preschool

Days 174-180 of Project 365

June 29, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 24 Comments

174-180 of 365

174. Spiderman (We were fortunate enough to have a day sightseeing in London following the Britmums conference, and managed a trip on the London Eye for The Boy to locate the places he'd seen with Mr. TBaM the day before. Afterwards we were able to finally visit the Jubilee Gardens at its base, which we'd seen being built last year.)

175. Digging for Treasure (A simple day playing in the house and garden after an exhausting weekend. Nothing is better at the moment than digging for treasure. Especially with Toy Story sunglasses and a genuine pirate hat.)

176. Speedy (An absolutely beautiful evening meant that we were able to nip down to the local nature reserve, feed the swans and practice bike-riding amongst the bullrushes and bamboo.)

177. Playmobil World (More pirates, I know. What can I say? He's loving the hat at the moment. However, I returned home from work today to discover nearly every single piece of Playmobil he owns all spread out in the dining room, and 'pirate caves' created in the Ikea shelving. I love that his imagination is starting to kick in.)

178. Pavement artist (A simple activity which I often forget about; chalk drawing and writing on the patio, focusing on over-writing letters.)

179. On Target (We created a reward chart for The Boy this week, focusing not on behavioural issues, but on time and personal management. Having been for his Reception induction last week I'm very aware that he needs to speed up the rate at which he eats his meals – apart from anything else, the hour is driving us mad – as he won't have time in his lunch break to be chivied along. We've set him the target of eating within thirty minutes, and he's managed it at every mealtime! Other targets are getting dressed by himself – preparing for PE lessons – and tidying up. As a reward he was able to go to soft play with daddy while I was at the Summer Fayre this morning.)

180. Me and My Shadow (After the Summer Fayre, where I painted eleventy billion pink butterflies, we went for a long walk across Cardiff Bay Barrage to the pirate park, and scooted back. The sun was amazing and I love this shadow.)

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My Britmums Live! Sponsor: Orchard Toys

June 21, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 12 Comments

Today I'll be attending the Britmums Live! blogging conference in London, very kindly sponsored by Orchard Toys.

For those who regularly read my blog, or for those who occasionally saunter over here, you'll have noticed that I review a lot of puzzles and games from Orchard Toys. And every single one of those reviews is glowing, for three reasons:

they're bright and colourful, fun and engaging;
there is always an educational aspect which doesn't overshadow the fun factor;
The Boy loves them.

Now when I say I have a lot of them; I'm not actually joking:

photo(6)

This collection has been built up over several years from review products, those scavenged at nearly new sales, and bought for The Boy's birthday and Christmas presents. We play one a day at least and The Boy alternates between them as to which his favourite is; at the moment it's 'What's Rubbish?', last week it was 'Baa Baa', and we're taking 'Shopping List' with us this weekend to Britmums Live! Even we have favourites; mine is 'Round and Round' and Mr. TBaM is 'What a Performance'.

My 'love affair' with Orchard Toys started many years ago, long before I had The Boy. I was visiting an ex-colleague and her two year old daughter who wanted me to play a game with her which involved rolling a dice to collect up different ingredients to make an ice-cream sundae. That was an Orchard Toys game (long since retired) and I made a mental note of the company for use with my own child. Little did I realised I'd be trying to collect every game they make, ten years later!

So who are Orchard Toys?

Orchard Toys are a British company located in Norfolk with a purpose built factory and office complex; meaning a low-carbon foot print and employment stays within the country. In addition, they also create new products from their own ideas using its team of in-house designers. Manufacture of components is subcontracted to a UK supplier base, some of whom have supplied the company throughout its history. They are also made from 75% recycled materials.

A leading manufacturer of educational puzzles and games for children aged between 18 months and 10 years, Orchard Toys has a reputation for excellence of design, manufacture and service. I'd be very surprised if most homes don't have at least one of their games or puzzles! Established in 1971 by Keith Harvey (who remains a director today), the company has stayed in the family passing down to the next generation.

Orchard Toys award-winning products are all designed with the ethos of “learning made fun” and combine bright, innovative design, durability and quality with sound educational principles. They completely support the Foundation Phase ethos of learning through play, and that's why as a teacher as well as a mum, I know how much they benefit The Boy's learning.

This is why I'm so very proud to be sponsored by Orchard Toys to attend Britmums Live!

