Cork Coasters, Drawing Pins and Loom Bands

Posted on May 2, 2016 by ofamily

Cork coasters drawing pins and loom bands to create shapes and numbers on ofamilyblog

The kids have been enjoying the lovely weather over the past week and have been spending more and more time out in our garden so a lot of the projects have taken a slight back seat while we all get a dose of Vitamin D.  But the kids do still like pottering around the kitchen table when I am cooking their evening meal, it is a bit of a wind down and chat time for us and I have found that if I leave a few goodies out on the kitchen table they will often explore them during this time.  It does not always work.  Sometimes I leave some art goodies out thinking they are going to love it and no-one is interested at all.  And sometimes I leave an activity out and it is a such a big hit that they are still busy when it is bedtime.  The cork coasters with drawing pins and loom bands has been on of those activities.

When I first set it up I honestly did not know if they would enjoy it or not.  The cork coasters are either from IKEA of Tiger (I have bought a set at both stores so just not sure which ones are the ones we used in this activity).

Cork coasters, loom bands and some drawing pins

My son was the first to give it a try to he immediately started trying to create shapes. It turned out to be a great revision of 2D shapes for him as he had to check what a few of the bigger shape names were.

Building shapes with the drawing pins and loom bandsexploring shapes on our cork board with drawing pins and loom bands

My daughter did a few shapes but she quickly moved onto creating numbers.  The 5 below took 3 attempts to get it just the way she wanted but once she got a hang of it there was no stopping her and she did a bunch of numbers. (Tip from my daughter  – when you need to place the drawing pins close together to get the right shape it helps to loop the loom band over twice).

Creating numbers on our cork coasters with drawing pins and loom bandsPracticing number formation on the cork hot pot stands with our drawing pins and loom bands on ofamilyblog

My youngest naturally could not resist copying his big sister and he also had a go at numbers.  He started off creating his first number backwards but he realised before he had finished the number and redid the number.

Number formation using loom bands and draiwing pins on our cork coasters

They have since done more numbers – I actually really like it as a number formation exercise for my youngest.  My daughter has tried a few patterns but nothing that she is happy with – yet.  And we have not tried letters yet but I am sure it would work really nicely for letter formation as well.

cork-coasters-drawing-pins-and-loom-bands-a-great-screen-free-activity-for-young-kids-perfect-for-working-on-fine-motor-skills

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Latest Book Finds

Posted on April 30, 2016 by ofamily

We are naturally a house of bookworms but lately it has seemed to be more so that usual.  My daughter has been enjoying a series of books that we picked up at a National Trust site and is continuously looking up birds and other creatures that she finds in our garden.  She is also reading a lot to her younger brother and he has just started reading some basic readers himself.  So with all this reading going on I thought  I would share some of our current favourites.

The Spot 50 range of books that my daughter is loving is this set by Miles Kelly

Spot 50 range of books bought from The National Tust

We bought the entire set for £6.99 at our local National Trust Site (Claremont gardens) and boy was it worth every penny.  My daughter is constantly using the books to look up garden birds, flowers and insects that she spots and then she reads about them.  She even takes them with us in the car when we got out for our walks (at the national trust sites).

Spot 50 bird book

The other mix of books are all books which my kids have dragged out of our bookshelf over the last 3 weeks and just never seem to end up back on the bookshelf (or within a few hours of them getting packed back onto the bookshelf they end up back on the couch or in the kids bed).

Book Finds - current books being enjoyed by the kids of ofamilyblog

The Animal Homes book is one I picked up from a local charity shop.  It has a two page spread for each different type of animal home.  My little man loves this book.

Kingfisher Animal Homes book by Angela Wilkes

But his current favourite is definitely the Usborne Big Book of Big Bugs.  This book has brilliant detailed pictures of all the bugs and they are all the same size as real life.  For my little man this is just the most amazing thing ever.  The fact that the pictures in the book are the same size as the bugs would appear in real life, well it just makes this the best bug book ever – his words.

The Usborne Big Book of Big Bugs one of the favourite bug books of ofamilyblog

Usborne Big book of big bugs

The first of the two current favourite fiction books in our house is Alien Tea on Planet Zum-Zee.  My son loved this book last year and then forgot about it but lately it appears to be making a come back. And The Day the Crayons Quit.  Both my kids love this book.  They think it is hilarious.  They love that each crayon writes a letter to their owner and  that the different coloured crayons complain about different issues.  Big winner with both my kids and I have to be honest as the person who reads it a lot, it is not a bad story to have to read over and over and over again.

The Day the Crayons Quit - a favourite storybook

My youngest is thrilled that he is starting to read books that he can remember his sister reading.  He is currently reading some of the Julia Donaldson Songbird books (stage 1+).  He enjoys these stories and likes the pictures.  The stories are at the right level for him and are definitely boosting his confidence with reading – he gets very proud when he reads a new story.  He often takes this book up to his bed at bedtime so he can read his big sister a bedtime story (in the past she would often read him stories at bedtime so he is thrilled that he can now read to her).

Julia Donaldson Songbirds Stage 1+ book

I have included affiliate links in the post.  If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will be the same.

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Practicing words with Road themed letters

Posted on April 27, 2016 by ofamily

Word practice for young kids using Free to download road themed letters

My little man is currently very excited about reading and spelling words.  So I have been wanting to capitalise on this excitement with words and build some extra word activity into our home learning.

