Friday Post - Magna Doodle

 I have this thing about not buying my kids toys ever.  Because, why?  They get so many toys.  They play with them for five minutes apiece.  And then they get this attachment to them and I can't throw anything out without being a serious bad guy.  But my house is a mess!

But we also have this dilemma whereby I can't feed, dress or put the baby to sleep without the toddler crying for attention.  I can get by if I put on her favourite show of the moment, or by handing her my phone so that she can play a game.  I'm not adverse to screen time, but I want to limit it.

We bought her a magna doodle to keep her occupied in these situations, and she's in love.  We hid the stamps from her, because they usually end up lost, and I can't afford to have teeny objects hidden in the living room with a crawling baby.  But I do let her use the magnetic letters that we got her.  I've worked on phonics with her a bit this way, and she loves it because she doesn't have to do printing, but she still gets to place the letters herself.

Sometimes we just make patterns and faces, though.  She loves that, too.

Friday Post - Place and Trace

This is an amazing toy that I got for a dollar at the local thrift store.  Three large yellow stencils that hold four traceable objects each.  The objects are animals, dinosaurs and vehicles, they're three dimensional and can be used as cookie cutters or molds for play-dough or sand.

Currently, we just play with it as a puzzle.  Which is great.  The kids love it, and they're going to use it for a long time.

Made by Discovery Toys

Friday Post - Toddler Fun

 "Toddler Fun" is a great free app for Android with no ads.  It has five activities.

"stars" is for making stars.  "fireworks" is for making fireworks.  "draw" is a very simple drawing program where the colour of the lines changes gradually, rotating through the rainbow.

What's really great is the connect game.  You connect the dots however you like in whatever order.  When they've all been connected in some manner, they explode into fireworks.

This game taught my daughter to look at where she starts and finishes a line.  It was way easier to do dot-to-dot digitally than on a piece of paper because of the feedback.  She gets angry when she tries to draw something and it comes out wrong.  This game doesn't punish her for being inaccurate, and rewards her with colours and sound when she finally gets it right.

We also use the drawing pad to practice letters.  It's so much easier for her to draw with a finger rather than a crayon.