Kamis, 25 Juni 2015

Free Animal Number Puzzles for Kids

I'll confess. Sometimes I get inspired by a product that I buy for my daughters and I use that idea to come up with a printable activity. In this case, I bought a great pack of Princess sticker puzzles from Michael's. I thought it was such a great idea to practice numbers, so I made a few animal themed cut & paste number puzzles to share with you! Sure, not as much fun as stickers, but just as educational!


Free Animal Number Puzzles for Kids

These FREE Animal themed Number Puzzles come in two levels of difficulty. One set includes numbers 1-16  and another set includes number 1-32. Use whichever puzzles suit your child's skill level. 

Just cut the images along the grid lines, shuffle the pieces and give to your child to glue to the blank grid sheet. For added challenge, have the child cut out the puzzle pieces! 


If you are interested in the Sticker Puzzles product I purchased, here are some Amazon affiliate links:



10 Tips to Help You Feed Your Toddler a Healthy Diet

I am pleased to feature this very helpful guest post by Dr. Orlena Kerek, who is a pediatrician, a mother of four, an author and a blogger at Snotty-Noses.com! On her blog you can find a wealth of information on children's health, illnesses, symptoms, healthy eating, and many great recipes!

10 Tips to Help You Feed your Toddler a Healthy Diet

10 Tips to Help You Feed Your Toddler a Healthy Diet


I think it’s fair to say that toddlers have dubious table manners. They shout, they scream, they fling food and cutlery, they try to sprawl themselves across the table. Well at least they do in my house and we have two. Dinner times are far from civilised.

It can be difficult for parents. Faced with these very determined little people, we try hard to give them a healthy diet. More often than not we see our nice green broccoli flying through the air. Count yourself luck if you have a dog to help you clear up.

One of the things that parents really struggle with is introducing new foods to young children, especially toddlers. Here’s my top tips to make it easier for you:

1. Be Patient. I can’t say this enough. Toddlers can be difficult. The behaviour described above is perfectly normal for toddlers. It’s frustrating yes, but hang in there.

2. Keep presenting new and healthy food. It takes time for children to accept a new food. The first time they see it, they probably won’t like it. You just need to keep presenting it. (The norm is 10-15 times but some children take longer.)

3. Toddlers' tastes can change. My oldest used to love bananas. He’s nearly 7 now and won’t touch them. He can smell them in anything. He truly doesn’t like them now.

4. Let them feed themselves. I know it’s frustrating and messy but exploring food is a great way for them to learn about the food and to learn how to feed themselves. (If they ask for a bit of help from time to time that’s fine too.)

5. Don’t pressure them. Toddlers, like most people, don’t like to be told what to do. It will only serve to make them more stubborn. (There is lots of evidence that pressurising children to eat has adverse affects.)

6. Don’t bribe them. You can have pudding when you’ve eaten your peas? Let’s face it, it’s just pressurising them in disguise.

7. Learn to trust them. You choose what to offer them. They choose what to eat. When you trust them it’s much easier.

8. Remember that toddlers' appetites can be erratic. 4 weetabix for breakfast one day, 1 strawberry the next. Or only veggies one day and carbs and protein the next. As long as you offer them healthy food it doesn’t matter.

9. Offer variety. Research shows that the more variety you offer, the more variety they’ll eat.

10. Get them used to the idea of strange foods before they are presented with them. Seeing them in books, playing with toy vegetables or the actual food (not at the dinner table) are all great ways to introduce them to foods so that when they see them on the plate they won’t be so strange.

Feeding toddlers is a challenge. Getting them used to a healthy diet and into healthy habits is an amazing gift that will give them great health benefits later in life. The keys are patience and persistence. (And perhaps some ear plugs!)

