Find It Game... a Review & a Giveaway

The winner is Helpful Housewife! Congrats!

Find It Games recently sent us a game to play with and review. We chose "At the Beach" since blue is O's favorite color, and we love the beach. There are over 40 hidden items to find in this game, and we have had fun trying to find them! The top cap of the game has a list of the objects in alphabetical order, which makes it easy to incorporate phonics into the game. In this picture O is looking for an object that starts with "b."

The lack of loose pieces makes this game great for traveling and playing around babies... since you don't have to worry about them grabbing a small piece and putting it in their mouths (this is a constant concern around here since E is extremely fast and puts everything in her mouth). E also loves to crawl around on the floor while pushing the game and watching it roll.

I really like that through playing this game, O is learning to pay attention to details and to concentrate. This game also requires persistance which is something that most 4 year olds need to practice :)

Find It Games is offering a game to one lucky reader, so comment on this post to enter to win a game (US residents only please). I'll get my random number generator (O!) to choose a number on Saturday night, so please leave your comment by then. Find It Games is also offering a discount that is good through July 31, 2010. Enter FIGBLOG to get 5 dollars off your order.

Fun with Worms

O and her Daddy went fishing on Monday morning. They didn't catch anything, but they had fun. O especially had fun playing with the worms when they got back. She made letters out of them and lined them up for races.

She counted the worms and held them all in her hands. Then she insisted that I hold them in my hands. I wasn't excited about it, but I did it. She said "Aren't they wiggly and squiggly?" Yes, they were!

Stuck!

E occasionally gets stuck under chairs as she is crawling about the house. I usually try to let her figure out how to get out by herself as it is very good for her brain to do this type of motor planning. However, she was too upset this time, so we had to help her out. O lifted the top off the chair so that E could stand up, and I lifted her up. Poor baby.

4 Years Old!

O is 4 years old!!! I can't believe my baby girl is 4 yeas old! She told me tonight "I want to be 4 twenty times." When I asked her what she meant, she said "I like being a child..." I love her so much!

Creative Painting

O had a fantastic time painting with dry tempera powder a few weeks ago! I set up this art activity by pouring red, blue, and yellow tempera paint powder into 3 separate lids for her. I gave her several sheets of white cardstock to paint and cotton balls to dip in the paint. She applied the paint powder to the paper with the cotton balls and then painted over the paint powder with a paintbrush she had dipped in water.

Then she said she wanted to experiment...she dipped the cotton balls in water before dipping them into the paint powder, she sprinkled the paint powder across the paper before wetting it, she used q tips to spread the powder around, etc. She did everything she could think of and totally enjoyed herself. I love it when an art activity is so successful!

E Loves Her O Ball

This O ball is one of E's favorite toys! It is easy for her little fingers to grasp and throw. She also loves to chew on it and plays with it in the water. Simple toys like this are the best! (I bought the O ball several months ago from WM for 5 dollars).

A Fun Math Activity

We have been doing very little "school" work around here lately, but when I saw these plastic shot glasses at The Dollar Tree a few weeks ago I couldn't resist buying them for this activity.

I wrote the numbers 0 through 10 on dot stickers and stuck one on each glass. O put the glasses in order and then put the correct number of toothpicks in each one.

One thing I like about this activity is that it takes up VERY little space!

Peek-A-Boo Baby

An empty kleenex box is great for playing peek-a-boo with babies and small toys. E loves to reach in the box to get her toys. It's a little easier to get the toys out of the kleenex box than the wipes container, and she seems to prefer this box to the container.

O's 4th Birthday Cake

We started the tradition of having O decorate her own birthday cake last year, and she was SO excited to do it again this year! She picked out the decorations, icing, and candles, and she and my mom made her cake and icing on the day before her party. My mom iced the cake with white icing, and then O decorated it with supervision from me. I helped her press on the nozzle for the blue icing (we did hand over hand), but she did everything else on her own. She had a great time and was so proud!

O has had Cinderella on her mind since she had Princess Dance Camp a few weeks ago, so she decided she wanted to have Cinderella on her cake. I felt a little panicky when I overheard her telling her grandmother that she was going to let me help her decorate her cake so that I could draw Cinderella on it. Yikes! I told my mom about this, and she had the great idea to use O's Cinderella figurine. Phew!

O decided to put Miss Lilly on her cake, too, since Miss Lilly is a ballet teacher (and reminds her of her imaginary friend/dance teacher whose name is also Miss Lilly). If you've never let your child decorate a cake on their on, I highly recommend trying it! I love that there is no pressure on me to make a beautiful, creative cake, and I love that O is able to have creative freedom to create her own masterpiece!

