Could use some advice

[monkeybabe]

Zoe is very bright. She's particularly obsessed with letters and numbers. She organizes things by size and color, and focuses in on patterns. I find shit lined up all over my house. I want to encourage her in the things she's interested in, but don't know quite how to go about it. We have blocks that go up to ten, and she can sit, for long periods of time, lining them up in order, and then backwards, and then quizzing me on the numbers. Should I get her more blocks, that go to higher numbers? I think about how important the first 5 years are, and she just seems so interested in learning about numbers and loves anything where she can read off letters. Any recommendations on what I can do for her? How I can make things available to her? I don't intend to push anything on her, just have things for her, if she's interested.

[Deleted]

I would just make things to be simple and cheap. Like with construction paper, maybe make different size strips and number them, so a short 1, next size 2, etc.

Also you can make a magnetic chalk board from an oil pan (google/Pinterest it) and I've seen people write out the letters then give their kids magnetic letters to place by the chalk letter. Does that make sense?

I think muppetinma might have some ideas to since A loves letters.

Maybe a memory game of some sort? You could make that too. Put letters or numbers on squares and flip them over and have her find the matching ones.

This is awesome for her! Delaney is not into numbers or letters at all.. Maybe I should encourage it more...?

[monkeybabe]

Dec 19, 2014 1:55:13 GMT -5 ladybug said:

I would just make things to be simple and cheap. Like with construction paper, maybe make different size strips and number them, so a short 1, next size 2, etc.

Also you can make a magnetic chalk board from an oil pan (google/Pinterest it) and I've seen people write out the letters then give their kids magnetic letters to place by the chalk letter. Does that make sense?

I think muppetinma might have some ideas to since A loves letters.

Maybe a memory game of some sort? You could make that too. Put letters or numbers on squares and flip them over and have her find the matching ones.

This is awesome for her! Delaney is not into numbers or letters at all.. Maybe I should encourage it more...?

There are other things that Zoe isn't interested in. I'd say it all depends on the kid. She's very meh on coloring, and a lot of kids we know her age seem to be more refined in their scribbling, say. Zoe's just started making rounded shapes, for example.

[tuck]

I think I would focus more on manipulating numbers right now rather than going higher- like, one to one correspondence type things (every place setting at the tea party has one spoon and one plate, for instance).

I think having a lot of open ended toys is really important at this age. Blocks, pretend play, stuff like that.

[monkeybabe]

Dec 19, 2014 2:26:09 GMT -5 tuck said:

I think I would focus more on manipulating numbers right now rather than going higher- like, one to one correspondence type things (every place setting at the tea party has one spoon and one plate, for instance).

I think having a lot of open ended toys is really important at this age. Blocks, pretend play, stuff like that.

Thanks! That sounds like something she'd like doing.

[whodey]

Do you have a Lakeshore Learning Center near by? They have a lot of educational toys to buy

[imimahoney]

Ari loves flash cards. We have Mickey ones with numbers that go up to 20 and then the other half of the stack has the number written out with things to count on the other side. He could look at those things for dayssss.

Also, consider magnets of letters and numbers and maybe a small chalk board. Let her make the letter and number combos. Ari loves doing that.

[muppetinma]

Right now, the favorite things in our house are the M&D See and Spell and just a regular cookie sheet with magnetic numbers and letters. He rarely uses the boards with the S&S now. He just likes spelling out words with the letters. He's getting some pattern blocks for Christmas, and I expect those to be a huge hit. Aside from making the suggested patterns, they can be used for sorting, counting, etc.

I will second the Lakeshore Learning recommendation. I used to work there, and I'm a huge fan of their products and the training that their staff receives. For Zoe, i'd look into manipulatives. They'll sell a bunch of different kinds in plastic tubs. For instance, they have teddy bear manipulatives. In that jar, the bears will be red, blue, and yellow. They'll also be small, medium, and large. There are just a lot of opportunities to count and learn and sort with something so simple.

[Deleted]

Here is the size sorting Brady loves this m.lakeshorelearning.com/h5/pdp?href=%2Fproduct%2FproductDetBySkuCode.jsp?product_code%3DGG732


Also what about making a list for her to pretend shop around the house. Have the list say 2 cars, 3 books, etc and she have to go around the house to find them.

A lot of montessori and reggio schools serve snack family style so they have a car and will have the number 4 with 4 dots to symbolize how many carrots they can take to learn 1 to 1 correspondence.

Dice games are fun too she's probably ready for simple board games. Sneaky squirrel or high oh cherry o

[Deleted]

Oh does she have a toy cash register? That would be good

[alicia45]

The teacher in me says not to limit her, just follow her lead. We count everything in our house...steps, jumps to her room, the time it takes to brush her teeth (forwards and then we count down when it's her turn). We do a lot of counting. She's good until 29 because she hasn't figured out the decade names yet. She's realized that once you get to 20, the pattern is twenty-ONE, twenty-TWO....so one, two, three, all over again.

We got these last year and they've been used for many games. www.amazon.com/50-Counting-Bears-5-Cups/dp/B0006PKZBI/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1419006244&sr=8-7&keywords=preschool+toys+educational&pebp=1419006269141 I let her decide the "rules" of the game. So, separating by color, size, whatever. Then we count them. I've also used them to teach patterns- 2 colors (AB pattern), 3 colors (ABC pattern), and occasionally 4 colors (ABCD pattern) and you can mix it up- A-B-A-B-C-A-B-A-B-C. You can use the bears for anything.

The other idea is making a poster with the numbers on it for magnets. A's been counting for over a year but she's just now getting into recognizing them. I have some number magnets on her list and I plan on making a poster to tape to our fridge so she can "stick" them. I'll pip my letter one. Same concept but with numbers.

There's so many ideas and when I get stuck or need something new, I look at Pinterest for Preschool Education. There's literally tons that you can DIY.

[monkeybabe]

Thanks ladies!

[greenkitty98]

You already got tons of good advice. I agree with following her lead at this age for what she is interested in. That is what we did for B when he was this age, and he is excelling in school now.

[jg183]

You got great advice! The only other thing is you can teach her some sound correspondence like a says aaaaa and have her guess what letter things start with- Luke likes that game

[mala]

I got this www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001G60J1M/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 for B, with some of those learning mat crayons. She LOVES it. She scribbles sometimes, but she also tries to trace out the numbers and letters, and there are shapes of different sizes. The numbers go up to 20, too, most of the other tracing books/mats I've seen only go to 10. There's also a page with simple math problems.

Flash cards sound like a good idea, too.

I swear B and Z are practically the same kid, personality wise.

[creamsiclechica]

A loves her some flash cards. And she is obsessed with the giant word book by Richard Scarry. It has letters and counting pages. I don't know if you screen time, but we also love an app called "talking ABC's" and it sings and they can choose letters and it shows them a corresponding animals that begin with it in claymation. Both kids love it actually. It's helped her figure out letter sounds too.

[monkeybabe]

Dec 19, 2014 17:10:41 GMT -5 creamsiclechica said:

A loves her some flash cards. And she is obsessed with the giant word book by Richard Scarry. It has letters and counting pages. I don't know if you screen time, but we also love an app called "talking ABC's" and it sings and they can choose letters and it shows them a corresponding animals that begin with it in claymation. Both kids love it actually. It's helped her figure out letter sounds too.

She loves the Word World app. Animals + Letters = Zoe's jam.