Hello everyone! Hello parents and homeedders! 🥰
How is everybody doing today? I'm sure in your homes there's some form of activities you do together with the kids to keep them educated and to promote cognitive growth! Am I right?
A few days ago I shared some of our foods lately and now I'm sharing some of our games and activities me and Caleb were doing lately and we constantly do on a daily basis.
We have plenty of play time in my opinion, besides the time when we actually learn something, like let's say...Days of the week. What is a constelation? Why do cats hunt? About Animals. Etc etc etc.
Here are just a few examples on how we spend our day, other than just worksheets or experiments. In the way we play, there's always room for learning. I'm sure you get what I mean. Because kids learn by playing, by doing, by feeling, by seeing.
Build a tower as fast as you can
These wooden staking stones are labeled as for kids 1+ yrs old. Well, we found how to use if even now, at almost 5 yrs old. These toys promotes fine motor skills, recognizing colors and visual spatial imagination.
We started the Stopwatch to see what score can we get. The faster the better.
Caleb got 14-15 seconds and I scored 9-10 sec. At first he scored 19 sec and he was so frustrated because my score was better than his. He's very competitive so he kept trying.
Then he came out with an idea. I let him do whatever he was doing to see what's in his little mind. This is what he did: he stacked four stones on top of each other four times, because in total they're 16. And then told me to start the stopwatch. He got a five seconds score adding four stones at one time.
I was like....hey. That's cheating!! Not fair!
He was against my theory of cheating and he said No, it's not cheating. It's just my idea.
And again I was a bit confused...hmmmmm....OK! Maybe he's right. It's not cheating unless there are rules on that. I didnt specify any.
I embraced the idea that he was creative at that point and found a way to win. Logical thinking here. I didnt say this isn't allowed. So he went his own way!
But after this, we had a little chat in which I explained to him what's cheating and why following rules is important, especially when we play with other kids (or adults).
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Afternoon social game playing
Ohh this game is so lovely! No wonder my kid loved it in the past when we used to play it everyday. We have this cooperative game since 2021 or early 2022. Thats around two years old.
We have so many games, which I bought, by the way!!! And I hate to see they're not being used LOL! The're social games for small children and if I don't play with my kid (unless we have other kids coming over or relatives) he doesnt have anyone else to play with, but me and his dad. But usually I'm the one to play games with him. Anyways, thats why we have everyday a game time playing, even if it's for 15 minutes. Depends on the game.
This game here is called Snug as a Bug in a Rug.
In a cooperative game, kids (players) work together as a team, not against each other. Everyone has fun this way!
You can read all instructions I photographed, but shortly, the game is to get all the colorful bugs under the board before the 3 stinky bugs are on top of the board.
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There's a spinner, a dice to roll (with three possibilities: colors, shapes, numbers), 24 bugs and 3 stinky bugs.
There are three game levels. We started with second level and continued this way because we love it and sometimes we play the third level as well.
Usually, Caleb chooses how we play it.
The game promotes color recognition, shape recognition, 1-4 number recognition, logical thinking and easy strategies.
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My point here is not to describe the whole game unless you need me too but to underline that
kids need play time.
They need these type of games in order to develop their cognitive skills, social skills and logical skills and have fun with family. Board games are the most enjoyable to play with little one as a family and plus, they will treasure this lovely time forever.
That's my opinion on board games and play at this early age.
My son is not asking me to do worksheets or coloring. But he asks me to play with him. Play with LEGO, play chess, play with his Numberblocks, play different games we have at home. Why? Because it's more fun for them to be engaged in such games.
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Reading Time
Well, we have an Usborne Book called BUG IN A RUG. And because we were playing the Bug game, I though it's perfect timing to re-read this book. But not alone! I used to read it endless times back in the days.
Now we did 50-50% reading. I read a page, Caleb read the other. He started to read in English too so I wanted to hear it how he pronounces sounds and words he already knew. Because he's familiar with this book. Overall he did great!
I can't believe he's not even 5 and he reads both in Romanian and English! I knew it's going to eventually happen but I didnt expect to be so fast. Actually he started reading in Romanian a long time ago, one year ago for sure. A word at a time. Now he even can read from the Bible and this is not easy to read. But I see and hear him sometimes. I love when he takes a book out of the library and start reading it just like that!
There's no day without reading!
And this is something that I personally love about being a mom. I love to read to Caleb. And I love it because he learned so much just from reading books. Sometimes there are days when we don't "learn" much, I mean no experiments, no worksheets, no educational games, NADA.
But then we have the BOOKS to save us! I know that at least we've read one page of something.
BUT, a BIG BIG BUT!
It's more than PERFECT to have days without any intentional learning. Kids need these too!
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Chess
This is something to be doing everyday. We get to play Chess. And I can't escape it! :))
He started playing chess at the age of 3 years and 11 months old.
Since then he continued to express his pleasure in playing chess and became better and better. Last summer we decided to take him to chess lessons. I like that he spends around 2 hours a week there with other children (4-6 kids ) and that they learn chess together.
They have fun together. They compete together. They play together.
Here we have his Chess Activity Notebook. Caleb is eager to do his homework, it's not tiring for him. I can barely keep up with him to correct what he worked because he does too many pages at once. Sometimes he does one or two pages, sometimes he does 9-10. He was the only kid to finish Step 1 Notebook when the other kids didnt even started. 😂 He went to his coach and say:
Hey coach! Give me Step 2. I finished the Step 1.
You can maybe imagine a five year old screaming for a Step 2, with such a lovely voice of excitement. I surely enjoyed it! 😊
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And here is him, with his chess board.
He got a new chess board recently, with Kittens being the pawns. He's still in love with Felines and Cats. So I found this online and bought it for him. He was all over the moon! 😸
It's something to stick on in the future too because he's good at and he likes it. He can't wait for the day when we go to chess lessons!
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Another quick thing to mention is that KIDS ARE HAPPY & HEALTHY when they play! When they get to play around us, with us! So all this time we put into playing with our little kids is not wasted! Their mental health and well being depends on these little things!
What do you do on a daily basis?
How is your day around your kids? Are there any planned activities or games?
Do you play in a specific time frame of the day?
Do you do games and board games?
Love, Missdeli ❤️
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