When I was taking a psychology class and my boys were little, I tried one of the psychology experiments on them. I had three of my boys and one of their friends, ages just turned 7, just turned 5, the friend was almost 5 and my little one was 2 1/2. The experiment was to take each child separately and give them a cookie and myself two cookies. Then I asked, "Is that fair?" with no inflection. The baby happily started munching his cookie and didn't care.
The friend's turn: - No, it's not fair. You have more than me.
I reached over, right in front of him and broke his in half, then asked again, "Is that fair?"
He happily replied, "Yes, now we both have two!"
My five year old's turn started the same way, he agreed it was now fair once I broke the cookie right in front of him. But he hesitated for a moment, reached out a finger and pushed one of his cookie halves toward the other. He stopped, looked at my plate, looked at his again and pushed the halves together. Then he said, "Hey! That's not fair! I have two cookies but I really don't. It's really just ONE." I gave him a second cookie.
My seven year old just looked at me when I tried him, raised his eyebrow and said, "Oh, please." LOL!
It was great, we did four experiments and I got to watch my five year old as he teetered on the cusp of this new understanding of conservation of matter.
Just a few days ago, my son (the 7 year old who is now 27) impulsively tried this with my five year old granddaughter and three year old grandson. He broke the three year old's cookie in half and asked if it was fair. My granddaughter told her brother, "It IS fair. You really only have one cookie but he made it two." She's almost six so it was easier for her to get it but she still thought it was kind of fair even though she had a very doubtful look on her face. I can't help but think she might have had a different opinion if it had been her that got only one cookie!
Preschool Crafts and Activities
Currclick has some great activities for preschoolers. I've bought (or gotten free for their weekly freebie) the polar bear activity book and the tiger activity book. The littles learned about the animals and enjoyed it a great deal, then we made craft polar bears and hand puppet tigers.
I also got a phonics bingo game which is coming in handy while my granddaughter is learning to read in kindergarten. There are real photos of many things and letters to match for the starting sounds of those photos. I use the capital and lower case letters too, both the littles like to match them. I cut out the letters in circle shape and stuck them into milk cap lids (not the grocery store gallons, these are larger lids from delivered milk) so that they're easier to handle and more fun for little ones.
Be sure to preview the product before you buy, some items are full of spelling errors. This is especially important to catch if you're buying for homeschooling older kids. I've been impressed with Hands Of A Child lapbooks especially, and Intelligo's The Baroque Era. I didn't use Intelligo because my son went to public school this year but it is well done.
I also got a phonics bingo game which is coming in handy while my granddaughter is learning to read in kindergarten. There are real photos of many things and letters to match for the starting sounds of those photos. I use the capital and lower case letters too, both the littles like to match them. I cut out the letters in circle shape and stuck them into milk cap lids (not the grocery store gallons, these are larger lids from delivered milk) so that they're easier to handle and more fun for little ones.
Be sure to preview the product before you buy, some items are full of spelling errors. This is especially important to catch if you're buying for homeschooling older kids. I've been impressed with Hands Of A Child lapbooks especially, and Intelligo's The Baroque Era. I didn't use Intelligo because my son went to public school this year but it is well done.
Dealing With The Sulks
When your kid gets a mopey face because he doesn't like what you've told him it can be irritating. Instead of being annoyed though, use that time. While he or she is plopped down on the floor or sofa in a sulk, use that time to get the laundry out of the dryer, read a couple of pages in your book, get that check written or make that phone call. Either you'll get something done or your little one will realize it isn't working and quit the moping and go back to playing.
Costumes Make Great Gifts!
Now while Halloween costumes and such are on a major sale (75% off!) is a good time to buy little princess, ninja, Star Wars, whatever kind of costume you can still find available that your child will like. Add the costume to a movie and/or toys of the same theme and you have gifts ready for Christmas or a birthday. You can also save it for a young friend's or young relative's birthday party, or pack it away for a day when everyone's suffering winter cabin fever and would really like the little ones occupied with something new!
"b" and "d" confusion
When little children learn to write and read, one frequent problem is confusing lower case "b" and "d". Here's a helpful saying:
"b" has a big belly; "d" has a daunting derrière.
It helps to draw pictures of these letters in character, for example draw a letter b with a lighter drawing as part of it that shows a person with a big belly walking forward. For the d, draw someone with a big backside (but don't call it a backside, butt, or bottom, that will mess it up entirely!) walking in the same direction.They will learn the words daunting and derrière along with the right way to form these letters and hopefully it will be a bit funny too.
I would draw examples for you but I'm no artist - actually I'm specifically not an artist. I did try but in real life, I always had their dad draw them for me.
"b" has a big belly; "d" has a daunting derrière.
It helps to draw pictures of these letters in character, for example draw a letter b with a lighter drawing as part of it that shows a person with a big belly walking forward. For the d, draw someone with a big backside (but don't call it a backside, butt, or bottom, that will mess it up entirely!) walking in the same direction.They will learn the words daunting and derrière along with the right way to form these letters and hopefully it will be a bit funny too.
I would draw examples for you but I'm no artist - actually I'm specifically not an artist. I did try but in real life, I always had their dad draw them for me.
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