If you could spare two minutes to nip over to the Loved By Parents awards site, Orchard Toys have been shortlisted in the Best Activity Toy 3-6 yrs category and the Best Board Game or Jigsaw category for the fabulous 'Old Macdonald Lotto' and they'd love a vote from you please!

Reading Eggs (Review)

February 18, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 4 Comments

phonics development

A few months ago I was asked if we'd like to trial the Reading Eggs program; a web based program designed to help children prepare for school by developing their awareness of phonics, or as a booster for children who are struggling to engage with reading skills.

I'd heard about the subscription service but in all honesty, having spent a long time trying to find iPad apps with decent pronounciations of phonics to help The Boy, I was more than a little sceptical that it was just going to be another American voice mispronouncing 'm' and 't' and, quite frankly, winding me up.

I was wrong (not something I admit readily!).

Creating the account is easy; there is the ability to register for a free 14-day trial (with no credit card information entered at all) and the child's name is entered before selecting whether they have some reading experience (allowing for a test to be done placing the child at the right point in the system) or starting from the beginning. I chose to start him from the beginning, because although he has a good awareness of the alphabet and most phonics, I wanted to give him the opportunity to really benefit from the program.

When the child first enters into the land of Reading Eggs they are presented with a map of their progress with a pathway snaking through the land, cute characters and graphics aplenty. They are then taken onto the first of the letters with several different games to help them practise their recognition of the letter, and to practise the formation.

reading eggs 1

The Boy really enjoyed working through the vast majority of the games on each lesson; spotting the letter in a wordsearch format (both upper and lower case), identifying the specified letter in each word, finding the letter as it moved around the screen, etc. These were the most effective games for him. He also liked the challenge of trying to improve his time on forming the letter quickly, there are a few time challenges like this which work really well in challenging the user.

Every child has different preferences of course, and The Boy was a little frustrated with the game where he had to drag the word against the correct picture; drag and drop with a mouse is difficult for a 3-5 year old (luckily we have an infant sized mouse we can use) and the game needs to be completed twice, which he found frustrating having struggled to do it correctly once. However, this game is not on every level and is one small aspect which for my son was frustrating, others may like it.

reading eggs

I've noticed a vast improvement in his awareness and reading ability since starting on the program. He hasn't reached the end yet but when he does we'll be able to assess his reading age to see how he's progressed. I do think that Reading Eggs has helped him hugely with his phonological awareness, and ability to decode words then segmenting the phonics back together to create a word.

Accessing the parental dashboard, The Boy is currently on level 30, and has a reading age of 5 years with a sight vocabulary of 12 words and knows 74 of the 237 phonic skills. I feel very happy with his literacy development, and reassured that he hasn't suffered from not going to state nursery this year.

As both a primary school teacher and a parent, I can't recommend the Reading Eggs program highly enough.

I was given an extended short-term subscription in order to review this service. My opinions are honest and unbiased.

Pre-School Science: Absorption & Colour-Mixing

January 30, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 14 Comments

I first saw this idea on the marvellous Pinterest, and it originally came from a children's Australian TV Programme.

As far as The Boy was concerned we were about to perform magic, but then what else is Science if not a complete and utter mystery. It is to me anyway! So I posed him a question, showed him the equipment and waited to see what he'd say.

How can we make the coloured water travel from one glass to another, without touching it?

You'll need:

equal quantities of blue and yellow food colouring (although any two primary colours will work)
two glasses half-filled with water
one empty glass
two sheets of kitchen towel (absorbent but those with thirst pockets might not let it drip out again!)
two spoons for stirring

Place the three glasses in a row with the empty one in the middle.
Pour yellow food colouring into one end glass, and blue into the other end glass. Give them a stir with separate spoons so as not to mix the colours prematurely.
Fold the kitchen towel strips into quarters, lengthways.
Place one strip into the yellow food colouring and one into the blue. Fold the free end over into the empty glass in the middle and tuck it down to the side so they aren't touching.
Wait and watch the results!

Colour-mixing

The Science Bit:

Kitchen towel is highly absorbent and the coloured water travels up the kitchen towel slowly defying gravity. It happens due to a force called 'capillary action'; a force of attraction between the paper fibres and the water. How does the water actually move up through the paper towel? The water is pulled up into the open spaces between the fibres in the paper, soaking the paper as it absorbs the water. When the weight of the water in the paper is equal to the upward attraction, then the water stops rising. In this case, gravity kicks in and because the kitchen towel is hanging down, the coloured water drips down into the empty glass.

