes this morning and he has come back to them several times throughout the day. When Mr. TBaM came in from work he rushed out to show him his cube and 'boicud'. His father looked at him blankly and he tried again, "Cuboid daddy!" So after just one session playing together he's learnt that a cube has square sides and a cuboid is made up of squares and rectangles.
Triqo are made in the Netherlands, and these Scandinavian and Germanic countries get it completely right when it comes to pre-school education. With most children not starting school until the age of six or seven years, they're focus is on learning through play. So of course aside from the educational and mathematical development opportunities, they're great fun for the imagination: houses, pyramids, space rockets, boats!
The Triqo starter pack is available for the very reasonable price of £14.99 from all good toy stores or visit Ark DIY Products.
I was sent this product for the purpose of this review. My opinion is honest and unbiased.
