{Learning to Read Activities}

Mr. 4 has become very interested in reading and learning, I think mainly because his 'big bro' is a very independent learner and also partly because we encourage it a lot in our house. 

Each week I put up a new word on the fridge for each son. They are each at a very different stage of learning, so the words account for that variation. It takes no time at all to prepare, especially when the template is done and you just update the new word. I have a few 'word of the week' templates saved and just print off the next one each Sunday night ready for the week ahead. 

Some examples for my 4 year old learning his 2 letter words:
at - it - be - on - to - do - am - so

Some examples of the words my 6 year old is learning:
perseverance - versatile - isolated - contemplate - fortunate - collaborate - persuade - satisfy
(I also add the meaning and an example of the word for my older sons word).

Another step I have taken with my 4 year old to help him practice the words we learn, is a game he has called the 'car park game'.  This is a great way to take something my son loves and use it to benefit both the fun element and the learning too.

Here I just printed off the page and added it to the quiet book I made for him a while back {link here} after laminating it.
Simply said, you get a few different cars and I challenge him by asking:
- "Can you drive the red car to the number 13?"
- "Can you drive the train to the word 'at'?"  etc...

He gets such a kick out of it, but in all honesty I thought he would play with it for about 5 minutes. He carried it around with him for the majority of the day and just played. Little did he know he was actually practicing sight words. In my opinion, the best learning with kids is done when they are actually having fun! 

Lauren x

{Toddler / Pre-schoolers Quiet Book}

I was browsing on pinterest the other day and came across a few quiet book ideas for toddler/ preschoolers. Most of them were hand sewn and beautiful. I was in craft heaven!

However, with a family lunch on later that day, i didn't have much time. So I came up with this in the morning (nothing like leaving yourself a few hours to complete a project).
Armed with my mac book, a laminator and some blue-tak (will replace with velcro dots asap) I got to work.
I would format it properly if i gave myself more than 20 mins to design the pages.

So, here is what I came up with on the rush and it was SUCH a hit for my VERY busy and inquisitive 2 year old. The beauty is you can just add pages as you want to and personalise as interests and skills grow and change.

The cars being different colours and sizes makes a great talking and learning point "Show me the yellow cars" "where are the big cars?" "can you show me the little red car?"


The colours are printed on the page and cut out and laminated also, it helps the little ones know where to put them.

I hope you enjoyed this idea and I now have an order for a 5 year old in the house!

Lauren x