Meet Orlena:



I’m Dr Orlena Kerek. I’m a paediatric doctor and mother of four young children and author of the book Crunch! Put a Stop to Picky Eating and Get Your Kids to Love Veggies. I used to think that healthy eating was easy, until I had children. Then I realised it’s easier said than done. Over the last few years I’ve been researching and practising on my own children to ensure that they develop healthy eating habits.






Senin, 08 Juni 2015

12 Ice Cream Printables for Preschoolers (Love to Learn Linky #45)

I asked my kids what their favorite thing about summer is and they said ice cream! So I thought it would be fun to round up all the free ice cream learning printables for preschoolers and have them in one place for handy reference!


12 Ice Cream Printables for Preschoolers

Practice spelling your name, one scoop at a time!


Match capital and lowercase letters with this ice cream busy bag printable.

Practice numbers and one-to-one correspondence with this math ice cream cone game.

Match pictures on the ice cream by their beginning letter sounds.

This popsicle matching activity is a perfect way to practice rhyming!

Create a yummy sight word sundae with this printable!

This ice cream file folder math game is perfect for practicing numbers 1 through 10!

And now for the packs...

Practice letter recognition, letter tracing and more in this Ice Cream ABC Pack

Dot markers make learning fun. Use them with these Ice Cream Do-a-Dot Printables.

This ice cream game pack has several math and letter games.

This ice cream Pre-K unit has tons of different learning activities.

Here is another ice cream preschool pack that looks great.

LOVE TO LEARN LINKY

Visit my co-hosts to see their posts and features!

Canada Day National Flag Windsock Craft from One Time Through

Love to Learn Linky

Now it's time for some more links! I hope you'll join me and a couple of friends for a brand new linky party!

Bloggers, link up your posts every Thursday and watch as we round them up and share them all over the place.

Almost anything goes, we're just hoping your activities teach kids (or us!) something. (science, art, cooking, behavior, crafting, parenting, etc...)


Love to Learn Linky Etiquette:

  • Posts should be about educating our kids in any way - science, art, cooking, crafts, behavior, parenting, etc. Please keep them family friendly and please no Etsy shops or giveaways unless they are relevant to the topic.

  • Upload your direct post link to the InLinkz widget. Link up to 3 posts.



  • Post our button on your site.

  • By linking up, you agree to have your images shared with credit.

Link up and grab a button!
Love to Learn Linky





Kamis, 28 Mei 2015

18 Road Trip Printables for Traveling with Kids (Love to Learn Linky #44)

Summer is almost here and I am sure many of you are planning vacations and road trips with the kids. I don't know about your kids but I have one who is pretty content sitting for long periods of time and I have another who absolutely hates being stuck in the car, even just to run a few errands. I have put together a collection of 18+ Free car themed road-trip games and printables that will hopefully make your traveling with kids easier.


Free Road Trip Printables for Kids


Printable Games to Play in the Car by In the Playroom
20+ Reusable Car Games by 123 Homeschool 4 Me
Road Trip Alphabet Pictionary by Lalymom
Printable Travel Sheets for Mini Do a Dot by Moms & Crafters
Restaurant I-Spy by 3 Boys and a Dog
License Plate I-Spy by 3 Boys and a Dog
Road Trip Drawing Prompts by Picklebums
Road Trip Bingo by This Reading Mama
Road Trip Bingo by Housing a Forest
Road Trip Activities and Games by Learn with Play at Home
Road Trip Activity Pack by Playdough to Plato
Travel Scavenger Hunt by Jellybean Junkyard
License Plate Search + Other Games by Poofy Cheeks
Road Trip Journal Pages by Peace but Not Quiet
Road Trip Travel Printables by Mum in the Madhouse
More Road Trip Travel Printables by Mum in the Madhouse
The License Plate Game by Makeovers & Motherhood
Travel Notebook for Preschoolers by Cornerstone Confessions


LOVE TO LEARN LINKY

Visit my co-hosts to see their posts and features!