Nature and Art

We have been learning more about the plants and animals that live in our yard this week. We've found dead bugs that we've inspected with a magnifying glass, and we've read books about lakes and lake animals (since we live at a lake). On Monday we took our paper and watercolor paints outside and painted landscapes while pushing E in her swing.

O and I took turns painting pictures, and she was a little upset when I painted my sky all the way down to the grass on my picture. She demonstrated and gave me instructions on how the sky should only be a blue strip at the top of the page. I remember drawing the sky this way and then having a sudden realization that the sky does not actually look like this. I asked O if she was sure if the sky should just be a small strip at the top of the page, and she was adamant :) Love it!


After we painted for a while, O decided to paint her foot, too.

I'm looking forward to more outside painting with O soon. I think it would be a lot of fun to go on the dock to paint, but we have to wait until we have someone to watch E since her little fast self would crawl off the dock in a second!

Starting Early...

O was SO excited when E started pushing her vacuum cleaner back and forth. She said "Look mama! She's vacuuming ALL by herself! We'll never have to clean again!" If only that were true :)

I'm very busy cleaning and organizing our house and finishing O's handmade birthday presents...her birthday party is on Saturday, and there is still SO much to do. I apologize for the delay in answering email. I hope to get to them soon.

July 4th Flag Cake

My mom started the tradition of making this delicious flag cake for July 4th last year, and we were glad that she continued it this year. She makes an angel food cake and tops it with cool whip. O enjoys decorating it to look like a flag with strawberries and blueberries, but she REALLY loves sneaking licks of the cool whip...there was a tongue indention and several finger marks in the cake after she finished decorating it!

A New Sensory Experience for Baby...

lying on her back in the grass...she was not impressed! I was surprised by how aversive this experience was for her. She cringed and got up as quickly as she possibly could. She didn't cry, but she acted like this was just a terrible experience. However, she doesn't mind crawling in the grass, and she's always trying to eat it!

The Amazing Action Alphabet

A reader sent us The Amazing Action Alphabet flip chart and cd a few months ago, and these are great products! The Amazing Action Alphabet uses a multisensory approach to teaching letter names and sounds. Children see the letters, hear the sounds in a story, and then do an action. Learning is most effective when material is presented through the use of several senses.

I accepted this product for review because I knew O would love it even though she already knew her letters and letter sounds. I was right...she does love it, and I wish I'd had it sooner. It's fun to play the cd while flipping through the flip chart, and I'm looking forward to introducing letters and sounds to E using this method.

I have only a couple of complaints...I really wish the flipchart had a built in stand instead of lying flat (I guess I'm spoiled by all of the testing manuals that I use because they all have built in stands). Also, a couple of the stories were a little difficult to understand because the voices were a little strange (the main one that I didn't like was A). However, most of the stories (and voices) were great. Overall, this is a great product, and the price is right. I hope you'll check it out and let me know if you like it, too.

A Simple Behavior Intervention

As a School Psychologist a huge part of my job is planning behavior and academic interventions for kids. However, when it comes to my own child, it is a little more difficult. Luckily, I work with some wonderful psychologists who are great at coming up with super simple interventions.

O has not been listening quickly for the last couple of months, and I've found myself repeating myself more often than I would like and counting to 3 to get her to listen. I really don't like counting to 3...it just gives her a reason to wait to listen instead of listening quickly. So, I asked my friend Jan for ideas...

To do this intervention, I gave O a piece of blue cardstock (blue is her favorite color). I explained to her that when she listened the FIRST time I asked her to do something, she would get a star on her paper. That's it. Simple and VERY effective.

O was very excited about her sheet. At first I gave her stars very frequently, but I didn't give them everytime she listened the first time because random reinforcement seems to work better than continuous. Also, I didn't want her to expect to get a star for listening...I worry about eroding the intrinsic motivation that comes from behaving nicely. However, I did want her to be excited about earning the stars in order to help her get back into the habit of listening quickly. So far this is really working. Here are a few important points of this intervention:

-She is not allowed to ask for a star (this was never an issue, but if it had been I planned to tell her that she would not get a star if she asked).

-I did not ask her to do something by saying "If you do ..., you'll get a star." The stars were like a fun surprise after she listened the first time...there was no convincing her to listen by promising a star.

-I did not take away stars when she didn't listen. I didn't mention the stars at all when she didn't listen.

-She doesn't earn anything once she fills the sheet up with stars other than the satisfaction of knowing that she did a great job and earned a sheet full of stars. (Elliott's first question was "what does she get for filling the sheet?") I didn't want this intervention to be about what she would get because I don't want to instill in her that she should "get" something for behaving appropriately. I just want to help her get back into the habit of quick listening.

So far this is working for us, and we're having fun (which is the most important thing). This turned out to be a pretty wordy post (for me!) for a simple intervention. Enjoy!