The colour-mixing is basic science: blue and yellow makes green; red and blue would make purple; and yellow and red would make orange.

(In actual fact, The Boy asked what blue and red would make, and is desperate to try it out. I'd have obliged, but I'd bought up all the blue food colouring in our town yesterday with our playdough and preparing this!)

Colour-mixing

The end result is absolutely fascinating, even Mr. TBaM was enthralled.

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Orchard Toys: Shopping List

January 4, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 2 Comments

If you don't have a copy of one of the most popular Orchard Toys games ever made then you need to get it. And soon.

Shopping List is an essential game for children aged 3-7 years because of the way that it takes an everyday situation that children are incredibly familiar with, and provides them with the opportunity to play it at home learning about the different foods available.

Orchard Toys Shopping List

The original game (for there are two booster packs) contains:

four cardboard trolleys;
four shopping lists with pictures and written names of groceries;
32 grocery cards

The basic idea of the game is that each player takes a trolley, chooses a shopping list and then must fill it with the relevant items on their shopping list, taking it in turns to find them from the muddled, upside-down pile in the middle of all the players. If the grocery item card they pick up is one of theirs they can put it in their trolley, if not the must return it to the middle for someone else to take it. Play continues until one person has filled their trolley.

orchard toys shopping list

Only because we have a three year old who likes everyone to win (you just either win first, second or third) then we play it that rather than return it to the middle, we give it to whoever has it on their list. And yes, it does work which is the beauty of Orchard Toys games, they are adaptable for the needs of the child.

There are two Booster Sets available:

Fruit & Veg
- Containing two trolleys and shopping lists, there are 16 grocery cards each with an item of fruit or vegetable on it. The fruit and vegetables chosen show a range of everyday foods that the children should be familiar with: pears, potatoes, leeks, melons, cherries, kiwi fruits, asparagus, etc. This is a great opportunity to discuss healthy eating options and where the foods come from or how they grew.
Clothes
- Like the Fruit & Veg pack, this Booster Pack is designed for two players, this time containing 16 clothes cards showing clothes from different seasons like; shorts, vest top, watch, scarf, flip flops, trainers, jumpers, sunglasses, etc. It provides an opportunity to discuss the clothes that are worn at different seasons (or in this country, the same season but different days!)

Whenever we go away for the weekend this is the one Orchard Toys game that comes with us, having carefully selected the lists we The Boy wants to take; the booster packs are interchangeable with the main game. We've had this game for quite some time now (I'm ashamed to admit how long) and it is the single most played game in the house!

Educational guide:

encourage observational and memory skills
develop personal and social skills through role-playing and questioning
language development (modelling questioning and discussion)
healthy eating – PSHE

Shopping List is priced at £7.50 and each of the Booster Packs are priced at £4.50 each.

Pre-Literacy Carnival Call-Out

August 13, 2012 by TheBoyAndMe 11 Comments

As I've mentioned before, I'm not sending The Boy to state nursery for his free 15 hours. I know, shock horror right? There is a good reason for this, several in fact which are far too boring, convoluted and not important at the moment.

However, what it does mean is that I want to be sure that I'm doing the best that I can to get him ready for Reception next September. And this is where I'm going to do something that I don't tend to do very often on this blog; I'll don my teacher hat, draw upon my experience as a Literacy co-ordinator and come up with a bank of pre-school activities that focus on developing pre-Literacy skills.

Pre-Literacy skills are vital to ensure that your child is ready to learn how to read and write when they get to school. Don't be in a rush to teach them yourself, that's the point of the teachers who have gone through years of training to ensure they are delivering the best teaching to our children. I've worked in a Reception class and trying to re-teach a child phonics is nigh on impossible. More important for us as parents is to ensure that they have the pre-Literacy skills in place, general things like: fine motor skills development, hand-eye co-ordination and communication. More specifically; sequencing, shape and pattern recognition, letter awareness, positional language, and (for those who are ready) proper pronounciation of phonics.

Next month when the big kids return to school, I want to focus in on these all important skills and create a resource bank for parents like me. This is where I'd like some help please.

If you have a post on your blog about pre-Literacy skills (like the ones listed above) please leave that in the comments box below. If you have any ideas that you'd like to contribute (but no blog posts) leave those in the comments box. I will credit everyone in.

Let's help our children learn through play, let's treasure their childhood and not push them to grow up!