New Chapter....

It is with much sadness (and a little relief :) ....that we will be officially closing Sprouting Learners Child Care....BUT on the contrary....we will be starting a new chapter in our life and that is ... Sprouting Learners Home School! 

We are embarking on a new and exciting journey in our life where I will be able to focus solely on my children's education and growth. I have enjoyed the past few years working with many families. I have become attached to many children and loved caring for them. I have learned so much from starting my own business from scratch (with much help and support from family and friends!) and seeing it flourish and become successful. I can't wait to see whats in store for us!

Sprouting Learners Spring 2013

Toddler Shape Matching

Here is a quick activity we conjured up. I simply took some shapes from our Melissa and Doug wooden shapes set, photocopied the shapes, and threw them in the tissue box (that I saved, but wasn't sure what I was going to use it for yet) ...I had my little Bull-frog stick his hand in the box, with out peaking, pull a shape out and matched it to its image. I would mention the name of this shape, the color and ask him to repeat. He loved it.

Edible Necklace

A fun and engaging activity we did today was make an edible necklace out of Cheerios! My 2 and 5 year old loved it, and they must have spent over 30 minutes fully concentrating!

You simply get a string, and some Cheerios (or anything edible with a hole in the middle, fruit loops would have been nice too!) you make a knot at the end, and let them enjoy the rest!

To make this more engaging and to practice counting you can have your preschooler count as they add each Cheerios on. Or every ten Cheerios you could put one fruit loop or even a piece of straw to separate them and practice skip counting. The possibilities are endless! :)

Pom Pom Transfer Activity

Here's another great activity to practice those fine motor skills. They simply transfer one Pom Pom at a time to each compartment in the ice cube tray, then they put the Pom poms back one by one into the small basket. The different tools the children can use are; their hands, tongs, spoons, olive grabbers, and anything you can imagine! Also using different size pom poms allows them to practice picking up different size items. Don't forget to review color as well! Ask them to pass you different colors, even sizes. Example "can you pass me the large pink Pom Pom..."

Welcoming Calvin Timothy!

Welcome our new little Sprout!

Toddler preschool paper cutting

There is nothing more fun (or more scary!) then teaching and watching a toddler learn how to cut with scissors. And once you get them started, there is no turning back! Usually before scissor handling is taught the child is taught to rip pieces of paper, simply by taking a long thin peice of paper, cutting slits about 1 inch apart, and showing the child to rip apart at the slits. The next step is teaching them how to hold the scissor with their two hands (their usually not ready to use one hand right away) and teaching them "open" and "close" while the adult holds the paper for them. If they start going crazy then you tell the child "gentle, we hold the scissors like this...", if they listen, GREAT! If not, then for safety reasons take the scissor privelages away for a few days and try again another time. They will learn that proper scissor handling = scissor privelages! Click here for the link to this apple paper cutting activity sheet! (it is uploaded to google docs)

21 months old, practicing his cutting techniques

Geoboard Fun

Geoboards are something that is great for all ages. As a pre-k (3+ years) child it's a great way to practice those fine motor skills, concentration, shapes, vocabulary and even creativity.

Below is a picture of one of the children creating different shapes and even a picture of herself!

We got ours for only $3.50 on amazon (prime shipping!)
11x11 geoboard on Amazon

Some helpful websites
Pre-kinders: math and geometry
Creek side learning: printable cards for learning shapes