Valentines is just around the corner and we are all taking the time to look for the best way to tell our loved ones that we love them. I know that Valentines is for lovers and with all the romance in the air we tend to think only about our other half ; but I say – why not use this time to show our little ones how much we love them too?! besides, if you ask my husband, he will tell you that this little 2 and a half brat already took his place as the main man in my heart and therefore rules apply to him as well, don’t they?
so let’s get to business and find some cute gifts that can make your toddler feel loved:
1. Board Book: “I love you through and through”
I Love You Through And Through
This adorable book is not only full with love and great for cuddling with your toddler, it is also educational as it teaches your toddler about body parts. It is a great trigger for fun activities and has beautiful illustrations that your toddler can relate to.
2. Easy Instant Decoration Wall Sticker Decal – I Love You
Easy Instant Decoration Wall Sticker Decal - I Love You
This cute sticker can be used as a permanent reminder of your love. The first and last thing your little one sees every day can be your message of love as well as a great decoration for the room.
3. My “Little” Beating Heart, the Soothing Heartbeat You Can Feel.
My "Little" Beating Heart, the Soothing Heartbeat You Can Feel.
This soft and soothing original gift is great for giving your child a relaxing cuddling experience and for expressing your love on the same time. Chances are you will feel the need to borrow this toy from your child once in a while after a stressful day as it has an amazing comforting and calming affect. It is available in a variety of beautiful colors.
I Love You Bean
4. ” I Love You” Bean
This is a great gift that sends a message of love and holds an educational value as well. This bean holds a secret message that is revealed shortly after the bean sprouts (it takes 3-5 days). You can use this opportunity to teach your child about how plants grow in nature: just add some water, sun and love and soon enough the “I love you” message will appear on the growing plant.
Hearts Doll Pram by Haba
5.Hearts Doll Pram by Haba
OK, I know this is not a cheap one but I just love the design and the quality of this product. This cute pram is so sweet and cuddly that I couldn’t resist displaying it here. This is an educational toy that can stay with your child for a long time and can become one of her favorites. It is a great trigger for imaginary games and role play and can assist you in preparing a child for a new sibling. And did I mention I think it’s adorable?
Whatever you decide on giving your child this Valentine’s, the best gift you can give him is letting him know that he is loved and treasured all year long. Happy Valentine’s!!!
It seems that learning is becoming easier as we progress. It is becoming harder to measure but I estimate that my son already knows to read around 20 words consistently. It is very impressive since we just started 5 weeks ago. I am really encouraged by it and keep thinking about new ways to enhance the learning procedure. This week I started creating a book for him that includes familiar words. The purpose is to give him an opportunity to start reading a book by himself. I will let you know how he responds to it once it is printed.
This week I decided to move to the next DVD earlier than suggested as my son started to lose interest in the starter DVD. It really worked!!! his interest level went up again and he started to learn new words. I noticed that the learning process is faster now, as if he got the idea and becomes more familiar with the written word. When I read stories to him he often points at the words and asks me what it says which means that he realized that these “symbols” have meaning. I feel that a whole new world has opened for him to explore and I hope that soon enough he will be able to read single word books by himself and be encouraged and intrigued by the ability to do so (I might create a book for him to read with his favorite words). This week he added around 4-5 new words to his vocabulary and I must confess that I didn’t really practice with him this week so it was basically acquired from watching the Video.
I noticed that recently my son is starting to realize that there is a whole wide and exiting world out there that was never before in his reach. This world that I’m referring to is the world he creates in his mind. The great thing about this magical world is that everything can happen in it and possibilities are endless and unlimited. As natural as it is, I find that imagination requires fueling from time to time and that some accessories and developmental toys can easily inspire new worlds to take form. It is fun to see how trivial objects can get a special meaning in the toddler’s play and I must admit that I get carried away with it too after shaking the dust off these sleepy cells of mine..