Twinkl has a road themed letter display pack – FREE to download.  We actually have them printed out and laminated in one of his folders and he uses them to trace over the letters.  So I knew he liked the letters (almost anything vehicle related is a hit with my little man).  But this time I printed the letters onto card and cut each letter out individually.  The cutting does take a bit of time – great to do in front of the television but for me it was time well spent.

The idea was that he would then use the letters to spell out his own words.

Using the road themed letters from Twinkl to build words. perfect for relaxed at home learning activity

He mostly wanted to try animal or vehicle related words.

Using Free to download Road themed letters to spell out basic CVC words. Great for at home learning

But he also practiced a few of our “important words”

Practicing spelling words with the Road themed letters free to download from Twinkl Resources

Depending on which words you are wanting to practice with the kids you might find it useful to print a few extra letters – we found that a second copy of the vowels was very useful and also 2 copies of l and s came in very handy.  But that really does depend on which words the kids are going to want to spell out.

It was a very simple activity but it was a success with a my little guy and he enjoyed creating his words with the road themed letters.

building basic words with the FREE to download road themed letters from Twinkl Resources

Free Road letters perfect for practicing letter recognition and basic sight words

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Sealife Fuse Bead (Hama Bead ) set

Posted on April 25, 2016 by ofamily

It is no secret that we love our Hama Beads.  We have used them a lot as a calming down activity for our oldest

Fuse beads

and we have used them in a number of different craft projects.  I think they are a great Fine Motor activity.

In the past we have used boards and beads that I have bought separately and then created our own patterns or copied patterns and ideas that I have found on Pinterest (I have a Hama Board).  But recently I tried something different I was ordering some White A4 card and laminating pouches (1oo for £5.99) from Baker Ross when I saw fuse bead sets for  £3.49.  Total spur of the moment and I added one set to my shopping basket thinking it would be fun extra birthday pressie for my daughter.

When the boxes arrived I did not manage to stash the fuse bead set in time and my daughter and son quickly pounced on it and immediately asked if they could have a go.

So what comes in the Sealife fuse bead set – 3 small boards, 3 sheets of ironing paper around 900 beads and picture examples of 6 sealife creatures.

Fuse bead set from Baker Ross

The pictures of the Hama bead creatures is what really spurred my kids on.  They sat and counted out the bead patterns,

Fuse bead sealife set

they carefully considered how to start each pattern and where to place the starting beads so that the picture would fit on the board,

Fuse Bead sealife set starting the fish

they helped each other when they got stuck ad worked out the solution together.

Fuse bead sea turtle

Honestly I never realised a small fuse bead set would be such a great learning activity especially as we already own so many fuse bead goodies.

And in case you are wondering the beads and the boards that you get with this set are completely interchangeable with the Hama beads and Hama boards that you buy.

And yes the fuse beads in this set iron perfectly.

Fuse bead set ironing the creaturesSome of our end results

Fuse bead sealife kit after they have been ironed on ofamilyblog

They have a lovely selection of these fuse bead sets.  Next time I order from Baker Ross I am definitely going to include another set in my basket – probably the bird fuse bead set or maybe the Jungle animal set.

 

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Shut The Box Maths Game

Posted on April 24, 2016 by ofamily

I am a big believer in making sure the kids understand maths concepts really thoroughly.  We do lots of repetition but I try to find ways of doing the repetition in fun and creative ways so that the kids do not get bored.  I try to include maths in crafts and activities, we make fun folding maths aids and I like buying the kids games which have maths angles.  Some of the games the maths is more pattern concepts but in some games the maths is just straight forward basic addition.  Shut The Box is one of those games, the kids are practicing sums, no frills added, no extra background story, just sums and my kids LOVE IT !!

We were first introduced to this game by a friend and my daughter took to it very quickly, so after a quick search I found it on amazon and bought it (I have since also seen that John Lewis stocks it).  I have seen two different versions of this game – one has flap with 0 to 9 –Toyrific Shut the Box and another has flaps with the numbers 1 to 12 – Wooden Shut the box 12 with wooden dice.  We opted for the 1 to 12 version – this is a bit harder to find.

Shut the Box game

The kids  roll the dice and then flip the numbers 1-9 or 1-12 (depending on which version you have) to correspond to the total shown on the dice. If you get all the numbers down, you “shut the box” and win (we have actually never managed to get all the flaps down).

Playing shut the box maths game

Simple.  Yes.  But once you start the challenge can become a bit addictive.  Both my kids really enjoyed the challenge and they have played it over and over and over and over……………  They played it together, taking turns to throw the dice and they also played it by themselves – like a challenge against the board to see if they can get all the numbers.  My daughter will often get the game out and have a go by herself while her little brother is watching one of his dinosaur programs.

shut the box Playing against the game

It has been a big hit with both my kiddies (aged 5 and 7) and I love the fact that they are practicing their sums over and over again.  Nothing required from me, they are practicing Maths as they play.

Oh and just in case you are wondering – yes I too have had a few attempts (saying possibly more than just a few attempts) at this game and it does become addictive as you get slightly obsessed with tying to “SHUT THE BOX”.

I bought this game for my kids to use and I can honestly say that I think it was worth it.

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