Outdoor Activities the Kids will Love! from A Little Pinch of Perfect
Minion Brush Bots from Left Brain Craft Brain
Summer Picnic Play Sensory and Phonics Bin from One Time Through

Love to Learn Linky

Now it's time for some more links! I hope you'll join me and a couple of friends for a brand new linky party!

Bloggers, link up your posts every Thursday and watch as we round them up and share them all over the place.

Almost anything goes, we're just hoping your activities teach kids (or us!) something. (science, art, cooking, behavior, crafting, parenting, etc...)


Love to Learn Linky Etiquette:

  • Posts should be about educating our kids in any way - science, art, cooking, crafts, behavior, parenting, etc. Please keep them family friendly and please no Etsy shops or giveaways unless they are relevant to the topic.

  • Upload your direct post link to the InLinkz widget. Link up to 3 posts.



  • Post our button on your site.

  • By linking up, you agree to have your images shared with credit.

Link up and grab a button!
Love to Learn Linky





Senin, 25 Mei 2015

Ice Cream Name Recognition with Free Printable

I'm very happy to welcome Mihaela from Best Toys 4 Toddlers! Her blog features tons of awesome activities to keep toddlers busy, learning, creating and playing. Check out her Tot Hacks series for very helpful parenting advice, as well as these free printable learning activities: Little Bo Peep Color Match, Mary Quite Contrary Roll & Build a Flower and Hickory Dickory Dock Number and Color Matching.

Ice Cream My Name


Today we are going with a Summer theme! After all, Summer is almost here! Not sure about your kids but my kids are totally crazy about ice cream! Anything related to ice cream is a total hit in our house. This is why I decided to make this printable name recognition game and give it a very cool name: Ice Cream My Name!


Ice Cream Name Recognition Activity with Free Printable

You will need to print out our printable ice cream. It’s only one sheet printable and it includes 6 scoops of ice cream and one cone. In case your child’s name has more than 6 letters, just print an additional sheet of the same printable. We laminated our ice cream because in this way we can use it more than once and expand the game to other words, maybe family members or sight words after our toddler learns to spell her own name.

After you have printed it out, write on a cone the complete name using a dry-erase marker. Inside the circles on the ice cream scoops write a single letter from the name. Your toddler’s task is to build her/his name using ice cream scoops to match the name written on the cone.



As I mentioned, you can use the same set to teach your toddler names of other members of your family, sight words or any other word you would like. You will simply use a paper handkerchief to wipe the dry-erase marker and write other words on the cone and letters on ice cream scoops.

Simple and effective! If you add a real ice cream into the game and treat them for a job well done, they will love it!





Meet Mihaela:

Mihaela runs Best Toys 4 Toddlers blog and loves to come up with new ideas how to use old toys her 2 daughters keep leaving on the floor to slip over. Right now she’s thinking how to get her 7 year old to make toys for 2 year old as an idea to bring them closer together. In mean time, you can find her on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest sharing playful learning ideas for toddlers and preschoolers.






Jumat, 22 Mei 2015

10 Fun Activities that Promote the Love of Music in Young Children

Sara from Sunshine Whispers is here today sharing why music is important and educational for toddlers and 10 ideas on how to incorporate music into your daily life. Stop by Sara's blog and check out her other awesome parenting posts, crafts and activities such as Snugglesaurus Dinosaur Craft, Toilet Paper Roll Airplane Craft, and Strong-Willed or a Spitfire?.

10 Fun Activities that Promote the Love of Music


I still remember the day I first held a violin. I was 8 years old and had ‘just decided’ I needed to play it. Now, almost 35 years later, that seemingly random decision has led to countless joys, as I have had the privilege of performing many of the great orchestral masterpieces with a number of fantastic orchestras.

Of course, most 2-year olds will not immediately fall in love with Beethoven or Miles Davis. However, there are numerous fun music activities for toddlers that can definitely set the stage for a lifetime love of music. Additionally, cultivating a love of music in young children will certainly reap rewards in other areas of development as well. Read on for my list of 10 Fun Activities that Promote the Love of Music in Young Children.