So let’s explore some classic toys for toddlers that can serve this purpose of encouraging the creativity of mind…
US Scarf Blank Bandana
The first one that I would like to present is not really a toy. It is a collection of clothes and accessories that you can probably find in your closet and if not are affordable and easy to purchase in second-hand stores or on end of season sales … They can include colorful pieces of clothing, hats, scarves, shawls, shoes, necklaces and any other accessory that can be used to create a character. These are great for creating customs and using them to play different rolls. I suggest keeping them in some kind of storage unit that is accessible enough to allow spontaneous play.
Mighty World Construction Site 8614
The second one is a collection of toy figures such as: animals, action figures, mythological figures, people from different cultures or people with different occupation. For example: Indians, cowboys, pirates, fairies, doctors, farmers and so on.. The child is the writer & the director of the scene and as such he decides which characters to cast for the play and what will be the nature of the interaction between them. This kind of game, not only stimulates the imagination but is also used as an outlet for the child’s fears and emotions and can help the parent learn more about his inner world through the world he creates.
The next one is related to the previous – Play sets and play houses create fantastic setting for the imaginary play. This can include different accessories that the figures use in their daily life or the environment in which they live in. For example: Fire houses, doll houses, castles, weapons, construction tools, farm vehicles, space ships and so on..
Melissa & Doug King Puppet
Melissa & Doug Police Officer Puppet
Another good way to encourage creativity is to have a puppet Theater which can be purchased or improvised. With a few puppets and an idea the child can create beautiful stories that come alive through play and act out his feelings. You can purchase Hand/finger puppets, stringed puppets or even create puppets from socks, buttons and yarn or from cardboard, stick and colors.
For the young toddlers who are just starting to explore the pretend game world but are still not prepared to co-play with their peers, play set of Kitchen/workbench toys/doctor tools can arouse the imagination but do not require others to participate. My son can play for a long time with his kitchen set and workbench without needing us to help him or participate in anyway.
Haba Blossom Sky Room Tent
Another way to encourage pretend games both indoors and outdoors is using Tents, blankets or outdoor houses to create a setting for imaginative play. The nice thing about it is that it also allows the child to have his own kingdom and some kind of getaway when he needs it. Some kids have a little tent in their room in which they enjoy playing with their toys as it gives them some kind of uninterrupted, secure environment.
So another week has passed and I must admit that it was pretty hectic and I wasn’t so good with practicing the words with my son. During this week he watched the video twice a day as usual but I could see his level of interest in the video started decreasing and he wanted to do more things while watching. However, he is still interested and whenever we participate more and challenge him while watching the video, he is much more focused and enthusiastic about it.
In order to be faithful to this little experiment, I checked his familiarity with the words this evening and I was very happy to discover that he could read in an arbitrary order 8 words: Tiger, elephant, gorilla, eyes, cat/s, dog/s, Hi and Baby.
It seems that as the days go by, some of the words are very easy for him to recognize; even if he cannot read them he will know to differentiate them from others. It is very encouraging when realizing that 3 weeks ago he had no tools to recognize these words and now he reads them so easily. Even if this program will not be as miraculous for him as it seems on the videos I watched, he is still gaining confidence, knowledge and familiarity with the written word which is a very satisfying.
So two weeks have passed since we started following the “Your baby can read program”. So far my son can identify and read the word “Hi” easily. Regarding the rest of the words I have noticed that when I go over the book or the cards with him he will recognize some of the words (such as: eyes, elephant, tiger and so on) but it looks as if it is related to other clues that he remembers, such as the order of the words in the book or the color of the card. The reason I am saying that is that when I try to show him the same words in a different form (on other flash cards or when I write it down) he doesn’t recognize them. I guess that the first stage is memorizing and only later comes the stage of understanding the words structure and the sound that each letter makes.
According to Dr Titzer’s it takes a month for a child to learn the first batch of words so it is still early to say. But my son is curious about it and is getting used to this new world of words that is becoming more familiar and intriguing as it receives more meaning. I have faith in this program and I’m curious to see what will happen next.
A note that I would like to add is that my son knows all the upper-case form of letters but until recently he was not familiar with the lower-case letters. So I was thinking to start playing a game with him of matching the upper-case letter with the lower-case letter since it might help him recognize the words in the video (they are all written in lower case letters). Another thought that crossed my mind was to create a game in which he will need to match the photo with its relevant word starting with the words that are suggested in the program.
I will keep you all posted…
Quick update… I just finished writing the post when my son was watching the video. I started going over the words with him using the book and cards after the video ended. I showed him the words in the book in a random order. he read 5 words straight (not including “Hi” which I didn’t show him: Tiger, Gorilla, eyes, cat and elephant). Few minutes later I showed him some of the same words again and he couldn’t tell me what they were. I assume the first time he sees the word he automatically extract the stored information but when he needs to think about it again, it is harder for him to repeat. It is encouraging, though, since it shows he is taking in the information and processes it.
Recently, I’ve been pondering about teaching my son to read. When I shared my thoughts with people around me, they were surprised that I’m considering doing that in such a young age (28 months). My gut feeling was that it is the right time since in the last few months my son has been eager to learn letters and was absorbing new information like a sponge. in addition, he loves books and is asking us to read him stories many times during the day and memorize them. I had my doubts, though, since I try not to be a “pushy” mom and it is important to me to be tuned in to his needs and feelings and make educational decisions accordingly.
Picture taken from parentsprecinct.com
Eventually, I figured that my son’s behavior signals that he is up for the challenge and decided to make some small first steps towards this goal. At first I bought him the Magnetic Alphabet toy to help him learn the phonics and thought of buying some Flash cards with words and pictures, than I thought of placing words on objects in the house so he will eventually make the connection between them; but I didn’t really have a solid plan for teaching him.
It happens that on the same week I stumbled upon an article that challenged the idea of babies and toddlers ability to read. Obviously it immediately caught my attention… In this article there was some information and a link to a program which is called: “Your Baby Can Read”. This is a program which is based on Dr. Titzer’s research of Infant learning and designed for teaching children to read starting from infancy (around 3 months). the videos of the reading children in his site were very convincing and after reading and watching some videos of Dr. Titzer interviews I realized it’s worth trying.
The price for buying the full kit is $199.95 but they also offer a 30 day trial for $14.95. I decided to give it a try and see how my toddler reacts to it. According to Dr. Titzer videos 75% of our brain develops by the age of 2 and 90% of it develops by the age of 5. He claims that there is a natural window of opportunity for teaching the child to read that starts to close around the age of 4 and therefore it is much harder to acquire the same skill later on. After watching videos of 9-18 months old reading babies, a funny thought hit me – my son is one of the “older” candidates for this program. On one second I felt that I might be starting too early, and on the second, I felt like time is too precious to waist. I already pictured him sitting in a classroom at the age of 6 sweating his way to learn how to read when the window is already closed; and on the other end, imagined him at the age of 3 surrounded with books and happily reading Dostoevsky (not really) -but I do believe there was a soft music on the background…
Picture taken from closedstacks
So I purchased the trial kit and after a few days it arrived in a heavy box. I must say I was impressed with the content of the package. It contained 5 DVDs with 5 matching sliding card sets, 50 Word game Cards, 82 Double sided Word cards, 5 Lift A Flap books, window book, music DVD and parents guide/workshop (book and DVD). All in very good quality and appealing to the eye.
The Idea behind this program is that if you expose the child from a young age to words accompanied with other simulations such as movements and photos, he will at first memorize these words and later on will understand the patterns and sounds of the words and letters and will be able to read words that he has never seen before.
It all made sense to me as it is very natural to remember information better when it is accompanied with a sensor stimulation and there are so many examples of people who learned languages as children with no effort that you cannot argue with.
We started following this program a week ago and I was thinking it will be interesting to document the progress of my son weekly as a service to the people who are considering to try this program as well and as a way to keep a journal of the process.
During the last week, he watched the starter DVD (one out of five) twice a day as instructed. He is supposed to watch it for a month until moving to the next one (this is approximately the time that takes to learn the first words). In addition, it is recommended to read with him daily the starter book and play with the matching cards but I wasn’t following it strictly until now. He is very fond of this DVD. He requests to watch it twice a day – first when he wakes up and also when he comes back from daycare, which is terrific since I don’t need to make him watch it, he loves watching it. Since he is already a toddler and has a large vocabulary, it is easy for him to recognize the words and follow the simple instructions (such as: “arms up”) but the challenge is to recognize the written words. in the first five days I didn’t see any sign of him recognizing the words (which was understandable), but in the last 2 days he randomly recognizes a word, but not necessarily could repeat when I ask him again. This is an encouraging sign for me to see that he is in the process of taking in the information. I’m aware to the fact that it might take weeks until I will be able to see and measure the results but I can already see that he is processing the information and more importantly find enjoyment while doing so.
I will be recording his progress weekly through these blog posts hoping you will find it helpful. To be continued…
Every time my son becomes bored with his toys or skips to the next developmental level, I ask myself what kind of fun toys will encourage developing new skills and would be appropriate for his age. Several times I was tempted to buy toys that did not match his age and after a short observation from his side were left aside . We, moms, need to focus on our child’s personal skill level regardless of what the packaging (or the neighbor..) says. The secret is to find the toy that will be challenging enough but will still allow the child to acquire successful experiences and feelings of achievements, in other words, not too easy and not too difficult and most importantly, fun and interesting.
In this post I will share five successful choices of some great affordabletoys that received excellent reviews from my now 28 months son:
1. My son is really passionate about letters and a few months ago he learned to master the ABC’s. When he first started pointing at signs and frequently ask me about letters I realized that it is time for an appropriate toy. So, I went to my favorite local toy store and found Melissa and Doug See-Inside Alphabet peg puzzle. This is a classic peg puzzle in which each removable wooden puzzle piece is hiding a special full color illustration underneath. It was love from first site; my son just loved taking out the pieces and look at the pictures below. At first it was hard for him to put them back in the right place & position and he didn’t know most of the words for the illustrations but after a short while he learned all the letters and words for the images below them; as a bonus he acquired a motor skill of turning and positioning the pegs to their right position. The process of learning was fun since we played question games such as: “where is the House?” what’s under the M”? and so forth. he was really excited to answer and reveal the correct image. For such a plain and inexpensive toy we received great value and enjoyment
2. On the same visit to the store I also purchased Melissa and Doug Opposites Teaching Puzzle Cards.I wasn’t sure how my son will react to it but I wanted to expose him to puzzles toys starting with 2 pieces. I was surprised how successful this purchase was. At first, I gave him just a few pairs to play with so he will not be overwhelmed with 40 pieces. The photos accompanied with our explanations helped him understand the relations between the two parts of the puzzles and he gradually learned which one belongs where. He had to also learn how to position the cards so they will fit and went through a process of trial and error until he mastered it. Gradually, when he was starting to get the idea of the game, we started using the correct adjectives to describe the photos and currently he is already familiar with all the opposites and can easily find the matching pieces. Again, it is always great to use the toy to ask questions to make it more interesting and that’s what we did all a long. He was eager to find the answers and learned a lot from the process.
3. Another great toy that my son is crazy about is the Magna-Tiles Build Cars and Trucks.This27 piece set includes different parts of cars and trucks which can be assembled in several ways to create different kinds of vehicles. My son loves magnetic toys and really enjoyed this combination of magnets and cars and he is still hooked to this game. I even bought him an additional set to expand the variety of combinations. The great thing about this game is that except for being great fun, it encourages creativity, improves fine motor skills, and helps the child to better understand magnets dynamics.
4. The following toy is one of my son’s favorites toys but I must say that I would also consider checking out different versions of it as it is a bit small. I chose this one since I didn’t want another big toy to eat the space of our apartment and I didn’t want to spend too much for it as I had no idea if my son will be interested in it (I also found Alex toys In My Kitchen set in a reduced price which pretty much “sealed the deal”) ; So there it was, standing in our apartment (with some additional accessories we bought for it) waiting for our little curious tenant to give it a try. Success !! My son responded very well to this new addition, it really encouraged him to play imaginative games and to create his own world in which he could act out what he absorbs from our daily life. He started “cooking” and “baking” different objects and offered us and his teddy bears some of his “home made” food. The whole experience helped him distinguish between the real and imaginative and better understand functionality of kitchen utensils.
5. The last toy I would like to talk about is: LeapFrog Fridge Phonics Magnetic Alphabet Set. My son first encounter with this toy was at my friend’s house. he showed instant interest in it so it was immediately added to the Christmas gift list. As I mentioned before, he loves letter games and since he already knows the ABC’s I wanted to buy him a toy that will help him get to the next level. The good thing about this toy is that every time you place and press a letter you hear the sound it makes which helps the toddler to learn the phonics. It is also made in an attractive and very friendly way and I think it can be appropriate for younger age as a trigger for learning the ABC’s in a fun way.
I would like to dedicate this post to the “Toys for Tots” program of the U.S. Marine Corps. This organization is making a lot of efforts these days to get as many toys as possible to kids who are in need nationwide. The main purpose of this program is to send a message of hope and encouragement to these disadvantaged children and contribute to their development in various aspects of life.
This non-profit organization’s main activity is collecting new unwrapped toys during October, November and December each year and distributing them in communities all over the nation. They also conduct voluntary events throughout the year such as sports tournaments in order to increase awareness and interest in the program and generate toys and monetary donations.
I believe that this program is a blessing to the children and families who face poverty on daily basis and can feel discouraged and deserted in this cheerful time of the year. As a mother to a toddler, it is reassuring for me to know that I can care for all his needs and put a smile on his face as long as I can control it. The challenge of providing for your family is an issue that a lot of us face this year, but imagine not being able to even put a small gift under the Christmas tree for your anticipating toddler when he is surrounded with so many messages of the Christmas spirit and joy…
If you would have told me a few years ago that I would be so passionate about toys for toddlers I would have probably raised an eyebrow in return. It is amazing to discover how with the arrival of your firstborn, you naturally and instantly dive back into your own childhood and old passions find their way back to surface…
I was always a tom-boy kind of gal, not really into dolls and wearing my mom’s makeup and heels (and she is still complaining to this day about the disappointment of finally having a girl after two boys who didn’t want to be a girl…) My favorite toys included: cars, marbles, Lego, animal toys and of course, anything I could climb. So now that I have a very active first boy who is very (very…) passionate about anything with wheels I have rediscovered my enthusiasm for Toddlers toys; and since I often (a little bit too often if you ask my husband) find myself going on (and off) line to look for new and exiting toys for my son, I made up my mind to start a blog in which I will share our experiences with toys, helpful information and some cool ideas for toys all appropriate for the magical toddler years… I believe Toddler-hood is an amazing time!! This little explorers’ active interest in the world, and their many expressions of their endless excitement with it’s new discoveries can be very contagious…
I must confess,though, that I am a nostalgic kind of person and I tend to go with toys that bring me back to the time I grew up in, when everything was much simpler. You will probably not find here computer games, DVD’s, electronic toys and the like unless it has some meaningful value. I strongly believe in toys that one can touch and interact with and less with toys that put the child in a passive position…There is a whole world out there to explore – live and in 3D – why stick to the box?
So for those of you who would like to join me on this journey in the world of Classic toys for tots I hope to be able to bring valuable info or at least some enjoyable posts from time to time…
Easy Instant Decoration Wall Sticker Decal – I Love You
I Love You” Bean
Hearts Doll Pram by Haba