Depending on how you incorporate music activities into your child’s environment, there are a myriad of side benefits to music-themed activities (other than it just being fun!):

• Develops creativity and promotes imagination
• Helps young children learn to express themselves
• Gross motor skills development through activities that develop coordination and rhythm
• Fine motor skills development through activities that incorporate the playing of instruments
• Improves literacy and comprehension through singing songs
• Improves concentration and listening skills
• Recognizing patterns in music that will help them recognize patterns in language, math, logic, and movement
• Learning abstract concepts by providing meaningful experiences that illustrate them
• Multi-sensory learning - absorbing new information through more than one sense helps learning become permanent
• Pretend play helps develop problem solving skills
• Social interaction - music helps young children advance from parallel to cooperative play

And really, immersing yourself in music is just plain fun! Do you need ideas for how to incorporate music activities in your routine? Check out these 10 fun ideas!





1. Sing!

To borrow a phrase from a popular Sesame Street song, ‘Don’t worry if it’s not good enough for anyone else to hear. Just sing, sing a song.’ Sing with your kids. Don’t worry if you can’t carry a tune. Your kids won’t care. Actually, they will likely love everything about your singing voice. Start singing to your child from birth and before you know it, they will start singing with you. Sing happy songs, silly songs, sweet songs, lullabies. Sing a song with your child’s name in it. Just sing!


2. Dance

Get those wiggles out! Pop in some Raffi or Laurie Berkner. March like a dinosaur. Flap like a chicken. Fly like an airplane. Create some silly walks. Have a dance party to Mommy and Daddy’s favorite music. Be silly! Be sentimental.


3. Listen

It can be difficult to get a toddler to sit still and listen to music. That is ok. Play music in the background at dinner. Pop in a CD or playlist when you are driving (also a great time for that singing). Very quickly your child will develop favorites (our daughter loves Old MacDonald and the Manamana Song). However, expose them to your child-appropriate favorites too - 80’s pop, jazz, a little classical, maybe some Nora Jones. If you love it, your enthusiasm will rub off on them as well.


4. Play

There are so many fantastic toy instruments available. Xylophones, tambourines, rattles, maracas, bongos, kid-sized pianos, even a piano/music app on your smart phone or tablet. The point is, let you kid bang away and experiment with different types of musical instruments. If you don’t want to spend money to buy more toys… pots, pans, cups, spoon, and other household items make great play instruments as well.


5. Create

Introduce some structure to the music play. Tap a rhythm on a drum and have your kid repeat after you. Make up a verse to that song you both love to sing and ask your child to help you out with creating verses, make homemade instruments together and then play them!


6. Exposure to Instruments

I guess this one is easy for me… I play the violin. However, many community and professional orchestras will have events for kids where real instruments are available for the kids to pluck, blow, bang, and strum.


7. Exposure to Live Music

These same community and professional music groups often have young people’s concerts that are geared for kids, ages 2 to 10. Many times concerts will feature puppets, dancers, or other fun activities to keep kids engaged. You don’t have to go to an orchestra performance though. Check out live music at community fairs and festivals, marching bands, the church choir. The point is to expose your child to people performing music… trust me, they will love it!


8. Incorporate into Daily Life

You don’t have to be Julie Andrews to have fun with music in daily life. Actually, music is a great teacher. I can’t tell you how many times I have taught my daughter by singing a little song we both learned watching Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood (When you have to go potty, STOP!, and go right away…).


9. Build Music into Family Traditions and Special Occasions

Music is the language of emotion and our memories are primarily interpretations of how we felt about something that happened in the past. Why not build that soundtrack together? Are you going camping? Learn some silly campfire songs. Do you celebrate holidays? Turn on that holiday music station and belt out Frosty the Snowman.


10. Talk About It

Ask your child about what you are listening to, or what you are creating. Is the music loud or soft? High or low? Fast or slow? Do you like it? How does it make you feel? Get your kids to learn the language of music and that will only help cognitive and social development in other areas as well.

What kind of music do you like? Do you already incorporate music activities into your routine? I would love to hear more ideas.

Thank you for reading, and go sing a song now!


10 Fun Activities that Promote the Love of Music in Young Children



Meet Sara:

Sara blogs about kid crafts and activities, parenting, and faith at http://www.sunshinewhispers.com. She is a Christian, working (outside the home) wife, and Mom to a wild and crazy fun little girl and an adorable geriatric black lab. She works for ‘the man’ 9 to 5 and is always searching for that elusive work-life balance. Outside of work, she loves exploring the Baltimore-DC metro area with her family, hanging with friends, and just about anything that involves making her daughter smile, laugh, or dance (she dances like a chicken… it is hilarious!).






Where do Vegetables Grow? Gardening Craft with Free Printable

Learn about different types of vegetables and where they grow, in this next guest post from JDaniel4's Mom! You can find more creative learning activities on her blog, including Counting Bees Printable Math Game, Pick Up Sticks Sight Word Games, and 8 Ice Cream Games for Learning.


Where Do Vegetables Grow? Gardening Craft with Free Printable


Learning Where Vegetables Grow


Not all vegetables grow on plants the way fruits do. Some grow under the ground. Some vegetables are the stems or flowers of a plant.

We recently used a burlap gardening board I created to explore just where the vegetables we eat grow on a plant. The vegetables we sorted were made of felt and displayed on card stock cards. I thought you might not have the time to make them from scratch. Instead, I have made you a set of printable photos of the felt vegetables you can use. They are displayed in the pictures below.


Under the Ground Vegetables



After sorting through the pile of plants, the plants that grow vegetables under the ground were placed on the gardening board. The leafy green section of the plant was placed in the green area of the board. The section of the card displaying the underground vegetable was placed in the brown area.

Once you have the vegetables in place, you might want to take a moment to talk about the words under and over. You can have your children point to the parts of the plant that are under the ground and over the ground. It will give your children a quick lesson on positional words.


On the Ground Vegetables



There are three vegetables that grow on the ground or the green area of the gardening board. They don’t grow on a plant hanging down to the ground. The base of the plant is cut off where it sits on the ground. Those vegetables are the stem or flower of the plant. The broccoli is a flower. The asparagus is a stem. The celery maybe called a stem for this activity lesson, but it is petiole. A petiole is a small stalk attaching the leaf blade of a plant to the stem.


Above the Ground Vegetables



The last area to place vegetables in is the blue area. While they don’t grow while floating in the air, they don’t grow on the ground either. If you feel there needs to be a plant displayed on your gardening board, you can cut one out of felt.(We just displayed them above the ground.) Each of the above ground vegetables has its own unique plant. I decided to avoid having the vegetables grow from the wrong type of plant by not including one.

You may look at the above ground vegetables and wonder if they are all really vegetables. Well, technically some of them are fruits. The peas are really seeds. The tomatoes are fruits. Beans are a fruit. Corn is considered by some to be a fruit and others to be a vegetable. For this activity the food that grows above ground was called a vegetable, but it would be fine for you to share what they are instead.

When you have all the vegetables displayed on the gardening board, you can quickly review the positional words over, on, and below.


How I Made the Gardening Board



The gardening board is made of three colors of burlap glued to a large piece of cardboard. The blue and brown areas were made larger than the green area. The above the ground and underground areas are bigger than the ground in real life so I made them that way on the board.

You actually don't need to make a gardening board with burlap the way I did. Painting the three sections onto cardboard or gluing blue, green and brown construction paper on a piece of cardboard would be fine too.








Meet Deirdre:

Deirdre is the author of JDaniel4’s Mom where she shares other learning activities, printables, crafts, and food creations. She loves growing and learning beside her son. You can find her on Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram.